A selection of English ESL weak printables

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

This is a simple speaking activity which should go down well with elementary students. Once you teach them a handful of essential adjectives, you can put it into practice through speaking. No risk of a 'too difficult' factor and this simple exchange might be quite enjoyable in the initial stages of learning the language.

Weak or strong? - adjectives - quick survey

#8 in the series of grammar for beginners. This one is about past tense (weak form). A lot of sentences to practices the spelling rules.

Grammar for Beginners: past tense (weak form)

A short worksheet with technology as the main theme but with hyphenated adjectives, positive, neutral, and negative, as the vocab and grammar practice backdrop. There are several ways on how to teach this, pre-teaching the vocab, or reading aloud and fielding question on the vocab. Perhaps a few rules on how to use hyphens, too. And finally, pair work to decide which 3 appliances to buy, perhaps culminating in a short presentation.

Strengths and Weaknesses - Appliances: Hyphenated Adjectives worksheet

Write the correct vowels to complete the days of the week.



Designer for weak or real beginners

Days of the Week - Spelling - Weak/Real Beginner

This one starts the same way as my exercises for SWOT analysis and the job-search worksheets but it also has a debate at the end with debating cards included. Good practice for students of business English or geeks that love TV shows. There is an answer key for the final mix and match exercise but everything is pretty subjective. Be prepared to field questions on vocab after each student reads their sections aloud in class.





Strength and Weakness Adjectives - TV - Exercise and Debate

I use this tasks when discuss with my university students the topic " Applying for a job. Preparing for an interview". This paperwork includes several tasks, discussing strength and weaknesses of a future candidate for a job.

Applying for a job. Candidates weaknesses and strength

The students must fill in the correct forms of the verbs. Signal words often help them to find the correct tense (simple past, simple present, will-future). You find two versions of the worksheet. The second one is for weaker students. A key is attached.

Mixed tenses (past, present, future)

First study the article. I let them work with a partner on vocab, then we do the listening gapfill. After checking, students work in pairs or groups to complete the rest of the activities.

Every other student should get a different 2nd page in order to work Activity 5&6 smoothly. After completing Activity 5&6 we talked about strengths and weaknesses of each student in giving and doing the interviews.. They really got a lot out of assessing each other. 



This lesson was designed for a 2 hour conversation class for adult intermediates. They really enjoyed this one! 



Conversation lesson on Talking about yourself, Occupations, and Interviews

First student need to find in the wordsearch the past form of the verbs supplied (this is especially helpful for weaker learners). Then they complete the sentences and match them with the pictures. Fully editable. Greyscale and key are included.

Garfield Fun with Past Tense of Irregular Verbs - B&W + Key

This is a simple worksheet to practise this tense, especially designed for weaker students. First student have to find the ing-form of the verbs needed. Then they complete the sentences and match them with the pictures. This worksheet is fully editable, so feel free to make any changes to it. 

PRESENT CONTINUOUS with the Simpsons

Passive ESL worksheet about the unlucky Olympians. Ss have to come up with passive sentences based on the pictures, and say what happened to each unlucky athlete. It also teaches that there are some verbs (e.g. fall, rip, lose, break, etc.) that stay in the active when they mean that something happened by itself: Eg. "The baseball bat broke. Nobody broke it, the wood was just too weak." As a follow-up, students can draw more unlucky athletes with stick figures.

Unlucky Olympians 

Students read some 'roses are red...' Valentine's Day poems, then write their own!  Even weak students can produce a good poem by following the simple steps and filling out the rhyme grid on the worksheet.

124 Weak English ESL worksheets pdf & doc