A selection of English ESL thinking skills printables

Listening activity for students to increase their skills. Let them listen at least twice and complete the worksheet. Can be adjusted to advanced learners by erasing the word box.

Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran

Students answer the question, either individually or in group, either written or spoken (or both). Make sure to tell them there are no single correct answers. Creativity and imagination is needed to answer these sometimes 'impossible' Xmas questions. This exercise combines English skills with thinking skills. Have fun.

Read and Complete - Creative Santa Questions

It is a task that involves the use of 6 thinking hats and 8 thinking maps which are tools used in teaching or learning higher order critical thinking skills. This is available in ESL printables. Developed by Sirhajwan Idek

Hybrid Cars ( Six Thinking Hats & Thinking Maps)

This worksheet serve as a tool for teachers to assess students' reading comprehension skills, identify areas of strength and weakness, and tailor instruction accordingly.

Reading Comprehension

Lesson to sharpen critical thinking skills

Critical thinking

This task is constructed based on SOLO Taxonomy in order to develop students´ critical thinking skills, the concept of the Thinking Maps was used to construct the first question ( Bubble Map) and the concept of The Thinker´s Keys was used to construct the second and third questions ( The disadvantages key and the Ridiculous Key). This is also available in ESL printables. Developed by Sirhajwan Idek

House of the Future ( Thinker's Keys and Thinking Maps)

"Think-Tales" is a teaching and learning tool which consists of a collection of original drama, short stories and poems: Scarecrow, Leprechaun, The Magic Bell, Xarla the Fairy, and Easter Bunny, Planet Pals, Health Heroes and Seven Deadly Sins. It is incorporated with various thinking tools that can be used to develop higher order thinking skills. These tools are Thinking Maps, Six Thinking Hats, SCAMPER, Three Storey Intellect, Thinker’s Keys, Q-Matrix and K-W-L Chart.  This is also available in ESL printables. Developed by Sirhajwan Idek

Think Tales Volume 1 ( A collection of Fantasy Tales & Thinking Tools)

It is a song activity. Songs make it easy to learn a language and improve it. So I have prepared this activity not just for learning but also for having fun while practicing listening skill. I hope you love it.

Ed SHEERAN- Thinking Out Loud-Song

It is a task that involves the use of 6 thinking hats and 8 thinking maps which are tools used in teaching or learning higher order critical thinking skills. This is also available in ESL printables. Developed by Sirhajwan Idek

Why  Build Green ( Six Thinking Hats & Thinking Map)

This worksheet serves as a tool for both assessing comprehension and fostering discussion and deeper engagement with the text.. Suitable for grade 1 to 4 children.

Reading Comprehension ( 1st Day in School)

There are four reading texts that have been adapted from World´s Largest Lessons on the theme of "Education" as one of the 17 Global Goals. Q-Matrix (Wiederhold, 1995) is a tool that can be used by students to construct questions that range from lower order thinking questions to higher-order thinking questions. The students can create their own questions related to the texts that they are required to read. The student-generated questions could be discussed in the class to help students to improve their higher order thinking skills, questioning skills and learners´ autonomy. This is also available in ESL printables. Developed by Sirhajwan Idek





Thinking Tools (Q-Matrix and ESL Reading)

There are three short texts which are related to the theme of "Health" of the 17 Global Goals. Six Thinking Hats (de Bono, 1985) represents parallel thinking that encompasses six different perspectives: blue hat for thinking about thinking, white hat for facts, red hat for emotions, yellow hats for positive aspects, black hats for critical aspects and green hats for creativity and new ideas. The students can apply these six hats to analyze and evaluate something and form opinions from different views. It can help to improve students´ higher order thinking skills, it facilitates the delivery of differentiated instructions, it encourages students to be more critical and expressive of their ideas. This is also available in ESL printables. Developed by Sirhajwan Idek.

Thinking Tools (Six Thinking Hats and ESL Reading)

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

17 Thinking skills English ESL worksheets pdf & doc