It’s almost time for the final exam. It’s an ESL speaking test which will show my students’ ability to remember answers. The test is also about fluency.

I give my students the questions before the test so they can practice. It’s also a trick I use to improve fluency. My students understand that the answers they give during the test must be correct and quick. No delays.

ESL Speaking Exam Questions

Here are the exam questions for the fall semester beginner level ESL conversation class: esl-beginner-final-exam-questions.

Here are the final exam questions for Rob Whyte’s advanced level ESL conversation class. We will review the questions and answers in class before the final assessment test.

Enjoy.

Download the conversation questions here: a-final-exam-ques.

Learning English does not have to be a boring exercise in grammar drills and vocabulary memorization. Here in Korea, getting the students to use English as a means of communication in the classroom is vital to language development.

That’s why I like to mix logic puzzles and word games into classroom worksheets and discussion activities. It makes the class fun. The students use active English. Everybody learns and gets a little smarter.

English Classroom Puzzle Worksheet

Here is a activity worksheet for today’s class. Enjoy. This ESL worksheet has:

• a short reading  passage
• two vocabulary exercises that promote improved awareness of phonetic sounds
• a creative discussion activity to practice logically structured thinking and speaking

Not bad for a single worksheet. If you like it – or don’t like it – drop me a comment. Cheers.

Quick thinking. Faster speaking. ESL students will need these skills to watch and discuss the actions in this English video discussion and fluency lesson.

English Video Discussion Activity

Here is the video for this ESL speaking lesson.

I will try a new speaking activity for this video lesson.

1. Watch the video as a class.
2. Make two teams. Set up video for second viewing.
3. One person from each team stands up.
4. Play a short clip from the video (one segment).
5. One student shouts out a sentence with present continuous. Like, “A girl is walking in the park.”
6. Score one point.
7. Finish one minute video.
8. Winning team gets a prize.

Here is another video discussion lesson for ESL classes. This lesson follows the same format I described for another video lesson. The video is a a prompt to help students improve listening, thinking, speaking and fluency skills.

Here is the link for this video lesson. It is hosted by Vimeo. The video is called Day of Light by Love Light and Melody.

One of the keys to this conversation activity is that Group A students (the people who watch the video for the first time) must answer the questions directly but should not provide too much information. This forces Group B students to ask proper questions.

ESL Video Lesson

This video is about the day around a landfill in Nicaragua. This pair work activity works like this.

1. Group B leaves classroom. Group A stays in class to watch video.
2. Group A job is to understand video.
3. Group B returns. They ask questions using the 5 Ws+H: who, what, where, when, why, how. Their job is to get the main idea.
4. Conclude by watching again.

This ESL speaking activity uses a video to build conversation skills.

This pair work activity works like this.

1. Before break, half the students go out. Partners stay in class and watch the video.
2. Half the class watches the video. Their job is understanding. They will have to answer questions and make a summary.
3. Other half of class returns. They ask questions using the 5 Ws+H: who, what, where, when, why, how. Their job is to get the main idea.
4. Conclude by watching again.

Here is a video for the lesson. It is an animation video from Vimeo. The video is called Broken by Freek van Haagen.

This is a new word game discovery for me. It’s called, “Name that thing.”

From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary website, this nifty word quiz tests your knowledge of everyday objects.

It is a great 5 minute study tool for ESL students trying to  improve their vocabulary.

Click here of the website: name that thing.

This pair work ESL speaking activity helps English students build fluency and vocabulary skills at the same time.

Conversation Activity Instructions

Print and copy the sheet. Cut into strips. Give one box of words to each student. Students give partner one word. Partner has to speak 30 seconds – non stop – about that topic. Students use stopwatch on their phones to check time.

ESL Worksheet

Download the vocabulary worksheet here: Speak for 30 seconds about.

Routine. It’s a useful classroom tool. It also brings boredom and unhappiness. That’s why routine needs to be broken from time to time.

That’s what this ESL speaking activity will do. Hopefully.

Fantasticats

This is an activity which I have shamelessly borrowed from a terrfic business training website. Here is the link for business balls.

This conversation activity creates the conditions for a free speaking activity. With a few prompts the students will engage in an English conversation that does not rely on substitution drills or preset vocabulary.

Speaking Activity Steps

Step 1. Set the stage. Introduce quote.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful. It is our light and our strength – not our darkness or weaknesses – that frightens us.”

Most of us live in a world where our lives are shaped to some degre by other people and other ideas. Let’s step outside that world, at least for a few minutes.

Step 2. Form Small Groups

Three to four is okay. In groups, students together explore five questions:

1. What can you do?
2. What do you love to do?
3. What is your talent?
4. What can you become?
5. Draw a picture of your Fantasticat.

Step 3. Jigsaw

The final step is to re-form groups. Make new groups with entirely new partners. Repeat process. Learn about others’ dreams. Describe your own.

Here is an ESL conversation activity that builds speaking, listening and thinking skills. If you learn all of the words, you will expand your vocabularyby 60-70 words.

ESL Speaking Activity

Print and cut a strip of words. Read the three words in a box. Your partner listens and thinks of two things. First, what is common for the three words. They are part of a category. Second, say one more word that is an example of that group.

Here is an example. Three words are: soccer, baseball and murder ball. These are sports with a ball. Another example is golf.

English Vocabulary Worksheet

Download the ESL vocabulary worksheet here: food-travel-vocab-60.

This lesson in the advanced level English textbook is about travel. So, I prepared a short lesson using OCED travel data.

The attached pdf has two pages of OCED travel data. We will use these pages as part of our lesson. It will help to build professional level speaking skills by understanding how to read, summarize and explain statistical data.

Speaking Activities

The first step is to understand the data you are looking at by answering three questions:

1. what is it?
2. what is being counted?
3. what is the unit of measurement?

The second step is to summarize the most important ideas in the data. For our class, you should be able to make answers that:

1. describe Korea’s past and present;
2. compare current data for Korea and other countries;
3. compare the past changes in Korea with changes in other countries.

Lesson Worksheets

ESL students can start the lesson by downloading the OCED travel data worksheets here: oced-travel-adv-class.

Here is a quick English grammar lesson to help students sound more intelligent. The lesson is about made from and made of.

Here are some example sentences.

1. This shirt is made of cotton.
2. The chair is made of leather.
3. The vodka is made from potatoes.
4. The tea is made from barley.

Basic Grammar Rules

If the material is not changed…. then use made of.

If the material has been changed (i.e. we can’t see it anymore) then use made from.

Practice

Practice making sentences using of/from with these words and phrases.

Here is a quick ESL speaking activity. It helps students learn and remember how to use prepositions when making questions and answers.

How to Use this Pair Activity

Get students in pairs. One student reads a question and fills in the blank with the proper preposition. The other students makes a long answer.

When I do pair work activities like this, I also push my students to use Sentence Blocks. This idea is simple. One question becomes 3 questions. Every question is a prompt to build a mini dialogue.

That’s one way to extend the fluency building effect of simple activities like this one.

Question Prompts

1. What do you worry ……. ?
2. What talents are you envious ……. ?
3. Are you superstitious ……. anything?
4. What things in life are you most proud ……. ?
5. Are you fluent …….any languages?
6. What do you often dream ……. ?
7. What people can you most often rely ……. ?
8. What would you like to be famous ……. ?
9. What do you sometimes complain ……. ?
10. Is there anything you are afraid ……. ?

This ESL speaking activity is a quick review of verbs and prepositions.

Look at the activity sheet. There are many people. Choose one or two people. Describe those people: their locations, actions and appearances.

The key point is to use verbs and the correct prepositions.

Speaking Activity Worksheet

Download the ESL speaking activity worksheet here: verb+prep-3.

Good ESL speaking activities ask English students to speak, listen and think. This simple game does all of that.

This pair work speaking game works like this. Students work in pairs. One partner reads a list of words. The other partner listens. Then thinks. Then says how these words are connected.

Here is an example.

pizza   bread   cake   muffin

Well, there are many possible answers. They are kinds of food made from wheat. They fattening foods. They are tasty foods. Any answer is okay … it just has to be logical.

Word Game Worksheet

This is a copy and cut worksheet. Each student gets 5-10 questions. Download the worksheet here: name-the-group-eslwriting.org.

Speed Game is a standard ESL activity. The rules for this fun and fast fluency activity are simple.

1. Divide the class into teams.
2. One person comes to the front.
3. That person has a list of 10 words.
4. Student gives hints so team members can guess words.
5. 90 second time limit.
6. One point for reach correct answer.

Vocabulary Worksheet

Here is a list of words for my ESL class. Most words come from the textbook or the General Service List (GSL). It’s well suited for beginner to intermediate levels. The worksheet is formatted for easy photocopying and cutting.

Download the Speed Game Vocabulary Worksheets here: vocab list-speed game.

Here is another page of logic puzzles and word games. Designed as a 15-minute conversation sponge activity, this worksheet runs well as an ESL pair work activity.

The questions and puzzles help English students improve speaking, listening, thinking and vocabulary skills.

ESL Worksheet

Download the worksheet here: pufs-adv-puzzles.

For my advanced ESL students, here is the vocabulary study list for this week. These words come from Chapter 9 of the text book.

Good luck.

Choose a Study Mode Scatter Learn Flashcards

Study these flash cards | Study advanced flash cards

We have heard about Occupy Wall Street. But what is really happening?

This video posted on Vimeo gives us a street side view of the events and the people trying to keep the protest alive.

Watch the video. Answer the questions.

1. Describe some of the daily life activities that you saw.
2. Make a list of the verbs that you see in action.
3. Why are people protesting on the street?
4. Summarize the story.

Right Here All Over (Occupy Wall St.) from Alex Mallis on Vimeo.

Sports and Hobbies: play, do or go? Here are a few general rules that will help ESL students learn the grammar and speak well.

Go+sport

1. movement; not done all in one place
2. go cycling, go skiing, go swimming, go fishing

do+activity

1. in one place
2. do body building, do archery, do yoga, do puzzles

play+sports

1. have a moving object like a ball, puck, birdie
2. play soccer, play badminton, play football, play ping pong

play+instrument

1. guitar, violin, tambourine

Part 2    Pair Work Practice

Here are some speaking prompts to practice making Q and A with play, go or do.

How often do you….?

1. Swimming
2. Table tennis
3. Jogging
4. Hiking
5. Singing
6. Judo
7. Cello
8. Crossword puzzles
9. Sudoku
10. Yoga
11. Baduk
12. Origami