A selection of English ESL small talk printables

This exercise can be used for a general revision of the interrogative form and Wh-questions and simple present tense of auxiliary verbs ( to be an to have). It focuses on the basic communicative functions.

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An intermediate to advanced speaking and video-based lesson on the History of Mother's Day. 

Full of vocabulary and speaking activities, idioms, a YouTube video on the history of Mother's Day, listening and conversation questions.

Get the transcripts and full answer key when you sign up free at: www.pocketpassport.com



To get an idea about the content and video, check out: 



https://youtu.be/PhikXD6-JBU

Mother's Day History

This worksheet is to let the students develop their listening skills by doing or going through different exercises during the song. Fill in the gaps, ordering and numbering, among others.

Before you go - Lewis Capaldi

A fun and engaging ESL conversation and video-based lesson on Telling a Story about Japanese culture. 



One of many of our lessons to talk about and teach cultural awareness. 

Start the lesson with visual aids: Have students google the words and explain the topic regarding Japanese culture. 



Next, students watch a YouTube video and answer listening comprehension questions, complete a vocabulary matching exercise, discuss some things about Japan, Japanese culture, and world culture and finish with a listening exercise.



This lesson is part of our original Pocket Passport course which consists of 4-levels and 80 lessons. Get access to everything: www.pocketpassport.com



The video link is in the lesson plan or you can get a sneak peek here: 

https://youtu.be/KXs6rz7VuW4

Telling a Story: Japanese Culture

This has several common mistakes that new speakers have when talking about their age, birthdays, and their age relative to others. Feel free to edit as needed for your class

Talking about Ages!

A fun and engaging lesson full of visual aids to help students retain new vocabulary and phrases to describe people's appearance. 



Start by asking students to describe various faces and facial appearances from places all over the world. 

Then, identify some common physical characteristics. 



Watch a YouTube video and answer some listening questions. 

Practice grammar, build vocabulary, discuss some questions about appearance and finish with a listening exercise. 



For the full curriculum sign up to: www.pocketpassport.com



The YouTube video link is included in the lesson plan and for a quick peak check it out here: https://youtu.be/bRo1LVq-acw



Describing Appearance

This activity is useful for students practicing the target sentence "Is this/that your pen? > Yes, it is. / No, it's not."



Make a picture card and put them in the plastic bag. 

Students will pick a card and ask the question "Is this your pen?" If the answer is "Yes, it is.", partner gives the card to the owner. If the answer is "No, it's not." the interviewer gets the card as points.

Is this your...? / Is that your ...?

this worksheet is composed of several language activities suitable for eighth from tunisian pupils (elemantary): maily about attending parties and having dinner .

PARTIES entertainmment 

Get the students talking like a real Londoner! This is a fun warm up/cool off to get them talking. There's a list of words, just match them with the phrases and see if they know any others. 

Cockney Rhyming Slang

Your students can design your wheels and then make sentences. Fun and effective activity to develop speaking skills and creativity. I recommend you to use it in your lessons

Spin the wheel and make sentences

This worksheet is made inspired by a small and funny cartoon with Paddigton Bear. I have prepared it for my 3-5th graders. It is on Halloween topic. The tasks are True/False, Choose the word, Write down the missing word, match the costumes and the people and the last task is to put the pictures as they go in the cartoon. Before watching the cartoon and doing this worksheet, we talk about Halloween and the words related to this holiday. I hope this worksheet will be useful to you and it will be enjoyed by your students. P.S. I used Present Simple for it but it can be easily transformed into Past Simple if needed

The link for the video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g24slGJ4Iao

Halloween and Paddington

Print the worksheet in at least two copies (for a small group of 8-9 students). Each kid get 2-3 different cards and they have to ask questions to pair up what they have got. Possible questions are "Have you got?" "Can you see?" etc. Great to get shy students talking.

Food - cards to play a game

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

226 Small talk English ESL worksheets pdf & doc