Engage and challenge your intermediate and advanced level students with learning based and interesting current events.
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Current Events
These topics are trending now and your adult and young adult students want to learn how to talk about them.
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Let’s Go Places
Encourage students to talk about their experiences and share their opinions about interesting and practical situations.
Teaching Online?
Share ‘Student Copies’ of Handouts with students in your Online lessons. These Handouts exclude Teaching Notes and answers.
Handout Library
Your students want to learn about different cultures, travel, business, and discuss real issues affecting them now.
Encourage your students to practice English with communicative activities such as role plays, discussions, and conversations about topics that are essential for them.
Every handout and worksheet includes detailed Teaching Notes.
The Teaching Notes include tips, techniques, and methods for teaching the range of activities used in our handouts as well as the answers for questions and activities. Read them before you teach your class and be confident teaching the material covered. A Student Copy without Teaching Notes is also provided so you can use our handouts to teach in your Online Classes.
Our Handout and Lesson Plan Library is growing and improving everyday!
Feedback from our teachers and subscribers help us to improve our handouts and lesson teaching notes. Older handouts get updated and the teaching notes improved to reflect suggestions from our teachers, therefore you should check the ‘update date’ of Handouts and Worksheets you use regularly to make sure you are teaching the latest version.
Students are introduced to and review English grammar.
Grammar is taught using fun matching and gap fill activities as well as scripted conversations and role plays. Verb tenses, prepositions, conditionals, countable and uncountable nouns, comparatives and superlatives, articles, modals for advice, permission and obligation, and much more!
Classroom Language
A1, A2
1 Page
Any
BusinessClass Essentials
Asking questions, Vocabulary
Introduce your students to common classroom expressions that can help them be more effective learners in the classroom. Distribute this handout to your new students and ask they…
Expressing Wishes and Regret
B2, C1
2 Pages
90 mins
Daily LifeSeasonalWork
Grammar
English speakers often use ‘if only’ and the third conditional to express a regret. Commonly formed with an if and result clause. Students practice talking about regret using…
Talking about the Future
B1, B2
3 Pages
90 mins
BusinessDaily LifeWork
Grammar
In English you can speak about events and actions in the future and this is usually called the future tenses. But many linguists say that the English language…
Idioms about Food
A2+, B1
2 Pages
60 mins
Food and Restaurants
Vocabulary
English idioms are often based on analogies and metaphors and are an important part of everyday English. Students can find them difficult to understand even in context. In…
What are they doing?
A2, A2+
2 Pages
60 mins
Daily Life
Grammar
The present continuous (also called present progressive) is a verb tense which is used to show that an ongoing action is happening now, either at the moment of…
In the News
Our Current Events series covers news from around the world and features audio.
These topics are trending now and your adult and young adult ESL students want to learn how to talk about them.
‘In the News’ English lesson handouts focus on world politics, science, business, historical events, extreme weather, lifestyle, technology, famous people and places, and more.
Each ‘In the News’ handout has 3 pages of lesson material aimed at Upper-Intermediate: B2 to Advanced: C1 and C2 level English learners. The 1st and 2nd pages of the handout can be completed in a 60-minute class and the 3rd page can be completed in a longer class or given to students to complete in their own time; have students present their opinions and ideas at the beginning of their next class.
Each ‘In the News’ current events handout features an audio track so your students can practice listening to native English speakers.
The MP3 audio file is available for you to play on our site or download to use in your classroom.
Archaeologists find 100 ancient Egyptian coffins
B2, C1
3 Pages
90 mins
Culture
Listening, Reading, Vocabulary
Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed at least 100 well-preserved ancient coffins, some containing mummies, and 40 statues in a vast pharaonic necropolis (a cemetery of the time of…
Valentine’s Day gift-giving in Japan
B2, C1
3 Pages
90 mins
CultureLifestyle
Listening, Reading, Vocabulary
In Japan, Valentine’s Day is slightly different. Women giving chocolates as a Valentine’s Day gift became popular in the 1950s. In 1978, White Day was created by a…
Meatless Meat Products Gaining Popularity
B2, C1
3 Pages
90 mins
EnvironmentHealthTravel
Listening, Reading, Vocabulary
Recently, two American companies have been promoting meatless ‘meat’ products with increasing success. The companies Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat were both founded in California less than ten…
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma pleads guilty
B2, C1
3 Pages
90 mins
HealthLifestyle
Listening, Reading, Vocabulary
Purdue Pharma, the drug maker blamed for helping to create America’s staggering opioid crisis, agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges as part of an $8 billion settlement…
All insect restaurant open for business
B2, C1
3 Pages
90 mins
EnvironmentHealthTravel
Listening, Reading, Vocabulary
Since June 2019, food scientist Leah Bessa and her partners have been operating a pop-up bug restaurant called The Insect Experience – believed to be South Africa’s first…
The Gig Economy
B2, C1
3 Pages
90 mins
TechnologyLifestyle
Listening, Reading, Vocabulary
Smartphone applications put people directly in contact with workers such as, drivers and teachers, who accept a job on a short-term basis (a gig). This style of work,…
Let’s Go Places
Your students explore new vocabulary and build English fluency through a series of challenging and engaging activities.
Your students talk about the supermarket, the train station, the airport, a coffee shop, weather, sports, and more! Have one of these on hand and we’ve got you covered.
Your students talk about the supermarket, the train station, the airport, a coffee shop, weather, sports, and more!
Help your students explore new vocabulary and build English fluency by guiding them through a series of activities that challenge and engage them. Have one of these on hand and we’ve got you covered.
‘Let’s Go Places’ introduces interesting topics through pictures and encourages your students to ask and answer questions to start a conversation.
Sit back and watch your students using English with enthusiasm. This English series uses original high-quality color pictures that look great and your students will appreciate that, but don’t worry, they look great in black and white as well!
Let’s Go to the Movies
A2, A2+
2 Pages
90 mins
Daily LifePeople and Places
Asking questions, Conversation, Vocabulary
Talking about movies and movie theaters. Example Questions in this Handout How much does a ticket for a 64 year old person cost? What is the woman carrying…
Let’s Go to a Hotel
A2, A2+
2 Pages
90 mins
People and PlacesTravel
Asking questions, Conversation, Vocabulary
Talking about hotels and hotel facilities. Example Questions in this Handout When was the last time you stayed in a hotel? Have you heard of or used Airbnb…
Let’s Go to Work
A2, A2+
2 Pages
90 mins
BusinessDaily LifeWork
Asking questions, Conversation, Vocabulary
Talking about working and your work week. Example Questions in this Handout What do you do on public transportation? Do you have to attend a lot of meetings…
Let’s Go to the Bank
A2, A2+
2 Pages
90 mins
Daily LifePeople and Places
Asking questions, Conversation, Vocabulary
Talking about banks, banking, and money. Example Questions in this Handout What are the bank’s opening hours? What is customer 015 doing at the teller? How much is…
Let’s Go Outside
A2, A2+
2 Pages
90 mins
Daily LifeSeasonal
Asking questions, Conversation, Vocabulary
Talking about seasons, activities, and weather. Example Questions in this Handout What seasons can you see in the pictures? Which months are these seasons in your country? What…
Let’s Go to Europe
A2, A2+
2 Pages
90 mins
People and PlacesTravel
Asking questions, Conversation, Vocabulary
Talking about Europe and European countries. Example Questions in this Handout Would you like to live in Europe? Why/why not? Where would you live? What country do you…
Let’s Go to a Restaurant
A2, A2+
2 Pages
90 mins
Food and RestaurantsTravel
Asking questions, Conversation, Vocabulary
Talking about food and restaurants. Example Questions in this Handout What kind of fast food restaurant is it? How do you know? How much is a burger combo?…
Don’t take our word for it!
See what others say
I am an English teaching in Hong Kong. My students are mostly young company workers who need English in their jobs. We use a popular business English textbook but it’s nice to have worksheets that use English grammar in other ways. My students enjoy the opportunity to speak English.
Kim Fei
Private English Teacher
I have been using esllessonhandouts.com for a few months now and check every weekend for new current events lessons.
Thanks guys!
Marco Sole
English teacher in Japan
I teach English at a few Japanese companies around Nagoya in Japan and use ESL Lesson Handouts to give my classes a break from our business text book. Also, I use worksheets to build on grammar we study in the textbook.
Kazuki Sakamoto
Business English teacher
It’s been a difficult year with the switch to online teaching. Thank you very much for your support so far!
Akihiro Iwamoto
Online and Classroom Teacher
I started using your site [ESL Lesson Handouts] after switching to Online classes because of Coronavirus. Accessible on my phone, I can easily print lessons before private classes or email them to students.
Mark Taylor
Private English Teacher
The worksheets are great to use and easy for students to follow. I teach weekly private lessons at cafes and I check for new handouts each week. I don’t need to carry or photocopy textbooks for my classes.
Matt Palmer
English teacher in Japan
I teach English to medium-sized classes at community centers and businesses in my city. My students are a mix of men and women of all ages. We use your current event handouts in the last week of every month and your grammar handouts to compliment our classroom textbook.
Douglas Kayes
Freelance English Instructor
I’m in Japan for one year and teach private English classes to a group of lovely students while I travel around Japan – I love Kyoto. We study in cafes or at students’ homes so I can print lessons before I need them that day. My students and I don’t need textbooks.
Rose Keogh
Living and working in Japan for a year