A selection of English ESL ability printables with general speaking practice, speaking practice

General speaking practice

Ability

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

It's a worksheet related to the topic of recycling. It's used the present simple tense.Students read the definitions and try to summarize orally. Then do these funny activities. Answer key included. I hope you find it interesting for your classes.

Recycling versus trash

Reading comprehension tasks followed by grammar tasks in order to consolidate the use of the verbs in the present simple when talking about the interests, abilities and personality features.

Hermione Granger - Interests, Abilities, Personality

The materials are used for junior high school students. The purpose is to express different phrases to say an apology based on the situations given.  I hope it is useful.  

Expressing apology

In this making requests speaking activity, students practice making, accepting and declining requests using prompts on cards. 
Give each student a request card. 
Students then go around the class making, accepting and declining requests with as many different partners as possible.

Making requests: learn how to make a request

Child-friendly assessment designed for kindergarten students to evaluate their understanding of basic English language skills. This test focuses on vocabulary, listening, speaking, and reading, catering to their developmental stage.

Kindergarten English Test

Can/  Can't -  Easy activity for adult beginners .  Questions and answers for students to ask and answer in pairs.  Present tense -  job abilities and  daily actions .

Can/ Can't activity for adult beginners

A comprehensive 60-minute lesson material. It includes a vocabulary section based on a text, an extra idioms section describing talent and skills, a reading comprehension section, a grammar section, and finally, a speaking section.

Do You Have a Hidden Talent? (lesson material)

Similar to my other homophones worksheets but this time as a way to stop students from pronouncing an extra syllable when saying a regular verb in the past. The answers are on the back and there is a "snap" game that can be printed, laminated, and played in an effort to consolidate.

Homophone Fun 3 - The Regular Past

You can use this worksheet as cover for your Students' exercises books. In this picture they can colour the images following the legend inclused.Then, the can describe orally the whole picture.Hope you like it and find it useful.

My English copy-book

Ability - can & can't
This is the 5th worksheet about the Taylor Family. See previous worksheets for other grammar points.

Background
This is a worksheet from a book that I created to help visual learners review grammar, learn vocabulary and practice speaking. The book is about a typical family who live in England. John and Sue are the parents of Emily and Peter. They live with their dog Barney. 

Introduction
This worksheet can help learners practice a number of different things, for example,
             - vocabulary
             - modal verbs for ability (can & can't)

Task 1: Remind SS of the Taylor Family (if you are using this worksheet as part of a 
             series). What do they remember about the family? For example,
             'Peter plays computer games.'
             'John drives to work every morning.'
             Tell the SS that John, the father, has bought a robot from ebuy to help with chores in 
             the house etc. Ask SS if they would like a robot, and if they would, what would they 
             like their robot to do?

Task 2: Look at the worksheet and using vocabulary describe each picture. 
             Ask SS: 'What can you see in each picture?'
             Go through the vocabulary and difficult verbs (apron, catch, arrest ...)

Task 3: If you only have one student ask that student what John's robot can and can't do.
             In each picture there is a small box with either a tick for can, or a cross for can't.

             If you have more than one student you could also get them to ask each other 
             questions, for example,
             A: 'Can the robot/John's robot swim?'
             B: 'No, it can't.'
             A: 'Can the robot/John's robot sink?'
             B: 'Yes, it can.'

Task 4: For homework, SS could design their own robot and write about the things it can and 
             can't do.

The Taylor Family - ability

Do the tasks after proper study of the lesson you have been taught. I discussed the lesson with my students who are studying in their second academic year at the university of Kelaniya, Srilanka.

Affixes- Worksheet

You can test yourself your awareness of adjectives, the words which are used to describe or modify nouns. It would better for you to refer a dictionary in case you are not familiar with any word.  

18 Ability, General speaking practice, Speaking Practice English ESL worksheets pdf & doc