A selection of English ESL speed reading printables

This activity will determine students reading level while improving the speed at which they read. 



Tips:

1. Students should read to themselves and not model any vocabulary, this will improve their reading speed dramatically. 



2. They should use their fingers or a pointer to prevent regression, this can double their reading speed. 



Ask students to apply these reading methods and record their speed each time. The theory is they will see a gradual increase! 



Please feel free to edit the content or select your own media article relevant to you.

Speed Reading & Comprehension

Speed reading for little ones

Modals, aka modal auxiliaries!

A reading in the context of a letter from a camper. Chock full of modals. Can, could, will, would, should, ought to, etc. Best for middle school students or older. Could also be used for modeling letter writing. Some lexis about outdoor activities and camping.

A Letter Home

This is a partner conversation activity. 








The front of this ESL worksheet is preparation for the conversation, the back is the conversation script (two scripts: A and B). 








Preparation





First, students consider 8 descriptions together as a class. 


The teacher will read the first description, ensure that everyone understands, then give 10 seconds for students to write an answer.


Students can put the first answer they can think of; crazy answers are okay! (but they should try not to discuss with each other)


Then move on to the next description as a class. 





When they have 8 answers, students copy those answers into the respective spaces in the script (1 -> 1, 2 -> 2, etc.)








Partner Conversation





Make pairs, A and B


Read the script and have a conversation on the first day of school


Change partners 1-2 times for variety in conversation








The language is simple so students can work on speaking with the speed and inflection of a fluent English speaker. Teachers should also discuss colloquial language like "yeah" and "cool" and stress that this is appropriate in conversation but not in writing (unless it's texting/ social media)








The descriptions in the preparation are catered to a Japanese class and include Japanese translations. You should edit according to your country / culture.

First Day of School - Mad Libs

A reading and gapfill which give practices of -ed/-ing ending adjectives. This reading could also be used to teach relative clauses/pronouns, as well. They are underlined in the key.

Describing Words practice

A reading exercise to introduce or revise use of present perfect continuous. Context is an apparent love triangle with a twist. It's doubled on the same page to save paper. Edit according to your needs!

What have they been doing?

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.

Answer key: 1 movie 2 elevator 3 sidewalk 4 subway 5 soccer 6 speed bump 7 appetizer 8 lorries 9 autumn 10 car parks 11 petrol 12 mobile phones 13 holiday 14 biscuits 15 french fries

Read and Complete - American vs British English

In this developed version of ALIBI, students play the roles of suspects in a murder mystery, except in this version, there is an actual murderer. You will distribute these character cards (7) to students, and have the rest play police officers. The characters can spend 10 minutes socializing and interacting with each other, while the police officers prepare questions for the investigation (they'll be briefed about the main plot).

After, you can start the interrogation whichever way you'd like (characters interrogated in isolation, or do it as a speed-dating style, each character interviewed by an officer across the class).
Tips: students should not share the "secrets" in their cards (only if absolutely necessary), they also have the freedom to make up additional details about their characters when convenient.

HAVE FUN! :)

Murder Mystery (Clue Game)

Students first read about 'speed dating', then they must match the paragraph titles with the paragraphs. Then a series of comprehension questions follow. Usually, it's a good idea to continue this with a roleplay- dividing the class into boys and girls and sitting them with a partner (of the opposite sex ideally). They have 3 mins with each person to talk about themselves, their interests, etc, before asking the other person about themselves. After three minutes, the students move to the next partner to do the same. 

Speed Dating Class

This is a reading comprehension about Arab/ muslim astronomers . It will help students improve their reading speed and comprehension through carefully designed exercises.

Arab/ muslim astronomers 

This is a combination worksheet to accompany the National Geographic videos 'Inside Sumo' and 'Could you be a sumo wrestler?' These videos can be viewed directly on youtube or downloaded and burned to a disc. The worksheet is designed for inter to upper-intermediate students. Students of all ages would enjoy these videos, although the worksheets are more appropriate for middle school students and older.

I accompanied this lesson with a reading from Reading Explorer 2 (also from National Geographic); the readings, themselves, tend to go very quickly, so the videos added a bit more context and challenge.

Sumo!

I watched a beautiful music video by the band Seafret called Wildfire and felt inspired to create a lesson based on it. Students read through the lyrics to identify similes and metaphors. Then read through a set of questions and find definitions to some of the vocabulary. Next, they work with a partner to ask and answer some of the questions. Lastly, they watch the music video.



You may wish to abbreviate the questions, or rephrase them, as some of the language might be too difficult for lower level students.



This lesson would work well with one on speed dating, and is intended for older students.

Figurative Language:  Similes & Metaphors

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

25 Speed reading English ESL worksheets pdf & doc