A selection of English ESL speaking prompts printables

For upper elementary and intermediate students. You can also use these prompts for speaking.

20 writing prompts for May

This versatile reading worksheet is meant to help students read and reflect on a new, interesting idea. Students are provided with a reading section, two vocabulary words, a speaking prompt, and a writing prompt.

Reading Worksheet - topic food of England (Stargazy pie)

Reading comprehension, writing exercises and critical thinking all in one worksheet which can also be used as the basis for conversation or a classroom discussion. Suitable for group work as well. REMARK: THE PREVIEW OF THIS HANDWRITTEN WORKSHEET LOOKS A BIT UNTIDY, BUT ONCE YOU DOWNLOAD AND PRINT THE QUALITY IS ACCEPTABLE.

Read and Complete - Daily Randomness

A document to help your students prepare for the KET speaking exam. You could get them to practice the questions in part 1 in pairs, or to write potential answers in their workbooks. Part 2 is to help them get used to asking questions based on prompt words. 

KET for schools speaking preparation

This activity serves as prompt for a discussion practice. Use the text and the questions to lead your students to the discussion, which can also lead to a writing task. Available also on http://teachingandrambling.blogspot.com.es/2016/03/cabin-in-woods-speaking-practice.html

Cabin in the Woods - Speaking practice

This worksheet contains 18 questions about animals. There are two pictures which you can use as a prompt for speaking. It's meant for B1 or B2 students. Have fun with it.

Talking about animals

This Mini-Presentation Activity features eight topics, including prompts to help your ESL students prepare for the task. The students choose a topic to do a mini-presentation on and spend some time preparing before doing their presentations for the class. Topics include an interesting festival, my dream career, a famous person I admire, and more.


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Mini-Presentations Activity

I have created this worksheet based on a newspaper article to have my students talking about Thirteen Reasons Why. The idea was for them to talk about issues at school such as bullying and teasing. Final task: make a poster.

Thirteen Reasons Why Reading and Speaking Activities

These activities can be used as a warm up on the first lesson, but also at any time.- In the first activity, the teacher should cut all the sentences and place them face down on the table.- Each student chooses one of them saying if the sentence is true for them, or give the correct information about themselves, adding as much information as possible about the topic.- It´s also a good idea if their partners ask questions related to it (for example if the student chose "I´m interested in music", partners can ask "What kind, how often do you listen to it, do you ever go to concerts, and so on).-

In the second activiity, each student should be given the worksheet and complete each prompt with two true sentences and a false one.- After that, they have to read their sentences to their partners, having their partners to guess what´s the false piece of information .- The student who had the more guesses is the winner.-



WARM UP - SPEAKING

This task is designed to foster engaging discussions among students while reinforcing the use of the first conditional structure. Students will explore various hypothetical situations, prompting them to apply their understanding of this grammatical concept in real-life contexts.

In this activity, students will be presented with a series of scenarios that could potentially occur in the future. Each scenario will be accompanied by a sentence in the first conditional form, comprising an 'if' clause and a main clause. Students will then discuss these situations in pairs or small groups, considering the possible outcomes and implications of each scenario.

By participating in this task, students will not only enhance their understanding of the first conditional structure but also develop their ability to express hypothetical situations and their potential consequences effectively. Moreover, engaging in discussions will encourage students to think critically, collaborate with their peers, and express their ideas fluently in English. This task offers a dynamic and interactive approach to learning grammar while fostering meaningful communication among students.

FIRST CONDITIONAL speaking

This is a prompt card for an individual long turn (speaking) about friendship. The worksheet provides questions that the students can answer and possible phrases they can use for their answers. 

Prompt card (speaking): friendship

This board game is suitable for 2-4 players at best. Questions and prompts are appropriate for elementary levels with basic foundations of English.



HOW TO USE: Print the card. Students take turns rolling the dice and move their game pieces. Read and answer or do the prompt.

Speaking Board 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)

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

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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

148 Speaking prompts English ESL worksheets pdf & doc