A selection of English ESL speed printables

2-part worksheet: the first page gives practice of order of adjectives, and the second part reviews adjective types in the form of a chart. Key included.

Order of Adjectives practice

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)

This is a quick true-false quiz to get students thinking about thesis statements at the beginning of a writing lesson. I usually use it as a kind of pre-test; we then discuss in detail the characteristics of strong thesis statements as we check the answers. This is most valuable for students who are already familiar with the fundamentals of essay-writing.

Good Thesis Statements

Practice of affirmative, negative, and question forms for modals. Includes a key. The worksheet is doubled up to save paper; the key is tripled up. Feel free to edit according to your needs.

Modal Verb Form Practice

10 classic tongue twisters in English. Easy and hard. Play with different speeds. Good to practice pronunciation. Your students are gonna love it for sure! Enjoy!

Ten tongue twisters

The worksheet is based on the video that explores the origins of Easter traditions and introduces major US Easter symbols. The tasks help to develop students’ listening skills and vocabulary. The assignment contains listening for gist, listening for details, and comprehension questions. The speed of speaking may seem a bit fast for weaker students, but the tasks include text-based prompts that can be used as scaffolds for listening tasks. The students get a chance to explore the traditions common for their culture and find out more about the roots of popular Easter symbols. The tasks can be used for independent studies or distance-learning classes.

Easter Traditions in the USA 

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 funny worksheet to learn English watching TV series. In this case, you can work this material with the TV serie "The Flash".

The Flash is an American television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns, airing on The CW. It is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, a costumed superhero crime-fighter with the power to move at superhuman speeds. It is a spin-off from Arrow. The series follows Allen, portrayed by Grant Gustin, a crime scene investigator who gains super-human speed, which he uses to fight criminals, including others who have also gained superhuman abilities.

The Flash serie worksheet

An engaging outside activity to get your students practicing prepositions of place in a fun way. Get your students into teams, making sure that each team has a phone with a camera, and get them to take a photo to prove they've found the thing. I would emphasise quality over speed so the activity takes up more time. It can also be worth running through the different prepositions before you go outside. 

Prepositions of Place Scavenger Hunt

Chart - Tornado x hurricane

Tornadoes

Tornadoes occur in most parts of the world. However they are most frequent over the continental plains of the USA.



Tornadoes are typically identified as a funnel of spiraling air descending from the base of clouds to the earth. The tornado is usually narrow, about 1/2 km wide and rarely does it move more than 20 km.



Like hurricanes the precise mechanism of how the funnel forms in not understood.



Hurricane

Tropical Storms start within 8º and 15º north and south of the equator where surface sea temperatures reach 27ºC. The air above the warm sea is heated and rises. This causes low pressure.



The weather system generates heat which powers the storm, causing wind speeds to increase. This causes the Tropical Storm to sustain itself. Tropical storms rely on plenty of warm, moist air from the sea - this is why they die out over land.

The difference between tornadoes and hurricanes

An ESL/EFL listening exercise for the song "Dumb ways to die", which has gone viral on the internet - about 50 million people have watched it so far http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw). Authored by John Mescall, this song was commissioned by the Australian Railway company to encourage passengers to be cautious at train stations. Its dark humor and cute characters made it an instant hit among both adults and children.











This song could be connected with the topic of public transportation, urban life or the Darwin Awards. In my class, I used it to connect to the previous class where students wrote and shared their bucket lists with eachother.











Lesson plan:











1. Warmer: Show 4 characters. Let students guess what happened to them. Introduce the song, and before listening, elicit some more dumb ways to die. Discuss the suggestions briefly with the class.











2. Listen to the song. Have students fill in as many gaps as possible. Listen again, then discuss each character' fate. To speed things up, you can also do the checking by projecting the lyrics onto the board, if you have that technology in class.











Here's the characters in isolated animations:http://dumbwaystodie.tumblr.com/

Dumb Ways to Die Lyrics Gap Fill

People. One student describes himself and the other have to take notes about him. You can do it at high speed and students have to write down or remember as much as they can.

Describing

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

92 Speed English ESL worksheets pdf & doc