homework for advanced english students

7,152 Advanced English ESL worksheets pdf & doc

Grammar & vocab

Advanced vocabulary exercises (C1 – C2 level)

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Welcome to our vocabulary-building exercises for advanced English learners !

Here you’ll find a variety of exercises designed to challenge and improve your language skills.

The exercises are tailored to advanced learners (B2, C1 and above) and will provide you with the opportunity to test yourself on such things as phrasal verbs, news-related vocabulary and more.

Let us know in the comments below if you have any suggestions for topics or words you’d like us to add.

Vocabulary by topic


	C1 VOCAB gap-fill
	C1 VOCAB gap-fill
	C1 VOCAB multiple-choice
	C1 VOCAB multiple-choice
	C1 VOCAB multiple-choice
	C1 VOCAB multiple-choice
	C1 VOCAB multiple-choice
Seven idiomatic phrasal verbs	PDF download only
. . .	C1 VOCAB text gap-fill
. . .	C1 VOCAB multiple-choice
Vocabulary worksheet + exercise: homophones	PDF download only
	C1-C2 VOCAB gap-fill
. . .	C1-C2 VOCAB multiple-choice

Miscellaneous words


	C1-C2 VOCAB multiple-choice
	C1-C2 VOCAB multiple-choice
	C1-C2 VOCAB multiple-choice
	C1-C2 VOCAB multiple-choice
	C1-C2 VOCAB multiple-choice

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Advanced ESL Worksheets

Beginner/Elementary
Intermediate
Adjectives and Adverbs
Cockney Rhyming Slang
Collocation
Comparatives & Superlatives
Conditionals
Conjunctions
Determiners
Direct & Indirect Speech
Exam Traps and Tricks
Future Forms
Gap Filling
Gerunds and Infinitives
Level Tests
Parts of Speech
Past Tenses
Phrasal Verbs
Prefixes & Suffixes
Prepositions
Present Perfect
Present Tenses
Pronunciation
Quantifiers
Relative Clauses and Pronouns
Since and For
Spelling and Punctuation
Verbs and Tenses

We have a total of 104 worksheets:

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Welcome to upperlanguage

Site update news.

We have added a new section in the Vocabulary category – American Slang . Check it out!
New exercises in the following sections: Present Simple vs. Present Continuous, Open Cloze: Sentences. --> Phraes & Idioms, Collocations, Present Perfect, --> Common Mistakes. --> Past Perfect, Prepositions & Phrasal Verbs, Error Correction, Word Formation. -->
You can now practice all exrcises without having to choose a specific category. Check out the Pop Quiz feature!
There's a new feature available! From now on, you can bookmark exercises by clicking the bookmark icon:
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We are working on an upperlanguage blog! Stay tuned for more news and first posts devoted to language, culture, and more.
upperlanguage blog: Why you still don't sound like a native .

Stay connected and don't miss out on new exercise sets.

upperlanguage is here to help you continue improving your linguistic skills and make it easier to maintain an advanced level of English. From traditional practice book material to exercises inspired by everyday conversations, TV series, news, novels, advertisements, speeches, and many more, upperlanguage offers hundreds of various grammar exercises well-suited to your level.

Foreign languages for advanced students. Free to use. Free from ads. Continually updated.

How to start:

Choose a category from the menu, complete all exercises, come back regularly – new sets are uploaded every week, quick tips:, expand the view by clicking the icon above., bookmark your favorite exercises by clicking the bookmark icon ., for more information about particular examples and answers, click ., you can switch between the light 🔥 and dark 🌙 themes in the top right corner., key answers to our everyday-ish instagram quizzes., see the answer.

There's only one correct answer:

✅ but anything but - used to mean the opposite of the stated quality. This phrase is often used for emphasis.

Spot and correct one or more errors:

In the liner notes, the group remembers their dear friend who died from cancer soon after the release of their second record.

Die from vs die of

to die of is usually used with a direct cause of death, such as cancer or heart attack . It is also used when speaking about internal causes of one's death.

to die from is usually used with an indirect agent, such as gun shot or injury . It is also used when speaking about external causes of one's death.

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These are materials that will probably be suitable for students who have studied English for about four or five academic years . There will also be revision materials for grammar/vocabulary covered at the Intermediate/Upper-Intermediate levels. For more information on the level classification used on esl lounge , go to our level description page .

If you are looking for materials specifically to prepare students for major international exams such as First Certificate and Proficiency, check out our Test Prep section of the site.

The lesson materials have been divided into the following categories for Advanced.

Click any one to go to the resources.

Getting students of this advanced level speaking together in pairs or groups shouldn't be very difficult. These resources should make for the most communicative activities.

English vocabulary gets more and more complicated as learners progress in their English studies. Fine differences between words can confuse students. Here you will find high level vocabulary worksheets and exercises.

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There are some advanced level reading comprehension worksheets in this section. There are five main types of reading comprehensions:

There are a lot of resources in this section to allow for the higher level classes that would like to explore in more depth a particular topic. So here subjects as diverse as 'English as a world language', 'overpopulation' and 'gun control' are examined from different points of view and students can work in groups or as a whole class to discuss and debate these subjects.

We have some good authentic high-level listening materials on the Premium site. These lesson plans for listening include full teacher notes and a variety of accents for more realistic recordings for your students.

View Advanced listening lesson plans on the Premium site.

High level grammar worksheets. At this advanced level, we can find grammar such as complex modal usage and the causative covered.

Activities with high teacher control will probably be minimal at this level of students' English learning. Here are some resources to encourage freer group or class discussion.

Alongside the error correction worksheets that are found at lower levels, the main focus at this advanced level is on editing of larger bodies of texts, a vital skill that your students will need to correct their own work. There are four main types of editing required: Spelling Missing word Extra word Punctuation

Phrasal Verbs always cause problems for students at this level so we have a section devoted solely to this tricky area of English vocabulary.

Why shouldn't advanced level students play games too? If they are used in the same way as at lower level, why not? To make lessons more enjoyable, to give both students and teachers a 'breather', to help foster in students a positive feeling about their learning experience...and twenty other reasons. Check out the main board games section too.

Resources which don't fit well elsewhere. For this level, for example, there is something which can be used at slightly lower levels too and gets students to think about their expectations of the course, their teacher, their school and of themselves. ESL teachers have long considered student autonomy important and this helps to get students thinking about the same issue. Also on the same subject as student autonomy, there is a questionnaire aimed at increasing student efficiency when using a dictionary.

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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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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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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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8 Best ESL Advanced Lesson Plans and Worksheets (Free and Paid)

By Caitriona Maria

July 14, 2021

Teaching advanced learners can be a wonderfully conversational yet daunting experience, especially if you are a new teacher.

If you are teaching advanced students, you may ask, “what don’t the students know?!” like when I started out teaching C1 level. There are a couple of things I have since discovered that have proven to work well among higher-level students.

Let’s look at some advanced ESL lesson plans and activities you can incorporate into your lessons to engage and challenge your students.

ESL Advanced Lesson Plans

Your class can enjoy ESL conversation, news, vocabulary lessons, and more.

1. British Council

The British Council provides access to a few free advanced ESL lesson plans on general topics for secondary school students and adults. The lesson plans are designed around engaging themes, and it will take one or two classes to complete each one. They also have some free Business English lesson plans. Feel free to check these out for your advanced-level students.

Unfortunately, they don’t have many lesson plans available, but it’s great for finding something if you are stuck. Here are some to check out:

Left Handers
Robot Relationships
Sports in (Climate Crisis)
Kaleidescope – Edinburgh

2. Linguahouse

While Linguahouse is a paid membership site, they also have exclusive free lesson plans you hear about when you subscribe to their emails.

Linguahouse has got you covered with unique, high-quality content if you don’t have much time to prepare your lessons.

Here are some of the free resources for high-intermediate to advanced ESL students:

Pandemic Millionaires
Snow Leopards
Mastering Conversation
Spider Home Invasion
Shakespeares Insults
Changing Careers

3. Breaking News English

Breaking News has a plethora of amazing advanced ESL lessons.

Their worksheets can quickly be downloaded and used in the ESL classroom. They have short and long lesson plans to cover all situations!

Level six, graded on Breaking News English, is equivalent to C1 and C2 student levels on the CEFR scale.

Here is an example of some free lesson plans you can find at Breaking News English:

Extreme Heat Lesson Plan
Record Breaking 96-year old DJ Dies
Herald of Wild Elephants on the March in China
Job Offers $30 an Hour for Eating Candy
London’s Thinnest House sells for $1.3 million

Ello is a website with thousands of free listening exercises. If you want to switch things up from the reading lessons, Ello has great topic choices for advanced learners.

Examples of audio lessons you can find on Ello:

Minimum Wage
Climate Change
Skin, Sea, and Sun
Introverts and Extroverts
Bitcoin Part 1

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5. TED Talks

TED Talks are very interesting and engaging, providing good discussion points.

We can form entire lesson plans around TED Talks, which are suitable for advanced learners.

You may want to ask some comprehension questions after you’ve watched the short video, followed by some discussion questions that ask for opinions, experiences, and any ethical or moral issues that relate to the video and the society in which we live.

We can also look at some of the language used in the TED Talk. Were there words that the student might have had trouble understanding? What do the phrases mean?

See some ready-made TED Talk lesson plans at Free English Plans. These are perfect for advanced-level C1 students. Also, check out TED-Ed , which has some comprehension and discussion questions mapped out for you with each video.

6. ESL Pals

ESL Pals has some great ready-made lesson plans that are easy to download and print off with just a few clicks. Currently, they have business English, general English, and grammar lessons at the C1 level.

This is a paid resource, starting at $49 for six months of access, although some free resources are available.

Examples of free lessons you can find at ESL Pals:

Risk: Tokyo Olympics
Crime: The Prison System
Pursuit of Happiness
Advanced Prepositions

7. Off2Class

If you are considering teaching online, Off2Class has many lessons you can share with an advanced-level student.

Off2Class has a huge curriculum that can be adapted to a variety of needs, and its advanced-level lessons are plentiful. If you are interested in using Off2Class, you must pay a monthly or annual subscription fee, starting at $8 per month .

Examples of free lessons you can find at Off2Class;

Five ESL Lesson Plans to Teach Idioms
Five ESL Lesson Plans to Get Your Students Speaking
Consumerism and Consumption
The Business of Philanthropy

8. Use Authentic Materials

Authentic materials are produced for native speakers, like newspapers, menus, brochures, movies, or magazines. It is not designed with language learners in mind but can be used to create an ESL lesson plan for advanced learners.

While authentic material is useful for advanced learners, you must choose your materials carefully. Then you can ask the students questions about the material and follow with a roleplay or a written exercise.

You can look at grammar, vocabulary, and discourse analysis . This focuses on how language is used to create meaning. For example, how a tabloid newspaper aims to communicate in relation to its genre or how sentences are structured.

You may also be interested in Top ESL Websites for Online Teachers

Check The Readability Level of Any Lesson Material

If you aren’t sure about the readability level of a certain text, I’ve found a text analyzer online specifically for ESL teachers. It rates the difficulty of a text according to the Common European Framework (CEFR).

I added my text and the analyzer took the main vocabulary to study from the text. It also gave me the definitions of the suggested vocabulary compiled as a list when I clicked the “definitions” button. A game-changer for ESL teachers! Find the text analyzer here.

You can find a lot of news articles online from sites like BBC and The Daily Mail.

Advanced-Level Books

Compelling conversations.

This book really gets students talking!

Compelling Conversations is a good book for groups of advanced English language learners.

This book helps ESL learners develop conversation skills and improve their fluency by reflecting on their experiences and sharing stories about their lives.

A typical chapter includes questions, key vocabulary, sayings, further conversation, and the sharing of views.

Practice Makes Perfect

Students often don’t understand how to have a relaxed everyday conversation in real-life scenarios.

Students might struggle to understand the slang and conversational phrases and expressions we use that you might not find in the textbook.

Practice Makes Perfect gives examples of everyday conversations made by people without filtering out the oohs and ahhs of everyday conversation. This means that students get some fairly raw conversations with idiomatic American English expressions that they may not be familiar with when learning English in an academic setting.

Practice Makes Perfect teaches conversational skills with expressions and phrases we use daily. It suits students that have a high-intermediate level of English and above.

Advanced Level Activities

Activities can add a nice change of pace to the lessons while still improving students’ English skills. Here are some entertaining EFL game ideas for adults and teens.

1. Taboo Cards

Taboo is a word-guessing game and a great hit with ESL learners. Nobody is too old for games!

A person has to choose a card and make his partner guess the word without mentioning any of the “taboo” words.

For example, the word that the partner has to guess is “thrifty.” The person has to try to communicate this word without saying the taboo words “cheap,” “spend,” and “money.”

Here are some taboo cards for advanced learners. This game can also be adapted to lower-level learners if the teacher chooses the words carefully.

2. Categories

Categories is a great way to include activities that don’t take much preparation.

This is an activity suitable for all levels of learners in which a teacher picks a category, for example, “positive adjectives to describe people .”

Students sit in a circle and have to say something relevant to the category when it is their turn. The person who can’t think of something is out of the game.

3. How Long Can You Talk About…

Speeches can be a great way to access students’ prior knowledge on a topic.

Pick a topic of conversation, for example, “how to be more productive.”

The student has to talk about the topic for as long as possible until they run out of things to say. The teacher can note the time with a timer.

This activity can also be played in small groups to increase student talk time.

4. Board Games

I love prepositions because they are second nature to me as an English teacher but not to ESL students.

Examples of prepositions:

We are tired of waiting for Lucy.
I think he’s jealous of you.
It depends on your decisions.

Board games are fun but may take a lot of time to make. I created a prepositions board game, but you can find board games that practice various grammar or vocabulary points.

5. Mini-Debates

Students can have an impromptu mini-debate if the teacher can bring some controversial statements to the table!

Divide the students into two teams. The student gets 2-3 minutes to discuss their point of view before an opposing team member argues the point.

Examples of debates:

Marriage is not necessary in the 21st century.
Workers should be given a four-day workweek.
Formal dress codes are beneficial
Vaccines should be a legal requirement
Everyone should be vegetarian
The drinking age should be 21

Advanced ESL Conversation Topics

Topics and conversation questions to ask advanced learners:

Natural disasters: “what are the consequences of natural disasters?”
Inequality: “what kind of aid should we provide to poor countries ?”
Fake news: “how can you tell if a story is fake?”
Pet peeves: “do you have any pet peeves?”
Diseases: “what dangerous diseases are people scared of?”
Shopping online: “have you ever had a disappointing shopping experience?”
Environmental problems: “how will the world be affected by climate change?”
Job interviews: “what kind of questions shouldn’t be asked in an interview ?”
Success and failure: “how do you treat failure?”
Current events: “what is happening in the world today?”
History and culture: “how did people live long ago?”
Lifestyle habits: “have you made any recent lifestyle changes?”
Inventions: “do some countries encourage entrepreneurship more than others?”
Medical and scientific progress: “what is your opinion on plastic surgery?”
Politics: “is too much attention paid to a politician’s life?”

Any topic can be advanced, but these topics allow students to think deeply and speak spontaneously about a subject they are interested in or know something about.

Tips for building advanced lesson plans for ESL students:

Be relevant
Keep your lessons simple, don’t try to reinvent the wheel
Find the balance between creative and practical
Keep it interactive
Play games, even with adults

What Should I Teach Advanced Level Learners?

Authentic lesson material such as podcasts, YouTube, and the newspaper
Conversational expressions, phrases and idioms
New writing styles
Pronunciation and intonation
Cultural differences

At this point, ESL learners want to know more about how to speak English naturally and fluently with native English speakers. You should teach advanced-level learners idioms, phrasal verbs , and conversational or slang phrases they can use based on their needs.

Students may be unfamiliar with writing styles, such as academic, legal, analytical, and creative writing.

Authentic newspaper articles that are not structured like the typical textbook will provide a challenge to students. Use them to your advantage!

How Do I Teach Advanced Vocabulary to ESL Students?

When students see the vocabulary term used in different contexts, it reinforces what they have learned and sticks in their minds.

The vocabulary should be based on the lesson plan
Allow the student to say the new vocabulary term
Explain what it means
Put the new term in a sentence
Ask the student a question that encourages them to use the new vocabulary
Use the new vocabulary term in reading, writing, or speaking exercises

In Conclusion

Learning English as a second language can be fun, even for advanced learners!

When planning lessons for advanced EFL classes, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Keep the lessons fun and engaging with some new vocabulary and exciting topics to discuss!

What lesson ideas have you found to be helpful? Let me know in the comments!

Useful Links

Best ESL Worksheets for Beginners
Best Icebreaker Questions and Activities
Best Free Worksheets for Adults
Best Free Worksheets for Young Learners
Best Free Business English Lesson Plans
Best ESL Grammar Lesson Websites

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Caitriona Maria is an education writer and founder of TPR Teaching, crafting inspiring pieces that promote the importance of developing new skills. For 7 years, she has been committed to providing students with the best learning opportunities possible, both domestically and abroad. Dedicated to unlocking students' potential, Caitriona has taught English in several countries and continues to explore new cultures through her travels.

17 Best ESL Icebreaker Questions and Activities

Peer learning: benefits and best practices.

This article is a treasure trove of good information for beginning ESL teachers. Thank you for the many resources and suggestions for making engaging lesson plans!

Thank you for your comment Jacinda, glad I could help 😊

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Level: C1 / Advanced

In a league of your own

In this lesson, students discuss awards and famous individuals, and learn vocabulary on challenges and achievements. They explore Olympic Games quotes, watch a video about an athlete, and engage in discussions on success.

Let’s get down to business! – new B2/C1 Business English students

This lesson set is designed to give you an opportunity to learn more about your new B2/C1 Business English students and to assess their level of English.

Time for a performance review!

With this lesson, students learn functional vocabulary to talk about performance reviews (e.g. overlook, reassess). They discuss hypothetical situations and engage in a role-play. They also share opinions, watch a video, and discuss performance management tools.

First things first – new B2/C1 students

This lesson set is designed to give you an opportunity to learn more about your new B2/C1 students and to assess their level of English.

Avoiding culture clashes

Students explore cross-cultural communication in business! They share experiences and opinions on the topic, learn about an international business framework called ‘The Culture Map’, discuss cross-cultural communication scenarios, and practise collocations.

first lesson for Business English students

Trades and trends! (first lesson with B2/C1 Business English students)

Get to know your new class in this first Business English lesson! Students discuss their language journeys, watch and discuss a video about corporate trends, learn collocations, and revise grammar.

Advanced prepositions

Work on prepositions with this lesson! C1 students practise advanced prepositions in various contexts, discuss personal experiences and explore prepositional phrases. They also study verbs with dependent prepositions and prepositions in binomials.

ESG: From compliance to commitment

With this lesson, students explore ESG regulation and its implementation! They talk about the necessity and purpose of ESG practices, watch a video about anti-ESG sentiment and discuss some controversial opinions.

Mockumentaries and other comedy series

With this lesson, students discuss mockumentaries like The Office! They also explore other comedy series and learn some descriptive vocabulary. They discuss opinions on famous comedy series and look at proposals for other potential programmes.

talk about technology for reducing crime

Fighting crime with tech

With this lesson, students talk about the use of technology for reducing crime and watch a video about crime detection technology. They also talk about regulations and punishments for tech-related crimes, and discuss law enforcement in movies and real life.

Therapy speak

Engage students in reading an article about therapy speak! In this lesson, they talk about therapy, discuss the pros and cons of therapy speak and discuss changing perspectives on mental health.

Is free speech hate speech?

Dive into a discussion about free speech with this lesson! Students talk about the impact of controversial statements, watch and discuss a video about different perspectives on freedom of speech and talk about the ethics of censorship.

I get electricity from…

Step into the world of energy production with this lesson! Students practise useful vocabulary and watch a video on electricity trading. They also talk about local and global power generation, examine statistics and discuss sustainable energy.

When crowds fund your project

With this lesson, students talk about funding sources, address scepticism and watch a video about common myths of crowdfunding. They also explore vocabulary, analyse successful crowdfunding campaigns and create their own projects.

Agree to disagree? Negotiating conflict

Explore the world of conflict with this lesson! Students discuss conflict narratives, resolution tactics, and personal conflict styles. They learn collocations, discuss opinion statements, and listen to a podcast.

The fastest shoe in the world

With this speaking lesson, students talk about technology in sports, sports ethics and fairness and watch a video on a controversy involving Nike’s footwear in professional running. They also discuss regulatory measures in athletics and the future of technology in sports.

How brands influence our thinking

Engage in a discussion about branding with this lesson! Students talk about consumer behaviour and brand-building strategies, watch a video and discuss the relationship between consumers and brands.

Expressing likelihood

In the first lesson, students learn language to express likelihood. In the second lesson, they practise the target language while talking about a topic of interest.

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10 Advanced ESL Activities

Too often, the quantity of ESL students talking is given priority over the quality of the speaking time.

While it’s important to get your ESL students talking, it’s even more important to get them talking well.

But how do you do it?

In this post, I’ll share 10 engaging activities that will get your advanced ESL students practicing the English they know and learning more along the way.

1. Class Debate

2. film a news show or skit, 3. murder mystery party, 4. improv games, 5. record an interview, 6. discussion: speed-dating style, 7. think-pair-share, 8. pros and cons, 10. socratic circles.

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

Class debates are an ideal way to get your advanced students talking, especially because there are several opportunities for speaking practice in one activity.

First, break your class into smaller groups of about four or five students. Debating in large groups saves time, but it could cut down on how much each individual student actually gets to say. Depending on the size of your class, you may want to have two separate debate sessions, and have the students who aren’t participating in the debate judge the results for their classmates.

For the debate, give students an interesting topic and be sure to give them enough materials—in English, of course—to be able to address the issue you’ve assigned. A great way to do this is to choose an issue from current events and give your students access to recent English-language newspapers, either online or in paper form, such as The New York Times , The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian .

The New York Times requires a subscription for full access, as does The Wall Street Journal (if you and your students use these sources on anything like a regular basis, you may find they’re easily worth the price). You can also give students a choice of three fascinating debate topics and have them vote for which one they’d like to discuss.

Assign each group a side and give students approximately a half hour to prepare their arguments. Each side should be aware from the very beginning that you’ll require an introductory argument (five minutes), rebuttal (two minutes), second rebuttal (two minutes) and conclusion (two minutes). Each student will be required to manage one of these arguments; for groups of five, the introduction can be split in half. This will ensure that all students have the opportunity to speak.

When it comes time to begin the debate, flip a coin to decide which group gives the first argument. Both introductions are then given; encourage all students to take notes during the introductions. After the introductions, give groups two minutes to formulate a rebuttal.

Rebuttals are then given, followed by an additional two minutes for a second rebuttal. Students are given two minutes to edit their conclusions, as needed, followed by deliberation by the jury or the teacher.

Things to Watch Out for:

While students are preparing their arguments, be sure to monitor groups to ensure that the preparation work is being done in English.
Be sure that students who are giving the introduction and conclusion avoid the temptation to read what has been prepared. Students should be graded on delivery as well as argument.

Filming a news show or skit is a great way for students to include multimedia in their oral English practice, especially if your school has a multimedia lab. Unlike a more traditional skit that students simply perform in class, this concept allows students to use free editing software, such as iMovie for Mac , to edit their films together.

First, decide whether you would rather have students film a news show or a skit. Skits tend to be better for larger groups that are older and more advanced, whereas a news show is better for intermediate learners or when you’re a bit strapped for time.

It can be beneficial to model a news show or skit with native content from FluentU . With this program, you’ll be able to showcase authentic English from video clips of the news or other media. Every video has interactive subtitles that let students pause and check the meaning of any word to avoid confusion.

You can also make a flashcard deck with relevant terms from the various videos on FluentU. These flashcards will let students see the word in context in sentences and clips from other videos. You can also use these flashcards to help students learn the words with adaptive exercises .

Once they’ve seen some examples and learned a few keywords, students will need to conceive of the skit and write it. You may wish to give direction as to a topic, especially if you’d like to link it back to something that you’ve been studying.

For example, if you’ve been reading a novel with your advanced ESL students, you may ask them to reinterpret a scene from the novel. If you’ve been working on vocabulary, ask students to incorporate at least ten of their new words into the skit.

For a news show, each student will present the daily news (or invented news!) from each section, i.e. general news, sports news, weather news, local news. This option allows students to still experience the multimedia aspect of this activity without having quite as much to prepare.

Should you choose the first option, you should allow your students at least four class periods to prepare: one to conceive of their skit, one to rehearse, one to film and one to edit. For the news show, you could conceivably do the activity in just three periods—one to write the show, one to film and one to edit. Use an additional class period to have a screening of all of the students’ projects.

Be sure to stress that each student must speak in the skit/news show. Some students will have larger parts than others, but make sure that students take turns filming so that they don’t end up behind the camera instead of in front of it.
Encourage students to write a script that suggests their lines, rather than attempting to memorize exact lines. This will not only allow them to practice spontaneous oral production but also removes the tedious task of memorization which is not the goal of this exercise.
Consider giving students’ skits a time frame, for example five to ten minutes.

A murder mystery party can be a fun last day exercise before a big break or vacation. It’s a bit tougher to grade than some of the other ideas on this list (you may opt not to) but it’s endlessly fun for students and it can be a lot of fun for you as well!

First off, you’re going to have to come up with a scenario and characters. You can make up your own characters or you can use a guide to murder mystery parties to start off on the right track. You can even purchase murder mystery party kits online.

Next, you’ll need to assign each of your students a character at the party. Each student will receive a card with secret information about his or her character, which the students should keep to him or herself unless asked a direct question by another character, in which case the student has to answer truthfully.

The aim of the game is to figure out who murdered the host of the party by asking questions and snooping for clues. You can leave clues around your classroom ahead of time, making them as simple as notecards describing an item (for example, a silver bracelet with a strange, rusty red stain on it) or you could create actual props, depending on the time you have to work on this project.

Things to Watch Out f or:

Be sure to encourage students to speak in English. When playing a game, there’s always a temptation to revert back to the native language, and this should be discouraged at all costs. To keep things going smoothly you’ll need to become part of the game yourself, so don’t forget to create your own character!
If it seems as though students aren’t discovering clues quickly enough for the game to reach its conclusion, as the game-master you can give them hints. Just make sure that all students hear the hints!

Improv games can be a great way to encourage students to speak spontaneously, which is a vital English skill.

While there are lots of different improv games out there, this basic improv game is great for the classroom. It’s fast, it allows students to speak quite a bit and it’s very adaptable, depending on the class that you have.

Choose three students to go on “stage” to start. Ask students in the audience to name a place, which becomes the setting. From here, the students should begin to improvise a scene.

Right before the scene begins, ask each student to take a slip of paper, upon which you’ll have already written a random word. The student must use the word in the skit at some point. Students have only five minutes to finish the skit and use each of their words before another three students take their place.

If you think that students need more guidance, you can also give them characters or a basic premise. For example, “You’re all roommates and you need to talk to Chris about the problems being posed by his pet alligator.”

As students get used to the game, you can also allow audience members to raise their hands periodically and throw in something new when called on. For example, a student might say, “Someone knocks on the door.” Or “A bird flies in through the window.”

With games, it’s always better to let the game reach its logical conclusion first and correct, if needed, later. Be sure to take notes so that you can address any grammar issues or other problems that you noted during the game. As always, the best way to correct speech like this is to first repeat or write the sentence the way you heard it, and then ask students to offer a correction.

This activity allows advanced English students to use their knowledge to correct their classmates, which gives them even more linguistic awareness.

First, place your students into pairs. Give students between five and ten minutes to come up with a list of questions—for an advanced class, between seven and ten questions should be enough, as the questions should be open-ended.

Have them download a voice recorder app onto their phones, and allow students to interview one another. A variant of this may be to allow students to take on a persona, real or imaginary, and answer the questions as this persona.

Once the interview is over, have students listen to the recordings and correct themselves and one another. Ask students to justify their corrections, to ensure that they have understood the mistakes that were made. These corrections should be written out and turned in.

Students correcting other students can become mean-spirited in the wrong context. Make sure that students are correcting one another helpfully.
Ideally, the teacher should listen to all recordings to make sure that no corrections were missed. Have students keep interviews to under 5 minutes, to make this easier for you, and have them share their audio files via Dropbox or email so that you can listen too.

This is a fun one that can be used as a main activity or as a warm-up to a lesson. First, you’ll need to rearrange the classroom a bit, if you’re able to in your teaching environment.

Organize your class into two concentric circles with chairs from the outer circle facing in, and chairs from the inner circle facing out. The structure of this activity is much like the deeply romantic modern courtship ritual of speed dating. Choose one circle to be “mobile.” After three minutes of discussion, students in the “mobile” circle will cycle clockwise to speak to a new partner.

There are a number of ways you can organize the topics they’ll discuss. You could call out a new topic every three minutes, or, to really get your students to develop an opinion, you could have them discuss the same topic with each person in the opposite circle.

Time is of the essence here; it’s best to keep your topics fairly straightforward, as there won’t be much space for reflection as the seconds tick away. I find relatively light topics such as “Is it really that good being young?” “Which are better: cats or dogs?” and “Should students wear uniforms?” are very effective for this format.

When teaching a course on discussion and debate at the Thai university where I work, I always use this activity as an ice-breaker for the students to get to know each other. It warms them up and helps them become comfortable with each other, which can be very important in encouraging students to express their opinions to each other.

You might find that students run out of things to say before the three minutes are up. Have some follow-up questions ready in case that happens so you can keep the conversation going.
Listen for common mistakes that you can go over as a class after the activity.

Also called “Talking Partners,” this activity begins by giving the class a topic to think about. They can think quietly about the topic for a few minutes and are then assigned a partner.

Students will discuss their opinions about the issue with their partner. After a set number of minutes is up, pairs can share their opinions about the topic with the class as a whole.

Possible topics for Think-Pair-Share might include “Nurses should be paid more than lawyers,” “Alcohol should be made illegal” and “Money defines success in life.”

This activity lends itself to easy differentiation: You might pair up a weaker student with a stronger one, or decide to partner two strong students together to keep them challenged.

Likewise, when each pair is sharing their opinions with the class as a whole, you may wish to have each student explain the position of their partner rather than their own opinions. A kind of “devil’s advocate” then can be a useful exercise to lead into more formally organized debates.

Again, some pairs may finish talking before the set time is up. If this happens, you can have them give you a quick summary of their opinions and then ask follow-up questions for them to continue discussing. Or, if they share the same opinion, you can ask them to discuss arguments that the other side might use in a debate.

This simple activity is very useful—whether as preparation for structured discussion or debate or as an end in itself. It can also be a great way for students to reflect on a topic while forming their own opinion.

Pros and Cons involve individually making lists of the pros and cons (or the for and against) of a given topic. It allows the student to weigh the different arguments and counterarguments in their minds.

It can also provide a useful jumping-off point for extended pieces of writing . I sometimes provide students with word banks of target phrases, vocabulary and sentence starters during this activity, helping the students express their ideas more coherently.

When the students have completed their list of pros and cons, they can use this as a basis for writing their arguments in the form of an essay or debate preparation. The list allows them to see points and counterpoints they can develop, and also highlights the fundamental differences between mere propaganda and a well-developed argument that has taken counterarguments into full consideration.

“TV does more harm than good,” “Group English classes are better than private lessons” and “Celebrities are overpaid” can be good starting points to get the pros and cons ball rolling!

Picking the topic is an important part of this activity. Try to make it relevant or interesting for your students, but not too advanced for their current level. Again, you can tailor it to the specific vocabulary or topic you’ve been teaching in class.

An important aspect of discussion is empathy . The ability to understand things from another’s point of view can be crucial in helping us develop a more sophisticated opinion of our own. “Rounds” effectively does this by putting the student briefly in the position of playing devil’s advocate.

Begin the activity by writing a contentious discussion statement on the whiteboard, such as “Zoos are a necessary way to safeguard endangered species” or “Third-level education is not worth the financial investment.” Have the class divide itself along the lines of for and against, based on their actual opinions. The more contentious the issue, the more beneficial the exercise.

Then, tell students that those who are “for” must now speak for 30 seconds against the statement, and those “against” must speak for 30 seconds for the statement. You may wish to have a number of different statements ready to prevent students from merely repeating the arguments of others.

In this activity, the opinions expressed are less important than the intellectual gymnastics required to understand the opposing opinion and formulate an argument against their own stated belief. This is also a useful skill to develop when undertaking formal debates.

Since you’re dealing with contentious issues, the discussion could get tense and students could take it personally and get upset. Students could also feel singled out or embarrassed if they’re outnumbered by the other side. You know your students best, so approach this activity considering how they might respond. It could be a good opportunity to talk about respectful disagreement.

A Socratic Circle is a more formal discussion method developed from the idea of the Socratic dialogue , whereby we arrive at the “truth” by a process of questioning and answering, then reflecting and critiquing, and finally resulting in a very refined argument or position. In the context of the classroom, it usually revolves around responses to an open-ended question based on a written text.

To begin, assign a suitable text or passage to the class for homework. The students should read, analyze and annotate the text with their own thoughts and opinions. Some very interesting articles to inspire discussion can be found here .

In the next lesson, divide the class into two concentric circles, both facing inwards. Students sit in their assigned circles with their text.

The inner circle then discusses the text, using their notes to help them formulate their ideas. You can use a series of prepared open-ended questions to simulate the discussion.

The outer circle sits quietly while observing closely, and may take notes. After ten minutes (or whatever time is appropriate for your group), the outer circle then provides feedback to the inner circle based on their observations. The groups then switch and the process repeats.

This activity provides excellent training in listening and speaking, and bridges these skills to reading and writing. Generally, the focus of the questions will be a moral dilemma of sorts. This doesn’t mean, however, that it can only be used with older students. Important philosophical questions are raised in many children’s texts too, especially in fables such as “The Tortoise and the Hare.”

As the teacher, you can also differentiate the complexity of the questions in line with the maturity of your students. Usually, the text will be a short thought-provoking piece. While fables work well with younger students, strong, opinionated newspaper editorials are great for older students.

Make sure everyone contributes to the discussion rather than relying on the stronger students to do most of the talking. It will quickly become obvious who did or didn’t do their homework!
If it seems like some or all of the students didn’t fully understand the text, take some time to break it down and have the students use context to discover the meaning of unknown words and phrases.

These techniques are only one element of teaching your advanced students to speak English.

The important thing is to help students overcome their initial fears of speaking and to give them plenty of time to practice.

These activities will let you achieve both objectives!

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Advanced-Level Worksheets

We have pages of materials for advanced-level students you'll also find materials in our intermediate level collection which are great for advanced students., not yet a member join us and get instant access to hundreds of worksheets..

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The topic of getting vaccinated has hit the headlines in recent months with the spread of Covid-19.

This worksheet looks at the history of vaccination - and how opposition to vaccination stretches back hundreds of years.

Following the lead-in question, there is a pre-reading task, a gap-fill reading, compression / vocabulary exercises and discussion.

This worksheet is written for upper-intermediate level students and above/

Can your students start their day without a cup of coffee? Is it possible to make coffee at home that rivals the brew you would buy at a cafe?

This worksheet looks at (purportedly) the best way to make a proper cup of coffee.

a discerning palate
the rule of thumb
cost a fortune
an airtight container
...and more

The lesson rounds off with a look at different kinds of coffee brewing methods. Can your students decide which they think is best for home?

With a reading, comprehension questions, vocabulary exercises and discussion, there are plenty of opportunities for your students to explore the topic of coffee and give their opinions.

Would your students enjoy a meat-free burger that's pink and juicy? Have they ever tried one?

This worksheet has vocabulary mix and match exercises, a gap-fill reading and discussion questions.

It's perfect for upper-intermediate and advanced students.

Could a robot do your job - or that of your students? Automation is set to affect us all, as artificial intelligence and robots replace us in the workforce.

This worksheet looks at upcoming changes, with a gap-fill reading, mix and match exercises, idiom building and more.

Your students will learn expressions including:

a game changer
to pick up steam
a fraction of the cost
the Industrial Revolution

and more besides!

The lesson rounds off with discussion questions. Do your students already use AI? You could ask about Alexa, Siri, Cortana and smart devices. How well do they work?

This worksheet is written for upper-intermediate levels and above.

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Train to Teach English: No.1 for TESOL Certification Online

Great homework ideas for ESL students

Discover great homework ideas for ESL students in your classes

While most people don't want to do extra outside of class, there is no denying that having some English input between lessons is a great way for our students to take ownership of their learning and see faster English improvement.

So here are five great homework ideas for ESL students:

1. Truth or lie?

Students prepare three short stories about themselves for homework. One is true, the others are false. In the next lesson they tell their partner their stories while their partner asks questions to decide which story is true. Then reverse roles.

A game element is really motivating and this works with many different language levels.

2. Prepare for a quiz

Do you want them to remember new verbs, tense structures or vocabulary? Are you doing a general revision lesson next? Ask your students to revise at home, telling them you’ll put them into teams next week to answer questions. Have each team make up a distinct buzzer sound if you like so they can ‘buzz in’ with the right answer. Winning team gets a prize.

Works best with teens and kids; a neat reason to revise at home and much more fun than an individual test.

3. Set up a FB group for the class

Ask a question a week, invite responses and encourage respectful conversation and debate. Be careful; not everyone likes social media and you may choose a more appropriate platform for sharing ideas outside of class.

Collaboration in English outside of class can be stimulating, build relationships and practice real-world English.

4. Riddles/puzzles/tongue twisters

A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and rode out again on Friday. How did he do that? (*answer at bottom of the page)

Lateral thinking questions like the above can be fun and all the while, students are reading English. Alternatively, have students practice tongue twisters at home and either translate one from their own language or make one up. Have them share with the class next time.

It is a lot of fun hearing tongue twisters translated from other languages.

5. Watch YouTube video stories and report back

There are plenty of great story videos ESL students can watch at home and which are graded for level.

In the example video at the bottom of this blog, you'll see a short past tense story, suitable for low level learners. After watching it for homework, here are two ways you can work on it in your next class: 1. Ask general comprehension questions on the video. 2. Re-create the story as a class, eliciting it from students piece by piece with the help of key words from the story as prompts on the board.

Alternatively divide the class into A and B.

For homework, A's watch one video and B's another. Pair an A and a B up in class afterwards to summarise the stories to each other.

Video is so engaging and it is much easier to get students to watch something than write something.

As teachers, we can help our students by giving homework tasks that are meaningful, relevant and engaging. Also students are more likely to do the work if it will be checked or used in some way in the following lesson.

We hope we have inspired you to choose fun, task-based homework activities that have a solid focus and outcome. Notice, too, how there is always a meaningful follow-up to the homework task in class.

When planning homework tasks, you can also take your inspiration from the real-world and ask students to do things like text each other or listen to English music.

The possibilities for productive homework tasks are endless.

*Answer to lateral thinking question: Friday is a horse .

The Global English 120 hour TESOL Premier course . contains great content on crafting lesson plans and a section on how to give homework effectively.

Check out our ready-to-print and use TEFL lessons here.

Ask any questions about TESOL training and ESL classes directly here or join the chat in our friendly Facebook group .

Author: William
Date: 06/11/2018

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9 EFL/ESL Games and Activities for Advanced Learners

When English learners reach an advanced level, it’s tempting to think they’re beyond the type of games and fun activities we use with lower-level students. I think that’s in part because advanced learners tend to be older, so classes should feel more serious.

But it’s important to have variation. Serious study is valuable, but don’t discount the transformative effect an injection of fun can have on a classroom of adults.

With that in mind, here are 9 games and activities picked out from my own experience that are challenging enough for advanced learners.

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1. Just a Minute

Just a Minute is a game featured on Radio 4 in the UK for over 50 years. It’s simple, demanding, and flexible.

How to play One person starts as the speaker. Assign them a topic, for example, “American Sports”. They have to talk about the topic for 60 seconds (set a timer). They must not repeat any significant word during the 60 seconds, except for the words in the topic phrase, so in our example, they can repeat “American” and “Sport”. At any time, other students can raise their hand and say “challenge”. Stop the timer. The challenger then identifies which of three things the speaker has done: – Hesitation: Err, umm, long pauses, tripping over words. – Repetition: Repeating a significant word not in the topic phrase. – Deviation: Changing the topic (e.g. talking about American food). Decide if the challenge is valid or not. If it is, the challenger gets 1 point, and takes over the role of speaker. They may repeat any words the previous speaker(s) said. If it’s not a valid challenge, the current speaker gets 1 point and continues from where they left off. Whoever is speaking when the 60 seconds runs out earns 3 points.

It can take a few rounds for students to get the hang of the game. The decision whether a challenge is valid or not is up to the teacher, which can be a little stressful if you don’t stick to consistent rules. Here are some tips.

2. Social Deduction Games (e.g. Spyfall, Coup, Detective Club)

Board games have come on leaps and bounds in the last decade or so. While I wouldn’t normally recommend games like Monopoly or Settlers of Catan for EFL/ESL classes, since they require little English, social deduction games are a different matter.

Estimated time: 5-20 minutes (depending on the game you choose) Energy level: 3/5 Materials: Purchased board game

A minority (one player or a small group) are evil/bad/spies, while the majority (everyone else) is good. Through playing the game, the good players have to identify the baddies, and the baddies have to kill/sabotage/escape from the goodies.

They’re best with groups of 5-8, although some can cater to different sized groups.

Of course, you’ll have to buy the game. They aren’t cheap ($10-30), but they have excellent re-playability, and nobody’s stopping you from playing them at home with your friends!

Learn how to play Spyfall and get the best out of it in your classes in this video I made!

And if you found that video helpful, make sure to subscribe to the Enchanted ESL YouTube channel where I share loads of other games!

It helps to have two separate rooms, but it’s not compulsory. As long as the room is big enough for two conversations to take place without the others being able to hear easily, you can manage.

How to play Part 1 Choose two players as criminals. They are to be questioned for committing a crime (you invent the crime – a murder in Paris, arson in Beijing… whatever you want). The criminals go out of the room. They have 10 minutes to come up with a false alibi for the day of the crime, which will be put under scrutiny. They must include 3 places they went to, and they must have spent the whole time together. They have to be clear on the details of their story else they’ll get found out. Back in the classroom, divide the other students into two teams of police detectives. They have to come up with useful questions they’re going to ask the criminals . They know the criminals went to 3 places and spent the duration together. Part 2 The criminals get questioned by the police teams one at a time. This is where having two rooms helps, as you can have one police team with one criminal in each room so the criminals can’t communicate. The detectives ask the suspect the questions they’ve prepared (and any others they think of) over the course of 5 minutes . They will have to take notes . Important: The suspect may not answer “I don’t know” or anything similar. They must give tangible information in their answer and respond promptly to questions. Once the time is up, criminals change places and are interrogated by the other police team. The detectives have to find inconsistencies between what the two suspects say . Resolution The police teams assess their information. If they can find 3 differences between the suspects’ stories, that’s enough evidence to put them in prison (police win!). If they can’t find 3 differences, they don’t have enough proof – the criminals win!

While it takes the best part of a lesson, this game works wonders with advanced students. They love coming up with alibis and especially enjoy catching their classmates out.

4. Role Plays

To find out why I love role plays so much, check out my article: Why All EFL/ESL Teachers Should Use Role Play Activities

These role-playing games are my favourite activities of all. They’re beyond anything else I’ve ever used in my classes, and they bring up so many opportunities for learning English in a practical, enjoyable manner.

Enchanted ESL Role-Play Scenarios

5. say anything.

How to play One person asks a question (either written on a prompt card or something they come up with) e.g. What’s the worst place to spend the night? As soon as they’ve said the question, the other players write an answer on a piece of paper (or A4 dry erase pocket). They should aim for an answer which the person who asked the question will like the best. For example, Player A writes: “Under a bench”, Player B writes: “In a freezer” and Player C writes “At the bottom of the sea”. When they’ve written their answers, they put them in the centre of the table. They can’t repeat what someone else has written (first to put their answer on the table gets priority). The questioner then secretly makes a note of which answer they think is best. They cannot change this decision. Now, the players discuss the answers and each predict which they think the questioner has picked (the questioner doesn’t take part in this conversation). The players place a token (or write their name) on the answer they predict. For example, in the discussion, all the players might think the questioner will choose “At the bottom of the sea”. Then the questioner reveals the correct answer. Award a point for every correct prediction, and one point for the person who wrote the answer chosen by the questioner.

6. Countdown

How to play The aim is to make the longest word you can using the letters provided in just 30 seconds. First, let one of your students pick either “consonant” or “vowel” for each of the nine letters (4-5 of each usually works best). Everyone should write down the nine letters. Start the timer, and while the music is playing, all the students should try to make the longest words possible. They can only use each letter once. At the end of the 30 seconds, each player says how many letters they got, and then reveals their answer (shortest word first). The person with the longest word wins as many points as letters in their word. If they get a nine-letter word (very rare), they get double – so 18 points!

7. Escape Rooms

It takes a little while to print the materials and cut them out, but plenty of it is reusable, and you don’t have to invent with your own complicated puzzles.

8. Call My Bluff

The UK TV series ended in 2004 and used a variety of obscure words. In the EFL/ESL version, choose words which are appropriate for your students – hard enough for them not to know the meaning, but common enough for them to be useful.

How to play Divide the class into 2 teams. If you have a large class (10+) divide them into 4 or 6 teams and have multiple games going on at the same time. Give both teams a piece of paper with a word they won’t know and its definition without showing the other team. For example, “to chortle” with the definition “to laugh in a noisy, happy way”. Each team has 3 minutes to come up with two more definitions for their word, which they use as bluffs. For “to chortle” they might think of “to eat so fast you get sick” and “to walk with confidence”. They then read their 3 definitions to the other team, who have to identify the correct definition. If they choose correctly, they get a point. If they don’t, the bluffing team gets a point.

9. Narrative Telephone

Estimated time: 30 minutes Energy level: 1/5 Materials: A short story (2-3 minutes to read)

How to play One person starts as the storyteller. This should probably be you, the teacher, to begin with. The storyteller comes up with a short story (about 2 minutes to read out loud). They tell the story to one student in the class without the others hearing. If this is in a physical class, go out of the room to a quiet place. Online, you could go into a private chat. Between classes, it works really well to record a video/audio and send it to the student. That student can only listen to the story ONCE. And no questions. As soon as they have listened to it, they retell it to another student, trying to remember the details as best they can. Again, the next student can only listen once before passing it on, and this continues until the last student has heard the story. The last student tells the story as best they can and you all work out what has changed or stayed the same.

Modify and Adjust

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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.

Enjoyed this article? Don't forget to share.

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by Graham Dixon 33,176 views

That initial rush of success, when a language student is transformed from someone who can say virtually nothing, to someone who can say a thousand percent as much, is a special thrill, but it cannot last. Eventually, the student will begin to feel that they’re progress has slowed, and with this realization come feelings of boredom and frustration, and a sense that the learning process is no longer as much fun as it once was.

To help your students through this difficult patch, and onward to the lofty achievement of true fluency and native-level language use, here are some tips for keeping your advanced ESL students motivated, for , and for ensuring that your own work doesn’t become too repetitive, even after months of working with the same class.

Achieving a high level of fluency in English is a very worthwhile and notable accomplishment, at any age, and for students of any background. Pick out those special moments where they demonstrate real fluency, use a particularly idiomatic expression or a good metaphor, or when they speak at length without making a single mistake. Even very advanced students get a kick out of being thanked for their hard work or praised for their attentiveness to the nuances of the language.

Set them – longer readings, more complex writing assignments, listening which involves real, native-level sources like the BBC, etc.

This means you can move away from the typical ESL textbook topics and begin to address . Take the temperature of your class on some of these issues, and judge carefully if such in-class discussion would be well received, or whether you might risk inviting divisive and fractious debate.

Some advanced students get a little too big for their boots, and become arrogant, especially toward those of a lower skill level. Puncture these inflated egos with sensitive but direct comments. Remind them that, although they’ve achieved much, they’re not yet a native-level speaker; add, perhaps, that their enrollment in a UK or US college is still by no means certain. You could also invite them to take the ‘Turing Test’ for ESL speakers (see below) which will almost certainly remind them of how far they still have to go.

I believe this structure works, and I evangelize about it, especially for new teachers. However, if your students have become very familiar with this structure, consider changing things up. Perhaps begin your class with an engaging presentation section, and then head straight into challenging practice exercises (though only if the material has been very well explained and isn’t too difficult). Alternatively, save your review for a ‘quiz’ section at the end of the class. However you alter your structure, ensure that you’re not asking your students to practice something without their first having seen a clear model of the structure, or several good examples of the new vocabulary in context.

Try to tap into this, as your students will be exposed to a new world of challenges, as well as realistic opportunities to use what they have learned. If your school doesn’t operate such a program, consider discussing it with your leadership. Alternatively, if you have private students, perhaps speak with friends or family who own a business, and see if you can place your student with a company for a week or two.

Give them a guidebook and challenge them to update sections of it with their findings. Ask them to research restaurants, bars, museums and other attractions before writing a tourist information brochure. Getting out of the classroom is a good way to break the monotony and refresh everyone’s interest in the language.

It requires students to actually go into businesses and shops, use a map, read instructions and follow clues. In Boston, we tasked our students to take photos of Fenway Park and the Prudential Center, to bring home menus from certain takeout restaurants, to pose with some famous Boston consumer items, and at important landmarks (the statue of John Harvard, on the Common, outside Mike’s Pastries) and to navigate the MBTA public transport system without using their phones. My students had a great time, and quickly gained confidence in getting around a large, new city.

Build on the typical presentations (a book report or a review of a movie, for example) by expanding the requirements. Have your students research the background of a director or movie genre and present . Or, if they’re presenting on a news topic, ask them to go further into the details of why this crisis has emerged, or how this leader has come to power. During Hurricane Sandy, a team of my students gave a fantastic presentation on how Atlantic storms are formed, as well as reporting on the storm’s damage and the related media impact.

Ask your students to interview a local business person, a politician, a sports star, the director of your school, or the leader of a local charity or other project. It’s another great chance to get out into the community and speak to new people, and the experience of designing good questions for the interview provides a grammar practice opportunity, too.

This could be anything from a short story to a set of interviews, a radio play or a fake news segment, a ‘wish you were here’ video for their friends back home, or a report on a local event (July 4 , a sporting event, the switching on of the town’s Christmas lights, a speech by the mayor, etc).

I normally discourage direct competition between students, and often don’t give grades for assignments, preferring to write detailed comments instead, but competitions can be a fun way to shake things up. Possible focuses include a poetry, essay, play-writing or descriptive paragraph competition, a speaking or debating contest, a listening contest (based on a real news broadcast, an interview with a high-level speaker, or a famous speech) or small competitions based on bringing in new, ten-point words which they then teach to the class.

One of my absolute favorite ways of having my students compete is to use .

It almost never fails, unless you’ve teaching a class of calorie-counting health nerds (it happens). Incentives could be linked to one of the above types of competition, and could include tickets to local events (movies, plays, sports), or a raffle contest where everyone pitches in a little money; the total is used to buy a desirable consumer item which becomes the prize.

It is a test which uses a set of questions to try to differentiate between a real person and a computer.

The ESL version is less sinister. Have your students write a paragraph, or record their speaking (conversational or prepared) and then assemble these excerpts alongside those from actual native-speakers.

Then, ask an impartial judge to decide which of the excerpts comes from a student, and which from a native speaker.

The written version relies on absolute accuracy and , while the spoken version depends on a native-level accent and intonation, as well as accuracy and culturally relevant language use. It’s a major challenge, and I’ve never had a student convince my wife that they’re not, in fact, a student. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, and I encourage you to try it with your very most advanced students.

Push them further, and see just how far they can progress toward true, native-level fluency.

If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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Tag: advanced

Where do you stand science & technology.

Technology and Science | Study Abroad Life

This is another edition of my “Where do you Stand?” conversation series. Students debate different topics related to science and technology but must rate their opinion on a scale from 1-6 before they begin the discussion. Download the PowerPoint and student handout below:

If you want to use it with B2 students you could use this phrase sheet.

Credit to Owlcation for some of the debate topics:

https://owlcation.com/academia/80-Science-Debate-Topics-for-Students

Guest Post: Information Gap C1

7 Fun Information Gap Activities for the ESL Classroom

This is a guest post by Katy Wright. Students take part in an information gap activity in pairs in order to develop their understanding of phrasal verbs and other fixed expressions. Download the handout below:

Teacher’s notes

Split students into pairs
Give them either Student A or Student B worksheet
Ask them to look at the top exercises by themselves for a few minutes
Tell students that the second paragraph contains their partners answers
Each pair “teaches” the other by helping the find the answer (ideally not just giving the answer ie “it sounds like….” or “the first letter is…”
Once both pairs have corrected their work they could turn over their worksheets and test each other’s memory

Follow up: You could encourage students to write a text or a story containing these expressions

Student Worksheet

Student A worksheet

She has _______ her books in order of colour =
I’ve completely _________ out dairy from my diet =
My love of jazz _________ back to my days as a school trumpet player =
Her imagination is amazing, she __________ up with the most bizarre ideas =
When I heard the noise from upstairs the hairs ___________ up on the back of my neck =
You are still so angry about what he said to you, you need to ______ over it =
The little boy always felt ______ out of games in the playground =

Student B’s Answers

Society needs to cut back on using single-use plastics (reduce)
● My mum hates it when I leave my things lying around and don’t put them away for days (don’t tidy up)
He puts up with a lot of trouble from his younger sister (tolerate)
I have really come to like electronic music though I thought it sounded like garbage a few years ago (enjoy now though you didn’t originally)
My alarm goes off at 7:30 everything morning (makes a noise/rings)
I love animals but the sound of my neighbours dog barking all night long gets to me (irritate)
Don’t let the bullies call you horrible names, you need to stand up for yourself (speak/act in support of)

Student B worksheet

Society needs to _______ back on using single-use plastics =
My mum hates it when I _______ my things lying around and don’t put them away for days =
He ________up with a lot of trouble from his younger sister =
I have really ________ to like electronic music though I thought it sounded like garbage a few years ago =
My alarm ________ off at 7:30 everything morning =
I love animals but the sound of my neighbours dog barking all night long ___________ to me =
Don’t let the bullies call you horrible names, you need to ___________ up for yourself =

Students A’s Answers

She has put her books in order of colour (alphabetise/organise)
I’ve completely cut out dairy from my diet (stopped/blocked)
My love of jazz goes back to my days as a school trumpet player (originate)
Her imagination is amazing, she comes up with the most bizarre ideas (imagines/thinks of)
When I heard the noise from upstairs the hairs stand up on the back of my neck (makes me scared/reaction to music)
You are still so angry about what he said to you, you need to get over it (accept something and move on)
The little boy always felt left out of games in the playground (excluded)

Where do you Stand? Entertainment & Culture

This is another edition of my “Where do you Stand?” conversation series. Students debate different topics related to entertainment and culture but must rate the opinion on a scale from 1-6 before they begin the discussion.

The PowerPoint contains examples of language of opinion, agreement and disagreement designed with C1 students in mind. If you are teaching lower level students, you could just use the student handout. You can download a B2 phrase sheet here.

Here are the topics students discuss:

The book is always better than the film.

There are too many sequels and spin-off films these days. There aren’t many original stories.

The original version of a song is always the best.

Celebrities shouldn’t complain about being in the public eye. It’s part of the jobNetflix will kill the cinema.

You shouldn’t watch films on your phone. It ruins the experience.

Watching a film at the cinema is always better than at home.

Violent films and videogames should be banned.

Music, art and drama should be compulsory subjects at school.

Social media companies should be responsible for the content that users post on their platforms.

Children shouldn’t play with “violent” toys like guns and weapons.

Something is always lost when a text is translated.

Physical books will disappear one day.

Governments should be allowed to censor some elements of the media including books and films.

The benefits of social media platforms outweigh the negative aspects.

Sports involving animals (hunting, horse riding, bullfighting, etc.) are an important part of my culture and must be protected.

Watching too much television makes you stupid.

C1/C2: Inversions – A Weekend Off!

Stressed and tired new parents with screaming newborn baby por Rob and Julia Campbell - Stocksy United

This is a grammar lesson focusing on inversions based around the topic of the stresses of parenthood. Students read a text about new parents who get a weekend off, then transform the text using inversions. Download the handout and teacher’s notes below.

Possible Follow-up

As a follow-up to this lesson plan, you might want to revise inverted conditionals with your C1 students. To do so, you could use this great worksheet created by Andrew Farmer @andrewfarmer80:

Alternatively, you could set this page of inversion Key Word Transformations:

A Weekend Off: Teacher’s Notes

This lesson plan is designed to be used in several ways depending on your students’ level. The grammar focus is inversions, a structure that typically comes up at C1.

Write these questions on the board and have students discuss them in groups:

How does life change when you have kids?
How can other family members help with childcare?
What things do you think new parents miss about their old life?

Feedback in open class and top up language. Somethings that came up with my students were:

Suffer from sleep deprivation
loss/lack of intimacy
Changing dirty nappies/diapers
Pick kids up from kindergarten/nursery
Grandparents help out, lend/give you a hand
Financial struggles
Look after/take care of kids
Babysit – babysitter/nanny

Give out the text, fold the page so that they can’t see the grammar focus part yet, or just share the text if you’re teaching online.

Instruct students to read the text and find the answers to the lead in questions for the couple the text describes:

How has their life changed?
How do their family members help with childcare?
What things do they miss about their old lives?

Feedback in open class.

Language Focus + Controlled Practice

Here is where you can choose a different path depending on how familiar your students are with inversions.

C1 – Introduction to inversions

Lead them through the different types of inversions listed below the text.
This phone can take photos and videos.
Not only can this phone take photos, but also videos.
Add emphasis, more formal.
Position of subject and auxiliary verb is inverted/switched
This phone (subject) can (auxiliary verb) take photos….
Not only can (aux verb) this phone (subject) take photos….
Tell students that the first paragraph contains 10 sentences that can be changed to use inversions and challenge them to change them.
There are 6 more in the second paragraph.

C1 – Inversion Revision

Challenge them to change the 10 sentences in the first paragraph (or all 16 in the whole text) using the language focus boxes as reference. Monitor and help out as needed.
The sentence stems at the bottom will help them identify which sentences they need to change.

C2 – Inversion Revision Super Challenge

Just give them the text, don’t give them language focus boxes for reference or the sentence stems! Tell them there are 16 sentences that can be changed to inversions and see how they get on.
Give out the language focus boxes if needed, monitor specific groups, maybe not everyone needs it.

Show them the second version of the text with all the inversions.

Rarely do we have much time to ourselves. So busy is our schedule that we just can’t find the time to get out of the house. Not only do my husband and I both work full time, but we also have two small kids to look after. Little did I know that my parents were planning a special surprise for me this weekend. Only when I walked in the front door on Friday night did I discover what they had planned. No sooner had I opened the door than they appeared with a bottle of wine and the news that they were taking the kids to the local theme park for the weekend. Obviously the kids were ecstatic, not since they were four years old have they been to the theme park and that was just for 1 day, now they were going for a whole weekend! So grateful were we that we gave my mum and dad a massive hug. However, there had to be some ground rules for the kids. We told them that under no circumstances should they annoy grandma and grandad and on no account must they eat too many sweets before going on the roller coasters.

Hardly had my parents left the house when we opened the bottle of wine and sat on the sofa enjoying the sudden peace and quiet. Not until we sat down did we realise how tired we were. Hardly ever do we get a chance to watch a movie together over a glass of wine. However, barely had we chosen a movie and started watching it when we both fell asleep. Not until the next morning when we woke up did we appreciate how quiet the house was. Not since our second daughter was born had we had the house to ourselves. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves!

Freer Production

Challenge students to work in groups to continue the story. How did the couple spend the rest of their weekend off? Set them a time limit of ten minutes and encourage them to use as many inversions as they can.

C1: Advanced Training: Water Cooler Gossip

Cartoon Characters People Around Water Cooler Gossip Concept.. Royalty Free Cliparts, Vectors, And Stock Illustration. Image 124635636.

This is a lesson plan designed to develop students’ understanding of common idiomatic expressions that can come up in the C1 Advanced exam. Students discuss the topic of problems in the workplace and look at fixed expressions in the context of a dialogue. Download the student handout and exam practice activity below:

I made this lesson plan by taking a bunch of the expressions that are tested in this quizlet set of key word transformations and shoehorning them into a dialogue. You may also wish to use this quizizz game for spaced repetition of the expressions.

Give out the handout and have students discuss the pre-reading topic in small groups. Clear up any vocab doubts and briefly recap in open class.

Have students read the text and answer the gist question: Read the text, which workplace problems does it describe? The text describes a case of nepotism.

Have students answer the detail questions:

Who are the two people? co-workers/colleagues
What are they annoyed about? being overlooked for a promotion
Why did James get the job? he’s the boss’s son-in-law
What is their plan? to wait for James to make a mistake then “throw him under the bus”
Why do they need to be careful? because if anyone finds out they’re plotting, they might lose their jobs

Students look at the language focus section. 2 expressions of surprise: come as a surprise to someone + be taken aback

Have them discuss the other expressions and come up with a simpler paraphrasing for the expression. What they’re doing essentially is writing the first sentence in a key word transformation exercise.

Have students flip the paper over and look at version 2. Now they must use the key words to recall the expressions from the original version from memory. They can then flip back over and check their answers, encourage them to focus on small details like prepositions and verb patterns (gerund/infinitive after the expression) as these can often be worth a mark in the exam.

Students then work in groups to write a new dialogue using as many expressions as possible. Set the key word transformation worksheet, which tests the same structures, as homework. Alternatively you could space it slightly more and have them complete the worksheet in the following class.

C1 Advanced: Writing Part 1 Formal Essay

C1 Advanced (CAE) | The Lleida Cambridge Exams Centre

This is yet another designed to help students prepare for part one of the C1 Cambridge Advanced (CAE) writing exam. Some of the content has been rehashed from old posts but the approach is slightly different. Download the student handout below:

Give out the handout and draw students’ attention to the task on page one and the first version at the bottom of the page. Have them read the task, then the model answer, then answer questions 1-3 with their partner:

Which of the three areas (convenience, cost & enjoyment) does the writer focus on? cost and convenience
Which one do they decide has the biggest impact on where people choose to shop? cost
Content (have they answered the question?) 4.5 – 5 – yes, question is fully answered
Range of language 2.5 – reads more like a B2 First essay
Appropriate style (formal/informal) 1.5 – too informal, not the right style: contractions, words like “stuff”, too personal (too much “I” and “we”), “first let’s look at”

Now have students look at question 4. If you’re pressed for time, you could skip this part. Have students brainstorm more formal and advanced ways of expressing the parts in bold in pairs or groups. Perhaps you could assign one paragraph to each group and have them report back in open class. Board their ideas.

Now have students flip the paper over. Version 2 essential expresses the same ideas but with more advanced language and a more appropriate register. Direct students to find the “fancy” equivalents of the underlined phrases from version 1 in version 2.

Set students the homework task by first encouraging them to discuss the topic:

Factors when deciding where to go on holiday:

Cultural activities

Encourage them to use the language from version 2 and the language on pages 2 and 3 in their compositions.

Read version 1 and answer the questions:

Which of the three areas (convenience, cost & enjoyment) does the writer focus on?
Which one do they decide has the biggest impact on where people choose to shop?
Content (have they answered the question?)
Range of language
Appropriate style (formal/informal)
Look at the sections in bold, how could you express the same ideas in a more impressive/formal way?

We’re always hearing in the news about how more and more people are buying things on the internet . It’s a big problem that fewer people are going shopping in physical shops nowadays . But, what makes people decide where to shop?

First, let’s look at convenience. It’s true that shopping online is much easier than shopping in physical shops. You can buy stuff on your computer and you can sit on your sofa , you don’t need to leave your house . Also , the stuff gets sent to your house . When you go to the physical shop you have to take it home yourself.

Now I’ll talk about cost. Some people think that cost is the most important thing people think about when they decide where to shop. For example, when the sales are on people buy things in shops they don’t normally go to. But some people don’t care about the price. It doesn’t matter if it’s expensive or not.

In conclusion, looking at the facts, I think that cost is the most important thing for most people because if you don’t have enough money , you can’t buy it.

Find and underline the ways that the same ideas are expressed in this version.

Hardly a week goes by without another news report about the recent dramatic increase in online shopping. The decline of the high street shop is undoubtedly a major issue in this day and age. However, which aspect of shopping has the biggest influence on where people shop?

The first area to take into account is convenience. It is undoubtedly the case that shopping online is much more convenient than shopping on the high street. Not only can you make a purchase with the click of a button, but also you can do it from the comfort of your sofa without setting foot outside your door. In addition, the goods are delivered directly to your door whereas when you shop in physical shops you have to carry it home yourself.

Another aspect to consider is cost. There are those who argue that cost has the biggest impact on where people decide to shop. This is illustrated by the fact that during the sales many people buy things in shops they would not normally enter. Nevertheless, for some people the cost is not an issue, they buy what they want to buy no matter the price.

In light of the above, weighing up all the evidence, it is probably true to say that cost does indeed have the biggest influence on where people decide to shop due to the fact that most of the time, if you cannot afford something then you will not be able to buy it.

(247 words)

Homework Task

Your class has had a class debate on the most important factors when it comes to deciding on a holiday destination.

Some opinions expressed in the debate:

“If it’s not a sunny place, then I’m not going. Why would I visit a cold, rainy city?”
“I want my money to go further. For the price of a weekend in Paris, I could spend 2 weeks in Morocco.”
“I can’t stand just lying on a beach, I need to get out and learn something about the places I’m visiting.”

Write an essay for your tutor, discussing two of the factors in your notes. You should explain which factor is the most important for most people , giving reasons to support your argument.

You may, if you wish, make use of the opinions expressed in the debate but you should use your own words as far as possible. Write your essay in 220-260 words in an appropriate style.

Language for introductions

In this day and age…
… is a hotly-debated topic that often divides opinion.
… is a growing issue in today’s society
We live in an age when many of us are…
More and more families are choosing to have only one child.
The trend nowadays is towards having smaller families.
Over the past ten years or so the media have frequently carried reports of ……………
Recent research indicates that the number of teenagers who smoke is increasing.
Hardly a week goes by without another report of …………….. appearing in the media.
Although most people would generally agree that …………… few would deny that ……..

Language for topic sentences

Second Paragraph

…. clearly/undoubtedly has an impact on…
It is common knowledge that… plays a crucial role in…
It is undoubtedly the case that…
There is little doubt that…
… is widely believed to contribute to…
It is generally considered that…
Recent research suggests that…
Studies have shown that… has an impact/influence on…
Few people would contest/dispute the fact that…

Third Paragraph

Another factor to consider is…
On the other hand/In contrast…
It is often claimed that…
All the evidence suggests that…

Language for supporting ideas

Language for introducing supporting ideas:

For example,
For instance,
An obvious example of this is…
A clear example of this is…
This is illustrated by…
As a case in point…

Paragraph Skeleton

It goes without saying that …………………………………………………………………… A clear example of this is ………………………………………………………. In addition, ……………………………………………………………………. Nevertheless, …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Overall/in summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Language for conclusions:

In light of the above, / Taking all this into consideration/account,…
As far as I am concerned, / in my opinion, / as I see it, etc.
… is the most effective way to… due to the fact that…
Despite the fact that… undoubtedly plays a role in… I firmly believe that… is more effective due to the fact that…

Discussion: Where do you Stand? Animal Rights

This is a discussion topic for B2+ students on the topic of animal rights. Download the student handout and PowerPoint below:

The PowerPoint contains advanced language for expressing opinion, personalising the topic, agreeing and disagreeing. It was made with C1/C2 students in mind. If you’re teaching lower levels, the student handout may be more suitable, although I recommend supplementing it with a phrase sheet, perhaps try my FCE Speaking Phrases post.

Put students into small groups (3/4) or conduct the activity as an open class discussion. Before engaging in discussion on the topics, students must decide individually to what extent they agree or disagree with the given statement by circling one of the numbers from 1-6. The idea is that students will be more likely to take a stand and defend their point of view and less able to go along with the crowd if they’ve assigned their opinion a numerical value.

You could also introduce the phrase “to play devil’s advocate” and encourage students do it during the discussion. Another idea could be to assign a specific student from each group as the devil’s advocate for each topic, thus forcing them to come up with counter arguments to what their classmates are saying.

Here are the discussion topics:

Zoos have a positive impact on society.

Big game hunting should be allowed the money from hunting licences should go towards conservation.
Humans shouldn’t step in to save endangered species; nature should be allowed to take its course.
I see no problem with testing cosmetics on animals.
I see no problem with testing medicines on animals.
People in the future will view the way we treat animals today as barbaric.
It’s not a square meal without some meat.
I could go vegetarian.
I could go vegan.
I’m willing to cut down on meat for environmental reasons.
Eating animals like dogs and cats shouldn’t be viewed as strange; we eat pigs, sheep and cows.
I would be able to tell the difference between real and synthetic meat.
One day, all meat will be synthetic meat, grown in a laboratory.
Factory farming is necessary in order to feed the populations.
Eating meat is an important part of my culture.
I could kill and butcher and animal for food.

C1/C2: Up/Down Phrasal Verbs

Gina Barreca: Which is worse, letting someone down, or being let down? - Hartford Courant

A simple worksheet and discussion activity in which students look at 21 different phrasal verbs featuring either up or down. Download the student handout and answer key below, follow the link at the bottom of the post for a Kahoot game based on the target language:

Put students into pairs or small groups and have them try to guess the preposition required to complete the sentence. It could be up or down.

Check answers in open class, then have students match the phrasal verbs with the definitions.

Have students test each other, one says a definition, the other recalls the phrasal verb.

Have students ask and answer the discussion questions in their groups

Use this Kahoot game for spaced repetition:

C1/C2: Face Recognition

This is a lesson plan for C1/C2 students by Soleil García Brito on the topic of face recognition based around a video and a gapped text exercise. The warmer could also be used with lower levels (B1/B2). At the end of the lesson students can take an online test to see if they are “super recognisers”; you’ll find the link below.

Download the student’s handout and teacher’s notes below.

Here is the video:

Face Recognition Test from Greenwich University.

C1 Advanced: Writing Part 2 – Task Types Explained

2. Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) Preparation

This is a cheat sheet/reference grid explaining the different task types that students will be required to complete in part 2 of the Cambridge C1 Advanced writing paper. Download the handout below:

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7,152 Advanced English ESL worksheets pdf & doc
advanced spelling. these are series of interesting tasks any student needs in brushing up his English. besides, they can be of great benefit to creative teachers. Hope you enjoy them.... 283 uses. A selection of English ESL advanced printables.
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upperlanguage is here to help you continue improving your linguistic skills and make it easier to maintain an advanced level of English. From traditional practice book material to exercises inspired by everyday conversations, TV series, news, novels, advertisements, speeches, and many more, upperlanguage offers hundreds of various grammar exercises well-suited to your level.
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1. esl-lounge Advanced Grammar Exercises. esl-lounge is a great website if you want a variety of ESL resources to sift through. Their exercises cover a ton of complex grammar topics, including difficult verb tenses, direct speech vs. reported speech, inverted statements and a lot more.
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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.
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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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Advanced C1. Help. Here you can find a range of short activities to use in your adult classroom with students at advanced level. All of our activities are designed around engaging themes engaging and relevant to adult learners of English. Written by experts from around the world, our activities are easy to use and aim to give your students the ...
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3. Breaking News English. Breaking News has a plethora of amazing advanced ESL lessons. Their worksheets can quickly be downloaded and used in the ESL classroom. They have short and long lesson plans to cover all situations! Level six, graded on Breaking News English, is equivalent to C1 and C2 student levels on the CEFR scale.
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First things first - new B2/C1 students. General. This lesson set is designed to give you an opportunity to learn more about your new B2/C1 students and to assess their level of English. Unlimited Plan Show. C1 / Advanced. Standard Lesson 60 min. Add to saved lessons.
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This worksheet looks at the history of vaccination - and how opposition to vaccination stretches back hundreds of years. Following the lead-in question, there is a pre-reading task, a gap-fill reading, compression / vocabulary exercises and discussion. This worksheet is written for upper-intermediate level students and above/.
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1. Ask general comprehension questions on the video. 2. Re-create the story as a class, eliciting it from students piece by piece with the help of key words from the story as prompts on the board. Alternatively divide the class into A and B. For homework, A's watch one video and B's another.
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Mix up the activity with all of the different conditionals—zero, first, second, third, mixed—to make that the students think about different situations with different types of grammar. 6. Guess the word. Skill focus: Vocab. Let's say your vocab keywords are based on items to pack in a suitcase for a vacation.
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Challenge Accepted. These students have demonstrated a real aptitude for language, so let's take that skill and enthusiasm out for a spin. Set them more challenging exercises - longer readings, more complex writing assignments, listening which involves real, native-level sources like the BBC, etc. 3.
advanced
Now have students flip the paper over. Version 2 essential expresses the same ideas but with more advanced language and a more appropriate register. Direct students to find the "fancy" equivalents of the underlined phrases from version 1 in version 2. Set students the homework task by first encouraging them to discuss the topic:

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