March was a busy month here at ESL Brains! We published new lesson plans and created new lesson sets. We changed the filter view for the lesson search so you can find the lessons you need even faster. We also added filters to topics – you can see an example here. 

Take a look at the March lesson plans below and let us know which one(s) you liked most in this ➡️➡️ short survey ⬅️⬅️.

March in a Nutshell

We published 13 new worksheets💪, including:

• Revitalized neighbourhoods or ghost towns?
  
  B2/C1 students explore the concept of ‘gentrification’ and its impacts. They learn and practise vocabulary related to the topic, watch a video and analyse opinions.

PREMIUM+ lesson plans ($6+):

1. Opposites attract
   
   A2 students explore and practise opposite verbs, contrast opinions, and discuss statements. They also read a short text about celebrating Opposite Day and imagine scenarios.
   
   
2. Art that refuses to settle
   
   In this C1 lesson, students practise advanced adjectives to talk about art, discuss possible purposes, analyse art pieces, and watch an informational video about performance art.
   
   
3. Prioritizing and to-do lists
   
   B1 students talk about priorities, analyse blog post titles, and practise vocabulary. They also discuss an explainer video about the Eisenhower Matrix, and talk about time management. 
    
4. From a pushover to your own boss
   
   With this B2 lesson, students talk about personal boundaries. They watch an advice video, practise vocabulary, reflect on challenging situations, and discuss different points of view.  
   
   
5. Revitalized neighbourhoods or ghost towns?
   
   Our free Marchlesson plan in the e-lesson plan format for teaching online.

UNLIMITED-only lesson plans ($12):

6. The youth changing the world
   
   B1/B2 students discuss quotes, look at activists’ causes, and learn vocabulary. They create activist ‘bios’, evaluate activism examples, and discuss the impact of young activists.
    
7. How to deal with misunderstandings
   
   In this B1 Speaking lesson, students discuss, analyse, and solve instances of miscommunication. They also watch a short ad and develop situations using the ‘snowball effect’ idea.
   
   
8. Office, remote or hybrid?
   
   B2/C1 students discuss work-life after lockdown, discuss the results of surveys, and practise relevant vocabulary. They also watch a short news video and analyse different work models.
    
9. Culture shock
   
   In this B1/B2 Speaking lesson, students share experiences and perspectives on the topic, examine the stages of culture shock and discuss the experience of a foreign exchange student.
   
   
10. Mountain tops and rooftops
    
    With this A2 lesson, students practise compound nouns (e.g. sunlight, peanut butter, beach bar, etc.). They discuss a funny tourism video and create a promotional ad for their country. 
    
    
11. Let’s talk money
    
    In this C1/C2 Speaking lesson, students discuss vocabulary related to financial literacy, listen to excerpts from a podcast, and examine common financial confusion.
    
    
12. The digital Revolut(ion)
    
    With this C1/C2 lesson, students talk about online services and learn vocabulary. They also discuss their own experiences, watch a video about a neobank, and discuss digital businesses.
    
    
13. Coffee time
    
    B1 students explore international cafés in this CRC lesson! After reading an article, students practise relevant vocabulary, discuss experiences and preferences, and analyse establishments. 

We hope you enjoy last month’s materials. Leave some feedback in the comment section under the lesson plan posts or drop us a line.🙂

BTW, if you want to access our premium content, subscribe to one of our plans. You can unlock over 600 lesson plans and worksheets (including flipped lesson plans) as well as their e-lesson plan versions for teaching online, and get access to our Speaking Class and Critical Reading Club worksheets.

What Lesson Sets are

You would like to use ESL Brains lessons more often but struggle to decide on the best order to use them in. Sounds familiar? We have great news: the perfect solution is here in the form of Lesson Sets! Lesson Sets will save you loads of prep time and allow for a more structured teaching and learning experience, while allowing for flexibility (because we know that each student or group is different). The lessons in each set are connected by topic or function.

Each Lesson Set consists of standalone lesson plans which have already been published on the website. This means that you might have used some of the lesson plans in the past and that you can still use them as standalone lesson plans. The Lesson Sets, however, allow you to follow a sequence of lessons in the way that best suits your students’ needs and likes. In the sets, you will find some teaching tips on how to use the specific lesson sequence seamlessly. 

The sets contain lessons available under different subscriptions (Free, Premium and Unlimited). However, to be able to use entire sets, it is necessary to be an Unlimited subscriber. 

How Lesson Sets work

To browse Lesson Sets, use the search filter or click here.

Lesson Sets are easy to spot as they are marked with a grey frame and ribbon (see on the right). Check if the level is right and see how many lessons are in the set. A quick glance at the set description will tell you whether the set is useful for your students.

Once you open the set (see on the right), take a look at the short set overview to make sure the set objectives align with yours. Then, scroll down or use the button to see the lessons in the set.

You will see several lessons listed in a particular order (see below). Use the lessons in the suggested order. Sometimes, there is more than one lesson to choose from, like in the case of Lesson 2A and Lesson 2B below. In this case, check the brief lesson descriptions to choose the lesson which is better suited to your students’ needs. We suggest you use one of the lessons only to avoid being overly repetitive.

What to remember when using Lesson Sets

The lesson descriptions also contain some teaching tips (see on the right) that will make your students’ learning experience seamless. For instance, you might need to encourage students to use a specific grammar structure or vocabulary set in a particular exercise/slide, draw their attention to a structure used in a given task, or ask them to remember and use certain phrases throughout the lesson.  

More Lesson Sets and more lesson plans

Lesson Sets are a game-changer! They mean less prep time, more structure and happier students. We are going to group more and more lessons into sets so browse them from time to time to see what’s new. 

While sets are an awesome new website feature, we will keep publishing three new standalone lesson plans a week. Some of them will probably become parts of sets, too. 

Ready? Choose a set, try it out and let us know how it went!

It seems like 2023 was ages ago, so eventful and dynamic 2024 has been so far. But we still found time to reflect on the whirlwind of lessons and experiences that made last year one to remember. And what we recalled was too good not to share it with you. So here are our three dids of 2023. 

What we did

At the heart of our journey was the publication of a whopping 158 lessons. From simple light-hearted everyday topics to tackling serious global issues, our goal was to provide a diverse range of content. We were not afraid to raise difficult questions for those of you who would like to push the boundaries of traditional ESL topics. But we also made sure we provided an equal number of lessons that are safe to use with learners of all backgrounds. 

We were committed to streamlining your preparation process by introducing captivating homework tasks. What sets these tasks apart is their dual functionality – they can be used as effective revision activities, thanks to the incorporation of a speaking element in most of them.

Speaking of time-saving initiatives, we continued to share blog posts loaded with ready-to-use ideas, speaking games, and engaging role plays. If you happened to miss out on them, now might be the perfect time to catch up.

Who we did it with

In the spirit of growth and evolution, three new bright minds joined our team, adding fresh ideas and perspectives to our work 🫂. However, one member has had to bid us farewell. To improve teamwork and thus the quality of our materials, we started having monthly knowledge-sharing meetings where we discussed various topics related to material writing. We have already covered the topics like what listening tasks work best, how to teach grammar, what lesson outline to stick to, and many many others. 

We also worked more closely with you. We stepped up our social media game to connect with our community and share updates on Instagram. 💬From fun quizzes to thought-provoking polls, our goal was to create a space where you are encouraged to share your perspective and reach out to us even more easily.

Why we did it

Amidst the hustle and bustle, we welcomed your feedback. We did it not only to feel good about our work (though, let’s admit it, reading your comments and feedback messages is a pure joy 😌) but to use it in shaping our lessons and setting new goals. Your ideas and suggestions added great value to our planning and implementation.

So the answer to the question of why we did it is quite simple – we did it for you ❤️. 

In conclusion, 2023 was a year of growth, change, and learning. From the expansion of our team to the revamp of our lesson templates, each step was taken with you, our dedicated users, in mind. And we’re really grateful that you’ve stuck by us and we hope to keep delivering up to your expectations. 

Engaging end-of-the-year activities

As the year comes to an end, it’s an opportune moment for students to embark on a reflective journey. While it’s common to ask students to ponder their year, draw conclusions and reflect, we have some additional ideas that will not only make your lesson engaging and useful but also inject an element of fun into the process.

📸The picture of the day’s reflection

This one is among our favourite end-of-the-year activities for English learners. It will be accompanied by visual aids so you need to make sure your students have access to their photo galleries. The idea is simple: you choose a specific date and students find a picture taken on that day. They have to then share a story behind the picture: who took it, what was happening before/after, etc. This activity not only unveils fascinating snapshots but also opens a window into personal memories and experiences students had over the year. Imagine the classroom buzz as students share their chosen images, recounting the stories behind them. From heartwarming celebrations to quiet moments of introspection, each picture leads to storytelling and experience sharing. Encourage follow-up questions from classmates to add an interactive layer. 

🗓️Words of the year or linguistic zeitgeist

In the spirit of reflection, other engaging end-of-the-year activities might involve exploring the words that have been appointed as the “Words of the Year.” A quick Google search reveals the words that have been immensely popular, capturing the essence of the year through language.

Students can discuss why certain words made the cut – what they reveal about the societal landscape or global consciousness. Are these words a reflection of challenges faced, triumphs achieved or shifts in cultural dynamics? The discussion opens up avenues to explore the power of language in shaping our perceptions of the world. Students might even reflect on whether they would personally adopt these words or even come up with their personal words of the year lists. Even if the words are in their native language, we’re sure there’s a potential for discussion. 

Anticipating a new year

Now that you’re done with the end-of-the-year activities and finished looking back on the last 12 months, it’s time to focus on what’s coming next. We’re happy to share a few ideas for fun activities that are sure to capture your students’ interest and make them practise English with joy. 

💪It’s not only about resolutions

As the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, many people embrace the tradition of resolutions. However, there are some alternative approaches that invite students to engage in self-reflection and envision the year ahead. For example, they could create lists of things to look forward toin the upcoming year. Students can also brainstorm ideas that will bring them closer to these things, compare their aspirations to those of their classmates and ask each other questions.

Encouraging students to articulate what they want more or less of in the coming year adds a personal touch to goal-setting. Creating a “bucket list” is another way to approach this activity. Students think about what they have accomplished in the past year and what they want to do in the next one. The things they add to their lists might be as significant as getting promoted or as simple as getting into a habit of waking up ten minutes earlier than usual. 

🤔Predicting the odds: a glimpse into the future

The new year is also a time to contemplate the possibilities that lie ahead. Engaging students in a discussion about the odds of certain trends or events happening definitely adds to the classroom dynamic. Depending on their interests, professions and backgrounds, the odds could be tailored to resonate with students’ unique perspectives.

Will “mindful snacking” emerge as a health trend? Is a decline in social media use on the horizon? Are people going to abandon using personal cars in favour of public transport? Predicting the likelihood of global phenomena, such as increased AI education in schools or shifts in remote work, sparks insightful conversations about the evolving world around them. It’s a chance for students to flex their analytical muscles and consider the potential trajectories of the upcoming year.

In conclusion, as we bid farewell to the old year and welcome in the new one, these end-of-the-year activities and beginning-of-the-year activities create a bridge between reflection and anticipation. We dig into memories, break down words and discuss personal futures as well global trends. And it’s not just a sentimental and engaging moment – it’s a practical way to get your students to practise English even more.

User-friendly, clear and professional – these are the qualities you will see in the new ESL Brains PDF design. We’ve been working on it for several months and are truly excited to show you what the lessons published from September 2023 onwards will look like! You can see the first lesson in the new layout here.

The design is a result of the feedback you have been providing us with. What you might quickly notice is the new font and numbering, which resembles the e-lesson plan design. This change was made with the knowledge that some of you use both e-lessons and PDFs with the same students.

However, the improvements go far beyond this. Explore the exciting updates below!

Headers

The Teacher’s PDF contains the information about the lesson level, as well as the ESL Brains logo and the lesson title as before. In contrast, the student’s version has no level information. We know some of you use the lessons with different levels, and we don’t want you to get questions from confused students. 

Teacher’s notes

These are now much more visible as they have a green background and the letter ‘T’ next to them. Even if you print the PDF in black and white, there will be no doubt which part is a note for you and not a part of the lesson. 

Answers

The answers in the teacher’s PDF are now highlighted in yellow. Similar to the teacher’s notes, this makes answers more prominent, and printing the lesson in black and white does not pose any issues.

Boxes

When students need to discuss ideas, we now use neat and colourful boxes. This improved design is more engaging and pleasing to students, hopefully making them excited about the task. 

Texts

Texts have wider right margins than before. This extra space allows students to take notes or jot down new vocabulary, and it also helps the reader focus as the text column is narrow. 

Word boxes and gaps

In the Student’s PDFs, gaps are now represented by solid lines instead of dotted lines. Additionally, when gaps need to be filled in with specific words, each word is presented in a separate box. These changes align the PDFs more closely with the e-lesson plans and enhance the overall tidiness of the documents.

These are just the most significant changes in the new PDF layout, and you will notice more tweaks here and there. But we do hope you like all the improvements! Use the new PDFs with your students and ask them what they think!

These five ESL speaking games are simple and fun. They provide speaking practice and can be used as fillers, vocabulary revision tasks or a set of games to be played in the last lesson in the semester. You can create them yourself or use our ready-made lower-level (A2-B1) and higher-level (B2-C1) guessing games lesson plans. 

Guess the word

Of the ESL speaking games described here, this one is probably the one you should start with. It is a simpler version of the game Taboo. It can be played in pairs or teams. A student gets a word and needs to give others clues so that they guess it. They cannot, however, use the word in question or any of its parts. They cannot use any words that rhyme with the target word either. Students have one minute to describe as many words as possible for their partner, team or the whole group to guess correctly. Students might want to see how NOT to play the game in this video (up to 00:28). If your students like to compete, you can award them points for every correctly guessed word. 

5-second rule

This game is fun, loud and super engaging. Your students might get very creative as their answers will be considered correct as long as other students agree they are. A student gets a category and has five seconds to come up with three things that fall into it. For example, they might need to name three things people have for breakfast. Some will give simple answers, like cereal, coffee and toast, in which case they get a point (although scores are not that important in the game – students are likely to just want to play it for fun). The challenge, however, is that five seconds is not a lot of time. So a student might fail to come up with obvious things and say whatever comes to mind, like carrot, snack and water, just to say something within the five seconds. Now is the time when other students either accept the answers or not. If they don’t, or if the student fails to provide three answers, the person sitting on their right (or the one whose turn comes after) tries to come up with three new things that fall into the category. If they manage to do that, they get a point. Otherwise the following student gets a different category. 

It’s quite important to use a sound to mark the end of the five seconds. You can use a simple timer. Make sure that you start the timer after you have finished reading the category.  

20 questions 

This is one of the ESL speaking games that gives students an opportunity to not only speak but also practise question formation. In the game, a student gets a word and others can ask any 20 yes or no questions to guess what the word is. The questions can be as simple as Is it a type of food? to more elaborate ones like Is it something people usually keep in the fridge? or Is it bigger than a fork? For lower-level students, the words could be limited to objects but higher-level students could also use places, ideas or people. This game doesn’t require much preparation and, after seeing some examples, your students can be the ones who come up with the words to guess. 

Coffeepot

This fun guessing game is also great grammar practice. A student gets a verb that others need to guess by asking questions and using the word coffeepot as a substitute for the verb. So they might ask: Do people coffeepot every day?, Have we coffeepotted in this lesson?, Are you coffeepotting now?, Is coffeepotting something people do on purpose? or Is coffeepotting dangerous? The answers don’t need to be limited to just yes or no, so the answering student can explain that it could be dangerous but people do it regularly and no one gets hurt. Students can also ask open-ended questions like In what situations do people coffeepot? or Why do people coffeepot every day? The answering student may decide to provide more or less help to other students by giving them responses with varying levels of detail. The verbs that work best in this game are those that refer to what people (or animals) do and that are intransitive (e.g. it is fairly easy to guess the verb swim but not necessarily the verb use). 

Password

This is one of the funniest ESL speaking games. Students guess a word based on one-word clues. The game is ideally played in groups of four, with two pairs in each group. One person in each pair gets the same word and they need to help their partners guess the word by giving them one-word clues. The game might go like this: students A and B get a word (e.g. roses). Student A gives the first clue to their partner (e.g. red) while the other pair listens. Student A’s partner tries to guess the word but fails (e.g. they say light). Now student B gives a one-word clue to their partner (e.g. dozen) while the other pair listens. Their partner says eggs, which means that it is student A’s turn again. The clues follow until one of the partners guesses the word. You can see (and show your students) how the game is played in this video (00:56-02:18). 

Alternatively, the game can be played in pairs, in which case students could be limited to using only two or three words to help their partners guess the ‘password’. It could also be played in threes: two students might give clues to one person. 

Are you excited to try these games with your students? You can use our ready-made lower-level (A2-B1) and higher-level (B2-C1) guessing game lesson plans or create your own ESL speaking games. Let us know how it went in the comments below!

If you have ever heard students complaining about learning vocabulary, most probably it’s phrasal verbs that bug them so much. Let’s agree: they are quite difficult. They are rarely the same as what the verb means. They have their own rules (with/without an object, can/can’t be separated). That said, it’s hard to imagine communicating without them. And since we can’t avoid them, let’s talk about activities that will make teaching phrasal verbs more effective. Here are some of our favourite easy-to-implement activities (make sure you read to the end as there’s a useful link waiting for you there). 

Play associations

This is one of the easiest tasks for teachers to implement and the most fun for students to do as there is almost never a wrong answer. To play, we need to give each student a phrasal verb and ask them to make associations with it. They might go with obvious topics (e.g. phrasal verbs like put on, take off, try on are likely to be associated with shopping, whereas pay off, go up, chip in are likely to be associated with money). But we can encourage students to get creative and look for more personal and unique associations. They will of course have to explain their choice but it adds more discussion to the activity and that’s always a good thing. With a little more prep, we can put together a list of phrasal verbs and specific topics they should be matched to. 

Sequencing

If we have students who work in business, they might need some work-related phrasal verbs like run by, come across, come up with, figure out, etc. After presenting them, we can suggest the following activity. Ask students to imagine that they have come across a mistake/an issue in a working process. Using the phrasal verbs, they need to say what the sequence of their actions would be.
Students may say something like ‘I will try to figure it out. After I come up with a solution, I will need to run it by my boss.’ etc. 

We can apply a similar approach when teaching phrasal verbs on any topic of our or our students’ liking. For instance, for going on holiday we’d need words like set off, show around, check in, etc. In the same fashion, we can ask students to describe a regular holiday and use phrasal verbs in the sequence they usually happen (‘Before I set off…, After I check in at the hotel…, I look for a tour guide to show me around…’). This activity can be easily combined with the previous one: first, we ask students to match phrasal verbs with the topics and then use them to describe some processes or sequences. 

Storytelling

Stories have always been a fun and efficient way to learn, as they give us context. One way to use them is to ask students to make up stories. They can do it one by one, each using a different phrasal verb. They can also work in pairs and compare how different their stories are despite using the same list of phrases that that we provide for them. As an idea, we might even create a story for them but share only the phrasal verbs from it and ask students to predict/guess what it is about based on them. Let’s imagine that our story is about a person who broke up with their partner and was upset. Then, their friends tried to cheer them up by going out a lot and meeting new people. The person quickly found another partner who they got on well with. They dated for a few weeks and broke up. And the cycle went on. Students only see the highlighted phrasal verbs and try to make up the story. Whoever gets the closest version to ours is the winner. If students really struggle with it, we can read the story sentence by sentence and ask them to continue it. 

Dialogues

When teaching phrasal verbs, we must show students how they can enrich day-to-day communication. We can prepare a situation beforehand or use something we hear in the lesson. The main idea is to make students replace regular verbs with phrasal verbs. For example:
A: We don’t have any food left. >> B: OK, let’s eat at a restaurant today!
can be turned into
A: We have run out of food. >> B: OK, let’s eat out today!
or
A: This is so difficult. I can’t understand what to do with it. >> B: Yeah, but don’t stop trying. can be turned into
A: This is so difficult. I can’t figure it out. >> B: Yeah, but don’t give up.

We can either role play it or ask students to come up with similar dialogues in a different setting (e.g. work-related, connected to free time, relationships, etc.)

Trios

This one might require some preparation but with a bit of imagination (and maybe even some help from ChatGPT) we might benefit from it. What we have to do is think up a topic and three phrasal verbs (or two phrasal verbs and a verb + preposition) that have something in common (either a particle or a main verb). Then, we can either create gapped statements or questions which students have to discuss upon completion. For example, we can ask students to talk about relationships and give them the following statements: 

a) If a couple manages to make up after a fight, it only makes them stronger. 

b) When a couple breaks up, their mutual friends suffer the most. 

c) You should never put up with a partner who is still in touch with their exes. 

After students have completed all the statements with the missing particle up, they can discuss whether they agree or disagree with them and explain why. Alternatively, we can prepare questions or sentences that students can then complete with their own ideas. 

Race

This activity might work well as quick revision or an intro to any other activity we are about to do. There are two ways to go about it. One is to ask students to have a race and group phrasal verbs by any category (their meaning, topic or even type, e.g. with/without an object, separable/inseparable). Another is to use a timer and make students brainstorm as many phrasal verbs as possible during a given time period. Again, it might be based on various categories: a main verb, a topic, a particle, etc. 

In order for this blog post not to be just words, we have prepared a standalone worksheet that focuses on teaching phrasal verbs. Here, you can find most of these ideas implemented and designed to be used for B2+ students. We hope they save you some time on preparation or inspire you to create your own engaging activities.

We are excited to announce that we have added a new feature to our standard and flipped lesson plans! The feature is something many of you have requested in your feedback, and that can be helpful when it comes to revising previously taught material. #yousuggestwecreate

Starting from March 2023, each new standard or flipped lesson plan contains an extra task to be used as additional reinforcement, either in the form of revision at the end of the lesson or at the beginning of the next one, or as homework. Since the tasks are double purpose (revision or homework), you can use them differently each time depending on your needs. If you teach online, you will find the task included in the e-lesson plan as the so-called skipped slides at the end of the presentation. When you decide to show them to your students, you will need to exit the presentation mode, find the first revision/homework slide and start presenting again.

If you teach offline, look for the extra task in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. It can be printed, cut out and distributed among the students.

The homework/revision tasks will help enhance your teaching and make your students’ learning experience more enjoyable and effective. And, as always, we are genuinely interested in what you think! We are trying out different types of tasks and different approaches, so let us know in the comments here or under the lessons what you think about the activities: Are they useful? What do you and your students think? Let us know!

Almost 600 of ESL Brains users participated in our annual survey. Thank you for your input 🙏🙏🙏 You left hundreds of comments, insights, opinions and ideas. We read all of them and will be shaping ESL Brains the way that works best for you. If, for any reason, you are interested in the survey results, keep reading and get a glimpse of what we’ve learned thanks to the survey.

First of all, we are extremely proud to announce that you rated your experience with ESL Brains at 4.68/5. Thank you! We couldn’t be happier! We also see that there is still some room for improvement, which makes us excited and eager to come up with even more innovative and stimulating ideas for you to use with your students. 

How ESL Brains community teach

When it comes to the teaching setting, around 60% of ESL Brains users teach only or mostly one-on-one classes. And, 40% of you teach only online and the vast majority (75%) continue having at least some online lessons in this post-pandemic world. We hope that the e-lesson plans are useful and make your online teaching job a bit easier!

What teachers struggled with in 2022

We’ve asked you about problems you had as teachers in 2022 and it turned out that the two biggest problems for you  were lack of teaching resources and the amount of lesson preparation work. You mentioned the struggle to find exciting and fresh lesson ideas and the need to adapt the materials you use in the class to your students’ needs. Many of you expressed how challenging lesson prep is as it requires lots of creativity and can be very time-consuming. We hope you find ESL Brains helpful in this area. 

Some of you also mentioned lack of free time as the biggest problem you had to deal with last year. Many of you had unmotivated students, which put even more pressure on you to prepare engaging lessons. 2022 was also a challenge due to the stress related to war and power outages, economic crises, the difficulty of finding new students and teaching exclusively online. 

How do you want ESL Brains to develop?

When asked about your expectations towards ESL Brains materials, most of you are interested in additional homework and/or revision tasks. We have great news: 📢  we’ve already started adding homework/revision activities to standard and flipped lesson plans! See examples in the lessons: A better way to brainstorm and Towards a car-free future. We’re just starting and plan to improve these extra tasks also through your feedback.

Most of you also expressed interest in worksheets with standalone fillers, games and role plays, so we will definitely publish more of those (see the ones you can use now here).

We will keep striving to make ESL Brains the best source of English teaching materials out there. Thanks for all your ideas and support 🧡 💚💙

Role plays give students a real purpose for communication, develop speaking fluency and accuracy, and can be really engaging! And not only that, they offer listening practice and are a great way to liven up a lesson. However, each role play needs to be approached differently. Take a look at the tips for a successful ESL role play to see what to do before, during and after a role play to make the most of it.  

Getting ready for a role play

With most role plays, it makes sense to teach and provide some controlled practice of the language that students will need. Alternatively, pick a task that looks doable for your students and do some work with the emergent language after the role play if necessary. 

It is always worth taking a moment before any role play to make sure students understand what the task entails. This can be done using concept check questions. For instance, before the role play from the lesson What makes a good listener?, after students see the instructions and get their own card, ask them: How long do you need to talk for? How many topics do you need to talk about? How many follow-up questions do you need to ask?

You might also decide to help students work out the logistics, e.g. establish who will go first, or, in the case of an uneven number of students in the group, what will be different for the group of three. 

Depending on what the participants are expected to do, some role plays require preparation time for students. They might have to brainstorm ideas, take some notes or just think things through before they start. However, giving students too much time could, in some cases, defeat the purpose of the role play. For instance, you don’t want your students to write down what they are going to say word for word. 

Take the role play from the lesson I’m afraid that’s outside the scope of this meeting.

With this one, you’ll probably want to give students some time to prepare. They need to think about how to incorporate the phrases in the box into what they are going to say. This will, however, depend on the group – a confident bunch of students may not need that much time to prepare. 

The role play from the lesson Have you tried turning it off and on again? is completely different.

There is really no point in giving students any preparation time here. They don’t know what their partner is going to say, so they just have to think on their feet and react the best way they can. This can be challenging for students who are not used to speaking but the more speaking opportunities they get, the more confident they become. 

Ideas for a great finish to a successful ESL role play

Every successful ESL role play needs some feedback. If you manage to take notes while students are doing the task, now is the time to tell them what their strengths were. You can also ask them to correct some of the mistakes they made (without pointing fingers). If your students do a role play twice, it’s probably better to provide feedback after the first iteration so that they make fewer mistakes on the second try. 

You should also let your students share their opinions about the task. They could tell you which part was the most challenging, what they would say differently if given another chance, or if they felt the activity was helpful. Their answers might give you some insights into preparing or choosing role plays for future lessons. 

A follow-up activity can be a good idea to do as homework. Remember the role play with a broken remote? Your students could write similar role play cards, just changing what is broken and the location of the conversation. You could then use the role play cards as revision at the beginning of the next lesson. And after a role play with follow-up questions, you could tell your students to use the topic they didn’t talk about and write five questions around it to ask their partner in the next lesson. Or even encourage your students to practise the scenarios again on their own, looking in the mirror or recording themselves. 

Repeat and reuse

Some role plays are worth repeating in different configurations. The aim of the role play below, taken from the lesson I wish I could but I don’t want to, is to practise different ways of saying ‘no’ politely. 

Once pairs finish the role play, consider putting students into new pairs and changing roles. This will allow them to use what was said in the first conversation and build on that to make the role play longer, but also to use the ‘no’ phrases with more confidence and maybe even add new ones. Make it clear for students that you want them to come up with more ways to encourage a colleague to go out and more ways of declining invitations. Also, if your students used notes while doing the task for the first time, you can ask them not to use them during the second try. In other words, if you decide to do a role play more than once, change some details to make it just a bit more challenging for students. Don’t let them get bored!

Most role plays can be used in a one-to-one setting without introducing any changes but there are some things to consider. For example, some role plays don’t offer ‘equal’ roles, as one person might need to speak longer or use the target language more. Consider the first role play in this article in which students need to ask their partner follow-up questions. With an individual student, think about whether you want them to first hear your follow-up questions (as inspiration or revision) or if you want them to focus on creating questions first and on fluency second. This will help you decide which role they should take first. You can also make a role play more or less challenging for an individual student by paying attention to: how much you say versus how long you wait for them to say something without a prompt; whether you want to cause them ‘problems’ by complicating the situation or let the conversation take a predictable path.

Small changes can really make a difference

A successful ESL role play will help your students become more confident English speakers and communicate better outside the classroom. Don’t underestimate the value of a good start and a good finish to role plays. And remember that reusing role plays in various settings and with varying degrees of difficulty can make a huge difference. Use the tips and let us know how it went!

We sometimes get so hung up on teaching our students to speak that we forget about another important skill they need to express themselves. For example, when they want to leave a complaint about a foreign online shop. Or when they need to message customer support because they have forgotten their password or login. Or both. Or when they need to respond to a message in a work-related chat. Not to mention writing an email. All these things have become essential in our students’ day-to-day activities and very often they have to do them in English. Below, we would like to share a few ideas on how to make students practise writing in English and integrate it seamlessly into their lives, without causing too much stress or discomfort. 

Using social media 

The ways to exploit social media are endless. We can ask students to leave comments under the posts of people they follow. We can also find a post we like (there are hashtags to help us out) that ignites a discussion, choose a couple of existing comments and ask our students to start a thread with one of them. We can even suggest our students give it a try and write their own posts in English (provided they are active users and have something to say to their followers). We also have a couple of lessons where students can practise writing comments or blog posts.

Writing reviews/writing to customer service

All our students are customers or users of various services. And they are often either pretty happy with them or incredibly disappointed. Either way, they might have something to say about their experience. So we as teachers can help them communicate their thoughts and feelings and urge them to write reviews. They can either go directly to the website or leave a Google review. Along with restaurant reviews, we might appeal to our students’ other interests and encourage them to leave a film review on IMDb or a book review on Goodreads. You might start with one of these lessons if you want to make your students practise writing reviews: The power of reading or Let’s go to the movies.

Another useful thing connected to user experience and a way for our students to practise writing in English is customer service. Students often face difficulties and need help resolving something. But not everyone feels comfortable writing to a customer service representative straight away because they don’t know what to say or how to say it. Even if our students are not experiencing any problems at the moment, we can always make them remember something or model the situation for them and ask them to imagine they have to write about it to customer services. By doing so, we practise clarity of thought and politeness, and not just writing sentences. Here’s our lesson on problems and solutions which can come in handy here. 

How to make our students practise writing in English with special messages

We sometimes overlook the value of these short but essential messages. Whether it’s to wish someone a speedy recovery, send greetings on their birthday or thank them for their help, it requires some knowledge of what and how to say it. Teaching it is simple: use different occasions. Someone is missing a lesson because they’re not feeling well? Make the rest of the group write something to them along the lines of ‘get well’ or ‘we missed you here’. Or when a holiday is approaching, prompt students to exchange greetings. We can even devote part of a lesson to creating greeting cards in Canva with special wishes that students come up with themselves. Here are some of our lessons that might help with writing these short but useful messages: Have yourself a merry little Christmas or Time to say goodbye. 

Other online resources

An easy-to-implement way to make our students practise writing in English is online petitions. Platforms like Change.org allow anyone to create a petition on a topic they are passionate about. And if we’ve been discussing some global issues in the class, creating a petition is a great extension/homework task. However, we shouldn’t encourage students to actually post their petitions unless they are genuinely concerned about the issue. Sometimes simply showing students that they can do it is enough.  

If your goal is to make students improve their debating skills, Kialo is a superb tool to help you out. It’s a public discussion platform that allows people to participate in various debates by writing their ‘pros’ or ‘cons’ comments. Students can join an existing debate or start their own. It’s also great for developing critical thinking. 

We must keep in mind that writing is not only about creating concise, well-structured emails or writing a sophisticated and comprehensive essay. There are plenty of other areas of life that require this practical skill. And, of course, we don’t always have to go the extra mile to practise it. Sometimes writing is simply about that: making your students write. But now and then we need to resort to a bit of creativity and imagination to capture our students’ interest and maybe teach them how intertwined writing is with their everyday lives and how rewarding it might be to be able to write skilfully and effortlessly in English. And here at ESL Brains we hope to be your asset in trying to deliver that to students by creating more and more lessons that include writing skills practice.

Welcome to 2023 🙂 Before our New Year’s resolutions become once again a thing of the past, we’d like to keep at least one that we’ve made to ourselves and update you on what happened on ESL Brains in 2022. And, what can we say? A lot happened!💗

Content

In 2022, we continued to provide high-quality and thought-provoking resources for English language teachers. Every week we published 3 lesson plans for our subscribers. That resulted in a whopping total of 149 lesson plans🤯, including 92 standard ESL Brains lesson plans, 38 Critical Reading Club worksheets, 10 Flipped Classroom lesson plans and 9 Speaking Class worksheets. And everything available as always in 2 formats – printable pdf and e-lesson plan, so that no matter if you teach online or face-to-face, you can always use ESL Brains resources. This means that at the end of 2022 our Unlimited subscribers had over 420 original lesson plans at their fingertips!😊

One of the novelties in 2022 was the Speaking Class 💬format. This new lesson format was introduced with conversation classes in mind. But it’s not just a set of discussion questions on topic – it’s a thought-through lesson that focuses on developing speaking skills through a variety of tasks. We’re happy to see that the Speaking Class format has received positive feedback from our community. If you have somehow missed that, learn more about it here.

Website

We continued to make improvements to our website to make it more user-friendly and efficient for you. In addition to new features such as the notification bell 🔔 for keeping you up-to-date on what’s being published, we modified the top menu to give you an easier way to access lesson categories and levels. We also developed a more accurate and convenient  search engine to help you find the lesson plans you need faster. With more precise filtering options and better results, we hope that it’s easier to find what you need for your classes.

Our community

We are thrilled to see that the ESL Brains teacher community has grown to over 🔥100,000 people🔥 visiting ESL Brains each month. Over the last year, you left more than 860 comments and clicked over 500 like buttons under various lesson plans. This feedback not only motivates us to do more but also helps us to adapt our lesson plans and guides us what to create next!

We’re grateful for all the support and feedback we received in 2022 and we’re looking forward to even more productive 2023. Thank you for being part of the ESL Brains community and choosing ESL Brains as your go-to source for lesson plans and teaching resources. 🫡

Remembering irregular verb forms, and using them, is not an easy task. While memorizing long columns of verbs might be useful, many students don’t like the idea of learning things by heart. Some even loathe it. And those who decide to take up the challenge will still need to practise the verbs in the classroom. And then practise some more. Here are some ways of working with irregular verbs that will help your students remember them once and for all.

Situations

This activity is much more fun than simply eliciting irregular verb forms. Use it instead of asking ‘What’s the Past Simple form of run?’-type of questions, as it will introduce extra challenge and excitement. It will also make your students think in English. 

Prepare a list of situations using irregular verbs. These can include Past Simple, Past Participle or both forms, depending on your students’ level. For example:

Past Simple form

1. something you bought last week
2. the last time you rode a bike 
3. the last time you ate something delicious
4. a present you got
5. something you lent to a friend 
6. a film you saw not that long ago

Past Participle form

1. a place you’ve never been to
2. something you have brought to class with you
3. a rumour you’ve recently heard
4. someone you’ve rung today
5. a book which was written by an American author
6. something that is made of wood
7. something that is grown in your country
8. something that was given to you for a special occasion

Ask students to come up with words or phrases that fit each of the situations. They should write them down in random order. When they are ready, make sure they can’t see the situations any more (cover the list or stop sharing the screen). Then, in pairs or groups, ask students to guess which answer belongs to which situation by recalling what the situations were. The guessing part will go like this: 

a hairdryer 

• You lent a hairdryer to a friend. 
• No. 
• You bought a hairdryer last week. 
• Yes. 

Stories

To help your students practise Past Simple forms more freely, ask them to tell stories. Tasks based around stories can vary in length and challenge, so it is probably best to start with easier, more controlled activities.

One of the ESL Brains lessons that deals with irregular verbs is the pre-intermediate lesson Kindness means everything. Your students will create a story based on an animated video. The lesson, however, mostly offers controlled practice of Past Simple. So after using it with your students, provide them with more free speaking practice, which you can do in two ways: 

1. Use other animated videos (like this one or this one) and ask students to tell the stories using their own words. Play the videos in parts and ask students to tell each other the parts in pairs. They can then repeat the whole story after they’ve watched the entire video. You can provide students with some irregular verbs or leave the choice of verbs up to them if you think they are ready for it. 
2. Come up with words or pictures of characters or objects and ask students to tell a story using them. The funnier the words, the better. See what story your students come up with using the following words: eyebrow, Christmas tree, cloud, disgusting, uncomfortable chair, architecture student. If they struggle with ideas, give them some prompts, e.g. ‘Why was the uncomfortable chair a problem?’, ‘Whose Christmas tree was it?’ They will get better at it with the second and the third stories. 

Stories can obviously be used to practise Past Participle with your more advanced students through Past Perfect. Discover some great speaking ideas using irregular verb forms in these B1/B2 lessons: Be a better storyteller and Narrative tenses – using Past Simple/Continuous/Perfect for storytelling. 

What we have in common

A fun task to practise both Past Simple and Past Participle forms of irregular verbs is asking your students to find experiences they have in common (in pairs or groups). 

Give your students a list of irregular verbs such as the following: break, drive, teach, wear and write. Their task is to talk and ask each other about their experiences. They might ask ‘Have you ever broken a leg?’, and as the conversation continues they might realize they don’t have a broken limb in common but they have broken crockery on more than one occasion. At this point, they will be ready to tell you: ‘We have broken some plates.’ You can do the task first with a student in front of the class to show everyone how it works. 

The task can be a great follow-up to the A2/B1 lesson You’re never too old for great things, but can be done successfully with upper-intermediate students, too. Just use some of the less obvious verbs, like quit, seek, sew or set, and make sure to tell students you want to get the feedback in Present Perfect. For example ‘We set an alarm clock every night.’ won’t work, but ‘We’ve set an alarm clock more than once this week.’ will. While talking, they will need to use both Past Simple and Past Participle forms of the verbs, as well as questions and negatives. 

The more you let your students speak, the sooner they will remember the irregular verb forms, as these are used in the simplest of conversations. Remember to recycle the forms from time to time, for instance by doing one of the activities described in this article when you have some extra time left at the end of the lesson. Let us know how it goes and share your ideas for practising irregular verbs below! 

With access to hundreds of ESL Brains lesson plans, you have the tools to provide an extraordinary learning experience to your students. Make sure you always find the lessons you need making the most of the website features.

Filters are your friends!

Click Lesson Plans on the top of the page. This is where you can see lessons grouped by Level, Category and Subscription plan. Choose one of the options there or select ‘See all lessons’ to get to the main search page.
Once you get to the main search page, you will see all lessons in chronological order (with  the latest ones on top). You can filter this view using the main filters available there: Level, Category, Subscription Plan. If you need more detailed results, click ‘Show more filters’. This will uncover more filters: Time, Lesson type and Video. The more filters you use, the more likely you are to find what you need. You will always see the newest lessons on top of the page.

Search by keywords!

If you are looking for a particular lesson, use the search box: type in a word, a phrase, or a lesson title. Before pressing enter you will see a drop-down menu with a list of lessons related to the searched word or phrase. To see all search results, press enter and browse all lessons that are connected with your keywords. In the search results, you will see an overview of each lesson. When you click the lesson card, you’ll get more details about the lesson and have access to pdfs and e-lesson plans. 

Topics – for inspiration

Not sure what you’re looking for? No problem! Scroll down the homepage to find Topics and click ‘See all topics’. These will give you some lesson inspiration. Use topics like Cinema or Sports to find a lesson your students might be interested in. If you feel they need to practise some linguistic area, you will also find topics like Phrasal Verbs or Conditional Sentences. You can also choose lessons with a specific type of task, like Games and Role Plays or Debates. 

Shortcuts to find similar lessons faster

Use the orange and green boxes under lesson titles as shortcuts. Click one of them to see other lessons with the same level or category (orange) or topic (green). 

See our recommendations

To save time, scroll down the lesson page to browse other materials recommended for you. These are the lessons of the same level or category as the one you just looked at.You will also see the lesson overviews which will help you pick the lessons you want to use. 

Save your favourite lessons

Don’t lose the lessons you like! Just click the bookmark icon above the lesson card or on top of the lesson post to save it. You can then access your favourite lessons using the Saved Lessons tab at the top of the page.

Notifications and newsletter

Whenever a new lesson is published, you will get a message in the notification centre at the top of the page. You can also follow the lesson suggestions we make using the notification centre. And make sure you subscribe to our newsletter – once you do, you will receive more lesson ideas and suggestions. 

Manage your subscription and account smoothly

In your account profile, you can change your subscription plan, update the payment method and download your invoice amongst other things. If a question comes to mind, your account profile is where you will also find the FAQ. And feel free to chat or email us at [email protected]!

Advanced ESL students are likely to have participated in hundreds, if not thousands, of English lessons. They have probably gone through several coursebooks, studied the most common grammar structures (each on more than one occasion) and learned vocabulary on countless topics. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are fluent in English and always confident about their language skills, but they all have different strengths and knowledge gaps. Here are some tips on how to make their learning experience more enjoyable and rewarding. 

Be open

Let your advanced students tell you what they want and need from English classes. Ask them about their strengths and weaknesses, make sure you know when and how they use English (or plan to use it) outside the classroom, and let them tell you what has worked or not worked for them in the past. They should have an active role in shaping their lessons. So instead of following a ready-made syllabus, allow them to choose the topics they want to cover in lessons. Don’t be afraid to experiment: use authentic materials, flipped classroom, or any other methods they might suggest. Be sure to frequently ask for feedback to see how they feel about your ideas. Teaching advanced ESL students requires open-mindedness and flexibility, and is a great opportunity for you as a teacher to learn new things, too. Advanced students do appreciate a fresh take on learning. 

Fluency

Work on your students’ fluency first, and don’t prioritize accuracy over fluency. No one can learn or make progress with a foreign language just by learning to be more accurate. To be able to explicitly express their thoughts, students need to come across situations which require the use of, say, a certain structure, and for that to happen they have to speak as much as possible. If you feel your students could use some help with being more accurate, take note of any problematic areas you hear during the lesson and do a feedback session at the end. You can ask them to rephrase what they said or simply show them a better way of saying it. Advanced students have loads of knowledge of English, but they don’t always know how to put it to use. The teacher is there to help them organize what they know in order to make them better communicators. 

Fossilization

A common problem in advanced ESL students is fossilization. The process takes place when a student habitually makes the same mistake. It’s usually one that would be considered significant even on lower levels, such as incorrect use of prepositions of time, or failure to create correct second conditional sentences. Fossilization is not easy to deal with, as the student has used the incorrect form on numerous occasions and it has never really impeded understanding. Moreover, they might sometimes not be aware of the problem or even be willing to fix it. To help your students with fossilization, you can briefly bring their attention to the problematic area, explain that there is a better way of expressing what they wanted to say, and make sure they know what the correct form is. Then, proceed with the lesson, but whenever they make the same mistake, interrupt immediately (e.g. by clearing your throat or using a prearranged hand signal) so that they can review what they’ve just said and correct themselves. This will help them create a ‘monitor’ which will hopefully be activated in the future when they make the mistake again. 

Activate

Those advanced students who don’t use English regularly will in all likelihood forget a large part of what they have already learnt. They might have the understanding of a certain grammar structure or lexis, but will not be able to produce the language. What you should be prepared to do in such cases is try to activate their passive vocabulary. The most obvious solution is to let students use the language as often as possible. Use vocabulary revision games (like the ones described in this article), and take notes on the most problematic vocabulary areas to help you choose topics around them for future lessons. Encourage students to speak English outside the classroom, and if they don’t have this opportunity, to write in English (journals, social media, etc.). Most importantly, if you and your students share L1, don’t let them use it in the lesson. Questions like ‘How do you say X in English?’ do not help students learn. Teaching advanced ESL students means helping them become independent language users as opposed to making them reliant on the teacher. If they forget a word, encourage them to rephrase what they wanted to say, use synonyms and antonyms, or just explain (in English) what word they need. What’s interesting is that they often recall the word they had forgotten while trying to explain it, which is a great example of activation. When this happens, they are much more likely to remember the word the next time they need it, which they probably wouldn’t be able to do if the teacher had provided it. 

Learning plateau 

The learning plateau, or the time when the learner feels they’re not making any progress, is especially common among upper intermediate students who wish to become advanced. It’s not an easy thing to overcome because the student already communicates well, knows the most important grammar and lexis, and is able to get by in English in almost any situation. To help your students fight the plateau, ask them to consider setting some goals. They should be realistic and measurable, e.g. learn ten new words or phrases from each lesson. This will of course require some additional work from you, as you need to be the one who regularly checks their knowledge. What you could also do is show them how to sound more natural in English. Work on phrasal verbs, idioms, discourse markers, ellipsis and cleft sentences. You will find many ESL Brains lessons to help you with this. Another thing you might consider is choosing lesson topics which students are not likely to have encountered in coursebooks in the past. It is always a great motivator to discuss controversial topics or unusual ideas. And again, this is where ESL Brains comes in handy with loads of lessons on up-to-date and thought-provoking topics. 

What is your experience with teaching advanced ESL students? Do you have any thoughts or suggestions? Share them in the comments below!

Your students want to speak English but you struggle to find good (if any) ready-made speaking lesson plans. Sounds familiar? In that case, the new ESL Brains lesson format might be a game-changer!

If you teach conversation classes, this format is perfect for your students. You can also use a Speaking Class lesson plan when you feel your students need more communication practice, or as a break from regular lessons. Speaking classes are ideal to use in the first or last lesson of the term, or much more often, as part of your course. 

Speaking Class worksheets have no grammar or vocabulary activities, just speaking! This is because many of you have asked us about worksheets for conversation classes without any particular language area to practise. If you want your students to speak as well as practise vocabulary and grammar in a controlled way, use our Standard and Flipped Classroom worksheets. 

The topics covered in Speaking Class worksheets are always engaging and meaningful. They encourage students to have in-depth discussions and speak their minds. As all ESL Brains lessons, speaking class lesson plans are thought-provoking and up-to-date.

They include a variety of activities: ordering, rating, grouping, discussing, describing, organising ideas, agreeing and disagreeing, etc. Most of them also include a video but there isn’t a typical comprehension task linked to it. Its purpose is simply to spark more conversation. 

It is not easy to predict how long a speaking class will be, as this mostly depends on your students. We believe that each of them will take between 45 and 60 minutes. Some of the teachers who tested the worksheets, however, said that an hour wasn’t enough for some more eager students. 

We have been working on speaking classes for some time now, and are really proud to finally share them with you. We would also like to give a big THANK YOU to the teachers who tested the worksheets with their students, and provided us with valuable feedback!

We will publish some speaking class worksheets every month, and they will be available in the Unlimited subscription. Check out below Speaking Class worksheets open to all! 

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How to find Speaking Class lessons?

You can easily distinguish Speaking Class worksheets from any other lessons by looking at the lesson card or the lesson post image. Speaking Class lessons have an orange ribbon so that you can quickly know that this is not one of our standard lessons.

If you want to just browse through Speaking Class worksheets, then our search engine is your friend! Go to our main search page and use the right filter to show only Speaking Class worksheets. The Lesson Format filter is hidden in the main view so you need to first click the black Show more filters link.

For your convenience, clikc here to see search results showing just Speaking Class lessons.

Since many of you use e-lesson plans on a daily basis, we have decided to make them more functional and their look more appealing. Based on the feedback we have received from the ESL Brains community in the last two years, we have redesigned e-lesson plans to make them clearer and more user-friendly. The brand new e-lesson plans have been tried out by about 30 beta testers. We really appreciate your input! 

Without further ado, let us introduce the new e-lesson plan design! ???

Layout

The texts on slides are centered to make the layout cleaner and unambiguous. The font visibility is enhanced, which makes it easier for students to scan or read texts more quickly. As one of the teachers who used the new layout pointed out, the white space on the left can be used to add some on-screen annotations during the lesson. 

Boxes

Wherever there was a box with words or phrases to choose from, there are now several boxes. The box used in a gap disappears from the set so that students can see which options are still left unused. This arrangement clears up any confusion while the task is being checked and makes the process quicker.

Highlights

The correct answers are now highlighted with a more prominent colour. Thanks to the new font, the highlighted text is still very easy to read, which eliminates any doubts about the answers. The change has been introduced as some teachers thought the yellow highlight was not clear enough. Notice that if a word or a phrase needs to be chosen in a sentence, the correct answers are highlighted, but the incorrect ones are also crossed out. This helps the process of checking to run more smoothly.

Video comprehension questions

The answers to video questions are shown next to the questions rather than under them. It makes the transition between the slide with the video and the one with the answers more user-friendly (as the position of the questions doesn’t change), and it helps students quickly find the answers.

Column matching

Matching tasks are now more colourful! It has been pointed out to us that the lines blend together in some slides, so we’ve decided to fix that by adding all ESL Brains brand colours to the mix. The dots on the line ends help students see the answers better, too.

Want to test the new layout yourself?

Go to Save the ocean, save yourself to see the first brand new e-lesson plan! Apart from that one, we’ve replaced about 15 e-lesson plans today so you can check out, for example:

• Lying in your garbage
• I’m afraid that’s outside the scope of this meeting
• When I want to feel comfortable, I wear…

All newly published ESL Brains e-lesson plans have the brand new look from now on. We will be also gradually upgrading the older e-lessons to the new standard. It might take some time, so don’t be alarmed if you keep seeing old e-lesson plans with the old design. They will all have the awesome new look at one point!

In the age of so many possible subscription services, we are unlikely to find someone who hasn’t watched at least one hyped-up TV series. What’s more, we bet there are those among our students who know the schedule of all the releases and indulge in binge-watching from time to time. And that’s totally fine on condition they do it in English ?. But we can go further and use their love of TV shows in our lessons to make the studying process more compelling and the topic more memorable. Here are our suggestions for creating fun and low-prep ESL activities with TV series.   

Using TV series for vocabulary practice

Adjectives for personal qualities: who in The Office do you like the most?

When it comes to vocabulary, TV series are an ultimate source of collocations, slang, common speaking expressions and less common lingo. But let’s look at some practical applications that can be linked to various TV shows. One such thing is exploiting characters and their differences. And the first vocabulary topic that fits perfectly is adjectives describing personal qualities. Since it’s a universal thing for TV shows to have a range of characters with their little quirks, it gives us plenty of opportunities to practise vocabulary from elementary words like ‘shy’ and ‘honest’ to something more advanced like ‘adamant’ or ‘grumpy’. Take the well-known series The Office (either British or American). The show has a range of characters, the descriptions of whom would require more than one personality adjective. What we can do to make it more interesting is to ask students to choose their favourite character in the show and explain why they like them and their personality. The other option is to talk about the boss (David/Michael) – have students describe his personality and talk about what a good manager should be like.

Professions: what do they do in Friends?

Another idea that is easy to implement is talking about professions. We could simply try asking our students what profession, for example, each character from Friends has, especially Chandler (spoiler: it’s not a transponster). We can also combine it with the adjectives for personality traits and ask students to explain how each quality might be helpful in a character’s profession. But we can go further and discuss how professions on TV are different from real life. We can discuss whether corporate lawyers have the same fancy lifestyle as presented in Suits, if being an executive equals having as much drama as the characters in Succession do, if being a police officer is as exciting and fun as they show it in Brooklyn 99, or if being a doctor is all about solving puzzles like they do in House M.D. 

Describing appearances and clothes: stylish Rachel Green

While we’re on the topic of character description, it’s worth mentioning that they usually have different appearances too, and we can create a lot of fun and low-prep activities in this regard. For instance, it might be a simple guessing game where students describe one of the characters and the others have to guess who it is. For this activity, we’ll have to choose TV series with a lot of characters that have distinctive appearances, like Modern Family. 

But vocabulary in TV series is not only about characters. Each particular TV show might be famous for its costumes, scenery, architecture, etc. So depending on the topic we are covering, we can find a TV show that will have a lot of visual aids. For example, if we’re on the topic of clothes and our students also happen to be interested in fashion, let’s google Sex and the City outfits (or if we’re working with a younger demographic, Emily in Paris or Sex Education outfits), pull up a couple of pictures and make students describe them. Another idea is to google Rachel Green outfits. As the results vary from fancy and elegant clothes to some casual and sporty looks, we’ll have a lot of items of clothing to discuss.  

Practising grammar with TV series

For many people, working with grammar is rarely about fun and low-prep ESL activities. It has to be arduous and time-consuming. And in some cases, that is what proves to be effective. However, we shouldn’t neglect the power of joy in the learning process and how much it can boost it.

Comparatives: The Witcher vs Game of Thrones

We have already seen how TV series are sometimes built around the idea of different people coming together. For us teachers it presents an opportunity to work with comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. For instance, we can use these adjectives to describe character traits and compare characters with one another. We can ask students questions like ‘Who is the most intelligent in the group?’ or ‘Who is the funniest?’ For it to work, we have to choose TV series with many contrasting characters like How I Met Your Mother or Friends.

When it comes to comparison, it’s not only about characters. Why don’t we try and compare different TV series like How I Met Your Mother and Friends, or The Witcher and Game of Thrones if our students are into fantasy. To facilitate this, we might need to come up with categories like ‘humour’ or ‘romance’ for the first pair, and ‘dark tone’/‘violence’ and ‘plot twists’ for the second one. 

Conditional sentences: which superhero are you?

Another grammar topic that we can work with based on our favourite TV shows is conditional sentences. We can get really creative here but let’s take, for example, The Umbrella Academy characters with their powers. The activity could be focused on students answering questions such as ‘Which power would you choose? If you had this power, how would you use it?’ We could also use iconic scenes like this one from Workin’ Moms and ask students to imagine what they would do if they were in the character’s shoes. 

Finally, if our students are into detective TV series, there’s a great chance for us to practise modals of deduction. Take, for example, the acclaimed TV series Only Murders in the Building. It’s so full of secrets and plot twists that we can make hundreds of speculations. And luckily for us, each season ends with a mystery that we can hypothesize about. Or if we know that our students have just finished watching a season of Stranger Things and are looking forward to a new one, we can make them speculate about the future and ask what is likely to happen to Eleven and the gang in the next season.

Creating fun and low-prep speaking activities

All the activities above are applicable only if we know what TV series our students are into. And if it’s relatively easy to do when we have individual classes, quizzing all students in a group on their TV preferences might seem a little redundant. So here are a couple of suggestions on how to do it in a more engaging way. 

• First, we could do a full lesson related to films and TV series. We have a few lesson plans that might be helpful for this (Let’s binge watch it together, Why do we like horror films?, Let’s go to the movies!, Question Time!), because students are bound to share some details about their interests during such lessons.
• Instead of devoting a whole lesson to this topic, we can have a short warm up that might help us get the necessary information. For example, we can split students into pairs, ask each of them to choose their favourite TV show and convince their partner to watch it. 
• The other easy-to-implement thing is to ask whether they’d like to be a character in any TV series and make them explain why. Remember that such things work best when students have a good sample answer to follow, so we have to be ready to share something as well.

Summing it all up, we agree that students have different interests and needs. But if there’s something that they all share, it’s the craving for entertainment, the possibility to switch off sometimes and distract themselves from daily problems. And if we can give it to them without taking away the teaching component, TV series might be just the means for that. Do you agree? Do you like using TV series in your lessons? We’d be happy to hear your thoughts!

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By the way, you can find out more about all the TV series mentioned in the article here: