A selection of English ESL string printables

This is really great fun! And it gets your students speaking. Description is on the copysheet. It takes little preparation and can be used with different topics and occasions. 

String Talks

Song - Broken Strings

Yes/ no questions based on texts about 2 jobs, followed by some basic comprehension questions. It will be a good idea to change the names of the towns to familiar places for the learners before printing the worksheet.

Jobs reading comprehension for beginners

This is designed for beginner learners. The first task is to practice the long e vowel sound and some consonant blends.
The second part is for some vocabulary to be found in the reading text. Learners should match words and pictures.
The reading comprehension mainly focuses on words from the vocabulary activity. The learner may need to be shown how to find words from the questions in the text, then read around the word to find the answer.

Spring vocabulary and easy reading text

A worksheet to help beginners with some common words with the short 'a' and 'e' vowel sounds.  The first activity needs the vowels to be added, then match with the pictures.  The second activity is a crossword.

Watch out - there are two words with alternative spellings - head and bread.

Designed to be followed by a minimal pairs listening activity.

Words with short a and e sounds worksheet

A reading comprehension in an exam-style format, aimed at Pre-Intermediate/Intermediate (ESOL Entry 2/3) students.

Includes questions about text type and purpose. 

Pool rules poster reading comprehension 

Suitable for learning words to describe members of a family.  Older and younger v. eldest and youngest.

Can be used with children and with adults, for example for parents of young children who need to be able to talk about their children.

Learners may enjoy drawing a picture of their own family and then using the target language to describe them.

Oldest and Youngest

** This document uses the format day/month/year for writing the date, as used in the UK.  Note that it is different in the US and in many different countires.
Tasks:
1) Match months with the numbers
2) Match dates in words and numbers
3) Write numbers for the dates in words
4) Write words for the dates in numbers
5) Write today's date and your date of birth in words and numbers.

Date in words and numbers (British)

The first sheet is a matching activity for words with the long oo sound and images.
The next part splits some common oo words into two groups for the short and long sounds. Sounds should be drilled. Note, there are not images to explain all of the short oo word meanings. 
 Below the words are a few short sentences for reading practice. These assume that the learner knows 'like'. 
 The last activity describes 2 jobs using some oo words, then asks 'what is the job'? Learners may not be familiar with 'joiner', so this may be a new word to learn. You may want to delete that question.

OO words matching and reading

Listening game to practise short and long I for up to 6 players

Sheet 1 is to cut up and distribute to learners

Sheet 2 is for the teacher to cut up, for words to be selected at random

Sheet 3 is a reference of the different words included here.



Pre-teaching needed to explain some of the different word endings to make the long I sound - I_e,  ind (note exception wind is not included here), igh.  

Short and long i Bingo

The tasks are designed to help to learn vocabulary and spellings, then to switch from lower to upper case letters. 

1) Label the house with the words in the box above. 

2) Add labels for some more home words. 

3) Copy the words to learn spellings, or cover the words with one hand and test yourself by writing them without copying, then check. 

4) Do the word search to find the same words in capital letters, then write the words in capitals on the right.

House and home vocabulary

A role play task aimed at adult ESOL learners. Makes reference to various places in the UK (Yorkshire). You may want to change the place names. 

Cut up the role play cards with the different names. There are 23 in total here. The people to role play have different names, countries, jobs, interests etc. 

1) The handout for all learners is at the end. Start with the word order task, then go through which are suitable questions to ask. 

2) Give each learner a card with the details of different person to role play. First they need to read about their person and write sentences, so that they understand who they are playing. There is a space on the handout for them to do this. 

3) Ask the learners to think about different questions that they can ask to find out if other people share their interests and how to invite others to do something together (Would you like to ...?).. 

4) Role play speaking - learners should talk to as many others as possible, asking and answering questions. they should try to arrange to meet people with similar interests. 

5) After speaking - write about people they have met and any plans to meet.

New neighbours role play (23 cards)

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

63 String English ESL worksheets pdf & doc