homework practice for esl

ESL Worksheets | Free Worksheets For Teaching English

Welcome to our ESL worksheets page. On this page, you can find many printable ESL worksheets on many topics for English language learners and teachers. All the worksheets on Games4esl are absolutely FREE to download and use in your English classes.

Worksheets For Teaching English

The worksheets on this page are arranged by topic or by grade. Choose a topic/grade below to browse through our huge library of worksheets. Alternatively, use the search bar below to find resources for your lesson.

Worksheets By Topic

• Action Verb Worksheets
• Adjective Worksheets
• Adverb Worksheets
• All About Me Worksheets
• Alphabet Letter Worksheets
• Alphabet Tracing Worksheets
• Animal Worksheets
• Animals And Habitats Worksheets
• Big and Small Worksheets
• Body Parts Worksheets
• Christmas Worksheets
• Classroom Object Worksheets
• Clothes Worksheets
• Colors Worksheets
• Compare And Contrast Worksheets
• Contraction Worksheets
• Counting And Number Worksheets
• Countries and Nationalities Worksheets
• Comparative Adjectives Worksheets
• CVC Words – Phonics Worksheets
• CVCE – Magic E Worksheets
• Daily Routine Worksheets
• Days Of The Week Worksheets
• Debate Plan Worksheet
• Digraph Worksheets
• Directions Worksheets
• Easter Worksheets
• English Grammar Worksheets
• Fall Worksheets
• Family Worksheets
• Farm Animal Worksheets
• Feelings Worksheets
• ‘Find Someone Who’ Worksheets
• Food Worksheets
• Future Tense Using Will
• Halloween Worksheets
• Hobbies Worksheets
• Hundreds Chart
• Jobs and Occupations Worksheets
• Mad Lib Worksheets
• Months Of The Year Worksheets
• Numbers As Words Worksheets
• Number Tracing Worksheets
• Past Continuous Worksheets
• Past Simple Tense Worksheets
• Pet Animal Worksheets
• Places In Town Worksheets
• Prepositions Of Place Worksheets
• Prepositions Of Time Worksheets
• Present Continuous Tense Worksheets
• Present Perfect Tense Worksheets
• Present Simple Tense Worksheets
• Pronoun Worksheets
• Rooms Of The House Worksheets
• School Subject Worksheets
• School Subject Word Searches
• Seasons Worksheets
• Senses – Five Senses Worksheets
• Shapes – 2D Shapes Worksheets
• Sports Worksheets
• Sports Word Searches
• Spring Word Searches
• Summer Clothes Worksheets
• Summer Worksheets
• Synonym Worksheets
• Telling The Time Worksheets
• This That These Those Worksheets
• Transportation Worksheets
• Verb To Be Worksheets
• Weather Worksheets
• Wh Questions Worksheets
• Winter Clothes Worksheets

Worksheets By Grade

• Grade 1 Worksheets
• Grade 2 Worksheets
• Grade 3 Worksheets (Coming Soon)
• Grade 4 Worksheets (Coming Soon)
• Grade 5 Worksheets (Coming Soon)

Reading Comprehension Worksheets

• All Reading Comprehension Worksheets
• Grade 1 Reading Comprehension Worksheets
• Grade 2 Reading Comprehension Worksheets
• Grade 3 Reading Comprehension Worksheets
• Grade 4 Reading Comprehension Worksheets
• Grade 5 Reading Comprehension Worksheets
• Middle School Reading Comprehension Worksheets

More ESL Resources

Before you go, don’t forget to check out our other free ESL materials, including  ESL Games ,  Board Games ,  Flashcards ,  PowerPoint Games , Online Quizzes , and  ESL Lesson Plans .

Homework for ESL Students – 10 Ideas for Teachers

Meet  David De’ Ath , founder, editor, and writer at Wonderful World English. With his extensive background as an English teacher, David provides valuable insights and practical tips on ESL for students and teachers alike.

Learning English as a Second Language (ESL) is an enriching venture and offers students the ability to access global opportunities.

Homework in ESL is crucial, serving as a bridge between classroom theory and practical language use.

It’s essential for reinforcing learned concepts and enhancing general language proficiency.

To make this learning journey both effective and enjoyable, it’s important to craft homework tasks that are engaging and tailored to diverse learning styles.

This approach helps to maintain students’ interest and motivation, which are key to successful language acquisition.

These ESL homework ideas are designed to enhance language learning and engage students both in and out of the classroom: Daily journaling, vocabulary flashcards, reading comprehension, listening to podcasts/songs, video diaries, role-play scenarios, grammar worksheets, online games, book club discussions, and a pen pal program.

I am an experienced ESL teacher, and I can attest first-hand to the importance of self-study, homework, and review.

Our carefully selected ten homework ideas aim to transform routine learning into an exciting adventure.

These activities are more than just assignments; they’re interactive experiences designed to deepen students’ understanding of English.

From creative writing to practical exercises, these tasks are intended to make learning English a dynamic and enjoyable process, paving the way for a richer, more confident use of the language.

Homework Ideas for ESL Students

ESL students need more than just traditional classroom lessons.

Homework is a vital part of their language development and serves as a bridge between acquired knowledge and practical application.

The following homework ideas are designed to captivate students’ interest, deepen their understanding, and enhance their fluency in English in the classroom and real-life situations.

Let’s dive into these creative and effective homework strategies that promise a richer, more interactive language learning experience:

1. Daily Journaling

This is a great idea to engage students by embracing the habit of maintaining a daily journal.

Writing about their daily experiences, emotions, thoughts, or selected topics can sharpen their writing skills while learning to articulate their feelings and ideas in English.

This journaling process serves a dual purpose: it strengthens their grasp of the language and provides a personal space for self-expression.

As they regularly engage with this practice, English becomes an integral part of their daily routine and will facilitate a more natural and fluent use of the language in their everyday lives.

This activity bolsters their linguistic abilities and fosters a deeper connection with English as a medium of personal reflection and expression.

Writing is a huge aspect of mastering a language.

For a guide on how to improve writing skills for yourself or your students, click the link below!

Related Article: How to Sharpen Writing Skills – Full Guide

2. Making Flashcards

Students can develop their vocabulary skills through the classic and effective method of creating flashcards.

This exercise involves students writing down new words and their meanings on individual cards.

They can add illustrations or use words in sentences to make the learning process more engaging and impactful.

This visual and contextual approach helps better retain and understand new vocabulary.

By regularly reviewing these flashcards, students can gradually build a robust vocabulary base, which is essential for fluency in English.

This method will reinforce their word knowledge and encourage active engagement with the language, making vocabulary learning a more interactive and enjoyable experience.

Flashcards are suitable for students of all ages and can be fun.

For some great insights on effectively teaching ESL students vocabulary, the guide below is for you!

Related Article: How to Teach Vocabulary to ESL Students – The Guide

3. Reading Comprehension Exercises

Immerse more advanced students in the world of English reading by assigning short stories or articles complemented by comprehension questions.

This exercise is pivotal in enhancing their reading skills and deepening their understanding of various contexts in English.

Students encounter different writing styles, vocabularies, and themes by engaging with diverse texts, enriching their language experience.

The follow-up questions serve to test their understanding and encourage critical thinking about the content.

This approach bolsters their ability to comprehend English texts and stimulates their analytical skills, making them more adept at interpreting and engaging with the language in its written form.

Such reading exercises are fundamental in helping students gain confidence and proficiency in navigating English literature and media.

4. Podcasts and Songs

Teachers can offer listening exercises in their curriculums by using English podcasts and songs.

This method exposes students to a variety of accents, speaking speeds, and vocabulary in a natural context.

After listening, students can engage in activities like writing summaries or answering questions about what they heard.

These post-listening tasks are crucial for enhancing their comprehension and retention.

This approach is great at improving listening skills while making the learning process more enjoyable and relatable.

By regularly interacting with authentic English content, students develop a better ear for the language and learn to appreciate its rhythm and nuances in different forms of media.

This not only aids in language acquisition but also connects them culturally to the English-speaking world.

Check out the guide below for a list of the BEST English podcasts!

Related Article: Best Podcasts to Learn the English Language in 2024 (Top 10)

5. Video Diaries

This one encourages students to create short video diaries as a regular assignment.

This task provides them with a platform to practice speaking about a variety of topics in English.

Whether they choose to talk about their daily life, share opinions on current events, or discuss their hobbies, these video diaries offer a unique opportunity for students to engage actively with the language.

This activity not only improves their spoken English skills but also significantly boosts their confidence in using the language.

It helps them to overcome any hesitation or fear of speaking by providing a safe, personal space to express themselves.

The process of recording and watching their own videos can also be a powerful tool for self-evaluation and progress tracking.

This innovative approach to language learning empowers students to become more fluent and self-assured English speakers.

6. Role-play in Real-world Scenarios

Ask your students to prepare role-plays that mimic real-world scenarios, such as shopping, ordering food, or making appointments.

This practical approach to learning takes them beyond the confines of traditional classroom exercises and immerses them in everyday situations. T

Through role-playing, students get to practice conversational English in a structured yet dynamic context.

It allows them to apply their language skills in practical situations, enhancing their ability to communicate effectively in real-life settings.

This method is particularly effective in familiarizing them with common phrases and vocabulary used in daily interactions.

Additionally, role-playing can be a fun and interactive way to learn, helping to reduce the anxiety often associated with speaking a new language.

By engaging in these simulated experiences, students gain confidence and fluency, which are crucial for their overall language development.

7. Grammar Worksheets

This is a classic form of homework for ESL students, to offer them worksheets that concentrate on specific grammar points, such as verb tenses, sentence structure, or prepositions.

Regular practice with these worksheets is instrumental in solidifying their understanding of English grammar.

This methodical approach allows students to focus on one aspect of grammar at a time, ensuring a thorough grasp of each concept.

Such targeted exercises help correct common mistakes and deepen their comprehension of the language’s structure.

By consistently working through these grammar worksheets, students build a strong grammatical foundation, which is vital for effective English communication.

This foundational knowledge enhances their writing and speaking skills and boosts their confidence in correctly using the language in various contexts.

For some tips on how to teach grammar to ESL students, we’ve put together a guide to help teachers everywhere!

Related Article: How to Teach Grammar to ESL Students – Teacher’s Guide

8. Online Games

Motivate your students to engage with educational language games available online.

These games offer a fun, interactive way to learn and practice English.

Students can improve various language skills through game-based learning, including vocabulary, grammar, reading, and even listening comprehension.

The interactive nature of these games makes the learning process more enjoyable and less intimidating, especially for younger learners or beginners.

As students play, they receive immediate feedback on their performance, which helps reinforce correct usage and understanding.

This approach enhances their language skills and keeps them motivated and engaged in their learning.

Online language games provide a dynamic and enjoyable way to supplement traditional learning methods, making language practice an activity that students can look forward to.

For some ideas of classroom games, both traditional and digital, check out the guide below!

Related Article: Fun Classroom Games to Play – Teacher’s Guide

9. Book Club

Another great idea is to start a book club in your class, where students can read and discuss a common book.

This collaborative activity enhances their reading skills and promotes critical thinking and group discussion skills in English.

Choosing books that are appropriate for their language level, the book club encourages students to dive into stories and themes, expanding their vocabulary and comprehension.

Discussing the book with their peers allows them to share perspectives, articulate their thoughts, and engage in meaningful conversations in English.

This interactive and social approach to learning also builds a sense of community among the students, making English learning a shared and enjoyable experience.

The book club thus becomes a platform for growth, not just in language proficiency but also in cognitive and social skills.

10. Pen Pal Program

The tenth great homework idea for ESL students is to start a pen pal program with English-speaking individuals from different parts of the world.

This initiative provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in regular written communication with native English speakers.

Through exchanging letters or emails, students practice their writing skills in a real-world context, learning to express their thoughts and ideas clearly in English.

This regular interaction not only improves their language proficiency but also offers valuable insights into different cultures and lifestyles, enhancing their cultural understanding and global awareness.

The pen pal program is more than just a language exercise; it’s a bridge that connects students across cultures, promoting international friendships and broadening their perspectives.

This kind of cultural exchange can be a highly rewarding and motivating experience, encouraging students to apply their language skills in meaningful and authentic interactions.

You can reach out to other teachers on platforms like LinkedIn and see if they would be willing to start a pen pal initiative for both them and your students.

The homework ideas presented for ESL students transcend the traditional concept of assignments.

They are designed as interactive learning experiences that not only build language skills but do so in a way that is practical, enjoyable, and highly effective.

Integrating these varied activities into the ESL curriculum allows teachers to cultivate a dynamic and nurturing learning environment.

Such an approach encourages students to actively engage with the English language, not just within the confines of the classroom but in their everyday lives as well.

Promoting this kind of immersive learning experience makes students more likely to develop a lasting proficiency and a genuine appreciation for the language.

These activities, therefore, play a crucial role in shaping confident, competent English speakers who are prepared to navigate the global landscape.

We hope you find value in this article; let us know if you require any assistance.

Have a wonderful day!

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StoryLearning

Learn A Language Through Stories

11 ESL Homework Ideas To Engage Your Learners & Simplify Lesson Planning 

Are you looking for ESL homework ideas for your classes? If you’re thinking about setting homework you’re onto a good thing. Learning a language requires a lot of exposure and practice. And much of that happens outside of class. 

The more students make contact with English outside the classroom, the faster they’ll progress. And if you can connect their homework assignments to what you’re teaching in class, you’ll make lesson planning a lot easier for yourself. 

So, without further ado, here are 11 ESL homework ideas for adults that you can use with groups, individuals, in-person or online.

If you want to become a qualified online language teacher and earn a living from home, I recommend checking out CeOLT (Certificate of Online Language Teaching).

Click here to find out more .

How To Make Homework Work For You &Your Students 

Many ESL teachers are wary of setting homework because students often don’t do it! You may remember being set useless homework in language classes that you weren't motivated to do, such as learning lists of words for a test. 

The problem is, if ESL learners rely too much on you or on coming to lessons, they will make slow progress because so much language learning takes place outside of the classroom. 

The trick then is to integrate homework assignments into what happens in class so that it becomes non-negotiable. In the list of ESL homework ideas below, you’ll find tasks that are fun and motivating to do as well as ways to fit them into your class time. 

1.Read A Short Story Or Short Book Chapter 

Reading is the foundation of the StoryLearning method and makes for the perfect ESL homework idea.

Instead of spending time reading in class, get the students to do it between classes. 

They can find a quiet time to read the story or chapter as many times as they like.

In my short story books , they’ll find tools to help them understand the material such as glossaries and comprehension questions. 

In class, students can then discuss the chapter or story together. If you’re teaching 1:1, you can ask them to present a summary and show you new words they learned from the chapter. You can then discuss it together.  

For more ideas on how to use my short story books for teaching check out my Short Stories teacher’s Guide .

2. Listen To A Short Podcast Episode 

Many ESL students struggle with English listening skills so they need as much practice as possible. 

If you teach conversation classes then this activity will also mean fewer lesson planning headaches. And you won’t waste any class time on listening. 

Tell your student to listen to a short ESL podcast such as the BBC’s 6-Minute English podcast. Ask them to prepare a summary of it to present to you in class. If the episode includes show notes, they can compare their summary with those notes. 

You can also adapt this homework activity for groups and ask them to discuss the podcast in pairs in class. This is also a great opportunity to use class time to clarify and new words, or structures that came up in the episode. 

If you’re feeling ambitious or your students have a high level, you could plan a whole series of lessons or a semester around a particular podcast such as a true crime or other investigative journalism show. 

3. Presentation About A Passion 

Not everyone is passionate about learning English and many ESL students come to class because they have to. But even if they’re not interested in English, they must be interested in something, right? 

You can harness their hobbies and passions and generate some excitement for the English language by asking them to present a special object to the rest of the class. 

This can also work well in a 1:1 online lesson. You can ask your student to prepare a short talk about an object that they hold up to the webcam to show you. 

You can use time in class to work on presentation and storytelling skills. You can model this type of presentation by telling them about your own significant object so they know what to aim for.

4. Write A Review 

Who doesn’t love sharing their opinion whether it’s about the latest movie they’ve seen or the hot new restaurant they had dinner at? 

You can harness this desire and get your student to practice useful language by getting them to write reviews as homework. These could be movie reviews, product reviews, restaurant reviews etc. 

In class, you can take a look at the structure of reviews in English plus the language used such as colourful adjectives or phrases for giving opinions. 

That way, your students will have a model they can use to write their own reviews at home. Back in class, students can share their reviews with each other and discuss them – would they see this movie, buy this product etc or not based on the review. 

You can also give feedback both about the content of the reviews as well as any language points to improve. 

5. Get Creative 

Creativity requires constraints and there’s no greater one than writing a story in your second, third or fourth language. 

You can challenge students to write a short story based on words they’ve learned recently in class or on a particular topic you’ve been discussing. Give them a word count to respect as well. 

Again, you can use class time to read stories together and analyse their structure so that they know what to aim for. 

After they’ve written a short story at home, they can come back to class to read and discuss each others’ stories. 

6. Share Amazing Anecdotes 

Telling an interesting anecdote is a real skill in any language, especially in a new one that you're learning. But it's a great way to work on your speaking skills. 

You can use your class time to read or listen to anecdotes in English. You could even tell your learners a funny or sad story about yourself. Once they’ve understood what makes a great anecdote, it’s time to create their own one for homework. 

At home, learners can write their anecdotes, or even better, can prepare and rehearse them orally, so they’re ready to tell them in class. 

During the lesson, you and the other students can react to the anecdotes and ask follow-up questions. 

7. Blogs And Blogging 

Did you know that blogs are an incredibly rich resource for language learning and teaching? You can use blogs in many ways both inside and outside of the classroom. 

As a homework activity you could ask students to read a blog post of their choice and leave a comment for the writer. 

If your students prefer watching YouTube videos, they can watch videos and leave comments underneath them. 

In both cases, in class time, students can report back on the blog they read, why they chose it and what comment they left and why. 

If you and your students are feeling really ambitious, you could start a class blog or they could start writing their own individual blogs about their English learning journeys. 

For even more inspiration for your teaching, check out these best ESL bloggers .

8. Start A Podcast 

This one is a bit more ambitious, but as well as listening to podcasts, learners can also consider starting their own! 

In fact, English learner Daniel Goodson from Switzerland started his podcast, My Fluent Podcast , to develop his speaking skills and gain confidence. He interviews other learners who have similar projects. 

Of course, your students don’t have to make the podcast public. It can simply be a project between you and the members of the class. They could interview each other or otherwise upload short episodes on a topic of their choice. 

Again, if they do this outside of class as homework you can use time in class to give them feedback on their work. Their episodes can also be a springboard for further discussion as well as a listening comprehension activity for the other students. 

9. Class WhatsApp Group 

Another way for students to use English outside the classroom thanks to digital tools is to create a class WhatsApp group.

Other chat apps like Telegram or Voxer would work just as well. 

In this group, you can ask your students questions or share material for them to discuss.

Their homework in this case could be as simple as sending at least one message per week in the group. For more ideas about using apps check out this post about English teaching apps.

10. Write A Letter 

Do you remember writing letters to a pen friend when you were learning languages at school? 

Instead of writing letters to someone else, your students can try some creative writing activities that involve writing letters to themselves. 

That’s right, you can ask them to write a letter to their younger self with advice or to their future self about goals and dreams. There’s even a website where you can write and schedule a letter to your future self called FutureMe . 

This activity is quite a personal one so you’d need to be willing to get vulnerable yourself and share your letter before encouraging your students to talk to each other about the content of their letters. 

11. The Student Becomes The Teacher 

Here’s an interesting reversal of classroom roles that works well with groups. For homework, you can ask your students to teach the rest of the class some new vocabulary or a spelling or grammar rule. 

You won’t expect them to give a whole class on the topic. But they could do a short presentation of the topic in the format they prefer – through song or story or in a more traditional way.

As long as you keep expectations clear, they’ll benefit from peer teaching this way. After all, you can only teach what you’ve understood well yourself. 

11 ESL Homework Ideas 

So there you have it – 11 engaging ESL homework ideas that your students will actually want to do outside of class! 

As you can see, these ESL homework ideas are a million miles away from the types of boring worksheets that you had to fill in for language classes at school. 

Thanks to these engaging ideas, you’ll make your lesson planning easier and your students will be excited to do their homework. And they’ll start to become more independent learners who make faster progress. 

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96 Free TEFL and ESL Worksheets You Can Use Today

• March 17, 2021

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Teaching English isn’t all glitz and glamour and most ESL positions often demand a good deal of legwork from teachers. Depending on the level of preparation required for lesson planning , the curriculum, and the availability of materials, you may find yourself scrambling to come up with effective lesson plans on your own. Worksheets have historically been — and to this day remain — important staples of the ESL classroom, whether in-person or digital. While it’s certainly possible to get “carried away” with worksheets by becoming over-reliant on them, in moderation they can be immensely beneficial for driving home important terminology and concepts in the minds of ESL learners.

Fortunately, the web is chock full of high-quality ESL worksheets that are totally free. We’ve listed the best here, broken up by category.

ESL Conversation Worksheets

High-quality conversation worksheets touch upon the four pillars of ESL: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Here you’ll find a wide range of topics that will get your classroom chatting. Students will be able to ask well-structured, relevant questions, hold a conversation with one another, and formulate and express their opinions.

Speaking practice is arguably one of the best methods for students to acquire a second language and conversation is a great way to practice speaking the language in a non-intimidating way.

• The History of Communication
• Birthday Survey
• Conversation Fill in the Blanks
• Your Last Holiday
• Let’s Talk about the Universe!
• Shopping Conversation
• Travel Questions

ESL Family Worksheets

The family is the most basic human social unit. Even the youngest learners will have their own well-developed conceptions of the family and, chances are, they’ll be enthusiastic to think and talk about their own in the classroom.

All levels and ages of learners can benefit from practicing family-related vocabulary. Luckily, there are worksheets for all ages and skill levels in this category.

Below, you’ll find beginner-friendly worksheets to introduce vocabulary about family and relatives, as well as advanced worksheets that cover more thought-provoking topics such as conflicts between family members and differences in cultural traditions.

• Writing about Family Members
• Family Traditions
• Create Your Family Tree!
• Spot the Differences — Family Portraits
• Conflicts Between Teens and Parents

ESL Alphabet Worksheets

Learning the alphabet and the corresponding phonics is one of the most foundational aspects of a young learner’s initial ESL education.

These worksheets are targeted at a younger audience of English language learners, however, included in this list is also some vowel pronunciation practice that is suitable for all ages.

Even a student who has been studying English for years can still struggle with vowel pronunciation, often confusing once vowel sound with another, similar one. Revisiting the fundamentals of the alphabet can help.  

The younger crowd will also benefit from these fun activities, which not only introduce them to the alphabet but increase their vocabulary as well.

• Single Vowel Practice Test
• My English Alphabet
• Big Letter Tracing

ESL Reading Worksheets

Reading comprehension is an essential skill that not only benefits ESL learners in practical terms, but is also a central component of most standardized English tests like the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) .  

The ESL worksheets below offer a great opportunity to reinforce lessons, evaluate comprehension, and work together to answer the questions (for example, you can have the students take turns reading and then pose each question or exercise to the entire class).

You can tailor your reading material to meet the current lesson content and/or interests of your students. If you already have a story or book you’re working with, feel free to adapt these worksheets to fit by modifying the questions, wording, or exercises.

• Life in the Future
• Reading Comprehension by Grade Level
• A Taste of Nature
• Unhealthy Breakfast
• Silly Bear Story
• Harry Potter (School Timetable)

ESL Grammar Worksheets

Because English grammatical structure is dramatically different compared to the grammar of other languages (especially those from totally foreign linguistic families such as East Asian tongues), ESL students often struggle with mastering this aspect of English.  

These grammar worksheets are a great way to get creative with how you reinforce your lessons. Veteran teachers might find it valuable to adjust these to fit their own classes while less-experienced educators may find it more useful to rely on these as the main focal point of their lesson.

• To Have (Present Tense)
• Command Verbs
• Adverbs & Frequency
• 8 Parts of Speech
• Verb Tenses
• Article or No Article?
• Infinitives
• Indefinite Articles

ESL Pronunciation Worksheets

Depending on your students’ level of skill, the following ESL worksheets can really help reinforce your pronunciation and phonetics lessons ( as can these pronunciation exercises ).

When you use these worksheets optimally as a teacher, you are able to not only demonstrate the correct sound but also how it will look on paper in a word or phrase.

Usually English phonetic sounds — even vowels and their combinations – have recurring patterns that, once identified and retained through practice, make bridging the gap between written and verbal word much easier.

These worksheets are more interactive than some of the others. In the past, I’ve taken one of these worksheets and transferred some or most of it onto the board – this not only encouraged the class to work together in sounding out the words, but made it easy to understand how to do the rest of the tasks in the worksheet on their own.

• The Final ‘S’
• ‘Ed’ Endings
• ‘T’ and ‘Th’ Sounds
• ‘O’ and ‘U’ Vowel Sounds
• ‘Ou’ and ‘Oo’ Vowel Sounds
• ‘Oi’ and ‘Oy’ Vowel Sounds

ESL Preposition Worksheets

Like other challenging aspects of English, other languages often lack prepositions. This makes acquiring native-level understanding of the structural form and function of prepositional phrases difficult. Proper preposition use into flowing conversation is even more challenging.  

I’ve found preposition worksheets to be invaluable in driving home the correct use of prepositions.  The simplicity of most sheets means they aren’t so intimidating to students. They are also easy to do on their own as they often only require filling out or circling one word or phrase.

• Where Is the Cat?
• Mixed Prepositions
• Fill in the Correct Preposition
• Proposition Gap
• In, On, or Under
• Prepositions of Time

ESL Worksheets for Beginners

For students young and old, beginner ESL worksheets are an important tool for drilling home the basics. They should be both easy to understand and engaging enough to command and hold attention.

Even among the most thorough and time-thrifty instructors, the beginner level is where ESL teachers tend to become over-reliant on worksheets. Don’t make this mistake. The best rule of thumb in this regard is to keep worksheets as tools of review rather than the main “bread and butter” of the lesson.

Feel free to borrow aspects of these worksheets that work, adjust those that don’t, and try to not lean too heavily on them at the risk of frustrating your beginner students.

• Animal Match
• Alphabet Fun
• Months of the Year
• What Do You Want to Be?
• Body Parts – Crossword
• Countable vs. Uncountable Nouns

ESL Worksheets for Adults

Despite the perception of worksheets being useful for younger students only, adult learners actually engage effectively with worksheets – when they are strategically included as part of an overall lesson .

Regardless of skill level, most adult students will expect a bit more depth from their ESL worksheets than young learners. With that in mind, we have included some more adult topics like idioms, parties, and a science story.

The best adult lesson plans utilize these worksheets as part of the journey instead of the destination. Accordingly, work to incorporate them into your lesson and see if they might spur additional conversation or activities or lend greater context to the lesson.

For some of these ESL worksheets, such as the one covering speed dating and party expressions, think of them as a way to “spice up” your lesson and get some creative interaction going.

• Back to the Board
• Advanced Reading & Comprehension
• Changes in Science Story
• Using Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots
• Understanding Expressions
• Party Time Expressions
• Speed Dating

ESL Worksheets for Kids

ESL worksheets are effective natural fits for kids’ lesson plans. Chances are high that your primary-level students are already well-accustomed to worksheet activities by the time you get them in your class. And, if the worksheets are high-quality, they will engage kids’ attention to the material at hand.

As with other age groups, ESL worksheets for kids should never be the focal point of your lesson – their attention spans are too short and how their learning styles are too varied to rely entirely on a worksheet.

Instead, use these worksheets during the last few minutes of your class or as homework (depending on their level) primarily as reinforcement mechanisms to maximize your students’ retention of the material.

On the web, you can find free age-appropriate ESL worksheets for kids on virtually any topic. Here is a small sampling of a wide array of subjects.

• Find Someone Who Bingo
• Places/Giving Directions
• Match the Animals
• Hidden Classroom Objects
• My Day/Daily Routine

ESL Vocabulary Worksheets

When it comes to retaining English vocabulary, the key to success is repetition. Only after continual practice using a term or phrase will it become permanently etched in the mind of the learner for fluid recall in everyday conversation.

In that pursuit, ESL worksheets are crucial when looking to reinforce new vocabulary or practice old lessons – the beauty of these sheets is that they can be edited to fit any lesson with minimal effort.  

Consider having your students work together on a sheet and play around with pairing stronger speakers with weaker ones to see how it works – these worksheets aren’t too intensive and are great for partner exercises.

• Cooking Vocabulary
• At the Airport Role Play
• Interviewing Lady Gaga (a Perennial Favorite of Asian ESL Leaners)
• World Cup Map
• Feelings & Emojis

ESL Writing Worksheets

English writing is a tough skill to learn (and to teach) effectively. Nonetheless, mastering writing, even as a non-native learner, is possible. Expertise in writing should be one of the long-term ultimate goals of any language training program.

These writing worksheets are aimed at making this essential skill easier (or at least more fun).  

Before handing out these ESL worksheets, I’d recommend practicing a few examples on the board (you can even make a game out of it) to ensure everyone understands the instructions.  

Rather than relying on these worksheets alone, instead incorporate them into your lesson to practice and reinforce the aspect of English writing that is the focus of your overall lesson.  

• Ordering Food at a Restaurant
• Comparatives and Superlatives
• A Short Story about Autumn
• Writing Test
• Creating Persuasive Leads

ESL Past Tense Worksheets

Mastering the foundational aspects of English, such as switching between tenses, is a challenge because of the language’s unique grammatical structure.

In fact, many of your students may not be used to conjugating verbs at all – it’s entirely possible that their native language does not require altering the form of the verb to match the tense at all.  

Given the unique challenge of tenses in ESL learning, one of the strategies to help your students should include practice, practice, practice. Worksheets are a great way to drill home verb conjugation. Here are some of the best.

• Past Simple Conjugation
• Past Simple (Irregular Verbs)
• Past Continuous
• Past Perfect
• Mixed tenses

ESL Money Worksheets

Financial literacy education – such as how to manage money wisely and how to convert currencies, for example — is an essential (and, all too often) overlooked subject that has real-world benefits. You can give your students a head start in their financial literacy with hearty helpings of economic education.

Add these handy worksheets to your lesson plans on money.

• Money: Vocabulary Quiz
• Phrasal Verbs Related to Money
• Fractions and Percentages
• American Currency
• Making a Budget

ESL Clothes Worksheet

Virtually everywhere in the world, fashion is likely to be an area of intense interest for a large subset of your students – especially among adolescent and young adult learners.

As such, teachers often find that lesson plans (when they are well-developed) that center around fashion and clothes elicit the most engagement and participation from their students.

Here are some of the top ESL clothes worksheets to include in your clothing lesson plan.

• Clothes Maze
• Clothes and Seasons
• Clothes and Colors
• The Weather and Clothes
• Fashion and Style

ESL Food Worksheets

If Anthony Bourdain and other culinary-anthropological entrepreneurs have taught us anything with their world eating tours, the central takeaway is that food is a universally relatable subject that is central to our identities and even to our basic survival.

Everyone understands food as an important, fundamental subject. In many ways, we orient ourselves in the world and within our societies by the foods and meals that we share. This is why ESL education focused on food can be so effective for learners of all ages.

Here is a sampling of the best ESL food worksheets.

• Let’s Talk About Food
• Food Boardgame (Adaptable)
• Food Likes and Dislikes
• Yummy Breakfast
• Food Wordsearch

Want more?  Here are some of the best online resources we found for ESL Worksheets & PDFs:

• iSLCollective
• ESL Kid Stuff
• Easy Teacher Worksheets
• ESL Printables
• Live Worksheets

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9 Responses

Hello, I was wondering if there would be any problems if I printed ( into posters) a few grammar Anchor sheets I found on your site, to hang on my classroom wall. Thanks, Ann

Hi Ann – we don’t own any of these worksheets so your best bet is to contact each host and ask them – hope this helps!

A really good resource. Congratulations for sharing your (probable) experience and knowledge with those, like me, that sometimes struggle themselves a lot to get the work done in a loneliness and stressed way. I really appreciated your job! Thank you!!!

are we allowed to use these free class plans in the schools that we teach at abroad? For example, I was thinking about using some of them as a backup resource for teachers who need a class plan on the fly. It will not be apart of the curriculum, it will just be helpful resources for times when we are not using the books at our school. Would this be a violation of any copyright laws? We would not take any credit for the class plans themselves. Great stuff by the way. Thanks so much

Hi Andre – this is just a curated list of available resources – we didn’t create any of these so it’d be better to ask actual owners of the material.

Hi, I created about 20 ESL ppts for adults/ teens, focusing on cool topics with interactive kagan structures. Can I send them to u by email as a donation? Regards, Mary

Absolutely! You can send them to [email protected] – thanks!

Mary, I am teaching many one on one in my Job Readiness Class at a local community college. I am interested [email protected] if you are willing to share!

That is a great resource for English teachers. I loved all the materials shared. I’m also an English teacher and I design similar worksheets on my blog. Good luck

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13 Exciting Homework Ideas for EFL/ESL: No worksheets!

Who likes homework? Nobody, right? Especially not if it’s the same dreary worksheets and textbook exercises every time.

Well, some students actually do like homework! That’s because their teachers give them engaging, interesting and unique activities to do.

I used to find setting homework a challenge in EFL/ESL classes. What can you do to give them good practice and develop confidence without boring them to tears?

Simple – do one of the activities on this list!

• Narrative Telephone
• What Do You See?
• Write a blog
• Record a vlog
• Scavenger photos
• Watch films & series
• Write a journal
• Listen to podcasts
• Write to a pen pal
• Prepare a mini-presentation
• Read the news
• Enjoy some English music

The first six entries are creative and unique, suitable for classes where you really want to get students active and involved. The following seven are just as engaging, but a little more focused and “normal”.

1. Word Hunts

A Word Hunt is a vocab acquisition activity (a technique I describe in my article How to Elicit Vocabulary ).

You can do it in class, with students searching for things they don’t know the word for in English. They take a photo and add it to a list of vocabulary to learn.

The home version is similar. Students go around their house and photograph things they’d like to learn the name for in English. They bring the pictures to class and start learning the words.

It doesn’t have to be restricted to things in their home, either. If they go shopping, to the park, on holiday, etc. they can take photos of things they see and share them with their classmates.

Any student who has their own phone can do this activity. For younger kids, you’ll need the support of the parents.

For more on vocab learning techniques, check out my article Ultimate ESL Vocab Teaching Guide: Revolutionary system .

2. Narrative Telephone

This game features in my 9 EFL/ESL Games and Activities for Advanced Learners article, so it’s an advanced activity. You can adapt it for intermediate students, but it won’t work well with beginners. It requires everyone to have email or a messenger app on their phone. So not ideal for young kids.

You can play it in the classroom, but the homework version is just as fun, if not more so. It’s like the Telephone/Whispers game, but with stories instead of words.

The way it works is the teacher records themself reading a short story and sends it to one of their students. That student listens ONCE. Then they record themself re-telling the story and send it on to the next student who does the same.

This continues until the last student, who records themself re-telling it. They can send the final audio to everyone, or keep it until the next class to share the hilarity.

Here’s a video I made on my YouTube channel that explains how it works:

With a large class, you can set off multiple telephone chains. If you have 30 students, instead of having the chain go all the way around the 30, have three chains which go through 10. Then see which chain transmitted the story the best.

When choosing a story, keep it relatively short (a couple of paragraphs at most) and use it to introduce or consolidate new vocab and grammar.

3. What Do You See?

What Do You See? is another great activity for expanding students’ breadth of language.

They should go somewhere: to the street, the park, into the countryside, etc. You can tell them where to go if you want to direct their learning, for example if you’re learning about transport, they should go near a busy road.

With a pencil and paper, they find a comfortable place and write what they see.

For beginners, this can just be individual words. For intermediates it could be sentences like “I see a woman jogging with her dog.” And for advanced students, challenge them to create a full description of the place, taking into account all the senses.

While they are doing it, they are allowed to look up individual words. In this way they learn language that is immediately relevant. However, they shouldn’t translate sentences. By writing what they see, they develop sentence formation skills.

If you want to avoid making them writing, or want to repeat the activity in a different way, get students to record themselves talking about what they see.

4. Write a Blog

Blogs are a fun way of getting students to explore their interests while using English.

This one isn’t great for young kids who aren’t used to using tech yet, although if their parents are on board, they can help get things set up.

It’s super easy to set up a blog nowadays, and students can post articles from home or from their phone while travelling.

The way you set up the homework really depends on your class. With an individual student, you could get them to write one short article a week, then you can take a look at it in the next class.

With a small group, you might want to alternate who posts an article each week. And with a large class, you may want to choose a few students each week to post their article, or get everyone to write something short every week.

The content of the articles is up to you, or up to your students!

You could make it an account of what they did that week, an explanation of something they know a lot about, or a review of a film or series they recently watched.

5. Record a vlog

Recording a vlog is just like writing a blog, but challenges students speaking skills while on camera.

Yes, it requires students to have access to video recording technology, but let’s be honest, even 10-year-olds nowadays have powerful cameras on their phones.

If you really want to push your students, challenge them to record a short post every day for a full week. Maybe when they’re on the way to school/work or in their free time afterwards.

Again, the content can be whatever you or your students decide.

A word on privacy and safety. If you’re going to do this with students under 18, DEFINITELY get their parents’ permission. Most will be perfectly fine with this.

And if you’re worried about privacy concerns, you can keep the videos private – only for those in the class to watch. Most video content platforms like YouTube and TikTok have this option now.

6. Scavenger photos

A fun challenge for kids and adults alike, scavenger hunts with photos are great fun. Give students a list of things and over the week they have to take a photo of one.

With beginners, this can be household items, food, common things in the city, etc. It’s a great way to introduce new vocabulary.

Challenge students with more abstract things, like “something that is squishy” or “something that you can’t break”.

And go a step further: “something you couldn’t live without” or “something which terrifies you”, or “something worth over a million dollars”.

In the next class, students can share the things they photographed and, with the more abstract ones, talk about why they chose that thing.

7. Watch films & series

Everyone loves watching films and series. Since most of the famous ones are in English, they’re a great resource for fun homework.

You can make things as structured as you like – focus on specific words and grammar that appear in dialogue, or just have a chat about what happened in the film/episode in the next class.

I like to let students recount the events. Older students can even make predictions about what will happen in the next episode.

A word on subtitles: Advanced students should try to watch the English version without subtitles. For most, though, this is too difficult. Just make sure subtitles are in English, not their native language, otherwise you lose all benefits of the activity.

8. Write a journal

Either at the start of the day or before they go to bed, writing a short English entry into a journal is a powerful way of embedding English in students’ day-to-day lives. This activity is for most ages, except the youngest kids.

As a journal is a private endeavour, I would never expect to see it. Just encourage them to write a few sentences, not worrying too much about accuracy.

When they’re writing, they’ll come across words they don’t know. They’ll be motivated to learn this vocabulary, as it’s immediately relevant to their lives. It’s valuable .

This is an example of organic acquisition, something you can learn about in my article What Vocab Should You Teach in EFL/ESL .

9. Listen to podcasts

Podcasts get more and more popular with every year. You can find them on pretty much any topic, and they provide excellent listening practice.

Advanced students can attempt to listen to natural English podcasts in their original form.

For beginners/intermediates, there are some podcasts designed for EFL/ESL learners, podcastsinenglish.com being one example, with British English, and Effortless English for those wanting to learn the American way of speaking.

10. Write to a pen pal

Writing homework is always a tough sell. Pen pals can provide the kind of motivation which is impossible to get from the usual writing assignments.

The challenge is finding pen pals who will write back consistently. PenPal World is a good option to connect with people online, although there are plenty of other sites which do the same.

Alternatively, write the responses yourself. Have an ongoing back and forth of letters between you and your students, where you can get to know each other (and give some helpful corrections!)

11. Prepare a mini-presentation

Mini-presentations are a great peer-teaching activity. Give students a topic (can be anything: grammar, a famous person, a favourite hobby, etc.) and have them do a 1-minute presentation on it in the next class.

Scripts are optional. Personally, I prefer my students to speak without a script, but for those who aren’t as confident, encourage them to make brief notes.

12. Read the news

Reading the news is a more advanced activity. Most newspapers and websites require a fairly high level of English to understand, and the content isn’t interesting for most children.

However, there are websites designed for EFL/ESL students, such as News in Levels and Simple English News . Also, try CBBC Newsround . It’s not specifically for EFL/ESL students, but it is perfect for kids.

For more advanced learners, any news network is great. I prefer BBC News for the quality and clarity of writing.

News-based homework can be formal, with a conversation and questions about specific articles in the next class, or you can allow your students to pick what they read and share their findings.

13. Enjoy some English Music

This one applies to learners of all ages and levels. Many students will already listen to music in English, as it’s popular around the world.

You can make this a structured homework, assigning specific songs, with the aim of recognising certain words or grammar structures. Supplement this by studying the lyrics in class.

Or keep it relaxed. Introduce your students to some new artists, and encourage them to share songs they’ve enjoyed over the week. Ask them why they like the music, how it makes them feel, etc.

With younger kids, just having them listen to English songs is enough. Give parents a playlist to put on in the car or when they wake up in the morning.

Homework can be fun. In fact, I’d argue it should be fun to get the best results.

The important thing is to know your students and keep things varied – that way you won’t have to chase your students up every week.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you use these ideas for wonderful teaching. If you’re looking for ideas of what to do in the classroom, check out my article on Why All EFL/ESL Teachers Should Use Role Play Activities

If you’re looking for more games and activities, check out my other lists: 9 EFL/ESL Speaking Games & Activities Perfect for Beginners 9 EFL/ESL Games & Activities for Intermediate Learners 9 EFL/ESL Games and Activities for Advanced Learners 9 High Energy EFL/ESL Games for Boosting Vocabulary 9 Engaging Homework Ideas for EFL/ESL: No worksheets! 9 Exciting EFL/ESL Activities for Writing & Spelling 9 Fun EFL/ESL Games & Ideas With Standard Playing Cards 9 EFL/ESL Games With No Materials or Preparation Needed 9 EFL/ESL 5 Minute Games Every Teacher Needs to Know 9 Superb EFL/ESL Games & Activities Using Just Pen & Paper 9 Classy EFL/ESL Games & Activities for Adults (+ tips) 9 Confidence-Boosting EFL/ESL Speaking Games for All Levels 9 Exciting Flashcard Games for EFL/ESL Classes

I’m Will, a teacher, blogger, and fantasy author. I grew up in England, but now I live in Spain where I teach private English classes to dozens of wonderful students.

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The best ESL / EFL homework ideas that require no marking 2021

April 9th, 2018 / Materials

Homework is an important part of study, but it can be overwhelming for a TEFL teacher with a mountain of exercise books to mark.

To avoid this, smart ESL teachers should set some (if not, the bulk) of their ESL homework assignments as independent study which the teacher does not have to correct.

Why set no-marking ESL homework?

First of all, you are not short-changing your students by asking them to go out and learn some English themselves.

Languages are an enormous subject ; there is no way that you could teach your students everything they need to know in the few hours a week they have with you.

In reality, if your students want to get good at English, they must listen, read, watch and practice the language in their own time.

No-marking assignments have benefits for class time also. Students can recap on the last class or prepare for the next one by watching grammar videos.

Teachers can use material from a podcast or video as the basis of a speaking activity.

This is why, I believe, that TEFL teachers set a no-marking study assignment at least once a week. It’s better for your students, your classes and your own sanity.

The following assignments have been divided into: Listening, Reading, Writing Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation . First up, listening

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Listening assignments

Podcasts are a great way to practice comprehension. In additional, the material can be used for speaking practice the following lesson as students share with each other what they have learnt from the episode.  

Mistakes to avoid when choosing a podcast

  Do not choose a podcast that is too long. Four to 10 minutes is the sweet spot – anything longer your students will get confused and the task will become a chore.

  Do not choose a podcast which speaks unnaturally slowly or with a childish topic. Students need to get used to the normal pace of speaking and how native speakers actually use the language. OK, so granted, ESL podcasts do have to be simpler but anything that is overly contrived is a waste of your students’ time.

  Do not use a website that requires flash player to play an MP3. Access to any homework material should be really, really easy or you’ll find that half your students won’t complete the assignment.

The best ESL Podcasts

BBC 6 Minute English

 Lower-intermediate to upper-intermediate  British

This is without doubt the best EFL podcast on the list and the one that I use time and time again. Updated weekly, Six minute English provides fun and interesting ESL podcasts on topics such as culture, technology, travel, business and more. They’ll always include at least three new phrases to learn and after listening, students can check their understanding with the transcript.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english

Podcasts in English

Elementary to Intermediate British

The first homework is www.podcastsinenglish .com. This site provides free three to five minute podcasts for English learners for beginner, intermediate and upper-intermediate level. To practice comprehension and expand vocabulary, tell your students to listen to two podcasts a week and write a summary of what they hear. To do this effectively, they’ll have to listen a few times.

Negative: The podcasts are free but to read the transcript students must pay for the premium version.

https://www.podcastsinenglish.com

 Upper-intermediate-advanced  American

CNN 10 is not an TEFL podcast, it is a real news show which condenses world news for that day down to 10 minutes. Despite this, it provides a great way for higher-level students to practice their listening skills while keeping abreast or world news. The video can be accessed in the CNN app and students can read the full transcript afterwards to check their understanding.

Negative: Not made for ESL and so speech can be fast.

https://edition.cnn.com/cnn10

Elementary to Intermediate Variable

Elllo provides thousands of free English video lessons and ESL podcasts on everyday English conversation. The podcasts consist of a dialogue between two people about an everyday topic. They are short and sweet but there are thousands of them and so you could ask your students to do one a day without much time commitment from them.

The best thing about ELLLO podcasts is that students can check their understanding with the transcript AND a quiz.

Negative: Podcasts are under three minutes.

http://www.elllo.org

 Upper intermediate-advanced  Variable

TED provides thousands of videos about technology, education, politics, science and culture.

In my experience setting a TED talk for homework can be hit and miss. Sometimes I’d set a TED video and everyone would love it and other times they’d complain that it was too long, too fast or too confusing to understand.

TED is still a great resource but when choosing a talk for homework this is my advice:

Choose a video which is no more than 10 minutes long. You can separate talks by duration, topic and language in the talk tab.

Check that the speaker isn’t speaking too fast and the accent isn’t too thick (native speakers are best).

Another way to do this is to choose a theme such as ‘business’ ‘finance’ ‘or ‘crime’ and ask your students to select and watch a TED video on the subject. Centre your following class around this theme and give your students 10 to 15 minutes to recount their video to their partners. This is a great way to reinforce the lesson vocabulary and engage your students with the topic.

https://www.ted.com

TED ED: A much better choice!

A much better choice of listening is TED ED. TED Ed is full of short educational videos about science, culture and history. You’re students will be able to follow the listening much better because along with the speaker’s voice there are animations to help tell the story.

Best of all the videos are only five minutes long and so it’s a homework activity that everyone has time to do.

https://ed.ted.com/

ESL Lounge provides short readings and gap fill exercises divided into elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced. Students can check their understanding with a quiz at the end.

http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/reading.php

Five Minute English

Five minute English also provides short reading exercises. All activities come with a glossary of new words and a quiz at the end so your students can check their understanding. The only drawback is that the readings are not defined by level.

http://www.5minuteenglish.com/reading.htm

Grammar review

Viewing video lessons to either recap on the last grammar class or prepare for the next one is another highly productive no-marking homework activity.

Here are the best grammar video resources.

ENGVID Provides bite-sized video lessons on most aspects of English grammar and lots of vocabulary points. Students can also read a transcript of the lesson and check their understanding with a quiz on their website.

https://www.engvid.com

Let’s Talk: Youtube

You need it, you’ll find it here. This Youtube channel has hundreds of videos on every aspect of the English language.

Grammar and vocabulary quizzes

If you’ve just finished a grammar topic, setting your students a few grammar quizzes is a good way to review the lesson. There are dozens of grammar quiz sites out there, but proceed with caution: many of these sites are spammy with annoying adverts and pop ups all over the page. They are difficult to navigate for a native speaker never mind a student.

The BBC also offers a comprehensive library of grammar resources and quizzes for English learners. However, I haven’t included them in the list because you need a flash player to use them.

The websites I have selected also have adverts but they are not invasive. They have also established sites within the TEFL community.

Dave’s ESL Café (grammar)

This site provides a meeting point for TEFL teachers to ask and answer questions and share resources. A little known fact is that Dave’s ESL Café also boasts hundreds of quizzes on various grammar and vocabulary points, written by teachers.

http://www.eslcafe.com/quiz

ESL-lounge (grammar)

ESL-lounge is another well-known site for TEFL resources, it also has a library of grammar quizzes for students.

http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/

British Council Teens (vocabulary)

The best vocabulary quiz I have found comes from The British Council Teens site. Here users must match pictures and words together to learn vocabulary. All words come with an audio so students can check their pronunciation.

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/vocabulary-exercises

Writing is an essential skill and, as a TEFL teacher, you must set and mark writing assignments.

But what if there were a way for students to practice writing independently as well?

Well, there is.

Do you remember when you were learning French or Spanish at school and your teachers encouraged you to start a correspondence with a foreign pen pal to improve your language skills?

Well, the concept still exists. If a few of the class take it up, it can also become an interesting weekly speaking practice as you catch up on the news from their pen friends, and as a group, correct the grammar and spelling on their next correspondence.

Popular Pen Pal sites

http://www.penpalworld.com

https://www.globalpenfriends.com

https://www.penpalsnow.com/index.html

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is often the blight of an ESL class. Bad pronunciation should be corrected , but if you have a large class it is often difficult to give that one-on-one attention to a student who is really struggling to improve.

This is why asking your students to watch pronunciation videos and practice in their own time is a worthwhile homework exercise. Here are some of the best sites to learn.

Rachel’s English: Accent American

Rachel’s English undoubtedly provides one of the most comprehensive pronunciation resources on the web. Rachel will walk your students through all of the sounds in the English language. In addition, she has videos on the rhythm of English, elision (when speakers drop vowel sounds as they link words together in a sentence) and common idioms.

http://rachelsenglish.com

Youglish: Accent International

Youglish uses YouTube to teach the pronunciation of any English word. Simply write the word into the search bar and Youglish will bring up a snippet of a video with someone using it. It is truly brilliant.

https://youglish.com

BBC Learning English Pronunciation Guide: Accent British

Teacher Jamie teaches students all the common sounds in the English language.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/pronunciation

For more on pronunciation, check out our pronunciation http://bilinguanation.com/english-pronunciation-activities-for-your-esl-class/ guide.

Cambridge PET, FCE, CAE Exam

If your students want to sit the Cambridge English exam then they can find everything they need to prepare with Flo-Joe.com.  Here students will find a rich archive of free listening, reading, speaking and writing papers from each exam level. Listening and reading exams come with their own answer keys for self-correction. The writing paper, however, will have to be corrected by the teacher and speaking practice done in class.

https://www.flo-joe.co.uk

If your students are taking the IELTS exam, here are three resource sites where students can practice with past papers, complete with an answer key. Again any writing practice will have to be corrected by the teacher and speaking practice done in class.

https://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/british-council-online-resources

https://www.ieltsbuddy.com

https://ieltsforfree.com/

So these are my go-to sites for no-marking TEFL assignments. Have a I missed one? Do you know of an amazing podcast or ESL resource site that could benefit your fellow ESL teachers? Write it in the comments below and if it’s good I’ll include it in the list.

For more resource sites check out  Free TEFL resource sites for your ESL students.  Good luck and happy teaching!

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Prepositions: Online Exercises and Worksheet (for ESL/EFL Students)

Study prepositions online with these free exercises.

ESL Level : Intermediate - Advanced

Preposition Worksheet Download : Prepositions-Worksheet.doc

Description : Preposition exercises in fill-in-the-blank-format. Answers are available online (see below). Answers are not in the downloadable worksheet, but should be obvious to a native English speaker.

A preposition is a short word such as in/from/by that is used to connect words in English.

• Prepositions are used with time : I arrived at 9:30 on Tuesday.
• Prepositions are used with place : I put the book on the shelf.

Certain adjectives and verbs  are also combined with specific prepositions. This pairing of words is called collocation .

• Prepositions used with adjectives : afraid of , surprised by , interested in
• Prepositions used with verbs : go to , arrive at , think about

Try the below practice exercises for beginner to advanced students.

Note that answers that do not need a preposition can be left blank .

Exercise #1 - Prepositions of Place

Look at the picture and then complete the sentences below.

• The pillows are the bed.
• There is a sheet the pillows.
• There is a painting the wall.
• There is a lamp the bed.
• There is a chair the corner of the room.
• There is a foot stool  the chair.
• The chair is  the fireplace and the bed.
• There is a window the chair.
• Wood is burning the fireplace.

Check Answers    

Exercise #2 - Prepositions of Time & Other Collocations

• I get up seven the morning weekdays. I go to work tram.
• I take care my son. My son is similar me. He's quite different my wife.
• China has agreed participate the global economic forum.
• My wife spent the milk money cigarettes.
• There has been a slight decrease gas prices lately.
• In the beginning, Lillian was not accustomed working in such a big company.

Exercise #3 - Prepositions Collocations

• My favorite Chinese philosopher is Chuang-tzu. Most Westerners have never heard him.
• John's wife accused him cheating. She thinks he is bored her.
• My boss told me to finish the report 5 pm. After that, I could go vacation.
• Kate apologized her son's poor behavior.
• If you've got a problem, then do something it!
• Everyone the HR department was surprised the news.

Check Answers  

Exercise #4 - Prepositions Collocations

• Paul is very good telling jokes. He reminds me his father.
• I'm not familiar this neighborhood.
• If I had to choose going to heaven or hell, I'd choose heaven.
• Hosni Mubarak was power in Egypt for 30 years.
• I am allergic cats.
• He is responsible our branch in China.

Exercise #5 - Prepositions Collocations

• Alan is a fan Manchester United.
• NATO stands the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
• Roger's company specializes the management of young musicians.
• I will go vacation next month.
• The cake was cut four pieces.
• Bratislava is not big Budapest.

Exercise #6 - Prepositions Collocations

• Ken has to finish the project 4 pm tonight.
• The movie was inspired a book written 50 years ago.
• I was able to return the product because it was still warranty.
• The little boy hit his friend a stick.
• I plan to work I am 65 years old.
• I wasn't able to focus my work because of the loud construction outside my window.

Exercise #7 - Prepositions Collocations

• This commercial was designed to appeal women in their twenties and thirties.
• I don't know his reason ending the relationship.
• Although Carol graduated Harvard with a degree in political science, nowadays she doesn't care politics.
• I am very proud my son's accomplishments.
• Laura can't concentrate her job because she is stressed out about her marriage.
• I don't care baseball. I never watch it.

Exercise #8 - Prepositions Collocations

• We are looking for someone who is skilled giving presentations.
• I have a question to ask related your education.
• I have a view Prague Castle from my apartment.
• The company president didn't want to comment the scandal.
• You remind me my cousin.
• After graduation, Joan will apply some local companies a job as a graphic designer.

Exercise #9 - Prepositions Collocations

• The negative campaign did damage our company's reputation.
• These boots were sale last week.
• The United Nations has supplied the rebels weapons.
• I have too many problems to deal
• This product should appeal girls in their teens.
• I've never heard Lyle Whitfield. Who is he?

Exercise #10 - Prepositions Collocations

• I was surprised the size of her nose.
• Grace is her forties. She spends all her money luxury goods.
• Greg is involved organized crime.
• By the time the police found out the crime, the thief was already in Mexico.
• There's always a risk an earthquake in Japan. It's difficult to concentrate your work, when you know there could be a disaster any minute.
• Parents worry the health and safety of their children.

Exercise #11 - Prepositions Collocations

• My sister is often angry  me. I don't know why she's always upset. It depends  her mood, I guess. I hope I'm not similar  her.
•  Roger is dedicated  his job. He stays and works  8 p.m. every evening. Last week, he asked his boss  a raise*, and he got it. (* a raise is an increase in salary)
• Peter is addicted  gambling. His wife insists that he quit, but he doesn't care  her opinion. He's looking forward   this weekend; he's going to the casino. While he's away, his wife will have to take care   their children.  I feel sorry  her.

Exercise #12 - Prepositions Collocations (includes Phrasal Verbs)

• Carol's father is very strict. He prohibits her having a boyfriend she graduates from high school. She spends most of her time in the library, surrounded books. Once, her father accused her doing drugs because she didn't come home time. He checked her schoolbag drugs. Instead of drugs, he found her diary and read it. This made Carol angry, so she punched him the face.
• Tina studied the University of Ottawa for one year, but she later graduated Harvard. the time she was 28 years old, she was already a doctor. Tina is snobby. She looks down people who don't have a university degree.

Exercise #13 - Preposition Collocations (includes Phrasal Verbs)

• I need to take care my little brother. He is discriminated at school because he has red hair. Yesterday, a bully punched him. However, my brother didn't tell the bully.
• The doctor elaborated the patient's condition. It turns out that the rash was actually brought by food he ate while in Malaysia.
• I graduated university a month ago. I studied Oxford. Last week, I had an interview a programming position Google. They noticed on my CV that I had very little experience, but they promised not to hold that me. The interview went well, but I'm not sure I'll be hired. I was tired, so I had a hard time paying attention the interviewer. Also, I'm a woman, and there are few women my field. However, I am hopeful that my gender won't prevent me having a successful career.

Exercise #14 - Prepositions Collocations

• Greg went a trip yesterday to Montreal. He has a Pontiac Trans-Am, which is similar the car David Hasselhoff drove in the TV show Knight Rider. On the way there, he was driving his car a speed of 130 km per hour. There was a sharp turn, and his car slid the icy road and into some trees. His life was stake. A large tree was right in front of him. He nearly ran it, but at the last second, he regained control and pulled his car back on the road.
• Later he realized his tires were bad shape. He needed to invest some new ones. So he went to a car shop that specializes high performance tires. The end
• I hope these exercises weren't a waste time. Are you better using prepositions now? I hope so. If not, do them again!

Exercise #15 - Prepositions in Questions

• What time did you sleep  this morning?
• the time you finished high school, had you decided what job you wanted to do in the future?
• What do you spend too much money  ?
• Have you ever heard  Sidney Crosby?
• What tasks would you like to complete  the end of the week?
• If you had to choose  living in China or the U.S., which would you choose?
• What are you not very good  ?
• What was the last thing that you were surprised  ?
• Let's talk about retirement. In your opinion,  what age should people work?
• Where do you plan to go  your next holiday?
• What do you have a view  from your home?
• Was life better when you were    your teens?
• What does NASA stand  ?
• Does pop music appeal  you?
• Are you related  anyone famous?

That's the end. If you find any mistakes in the preposition exercises, please leave a comment below.

- Preposition exercises and worksheet copyright Matthew Barton of Englishcurrent.com

EnglishCurrent is happily hosted on Dreamhost . If you found this page helpful, consider a donation to our hosting bill to show your support!

59 comments on “ Prepositions: Online Exercises and Worksheet (for ESL/EFL Students) ”

wow, thank you as you help me in knowing about preposition.

Yes yesterday was my english test on prepositions . Most of the questions came from these . I was able to do all the questions .

What a good exercise

you can do it

Yess we can do it!!! What did you think of the exercise? I think it’s great since my English exam is tomorrow. I am prepared sooo well. :D

A very lovely worksheet

I’m an ESL teacher. These are wonderful exercises. They will challenge my advanced students. Thank you.

it was an outstanding worksheet . i learned a lot from it

it is wonderful worksheet

It is not bad.There are many interesting exercises in this website.I liked it.

wow excellent job sir..i can practice more with these exercises..it is more helpful to me.

this link is very helpful par us to increase over english

very nice questions for practice…….it wud be grt…had the questions been a little harder….overall….such exercises are difficult to find….keep it up!

thanks for such content..it helps me a lot and i think it will be helpful to all those who read it. i aapreciate your work.. thank you.

this is very helpful to students specially to those who are having difficulties understanding preposition, thanks a million. Great job!

exellent worksheet !! verry useful :)

I liked doing it and it was fun doing this worksheet of Prepositions. It also helped me practice for my exams and I hope there are more worksheets in these websites. So, i am very happy to do this worksheet of Prepositions.

A very nice way of practising prepositions!!

Thanks for teaching me preposition and knowing more about it.

Very helpful exercise in Preposition !

it was a nice experience. it has gained about the knowledge of prepositions

very helpful worksheets, thank you.

It is really cool test. I have learned a lot from it.

it helps me a lot as a student….. Improve my grammar and I see to myself that I am not that bad in English subject….. Thanks it’s awesome… I wish you keep on posting of your worksheets….. LOVELOTS… :)

I got 90 out of 100 marks in my test after completing this exercise.

Very informative and good execises to brush up ur preposition skills.

nice notes…. very useful worksheets

Awesome worksheet for practicing grammar. Thanks for helping to enhance out englih . THANKYOU :D

This is a really excellent piece of work. Thank you for putting it on your web-site!

I READ YOUR NAME WRONG NOOO

thnx for these worksheets, i'm fully prepared for my exams

very good!there must be free lesson for poor students

Very important lesson. It is pearl to LDCE Exams, Thanks a lot

I really didn’t know prepositions properly but now I am really much cleared with it!!!

Its a good media and things to help me to give an exercise to students and to increasing my experience

These exercises are really helpful to me. Such systematic style is appriciable.

what is so great in it,because there has given answers of these wonderful worksheet’s.

I Like this. It has improved my grammar a lot. Especially in prepositions.

great worksheet!!!

Thank you SO MUCH! I was really looking for some good prepositions exercises.

THANK YOU MR. MATTHEW BARTON (AUTHOR) FOR MAKING SUCH A USEFUL SITE REALLY HELPFUL AND INTERESTING.

Really good worksheet Helped me a lot to understand prepositions

Thank you for providing this worksheet ,I had a very good time and a little challenge .I enjoyed the course .

The Best for any test…thanks englishcurrent :))))

Hello people, i do sis in se englisch leson vary helpful and pretty you see us bye :)

Exercise 11 Number 3, The sentence is wrong on the third lıne ”His wife insists that he quit, ( the verb ” quit” must take the ” s” in the affirmative

Thanks for the comment! ‘ insist ‘ is a verb that uses the subjunctive, much like the verb suggest (e.g. ‘I suggest she read the report’). It’s not a mistake; for more information see this page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv201.shtml .

Thanks for your kind reply

It is very good and I hope I can get 100 marks in my preposition test!!! USEFUL!!

wow, this is test is superb

Wao it amazing I really appreciate the creators for this wonderful exercise

it’s useful to us. but the sentence to identify is so difficult.

Grammar is important in English AND everywhere! So this was very helpful. Thank you so much! And for Helping me and all the other students who also found this useful.

this quiz was so difficult, but I hope that I did best job

I have done just the first one and I will do more

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Not just for ESL students, this worksheet could prove helpful to all English learners.

As a languages teacher (retired) I should like to point out that ’till’ is an equally acceptable answer for Questions 1 and 9 in Exercise 15 – ‘until’ of course obeys the spelling rule that a suffix has only a single ‘l’, hence the difference in spelling. In addition, for Question 10, ‘for’ should also be an acceptable answer, as ‘planning to go [somewhere] for a holiday’ is a common usage in British English. However, those I’m currently helping with their English found your exercises very helpful, so many thanks for all your hard work.

Thanks J. I’ve added your suggestions as alternative answers.

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10 entertaining homework ideas for online English Language Learners

Did hearing the words, “do your homework,” when you were a child excite you? 

For most of us, the word homework doesn’t conjure up exciting or fun memories. 

Homework was likely one of the last things you wanted to do as a student!

However, what if you could make homework fun for students? What if homework was entertaining? 

In this article, we share some entertaining homework ideas for English language learners to help them improve their English while having fun!

You might be familiar with lots of ESL games and activities for your students , but assigning the right homework can feel overwhelming. 

This is particularly true if you don’t want to burden your students with a tremendous amount of information. 

Have you ever thought about combining games with homework? 

There are many alternative ways to create memorable lessons, such as incorporating karaoke songs to learn English. 

Here are 10 fun and entertaining homework ideas for your ESL students:

• Cafe hopper
• Tiktok star
• Let’s go to the movies
• Hello Mr. Teacher
• Interview a stranger
• Shine like a Karaoke star
• Expert on the loose
• 24 hour challenge
• It’s a wrap!
• Masterchef in the making

1. Cafe hopper

Most people love checking out cafes and this is an easy homework task to assign to your students.  

Have your students visit a variety of cafes as part of their homework. 

Then, consider what they could do for homework in a cafe of their choice.

Here are some fun ideas for turning cafe-hopping into homework:

• Practice ordering in English off of the menu.
• Take a photo of the cafe’s and share the differences and similarities with you in class.
• Speak to a stranger in each cafe in English and ask them some interesting questions about their life.
• Interview the barista about their favorite kind of coffee or beverage.

This is a stress-free homework idea that your students will love, especially if they are coffee or tea lovers!

2. TikTok star

Tiktok is a fun social media application where you can watch videos and songs from creators. You can also watch creators lip-synching to catchy tunes.

Show some fun examples in your class of some famous TikTok songs being lip-synched to by others and practice doing one together.

• For homework, have them choose their favorite song on TikTok.
• They can lip-synch to the song and download the song to their camera album without having to actually post it to TikTok.
• Have them share their creation with you in the next class!

Depending on the age and location of your student, TikTok might not be an option for them. If you are teaching older students or adults , then it might be easier for them to use social media for this homework assignment rather than young children.

If they are too young to use the app, have them find an online video of their favorite song and ask a parent to record them singing!

3. Let’s go to the movies

Going to the movies doesn’t sound like homework, does it? Well, as you might already be discovering, homework doesn’t have to be conventional!

Find some interesting movies that are playing in your students’ area or ask them to watch a movie of their choice in English. 

Tell them that their homework is going to be based on the movie they watch.

Here are some ideas for making going to the movies part of their homework:

• Have them write a summary of the movie or their favorite part.
• Tell them that they have to give you a movie review in your next class.
• Have them act out their favorite part of the movie with a sibling or family member and record it (in English of course!).
• Ask them to make a poster advertising the movie with captions, titles and text to accompany any drawings.

If you are struggling to find movies they can go and watch in the cinema, you can always use these ESL movies and TV shows as a resource. 

Students can also watch movies from the comforts of their homes. 

4. Hello Mr. Teacher!

Students love playing the role of the teacher! 

This can work for in-person or online ESL classes.  

Tell them that as part of the next classroom activity, the first 5 – 10 minutes will be their time to shine as the teacher!

For homework, ask them to:

• Think of one topic that they know a lot about (This could be a sport, musical instrument, game, topic, etc…).
• Have them prepare 5 important things that someone needs to know about their topic.
• Tell them that in their next class they will be the teacher and share their knowledge! (They can even give you homework!).

Have fun with this homework idea and role-play the student where you ask them questions after they finish. 

Your students will love this one!

5. Interview a stranger

This one might need some parent support and guidance if you are teaching children, but having them interview someone is an entertaining homework idea for English language learners.

• It encourages their own voice as they come up with ideas.
• It helps with writing skills as they write out their questions.
• Interviewing encourages conversation and role playing which is a fun way to learn English.

You could have your younger students interview a family member and ask questions related to that family member’s childhood. 

Here are some sample questions you could help your students form:

• What kind of things did you like to do when you were my age?
• What was your favorite thing about school?
• What types of sports did you play when you were young?
• Tell me about what life was like when you were a child.

Have them choose and write out 5-10 questions and come back to class to report on their findings!

6. Shine like a Karaoke star

Who doesn’t like a bit of karaoke? Imagine….singing your heart out to “I love rock n roll” in the privacy of your own home!

You don’t need to go to a karaoke place to actually sing karaoke songs. There are lots of great karaoke songs available online to learn English with your students.

YouTube is a great place to start, just by searching for your favorite song + “karaoke lyrics” in the search bar.

In class, help your student(s) choose a song and task them with finding the online karaoke lyrics to sing along.

Have them sing this for homework! You could even ask a parent to help them record it if they are comfortable with that.

Here are some fun and popular karaoke songs online to learn English:

• “I Will Survive” with Gloria Gaynor
• “Livin’ on a Prayer” with Bon Jovi
• “Summer Nights” with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John
• “Don’t Stop Believin’” with Journey

7. Expert on the loose

There is an expert in all of us, including your students!

In this fun and entertaining homework idea, have your student share their expertise on something!

To add a different dimension to the homework idea, “Hello Mr. Teacher,” task your students to dress up as the expert and make a short speech on their topic of choice.

Here are some examples:

• Harry Potter
• Michael Jordan (to talk about basketball)
• Favorite sports athlete
• Insect scientist
• Astronaut (if your student knows a lot about space)
• Presidential candidate
• Pilot (for students who know a lot about countries)

Even if they are not an expert on the topic, part of the homework assignment could be to do some research and learn more about their chosen field.

You could even ask them to dress up and come to class in the role, ready to share their knowledge with you! 

8. 24 hour English challenge

This one is self-explanatory and incredibly fun!

Set a challenge for your student to only speak in English for 24 hours. 

This means that you might need to get parents involved with the homework assignment, so that they can help out.

The idea is that they have to speak only in English (as much as is possible given their situation) when interacting with family, friends and at school.

Your students might already be immersed in English environments, but, oftentimes, they are speaking their native language at home with family and friends.

Having your students force themselves to only speak in English is challenging and a great way to encourage English outside the classroom.

9. It’s a wrap!

Lots of students love to rap! Rap music is poetic and encourages a lot of ESL language skills that we want to build in our students.

This is an activity that you can model with your students in class and assign it for homework for them to create their own rap.

Again, they can come back to class and rap their new song to you! It might, however, work better with older students who have a good base level of English, to begin with.

Here are some fun homework assignments incorporating rap:

• Create their own rap if they are the creative type
• Find a well known rap online and practice it to present in class
• Assign your students to find a rap online that they sing and record with their friends

10. Masterchef extraordinaire

For the food lovers, creating a homework assignment that includes cooking can be really fun.

Most kids love the idea of cooking, especially if it centers around cooking their favorite food!

When considering this as a homework idea, consider these possible assignments:

• Create and write out a recipe for a unique culinary dish.
• Make a video about the cooking experience.
• Record a tutorial of how to cook something.
• Turn it into a competition if you have multiple students.

Plus, this works with physical and online classrooms. 

Of course, if you have a physical classroom with multiple students, this could be a really fun in-class experience with some homework assignments to accompany it.

Who doesn’t love a food-related assignment? 

If you choose Masterchef extraordinaire, allow your students to share the food they make with the class and encourage lots of conversations in English.

Homework doesn’t have to be boring!

As you can see, homework doesn’t have to be boring! 

Most of your ESL students have a lot to do even outside class, and that’s why assigning homework that doesn’t feel like homework is ideal!

This is an opportunity to get creative, creating excitement for your students to learn English.

If you use some of the homework ideas mentioned here, make sure you document the experience and continue to discover new activities that bring laughter and joy to the classroom. 

And when you are applying to online teaching jobs , be sure to share how you plan to creatively incorporate class assignments and homework for your students!

Enjoy the process and make learning an enjoyable experience for everyone. 

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73 ESL Writing Activities to Spark Your Students’ Creativity and Imagination

From a student’s point of view, writing assignments are something to dread.

But from an ESL teacher’s point of view, they should be a challenge worth accepting.

The challenge for you is to motivate your students enough to actually be excited about writing.

Sounds impossible? It’s actually quite simple.

The key is a strong pre-writing activity that boosts their confidence and adds to their vocabulary at the same time.

So, how do you get your students’ writing off to a great start?

In this post, we’ll look at some different ESL writing activities that will transform your students from hesitant writers to confident wordsmiths in their own right.

Writing Assignments Based on Stories

Writing activities prompted by music, writing practice exercises based on images or pictures, writing assignments based on food, writing activities based on mysteries, exercises to practice writing emails, activities to practice writing advertisements, assignments to practice writing reports, creative writing activity: class newsletter/newspaper.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

People of all ages love a well-told story, and using stories to teach ESL is a sure winner.

A story for a pre-writing activity could be in the form of:

• A  movie . It could be a biography, sci-fi film, thriller, action-packed adventure, fairy tale or even a cartoon.
• A  story read aloud from a book. If you’re using this, read in a way that brings the characters’ voices to life (including the narrator’s), hold the book up to show any pictures within or scan them and project onto a screen as you read. You can also search YouTube videos of famous authors or celebrities reading a book aloud, and show these in class.
• A  story from the news . It could be from the TV, radio, newspaper or an online news site .
• A story read by your students. In this case, you could let them read a story silently or with a partner, and take as long as they like to think about the important parts.

No matter what you choose, it’ll be a great lead-in to the ESL writing exercises below.

1. Re-tell the story as is, or summarize it. (This works best for beginners, who are still getting their feet wet in the waters of English comprehension.)

2. After watching “Finding Nemo” : Tell the story from the point of view of the whale, the dentist’s daughter or Bruce the shark.

3. Explain to Marlin how he should take care of Nemo better.

4. Make up a story about a farm animal/zoo animal/jungle animal. What if a baby ___ was lost? What if a child was lost in the city? What if you found a lost child?

5. After the story of “Goldilocks” : Tell the story from the baby bear’s point of view.

6. What if the baby bear and Goldilocks became best buds? What would happen?

7. After discussing “The Gingerbread Man” : Tell the story from the fox’s or gingerbread man’s point of view.

8. What did the old woman do wrong that made the gingerbread man run away?

9. How do you make a gingerbread man? What other shapes could be made instead?

10. After “Little Red Riding Hood” : Write the story in the first person—from the point of view of either Red Riding Hood or the wolf.

11. What should Red Riding Hood have done when she met the wolf?

12. After watching a “Lord of the Rings” movie: What would you do if you had the One Ring? Write about a magical quest you and several friends would have if you could.

13. After watching a “Pirates of the Caribbean”  movie: What if you were a pirate? What adventures would you have if you were a pirate?

14. After watching “Titanic” : Write about what you discover when you dive onto the wreck. Or imagine you were on the ship when it sank, and talk about how you escaped.

15. Whose fault was it that so many people drowned on the Titanic? What should they have done?

16. After watching a “Star Wars”  movie: Imagine you’re a space explorer and write about what happens when you meet some characters from “Star Wars.”

17. After watching a “Terminator”  movie: Imagine your teacher is a robot that has come back from the future. Or imagine you have come back from the future—what would it be like?

18. After watching a “Harry Potter” movie: Make up some magic spells and explain how you’d use them.

Everybody loves music! Watch your students’ faces light up as soon as they realize that they’re about to be treated to some songs rather than chalk-and-talk. Music stirs the emotions, after all, and can get your students excited about writing.

Here are some ideas for music you can incorporate into ESL writing activities:

• Classical music. There are some pieces of well-known classical music that specifically tell a story , and many of these are available on YouTube.
• “Fantasia 2000,” particularly “Rhapsody in Blue.” This wonderful, wordless animated story can kick off so much great writing!
• Movie music. The music that goes with a movie tells watchers how they should be feeling, and could be a good jumping-off point for some writing.
• Popular songs and music. Self-explanatory. Check out the most popular or trending artists on YouTube or Spotify for ideas.
• Kids’ songs . There’s something about singing a catchy little tune that makes the words stick in your mind more than just saying them. These can lead to some interesting writing, too.

19. After Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” : Tell the story from Peter’s point of view.

20. After Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals” : Imagine walking through the scenes with the animals and interacting with them. Write a story from the point of view of one of the animals.

21. Describe the animals in “The Carnival of the Animals.”

22. After Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” : Re-tell this classic Shakespeare story, adding a twist.

23. After watching and listening to “Rhapsody in Blue” : Tell all/part of the story.

24. If you were the main character in “Rhapsody in Blue,” what would you do?

25. Listen to a piece of classical/instrumental music and tell the story that it might be a background to. Imagine that it’s the background music for a movie.

26. Tell the story (real or made up) behind some popular songs like Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams.”

27. Describe meeting someone special like in the aforementioned Taylor Swift song.

28. What happens in your wildest dreams?

29. What if you were a famous pop star or musician? What would it be like? What would you do?

30. Give instructions on how to find your favorite song on the Internet, both music and lyrics.

31. If you play an instrument, or have a relative who plays one, write about some of the basics of how to play. (This could also work as a speaking and listening activity, and then the whole class could write about it.)

32. What is your favorite genre of music, and why? (Be sure to explain what “genre” means !)

33. Do you think young children should be allowed to freely watch music videos?

Some pictures you can use for ESL writing activities include:

• Pictures from social media. If you use social media at all, you doubtless have a barrage of amazing photos and videos on your feed, all of which make for excellent writing prompts.
• Pictures from Google Images . A quick Google search on any (classroom-safe) image will turn up plenty.
• Cartoons . If you have young students, they’ll definitely enjoy this one.
• Pictures selected by your students. Not sure what to choose? Have your students pick their own pictures to write about. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how vibrant their writing can be when they’re writing about subjects they actually care about.

Regardless of the picture you (or your students) choose, here are some writing prompts you can consider.

34. Tell a story—real or imagined—of what is happening in the picture.

35. Write about what happens next from the pictured moment.

36. Write about what was happening just before the pictured incident.

37. What if that was you in the picture?

38. What if you were the person who took the picture?

39. What if you knew the people in the picture? What would you say to them?

40. Describe all of the elements in the picture. This is great for vocabulary practice.

41. Describe how someone in the picture might be feeling.

42. Explain how to get into  a pictured predicament (for example, in the picture here , how did he get into the boat without the crocodile eating him?) as well as how to get out of it.

43. Express an opinion about the rights and wrongs of the pictured situation. For example, for the same picture above: Should crocodiles be hunted and killed? What should happen if a crocodile kills someone?

Many of your students likely enjoy thinking and talking about food. So why wouldn’t they be motivated to write about it?

How you integrate food into your ESL writing assignments depends on your classroom arrangements and the amount of time you’re willing to put into preparation.

In any case, here are some ideas:

• Start with the preparation and sharing of food before writing about it.
• Look at pictures of food, and talk about them before moving on to writing.
• Have students research food-related topics on the internet.
• Start with a story about food.

Here are the specific food writing prompts:

44. After the story of “The Gingerbread Man”: Think about food that develops a life of its own, and what would happen with it. (This can also open up a discussion about cultural foods.) For example, make up a similar story about another piece of food (e.g., spaghetti or rice that comes alive). What if you felt something moving in your mouth after you bit into your burger?

45. Write a story (real or imagined) about being very hungry and/or finding/buying/stealing food to meet a desperate need.

46. Write a story about trying a new, unfamiliar kind of food—maybe in a (relevant) cross-cultural setting.

47. Write a story about finding and eating a food that has magical properties. (Maybe read or watch some or all of “Alice in Wonderland”  first.)

48. Describe interesting/disgusting/unusual/delicious/colorful foods, especially after a class tasting lesson. (Prepare students first with suitable taste vocabulary .)

49. Describe a food that’s unfamiliar to most students in the class. (This is particularly helpful for classes where there are students belonging to minority groups who hesitate to speak up.)

50. Describe an imaginary magical food.

51. Give instructions for preparing a particular recipe.

52. After a class activity or demonstration involving food: Write down what you have learned.

53. Give instructions for producing food—growing vegetables, keeping animals, etc.

54. Give instructions for buying the best food—what to look for, looking at labels, checking prices and the like.

55. Write about your opinion on food and health in First World and Third World countries. (Explain what makes a country “First,” “Second” or “Third World” first.)

56. Write about your opinion on the cost of food.

57. Write about your opinion on GMOs or genetically engineered foods .

There’s nothing quite like a good “whodunnit,” and students will always enjoy a good puzzle. You can base various pre-writing activities around the two games below to get the class warmed up for ESL writing practice.

• Conundrum. This is an example of a game that can be played as a speaking and listening activity, and can lead into some good writing. The game starts with a simple statement or description of a situation like the ones described in situation puzzles . Students ask questions and receive yes/no answers until they work out the explanation for the situation.

After Conundrum, here are some of the activities your students can do:

58. Write a story about the sequence of events involved in a situation brought up in the game.

59. Devise and describe your own situation puzzle.

• Putting their hands inside a cloth bag (or just feeling the outside) to guess what an object is.
• Smelling substances in opaque jars with perforated lids, and trying to guess what they are.
• Tasting mystery foods on plastic spoons (with blindfolds).
• Looking at pictures of mysterious objects from obscure angles.
• Listening to and guessing the origins of sound effects. (You can record your own, or use some from the Internet .)

(Important: Make sure that whatever you’re using for your guessing game is safe for your students, especially if they involve having to touch, taste or smell the object.)

After a guessing game, your students can:

60. Write about a possible mystery object and a magical quality it could possess.

61. Describe what you thought you saw, heard, felt, tasted or smelled.

For both games, here are some writing prompts you can do:

62. Give instructions for playing one of the games.

63. Give instructions for the perfect crime.

64. Give your opinion about a recent crime and the punishment for it.

Emailing can often be a scary task for your students, especially if they’re using a new, strange language like English. You can utilize an email writing activity to help your students build confidence and get more comfortable writing in English.

Email can also teach your students things like proper language (formal or informal), structure and format. Email-related writing activities for ESL students can offer ample opportunities to teach all of these three aspects.

Since emails involve two parties (the sender and the receiver), you’ll need to pair your students up for this activity. Here’s how to prepare for it:

• Create one set of worksheets explaining details relevant to the sender. For example, it could contain information about a sender’s upcoming birthday party that they want to invite the receiver to.
• Create another set of worksheets with the receiver’s details. The worksheets could contain questions about food dishes or gifts, or it could say that the receiver can’t make it for one reason or other.

Once the above has been done, give one set of worksheets to the “senders” and the other to the “receivers.” Then, here’s what your students will do:

65. Based on the senders’ worksheets, write an email inviting the receiver and explaining the key aspects of the event featured in the worksheet.

66. Based on the receivers’ worksheets, write an email explaining why you can or cannot make it to the party, and/or what other information you need about the event.

Advertisements are everywhere, and you can bet that your students have a few favorite ads of their own. Advertisement-related writing activities work across age groups and can be adapted to most students and their needs.

This great ESL writing assignment can help your students put the adjectives they’ve learned into good use, as well as showcase their creative writing and persuasion skills.

You can find advertisements everywhere, including:

• YouTube videos
• Newspapers and magazines

You can also bring an object (or handful of objects) to class that your students can write ads about.

67. After your students carefully examine the object(s) you brought into class: Write all the adjectives you can think of about it.

68. For a more challenging writing exercise: Write an ad about the object. How would you persuade someone who knows nothing about the object whatsoever to buy it? (Your students may or may not use the adjectives they wrote down earlier. Encourage them to be creative!)

Your students have likely already done some kind of report during the course of their studies. Also, writing reports is a skill that’ll be useful to them once they enter college or the corporate world (if they aren’t in it already). If you feel that they need a little more practice in this area, use this ESL writing assignment.

First, discuss how research and structure matter to reports—and perhaps show them a few samples. Then, give them a few questions to base their reports on, like:

69. What can you say about (insert topic here) in terms of (insert specific angle here)? (For example, “What can you say about the government’s efforts to improve the local park in terms of its impact on the general public?” Of course, you should adapt this question to the level of your students.)

70. After talking about a YouTube video on bears eating salmon : What would happen to the bears if the salmon ran out? 

This ESL writing activity is a bit more intensive and will allow your students to employ many different aspects of their ESL knowledge. Crafting a class newsletter will build collaboration, communication, listening, speaking and, of course, writing skills. If they’re not sure how to build a newsletter or newspaper from scratch, they can always swipe from premade templates like this one .

The newsletter/newspaper can follow a specific theme, or the articles can consist of a hodgepodge of random topics based on questions like:

71. What is the most interesting thing that happened in school this year? It can be the funniest/scariest/most heartwarming incident. Write a feature article about it. (Make sure to explain what a “feature article” is .)

72. Write a report highlighting the key events in some recent local festivals or concerts.

73. Going off of the last exercise, write an ad inviting the reader to buy a product or attend an event.

Once all of the articles are done, you can start putting them together. Make sure to walk your students through these newspaper layout tips . And when the newsletter/newspaper is finally published and circulated out there for the world to see, remember to congratulate your students for a job well done!

No matter what writing assignments you choose, make sure to keep the excitement level high so that your students are enthusiastic for your next writing session.

Whether they write by hand or type on a computer, remember to encourage them as much as you can by focusing on the good points rather than just running all over their mistakes with a red pen.

Lastly, find ways for them to share their efforts—whether online, on the classroom wall, bound together in a book to be passed around, etc.

They can also read aloud to each other, share with their parents and siblings and even share with other classes!

For more ESL assignment ideas, check out this post: 

Great ESL homework ideas can be difficult to come up with. So check out these 13 great ideas for ESL homework assignments that your students will love. Not only are they…

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We have several free ESL writing lessons on this page, including sample essays, sentence patterns, writing assignments, and more! If you like these lessons, consider buying our ESL writing textbooks to get even more content just like this!

Beginner Writing Lessons

The four units below are all taken from our book Write Right: 9 Beginner ESL Writing Lessons , available for instant download!

Sample Essay: “My Hobby” – Introductory sample essay that students can reference later when writing their own essays

Sentence Pattern: Start/stop verb+ing – Practice adding “ing” to verbs after “start/stop/quit/begin”

Grammar: Past Tense – Simple introduction to past tense verbs

Error Correction Worksheet – Correct the errors in this sample “My Hobby” essay

Assignment: “My Hobby” – Use the grammar and sentence patterns from Unit 1 to write an essay titled “My Hobby”

Sample Essay: “A Funny Story” – Introductory sample essay that students can reference later when writing their own essays

Past Tense Error Correction Worksheet – Review of past tense; rewrite the paragraph and correct the past tense errors

Indention and Quotations – Teaches students to indent new paragraphs and use quotation marks correctly

Indentions and Quotations: Error Correction Worksheet – Identify and correct the mistakes in the paragraph

Writing Assignment: “A Funny Story” – Students use the grammar and sentence patterns from Unit 2 to write an essay titled “A Funny Story”

Sample Essay: “My Favorite Place” – Introductory sample essay that students can reference later when writing their own essays

Sentence Pattern: Although / Even though – Introduction to “although” and “even though”, with sample sentences and practice exercises

Sentence Pattern: not…at all – Introduction to the sentence pattern “(not)…at all”, with sample sentences and practice exercises

Error Correction Worksheet – Identify and correct the mistakes in the paragraph

Writing Assignment: “My Favorite Place” – Students use the grammar and sentence patterns from Unit 3 to write an essay titled “My Favorite Place”

NEW! UNIT 4: “Letter to a Relative”

Sample Essay: “Letter to a Relative” – Introductory sample letter that students can reference later when writing their own essays

Writing Lesson: The Elements of a Letter – Introduction to the elements of a letter (greeting, body, conclusion)

Writing Lesson: Conjunctions – Introduction to the conjunctions and/but/or/so, with an explanation of how to punctuate them correctly

Error Correction: Conjunctions – Identify and correct the mistakes in the letter

Writing Assignment: “Letter to a Relative” – Students use the grammar and sentence patterns from Unit 4 to write an letter to one of their relatives

Intermediate/Advanced Writing Lessons

The writing lessons and worksheets below are taken from our book Write Right: Transitions , available for instant download!

Writing a Formal Paragraph

Topic Sentences (Introduction) – Introduction to topic sentences and their function in a formal paragraph

Introduction to Similes and Metaphors – Using similes and metaphors to write interesting topic sentences

Similes and Metaphors Review – Practice describing people and things using similes and metaphors

Topic Sentences (Review) – Practice writing topic sentences

The Body of a Paragraph (Introduction) – Introduction to the body of a paragraph and the information that should be contained therein

The Body of a Paragraph (Review) – Practice thinking of information to use in the body of a paragraph

Concluding Sentences (Introduction) – Introduction to concluding sentences and their function in a paragraph

Concluding Sentences (Review) – Practice writing concluding sentences

Punctuation and Conjunctions

Sentence Fragments and Complete Sentences – Introduction to sentence fragments and a review exercise to practice identifying them

Run-on Sentences – Worksheet to practice correcting run-on sentences

Comma Splices and Conjunctions – Worksheet to practice using conjunctions correctly to fix comma splices

Commas and Conjunctions (“and”) – Explanation of how to correctly use commas with the conjunction “and”

Semi-colons – Introduction to this often baffling piece of punctuation, with a review exercise

Transitions and Connectors

Listing Things in Order – Practice listing items or events in order using words like “First”, “Next”, “After that”, “Finally”, etc.

In addition / Additionally / Moreover / Furthermore / Plus / …as well – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with several sample sentences

In addition / Additionally / Moreover / Furthermore / Plus / …as well – Review worksheet to practice writing sentences with these transitions

However / Nevertheless / Still / Despite that / Nonetheless / Even so – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with several sample sentences

However / Nevertheless / Still / Despite that / Nonetheless / Even so – Review worksheet to practice writing sentences with these transitions

Therefore / Consequently / As a result / Thus / For this Reason – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with several sample sentences

Therefore / Consequently / As a result / Thus / For this Reason – Review worksheet to practice writing sentences with these transitions

Review of these Transitions and Connectors – Review worksheet to practice using all of the transition words above

More Transitions and Connectors

Although / Even though – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with several sample sentences and review exercises

Though – Introduction to “though” and it’s various uses in a sentence

Despite / In spite of – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with sample sentences

Despite / In spite of – Review worksheet to practice writing sentences with these words

Despite vs. Although – Explanation of how to use these similar transition words, with several sample sentences

Despite vs. Although – Review worksheet to practice using “despite” and “although” correctly

Because vs. Because of – Explanation of how to use these similar transition words correctly, with several sample sentences

Because vs. Although – Explanation of the difference between these two words, with several examples and a review exercise

Because of vs. Despite – Worksheet to practice using these transitions, which have nearly opposite meanings

Regardless of – Introduction to this commonly used transition, with several sample sentences

Regardless of / No matter – Review worksheet to practice using these transitions correctly, including an explanation of “embedded questions”.

Review of Transitions and Connectors

Transitions and Punctuation – Explanation of how to correctly punctuate transitions using commas, periods, and semi-colons. Also includes a review worksheet.

Transitions and Punctuation (2) – Students rewrite a short essay, adding punctuation around transition words as needed.

Review of Above Transitions and Connectors – Fill in the blanks with an appropriate transition word to complete the essay

Additional Review of Transitions and Connectors – Review of several transition words/phrases (For this reason / Despite the fact that / No matter / Due to / Consequently / As a result / In spite of / Regardless of / Owing to)

Additional FREE ESL/EFL Writing Worksheets, Activities, and Ideas:

Useful phrases and sentence patterns.

Instead of / Rather than – Handout explaining how to use these phrases, with sample sentences

Instead of / Rather than – Review – Worksheet to practice using “instead of” and “rather than” correctly

Instead – Worksheet reviewing different ways to use the word “instead” in a sentence

Would rather – Handout explaining how to use “would rather”, with sample sentences

Would rather – Review – Worksheet to practice using “would rather” correctly

Prefer – Worksheet to practice using “prefer” correctly

Regardless / Regardless of / No matter – Examples and practice sentences

Gradually / Eventually / Sooner or later / At some point / In the end / …end up… – Examples and practice sentences

More sentence patterns and phrases (in no particular order):

vary / varies from __ to __

that which / those who

Just because [A] doesn’t mean that [B]

If it weren’t for [A], then I never would have [B]

If I hadn’t [A] then I wouldn’t have [B]

I wish I had / I should have

Found myself

(Currently) in the process of

Writing Activities

Putting pen to paper doesn’t always have to be boring. Here are some activities and game-like things to make writing a bit more enjoyable.

Interactive Stories – Students collaborate to write each others’ stories.

The Lying Game – Guess which statements are true and which statements are lies!

Idiom Worksheets – Give advice using idioms. Less a “game” than an “assignment,” though the idioms tend to make things a little more interesting.

Explain the Idiom – Try to guess what the idioms mean, and use them in a dialogue.

Writing Scenarios

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Learning english, we found 175 activities for you.

Uses of like

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I love sports

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Family holiday

Add some prepositions to a story about going on a family holiday

What a great idea!

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See and know

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Choose which parts of these sentences have been left out

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Answer some questions to learn new words to describe animals

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12 Fun ESL Speaking Activities for Teens or Adults

Every language teacher knows that speaking is a core skill to teach and practice, but sometimes it can be challenging coming up with creative or engaging ESL speaking activities and games. You can use them to improve the community feeling inside the classroom , too.

Let’s dive into nine quick, easy, and fun ESL speaking activities for teenagers and adults you can integrate into your lessons or use in speaking clubs.

They are designed to be high-quality and enjoyable – and mostly suitable for online lessons, too.

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They don’t need much preparation, but will get your students talking and help them to hone their conversational skills without even thinking about it.

1. Interview Pop

2. word racing, 3. guess who or what i am, 4. would you rather…, 5. how-to presentation, 6. living memory, 7. video talk, 8. talk about your weekend, 9. timed discussion, 10. debating club, 11. taboo words, 12. story chain.

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group or Individual

This is a great one for students to have fun and be creative. Put students in pairs, or you could also carry this one out in a one-one lesson.

Students choose one person they want to interview. It can be anybody of their choice, and the person doesn’t necessarily have to be alive still.

I tell students to choose someone they know a lot about or who they admire because then they’ll have more material to talk about when the speaking part of the activity comes around.

Give each student a list of ten to fifteen verbs. (Can be the same list or different) See the example:

Each student has to choose five verbs from their list.

They make a different question using one of their five verbs in each question; these questions are made for the person they want to interview.

Each question will have a different verb.

For example, let’s say a student chooses Barack Obama. They have to make five interview questions for Barack Obama, each question using a different verb from their list.

Here are some examples:

• How did you decide you want to become president?
• Did you want to continue being president after your term finished?
• What did you love about being the president?
• What would you change about the USA?
• What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment as president?

While I usually just come up with the verbs myself, you can also find  some verb lists  online, along with a list of people for your students to choose from.

While the students are making their questions, go through the class and help students fix the grammatical mistakes.

This is a great activity if you are practicing  question formation  as a grammar topic with your students.

The students then give their partner the questions that they wrote and then assume the role of the person they wanted to interview, while their partner asks them the questions they just made.

So this means that each student answers the questions from the perspective of the person they wanted to interview, as their partner asks them the questions.

Go around and listen for mistakes.

You could also then have students report to the class the person their partner chose and how they responded to the questions.

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group

A very interactive and high-energy ESL speaking activity. Many students get so into it and excited that they won’t even notice they are speaking in a foreign language and won’t even have time to think about making mistakes.

All you need to prepare for the game is to write down 15-20 vocabulary terms you want to practice with your students, each term is written on a different small slip of paper. Give a stack of these slips to each group.

You can also let the students write down the vocabulary (for example on the last topic they’ve learned) but then some words might be double and they also might not think of the words you want them to practice.

Divide your students into groups of three or four and explain the rules of the game.

One player from the first group starts. This student then has one minute to explain or define as many words written on their slips to their own group as they can, without saying the word they have on the card.

They want their group to guess as many words as possible in one minute.

Each time the members of the group guess a word, they put the card down, which gets them a point, and then they take a new card and repeat the same thing.

Once the minute is over, the next group takes their turn.

After the minute is up, each group counts their points and the group with the most points wins that round.

If you have time to play more rounds, after all, words are guessed, put them back in the basket and let them play again, although this time they can only use one word to explain the word on the card, for example, a synonym or a word they associate with the word on the card.

An example might be that if the word on the card is ‘handcuff’ then they say the word ‘police’ and the other students have to guess the word ‘handcuff’.

Students only get one guess. Once a student guesses, the student must move on to the next card, whether the word was guessed correctly or not.

In the last round, they act out or pantomime the words on their cards.

Here’s a list with even more fun ESL vocabulary games for adults and kids.

While there are many other good vocabulary-charades type games that can be done with both younger and older students, this one has been my favorite.

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate Type of Lesson:  Group

This is a very simple but effective activity with no preparation needed and can be played in two versions.

It’s usually more suitable for lower-level students but can also be used in intermediate or upper-intermediate students, especially for the other variation of the activity described below.

In version one, one student thinks of a person – it could be someone in the class or a famous person, someone that everyone is likely to know – and the rest of the class asks them yes or no questions about the person until they can guess who it is.

The student who guesses the person with the least amount of questions wins.

In version two, one student goes in front of the door, while the rest of the class decides on a person. Then the student comes back in and has to ask the class yes or no questions until they can guess who the person is.

Another variation of this game is to put students in groups and describe themselves from the perspective of an object, and the other students must guess what that object is in the quickest time possible.

Each student in the group writes down an object and then speaks from the perspective of that object as if they were actually that object.

For example, if one student chooses ‘handcuffs’ they would say something like:

• “The police put me around somebody’s wrists when they break the law.”
• “I have two round rings with chains connected them.”
• “I am on a person on their way to prison.”

Students shouldn’t do any gesturing or acting on this one because that will give it away. The student who is able to guess the most objects correctly wins.

The reason I like this one more is that the students have to get a little bit more creative about expressing their ideas and they also tend to have more fun with this one.

Student level:  Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group or Individual

This is a great way to practice ‘would’ in the conditional form.

There’s a lot of different ways you can organize this one. One of the easiest ways is to just come up with some of your own ideas (5-10 should be enough), type them out, and cut them up into cards.

Go around the class and have a student draw a card, read it aloud, and then call on another student to answer it.

The goal is to make the “Would you rather”  questions funny, crazy, interesting, or controversial. Think about what kind of questions you think would be fun to discuss if you were learning a foreign language.

Bookmark our list of 110 “would you rather” questions, and you will never run out of great questions to discuss.

Here are a few examples:

• Would you rather give up your mobile phone or your pet?
• Would you rather have $50,000 that is legal or $150,000 that is illegal?
• Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the most intelligent?
• Would you rather have your first child when you are 19 years old or when you are 45?

As stated before, you can make up your own. If you are doing a specific topic for your lesson, then you can try to make them as closely related to the topic as possible.

For example, if the topic for your lesson is  Meet the World’s Oldest Ice Hockey Player , then you might want to prepare some ‘would you rather’ questions about age or about hockey:

• Would you rather stop aging at 17 or 35?
• Would you rather date someone ten years older or ten younger?
• Would you rather be a famous football player or a famous hockey player?

Give each group or pair of students the same card and have each of them state their opinion about the topic on the card.

You can give them a few minutes to take notes on their opinion and what they want to say before starting. Then students go around and say their opinion and support their argument.

This is one is sure to bring some good conversations and even laughs in your class.

You can also teach phrases on how to express opinions, such as:

• “In my opinion…”
• “I believe that…”
• “In my eyes…”
• “From my point of view…”

In addition to this, you could also assign students to make their own “Would you rather…” topics for the class or other groups. Make sure they keep them appropriate!

Help facilitate the conversations and ask follow-up questions while students are speaking.

This activity is great for a number of reasons: it’s simple to assign and explain, effective for students to develop speaking, and fun because it’s on a topic they’re interested in.

It’s also practical because they’re teaching the class how to do something or how something works.

Basically, all you need to do for ESL speaking activities like this one is have students choose some topic. It can be any appropriate topic according to their wishes.

Then they give a five-minute presentation on that How-to topic.

In order to get students cooperating together, you could also put them in pairs and have them decide on and organize the speech together.

Here are some of the ones my students have done before and they turned out to be great:

• How to cook [a food]
• How to play [a sport]
• How to travel cheap
• How to do a magic trick
• How to live healthily

There are some  great tips  you can share with your students on giving a presentation in a foreign language.

Have students prepare the speech at home or during the lesson, and then have them present their topic during the next lesson.

You could take notes on their speaking or pronunciation mistakes while they present and go over them after the presentation.

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate Type of Lesson:  Group

This is a game based on the classic board game “memory” designed for lower-level students.

Two students go out of the room (Student A and Student B). The rest of the class gets together in pairs.

If you have an uneven number of students, one group can be in three.

Each pair chooses a word according to the learning objective.

For example, if your students are learning about food, then in pairs they will mutually agree on a meal or a food they both like. Then the two students come back into the classroom and these two students play against each other to gain points.

To gain points, Student A starts off and asks any student in the class “What do you like eating?” and that student answers “I like eating…”, and then Student A asks another student what they like to eat.

If the second student likes the same thing, then Student A gets one point. Then Student B goes and tries to match the pairs based on the food they mutually chose together.

This is a fun game to practice vocabulary and simple phrases.

You can make the game more interactive if students make gestures and movement demonstrating the type of food. For example, they gesture peeling a banana if the food they chose is ‘banana’.

Other good questions are:

• What is your favorite subject?
• What do you like doing in your free time?
• What time is it?

Student level:  Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group or Individual

Find a YouTube video topic that you think would be interesting for your students. I would choose a relatively short video (two to five minutes), or something like a TedTalk.

Make some preview discussion questions about the topic presented in the video, go through them with students before watching, and then watch the video together.

You can then have some questions prepared based on the video content and some post-discussion activities while going through some of the important vocabulary terms from the video.

Students tend to love working with videos and there are so many good ones out there nowadays.

Using video is effective because it brings the outside world to your students, and they can generate some great discussions in class, inspiring students to speak their mind and share their opinions and ideas.

Browse our full archive of ESL resources and printables.

Student level:  Beginner to Intermediate Type of Lesson:  Group

This activity is a better choice if your students are happy talking but maybe are a bit nervous speaking in front of a class:

Split the class into pairs.

Students need to discuss their weekend with their partner.

Use only English!

You need to be observant with this type of activity. Keep an eye on each student’s talk time. 

If you are finding some students are much more talkative than their partners, maybe set a time limit for how long each student can talk for before switching. This ensures that everyone gets a fair chance to practise.

Information gap activities are great to practice conversation; get more ideas here.

This is another simple yet great activity for building confidence in speaking!

Give the student a topic card, for instance, “Talk about your favorite place.” or “What’s your favorite band or artist?”

The student has a certain amount of time to prepare some ideas for what they will say.

The student then has to talk about that topic for a chosen amount of time.

When starting out with this activity, make sure to give more time for preparation and less time for the presentation. 5 minutes of preparation time and 1 minute of the presentation should be plenty. 

With time, you can reduce the preparation time or increase the presentation time.

Prepare a list of controversial topics, and two opposing views about each topic.

Split your students into pairs or small groups (each with an even number of students). Split each groups into two parties. Assign a topic to each group: each party has to hold an opposite view.

Give them some time to prepare arguments for their standpoint. 5 to 10 Minutes should be enough.

Then let each group debate their topic in front of the class. One party starts voicing their first argument, then the other answers.

Each statement shouldn’t exceed 30 seconds – use a stopwatch with a countdown, so students know when they have to stop.

The debate is over after a set time – for example 5 minutes – or when the parties stated all their arguments.

After each debate, the whole class votes which party was more convincing and won the debate.

If it’s an individual lesson, you and the student play the opposite parties – no final vote then.

Make sure to prepare topics according to the fluency level of your students. The topics can be rather serious and controversial, or fun and weird.

Here are a couple of examples:

Current and serious topics:

• Classroom instruction vs. Homeschooling
• Self-driving cars: smart or dangerous
• Buy local vs. buy online
• Death sentence: yes or no
• iOS vs. Android

Fun and weird topics:

• Vanilla vs. chocolate ice-cream
• Get up early vs. go to bed late
• Have no kids vs. have 5 kids
• Travel to Mars vs. to the earth’s core
• Sommer vs. Winter

Student level:  Beginner to Intermediate Type of Lesson:  Group

Finally, and absolute classic activity. Split your students into groups, each with at least 3 three students.

Prepare a list of words. For each word, think about 3-5 words which can be used to describe the original word. These can be synonyms, adjectives or any kind of related terms.

• Weather – rain, cloud, sun, forecast, outside
• hungry – food, stomach, eat, restaurant, thirsty
• to run – fast, quick, walk, race, legs

Write the words on cards.

Now, one student has to take one card and explain the word to the other in their group. Here’s the catch: He must not use one of the words on the card (also, no parts or variations of the words.). He must not use gestures, facial expressions or voices. He has to circumscribe the word using other verbal expressions.

The rest of the group have to guess the word. Set a time for each round, like one minute. One group has to guess as many words as possible within that time; each guess is one point.

When the explaining student uses one of the taboo words (or other taboo means), he has to skip the current word and continue with the next card.

Count the points after each round. Then, the next group has its turn. The game is over, when each student in each group had their turn to explain words. Sum up the points; the group with the most wins.

Other possible game modes: Let the groups guess one word alternating, and set a 30 seconds time limit for each guess. Or let a student explain a word to the whole class, and who guesses it first, gets a point.

Student level:  Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson:  Group

This activity does not only help students develop their speaking and listening skills, it also fosters critical thinking skills, creativity, and imagination.

Here’s how it works:

• Divide the group into small teams of 3–4 people each.
• Give each team a starting sentence, such as “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away.”
• Set a time limit, such as 5 minutes.
• Each team must take turns adding one sentence to the story, building from the previous sentence.
• The team that completes the most coherent story within the time limit wins.
• To make it more challenging, you can also include a specific vocabulary theme for the story, such as “animals” or “travel”, or you can include a twist, such as “the story must be a horror story”.
• After the activity, teams present their story to the class.
• Encourage the class to ask questions about the story to the teams.

6 thoughts on “12 Fun ESL Speaking Activities for Teens or Adults”

Thank you so much! Some of the suggestions I have already used with my students, but I did get new tips too! will try them out.

Great ideas to get my hgh school students speaking. Thanks so much

Great… These activities are really interesting ones and are helping me a lot. Thank You So Much for Uploading….

Great activities! Greeting from Mexico.

Thank you! This is very clearly written with a lot of additional ideas. Useful! :)

Thanks so much for sharing. Lots of new ideas for me.

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5 Exercises for a Better Sex Life

Any physical activity can improve your sexual health. But a few exercises are especially beneficial.

By Danielle Friedman

As far as your muscles are concerned, sex is just another workout. And like most workouts, the more conditioned you are, the more enjoyable it can be.

Yes, you can train for sex.

“It’s important to remember that sex is movement, and it’s exercise,” said Debby Herbenick, director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at the Indiana University School of Public Health. If you want to have satisfying sex, she said, you’ll likely benefit from moving your body outside of the bedroom.

If you’re happy with your sex life, a regular fitness habit can help to ensure your body c ontinues to function properly. If you feel like your sex life could be more satisfying, exercise may help with erectile dysfunction , pain with penetration and low sex drive , among other issues.

Regular physical activity can also help you become more self aware. “You learn to listen to your body ,” Dr. Herbenick said, “and then you can carry that wisdom over to your sexual life.”

While pretty much any workout routine can improve sex over time, a few specific types of movement can be especially helpful for sexual function and enjoyment, depending on your needs and physical ability. Here are five exercises that experts in sexual health and fitness recommend.

Work in bursts of high intensity cardio.

Your cardiovascular health directly impacts your sexual health, and not just because sex can sometimes be vigorous and aerobic, Dr. Herbenick said.

The cardiovascular system powers two bodily systems that are important for sex: erections and vaginal lubrication. Without proper blood flow, one will likely have trouble achieving or maintaining either, she said. Research also suggests that, for some people, aerobic exercise itself can stimulate arousal.

If you don’t already do aerobic exercise, begin by establishing a solid cardio baseline through regular, moderate-intensity activity, said Darlene Marshall, a personal trainer in upstate New York who has helped clients train for better sex.

Then, once you can comfortably walk or jog at a “conversational” pace for about 20 minutes, add intervals of high-intensity effort, she said — to train for the bursts of exertion sex can require. Depending on your fitness level, running or cycling sprints, brisk stair climbs or high intensity interval training are all good options.

“The goal is to help your body avoid becoming overwhelmed, cardiovascularly, during sex,” Ms. Marshall said.

Do Kegels — correctly.

The health of your pelvic floor, the hammock of muscles that sits at the base of the pelvis, can make the difference between a gratifying sexual experience and a lackluster or even painful one — for women and men — said Janelle Howell, a pelvic floor specialist in Chicago. Between 10 and 20 percent of women in the United States report pain during sex.

When your pelvic floor muscles are weak or tight, you may not experience as powerful an orgasm. Tight pelvic floor muscles can also make penetrative sex painful. Healthy pelvic floor muscles need both strength and flexibility to be able to contract and fully release on command.

Kegel exercises , which mimic the effort of holding and releasing urine or gas, can be an effective way to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, Dr. Howell said. The key is to make sure that after every contraction, you fully relax the muscles — something many people don’t do properly.

For women, Dr. Howell suggests imagining an elevator slowly going up, then slowly going all the way back down to the ground floor, to ensure the muscles fully release. For men, tighten your pelvic floor muscles, hold for three seconds, then fully relax for three seconds.

If you have a tight pelvic floor, experts advise skipping the Kegels and focusing instead on diaphragmatic breathing , which can help to relax and lengthen the muscles. (A pelvic floor physical therapist can offer a full assessment.)

Limber up your hips.

Most people spend hours a day sitting, which can lead to tight hip muscles, fascia and ligaments. When your hips are tight, you may experience back and pelvic pain during sex.

“I hear a lot that people can only do one position,” because they’re stiff or other positions hurt, Dr. Howell said.

Improving your hip mobility can help your whole lower body move more fluidly and comfortably, and may improve pelvic pain during sex, she said.

As a first step, Ms. Marshall recommends releasing some of the constricted areas by placing a tennis ball against your glutes and rolling it around, then shifting it to your hips and hamstrings, massaging each area until you feel the muscle release. This can be done sitting or against a wall.

From there, stretch your hips, hip flexors, glutes, back muscles and hamstrings by doing a figure-four stretch , 90/90 stretch , cat cow or happy baby pose , Dr. Howell said, or “any movement that’s bringing your chest closer towards your knees.”

Finally, dynamic exercises such as deep squats and glute bridges mobilize the hips and build strength. And if you want to dial up the intensity, weighted squats , leg presses and kettlebell swings can increase the power in your glutes and hamstrings.

“I love kettlebell swings for sexual training,” Ms. Marshall said, because they involve “a rhythmic movement of flexion and extension in the hips.”

Focus on your entire core.

The more strength you have in your core, the more you will be able to move easily during sex. Most of the nerves and muscles that are involved in sex are integrated into the core, and strong core muscles can also help to reduce back and hip pain before, during and after sex.

“Strengthening the core can really help with endurance during sex, helping you feel strong and solid in your body,” said Rachel Zar, a sex therapist in Chicago.

To work the full cylinder of muscles that make up the core, Dr. Howell recommends doing planks daily. “You can start small,” she said. “Say you can only hold it for five to 10 seconds — that’s going to help you to engage all of your core muscles at one time.”

Another bonus to working the core muscles? Dr. Herbenick and her team have found that, for some people, contracting and releasing their core muscles helped them become aroused. Consider your planks foreplay.

Practice five minutes of daily yoga.

Yoga can help improve hip mobility and build core strength. And practicing slow, deep, diaphragmatic breathing is especially valuable for sex, Dr. Herbenick said, because it helps to relax both the body’s parasympathetic nervous system and the pelvic floor.

“You might find that vaginal penetration is more comfortable. You might find that erections come more easily,” she said. “Stress is the enemy of erections.”

If you don’t feel up to moving through yoga positions, practicing the breath work alone is valuable, Dr. Howell noted. “Even just laying on the yoga mat, putting your hands on your belly and just breathing into your belly can really start to calm that nervous system,” she said, “which can then support more pleasure in your sex life.”

Danielle Friedman is a journalist in New York and the author of “Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World.” More about Danielle Friedman

What to Know About Your Sexual Health

Sexual health can be an important part of personal well-being. the information below can help you demystify this often misunderstood topic..

Older daters are not getting adequate screening and protection from S.T.I.s. Here’s how to be a safer sexually active senior .

Any physical activity can improve your sexual health. But these five exercises  are especially beneficial.

New regimens in development, including once-weekly pills and semiannual shots , could help control H.I.V. in hard-to-reach populations.

Many women will deal with a yeast infection at least once in their lifetimes. Luckily, there are plenty of effective solutions .

The connection between the birth control pill and sexual desire is complex. The pill lowers testosterone, but what does that do to libido ?

We asked sex therapists and researchers to share a myth about sex they wished would go away. Here’s what they said .

Conversation Worksheets

You can use these worksheets in conjunction with the EnglishClub Talking Point Discussion and Homework forums, which your students can find via the Talking Point icons on the EnglishClub home page.

McCarter & English Drafts IP Partner, Team to Stamford Office

By Bloomberg Law Automation

Michael Gnibus has joined McCarter & English as a partner in the intellectual property group in the Stamford, Conn., office, the firm said Tuesday .

Gnibus, who most recently was a partner at Armstrong Teasdale, has practiced in-house and at law firms, with experience providing patent counsel for technically diverse businesses, according to McCarter & English.

A four person patent team joins alongside Gnibus, including a special counsel, associate, patent agent, and patent assistant, said the firm.

This story was produced by Bloomberg Law Automation.

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