A selection of English ESL hot topics 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

The aim of this game is to improve your speaking skills by giving you hints in order to increase your fluency when speaking.

The game starts with a “Hot Potato” dynamic, the person who gets the potato has to take one of the cards and talk about the topic for at least one minute. The cards include hints to give you ideas for what to talk about. The person who speaks the longest time is the winner of the round.

One minute speaking 

My students asked for this topic.. normally I would never do it! Be careful with it!! 

The article is edited from BreakingNewsEnglish, all other activities are my own. 

First study the article together. I let them work with a partner on vocab, then we do the listening gapfill. After checking, students work in pairs or groups to complete the rest of the activities. 



This lesson was designed for a 2 hour conversation class for adult intermediates. 

Conversation lesson on Gun Control and Taboo Topics 

A short passage about a misunderstanding. There is a true or false section and some comprehension questions. On pages 2 and 3, there is a version of 'my nice flower' which i created a while ago and a section where they choose the right 'nice' word.

I like my coffee hot, not cold! Reading Comprehension

You can use them as individual cards. Students may pick one and get into a discussion about the topic. It can also be used for groups - pro and contra debate

Hot Debate Topics

The worksheets is created for kids. There are five exercises to practise the basic words on the topic - sun (sunny), rain (rainy), snow (snowy), cloud (cloudy), wind (windy), cold, hot. It has different tasks - unscrambling, matching, wordsearch.

Weather vocabulary

They look at the examples and then they write up sentences comparing the three students. It is a difficult topic and there are different ways of comparing and this is just a snapshot for a bit of practice. 

Making Comparisons.

This worksheet is meant for young learners. The students have to classify the drinks in hot drinks and cold drinks. Then they have to say which they like and which they don't like. In the end they have to say, what drink each child is having.

If you want other worksheets about the same topic, you can find them here

https://en.islcollective.com/mypage/resources?Tags=how+often+do+you+do+it%3F&searchworksheet=GO&type=Printables& id=5163



Food - Drinks

selection of contemporary topics (chosen by my students) to use during speaking classes. May be used as a base for debate, individual presentation or even as an essay topic. Suitable for more confident language users. Hope you like it!

hot issues discussion topics

I put this worksheet together whe I was discussing the topic of "junk food" with some of my students andwhile browsing the internet I came across http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/07/hot-dog_day.html, decided to use it and looked for more intereting facts related to hot dogs and their worldwide consumption.

Hot dogs

this workshop could to be for grades first and fourth. the topics are: family, numbers, pronom, to be. I wish that useful for you

WORKSHOT

In this paper there are screenshots from some social networking sites. This can be used as a warming up activity before starting a topic Vegetarianism. Ask Ss to comment on each screenshot ( whether it  is for or against vegetarianism, and what person intended to say when heshe posted this/ and do you support it or not)

Vegetarianism

In Shadow – A Modern Odyssey is a provocative and thought-provoking short film written, directed & produced by Bulgarian-born Lubomir Arsov in 2017. It comes across rather dystopian, and downright depressing at times, but ends on an uplifting and enlightening note.



It poses many questions through an epic quest into the darkness of Western civilization, and addresses many controversial, taboo, perhaps ‘conspiratorial’ topics, which are frequently considered uncomfortable and, perhaps, censorious by many. These 'hot' topics include: hyper-sexualization & rape culture, materialism, narcissism, celebrity worship, the Military-Industrial Complex, corporate lobbying, child abuse, exploitation, tech addiction, substance abuse, to name but a few - all woven in a tapestry of complex and vivid symbolism and story-telling through this short film (13 minutes long). It asks poignant questions, such as, “What happens when we drop our masks of identity and return to our human core?” and "What really fulfills us?"



15 Hot topics English ESL worksheets pdf & doc