A selection of English ESL get to know classmates activity printables

These conversation questions for A1 level are great ice-breakers for students to get to know their classmates at the start of term. They can also be used at any time to develop speaking skills. 


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A1 Conversation Activity

Oral interaction activity for the begining of the year. Choose your 2 students in the class, ask them personal questions to filll the table, then introduce one of those two classmates to everybody. You will not introduce yourself. 

Use of 3rd person singular with verbs

Getting to know your classmates

This is a great beginning of the year activity. Students circulate around the classroom and collect the signatures of their classmates.  Since some students may not be comfortable singing in front of others, it is okay for a classmate to say no to a request.  You will want to establish this before students begin the activity.  Also inform students that if they do say no, to look at the person's sheet and let the person know what area you can sign.  The goal is for every student to obtain the signatures of all of their classmates.

Welcome Back! Get to Know Your Classmates

An oral activity for the beginning of the year.

Ice breaker. 

Can be also used a a class survey : just change the question : a student asks the questions to the whole class. You can then recap using quantifiers such as : "all of us", "some of us", "a few of us", "none of us" 

Getting to know my classmates - Class survey 

This is an excellent activity to get to know more about your students.  Students also enjoy seeing the videos from their classmates.

Who Am I Video

A board game to play during live lesson with the use of dice and pawns OR a board game to be played online, using online dice.

Board game includes: preference questions, personality questions, listing favourites.

Perfect for the first day of school with new students. 

GET TO KNOW ME - BOARD GAME (Printable or Online)

A fun board game for two to four players. Roll the dice and answer the question. This is a good activity to practice speaking skills and get to know other classmates.

About You Board Game

students complete the different boxes with their personal information. there are pictures to help them completing. finally, they read aloud to get to know their classmates. this activity is suitable for a first day class.

all about me

In this activity students must first complete the phrase with the correct past participle and then ask their classmates if they have done said activity (and write the classmate's name). The first student to have a different classmate for each activity wins! 
2 bingo sheets per page; this worksheet is designed to be cut in half to save paper.

Present Perfect Interview Bingo

Writing Clinic´s Creative Writing Prompts are designed to provide ideas and to get students writing with ease. Ss write about their friends, classmates or family. They can also write about imaginary people if they choose. This worksheet comes with brainstorming prompts and a short sample story so students know what is expected of them.

Writing Clinic: Creative Writing Prompts (8) - Friends, Classmates, Family

"Find someone who?" is a popular ESL activity that encourages students to interact with each other and practice their communication skills in a fun and engaging way. In this activity, students are given a list of questions or statements and are tasked with finding a classmate who matches the criteria.For example, the teacher may ask the students to "Find someone who has visited five different countries" or "Find someone who speaks three languages." The students must then interact with their classmates and ask questions to find someone who matches the statement or question. Once they have found a match, they can write their classmate's name down and move on to the next statement or question.This activity not only helps students practice their language skills, but it also helps them get to know their classmates better and build relationships with each other. It encourages them to use the language in a meaningful way and provides an opportunity for them to practice asking and answering questions.Furthermore, this activity can be adapted to suit different levels of language proficiency, from beginner to advanced. For example, beginners may be given simple statements or questions while advanced students may be given more complex ones.Overall, "Find someone who?" is a fun and effective ESL activity that promotes communication, interaction, and language learning in the classroom.

Find someone who?

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

11 Get to know classmates activity English ESL worksheets pdf & doc