Let’s Go Places Topic
Talking about banks, banking, and money.
Picture Overview
The picture(s) in this handout illustrate two floors in a bank. There are bank tellers, ATMs, currency exchange, safety deposit boxes, a vault, a security officer/guard, customers.
Example Questions in this Handout
What are the bank’s opening hours?
What is customer 015 doing at the teller?
How much is 1 US dollar worth in Canadian dollars?
A decade-long search for a treasure hidden deep in the Rocky Mountains that led to multiple people’s deaths is over, the man who hid the treasure announced. Forrest Fenn, a New Mexican art dealer, revealed in a post on his website that his famed treasure had been found.
Help your students gain confidence and fluency when asking questions in the simple present tense by reading and asking about daily routines. This handout focuses on the third person and constructing object questions using the auxiliary verb ‘do.
Students read different customer care emails and practice how to respond to them use formal vocabulary and phrases; understanding how to write and respond to different emails from clients and customers; how to use formal writing phrases and style.
Let’s Go Places Topic
Talking about shopping at a department store.
Picture Overview
The picture(s) in this handout illustrate two floors in a department store. There are escalators and an elevator which is ‘out of order’. It shows a few departments: Ladies Wear, Menswear, and household appliances.
Example Questions in this Handout
What is the woman with the child thinking about?
What is on sale in the Ladies Wear department?
How do you feel about sales people following you and helping you when you shop?
Students discuss their jobs, what they do, and the different responsibilities they have. ‘Have to’ for obligation is reviewed. An interview activity is included that could be assigned as homework to be presented at the beginning of a following class.
Students review phrases used to respond to complaints and look at different problems that can happen and how to politely apologize and offer solutions. A role-play has students practicing the target phrases between a customer and a customer service representative.
Phrases introduced in this Handout
I’m terribly sorry for, I am very sorry for, I am sorry to hear this, My apologies for, I apologize for, Please accept our deepest apologies.
Let’s Go Places Topic
Talking about airports and traveling.
Picture Overview
Students might identify planes, a departures board, escalators, a check-in counter, an Air New Zealand sign, a security checkpoint, security scanners, security officers.
Example Questions in this Handout
Where can travelers catch a bus or taxi?
Which airline is the elderly couple flying with?
What is the maximum weight for a carry-on bag?
‘Can’ is one of the most commonly used auxiliary modal verbs in English. It can be used to express ability, opportunity, to request or offer permission, and to show possibility or impossibility. Students will practice using ‘can’ to express a possibility and to ask for or give permission.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about animals, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
fishy, kitty corner, nest egg, pig out, chicken out, hold your horses, cat got your tongue, a little bird told me, straight from the horse’s mouth, take the bull by the horns, kill two birds with one stone, a fish out of water, as sick as a dog.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about food, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
a lemon, a piece of cake, as cool as a cucumber, (not) my cup of tea, spill the beans, in a nutshell, a smart cookie, full of beans, eggs in one basket, spice things up, nuts about, selling like hot cakes.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about the body, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
off the top of one’s head, the cold shoulder, big mouth, all ears, cold feet, an arm and a leg, get something off my chest, in over your head , see eye to eye, keep your chin up, lend a hand, neck of the woods, head over heels.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about colors, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
a green thumb, the green light, out of the blue, off color, with flying colors, red-handed, paint the town red, in the black, once in a blue moon, in black and white, golden opportunity, in the red.
Comparative adjectives are used to compare differences between the two objects they modify (larger, smaller, faster, higher). They are used in sentences where two nouns are compared. Students focus on how to form comparative adjectives and compare places to live, cities, and countries through sentence completion activities and discussion.
Help your students read large numbers correctly. In this activity, students will practice the language needed to read large numbers with an interesting question and answer activity. Students practice reading and listening to large numbers by asking and answering how high, how far, and how long questions.
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 speech or now in a larger sense. Introduce your students to the present continuous tense and students will gain confidence through a variety of question and answer activities. Students are also introduced to vocabulary about clothes and clothing.
Students talk about their health and symptoms in the present simple tense. Giving advice is introduced and students practice using should and shouldn’t.
Health symptoms introduced in this Lesson:
I have a headache / I have a sore head.
I have a stomachache / I have a sore stomach.
I have a fever / I have a high temperature.
I have a cough.
I have a sore throat.
I have a runny nose.
Using ‘used to’ and ‘be used to’ can be confusing for students. ‘Used to’ and ‘be used to’ are similar to each other in form, but their meanings are quite different. Students are introduced to or review ‘used to’ and ‘be used to’ to contrast experiences as well as talking about becoming familiar with something using ‘get used to’. Students will be able to use the two forms appropriately.
Modal verbs such as can, must, may, might, will, and should are used with other verbs to express ability, obligation, possibility, and so on. Modal verbs are unlike other verbs. They do not change their form (spelling) and they have no infinitive or participle (past/present). This handout introduces essential modal verbs and useful phrases to help students form meaningful sentences.
Students practice describing people using common adjectives for character, personality, and appearance as well as clothes and clothing. In American English is it usual to use the structure “He/She has (long hair)”, however in British English the most common structure is “He/She has got (long hair)” which is usually contracted to “He/She’s got (long hair)”. This handout uses American English.
Adjectives introduced in this handout:
selfish, forgetful, helpful, talkative, serious, honest, hard-working, friendly, stingy, easy-going, determined, shy, confident, reliable, stubborn.
Handout and Listening Topic:
Teleworking is the activity of working from home while maintaining contact with your office by email, telephone, or video calls. Around the world, about 20 per cent of workers telework frequently and about 1 in 10 do so every day. For companies, the benefits are reduced costs, while for workers the advantage is they can spend more time with their families or doing leisure activities, rather than commuting.
Students are introduced to how + adjective questions used to describe things. Made in/by/of are also introduced using the passive voice so students can talk about an object’s maker, country of original, and material. A conversation activity has students asking about and describing lost property.
A decade-long search for a treasure hidden deep in the Rocky Mountains that led to multiple people’s deaths is over, the man who hid the treasure announced. Forrest Fenn, a New Mexican art dealer, revealed in a post on his website that his famed treasure had been found.
Help your students read large numbers correctly. In this activity, students will practice the language needed to read large numbers with an interesting question and answer activity. Students practice reading and listening to large numbers by asking and answering how high, how far, and how long questions.
Handout and Listening Topic:
Many countries around the world are currently experiencing ‘panic buying’ because of the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19. Some badly-affected countries have recommended or demanded that people stay-at-home leading to people stockpiling supplies of necessities, in anticipation of an extended period of ‘social distancing’. The stockpiling has resulted in shops running out of products such as toilet paper.
Handout and Listening Topic:
Your ESL students learn about Coronavirus (COVID-19) and World Health Organization recommendations to prevent infection such as washing hands and maintaining social distance. A novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain that had not previously been identified in humans. Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people.
BTS has achieved its first No. 1 “Dynamite” on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, writing a new chapter in K-pop history as the first Korean band to do so. After having topped the Billboard 200 album chart four times, they have now reached No. 1 on both charts. BTS has broken new ground in K-pop for supporting social justice movements recently saying “We stand against racial discrimination. You, I, and we all have the right to be respected” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
About In the News Handouts
Engage and challenge your intermediate and advanced level students with learning based current event topics. ‘In the News’ handouts offer reading, listening, and a variety of English learning activities based on the topic. Activities included are useful for students preparing for international English tests as well as a fun and engaging review for advanced students.
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 speech or now in a larger sense. Introduce your students to the present continuous tense and students will gain confidence through a variety of question and answer activities. Students are also introduced to vocabulary about clothes and clothing.
Let’s Go Places Topic
Talking about working and your work week.
Picture Overview
Students might identify a family, a businessman, a train and train passengers, a meeting, a presentation, coworkers, a park, a computer, a television.
Example Questions in this Handout
What do you do on public transportation?
Do you have to attend a lot of meetings for your job?
How old were you when you got your first job?
At what age do people usually begin to work in your country?
Phrasal verbs are verbs paired with one or two prepositions and have special meaning. Your students need to read and hear phrasal verbs in context to become familiar with them and understand their correct usage.
Phrasal verbs introduced in this handout:
run after, run away, run out of, run into, run over, run for.
In any language there are always going to be only two kinds of questions possible; yes/no questions and information questions. All types of conversations will have people asking and waiting for a yes or no response or for some kind of information response in order to establish communication with others. This handout looks at question types using BE verb and the auxiliary verb DO in particular in the simple past tense.
Japanese companies have developed a plastic that can be used to make shopping bags that degrade in seawater to help reduce plastic waste in the oceans. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Kaneka Corporation created functional materials referred to as marine biodegradable plastics drawing on the same mechanism by which microorganisms dissolve garbage in soil.
About In the News Handouts
Engage and challenge your intermediate and advanced level students with learning based current event topics. ‘In the News’ handouts offer reading, listening, and a variety of English learning activities based on the topic. Activities included are useful for students preparing for international English tests as well as a fun and engaging review for advanced students.
Students are introduced to relative clauses and how to identify which pronouns are used to discuss people and things. Students study and practice how to connect two different sentences/clauses using relative pronouns.
Students practice using a/an, some, and any before countable and uncountable (non-count) food nouns. Students often struggle using articles and quantifying words so it is necessary to practice and revisit to review. A gap fill activity helps students to practice the grammar before a conversation about the contents of their refrigerators at home. Sample conversation prompts are included to help students ask and answer questions.
Your ESL Students can read a little about some key differences between British English and American English as well as enjoy a vocabulary matching activity. English people go on holidays; Americans go on vacation. Londoners live in flats; New Yorkers live in apartments. This handout reviews 22 words that differ in British English and American English. The vocabulary activity can be done individually or in small groups as part of the lesson or on its own as a fun activity.
There are also differences between British English and American English spelling. Some examples are reviewed and students have an opportunity to compare and discuss the differences.
Your ESL students can practice using adjectives, words that describe the qualities of something. Some adjectives are gradable which means you can have different degrees or levels of that quality. Extreme, non-gradable adjectives are words that mean ‘very very + adjective’ or more accurately ‘extremely + adjective.’ ‘Boiling’ means ‘extremely hot.’ The temperature can’t be ‘a little bit boiling’ or ‘very boiling’ because the word itself means ‘extremely hot.’ Adverbs are also reviewed in this handout.
Emphatic, extreme, or non-gradable adjective introduced in this handout:
filthy, starving, packed, awful, hideous, exhausted, enormous, tiny, glamorous, grotesque, spotless, deafening, thundering, colossal, terrified, mute, freezing, boiling.
Students read different customer care emails and practice how to respond to them use formal vocabulary and phrases; understanding how to write and respond to different emails from clients and customers; how to use formal writing phrases and style.
Use this handout to review and practice using prepositions with your class. Even high level English learners find using prepositions difficult. A preposition in your student’s native language might have several translations depending on the situation. A great way to learn prepositions is by reading a lot as well as learning useful phrases by heart. This handout reviews some of the most frequently used prepositions in English.
Prepositions reviewed:
at, in, on, by, for, to, from, ( x ) no preposition.
Let’s Go Places Topic
Talking about banks, banking, and money.
Picture Overview
The picture(s) in this handout illustrate two floors in a bank. There are bank tellers, ATMs, currency exchange, safety deposit boxes, a vault, a security officer/guard, customers.
Example Questions in this Handout
What are the bank’s opening hours?
What is customer 015 doing at the teller?
How much is 1 US dollar worth in Canadian dollars?
A decade-long search for a treasure hidden deep in the Rocky Mountains that led to multiple people’s deaths is over, the man who hid the treasure announced. Forrest Fenn, a New Mexican art dealer, revealed in a post on his website that his famed treasure had been found.
Help your students gain confidence and fluency when asking questions in the simple present tense by reading and asking about daily routines. This handout focuses on the third person and constructing object questions using the auxiliary verb ‘do.
Students read different customer care emails and practice how to respond to them use formal vocabulary and phrases; understanding how to write and respond to different emails from clients and customers; how to use formal writing phrases and style.
Let’s Go Places Topic
Talking about shopping at a department store.
Picture Overview
The picture(s) in this handout illustrate two floors in a department store. There are escalators and an elevator which is ‘out of order’. It shows a few departments: Ladies Wear, Menswear, and household appliances.
Example Questions in this Handout
What is the woman with the child thinking about?
What is on sale in the Ladies Wear department?
How do you feel about sales people following you and helping you when you shop?
Students discuss their jobs, what they do, and the different responsibilities they have. ‘Have to’ for obligation is reviewed. An interview activity is included that could be assigned as homework to be presented at the beginning of a following class.
Students review phrases used to respond to complaints and look at different problems that can happen and how to politely apologize and offer solutions. A role-play has students practicing the target phrases between a customer and a customer service representative.
Phrases introduced in this Handout
I’m terribly sorry for, I am very sorry for, I am sorry to hear this, My apologies for, I apologize for, Please accept our deepest apologies.
Let’s Go Places Topic
Talking about airports and traveling.
Picture Overview
Students might identify planes, a departures board, escalators, a check-in counter, an Air New Zealand sign, a security checkpoint, security scanners, security officers.
Example Questions in this Handout
Where can travelers catch a bus or taxi?
Which airline is the elderly couple flying with?
What is the maximum weight for a carry-on bag?
‘Can’ is one of the most commonly used auxiliary modal verbs in English. It can be used to express ability, opportunity, to request or offer permission, and to show possibility or impossibility. Students will practice using ‘can’ to express a possibility and to ask for or give permission.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about animals, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
fishy, kitty corner, nest egg, pig out, chicken out, hold your horses, cat got your tongue, a little bird told me, straight from the horse’s mouth, take the bull by the horns, kill two birds with one stone, a fish out of water, as sick as a dog.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about food, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
a lemon, a piece of cake, as cool as a cucumber, (not) my cup of tea, spill the beans, in a nutshell, a smart cookie, full of beans, eggs in one basket, spice things up, nuts about, selling like hot cakes.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about the body, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
off the top of one’s head, the cold shoulder, big mouth, all ears, cold feet, an arm and a leg, get something off my chest, in over your head , see eye to eye, keep your chin up, lend a hand, neck of the woods, head over heels.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about colors, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
a green thumb, the green light, out of the blue, off color, with flying colors, red-handed, paint the town red, in the black, once in a blue moon, in black and white, golden opportunity, in the red.
Comparative adjectives are used to compare differences between the two objects they modify (larger, smaller, faster, higher). They are used in sentences where two nouns are compared. Students focus on how to form comparative adjectives and compare places to live, cities, and countries through sentence completion activities and discussion.
Help your students read large numbers correctly. In this activity, students will practice the language needed to read large numbers with an interesting question and answer activity. Students practice reading and listening to large numbers by asking and answering how high, how far, and how long questions.
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 speech or now in a larger sense. Introduce your students to the present continuous tense and students will gain confidence through a variety of question and answer activities. Students are also introduced to vocabulary about clothes and clothing.
Students talk about their health and symptoms in the present simple tense. Giving advice is introduced and students practice using should and shouldn’t.
Health symptoms introduced in this Lesson:
I have a headache / I have a sore head.
I have a stomachache / I have a sore stomach.
I have a fever / I have a high temperature.
I have a cough.
I have a sore throat.
I have a runny nose.
Using ‘used to’ and ‘be used to’ can be confusing for students. ‘Used to’ and ‘be used to’ are similar to each other in form, but their meanings are quite different. Students are introduced to or review ‘used to’ and ‘be used to’ to contrast experiences as well as talking about becoming familiar with something using ‘get used to’. Students will be able to use the two forms appropriately.
Handout and Listening Topic:
Wildfires in Australia and climate change.
‘In the News’ Article Introduction:
In 2019, wildfires were frequently in the news. From the Amazonian rain forests to the suburbs of Australia, raging fires seem to be getting worse. What is the cause of these fires and is climate change to blame? Man-made or naturally occurring, wildfires need three conditions to be present- fuel, oxygen and a heat source.
This handout can be used to help your Intermediate and Advanced level students reference and compare the 12 verb tenses in English grammar. Each verb tense includes examples numbered 1-24.
Every student should have one handy.
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 this lesson, students are introduced to some interesting idioms about colors, their meanings and usage in a variety of matching and gap fill activities.
Idioms introduced in this Handout
a green thumb, the green light, out of the blue, off color, with flying colors, red-handed, paint the town red, in the black, once in a blue moon, in black and white, golden opportunity, in the red.
BTS has achieved its first No. 1 “Dynamite” on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, writing a new chapter in K-pop history as the first Korean band to do so. After having topped the Billboard 200 album chart four times, they have now reached No. 1 on both charts. BTS has broken new ground in K-pop for supporting social justice movements recently saying “We stand against racial discrimination. You, I, and we all have the right to be respected” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
About In the News Handouts
Engage and challenge your intermediate and advanced level students with learning based current event topics. ‘In the News’ handouts offer reading, listening, and a variety of English learning activities based on the topic. Activities included are useful for students preparing for international English tests as well as a fun and engaging review for advanced students.
Your ESL Students can read a little about some key differences between British English and American English as well as enjoy a vocabulary matching activity. English people go on holidays; Americans go on vacation. Londoners live in flats; New Yorkers live in apartments. This handout reviews 22 words that differ in British English and American English. The vocabulary activity can be done individually or in small groups as part of the lesson or on its own as a fun activity.
There are also differences between British English and American English spelling. Some examples are reviewed and students have an opportunity to compare and discuss the differences.
Students practice describing people using common adjectives for character, personality, and appearance as well as clothes and clothing. In American English is it usual to use the structure “He/She has (long hair)”, however in British English the most common structure is “He/She has got (long hair)” which is usually contracted to “He/She’s got (long hair)”. This handout uses American English.
Adjectives introduced in this handout:
selfish, forgetful, helpful, talkative, serious, honest, hard-working, friendly, stingy, easy-going, determined, shy, confident, reliable, stubborn.
Let’s Go Places Topic
Talking about working and your work week.
Picture Overview
Students might identify a family, a businessman, a train and train passengers, a meeting, a presentation, coworkers, a park, a computer, a television.
Example Questions in this Handout
What do you do on public transportation?
Do you have to attend a lot of meetings for your job?
How old were you when you got your first job?
At what age do people usually begin to work in your country?
The passive voice is used in English is used to express what is done to someone or something; the most important thing or person becomes the subject of the sentence. The subject of the sentences does nothing; something is done to the subject of the sentence. In each case, the focus is on the object of an action.
Your ESL students practice forming passive voice sentences. The topic used to review passive voice is the process of making beer. A role play activity is included for students to practice describing the process of making olive oil and bubble gum using the passive voice. Using time sequence words such as, firstly, next, then, after that, and finally is suggested.
Students revise word formation using prefixes to enhance vocabulary. A prefix is an affix which is placed before base word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix dis- is added to the word appear, it creates the word disappear. A prefix is also called a preformative in the study of languages because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Students ask and answer questions about things they’ve bought in the past as well as review useful vocabulary relating to money. A conversation activity will reinforce asking and answering questions about price. Students use but don’t review the present perfect tense in a modeled question and answer activity.
Different words used to talk about money reviewed:
a fee, allowance or pocket money, a tip, salary, a loan, a fine, debt, tax.
