A selection of English ESL problem solving printables

Learning is one of the most important activities in human life because it allows people to grow, adapt, and achieve their goals. From an early age, individuals learn basic skills such as speaking, reading, and interacting with others. As they grow older, learning becomes more complex and includes academic subjects, practical abilities, and social understanding. Effective learning does not happen only in schools; it can take place through experience, observation, discussion, and personal reflection. Technology has greatly expanded access to knowledge, making it possible for people to learn from online courses, videos, articles, and interactive tools. However, successful learning requires more than access to information. It depends on curiosity, motivation, persistence, and the willingness to make mistakes and improve. Challenges and failures are often valuable parts of the learning process because they help people identify weaknesses and develop stronger skills. Continuous learning is especially important in a rapidly changing world where new technologies, careers, and opportunities constantly emerge. People who maintain a habit of learning are often better prepared to solve problems, adapt to change, and contribute positively to their communities. For these reasons, learning should be viewed as a lifelong journey rather than a task that ends after formal education.


Yosef and his brothers

Woman and man in the bible 2

Improve your grammar skills with this easy and effective Present Simple Tense practice!
This worksheet is designed to help learners understand and use the Present Simple Tense correctly through various exercises such as sentence formation, filling in the blanks, correcting mistakes, and choosing the right verb forms.

At the end of the worksheet, you will find a complete Answer Key to check your work and learn from your mistakes.

Present Simple Tense Practice with answer key

This is a fun speaking activity for your pre-intermediate to advanced students. It is a detective story that engages students in conversation and will practice mainly questions and answers in simple present and simple past. **** You were invited to Mr Erringworth’s dinner party in his mansion. You will meet 9 people there, all of whom have some kind of relation with Mr Erringworth. Shortly after midnight, the host is found dead. It will be your task to interview all nine suspects and find the murderer. As the evening progresses you will get more information about the people and more details will be revealed. You will have to find the murderer’s name – his relation to Mr. Erringsworth – his motive – the used weapon – the room where the murder was committed and any additional information that are necessary to solve the case. **** 7 PAGES INCLUDING TEACHER´S NOTES *** Hope you like it. Please contact me with problems of any kind.

Murderous Dinner Party - ROLEPLAY - Conversation Cards - 7 Pages

My students complain that ecology is a very boring topic. To help them survive another lesson about it, I have prepared a set of 22 "crazy" questions concerning ecology, e.g. ´Deforestation is a serious problem nowadays. Would you agree to use reusable toilet paper to solve it?´ This task can also be used to practise 2nd conditional. 

ecology-dilemma cards (2nd conditional)

This is an oral activity where your students discuss what items they need in order to survive after a plane crash in the desert.

Problem solving #1 - The Desert Dilemma

This is an oral activity where your students discuss which passengers deserve a place in the lifeboat of a ship sinking in the Pacific.

Problem solving #2 - The Sinking Ship

The students look at the picture and make a suggestion to solve the problem.

Making suggestions

A simple worksheet to practise vocabulary for common ailments e.g. "I have a headache." and advice for how to solve them e.g. "You should take some medicine." Students match the pictures to the phrases then can practise role playing expressing problems and offering advice using the phrases they have just learned.

Ailments and Health Problems & Advice

A set of easy mathematics problems which will test your students´ understanding of English. Practice numbers in English and solving simple problems as a review.


Maths Problems in Words- Simple addition

Students roll the dice, go ahead the corresponding number of squares, read the problem and suggest a solution using "should". I hope it's useful to practice or review the topic.

Should Boardgame - What Should I Do?

Text bites with problem for students to read and solve. Students write the answes on the lines.

Reading with Problem Solving

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

153 Problem solving English ESL worksheets pdf & doc