A selection of English ESL song gap printables with upper-intermediate (b2)

A Disney based lesson meant to be used as a listening and vocabulary exercise.



This activity would work nicely for a class on movies / music / entertainment etc.



The task consists of gap fills and MCQs. It is suitable for a wide variety of levels and ages. Gaps can be added and/or removed to make the activity more difficult or easier depending on the learners’ ability. Another option, for low level classes, is to remove the gap fills and only have students select answers for every second song (with MCQs)



Find the video with the audio, answers and vocabulary here: https://youtu.be/DoO8ML5VB2I

Disney worksheet - Listening practice and new vocabulary / idioms

 1-Listen and fill in the gaps.	

 2- Listen and sing.



Take a bow by RIHANNA

This is an old rock/pop song, and I find it useful to teach or review some prepositions and collocations may be in trouble with. Basically they listen to the song and fill in the gaps with the missing preposition. Then I usually work with collocations such as "i'm into, I am looking forward to..." etc

Billy Idol - Dancing with myself

Beautiful song by Ed Sheeran to practise listening with several exercises, like filling gaps, choosing the correct option and order the stanza! I hope you like it.

Thinking Out Loud

A POP SONG WITH GAPS TO ALLOW STUDENTS TO PRACTICE THE PAST SIMPLE TENSE.  IDEALLY GET STUDENTS TO FILL IN THE GAPS BEFORE THE SONG, AND THEN LISTEN TO THE SONG TO CHECK THEIR ANSWERS.

WRECKING BALL MILEY CYRUS - GAP EXERCISE

You will need recording of Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone audio book Chapter 10 in order to do this activity. Listening gap fill followed by writing exercise with answers.

Quidditch Listening Activity

An activity to help students learn and practise gerunds and infinitives following verbs which can take both but also change the meaning. This activity also allows students to practise their listening skills.



The verbs featured in the video are:

Try | Regret | Remember | Stop | Forget | Quit



Learners complete the worksheet by listening to the songs and filling in the gaps/checking their answers.



14 songs are featured in the worksheet with at least one gerund / infinitive in each song. The list of songs can be found in the video description.



The activity can be made more difficult for advanced learners by adding more gaps to the song lyrics.



The music’s audio along with the answers can be found here: 

https://youtu.be/g98Koi0Rg4I



Learners self correct their worksheets by watching the video: https://youtu.be/g98Koi0Rg4I





Gerund and Infinitives: verbs that take both with different meanings (in songs)

A song from Imagine Dragons´ latest album. There are several exercises, fill the gaps (x2), correct the mistakes, choose the right word (x2). I hope you like it!

Song: Gold - Imagine Dragons

An activity and video to celebrate St. Patricks day and Irish culture. The worksheet is a gap fill for 14 song excepts each featuring one vocabulary item in English which originated from Ireland or the Irish language (Gaeilge).



Learners listen to the video's audio first and complete the worksheet.

Video: https://youtu.be/8BSKN_0e7WQ



Learners then self correct their answers by watching the video while also learning about the meaning and origin of each vocabulary item.



An accompanying video lesson with additional vocabulary questions can be found here: https://en.islcollective.com/video-lessons/st-patricks-day-english-words-from-ireland-irish



St. Patrick's Day - English words from Ireland (in songs)

Gap fill using the song "New Shoes" by Pablo Nutini. Students should listen to the song several times before completing this exercise. The teacher might review the vocabulary beforehand.

Pablo Nutini- New Shoes Gap Fill

A gap fill exercise using the song Fireflies by Owl City. Some grammar is verb plus infinitive, and other vocabulary to check listening skills of the students. The song is slow and the singer has good pronunciation. Play the song on Youtube or download it and let the students listen a minimum of two times, but if they need to listen more let them, it´s more important that they get most correct even if they need to listen three or four times.

Fireflies by Owl City

Song activity. Students need to guess the right word to complete the gaps based on the pictures next to them. 

Song Rather Be - Celan Bandit

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>

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308 Song gap, Upper-intermediate (B2) English ESL worksheets pdf & doc