ESL Activities for Advanced Students

This activity helps students recognize and correctly use the passive voice, which focuses on the object receiving an action rather than the subject performing it. By practicing sentence transformation, students will improve their ability to use passive structures in writing and speaking, especially in formal and academic contexts. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Passive Voice ESL Activity Preparation: Prepare a list of active sentences (e.g., The chef cooked the meal) and their passive counterparts (The meal was cooked by the chef). Create a worksheet with sentences in the active voice that students will transform into the passive voice. Additionally, prepare a set of sentence strips, some in the active voice and some in the passive voice, for a matching activity. For a hands-on exercise, write…

Name That Tune is an adaptation of the popular game on TV. This is a fun activity for improving listening skills with music. Students listen to a song with headphones on, write down what they hear, and read the lyrics to their classmates. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Name That Tune ESL Activity Preparation: To prepare, think of a song that all of your students are familiar with. Write the lyrics on a piece of paper and have it ready to use for your example. Also, make sure that your students bring their headphones and smartphones for the lesson. Name That Tune ESL Activity Guidelines: To begin, tell the class that you are going to listen to a song on your headphones and take a…

Try the How to ESL Reading Activity to improve students’ reading skills through interaction with classmates. The activity utilizes wikiHow website content, graphics, and textual descriptions. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] How To ESL Activity Preparation: To prepare for the activity, go to the wikiHow website and find a “How to” article that corresponds with your students’ level of proficiency. Use more than one article if you have a lot of class time. Download all of the graphics and paste the textual descriptions into a separate Word Doc or Google Doc. In this example, we will use a simple “How to” wikiHow article that explains how to get in shape. Print out the textual descriptions and prepare a link to the graphics that the students…

This activity is an adaptation of the popular British game show Blankety Blank. Students create sentences with blanks and their classmates must try to guess the missing words. The game is useful for practicing gerunds, vocabulary, sentence structures, and other English skills. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Blankety Blank ESL Game Preparation: Before class, prepare three example sentences with one blank space in each sentence. They can be random sentences with no particular theme or you can focus on something more specific that you would like to review with your students. Blankety Blank ESL Game Guidelines: Write your example sentences on the board. Here are three sentences that you could use to demonstrate how to play the game: 1. He didn’t buy the car because…

This ESL writing activity is an adaptation of the Three-Word Stories game from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The aim of the activity is to create stories by collaborating with classmates using three words at a time. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Three-Word Stories ESL Activity Preparation: Minimal preparation is required for this activity. Before class starts, you can come up with three words to begin an example of a short story. Three-Word Stories ESL Activity Guidelines: At the start of class, explain the concept of the game to the students and select two volunteers to participate. Start the story with your three words, then a student continues the story with their three words. The last student volunteer proceeds with their three words. As…

This activity is an adaptation of Sakichi Toyoda’s technique for determining the root cause of a problem. The 5 Whys Method was originally used within the Toyota Motor Corporation. Let’s explore how we can use this technique as a language learning activity. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] The 5 Whys ESL Activity Preparation: There is not much needed to prepare for this activity. However, just make sure that your students have a pencil/pen and paper to write on. The 5 Whys ESL Activity Guidelines: To begin the exercise, you may want to activate students’ background knowledge by explaining some problems that you have. Try to make it a bit personal to capture their attention. Of course, the model example will depend on the age group…

The To Be ESL Game focuses on creating questions and answers using the verb “to be” along with vocabulary lists. It is appropriate for all ages and levels. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] To Be ESL Game Preparation: For this game, you can prepare a list of singular and plural nouns before class. However, if you prefer, simply use one of the textbooks that your students bring to class. At the start of the lesson, they can select the nouns from their textbook. Also, make sure the students have some paper to write on. To Be ESL Game Guidelines: To begin, activate students’ background knowledge. For example, if the vocabulary has a certain theme, such as sports, then you can have students discuss their favorite…

Need a new classroom activity to try for Halloween? The next time the end of October rolls around, try playing the Halloween ESL Vocabulary Game with your students in class. The game is suitable for most age groups and levels. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Halloween ESL Game Preparation: Before class, prepare a list of words based that are based on a Halloween theme. You can find a list online. Check out Pinterest for some Halloween vocabulary or create a quick list yourself. Here is a brief list, as an example, that you could use with a basic level class: witch skeleton pumpkin haunted house ghost candy black cat vampire mummy costume Also, prepare some paper for writing on if the students need it. Secondly,…

The Guess Who board game can be played with younger and older students. You can also adjust the difficulty of the game by making the descriptive questions more challenging. Read below for more information about how to play the game in class. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Guess Who ESL Game Preparation: To prepare the ESL Guess Who Game, you should browse online to find templates of the photos. Do a Google search for “Guess Who game templates” and you will see several results pop up. Choose one of the classic picture grids or customize one yourself. For instance, your could copy/paste photos of celebrities in a grid and print it out. If your students are equipped with smartphones or tablets, you could play the…

The Shopping Spree ESL Activity is a useful method for getting students more comfortable with shopping vocabulary. With this activity, they can improve their expressions using money and other terms related to shopping. It is a fun and interactive game for most age groups. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Shopping Spree ESL Activity Preparation: Browse through some shopping sites in English that are easy to use. The students will use their smartphones for this activity. Sites such as Amazon, Best Buy, eBay and others work quite well. You may have other shopping sites in mind that are more appropriate for your students’ interests. Shopping Spree ESL Activity Guidelines: To start, you may want to introduce the lesson with a shopping discussion. Ask students what they…

Play the Toilet Paper ESL Game with your new classes. It is a funny and entertaining way to get your students to talk in class. Pick up a roll of toilet paper and bring it to your first class. A roll of paper towel will work just as well if you prefer to use that instead. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Toilet Paper ESL Game Preparation: Again, all that you need to prepare for this activity is a roll of toilet paper (or paper towels). Sticky notes are good too, but they are a bit more expensive. Generally, most students find toilet paper to be more amusing anyway and it’s much cheaper. Using a felt marker or a board marker would be better than a…

Have you tried playing The Price is Right ESL Game in class? The game is an adapted version of the popular TV game show. You can use this activity to review large numbers and prices of products that you find online. It is a fun and interactive game for all age groups. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] The Price is Right ESL Game Preparation: Find some pictures of actual products online along with their prices. Browse sites Amazon or even eBay to find what you are looking for. Once you have found a bunch of products, you can put them together in a PowerPoint or show the pictures from a screen or iPad. Improvise for whatever works best for your teaching context. Remember to create…

This activity is appropriate for all ages and levels. By using the Family Tree ESL Activity in class, students can develop their descriptive writing skills. You can easily adjust the level of difficulty depending on your context. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Family Tree ESL Activity Preparation: For this activity, all that you need is some lined paper for the students to write on. If you want, you could also prepare a list of vocabulary that they could use for their writing. Find terms related to family and any other vocabulary that you would like to reinforce. Family Tree ESL Activity Guidelines: First, start the class off with a discussion about family. You may want to begin by describing your own family and relatives. Go…

Have you tried using Google Maps in your ESL classroom? By using this Map Directions ESL Activity, you can improve your students listening skills and get them to practice telling directions. The activity is appropriate for all levels and age groups. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Map Directions ESL Activity Preparation: To do this activity, you need to have access to Google Maps in your classroom. Students can use their smartphones and tablets or you can use a large screen for the entire class to watch. You may also want to prepare a demo for telling directions on Google Maps. For instance, you could think of how you would tell students to get somewhere in your hometown. Load it on the map and show it…

Are your students struggling with big numbers in English? The Big Numbers ESL Activity can improve your students’ confidence with using larger numbers in both reading and writing. This activity is very similar to a jigsaw reading activity. However, the main focus is on large population numbers across the world in different countries and cities. It is an effective lesson for kids and adult learners of all ages. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Big Numbers ESL Activity Preparation: You need to prepare some facts and figures beforehand on two similar handouts. Research the populations of different countries and cities around the world. Make about 10 sentences on the handout. Since it is a jigsaw reading activity, leave blank spaces on every second question. Therefore, one…

This daily diary ESL activity could be used as a project-based assignment that you can have your students do throughout the term. However, you can use it as an activity in a single class. It works quite well for all ages and levels. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Daily Diary ESL Activity Preparation: There is not a whole lot to prepare for this activity. Though, you could take some sample writing from blogs or online diaries to show your students. Moreover, by looking at samples, they will have a better idea of the types of sentence forms and informal writing styles that are typically seen in diary writing. Daily Diary ESL Activity Guidelines: First, write on the board three categories with the headers similar to…

This Monopoly ESL Game is adapted from the classic board game. It can be used as a way to improve students’ language abilities. ESL Monopoly is also a fun interactive way to get both young and older students to participate in the classroom. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Monopoly ESL Game Preparation: What do you need to prepare for the ESL Monopoly activityy? All you need for this game is your classroom whiteboard, markers, dice, and the board eraser. Optionally, you may want to pick up some magnets if your whiteboard is magnetized. Otherwise, you can improvise the pieces by drawing them on the board with colored markers. Additionally, but not necessary, you could create some “Chance” cards with questions on them for when players…

This is a useful ESL activity for reading, sentence building and improving sentence structure. In this exercise, students work in groups to arrange words in order and form a number of different sentences based on a particular theme. The Sentence Building ESL Activity encourages them to use proper grammatical forms. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Sentence Building ESL Activity Preparation: In a Word doc, prepare a long list of sentences. Focus on a particular grammar point or verb tense that you would like your class to improve upon. Furthermore, if you are doing the activity as an extension of a topic in a textbook, then try to make sentences which are based on the same theme from the book. After creating your long list of…

The Battleships ESL Game is an adaptation of the original game. It can be used in a variety of ways in a language classroom. It gets students to think strategically while also having fun practicing their English skills in teams. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Battleships ESL Game Preparation: To play the Battleships ESL Game, first, you need to prepare the “boards” that each team will use to draw their ships on. What works best is if you create a simple grid by making a table with rows and columns in a Word doc. Usually, a 10-by-10 grid suites most classes. However, it depends on how challenging you want the game to be and how much time you have. After preparing the grid, you can…

It may be a bit old-fashioned for the times, but some people still like to keep old traditions alive. This postcards ESL activity can be a useful method for getting students interested in writing a personal message to a friend from a travel destination of their choice. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Postcards ESL Activity Preparation: First, create a simple postcard template in Word or any other word processor program. One side should be blank. The other side should have a location for an address and space to write the letter on. Lastly, print it out and prepare the blank templates for the class. Postcards ESL Activity Guidelines: To start, students can talk about travel spots that they have been to and have a short…

Creating dialog for comics is a fun way for students to spark some creativity and improve their writing skills. This comic strips ESL activity can be done with any popular comic strip that you can find online and edit accordingly for your students’ levels. Student Level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Age Group: Kids, Adults [printfriendly] Comic Strips ESL Activity Preparation: Browse the web for popular comic strips. There are a number of websites that have PDF versions of comics or newspapers that include them in their online publications. Find one that is appropriate for your students’ tastes and print it out to prepare. Select a variety of different ones depending on how much time you want to spend doing the activity in class. With the printed copy, take some white-out and…