ESL Conversation Ideas

Canadian Survival

Conditional Conversation Questions

Country Role-Play

Party Games

Promotional Contest

Role-Play Games

ESL Grammar Teaching Ideas

The following list of ESL grammar ideas has activities, games, and lessons to help you teach grammar in an English language classroom.  Many of the links have speaking activities designed to help students practice the grammar in a fun, meaningful, and authentic way.  




Gerunds and Infinitives


Passive Voice


Past Continuous

Phrasal Verbs

Question Formation 

Rather/Prefer


Simple Future


Should


Indirect Speaking

Verb Tenses

Modal Verbs

Past Continuous Speaking Activity

Are you constantly looking for past continuous speaking activities when its time to teach the verb tense? It is a challenging grammar topic, so getting students speaking can be difficult.  

If I could help, I'll give you a good past continuous speaking activity. It is designed to help students understand the difference between simple past and past continuous. It is also great to get them talking and using role-play activities.

Here are the instructions:

1. Put the students in groups of 2-5.
2. Give them two sentences.
3. Have the groups act out each sentence in front of the class. (They can speak, it's not charades)

The sentences are similar, but one uses past continuous and the other uses simple past. Here are some examples:

• They were dancing when the DJ played country music.
• They danced when the DJ played country music.

In this case, the group needs to show in the first example the people were dancing before, and in the second example, they started to dance when the country music started.

They can improvise and show how the people in the first sentence hate country music and stop dancing, while in the second example the people love country music and hit the dance floor when it comes on.


This activity helps students understand how simple past and past continuous work together to show interruptions. It also gets them speaking, which is always nice. 

By discussing each example, the students gain a better understanding of the differences between each sentence.


For past continuous lessons and tests, try these links:

Past Continuous Lesson

Past Continuous Test

Past Continuous Test 2

Past Continuous vs. Simple Past Test

Past Continuous Music Ideas

Teaching TOEFL

Teaching TOEFL can be a complicated task. I find there are two main things to do when teaching TOEFL preparation.

1. Find a good book
2. Break it down into smaller tasks


1. Find a good Book

I think is is important to have a good preparation textbook when teaching TOEFL. The first reason, is because these books show an authority on the test that photocopies, Internet printouts, and other resources simply can't provide. Ideally the student will purchase a copy of the text and work along with your copy. This way the student can use the exercises and supplementary material at home.

My personal favourite book for the IBT test is Cambridge TOEFL Preparation. This book has the most detailed explanations of the grammar points that are covered on the test. I highly recommend this book.

2. Break it down

Don't just start giving practice test after practice test. Break it down and make it clear to the student all the areas of English that need to be improved in order to do well on the test. Explain that grammar, reading, writing, listening, pronunciation, and vocabulary are all important. More than that, explain how each topic is tested, and what each topic contains. For example, it is important to show all the necessary grammar points that are used.

Guide the student along with a study plan, that covers all the areas listed above. Allow for time to practice each area, and focus on those skills that are weakest.

ESL Books

Here are my ESL book reviews:

Focus on Grammar

Subject Verb Agreement Actvities

Subject verb agreement is one of the most difficult things for students to master. It is one of the areas that an intermediate student will struggle with on the way to becoming advanced. 

It is difficult in writing and speaking. Here is a subject verb agreement activity for you and your students.

The idea of this game is to practice speed and repetition.

1.  Put the students in pairs

2.  One student randomly says subjects (e.g. I, You, He, She, It, We, They)

3. The other student quickly answers with a pre-determined verb

Example:

A: He
B: Does
A: They
B: Do
A: It
B: Does

• Have students work through about ten and then switch.
• After both trying the same verb, have them change verbs.
• Students work through all the most important verbs, especially "DO" and "HAVE."

Students can use other subjects that are more difficult like names, irregular plural nouns, etc. The only problem here is that often they take too much time thinking of creative subjects, which defeats the purpose of the game.

A variation is the teacher says the subjects and the students answer with the verbs. Go around the class saying subjects and students all answer with the same verb. Normally I put about 5 on the board and work through them all. Go as fast as possible and try to beat your own times.