A selection of English ESL short plays 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 use this after we have learnt the common questions that we ask children when we meet

A Short Play

I´m glad to share with you this short play, great for young learners. Three pages with pictures where students will find the script. Take your students out of the classroom and practice this wonderful tale.

Snow White Short Play

A short play (4x A4). Ten characters - could be adapted. I have written this for past simple tense practice, including interrogative and negative forms. On page 5, a few notes about the colloquial English used. Not everybody's cup of tea, but I'd be delighted if anyone could use it. 

Reporting Live: a short play. 

Short, unconventional but modern Christmas play for up to 10 characters (can be reduced to 3-4 or increased to 15+ by reassigning the lines). This play will only take 2-3 minutes to perform and is easy to remember as most actors only have a few lines. It should be good fun. This play can also used when teaching about working conditions, salary and perks, slave labour etc. Enjoy. 

Short Plays (1): Elves on Strike

Funny Christmas play for 10 characters (can be reduced to 3-4 or increased to 20+ by reassigning the lines). This play will take 5-7 minutes to perform (depending on props) and is easy to remember as most actors only have a few lines. It focuses on being overweight, bad eating habits and the need to go on a diet. Enjoy.

Short Plays (2): Santa´s Diet

Funny Christmas play for 10 characters (can be reduced to 3-4 or increased to 15+ by reassigning the lines). This play will take 4-5 minutes to perform and is easy to remember as most actors only have a few lines. It focuses on drinking and alcoholism and has an unexpected ending. Enjoy.

Short Plays (3): Rudolph´s Problem

Funny Christmas play for 9 characters (can be reduced to 3-4 or increased to 15+ by reassigning the lines). This play will take 6-7 minutes to perform and is easy to remember as most actors only have a few lines. It focuses on the inflow of cheap, low-quality toys from abroad. It could also be used for a discussion about labour conditions, child exploitation and the world´s addiction to cheap imports. Enjoy. 

Short Plays (4): Quality Alert at the North Pole

Grammar-based ´Getting to know you´ worksheet aimed at practising the use of correct wh-question words, speaking, listening, asking for clarification, asking to repeat, note-taking and short presentations or talking in front of the class. Fully editable, printer-friendly colours (background colour does not print) and plain vanilla version (without any colour or clip art) included on 2nd page. Answer key provided.

For similar worksheets, check out  http://en.islcollective.com/worksheets/search_result?Tags=%22grammar+meets+conversation%22

Grammar Meets Conversation: Wh-questions (1) - Getting To Know You

This is a classic Guess Who boardgame I made using characters that I generated with the WimpyKid character Generator (http://www.wimpykidclub.co.uk/wimp-yourself/)The Guess Who game is this: Students have to guess each other's mystery person before their opponent guesses theirs. They can only answer YES or NO.



You can use this worksheet in your ESL/EFL classes to practise body parts, clothes, (garments and accessories), and asking closed (Yes/No) questions in an entertaining way. Sure to get your students involved.



I recommend using this ESL printable worksheet up till pre-intermediate level, as the game is focused on asking questions and giving short answers in the Present Simple tense using the auxiliary verb 'have', and the Present Continuous tense using the verb "wear".



Sample questions are included on page 2 of this worksheet. 





Here's how to play the Guess Who game in ESL class: 



1. Pair students up and let them choose a 'mystery person' secretly. 



2. Tell them the rules: 



A) The point of the game is: who can find each other's mystery person first? 



B) Students may only ask 'YES' or ‘NO’ questions (and of course, reposnd with a 'YES' or 'NO'). 



C) If some detail is not clearly visible in the picture or is subject to interpretation, your pupils can reply: "I can't tell" or "It's not possible to tell". 



D) In each turn, students narrow down the scope of the possible mystery persons. When they feel certain enough to make a guess, they can, but if they guess wrong, they've lost.



3. Give one copy of the boardgame to every student. 



4. You're advised to hand out one transparent plastic foil with each Guess Who boardgame. Students can place the foil over the boardgame and cross out on it the characters that they have ruled out using an erasable magic marker. 



Here's how this works: for example, one student asks: "Is your person blond?" If the answer is 'Yes', then he/she crossed out all the persons that are NOT blond, leaving only the blondes eligible. If the answer is 'No', they cross out all the characters that are blond, leaving only the non-blondes up.



5. Throughout the game encourage students to respond with auxiliary verbs, not just a simple Yes or No, e.g. "Yes, he or she is/does", "No, he or she isn't/doesn't" (using the form "he or she" until the gender of the mystery character has been revealed in order to keep this info hidden). Once the gender is revealed, they can go on using the specific gender in responses, e.g. "Yes, he is", "Yes, he does", "No, he isn't", No, he doesn't". You could, however, also opt for forbidding questions about the mystery person's gender. This way you'll see longer games and more questions.

Guess Who ESL Boardgame

Grammar-based worksheet aimed at practising the use present simple questions with do/does/are/is, speaking, listening, asking for clarification, asking to repeat, note-taking and short presentations or talking in front of the class. Fully editable, printer-friendly colours (background colour does not print) and plain vanilla version (without any colour or clip art) included on 2nd page. Answer key provided.

Grammar Meets Conversation: Do/does/are/is (2) - Asking for Personal Information

Grammar-based themed worksheet aimed at practising -ing/-ed adjectives, speaking, listening, asking for clarification, asking to repeat, note-taking, short presentations or talking in front of the class and writing a paragraph. Fully editable, printer-friendly colours (background colour does not print) and plain vanilla version (without any colour or clip art) included on 2nd page. Answer key provided. NOTE: If you want students to practise more listening you could cut the ws into two halves (or use 2 wss) and let Ss interview each other without them having seen the questions beforehand (pair work). Also, you could use more of these worksheets and do a group work exercise.

Grammar Meets Conversation: -ING vs -ED Adjectives (5) - Asking about Experiences and Opinions

Grammar-based themed worksheet aimed at practising reading comprehension, the use of present simple questions and adverbs of frequency, speaking, listening, asking for clarification, asking to repeat, note-taking, short presentations or talking in front of the class and writing a paragraph. Fully editable, printer-friendly colours (background colour does not print) and plain vanilla version (without any colour or clip art) included on 2nd page. Answer key provided. NOTE: If you want students to practise more listening you could cut the ws into two halves (or use 2 wss) and let Ss interview each other without them having seen the questions beforehand (pair work). Also, you could use more of these worksheets and do a group work exercise. 

175 Short plays English ESL worksheets pdf & doc