A selection of English ESL role play cards 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

We sometimes have to test the local emergency switchboard operators and I have some of the older role-plays left over. So, here they are. Cut out the cards and divide them into “operator cards” and “casualty cards.” On a board make a mind map of the kinds of questions emergency switchboard operators and accident victims would ask each other. Give an operator card to one student and a casualty card to another. The student with the operator card is on the emergency switchboard and must answer a ringing phone. The student with the casualty card must provide and answer relevant questions while the operator must ask for the appropriate details and decide on a course of action while giving suitable advice. The rest of the students must then vote on whether or not the operator acted for the best. Tell the operators to start with the phrase, “999 emergency. Can I help you?” (911 for our cousins across the pond) Take notes of any structure, pronunciation, grammar and intonation problems and then address them when the exercise is over.

Emergency Switchboard Role-Play

Role play cards related to news. Students pretend to be news reporters who are reporting news.

Students have 15-30 minutes to prepare a short news segment. They can then act it out together. 



Role Play 3 requires 2 people: The interviewer and the actor.

Role plays 4 and 5 could also use 2 people: The reporter could pretend to stop someone in the street and ask them questions.

Role Play: Breaking News

These are four role plays related to hobbies. They are paired by colours. Hope they help with creating conversation.

FREE TIME ROLE PLAYS

A role play game about eight shipwrecked people. One of them must leave the lifeboat within 30 mins, or the ship will sink. The ws contains eight role play cards and a ws to justify the decision who will live or die. I had to make a new version with different characters, because my students enjoyed it so much and asked for different role play cards.

Shipwrecked # 2 Role Play

This can be a reading exercise as well as a role-play exercise. The method is explained on the card. CVs and job adverts are on the worksheet and can be used to present and practice vocabulary related to job searches and job interviews.

Job Agency Role-Play

Students all have a different character to incarnate and all have some people to find in the class. They should ask questions to each other to complete their quest.

Speaking activity : role playing

This a fun way to do a reading and debate. If you can get a white fluffy cat for them to stroke while being the villains, even better! Tell the students they are all members of an evil but secret organisation that runs all the big industries of the world called SECTUM. The main source of income for this organisation is petroleum but it controls the majority of all the world´s energy production and services. Cut out the students´ personality cards below and tell them to read them to themselves and then assume the character of the personality they have been given. Hand out the story about fuel from air and get them to read it in a group (doing the vocabulary exercise first). Then tell them that they are going to have a meeting to talk about what to do about this threat to their businesses. They must discuss what to do according to their characters´ personality traits.

Conspiracy Theory Role-Play

Use these cards to give children cues about what to say when they go to a pizza restaurant. Some children will be waiters and some children will be costumers.

Pizza restaurant role play

Can you guess the Halloween card that your partner is holding? Your partner can give you hints but is forbidden to use the taboo words. It would be a good idea to review Halloween vocabulary before attempting this speaking exercise.

Role Play Halloween Taboo 

This is a fun activity to enjoy with your students . You can use it in different ways to act it out, to check pronunciation and students´creativity. They will be able to wear customs to represent the characters using their imagination. if they want to...they can  invent another plot.  

LEGO BATMAN ROLE PLAY 

Sts have to read & complete the conversation.

Read, Write & Role play.

Print, laminate and cut up the role-play cards. First, go over the fixed expressions with your students. After that, get them to do the dice game in pairs. Once they have finished playing the dice game get them to do the small role-plays in pairs.

331 Role play cards English ESL worksheets pdf & doc