A selection of English ESL social issues printables

VOCABULARY AND EXERCICES ON IMPORTANT SOCIAL ISSUES

SOCIAL ISSUES

A four extracts reading about different social issues related to problems in the society. Students read statements and match them to A B C D (extracts). Similar to IELTS exam reading.

Global Social Issues

There are 8 articles on 8 social issues: Teen Pregnancy, Suicide, Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, School Bullying, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Vandalism. These are also available in ESL printables. Developed by Sirhajwan Idek

Social Issues Series

I use this document with my upper-advanced students. It covers the terms and collocations related to the topic of social issues. I use it as a quiz but it can be used as a handout to introduce the new vocabulary. 

Social issues quiz 

A lesson pack ideally for teens.  Great for prompting discussion.  I also ask them to plan a fundraising event for a charity that deals with social issues.  This lesson can cover 4 hours and is great from prompting discussion and covering many aspects of grammar.  

This is my first upload so I hope not too many problems.

Social Issues and Charities

This is a Multiple Choice Test, which is designed for students who want to improve their vocabulary on the topic Social Issues. All "A"s are correct answers. Feel free to change it to your needs. 

Social Issues Multiple Choice Test

This is a very simple worksheet made for adult learners. The purpose is to practise phrases of opinion and making them stick. As well as practising some vocabulary on social issues.

There is some Swedish you can delete if you don't need it ;)!!



Please tell me if you find any mistakes.

expressing opinions about social issues and ethics

Hey Teachers,



As we all know, the most prominent global issue circling around our social media pages, TV, and conversations with family and friends is the coronavirus pandemic. In response to this, I spent the better part of my weekend digging around for and putting together a comprehensive lesson plan on the theme of the coronavirus, which you’ll find attached below in this post. In this lesson plan, I tried to focus more on the impacts of the virus rather than the nature of it, which was the focus of the lesson I posted here a few weeks ago.



The full lesson plan is free for the time being on Fluentize via the link below:



https://app.fluentize.com/lesson/coronavirus-impacts



In the worksheets I posted here, you get the first half of the lesson. You can find the video as well as all the post-viewing activities and awesomeness on the actual Fluentize page for the lesson. It’s still free to download there if you register, and you'll get the whole thing, including the teacher's guide.



The lesson plan is geared towards an upper intermediate (B2) student level. It's based on a news report from Al Jazeera focusing on concerns over the mental health impact / aspect of the coronavirus pandemic. While it was tough to choose a video as the base for the lesson plan, this one struck me because it features some of the bright sides of the humanity in response to the pandemic - acts of kindness and it shows scenes of people coming together in times of crisis. I also couldn’t imagine a better video on the topic in terms of relevant vocabulary.



However, as you'll see in the lesson, we take the topic much further than just mental health and tackle all angles of the current situation, including the impacts on…



- Public life

- Education

- Business

- Healthcare

- Entertainment



From the creator’s standpoint, my favorite part of the lesson is the last bonus activity where you can dive into real-life ethical dilemmas and issues that have arisen as a result of the pandemic. This activity is available when you download it directly from the Fluentize page.



These dilemmas detailed on the last page of the lesson provide your students a chance to express their opinions, challenge students' speaking skills, and will be sure to get a lot of conversation stirred up on important topics related to the situation:





- People not following social distancing orders

- Dilemmas with ventilator availability in hospitals

- Donald Trump’s choice of words in a press conference

- Spending and the economy

- Price gouging of products like toilet paper





My next favorite activity in the lesson is in post-viewing (I) - on the prefixes. Rarely do I find a video where I can focus on such great examples of prefixes! The nerdy side of my language enthusiast brain really lit up when I realized I could make a little section of this lesson focused on prefixes. The following activity on the usage and functions of present participles as different parts of speech I also felt was one my better ones.





Again, you can find these  activities on the ethical dilemmas, prefixes, and present participles when you download the lesson directly from the Fluentize page.





I also realize that many English language teachers have switched to online teaching. For those of you who have done this, I recommend trying out our interactive lesson plan, which contains interactive fields for your students to write answers within. 



Also, when you do a Fluentize lesson online, we highly recommend using the platform Zoom and their remote control feature. The remote control feature allows students to take control of your screen during the lesson. You can do this by having your student request remote control of your screen, or you could also give control to the student. The reason this is so great is because it enables students to type answers in the interactive fields (download the 'Interactive Lesson' on the lesson page) of the lesson while you watch and help them with spelling and punctuation.



I’m hoping to release the mini lesson on Fluentize within the next day or so (which I'll do here as well), as well as some more lesson plans this week focusing around the coronavirus situation. I have a couple more videos I’m toying with and hope to get more out soon, so stayed tuned.



I wish all you good health and hope you have a meaningful lesson exploring this situation in detail with your students. 



Happy Fluentizing!



- Jake from Fluentize

Lesson Plan: Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic

A poster with common phrases / sentence starters we use when expressing our opinion. Whenever you have a class discussion or you expect students to express their opinion on an issue, you can refer them to this poster. Suitable for any classroom. 

Expressing opinion

Teen pregnancy is the term used when an underage girl becomes pregnant, usually refers to girls from 13-17 years old. There are no easy choices in teen pregnancy. As the problem continues, teen pregnancy becomes a serious social issue. In this worksheet students must identify the meaning, causes, consequences and methods of prevention of teen pregnancy.

Teen pregnancy

This sheet includes definitions of words used when talking about a rainforest (social studies setting). Deforestation, extinction, etc.

Includes pictures.

Rainforest Vocabulary

A reading, watching and discussion activities of the tailer to the film "Billy Elliot". Topics such as gender, sports and social issues around the miner's strike in the UK in the 1980s can be discussed.

billy-elliot-trailer_WORKSHEET & KEY

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)

For personal or classroom use only. Uploading on other internet sharing platforms or any commercial use NOT PERMITTED. Share Alike.

Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License

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

45 Social issues English ESL worksheets pdf & doc