Tag: speaking

ESL Conversation Lesson: Game Of Thrones And Traveling

Level: Pre- Intermediate, Intermediate
Time: 20-30min
Skills: Speaking, Listening, Vocabulary
Topic: Travel, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Game of Thrones
PDF version for easy printing: ESL Conversation Lesson Game Of Thrones And Traveling

ESL VIDEO LESSON PLAN: GAME OF THRONES AND TRAVELING

Warm-up Questions

  1. What do you know about Croatia?
  2. What do you know about Northern Ireland?
  3. What do you know about Iceland?
  4. Which of these countries would you like to visit?

Video

Video by Unilad Adventure

Discussion

  1. Which iconic scene mentioned in the video was shot in Dubrovnik?
  2. What is the name of the stunning coast in Northern Ireland?
  3. When was the rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede first built and by whom?
  4. How long is the Icelandic canyon with a difficult name?
  5. Who is your favourite Game of Thrones character?
  6. Who do you think will claim the Iron Throne?

Matching

Match the adjectives 1-9 to their meanings a-i.

  1. imposing

  2. prominent

  3. spectacular

  4. diverse

  5. haunting

  6. narrow

  7. sheer

  8. unspoiled

  9. diehard

  1. less wide

  2. complete (used for emphasis)

  3. not touched by civilisation

  4. strongly devoted

  5. impressive in appearance

  6. beautiful in a dramatic way

  7. very different, showing a great variety

  8. staying in your thoughts for a long time

  9. something that can easily be se

ESL Communicative Activities

 

How Can We Volunteer While On Holiday. ESL Group Work: Volunteer Holidays.

Level: Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate
Time: 30-45min
Skills: Speaking, Listening, Writing
Topic: Environment, Tourism, Volunteering
FREE PDF: Volunteer Holidays

A quick and easy ESL group activity on volunteering. It can be used as an additional resource when discussing the environment, tourism, volunteering.

  1. You can start this activity with some warm-up discussion questions.
  2. After that, put the students into groups of three(pairs also work) and let them plan the volunteer holidays.
  3. When they are ready, they present their ideas either in bigger groups or for the whole class.

Warm-up Questions

  1. What is voluntourism?
  2. Have you ever done any volunteer work?
  3. Why do people volunteer?
  4. What kinds of volunteer activities could you do in your home country or abroad?

Our communicative and vocabulary activities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

ESL Vocabulary Activity. Forbidden Words: Health

Six page  ESL taboo vocabulary activity: Health.  60+ cards, more than 200 words.

Level: Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate
Time: 5-30min
Skills: Speaking, Listening
Topic: Health
PDF: Forbidden Words: Health

 

Free sample version: Forbidden Words_ Health Sample

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TED Talk ESL Video Lesson Plan: How To Grow New Brain Cells.

This TedTalk ESL video lesson is based on a  talk by Sandrine Thuret. In her talk she is asking two questions:

  1. How can we help our healthy brains create new nerve cells throughout our lives, through diet and behavior changes?
  2. How can we study the effects of diseases such as depression and Alzheimer’s on our brains’ ability to grow?

Level: Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate

Time: 45min.(video 11min.)

Skills: speaking, listening, reading

Topic: science, the human body

Download:
Ted Talk Lesson Brain Cells SW Ted Talk Lesson Brain Cells TN

Ted Talk Lesson Brain Cells SW

Sandrine Thuret: YOU CAN GROW NEW BRAIN CELLS. HERE’S HOW.

STUDENT’S WORKSHEET

WARM-UP QUESTIONS

  1. What part of your body would you like to improve?

  2. If it was possible, would you rather enhance your body or mind?

  3. How can we improve our mental and physical abilities?

VOCABULARY

Read the sentences and try to work out the meaning of the underlined words/phrases.

  1. And this is especially new and true for spatial recognition –so like, how you navigate your way in the city.

  2. And they will have been helpful to add time to our memory and they will help differentiate very similar memories.

  3. But moreover, if you just block neurogenesis, then you block the efficacy of the antidepressant.

  4. “Sandrine, this is puzzling. Some of my patients that have been told they are cured of their cancer still develop symptoms of depression.”

  5. ………………..too much sex leading to sleep deprivation.

  6. Intermittent fasting — spacing the time between your meals –will increase neurogenesis.

  7. So Japanese groups are fascinated with food textures, and they have shown that actually, soft diet impairs neurogenesis, as opposed to food that requires mastication.

  8. Calorie restriction will improve memory capacity, whereas a high-fat diet will exacerbate symptoms of depression –as opposed to omega-3 fatty acids, which increase neurogenesis, and also help to decrease the symptoms of depression.

Match the words/phrases (1-8) to their explanations.

  1. spatial recognition

  2. differentiate

  3. efficacy

  4. puzzling

  5. deprivation

  6. intermittent fasting

  7. mastication

  8. exacerbate

  1. difficult to explain or understand

  2. chewing

  3. period of eating and not eating over a defined period

  4. to show or find the difference between things that are compared

  5. the lack or denial of something considered to be a necessity

  6. make something that is bad even worse

  7. understanding where things are in relation to other things

  8. the ability to produce the desired result

TED TALK VIDEO

Watch the video and answer the questions.

  1. How do we call the phenomenon when adults grow new nerve cells?

  2. How many neurons does an average person produce per day?

  3. Why did patients who were cured of their cancer still develop symptoms of depression?

  4. Does learning increase or decrease the growth of new neurons?

  5. What type of food and drinks should we consume if we want to increase the growth of our neurons?

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ESL Speaking Activity: Conversation Cards

This popular ESL One Minute Talk speaking activity is great for its variability. Check out the free sample below.

Level: Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate
Time: 5-30min
Skills: Speaking, Listening
Topic: Various( hobbies, movies, travel, food, fashion, etc.)
PDF: One-minute Speaking Activity

Fifteen page PDF vocabulary activity. 120 topics.

Free sample version: One-Minute Speaking Activity Sample

 

Click below to download a bundle of three speaking activities.

ESL Vocabulary Activity Based on Taboo: Food

 

ESL Taboo Cards:Food and Kitchen

Level: Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate
Time: 5-30min
Skills: Speaking, Listening
Topic: Food
PDF: Forbidden Words: Food

Six page PDF vocabulary activity. 60 cards, more than 200 words.

Free sample version: Forbidden Words Food Sample

 

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ESL Picture Storytelling Activity

ESL picture storytelling activity

 

Level: Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate
Time:  5-15min.
Skills: speaking
Topic: travel, environment, stories, relationships, art
Download the PDF here.

This storytelling activity is suitable for various levels because students create their own stories using the vocabulary and grammar they feel comfortable using. At the same time, they can show how well they can use a wide range of vocabulary and phrases and also if they can use more complex grammar structures.

More speaking activities:

ESL Communication Activity: Science Role Plays

ESL Pair Work Activity: Teenager Issues

Agree or disagree (and why?)

ESL Teaching Idea: Class Speaking Activity

ESL Speaking Activity Worksheet: Business Plan

ESL Pair Work Activity: Teenager Issues

This speaking activity deals with the everyday teenager issues.

Warm-up (10-15m)

Put the students in pairs and let them brainstorm the problems and conflicts young people might have. When they are finished, put them into groups of four and let them discuss the problems in more detail. What causes these problems? What advice would you give to people struggling with them? Do they have any personal experience that they are willing to share? Circle and monitor.

Activity (15m)

After that, tell the original pair to chose two conflict situations from their brainstorming sessions. They are going to role-play the first conflict and try to find a solution. Then they swap roles and play out the second conflict. Circle and monitor.

Problems: failing a subject, alcohol abuse, no money for new mobile phone/sneakers, etc.

Conflicts: with my dad because he grounded me for nothing, with my mom because she forces me to play the piano but I hate it, with my math teacher because….., etc.

Debrief (5m)

What advice did the students come up with?

Was it easier to play the role of a child or of a parent? Why?

How did they solve their conflicts?

Download the PDF version here: Teenager Issues

Other role plays:

Ridiculous Holiday Complaints: Reading And Speaking(Role-play) ESL Lesson Plan

ESL Communication Activity: Science Role Plays

ESL/EFL Speaking Activity: Role Play Debate

ESL Teaching Idea: Class Speaking Activity

Level: Upper Intermediate, Advanced

Age: 16+

 Monolingual classes of ESL/EFL                                                                                             

This activity is great for practising fluency and improvising.

1) Tell each student to chose a topic they know a lot about, are passionate about and can talk about it for hours. Give them 5minutes to prepare a short lecture/presentation in their NATIVE language. They can only write brief notes/bullet points. Don’t tell them more at this stage.

2) When they are ready, tell them that they are going to present their lecture/presentation at an international conference, but unfortunately, they don’t speak English so they will need an interpreter. (Explain that they will interpret consecutively.)

3) Put Ss in pairs and explain that they will interpret each other’s presentations. Give them 5-10minutes so they can familiarize themselves with the topic and important vocabulary that will be used in the presentation. At this stage, they can use the notes they previously prepared.

4) The conference starts! The first pair of students gets on stage ( in front of their classmates). The speaker starts their presentation and after every couple of sentences pauses so the interpreter can repeat what was said in the target language. At this stage don’t correct the Ss, let them speak and write notes so you can provide feedback later.

5) Don’t let them speak longer than  5 minutes. If time allows, you can let the audience ask follow-up questions which will need to be translated from L2 into L1 and then the answer back from L1 to L2.

6) After everyone had their turn, provide feedback on the mistakes they made and don’t forget to praise them!

 

Download this activity in a PDF file.

Class Speaking Activity

More speaking activities:

ESL Speaking Activity Worksheet: Business Plan

ESL Group Speaking Activity: Language Centre Simulation

ESL Speaking Activity: Conditional Discussion Questions

ESL Speaking Activity: Business English Role Plays

No-prep Speaking Activity: Warmer And Filler For ESL Classes

Useful Classroom Tip: Vocabulary Revision

Whether you teach large classes or small groups, revising vocabulary in a quick and simple way is always useful, especially when its all done by the students – all you have to do is to give them instructions, circle and monitor.

1. Put the students in groups of four ( I like to use Random Team Generator for this).
2. Give each group 40 (the amount depends on the level of the students, the time you have for this activity, etc.) small slips of paper ( 1 A4 page makes 16 slips of paper of the optimal size)
3. Each student will write an item of vocabulary that was covered in the previous lesson/lessons. The group has to cooperate so there is no duplicate vocabulary.
4. When they finish, groups swap the pile of cards they made so they get a different set of cards,
5. In their groups, they take turns and draw a card from the vocabulary pile and explain the word to the rest of the group. The person who first guessed the word keeps that card. The winner is the person with the most cards.

Other resources and activities:

Fun Vocabulary Posters For ESL/EFL Students

ESL Game Compound Nouns Dominoes: Town and Countryside

ESL Speaking Activity Worksheet: Business Plan

ESL Pair Work Activity: Teenager Issues

 

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