A selection of English ESL freer practice printables

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

I set up this activity for my adults elementary students. It is a perfect way to let them practice making offers and request in freer speach. By looking at the card they decide wether it is an offer, a request or a permission and put in the gaps "Can I...?", "Could/Can you?", "Would you like?". One by one the s-s ask questions and give possible answers. Present the respons on the board so they could have a visual choice of negative and positive replies. Enjoy the activity!

Offers, requests, asking for permission.

There are some New Year traditions from around the world. Students should read the text and work with vocabulary. As a freer practice, they should answer the questions.

Fascinating New Year traditions

That is an activity İ created for young learners (approx. 3rd-4th grades). It 's only focused on teaching regular verbs but could be easily edited to include irregular ones. 



Procedures	 	Time

Warm up	Start the lesson talking about superheroes and what students know about them. 	 2-3 min.

Stage 1. Presentation of vocabulary.

	Tell SS that you want to check how well they know the superheroes and show them slides asking what they see. When showing the last slide tell them that they are going to read a story about spider ask them to guess what the story will be about.	2-3 mins

 Stage 2. Reading

	SS read the text and match the gifts with the heroes. Get feedback and ask if they liked the story.	 10 min.

Stage 3. Grammar	Focus SS on colourful words in the text and elicit past forms. Then, work out the rule with the students. 

(Adding –ed to the verb). Check they understand we double ‘p’ in ‘stopped’. You can check again making chain activity by saying verb and the next person says the past form.



	 5 min.

Stage 4. Controlled practice.

(Fill in the gaps)

 	Focus SS on the pictures and sentences. Elicit first one. SS work alone or in pairs writing the sentences. Check with the whole class.	 5 min.

 Stage 5. Freer practice

Playing mime game ‘guess what İ did yesterday’.	Demonstrate the game by miming some actions (for example ‘laughing’) Ask ‘what did I do yesterday’ and elicit You laughed. Students then come in turns in front of the class miming different actions and others trying to guess.

	 10 min.

Follow up and homework	 SS write about a day of their favourite character.	 

		



Spider-Man's Birthday - Reading Comprehension + Exercises

This boardgame can be used for Past Perfect Tense semi-controlled and freer practice. . Learners have to make sentences using the past perfect tense structures in the box they land. Suitable for smaller and bigger classes.

Past Perfect Tense - Boardgame

These 4 worksheets represent a whole, 90-minute class with university age students in mind.

They are first given the tools to express their opinions, agree or disagree, followed by controlled conversation practice and finally freer group work and a whole class activity.  

Giving Opinions, Agreeing/Disagreeing

A full conversation lesson that moves from controlled practice to freer practice. It includes a grammar guide and self study exercises.

The Perfect Experience

phrasal verbs handout for vocabulary lesson on relationships. Matching activity (pictures and definitions). Gap fill to check students' understanding of covered vocabulary. Discussion for freer practice

relationships

Building on the foundation from the 'Practice 1' worksheet, in this worksheet students can practice putting adjectives in the right order through different exercises, using the OSASh.COM method for guidance. It is designed for freer practice, with pictures to describe and a few examples. Suitable for B1 level and up, and for adults or higher level high school students. For more  worksheets and teaching articles by the same author, visit https://www.celiajenkins.com/teaching

Adjective Order Practice 2

This handout can be used as a warmer or lead-in; for semi-controlled or freer-practice when teaching the second conditional. Could be conducted as a survey or as a mingle activity. 

Second Conditional - Survey

This task is designed to foster engaging discussions among students while reinforcing the use of the first conditional structure. Students will explore various hypothetical situations, prompting them to apply their understanding of this grammatical concept in real-life contexts.

In this activity, students will be presented with a series of scenarios that could potentially occur in the future. Each scenario will be accompanied by a sentence in the first conditional form, comprising an 'if' clause and a main clause. Students will then discuss these situations in pairs or small groups, considering the possible outcomes and implications of each scenario.

By participating in this task, students will not only enhance their understanding of the first conditional structure but also develop their ability to express hypothetical situations and their potential consequences effectively. Moreover, engaging in discussions will encourage students to think critically, collaborate with their peers, and express their ideas fluently in English. This task offers a dynamic and interactive approach to learning grammar while fostering meaningful communication among students.

FIRST CONDITIONAL speaking

Use as a control practice and freer mingle after presenting advice giving language.  I like to tell my students that I'm trying to find a girlfriend, and model three pieces of advice given to me by 3 people.  After eliciting further examples on the boards, students should use "How about...?" "(I think) you should..." and "Why don't you..." as their target language in pairs. 

16 Freer practice English ESL worksheets pdf & doc