writing assignments for advanced esl students

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience.

73 ESL Writing Activities to Spark Your Students’ Creativity and Imagination

From a student’s point of view, writing assignments are something to dread.

But from an ESL teacher’s point of view, they should be a challenge worth accepting.

The challenge for you is to motivate your students enough to actually be excited about writing.

Sounds impossible? It’s actually quite simple.

The key is a strong pre-writing activity that boosts their confidence and adds to their vocabulary at the same time.

So, how do you get your students’ writing off to a great start?

In this post, we’ll look at some different ESL writing activities that will transform your students from hesitant writers to confident wordsmiths in their own right.

Writing Assignments Based on Stories

Writing activities prompted by music, writing practice exercises based on images or pictures, writing assignments based on food, writing activities based on mysteries, exercises to practice writing emails, activities to practice writing advertisements, assignments to practice writing reports, creative writing activity: class newsletter/newspaper.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

People of all ages love a well-told story, and using stories to teach ESL is a sure winner.

A story for a pre-writing activity could be in the form of:

• A  movie . It could be a biography, sci-fi film, thriller, action-packed adventure, fairy tale or even a cartoon.
• A  story read aloud from a book. If you’re using this, read in a way that brings the characters’ voices to life (including the narrator’s), hold the book up to show any pictures within or scan them and project onto a screen as you read. You can also search YouTube videos of famous authors or celebrities reading a book aloud, and show these in class.
• A  story from the news . It could be from the TV, radio, newspaper or an online news site .
• A story read by your students. In this case, you could let them read a story silently or with a partner, and take as long as they like to think about the important parts.

No matter what you choose, it’ll be a great lead-in to the ESL writing exercises below.

1. Re-tell the story as is, or summarize it. (This works best for beginners, who are still getting their feet wet in the waters of English comprehension.)

2. After watching “Finding Nemo” : Tell the story from the point of view of the whale, the dentist’s daughter or Bruce the shark.

3. Explain to Marlin how he should take care of Nemo better.

4. Make up a story about a farm animal/zoo animal/jungle animal. What if a baby ___ was lost? What if a child was lost in the city? What if you found a lost child?

5. After the story of “Goldilocks” : Tell the story from the baby bear’s point of view.

6. What if the baby bear and Goldilocks became best buds? What would happen?

7. After discussing “The Gingerbread Man” : Tell the story from the fox’s or gingerbread man’s point of view.

8. What did the old woman do wrong that made the gingerbread man run away?

9. How do you make a gingerbread man? What other shapes could be made instead?

10. After “Little Red Riding Hood” : Write the story in the first person—from the point of view of either Red Riding Hood or the wolf.

11. What should Red Riding Hood have done when she met the wolf?

12. After watching a “Lord of the Rings” movie: What would you do if you had the One Ring? Write about a magical quest you and several friends would have if you could.

13. After watching a “Pirates of the Caribbean”  movie: What if you were a pirate? What adventures would you have if you were a pirate?

14. After watching “Titanic” : Write about what you discover when you dive onto the wreck. Or imagine you were on the ship when it sank, and talk about how you escaped.

15. Whose fault was it that so many people drowned on the Titanic? What should they have done?

16. After watching a “Star Wars”  movie: Imagine you’re a space explorer and write about what happens when you meet some characters from “Star Wars.”

17. After watching a “Terminator”  movie: Imagine your teacher is a robot that has come back from the future. Or imagine you have come back from the future—what would it be like?

18. After watching a “Harry Potter” movie: Make up some magic spells and explain how you’d use them.

Everybody loves music! Watch your students’ faces light up as soon as they realize that they’re about to be treated to some songs rather than chalk-and-talk. Music stirs the emotions, after all, and can get your students excited about writing.

Here are some ideas for music you can incorporate into ESL writing activities:

• Classical music. There are some pieces of well-known classical music that specifically tell a story , and many of these are available on YouTube.
• “Fantasia 2000,” particularly “Rhapsody in Blue.” This wonderful, wordless animated story can kick off so much great writing!
• Movie music. The music that goes with a movie tells watchers how they should be feeling, and could be a good jumping-off point for some writing.
• Popular songs and music. Self-explanatory. Check out the most popular or trending artists on YouTube or Spotify for ideas.
• Kids’ songs . There’s something about singing a catchy little tune that makes the words stick in your mind more than just saying them. These can lead to some interesting writing, too.

19. After Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” : Tell the story from Peter’s point of view.

20. After Saint-Saëns’ “The Carnival of the Animals” : Imagine walking through the scenes with the animals and interacting with them. Write a story from the point of view of one of the animals.

21. Describe the animals in “The Carnival of the Animals.”

22. After Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” : Re-tell this classic Shakespeare story, adding a twist.

23. After watching and listening to “Rhapsody in Blue” : Tell all/part of the story.

24. If you were the main character in “Rhapsody in Blue,” what would you do?

25. Listen to a piece of classical/instrumental music and tell the story that it might be a background to. Imagine that it’s the background music for a movie.

26. Tell the story (real or made up) behind some popular songs like Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams.”

27. Describe meeting someone special like in the aforementioned Taylor Swift song.

28. What happens in your wildest dreams?

29. What if you were a famous pop star or musician? What would it be like? What would you do?

30. Give instructions on how to find your favorite song on the Internet, both music and lyrics.

31. If you play an instrument, or have a relative who plays one, write about some of the basics of how to play. (This could also work as a speaking and listening activity, and then the whole class could write about it.)

32. What is your favorite genre of music, and why? (Be sure to explain what “genre” means !)

33. Do you think young children should be allowed to freely watch music videos?

Some pictures you can use for ESL writing activities include:

• Pictures from social media. If you use social media at all, you doubtless have a barrage of amazing photos and videos on your feed, all of which make for excellent writing prompts.
• Pictures from Google Images . A quick Google search on any (classroom-safe) image will turn up plenty.
• Cartoons . If you have young students, they’ll definitely enjoy this one.
• Pictures selected by your students. Not sure what to choose? Have your students pick their own pictures to write about. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how vibrant their writing can be when they’re writing about subjects they actually care about.

Regardless of the picture you (or your students) choose, here are some writing prompts you can consider.

34. Tell a story—real or imagined—of what is happening in the picture.

35. Write about what happens next from the pictured moment.

36. Write about what was happening just before the pictured incident.

37. What if that was you in the picture?

38. What if you were the person who took the picture?

39. What if you knew the people in the picture? What would you say to them?

40. Describe all of the elements in the picture. This is great for vocabulary practice.

41. Describe how someone in the picture might be feeling.

42. Explain how to get into  a pictured predicament (for example, in the picture here , how did he get into the boat without the crocodile eating him?) as well as how to get out of it.

43. Express an opinion about the rights and wrongs of the pictured situation. For example, for the same picture above: Should crocodiles be hunted and killed? What should happen if a crocodile kills someone?

Many of your students likely enjoy thinking and talking about food. So why wouldn’t they be motivated to write about it?

How you integrate food into your ESL writing assignments depends on your classroom arrangements and the amount of time you’re willing to put into preparation.

In any case, here are some ideas:

• Start with the preparation and sharing of food before writing about it.
• Look at pictures of food, and talk about them before moving on to writing.
• Have students research food-related topics on the internet.
• Start with a story about food.

Here are the specific food writing prompts:

44. After the story of “The Gingerbread Man”: Think about food that develops a life of its own, and what would happen with it. (This can also open up a discussion about cultural foods.) For example, make up a similar story about another piece of food (e.g., spaghetti or rice that comes alive). What if you felt something moving in your mouth after you bit into your burger?

45. Write a story (real or imagined) about being very hungry and/or finding/buying/stealing food to meet a desperate need.

46. Write a story about trying a new, unfamiliar kind of food—maybe in a (relevant) cross-cultural setting.

47. Write a story about finding and eating a food that has magical properties. (Maybe read or watch some or all of “Alice in Wonderland”  first.)

48. Describe interesting/disgusting/unusual/delicious/colorful foods, especially after a class tasting lesson. (Prepare students first with suitable taste vocabulary .)

49. Describe a food that’s unfamiliar to most students in the class. (This is particularly helpful for classes where there are students belonging to minority groups who hesitate to speak up.)

50. Describe an imaginary magical food.

51. Give instructions for preparing a particular recipe.

52. After a class activity or demonstration involving food: Write down what you have learned.

53. Give instructions for producing food—growing vegetables, keeping animals, etc.

54. Give instructions for buying the best food—what to look for, looking at labels, checking prices and the like.

55. Write about your opinion on food and health in First World and Third World countries. (Explain what makes a country “First,” “Second” or “Third World” first.)

56. Write about your opinion on the cost of food.

57. Write about your opinion on GMOs or genetically engineered foods .

There’s nothing quite like a good “whodunnit,” and students will always enjoy a good puzzle. You can base various pre-writing activities around the two games below to get the class warmed up for ESL writing practice.

• Conundrum. This is an example of a game that can be played as a speaking and listening activity, and can lead into some good writing. The game starts with a simple statement or description of a situation like the ones described in situation puzzles . Students ask questions and receive yes/no answers until they work out the explanation for the situation.

After Conundrum, here are some of the activities your students can do:

58. Write a story about the sequence of events involved in a situation brought up in the game.

59. Devise and describe your own situation puzzle.

• Putting their hands inside a cloth bag (or just feeling the outside) to guess what an object is.
• Smelling substances in opaque jars with perforated lids, and trying to guess what they are.
• Tasting mystery foods on plastic spoons (with blindfolds).
• Looking at pictures of mysterious objects from obscure angles.
• Listening to and guessing the origins of sound effects. (You can record your own, or use some from the Internet .)

(Important: Make sure that whatever you’re using for your guessing game is safe for your students, especially if they involve having to touch, taste or smell the object.)

After a guessing game, your students can:

60. Write about a possible mystery object and a magical quality it could possess.

61. Describe what you thought you saw, heard, felt, tasted or smelled.

For both games, here are some writing prompts you can do:

62. Give instructions for playing one of the games.

63. Give instructions for the perfect crime.

64. Give your opinion about a recent crime and the punishment for it.

Emailing can often be a scary task for your students, especially if they’re using a new, strange language like English. You can utilize an email writing activity to help your students build confidence and get more comfortable writing in English.

Email can also teach your students things like proper language (formal or informal), structure and format. Email-related writing activities for ESL students can offer ample opportunities to teach all of these three aspects.

Since emails involve two parties (the sender and the receiver), you’ll need to pair your students up for this activity. Here’s how to prepare for it:

• Create one set of worksheets explaining details relevant to the sender. For example, it could contain information about a sender’s upcoming birthday party that they want to invite the receiver to.
• Create another set of worksheets with the receiver’s details. The worksheets could contain questions about food dishes or gifts, or it could say that the receiver can’t make it for one reason or other.

Once the above has been done, give one set of worksheets to the “senders” and the other to the “receivers.” Then, here’s what your students will do:

65. Based on the senders’ worksheets, write an email inviting the receiver and explaining the key aspects of the event featured in the worksheet.

66. Based on the receivers’ worksheets, write an email explaining why you can or cannot make it to the party, and/or what other information you need about the event.

Advertisements are everywhere, and you can bet that your students have a few favorite ads of their own. Advertisement-related writing activities work across age groups and can be adapted to most students and their needs.

This great ESL writing assignment can help your students put the adjectives they’ve learned into good use, as well as showcase their creative writing and persuasion skills.

You can find advertisements everywhere, including:

• YouTube videos
• Newspapers and magazines

You can also bring an object (or handful of objects) to class that your students can write ads about.

67. After your students carefully examine the object(s) you brought into class: Write all the adjectives you can think of about it.

68. For a more challenging writing exercise: Write an ad about the object. How would you persuade someone who knows nothing about the object whatsoever to buy it? (Your students may or may not use the adjectives they wrote down earlier. Encourage them to be creative!)

Your students have likely already done some kind of report during the course of their studies. Also, writing reports is a skill that’ll be useful to them once they enter college or the corporate world (if they aren’t in it already). If you feel that they need a little more practice in this area, use this ESL writing assignment.

First, discuss how research and structure matter to reports—and perhaps show them a few samples. Then, give them a few questions to base their reports on, like:

69. What can you say about (insert topic here) in terms of (insert specific angle here)? (For example, “What can you say about the government’s efforts to improve the local park in terms of its impact on the general public?” Of course, you should adapt this question to the level of your students.)

70. After talking about a YouTube video on bears eating salmon : What would happen to the bears if the salmon ran out? 

This ESL writing activity is a bit more intensive and will allow your students to employ many different aspects of their ESL knowledge. Crafting a class newsletter will build collaboration, communication, listening, speaking and, of course, writing skills. If they’re not sure how to build a newsletter or newspaper from scratch, they can always swipe from premade templates like this one .

The newsletter/newspaper can follow a specific theme, or the articles can consist of a hodgepodge of random topics based on questions like:

71. What is the most interesting thing that happened in school this year? It can be the funniest/scariest/most heartwarming incident. Write a feature article about it. (Make sure to explain what a “feature article” is .)

72. Write a report highlighting the key events in some recent local festivals or concerts.

73. Going off of the last exercise, write an ad inviting the reader to buy a product or attend an event.

Once all of the articles are done, you can start putting them together. Make sure to walk your students through these newspaper layout tips . And when the newsletter/newspaper is finally published and circulated out there for the world to see, remember to congratulate your students for a job well done!

No matter what writing assignments you choose, make sure to keep the excitement level high so that your students are enthusiastic for your next writing session.

Whether they write by hand or type on a computer, remember to encourage them as much as you can by focusing on the good points rather than just running all over their mistakes with a red pen.

Lastly, find ways for them to share their efforts—whether online, on the classroom wall, bound together in a book to be passed around, etc.

They can also read aloud to each other, share with their parents and siblings and even share with other classes!

For more ESL assignment ideas, check out this post: 

Great ESL homework ideas can be difficult to come up with. So check out these 13 great ideas for ESL homework assignments that your students will love. Not only are they…

Enter your e-mail address to get your free PDF!

We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe

• Teaching Tips

14 ESL Writing Activities to Spice Up Your Next Class

• October 27, 2020
• No Comments

OUR TOP PARTNER COURSES

120hr + Full Tutor Support

10% off with ESL102021

120hr Online TEFL Course

Best Online Option!

120hr Digital TEFL Course

15% Discount!

120hr Online TEFL Class

Most Reputable!

This post may contain affiliate links (at no extra cost to you). Please read  our disclosure  for more information.

Writing is one of the four basic English proficiencies next to reading, speaking, and listening. Developing a well-honed ability to write fluidly, naturally, and confidently — while using well-crafted grammatical structure and a wide array of vocabulary — carries several benefits for English learners.  

A developed writing ability is essential for scoring well on standardized tests that include essay sections and a well-chosen ESL writing activity can increase the ability to express increasingly complex ideas succinctly and fully, thus improving communication skills across all four proficiencies.

How to Use ESL Writing Activities

As an ESL teacher, part of your teaching scope likely includes improving the writing skills of your students. Fun, engaging activities can be effective tools for achieving the gains in their writing abilities that you hope to see in the classroom. 

When to Use ESL Writing Activities

Depending on the type of activity, writing activities can be used:

• At the beginning of a lesson to pique students’ interest and generate excitement about the upcoming lesson.
• Mid-lesson to assess students’ absorption and retention.
• At the conclusion of a lesson to review previously learned vocabulary/grammar.

Setup for ESL Writing Activities

Some ESL writing activities featured here require virtually no setup. Others require a whiteboard and/or projector with computer access. A handful require some preparation before class and pre-printed materials for handout.

Here are a few of the premier ESL writing activities for students divided by age and skill level.

ESL Writing Activities For Young Learners

Flash card writing.

Young learners are often best engaged with visual cues, so ESL flashcards are great tools for the classroom at the primary level.

To conduct the flash card activity, do a warm-up session by going through each card and, together as a class, writing the correct spelling on the board letter by letter.

Then, heat things up by dividing students into teams and having one member of each team write the vocabulary term on the board as quickly as possible when you prompt them with the corresponding flashcard.

The first student to finish earns a point for his or her team. Incentivize the students, if necessary, with a prize for the team with the most points at the end.

What’s Happening?

Building on the theme of combining imagery with writing for younger ESL learners, consider showing students a picture (the more vibrant, colorful, and detailed, the better) and asking them to write what they see. Consider using images with recently learned phrases as a review method.

Write a Letter to Santa (or Spiderman, Harry Potter, or Whomever)

Letter writing is an essential aspect of a young student’s English. Make it fun by having them write to their favorite superhero, celebrity, or best friend.

If your students need extra guidance, prompt them by suggesting what to write about; if writing to Santa, for example, encourage them to discuss what they would like for Christmas.

Help them frame their letter logically by providing a structure guide and helpful suggestions as necessary.

Postcards to Pen Pals

Capture young learners’ imagination by introducing them to a fictitious young boy or girl (or one inspired by real life) who is their same age and who lives in an exotic far-off land.

If your students are interested in a particular region or city, such as San Francisco, adjust your character’s geographic location accordingly.

Have them write a short composition to their new faraway friend that will fit on a postcard about who they are, what they like doing, etc. You can even make your own DIY postcards in the office using colored cardboard or other material.

This is a great opportunity to teach basic introductions and conclusions in English writing, a foundational component of almost any form of writing.

ESL Writing Activities For Adults

Write a business email.

Many adult learners are businesspeople, office workers, or other teachers themselves, so chances are all or most of your students have to send emails at some point in a work-related capacity.

Learning how to use professional, natural-sounding business language is a practical, valuable skill that adult ESL learners will appreciate —  in fact, you may find that sounding “native” in both written and spoken word is a major goal of many English students, particularly adults.

Using a projector, create a relatable and entertaining work-related scenario and write an email to a boss or co-worker together about the situation.

Then, have your students craft their own email either in response to the example you provided or in a fresh scenario.

Illustrative Descriptions

Fluent English writers and speakers have the ability to translate visual experiences into the written word, an advanced skill set that can serve your students well in a variety of real-world English-speaking contexts.

Consider using a well-known piece of local imagery with important cultural meaning (such as a portrait of a well-known historical figure or leader) and help your students to write verbal descriptions of the visual cue.

Paraphrasing Activity

Paraphrasing is the ability to quickly recreate sentences with different grammatical structure and vocabulary while retaining the meaning and content of the original sentence.

The ability to paraphrase off the cuff is an important skill that can come in handy for adult learners who interact with other English speakers. Practicing paraphrasing encourages a greater understanding of the nuances of the language and developing alternative ways to construct sentences.

Offer your students a sentence, then ask them to capture the essence of what is communicated and reconstitute the critical elements into a new sentence structure.

Personal Ads for Dating Sites

Due to human nature, social conditioning, or a combination thereof, adult ESL learners’ ears tend to perk up when the topic of conversation moves to the birds and the bees.

If your adult students don’t use personal dating apps like Tinder, chances are they did at some point or their sons and daughters do.

Have your students write a personal ad – either about themselves or about one another in pairs – to be placed on a fictional dating app. Depending on the context of the learning environment, you can spice the activity up by encouraging uncouth language if/when you feel it is appropriate.

ESL Writing Activities for Beginners

Acrostic poem.

This simple writing activity encourages creativity in use of the English terminology as well as recall of vocabulary. To create an acrostic poem activity for your students, write a short series of letters such as BIRD on the board, one on top of the other. Each of the four letters is its own line of poetry like this:

Create an example first for your students, such as:

• Barbara and
• I went to the garden where
• Red flowers grow
• Down by the creek

Then encourage students to think of their own poems to create.

Fill in the Letters

Mastering the letters and their phonetic sounds is a foundational element of ESL writing for beginners.

Present your students with words containing missing letters. You can either use pre-constructed worksheets from other teachers, create your own, or write the words with missing letters on the whiteboard.

After your students complete the words, take the time to sound out the terms again to strengthen students’ phonetic grasp on common English sounds and their corresponding letters. This will build their capacity to conceptualize letters when constructing words and sentences.

Letter/Word Chains

Print a series of words with one giant letter on each page. For example, if the word is HOUSE, then print an H, O, U, S, and E, each on its own respective page.

Scramble the papers up, then call an equal number of students to pages to the front – in this example, five. Say the word they should spell (house) and then watch them scramble to organize themselves in the correct order – helping them when necessary.  

Although beginning ESL students don’t put pen to paper in this activity, it is nonetheless a writing activity in that it instills proper spelling and a basic grasp on phonetics that are critical at this stage of language development.

Students also enjoy and may benefit from the social, team-building aspect of this writing activity.

If single words are too easy, you can up the difficulty level by printing entire words on separate pages that form complete sentences.

ESL Writing Activities for Intermediate Students

Western ESL teachers might remember Mad Libs from their youth, a game in which a handful of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are extracted from a prewritten story and left up to the participants to fill in.

Mad Libs and its variants like Mad Takes can be wildly entertaining for ESL learners.

Fantasy Dialogue Using Pop Culture

Most of your students, especially in the mid-secondary school age range with a typical skill level for that group, will find this writing activity engaging.

Create a fantasy meeting between two well-known pop culture figures – for example, in Thailand, this would be something like Lady Gaga meeting Harry Potter if selecting from Western celebrities.

You can make the activity more exciting by setting the dialogue against an unusual background – for example, backstage at a concert in Bangkok.  

Writing Descriptions of Visual Stimuli

Flash an image of a busy street corner in a major city in your student’s country, or of a well-known piece of historic architecture or famous landform – anything that your students are likely to know well.

Write the question words on the board:

Then ask your students to craft their own descriptions of the images you show for the question words. Some might not fit well – for example, the answer to who? may not appear obvious in an image of an island with no inhabitants. Encourage creative, “out of the box” answers in this regard and reward them with positive feedback.

The Directions Game

Giving and receiving directions is an intermediate English skill that ESL learners who want to travel will need to have. Additionally, this activity is useful to include at the outset of a lesson because the competitive nature captures students’ interest.

Draw a handmade map or grab one off of the internet. Divide the students into two teams. Then, have one student from each team come to the whiteboard with marker in hand.

Ask how to go from point A to point B on the map. Each student, with the help of his or her team, must quickly write coherent directions (turn left, turn right, go east, go west, etc.) from start to finish.

The first team to complete intelligible directions wins.

ESL Writing Activities for Advanced Students

What happens next.

This writing activity has the potential for several modifications to spice it up, but the essential idea is that the class, as a group, creates a story line by line.

The simplest version of Collective Story Time is to begin, as the teacher, with the introductory sentence on the whiteboard or projector: “Billy went to the skatepark.” The next sentence is completed by a student chosen at random, who then passes the baton to another student of his or her choice.

Depending on the age, maturity level, and preferences of students, you might put content limitations in place or interject with your own sentences from time to time to keep the story on a productive track.

Social Media Posts

Nearly everyone uses social media; they identify with it; they engage with it. Instead of fighting students to stay off of their phones in class, why not consider crafting your own Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram posts together as a class?

Use projection technology to supersize the browser or app and brainstorm a Tweet or post about a popular topic or the latest news in your learners’ home country.

Getting to the Point/Cutting Out the Fat

In English writing, more is not always better. The stage at which ESL students begin to develop advanced writing skills and become more confident is the right time to begin to introduce the concept of brevity and its benefits.

Start by offering your own writing sample that is chock full of redundancies, extraneous details, and non-sequiturs. Point some of them out yourself so that they know what to look for. Ask your students to shorten the story by half while keeping the original meaning and the critical details.

Transcription Practice (Dicto-Comp)

For some advanced ESL students who are either working already or will soon join the workforce, the ability to translate spoken English into written form quickly and accurately is an important skill.

Help them develop this skill set by selecting a text that is commensurate with their comprehension level. If you can’t find a suitable sample on the web, consider writing one yourself. The text should be about 500 words.

Students will listen and transcribe what they are hearing as quickly as possible. Emphasize the equal importance of accuracy and speed.

Read a few sentences at a time, pausing when you think appropriate.

Where to Start as an ESL Teacher

Devising effective ESL writing activities — and, equally importantly, adapting them to match the needs, interests, and social context of your students – requires a good bit of trial and error. Inspiration from other teachers’ examples and outside resources can help.To get started developing high-quality writing activities for your students, take a look at our list of free lesson plans . They are full of effective teaching strategies that are backed by years of practical success in ESL classrooms around the globe.

WE* MADE A TEFL!

*Made with love by the same people who run ESL Authority!

• 120hr Online Course with 11 Modules & 85 Lessons
• Full Tutor Support - All Questions Answered in 48hrs
• Fully Accredited and Valid Anywhere
• Perfect for online and classroom teachers

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

THE ONLY TEFL YOU NEED

• 120hr with 11 Modules & 85 Lessons
• Full Tutor Support
• Immediate Digital Certification

FOR TEACHERS

• HIRING GUIDES
• TEFL COURSES

FOR COMPANIES

• SUBMIT A COURSE
• GET IN TOUCH
• PRIVACY POLICY

We have several free ESL writing lessons on this page, including sample essays, sentence patterns, writing assignments, and more! If you like these lessons, consider buying our ESL writing textbooks to get even more content just like this!

Beginner Writing Lessons

The four units below are all taken from our book Write Right: 9 Beginner ESL Writing Lessons , available for instant download!

Sample Essay: “My Hobby” – Introductory sample essay that students can reference later when writing their own essays

Sentence Pattern: Start/stop verb+ing – Practice adding “ing” to verbs after “start/stop/quit/begin”

Grammar: Past Tense – Simple introduction to past tense verbs

Error Correction Worksheet – Correct the errors in this sample “My Hobby” essay

Assignment: “My Hobby” – Use the grammar and sentence patterns from Unit 1 to write an essay titled “My Hobby”

Sample Essay: “A Funny Story” – Introductory sample essay that students can reference later when writing their own essays

Past Tense Error Correction Worksheet – Review of past tense; rewrite the paragraph and correct the past tense errors

Indention and Quotations – Teaches students to indent new paragraphs and use quotation marks correctly

Indentions and Quotations: Error Correction Worksheet – Identify and correct the mistakes in the paragraph

Writing Assignment: “A Funny Story” – Students use the grammar and sentence patterns from Unit 2 to write an essay titled “A Funny Story”

Sample Essay: “My Favorite Place” – Introductory sample essay that students can reference later when writing their own essays

Sentence Pattern: Although / Even though – Introduction to “although” and “even though”, with sample sentences and practice exercises

Sentence Pattern: not…at all – Introduction to the sentence pattern “(not)…at all”, with sample sentences and practice exercises

Error Correction Worksheet – Identify and correct the mistakes in the paragraph

Writing Assignment: “My Favorite Place” – Students use the grammar and sentence patterns from Unit 3 to write an essay titled “My Favorite Place”

NEW! UNIT 4: “Letter to a Relative”

Sample Essay: “Letter to a Relative” – Introductory sample letter that students can reference later when writing their own essays

Writing Lesson: The Elements of a Letter – Introduction to the elements of a letter (greeting, body, conclusion)

Writing Lesson: Conjunctions – Introduction to the conjunctions and/but/or/so, with an explanation of how to punctuate them correctly

Error Correction: Conjunctions – Identify and correct the mistakes in the letter

Writing Assignment: “Letter to a Relative” – Students use the grammar and sentence patterns from Unit 4 to write an letter to one of their relatives

Intermediate/Advanced Writing Lessons

The writing lessons and worksheets below are taken from our book Write Right: Transitions , available for instant download!

Writing a Formal Paragraph

Topic Sentences (Introduction) – Introduction to topic sentences and their function in a formal paragraph

Introduction to Similes and Metaphors – Using similes and metaphors to write interesting topic sentences

Similes and Metaphors Review – Practice describing people and things using similes and metaphors

Topic Sentences (Review) – Practice writing topic sentences

The Body of a Paragraph (Introduction) – Introduction to the body of a paragraph and the information that should be contained therein

The Body of a Paragraph (Review) – Practice thinking of information to use in the body of a paragraph

Concluding Sentences (Introduction) – Introduction to concluding sentences and their function in a paragraph

Concluding Sentences (Review) – Practice writing concluding sentences

Punctuation and Conjunctions

Sentence Fragments and Complete Sentences – Introduction to sentence fragments and a review exercise to practice identifying them

Run-on Sentences – Worksheet to practice correcting run-on sentences

Comma Splices and Conjunctions – Worksheet to practice using conjunctions correctly to fix comma splices

Commas and Conjunctions (“and”) – Explanation of how to correctly use commas with the conjunction “and”

Semi-colons – Introduction to this often baffling piece of punctuation, with a review exercise

Transitions and Connectors

Listing Things in Order – Practice listing items or events in order using words like “First”, “Next”, “After that”, “Finally”, etc.

In addition / Additionally / Moreover / Furthermore / Plus / …as well – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with several sample sentences

In addition / Additionally / Moreover / Furthermore / Plus / …as well – Review worksheet to practice writing sentences with these transitions

However / Nevertheless / Still / Despite that / Nonetheless / Even so – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with several sample sentences

However / Nevertheless / Still / Despite that / Nonetheless / Even so – Review worksheet to practice writing sentences with these transitions

Therefore / Consequently / As a result / Thus / For this Reason – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with several sample sentences

Therefore / Consequently / As a result / Thus / For this Reason – Review worksheet to practice writing sentences with these transitions

Review of these Transitions and Connectors – Review worksheet to practice using all of the transition words above

More Transitions and Connectors

Although / Even though – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with several sample sentences and review exercises

Though – Introduction to “though” and it’s various uses in a sentence

Despite / In spite of – Introduction to these commonly used transitions, with sample sentences

Despite / In spite of – Review worksheet to practice writing sentences with these words

Despite vs. Although – Explanation of how to use these similar transition words, with several sample sentences

Despite vs. Although – Review worksheet to practice using “despite” and “although” correctly

Because vs. Because of – Explanation of how to use these similar transition words correctly, with several sample sentences

Because vs. Although – Explanation of the difference between these two words, with several examples and a review exercise

Because of vs. Despite – Worksheet to practice using these transitions, which have nearly opposite meanings

Regardless of – Introduction to this commonly used transition, with several sample sentences

Regardless of / No matter – Review worksheet to practice using these transitions correctly, including an explanation of “embedded questions”.

Review of Transitions and Connectors

Transitions and Punctuation – Explanation of how to correctly punctuate transitions using commas, periods, and semi-colons. Also includes a review worksheet.

Transitions and Punctuation (2) – Students rewrite a short essay, adding punctuation around transition words as needed.

Review of Above Transitions and Connectors – Fill in the blanks with an appropriate transition word to complete the essay

Additional Review of Transitions and Connectors – Review of several transition words/phrases (For this reason / Despite the fact that / No matter / Due to / Consequently / As a result / In spite of / Regardless of / Owing to)

Additional FREE ESL/EFL Writing Worksheets, Activities, and Ideas:

Useful phrases and sentence patterns.

Instead of / Rather than – Handout explaining how to use these phrases, with sample sentences

Instead of / Rather than – Review – Worksheet to practice using “instead of” and “rather than” correctly

Instead – Worksheet reviewing different ways to use the word “instead” in a sentence

Would rather – Handout explaining how to use “would rather”, with sample sentences

Would rather – Review – Worksheet to practice using “would rather” correctly

Prefer – Worksheet to practice using “prefer” correctly

Regardless / Regardless of / No matter – Examples and practice sentences

Gradually / Eventually / Sooner or later / At some point / In the end / …end up… – Examples and practice sentences

More sentence patterns and phrases (in no particular order):

vary / varies from __ to __

that which / those who

Just because [A] doesn’t mean that [B]

If it weren’t for [A], then I never would have [B]

If I hadn’t [A] then I wouldn’t have [B]

I wish I had / I should have

Found myself

(Currently) in the process of

Writing Activities

Putting pen to paper doesn’t always have to be boring. Here are some activities and game-like things to make writing a bit more enjoyable.

Interactive Stories – Students collaborate to write each others’ stories.

The Lying Game – Guess which statements are true and which statements are lies!

Idiom Worksheets – Give advice using idioms. Less a “game” than an “assignment,” though the idioms tend to make things a little more interesting.

Explain the Idiom – Try to guess what the idioms mean, and use them in a dialogue.

Writing Scenarios

30 Writing Topics and Writing Prompts For ESL Students

When learning a new language like English, developing writing skills is essential. Many beginner ESL students find it difficult to write essays, especially if they have to come up with the essay topic themselves.

Providing ESL students with writing topics and writing prompts can help students to focus and start writing. As a teacher, it can be quite challenging to come up with many ESL writing topics, so we have put together this list of ESL writing topics and writing prompts to help you out.

You May Also Be Interested In:

30 Funny Topics For Debate

30 Super Fun Conversation Topics For Kids

List Of ESL Writing Topics

Here is a list of ESL writing topics and writing prompts your students can write about.

• Describe your dream house. Where is it? And What’s inside?
• Talk about the best vacation you ever took.
• What do you like to do in your spare time?
• Write about three things you want to achieve this year.
• What’s your earliest memory as a child?
• What would you do if you had a million dollars?
• What are you good at? What would you like to be good at in the future?
• Write about the members of your family. What are they like? What do they do?
• Write about how to cook your favorite food, step by step.
• If you could meet anyone from history, who would you want to meet, and why?
• Describe everything you did last weekend in as much detail as possible.
• Write about something funny that happened to you this week.
• What were the last three things you bought? Where did you buy them from?
• Describe how you get ready for school every day.
• Describe a famous person in as much detail as possible.
• What is your favorite movie, and why?
• What three things would you take to a desert island, and why?
• Write about your happiest memory.
• What makes a good friend?
• If you could change anything about the world, what would it be?
• If you could travel back in time, when and where would you go?
• What’s your favorite game to play?
• What is something you have done that you regret?
• Describe what the world will be like in1000 years.
• Write an essay about what you did this week.
• Write about one of your memorable birthday celebrations.
• Write about your exercise routine.
• If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?
• Describe a person you look up to.
• What’s your opinion about social media?

Tips For Teaching ESL Writing

Error correction.

Writing in a foreign language is hard, especially for beginner ESL students. Students will likely make many mistakes in the beginning.

Although it is necessary to highlight and correct students’ errors, it can be quite demotivating for a student to only hear all the things they got wrong.

To ensure students stay motivated, be sure to praise them and tell them all the things they did well, as well as point out any grammatical mistakes.

After correcting errors, give students an opportunity to re-write their essays and correct their mistakes. Once students have completed their final draft, be sure to let them know what you liked about their essay, and you can even share this praise with other students, teachers, and even the student’s parents.

To master writing in English, students will need to write a lot of essays over time, and if students stay motivated, they are much more likely to succeed.

Ask About Students’ Interests

Another great way to keep students motivated while writing ESL essays is to encourage them to write about things that interest them.

A great way to encourage this is to ask about things students are interested in and then tailor the writing topic to them.

Students are much more likely to actively engage in a writing assignment if it is something they are interested in and passionate about.

Provide Enough Writing Prompts

ESL students often find it difficult to write long answers to essay questions. Ask an ESL student to write about their favorite restaurant, and they’ll likely give you a one-sentence answer.

To help students write longer essays, be sure to give them enough writing prompts to cover the different aspects they should cover in their writing.

For example, if students are to write about their favorite restaurant then you could give them several writing prompts such as ‘where is the restaurant’, ‘what kind of food do they serve’, ‘how much is a typical meal’, ‘what do you usually order’, etc.

Giving beginner ESL students plenty of writing prompts will help them to flesh out their essays and write longer answers.

Structure The Essay

To help ESL students become better at writing in English, teach them a particular structure you would like them to follow when writing their essays.

A typical writing structure with beginner ESL students would include an introduction, the main body of the text, and then a conclusion.

Providing students with an easy-to-follow structure will help them to plan out their essays and develop their writing skills over time.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found some useful ESL writing topics and writing prompts you can use in your next writing class. 

Before you go, don’t forget to check out our FREE resources for teaching English, including  Activity Videos ,  Board Games ,  Flashcards ,  PowerPoint Games , and  Lesson Plans .

Are you a learner at C1 English level (advanced) ? This section offers writing practice to help you write clear, well-structured texts about complex subjects. Texts include essays, proposals, articles, reports, reviews and emails.

Each lesson has a preparation task, a model text with writing tips and three tasks to check your understanding and to practise a variety of writing skills. Make a start today.

Choose a writing lesson

A music review

Learn how to write an album review.

• Read more about A music review
• Log in or register to post comments

A proposal for a digital newspaper

Learn how to write a proposal.

• Read more about A proposal for a digital newspaper

A report on a research study

Learn how to write a report on a research study for your company.

• Read more about A report on a research study

A response to a complaint

Learn how to write a response to a complaint.

• Read more about A response to a complaint

An email explaining an incident

Learn how to write an email to explain an incident to your manager.

• Read more about An email explaining an incident

An email request

Learn how to write a formal email to make a request.

• Read more about An email request

An email to a friend

Learn how to write an email to a friend.

• Read more about An email to a friend

An essay about women in science

Learn how to write an essay that suggests reasons for and solutions to a problem.

• Read more about An essay about women in science

An opinion essay

Learn how to write an opinion essay.

• Read more about An opinion essay

Conference bios

Learn how to write a short biography for a conference programme.

• Read more about Conference bios

Describing a table

Learn how to summarise information in a table and write a report on the main features.

• Read more about Describing a table

The changing workplace

Learn how to write about changes in the business workplace.

• Read more about The changing workplace

Learn to write in English with confidence

Our online English classes feature lots of useful writing materials and activities to help you develop your writing skills with confidence in a safe and inclusive learning environment.

Practise writing with your classmates in live group classes, get writing support from a personal tutor in one-to-one lessons or practise writing by yourself at your own pace with a self-study course.

Explore courses

Online courses

Group and one-to-one classes with expert teachers.

Learn English in your own time, at your own pace.

One-to-one sessions focused on a personal plan.

Get the score you need with private and group classes.  

C1 Advanced - Writing Practice

Certificate in advanced english (cae).

• C1 Advanced quick links:
• Use Of English
• Back to the C1 Advanced main page

The themes/topics covered in each writing paper can be found below each link.

Cambridge C1 English Advanced (CAE) Writing - Test One Reducing traffic / review, letter, report Exercise Number: CAE067

Cambridge C1 English Advanced (CAE) Writing - Test Two Local TV station / letter, proposal, report Exercise Number: CAE068

Cambridge C1 English Advanced (CAE) Writing - Test Three Protecting the environment / report, email, review Exercise Number: CAE069

Cambridge C1 English Advanced (CAE) Writing - Test Four Working from home / report, proposal, letter Exercise Number: CAE070

Cambridge C1 English Advanced (CAE) Writing - Test Five Spending government money / review, letter, report Exercise Number: CAE071

Cambridge C1 English Advanced (CAE) Writing - Test Six New school subject / review, email, report Exercise Number: CAE072

Cambridge C1 English Advanced (CAE) Writing - Test Seven School speech giver / review, email, report. Exercise Number: CAE073

Cambridge C1 English Advanced (CAE) Writing - Test Eight Local town economy / email, proposal, review. Exercise Number: CAE074

Best C1 Advanced Books For Students

Use of English: Ten practice tests for the Cambridge C1 Advanced | See in UK

Cambridge English Qualifications: C1 Advanced Volume 1 Practice Tests Plus with key | See in UK

Grammar and Vocabulary for Advanced Book with Answers and Audio | See in UK

Cambridge English Advanced 1 for Revised Exam - Student's Book with Answers: Authentic Examination Papers | See in UK

CAE Writing Masterclass (Parts 1 & 2) Cambridge English Advanced Writing | See in UK

Grammar & Vocabulary CAE & CPE Workbook With Key | See in UK

• iOS/Android App
• First Words
• Grammar Guide
• Pre-Intermediate
• Intermediate
• Grammar Exercises

Reading Exercises

Listening exercises.

• Business English

Vocabulary Exercises

• Picture Quizzes
• NEW B1 Preliminary
• C1 Advanced
• C2 Proficiency
• Phrasal Verbs
• Phrasal Verbs Definitions

Pronunciation

• Pronunciation Exercises

Español / Castellano

• Aprender Español
• Learn Spanish

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar

Teaching Expertise

• Classroom Ideas
• Teacher’s Life
• Deals & Shopping
• Privacy Policy

60 Interesting Writing Prompts For The ESL Classroom

December 15, 2022 //  by  Christina Swiontek

Writing prompts are a great way for ESL learners to explore writing and practice their writing skills. English language learners will greatly benefit from responding to writing prompts. They can learn basic language skills and express themselves through descriptive, narrative, creative, opinion, and journal-based writing. By using these engaging writing assignments, beginner and intermediate learners can look forward to becoming strong writers. Help your young ones become more confident writers with the help of these fun prompts! 

Descriptive Writing Prompts 

For these descriptive writing prompts, guide students to be as specific as possible. It may be helpful to provide them with a list of adjectives and have a classroom discussion about how they can be used to describe various scenarios. Encourage writers to be creative and have fun with their writing topics. 

• Do you remember your first pet? What were they like?
• What is your happiest amusement park memory?
• Share your favorite meal in detail. 
• What does a perfect day include? What is the weather like? 
• What do you like to do on a rainy day? Share your ideas. 
• Have you ever been to the zoo? What did you see and hear? 
• Use your senses to describe an open area of grass and trees.
• Describe a sunset to someone who cannot see it.
• Share information about something that brings you joy.
• Imagine you are taking a trip to the grocery store. Share your experience.

Learn more: Teacher’s Notepad

Opinion Writing Prompts

An important aspect of opinion writing practice is for the writer to state their opinion and provide facts that support it. Opinion writing exercises can also be referred to as persuasive writing; in which the writer’s goal is to have the reader agree with their opinion. A tip for writers is to select a topic they are passionate about and provide enough supporting details. 

• Have you ever read through a book that has been made into a motion picture? Which do you prefer?
• Do you like to spend time inside or explore the big city? Share reasons to support your answer.
• What do you feel is the best invention? What would life be like without it? 
• Share details about a fun trip with your best friend. 
• Write and describe what it would be like if you didn’t have homework. 
• Do you think every sporting event should have a winner? Why or why not? 
• Is it better to vacation in the mountains or on the beach? Why is it better? 
• Share your thoughts about your favorite sport and why it interests you. 
• Think about your favorite book. What makes it your favorite?

Learn more: ThoughtCo

Narrative Writing Prompts

Narrative writing prompts are an effective way for students to improve their writing and creativity skills. It also motivates children and makes them excited to write. ESL writing topics such as these are a great way to spark creativity and imagination. 

• Think about what may happen if you took a picture of your friend in front of a volcano. 
• Imagine you had three wishes that could be granted, but you cannot use them for yourself. What would you wish for? Explain your reasoning. 
• What do you think would happen if you were to plan the luckiest day of your life? 
• If you had the option of bringing home a zoo animal, how would you spend your time together?
• Include the following words in a funny story: grapes, elephant, book, and airplane. 
• Write a short story from the viewpoint of an ant. What are the pros and cons of being so tiny?
• Can you imagine having the opportunity to meet your favorite book character? Who would you choose and why?
• What would your school day be like if there was no electricity? 
• Imagine you are a pirate, and you just took off on a voyage. What are you searching for? 
• Finish this story: The pirates set sail on their ship in search of . . .
• If you could be a teacher for the day, what decisions would you make and why?

Learn more: Vibrant Teaching

Creative Writing Prompts

Creative writing has many benefits for all children, including foreign English language learners. It helps improve communication skills, memory, and knowledge. Creative writing also stimulates higher-level thinking and self-expression.  

• If you could have a pet elephant, what would you do with it? 
• If you could spend the day in animal form, which animal would you be? 
• Oh no! You look up on the roof and you see your cat is stuck. What can you do to help?
• Share your adventures in detail if you were to own a pair of magical shoes.
• If you could have dinner with your favorite character, what would you ask them?
• If you could spend a day on a time machine, what would you do?
• Imagine you are taking your dog on a trip through the forest. What do you see?
• What is fun about playing in the rain?
• Think about playing hide and seek. Where is your favorite place to hide?
• If you could be a part of the circus for a day, what would be your special talent? 

Learn more: Squibler

Essay Writing Prompts

Essay writing prompts help students learn the fundamentals of writing. The following essay topics aim to strengthen reading comprehension and develop context and structure. Both ESL students and native English speakers can benefit from essay writing practice. 

• Share your favorite class subject and why.
• Explain the reason why it is good to share with friends.
• Share your favorite sport and why it is so special.
• What would it be like to be a superhero?
• What is your favorite game? How would you describe the goal of the game to someone who has never played it?
• Think about the tools you use in the classroom. Which one is most useful?
• What makes your best friend unique?
• Think about your least favorite subject. What would make you like it more? 
• What is your favorite thing to do over the weekend?
• Is there a story you could read over and over? Share why you enjoy it.

Learn more: Splash Learn

Journal Writing Prompts

Journal writing is an awesome way for children to practice writing. While writing in a journal, students can focus less on quality writing and mechanics and more on self-expression and the meaning behind their writing. Children may want to find a sacred writing space where they can avoid distractions and focus easily.

• What makes your school community unique?
• What does it mean to be kind?
• What should you do if you can’t get along with a classmate?
• What qualities are important in a friend?
• If you could invent something to solve a problem, what would it be?
• Did you ever break something by accident? How did you fix it?
• What is your favorite game to play in, and out of the classroom?
• Think about an imaginary friend. What are they like?
• Look in the mirror and write about what you see.
• What is your favorite playground equipment? Why? 

Learn more: YourDictionary

Explore More

Stay in our orbit.

Stay connected with industry news, resources for English teachers and job seekers, ELT events, and more.

Explore Topics

• Global Elt News
• Job Resources
• Industry Insights
• Teaching English Online
• Classroom Games / Activities
• Teaching English Abroad
• Professional Development

Popular Articles

• 5 Popular ESL Teaching Methods Every Teacher Should Know
• 10 Fun Ways to Use Realia in Your ESL Classroom
• How to Teach ESL Vocabulary: Top Methods for Introducing New Words
• Advice From an Expert: TEFL Interview Questions & How to Answer Them
• What Is TESOL? What Is TEFL? Which Certificate Is Better – TEFL or TESOL?

Teaching Writing to ESL/EFL Students: Tips and Activities for Any Level

• Linda D'Argenio
• August 19, 2022

Teaching writing to non-native speakers of a language presents a plethora of unique challenges and can feel overwhelming for new and seasoned teachers alike. However, teaching writing to ESL students can be dynamic and meaningful when approached with a bit of ingenuity.

If you’re new to teaching, you’ll want to get initial training and qualification with a TEFL certificate . You can explore our online TEFL courses to get started!

Why is it important to teach writing to ESL students?

In order to effectively participate as contributing members of society, individuals need to be able to communicate their thoughts in written form, whether they are using the English language as their vehicle or not.

Writing is an essential component of productive language, and ELs will need to demonstrate their ability to write in English if they hope to be competitive in a globalized world . Building competency in English-language writing supports reading comprehension, vocabulary expansion, and oral fluency , so there’s so much to be gained. And even if your students don’t plan to use the lingua franca on a regular basis, the skills gleaned from learning to write in another language transfer to all facets of life, making students more aware and more effective communicators in their native language(s) .

Teaching ESL writing aids in self-expression , which might be particularly meaningful for individuals who are hesitant to express themselves verbally. You might have the next Henry David Thoreau or Gabriel García Márquez in your class!

Why do ESL students struggle with writing?

Writing in another language is no easy feat, so it’s only natural that your ESL/ EFL students encounter difficulties when asked to do so.

First, it’s essential to recognize that writing conventions differ from one language group to another . Students from various linguistic backgrounds might declare that writing in English (particularly in an academic setting) is “boring,” something they perceive as formulaic. Often, these students come from backgrounds that value writing in a way that might seem “tangential” to native English readers.

In “Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education,” Robert B. Kaplan (1966) put forth a model for examining written discourse patterns, which illustrates how different thought patterns influence how speakers of other languages express themselves in written form.

You can observe that English is illustrated as being very straightforward, which aligns with the directness of spoken English. Kaplan poses here that other language groups tend to branch off in different directions in written form, pulling in supporting elements that might not be directly correlated to the main idea and that present as “off-topic” for native English speakers.

Secondly, it’s crucial to keep in mind that writing requires a vocabulary lexicon that can adequately support sharing . Often, even the most proficient English learners struggle to select the language they need to convey their point. When tackling writing instruction, make sure to consider how you’re supporting vocabulary development to support the conventions you’re teaching.

Lastly (and perhaps most importantly), writing is a form of self-expression, and self-expression through writing isn’t valued the same way in all cultures . There is a great deal of value placed on sharing one’s opinions in the U.S., for example, but this is not the reality all over the world. Some of your students might have been taught that they receive and process information, but that they are not in the position to make statements of their own or have the authority to teach others. Therefore, putting their thoughts down on paper might feel formal, high-stakes even, for your students.

What are some tips for teaching ESL writing?

Regardless of the age and proficiency level of your students, or whether you’re teaching writing in an ESL or EFL classroom, there is a myriad of strategies that you have at your disposal.

Don’t underestimate the value of conducting needs assessments

When it comes down to how to teach writing skills, even if you are teaching a group that is considered a certain proficiency level, recognize that there is always going to be a range of experience and ability present. Spend time getting to know what your students have been exposed to and in what ways before deciding on your approach. Teach to the middle to ensure no one is left behind.

Check out the following sample needs assessment to get started:

Think about how you can lower learners’ affective filters

A large portion of all successful teaching comes from relationship-building. In addition to getting a true sense of your learners’ experience and abilities, try to understand their attitudes towards writing as a process and any challenges that might be borne from those attitudes. How can you increase your students’ comfort level? How can you engage the individuals sitting in front of you?

Check out these 5 ways to build rapport with your students when teaching English.

Think about how the writing task can act as a building block for other assignments

Learning how to write in another language can be intimidating, and even more so if your students don’t enjoy writing in the first place. When wondering how to teach writing to ESL/EFL students, think about how you can integrate writing more often and more seamlessly into your lesson plans. Instead of approaching writing in isolation, teach writing skills alongside other “more engaging” activities that students tend to enjoy more. Have your students participate in role-playing and storytelling activities that require writing but don’t make writing the focus of the activity. This is your chance to be sneaky and get your students to build their writing skills without even knowing!

Present opportunities to examine authentic, written language

Providing students with examples of the target language is non-negotiable, but challenge yourself to move beyond the sample texts in your curriculum where possible. Students might feel bored by the selected works in their textbooks – they need to recognize that written language is all around them. Pull from authentic texts that cover an array of topics that you know matter to your students to keep them enticed.

Try incorporating pop culture into your ESL classroom to spice up writing activities!

Lead with function over form in instruction, and then alter your focus

Students can be discouraged to find their paper covered with red ink, highlighting their fallacies. While it is important to provide corrective feedback, consider the purpose of the assignment before marking up the composition. Was the output comprehensible? Did it touch upon everything that you asked for? Focusing on both function (the purpose of the assignment) and the accuracy in form simultaneously can feel overwhelming. Choose your objectives carefully, make them known to the learners, and provide corrective feedback accordingly .

Choose writing activities that pertain to your students’ learning goals. For example, the following clip, from a BridgeUniverse Expert Series webinar , covers how to teach Business English students to write an email in English:

Consider formative assessment and reflective strategies

Whenever possible, assess student work periodically, examining the process with various checkpoints and iterations throughout, instead of just evaluating the final product. Writing is an iterative process, and students benefit greatly when offered opportunities to reflect on their process. Create opportunities for students to participate in self- and peer-revision processes, which in turn will result in more conscientious and focused writers.

What are some ESL writing activities and lesson plans for beginners?

It can feel challenging to come up with writing activities for learners with beginner proficiency, but with proper scaffolding , writing can be inclusive and participatory.

Try group writing processes in class to get students comfortable

Writers with beginner proficiency might default to a deficit mindset, believing that writing is inaccessible for them due to a dearth of vocabulary or experience, so when you start to look at how to teach writing in the ESL/EFL classroom, your first job is to inspire confidence and get students into a growth mindset. To get them comfortable with the writing process, engage them in group writing activities.

• Choose a familiar topic (or have your students choose a topic together), and explain that you are going to “group-author” a paragraph.
• Have the students share what they know about the topic, and you, as the teacher, act as the scribe, jotting down their thoughts in a central location.
• Continue gathering their ideas until everyone has shared, remembering to emphasize that this is a process and that there is no wrong contribution.
• Examine the individual contributions and note overlap: How can a few thoughts be grouped together? In the process, ask students to elaborate on what they meant and provide examples.
• Organize these preliminary thoughts to the best of your ability, involving the students and getting them to notice organizational structures and decipher between the main idea and details.
• After celebrating what you can refer to as the “first draft,” provide specific and limited ways to improve the piece. Did they include everything they thought was relevant to the topic? Could the paragraph benefit from additional cohesive devices? Do the subjects and verbs agree? Provide ample support in the form of examples, formulas, and sentence frames alongside the piece. Invite students to examine the paragraph and seek out these common mistakes (in partners or individually).
• Create your “final draft” together, and ensure that it’s displayed prominently in the space.

By engaging them in the writing process in this way, you are instilling habits that will aid them in writing autonomously when the time comes.

Make the most of brainstorming – both individually and with others

Have you ever had students tell you that they don’t know what to write? Students, particularly those at the beginner level, need ample time to think about the content before diving into the actual writing process . Emphasize the importance of brainstorming as a way to collect their thoughts and aid them in their writing. Engage students in different kinds of brainstorming activities, going beyond “write down what comes to mind.”

Consider Think-Pair-Share as a framework for brainstorming, where students take time to think independently about the topic, share their ideas with their peers, and then share aloud to a larger group. Typically, the sharing is done orally, but you could also consider the independent writing portion of the activity as “sharing” with a larger audience, just in written form.

What are some ESL writing activities and lesson plans for intermediate and advanced students?

Facilitate a two-way journal experience with your students.

Create a way for individual students to exchange their ideas with you in an informal way with a two-way journal . Have the students maintain a writing journal that you periodically collect to write comments and ask questions. The objective of this exchange is not to formally evaluate your students’ writing, but to gather intel about your students’ progress and connect with them as individuals. Within these exchanges, not only are you building and sustaining rapport, but you are also augmenting critical thinking and meta-cognitive skills with strategies like noticing and annotation.

Cultivate peer revision routines

Learning to write in a non-native language is as much a social process as it is a cognitive process. Involving students in peer revision activities can be incredibly beneficial in that students can learn from their peers (potentially those who are stronger writers than themselves) and develop the ability to think more critically about their own writing. While getting students to effectively participate in peer revision activities requires a lot of frontloading and the establishing of routine, it is the gift that keeps on giving. If you’re interested in facilitating peer revision with your students, consider the following as general guidelines:

• Start by determining your focus for the activity. What are you asking the students to do? Make it clear to the students what you’re looking for, and provide supports that they can use in the process (e.g., a checklist or rubric).
• Demonstrate how students would use the rubric, and go through the revision process as a group.
• Provide sample pieces to examine, and engage the students in discussion around the samples.
• Make sure that students are aware of what is considered appropriate and useful feedback through modeling. Have them practice, and give them feedback on their feedback.
• Monitor the peer review sessions and jump in as needed, ensuring the quality of feedback for all involved parties.
• Reflect on the peer feedback activity in whole-group format, asking students to share what they got from reading their peers’ work, defining areas that they excelled in and areas for improvement.

Timed writing

Once your students feel comfortable with the writing process and the structure at hand, consider different contexts that they’ll be writing in. Perhaps they are planning to take the TOEFL or the Pearson Test of English (PTE) and hope to study abroad, or maybe they’re about to enter the workforce and work collaboratively with others.

In either case, your students will need to demonstrate their ability to communicate their ideas in written form while adhering to time constraints . Plan timed writing activities for your students on a variety of topics and with different parameters. In a standardized test prep context, have students write under the same conditions as the test that they’re preparing to sit for.

Take a Micro-credential course in Teaching TOEFL Test Prep or Teaching PTE Test Prep to help students ace these high-stakes exams.

In a workforce development setting, illustrate a scenario in which an email from management warrants an urgent (and polished) response. In either context, examine the output and discuss strategies that the students used. Student output from timed activities provides fertile ground for examining accuracy in form. Walk students through noticing activities, and challenge them to remember their tendencies in subsequent timed writing tasks.

Teaching writing to ESL/EFL students requires commitment and perhaps a bit of innovation on the part of the teacher, but if done well, it can prove immensely useful in a globalized world, aiding individuals in self-expression and beyond.

In addition to writing, there’s another subject that can sometimes fill teachers with dread: grammar! Here are 7 simple strategies for teaching grammar to English language learners , so you can tackle this topic with confidence .

Linda D'Argenio

Linda D'Argenio is a native of Naples, Italy. She is a world language teacher (English, Italian, and Mandarin Chinese,) translator, and writer. She has studied and worked in Italy, Germany, China, and the U.S. In 2003, Linda earned her doctoral degree in Classical Chinese Literature from Columbia University. She has taught students at both the school and college levels. Linda lives in Brooklyn, NY.

eslwriting.org

A panoply of teaching resources.

10 AI Lesson Ideas for Writing Teachers

How can ESL teachers use AI to teach writing? Sounds strange because some of us, like me, tried the avoidance strategy. No AI in this writing class, I thought. I was delighted with the results but realized some accommodation is required. AI ain’t going away. Here are a few AI lesson ideas to help teachers use AI and not feel like it’s taking over.

6 Amazing Images You Can Use As ESL Writing Prompts

Who said there’s no time for fun activities in the ESL writing class? I like to use spacer activities to give my ESL students a mental break and a creative challenge at the same time. Here are six images that I like to use as ESL writing prompts. Great fun and awesome sponge activities.

10 High Interest Graded Readers for the Writing Classroom

Reading in the writing classroom? Sure, why not. Experienced ESL writing teachers know there is a strong correlation between reading fluency and writing fluency. That’s why a book report (based on graded readers) is part of my class curriculum each semester.

How to Teach Writing to Shy Students

Here are some unique writing lesson activities that can help shy students develop their writing skills and build their confidence:

Personal journaling

Encourage students to write in a personal journal about their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. This is a great way for shy students to express themselves and to build their writing skills in a safe and private space.

Director of Studies - France

Seeking experienced and motivated individuals to join the team as Director of Studies.

Teach in Mongolia

Business Teacher KS5 Required - Ulaanbaatar

• Argentina TEFL Internship
• Cambodia TEFL Internship
• Costa Rica TEFL Internship
• Explore China Program
• Hong Kong TEFL Internship
• India TEFL Internship
• Japan TEFL Internship
• Korea TEFL Internship
• Laos TEFL Internship
• Madagascar TEFL Internship
• Romania TEFL Internship
• Sichuan TEFL Internship
• Spain TEFL Internship
• Thailand TEFL Internship
• Vietnam TEFL Internship
• USA Internship - Au Pair
• Cover Supervisor Jobs UK
• Teaching Assistant Jobs UK
• Primary Teaching Jobs UK
• Secondary Teaching Jobs UK
• Permanent Teaching Jobs UK
• SEN Teaching Jobs UK
• Education Recruiter Jobs UK
• TA Jobs Birmingham
• TA Jobs Leicester
• TA Jobs Liverpool
• TA Jobs London
• TA Jobs Manchester
• TA Jobs Nottingham
• TA Jobs Sheffield

From the blog

Is TEFL or a PGCE better?

If you are considering getting into teaching, especially primary-aged students in a different country, you might be wondering...

Is an online TEFL course better than an in-person option?

When retraining, there are many providers out there...

Celebrate this May with 30% OFF our comprehensive  220 Hour   TEFL Course using code ' MAYMAGIC30 ', ending May 31st. Study Online. Accepted Worldwide. Book Today. 

6 Creative Writing Activities for the ESL Classroom

03 June 2021 • Guest posts , Tips

The ESL classroom is a place where students learn, develop their language skills, and use their creativity and imagination. Learning a language is a process that requires different types of activities to be involved, for the student to truly progress. That’s why ESL students deal with speaking, reading, listening, and writing activities interchangeably. And, it’s the teacher’s job to make these activities as engaging and useful as possible.

When it comes to creative writing, teachers should look for creative activities that will keep the students interested and present. To help you give your students the best possible learning experience, we've put together a list of 6 creative writing activities for the ESL classroom. Check them out below.

1. Group Story Writing

If you have a classroom of reluctant writers, you might want to kick things off with a group exercise. Divide students into groups so that they can work together and help each other out.

Group story writing is a fun exercise that your students will love. All you need is an interesting picture showing something amusing and inspiring for each group. Once you give them the picture, ask them to:

• - name the characters from the picture
• - decide on their relationship
• - come up with a story about the things happening in the picture e.g. why are they there, what are they talking about, how are they feeling…

Ask the students to take turns pitching ideas, and have one student in the group take notes. Once they define all the details, ask them to write a story based on the ideas they've previously shared.

Group work can be a challenge, but if you instruct it properly, your students will enjoy working together.

2. Five-Sentence Stories

To have your students engage in a writing task, you don't need to have them write a two-page essay. Exercises that seem simple can actually help them work harder and truly activate their language skills.

A five-sentence story is an exercise that requires the following:

• - the students work individually
• - they have 10 minutes to come up with a story
• - the story needs to have an introduction, a climax, and an ending
• - the story needs to be exactly five sentences long

The teacher can either provide a topic or let it be completely up to the students.

The students will struggle to summarize their entire idea into five sentences and will have to use all the language skills and knowledge they have. Plus, they'll enjoy listening to each other's fun short stories and seeing how everyone did.

3. Finish The Story

The following exercise is great for pair work since it can engage language-speaking separately from written assignments. Finish the story is quite simple:

• - provide each pair of students with a beginning of a story
• - it can be a newspaper article, a fairy tale, a letter, an email, or anything the students find interesting
• - ask them to read it
• - ask them to write the rest of the story and finish it the way they think it should finish

The students will be provided with a writing style sample that they'll need to follow and respect. They'll need to be imaginative and creative to finish the story with a bang and amuse the rest of the classroom.

4. Simplify the Text

This idea comes from HubSpot’s article “How to Train Your Brain to Write More Concisely” and their exercise Rewrite Wikipedia Paragraphs. While you don’t have to use Wikipedia as the source of exercise materials, you can use the same principles since it’s engaging and fun for the students.

Here's what you need to do:

• - give your students a piece of content
• - try choosing something they’re interested in and will enjoy reading
• - ask them to read the whole text
• - ask them to reduce it by 50%

So, if you gave them a 1200-word article about sustainability, ask them to reduce it to a 600-word article, without losing any important information.

This will teach them to write concisely and avoid redundancy, which is a key skill they'll need for business writing, college papers, case studies, or motivational letters. You can order case study writing online and use it as another writing resource for your EFL students, teaching them about research, investigation, and organizing information.

5. Chain Writing

Another great way to engage students in a group writing activity is to have them write a chain story together. Chain stories will have students enjoy their time spent in the ESL classroom, collaborating with their peers and working on a fun project together.

The principle is simple:

• - the teacher takes a blank piece of paper and writes a writing prompt on it
• - it can be anything that will get the story going, e.g. “It was dark and Jack was scared.” or “The sun was setting behind the hills.”
• - The teacher passes the paper to the next student in line and asks them to add a sentence.
• - Once they finish, they pass the paper on.

This can go on in circles until the story is finished and ready to be presented. Ask one of the students from the group to read the story and show the rest of the class the result of their group work.

6. Monologue Writing

Your EFL classroom must use diverse writing activities that allow students to constantly grow. Writing a monologue is a unique chance for them to exercise first-person writing and use their wittiness and creativity.

The teacher should first provide monologue examples for students to explore. Then, they’ll assign a character to each student. It could be:

• - a famous person
• - a former president
• - a made-up person
• - a member of the student’s family

The student needs to write a brief monologue and give this person a chance to speak up. They'll need to take care of the perspective and think of the exact words this person would use.

Final Thoughts

Creative writing is important for your students’ overall ESL skills, and you find the activities that will help them improve. The 6 creative exercises listed above will help you focus on the area of creative writing your students need help with the most.

Use this list as guidance or inspiration to make every ESL lesson successful.

Author’s bio. Jessica Fender is a professional writer and educational blogger. Jessica enjoys sharing her ideas to make writing and learning fun.

Previously: 5 Reasons To Love Studying

• Argentina (1)
• Ecuador (1)
• Guest posts (11)
• Thailand (2)
• Vietnam (2)
• Teach English abroad without a degree (1)
• Where to teach English abroad (1)
• Teach in Japan (2)

We use cookies to improve your experience. More details

• Teaching resources
• Teaching adults

Advanced C1

Here you can find a range of short activities to use in your adult classroom with students at advanced level. All of our activities are designed around engaging themes engaging and relevant to adult learners of English. Written by experts from around the world, our activities are easy to use and aim to give your students the skills and confidence they need to enjoy learning English.

Opinion poll

In this activity students will practice forming questions and explore opinions regarding migration. They will create their own questionnaire and survey classmates, friends and family. The activity is based on themes from the British Council OPENCities project.

Put yourself in the picture

Other cultures.

One of the good things about migration is the opportunities it brings for learning about other cultures. In this speaking and discussion activity students will be able to share their views and knowledge of other cultures. The activity is based on themes from the British Council OPENCities project.

The challenges of being a migrant

This is a speaking and listening activity that involves students in thinking about the kinds of problems and challenges they might face as a migrant going to Belfast. They then listen to the true stories of 5 migrants talking about the challenges they have faced in moving to Belfast. The activity is based on themes and images from the OPENCities project.

OpenCities Budget

In this speaking activity students have to look at how to encourage migration to an imaginary city. They look at a number of projects to help support this and have to agree how to allocate a budget. The activity is based on themes from the British Council OPENCities project

Same, opposite or different dictation

This is an activity for advanced or, at least, upper intermediate students.

Teaching poetry using DARTs

Directed activities related to texts (DARTs) are activities which get students to interact with texts. Their aim is to improve students' reading comprehension and to make them critical readers.

Same sound, different sound

This is an activity for more advanced students. It is diagnostic because it reveals the mental picture of English sounds that students have.

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight

• Teach Abroad

7 Advanced ESL Lessons Your Students will Love

Lauren has popped around the globe since high school graduation through 20+ countries. She has st...

• While Abroad
• button]:border-none [&>button]:bg-white [&>button]:hover:cursor-pointer [&>button]:hover:text-cyan-400"> button]:hover:text-cyan-400 [&>button]:bg-white hover:cursor-pointer" height="1em" width="1em" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">

Congrats on the new teaching gig! You’ve got the first day of school jitters, have your outfit planned out, alarm is set, and you’ve memorized your bus directions. But now what? Just open the book and start speaking? It can be a little scary thinking about your first day of school as an ESL teacher. 

Change lives—and language capabilities—with creative and fun advanced ESL activities!

Fear not, we’ve got you covered for planning some advanced ESL lessons that will make your students coming back for more. 

Tips for building advanced ESL lesson plans

First off, you need to know your audience. Are you teaching adults in Asia? They likely aren’t going to be too keen on hearing pop culture based on Taylor Swift's new album. 

Are you teaching kindergarten kids overseas who are interested in Business English? No, you’re not. Keep it fun and keep it relevant!

You have to know who your students are and then can start making some stellar advanced ESL lessons plans. 

• Follow ESL teaching models. Remember what you learned in your TEFL class a while back? You know, that part about slacking on your advanced ESL lesson plans, making sure to increase your teacher talk time, and to give multiple pop quizzes to the students…. Of course not! Make sure to follow the methods you learned or the ones that your school director gives you. If you’re not quite sure where to start, at least think of the the three “Ps”: Presentation, Practice, Production. (P.S. If you still need that TEFL certificate, International TEFL Academy will help you out!)
• Don’t reinvent the wheel. Being creative is excellent, but no need to reformat the entire way that past teachers have taught. Keep it simple while also throwing in a dash of your own unique twist to the advanced ESL lessons. Find that smooth balance between creative and practical. If in doubt, you can scour the internet to find advanced ESL worksheets and tips to use for your lessons.
• Keep it active. Nothing is worse than having students who are either dozing off, have that deer in headlights look, or are downright bored. There’s a fix for that. Move around. Get up. Mingle. Role play. Advanced ESL lessons that are student centered will be much more successful. It’s not about you, the teacher, it’s about the students being fully engaged and learning to teach themselves and their peers. Even just having them write on the whiteboard or move around a bit will keep the advanced ESL lessons much more engaging.  
• Even advanced ESL students love playing games. Who could disagree that games are the best? Teaching English needs to be fun. Even if you’re in a room full of business English adults, you can find ways to throw in some games. No one is too cool for games. NO ONE. 

7 advanced ESL lesson plans that are ready-to-go

Put your paint brushes down—it’s time for advanced ESL lessons and conversations!

Just for fun, many of the following sample advanced ESL lessons and activities are based on—drumroll please—travel! We figure you can chat up a storm about that, correct? Regardless of your lesson aims of the day, you can always tweak them to fit the topic that you plan to teach. 

Keep in mind that the topic of the advanced ESL lessons will depend on your audience, meaning the students’ ages and their backgrounds. Be culturally sensitive if working with refugees or students living in poverty. An ESL lesson about traveling is not interesting to everyone.

You’ll also have to check if the school you work for has required topics and materials for you to cover. In any case, whether you are building advanced ESL grammar lessons or just browsing for advanced ESL worksheets, you can be confident that you will have a kick-ass class. 

1. Tell us about your dream vacation. 

Skill focus: Speaking

Advanced ESL speaking activities can be really fun for students if you know what they like to talk about. In this case, project a map of the world on the board and ask students to think about where they would like to go on a dream vacation.

Give them some time to answer prep questions that they can fill out before they discuss their ideas with other classmates. Easy ways to prep for this would be considering the who, what, where, when, and why?

Once they have taken some time to prep and think about what they would like to discuss, have them chat with their classmates about their dream trip! Make sure they mingle, move around, and speak to multiple people. 

• Systems aims: Phonetics, vocab (new lexis—if you’re fancyyy)
• Materials needed: Map of the world, prep questions, sample questions for discussion, pencil, paper
• Make it even harder: Have some backup questions for these advanced ESL lessons. Conversations that go further in depth will be a bigger challenge. “What’s your budget?” “What activities will you do each day?” “What kind of food will you eat?” “What’s the most exciting thing you will do?” Additionally you can quiz them after their conversations with their peers to ask what they retained from their classmates. “Who wants to travel the furthest?” “Who wants to bring their family?” The list could go on! 

2. Get published in magazine. 

Skill focus: Writing

English learners love a good competition; why practice writing without a reason behind it? Before handing out the writing task, let students know how much time they have to prep, how much time they have to write, and WHY they are writing.

If you tell the students that they are competing to get published in a famous online magazine, let’s say, GoAbroad.com ;-), it will get them more motivated. 

Coming up with advanced ESL lesson plans for adults is different than how you’d approach it for teens or children.

In advanced ESL lessons for writing, students should take 10-15 minutes to write about their dream vacation. You can prompt them with a few questions, but this topic should allow them the freedom to write creatively.

After the time is up, hang the writing pieces around the room. Give the students time to read each other’s pieces and then vote on which one should be published. It’ll be a confidence booster for the winner and provide that “student centered” activity that they need while learning. 

Pro tip: Advanced ESL speaking activities and writing tasks can actually be planned almost EXACTLY the same. The only difference is if the end result is either a dialogue or a text.

• Systems aims: Grammar, vocab (new lexis—if you’re fancyyy)
• Materials needed: Sample prompt or sample questions, pencil, paper
• Make it even harder: Before hanging up the students’ writings about their dream vacations, have them swap with their partners to correct any errors. This will give them the opportunity for peer revision and give them a chance to then correct their mistakes. Best of all, it keeps the lesson student centered! 

3. Plan a holiday. 

Skill focus: Listening

Have the students listen to a clip of two people discussing their upcoming vacation plans. Prepare some key questions for them to answer to check on their comprehension. To make it more fun, leave out the ending part of the audio conversation. The students then can come up with their own ending and share their ideas with the class. 

Listening tasks are fun because you can use TV show clips, song lyrics, Ted talks, podcasts, and more!

• Systems aims: Vocab (new lexis—if you’re fancyyy), listening comprehension
• Materials needed: Audio clip based on a vacation or any topic your students enjoy, prepared questions, pencil, paper 
• Make it even harder: Once the students complete their “make and ending to the story” task, have them create questions that they would ask those who were speaking in the conversation. This gives them freedom and room for creativity. They can then share those questions with other classmates. 

4. Read a travel guide.

Skill focus: Reading

Hello GoAbroad travel article archives. Pick an article for the students to read. Only give them the middle section and leave out the introduction and conclusion. Create handouts of a few options for intros and conclusions and have the students decide on which one is the best.

If they are even more advanced, leave out your handouts and have them create their own intros and conclusions. To check on detailed comprehension, create questions about the article based on some of its key highlights. 

Pro tip: Reading lessons are the easiest to plan and facilitate!

• Systems aims: Vocab (new lexis—if you’re fancyyy), reading comprehension
• Materials needed: Travel article, prepared intro and conclusion options, additional questions, pencil, paper 
• Make it even harder: Give the students a travel guide that is based in the country you are teaching in. Ask them what is correct, incorrect, what can be altered, what they like, and what they don’t like. This is a great way to get them interested because it’s about their own home!

Describing your dream vacation is one of our fave conversation topics for advanced ESL students.

5. Answer "If I had a million dollars, I'd..."

Skill focus: Grammar

Advanced ESL grammar lessons don’t have to be dull! What’s more fun than making up stories about different scenarios? Let’s think about conditionals as that is a more advanced ESL grammar technique.

A fun activity would be to have the students sit in a circle. The teacher leads and says: “If I had a million dollars, I’d go to Paris.” The next student says, “If I went to Paris, I’d eat lots of crepes.” “If I ate lots of crepes, I’d…….” You get the picture.

The students go around in the circle and create a story based off of conditional phrases that the student before them said. 

• Materials needed: Flashcards or pictures with different situations for samples, prepared materials with different conditionals, pencil, paper 
• Make it even harder: Switch it up. Mix up the activity with all of the different conditionals—zero, first, second, third, mixed—to make that the students think about different situations with different types of grammar. 

6. Guess the word.

Skill focus: Vocab

Let’s say your vocab keywords are based on items to pack in a suitcase for a vacation. One game is to have the target vocabulary all on different pieces of paper.

One student draws a word and describes it without saying the word. The other students compete to guess the word. Continue playing until all of the words are finished. Whoever guesses the most words wins! 

Another way of doing a similar activity is to have two students sitting in chairs with their backs facing the board. The teacher writes the target vocabulary word on the board. The rest of the class then has to describe the word to the two students. Whoever guesses the word wins!

Vocabulary lessons may seem easier to teach, but make sure to use lots of visuals, be very interactive, and keep the lesson student centered so that it sparks their interest. Vocab lessons are perfect for games. 

• Systems aims: Vocab (new lexis—if you’re fancyyy), phonetics
• Materials needed: Planned vocab material cut out on different pieces of paper
• Make it even harder: If the target word is suitcase, create a challenge for the students by making the target vocab be “small black and flowery suitcase.” You can tweak the vocab on a case by case basis. 

7. Ask for advice. 

Skill focus: Functional language

Advanced students love love love learning how to ACTUALLY speak the language. This is more than the robotic: “Hello, how are you? I’m fine, and you.” English language learners want to speak as the natives do!

This is where functional language is key so that they can sound more natural and have real life conversations. A fun activity would be asking for recommendations at a tourist office.

The students could prepare scripts in groups of two or three. One of the students is the tourist office manager while the other one is the traveler. The students plan a role play for five to ten minutes and then perform for the class. 

You can create an ESL advanced lesson for one-on-one students, too.

To prepare the students for this activity, the teacher could give context and background. There could be sample phrases and sentences taught before the role play. In the case of seeking advice from a tourist office, some keywords could be: activities, events, tours, programs, times, prices, budget, etc. This will, of course, depend on your key aims of the lesson. 

• Systems aims: Function, vocab (new lexis—if you’re fancyyy), phonetics. 
• Materials needed: Keywords written down and defined, scripts or sample role play, pencil, paper
• Make it even harder: Add modals! On top of basic recommendations, see if students can use the nine basic modals in their role play scripts. “You MIGHT want to see Angkor Wat or you MUST see Angkor Wat?” This makes for a whole new meaning behind the role play for those advanced ESL lessons. 

Put it all together & you have killer advanced ESL lessons 

Now time to go on and make those advanced ESL lesson plans! Whatever your lesson aims are, don’t get too wrapped up in overthinking your to do list. Just remember that for the students to be fully engaged you need to have clear goals and know what they really want to learn. Once you get to know your students and see what their interests are, it’ll be a piece of cake. Most important of all: have fun! 

For more info on being the best ESL teacher possible, check out some more of GoAbroad.com’s ESL resources for teachers abroad .

Explore teaching opportunities (both online and abroad!) on GoAbroad.com

Explore English Teaching Programs on GoAbroad.com

Related Articles

By Suzanne Bhagan | 1 day ago

By Megan Lee | 3 days ago

By Matt Roesch | 4 days ago

By Bill Hoversen | 4 days ago

Popular Searches

Recommended programs.

2569 reviews

International TEFL Academy

1552 reviews

International TEFL and TESOL Training

1926 reviews

MAXIMO NIVEL

1107 reviews

Premier TEFL

Top Teach Abroad Providers

Popular opportunities to check out

Apply for English teaching jobs online where you can set your own pace

English teacher needed—costa rica, guatemala, peru, level 5 tefl qualifications & fully organized paid internships abroad, experience china - travel & teach with mef world, qualify for english teaching positions worldwide with ontesol, tie is your path to an international school career, get tefl certified & explore the world as a paid english teacher, teach in europe and worldwide - recommended tefl course for americans, find out how you can teach english around the world. contact ittt today., for travelers, travel resources, for partners.

© Copyright 1998 - 2024 GoAbroad.com ®

• Study Abroad
• Volunteer Abroad
• Intern Abroad
• TEFL Courses
• Degrees Abroad
• High School Abroad
• Language Schools
• Adventure Travel
• Jobs Abroad
• Online Study Abroad
• Online Volunteer Programs
• Online Internships
• Online Language Courses
• Online Teaching Jobs
• Online Jobs
• Online TEFL Courses
• Online Degree Programs

ESL Activities

ESL Games, Activities, Lesson Plans, Jobs & More

in Listening · Reading · Speaking · Writing

Advanced English Conversation Activities and Lesson Plan Ideas

If you’re looking for some lesson ideas for advanced English conversation classes, then you’re certainly in the right place. Keep on reading for some of the top picks for TEFL classes for higher-level learners.

Activities and Games for Advanced ESL Lessons

Let’s get into the top activity ideas for advanced ESL classes.

#1: Closest in Meaning ESL Reading Activity

This is a simple reading activity that focuses on meaning. Write one target sentence and then 3 similar ones. However, one should be closer in meaning to the original one than the others. For advanced English classes, this could be very subtle.

Put students into pairs and have them discuss with each other the one they think is the best. Find out more about it:

Closest in Meaning ESL Reading Activity. 

#2: Dictogloss

Try out this challenging listening activity in an advanced ESL class. Find, or write a passage containing the target grammar or vocabulary. Then, put students into pairs and read it out at a faster than normal pace for the level of students.

Students can take notes and then compare them with a partner to try to recreate what they just heard. Repeat the process again and in the end, students compare what they have with the original version.

Sounds interesting? Try it out and I’m sure your students will enjoy one of the best advanced ESL games:

Dictogloss ESL Activity .

#3: 67 ESL Conversation Topics for Advanced English Learners

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 279 Pages - 07/12/2020 (Publication Date)

This is kind of the ultimate book for advanced ESL lessons. You can find questions , writing prompts and a vocabulary challenge around centred around one topic. There are 67 lessons so you’ll never run out of material for your advanced ESL lessons again!

Keep this one on your bookshelf to take to just about any class with higher-level English learners. Check it out on Amazon:

#4: Word Association

It’s often the case that advanced English learners already know a large amount of vocabulary for just about any topic. One way to help them activate this prior knowledge is to use word association. It’s basically a mind map where students have to brainstorm words or phrases related to a certain topic.

In a small class, this can happen with the entire class together. With a larger class, consider putting students into pairs or groups of 3-4 to make it more student-centred. Learn more here:

Word Association ESL Activity .

#5: ESL Reading Lesson Plan

I love to use this style of lesson for my ESL advanced lessons for adults. The key is to find an interesting, challenging reading passage. My go-to source is usually Breaking News English or I use authentic materials from various news sites for the highest-level students.

This can lead to so many other things, including a focus on grammar, vocabulary, etc. It has the distinct advantage of probably being a topic that the students have never talked about before. After all, they’ve covered the weather, types of sports , hobbies, etc. probably a million and one times.

It doesn’t take that long to design your own reading lesson plan if you have a template to follow. Check out mine here:

ESL Reading Lesson Plan.

#6: Information Gap Activities

To get students talking, almost nothing beats information gap style activities. This is where one student has half the information and the other student, the other half. They then have to work together to get the complete set.

There are lots of kinds of these activities, some of which are better suited for beginners but there are certainly some nice ones for more advanced learners. Check them out here:

Information Gap ESL Activities.

#7: ESL Surveys

Just ask my students and they’ll tell you how much I love using surveys in all my classes, from beginner to advanced! They are student-centred, cover a range of skills in a single activity, lend themselves to just about any topic and are fun for the students. In short, the ultimate TEFL activity!

The even better news is that it’s possible to design your own in just a few minutes once you get a bit of practice with it. Find out how here:

ESL Surveys. 

#8: Business English Vocabulary Builder

• 128 Pages - 11/25/2020 (Publication Date)

If your students want to work on their business English vocabulary, then consider recommending this book to them. There are dialogues filled with helpful phrases, expressions and idioms for a variety of situations. Then, there are also opportunities for students to put into practice what they’ve learned.

Check out the book for yourself here:

#9: Future Forms ESL Activities

The grammar of future forms isn’t actually that complicated but there are some subtle differences in usage. For example, why do you use, “going to” and when do you use, “will.” Many English teachers couldn’t even answer that question but there is certainly a difference between them!

Advanced learners are probably quite familiar with all the future forms but consider doing a lesson that combines them all into one. Whenever I do this with my students, it’s quite eye-opening and they really appreciate some guidance with this somewhat confusing thing. Check out my top ideas:

Future Forms ESL Activities.

#10: Freeze Group Writing Activity

Group writing activities are few and far between. Try out this fun one with your advanced ESL classes as a quick warm-up or time-filler. Find out more about it here:

Freeze ESL Writing Activity .

#11: Reported Speech

This is one of those things that has some tricky grammar to it and even advanced students don’t really know the ins and outs of it. This is why it can make a nice grammar point for an advanced ESL lesson. Check out some of my recommendations here:

ESL Reported Speech .

#12: Buy Nothing Day ESL Lesson

In my advanced English conversation lessons, I love to do some holiday lessons around some of the more unusual ones like Buy Nothing Day. There is usually a bunch of vocabulary that the students haven’t heard of and it’s likely that the students haven’t talked about it before, which can create some interesting discussion.

Check it out here:

Buy Nothing Day ESL Lesson Plan .

#13: Advanced English Conversation Dialogues

• 70 Pages - 11/07/2020 (Publication Date)

If your students want some extra practice outside of class, consider recommending this book to them, Advanced English Conversation Dialogues. There are phrases, expressions and idioms for higher-level English learners.

Check out the book on Amazon:

#14: Teaching Collocations

Collocations are groups of words that occur together more often than just by natural chance. Here are a few examples:

• make dinner

There are thousands of them in any language and it can be quite useful to spend some time focusing on them with advanced learners. That’s because learning a language in “chunks” can make it far more memorable. Find out more about it here:

ESL Collocation Activities.

#15: Opinion Games and Activities

Beginner language learners generally deal with facts. Like times, how much something costs or what color it is. Later on, language learning gets more into opinions and the language required to express them.

That’s what makes giving opinions an ideal topic for more advanced learners. Check out some of the best ideas here:

ESL Opinion Activities .

#16: Brochure Scanning Reading Activity

I love to use authentic materials (those not designed for ESL/EFL learners) as much as possible in advanced English lessons. Brochure scanning is one such activity. It’s also a nice change of pace from reading the usual things found in ESL textbooks.

Try it out with your students:

ESL Brochure Scanning Activity.

#17: 3 Things

Try out this simple, somewhat silly writing activity in your classes. It’s perfect in that it requires no materials or preparation but it’s entertaining and a nice way for students to get some writing practice in. Check it out here:

3 Things ESL Writing Activity .

#18: Find Something in Common

Try out this simple icebreaker with your higher-level English students. It’s fun, engaging and best of all, requires absolutely nothing in the way of preparation and no materials except for a pen and paper. Find out more about one of my favourite advanced ESL activities right here:

Find Something in Common ESL Activity .

#19: Past Continuous for Advanced ESL Lessons

The past continuous is used to describe an action in the past that was interrupted by another action. It’s definitely more of an advanced English concept and it makes a nice grammar lesson for higher-level learners. Check out some of the top ideas here:

ESL Past Continuous .

#21: Vocabulary Auction

#21: Task-Based Language Teaching

I LOVE to use task-based teaching in my advanced ESL classes. Students have to work together in teams to complete a task and the best part is that they have some freedom to complete the task using whatever language they want.

Find out more about this style of teaching, along with some very practical task ideas:

ESL Task-Based Teaching.

#22: Running Dictation

Try out this fun 4-skills ESL activity with your students today:

#23: Small Talk ESL Ideas

Small talk is an important skill for ESL students to master. It forms a variety of social functions but it’s not that easy to do it well. That’s why I like to spend some time working on small talk in my classes, even with higher-level students. Here are some of my favourite ideas:

Small Talk Ideas ESL .

#24: Teach Contractions and Connected Speech

#25: ESL Short Stories

One of my favourite things to do with advanced learners are reading-focused lessons. They start with a reading of some kind and then can lead to all sorts of discussions about the content of that lesson. Check out some stories, along with reading comprehension and discussion questions here:

ESL Short Stories .

#26: After-Reading Activities

With my higher-level students, I love to assign a novel to read for homework. I generally do a chapter each week and then spend some time discussing in class what they’ve read.

Beyond just talking about the book, there are a million and one other things you can do after reading to get the most mileage out of it. Here are a few of my best ideas:

After-Reading Activities and Strategies. 

#27: American English Party Slang

#28: Academic English

It can sometimes be the case that higher-level ESL/EFL students are preparing for an English-speaking college or university. If that’s the case, it’s can be worthwhile to spend some time teaching academic English. The vocabulary and way of speaking is quite different from general English.

Have a look right here at one of the top resources:

Academic English Book .

#29: Debate Club

Organize a debate club where students can engage in lively discussions on various topics. Assign teams or allow students to choose their own positions, and encourage them to present arguments, counterarguments, and evidence to support their viewpoints.

#30: Book Club

Assign a book for the class to read and set up a book club discussion. Students can share their thoughts, critique the storyline or characters, and explore themes and messages within the book. Encourage in-depth analysis and encourage students to back their opinions with evidence from the text.

#31: Case Studies

Present students with case studies or real-life scenarios that require analysis and decision-making. Students can work individually or in groups to discuss the situations, propose solutions, and defend their choices based on critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

#32: Guest Speakers

Invite guest speakers, such as professionals from various fields, to engage in a conversation or question-and-answer session with the students. This provides an opportunity for authentic, real-world conversations and exposes students to different perspectives and expertise.

#33: TED Talk Discussions

Choose TED Talks or other inspiring and thought-provoking speeches for students to watch. Afterward, students can participate in group discussions, share their insights, and explore the ideas presented in the talks.

#34: Cultural Exchange

Organize cultural exchange sessions where students from different cultural backgrounds share aspects of their culture, traditions, and values. This promotes understanding, respect, and open conversations about cultural diversity.

ESL Advanced Lesson Plans

If you’re a teacher, then you know how much time it can save you to use something that another teacher has created! That’s where these sites come in. Check them out:

Breaking News English

English Current

Lingua House

Tips for Teaching Advanced English Learners

Teaching advanced English learners requires a different approach compared to beginners or intermediate students. Here are some tips to consider when teaching advanced English learners:

Provide Challenging Materials

Advanced learners thrive on intellectual stimulation. Use authentic materials such as newspaper articles, academic texts, TED Talks, or podcasts that cover complex topics. These materials will expose them to advanced vocabulary, idiomatic expressions, and sophisticated sentence structures.

Encourage Critical Thinking

Engage advanced learners in critical thinking activities that require analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information. Encourage them to express their opinions, debate, and support their arguments with evidence. Foster discussions that delve into current events, literature, or controversial topics to develop their ability to think critically in English.

Focus on Nuances

Advanced learners should pay attention to nuances in vocabulary, grammar, and idiomatic expressions. Teach them subtle differences in meaning, register, and usage. Encourage them to refine their understanding and usage of synonyms, antonyms, and idiomatic expressions to express ideas more precisely.

Expand Vocabulary and Idiomatic Expressions

Help advanced learners expand their vocabulary by introducing advanced words, phrases, and idiomatic expressions. Encourage them to keep a vocabulary journal and explore the usage of new words in different contexts. Provide opportunities for them to use sophisticated vocabulary in speaking and writing tasks.

Emphasize Fluency and Accuracy

Advanced learners should aim for both fluency and accuracy in their English usage. Encourage them to speak confidently and naturally, focusing on appropriate intonation, rhythm, and stress. Provide feedback on their accuracy and help them fine-tune their grammar, sentence structure, and pronunciation.

Incorporate Authentic Language Use

Expose advanced learners to authentic language use by incorporating real-life examples, videos, and audio recordings. This exposure will help them become more familiar with natural language patterns, informal expressions, and cultural references commonly used by native speakers.

Personalize Learning

Allow advanced learners to pursue topics of interest and cater to their individual learning goals. Provide opportunities for independent research, presentations, or projects that align with their interests and aspirations. This personalization fosters motivation and enhances their sense of ownership in the learning process.

Encourage Extensive Reading and Writing

Advanced learners should engage in extensive reading and writing to further develop their language skills. Encourage them to read a variety of genres, including fiction, non-fiction, academic texts, and literature. Assign writing tasks that require critical analysis, argumentation, and coherent expression of ideas.

Provide Constructive Feedback

Advanced learners benefit from specific and constructive feedback. Focus on their areas of improvement, such as grammar accuracy, vocabulary usage, or pronunciation. Encourage self-reflection and self-correction by providing guidelines for self-assessment and peer feedback.

Promote Cultural Awareness

Help advanced learners deepen their understanding of English-speaking cultures by exploring literature, films, customs, and social issues. Encourage them to engage in cross-cultural discussions and appreciate the nuances and diversity within English-speaking communities.

Advanced ESL Lessons FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about teaching higher-level English learners. Here are the answers to some of the most popular ones.

What is the highest level of ESL?

The highest level of ESL depends on the scale used at the educational institution. However, it’s roughly an 8.5 on the IELTS exam, or a C2 (proficient) on the Common European Framework or Reference for Languages.

What can you do with Advanced ESL students?

Here are some tips for teaching advanced ESL students.

• Use authentic materials, not materials designed for ESL/EFL.
• Encourage free talking and debate.
• Tailor the lesson to real-life needs.
• Focus on pronunciation.
• Teach things like idioms and slang.
• Teach academic writing.

How can I teach ESL speaking?

Have your Say about English Conversation Advanced

Do you have any tips, tricks, or go-to activities for teaching higher-level English learners? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think about it. We’d love to hear from you.

Also, be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy English teachers, like yourself, find this useful resource.

Last update on 2022-07-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including Business English Vocabulary Builder and 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at: YouTube Facebook Pinterest TikTok LinkedIn Instagram

Top Selling ESL Activity Book

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More ESL Activities and Games

Frequency Adverbs Games, Activities, Worksheets & Lesson Plans

Sequence Words List: More than 50 Examples in English

Round Robin Story: A Fun ESL Writing Activity for All Ages

Winter Clothes Names with Pictures | List of Winter Clothing

About, contact, privacy policy.

Best-selling author and English teacher Jackie Bolen has been talking ESL activities and games since 2015. The goal is to bring you the best ideas, lesson plans, and activity recommendations for your TEFL classes.

Get in touch: About + Contact

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Email: [email protected]

Address: 2436 Kelly Ave, Port Coquitlam, Canada

9 EFL/ESL Games and Activities for Advanced Learners

When English learners reach an advanced level, it’s tempting to think they’re beyond the type of games and fun activities we use with lower-level students. I think that’s in part because advanced learners tend to be older, so classes should feel more serious.

I disagree with this notion. It suggests games aren’t as effective as bookwork and deliberate study. Sure, I wouldn’t make a group of adult learners run around the classroom with a game such as Board Race… at least most of the time.

But it’s important to have variation. Serious study is valuable, but don’t discount the transformative effect an injection of fun can have on a classroom of adults.

With that in mind, here are 9 games and activities picked out from my own experience that are challenging enough for advanced learners.

• Just a Minute
• Social Deduction Games (e.g. Spyfall, Coup, Detective Club)
• Say Anything
• Escape Rooms
• Call My Bluff
• Narrative Telephone

Sometimes you need specific games for advanced learners, and other times you can adapt games aimed at lower ability students. Either way, my free ebook of 20 EFL/ESL games is for you . The games inside it can be modified for a greater challenge, and I give detailed instructions and guidance for doing just that.

You can get the free ebook by signing up to the Enchanted ESL Newsletter . Subscribers also get access to a whole load of other exclusive resources and receive monthly emails with role-play scenarios, lesson plans and even more brilliant games. All for free!

Enchanted ESL Resource Trove

• Lesson plans
• Role-play scenarios
• Printable game materials
• 20 ESL Games eBook
• Monthly newsletters with more free stuff!

Enchanted ESL Resources

Subscribe for access to my treasure trove of lesson plans, role-play scenarios and exciting resources!

I agree to receive your newsletters and accept the data privacy statement.

We use Brevo as our marketing platform. By clicking below to submit this form, you acknowledge that the information you provided will be transferred to Brevo for processing in accordance with their terms of use

1. Just a Minute

Just a Minute is a game featured on Radio 4 in the UK for over 50 years. It’s simple, demanding, and flexible.

Estimated time: 5 minutes per round Energy level: 3/5 Materials: Timer

How to play One person starts as the speaker. Assign them a topic, for example, “American Sports”. They have to talk about the topic for 60 seconds (set a timer). They must not repeat any significant word during the 60 seconds, except for the words in the topic phrase, so in our example, they can repeat “American” and “Sport”. At any time, other students can raise their hand and say “challenge”. Stop the timer. The challenger then identifies which of three things the speaker has done: – Hesitation: Err, umm, long pauses, tripping over words. – Repetition: Repeating a significant word not in the topic phrase. – Deviation: Changing the topic (e.g. talking about American food). Decide if the challenge is valid or not. If it is, the challenger gets 1 point, and takes over the role of speaker. They may repeat any words the previous speaker(s) said. If it’s not a valid challenge, the current speaker gets 1 point and continues from where they left off. Whoever is speaking when the 60 seconds runs out earns 3 points.

It can take a few rounds for students to get the hang of the game. The decision whether a challenge is valid or not is up to the teacher, which can be a little stressful if you don’t stick to consistent rules. Here are some tips.

• With hesitation , allow a short pause (1 second) between words and sentences.
• Repetition of words like: a, is, on, of, the, etc. should be allowed. I don’t consider them significant words like nouns, verbs and adjectives, etc.
• If students are reluctant to challenge, let them know which ones they could have made, so they have a better idea next time.
• Speaking in an unnatural, robotic manner is allowed.
• Challenging at the last second is allowed.
• This game can be too stressful for some. On the other hand, it’s great practice for situations like job interviews and presentations.

2. Social Deduction Games (e.g. Spyfall, Coup, Detective Club)

Board games have come on leaps and bounds in the last decade or so. While I wouldn’t normally recommend games like Monopoly or Settlers of Catan for EFL/ESL classes, since they require little English, social deduction games are a different matter.

Estimated time: 5-20 minutes (depending on the game you choose) Energy level: 3/5 Materials: Purchased board game

Each of these games has different rules, but they all boil down to the same principle:

A minority (one player or a small group) are evil/bad/spies, while the majority (everyone else) is good. Through playing the game, the good players have to identify the baddies, and the baddies have to kill/sabotage/escape from the goodies.

They’re best with groups of 5-8, although some can cater to different sized groups.

Watch as your students interrogate, blame, lie and betray their way to victory – all skills which develop the kind of confidence and fluency you’ll never get from textbooks.

As with Just a Minute, these games can get a little… tense. Or, in some cases, students are too shy to go after one of their classmates. You have to read the room.

• For a more chilled, logical experience, go for Spyfall or Detective Club.
• If you want edge and excitement, One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a fantastic option, as is Coup. I’ve had particular success with Coup, although after half a dozen sessions, they stop learning much new English.

Of course, you’ll have to buy the game. They aren’t cheap ($10-30), but they have excellent re-playability, and nobody’s stopping you from playing them at home with your friends!

Learn how to play Spyfall and get the best out of it in your classes in this video I made!

And if you found that video helpful, make sure to subscribe to the Enchanted ESL YouTube channel where I share loads of other games!

No surprise this one’s on the list. Really, you can play this game with intermediate students, but it scales up to advanced classes and may even be better. You’ll need at least 4 players, but it’s best with 6-10.

Estimated time: 30-40 minutes Energy level: 2/5 Materials: Paper and pen

It helps to have two separate rooms, but it’s not compulsory. As long as the room is big enough for two conversations to take place without the others being able to hear easily, you can manage.

How to play Part 1 Choose two players as criminals. They are to be questioned for committing a crime (you invent the crime – a murder in Paris, arson in Beijing… whatever you want). The criminals go out of the room. They have 10 minutes to come up with a false alibi for the day of the crime, which will be put under scrutiny. They must include 3 places they went to, and they must have spent the whole time together. They have to be clear on the details of their story else they’ll get found out. Back in the classroom, divide the other students into two teams of police detectives. They have to come up with useful questions they’re going to ask the criminals . They know the criminals went to 3 places and spent the duration together. Part 2 The criminals get questioned by the police teams one at a time. This is where having two rooms helps, as you can have one police team with one criminal in each room so the criminals can’t communicate. The detectives ask the suspect the questions they’ve prepared (and any others they think of) over the course of 5 minutes . They will have to take notes . Important: The suspect may not answer “I don’t know” or anything similar. They must give tangible information in their answer and respond promptly to questions. Once the time is up, criminals change places and are interrogated by the other police team. The detectives have to find inconsistencies between what the two suspects say . Resolution The police teams assess their information. If they can find 3 differences between the suspects’ stories, that’s enough evidence to put them in prison (police win!). If they can’t find 3 differences, they don’t have enough proof – the criminals win!

While it takes the best part of a lesson, this game works wonders with advanced students. They love coming up with alibis and especially enjoy catching their classmates out.

• You can vary the number of inconsistencies required to adjust the difficulty for the criminals. Up the requirement to 5 if the criminals never get away with it, or reduce it to 2 to help the detectives.
• Be strict on timings. The criminals will beg you for more time to prepare their alibi – don’t give it to them.
• Encourage detectives to think outside the box for questions. “What were you both wearing?” might be something the suspects haven’t thought of.
• Make sure the suspects have no way of communicating during or between questioning sessions. This is especially important if you’re playing the game in one room.

4. Role Plays

If you’ve read many other articles on this site, you’ll know I’m a huge proponent of role plays. While you can use them with intermediate students, they come alive with advanced learners who have the fluency and confidence to embrace their roles.

To find out why I love role plays so much, check out my article: Why All EFL/ESL Teachers Should Use Role Play Activities

Give your students a chance to show off. Put them in an imaginary scenario where they have to act, interact and react with their classmates to find a solution.

Classic role play scenarios include: – ordering food at a restaurant – asking for directions – job interview questions

But why not take things up a level? Have them negotiate business deals from start to finish, organise a political debate where they each take on the role of politicians of dubious integrity, or how about you stick them on a desert island where they have to work together to survive?

Add some dice rolls to create the potential for their actions not working out and… hey, you’ve got a tabletop role-playing game!

These role-playing games are my favourite activities of all. They’re beyond anything else I’ve ever used in my classes, and they bring up so many opportunities for learning English in a practical, enjoyable manner.

If you’re after role-play scenarios to use straight away, you can get your hands on loads as a Newsletter subscriber. If you sign up I’ll send you 15 and then every month you get more, plus access to all of them from previous months. That’s over 50 scenarios all for free!

Enchanted ESL Role-Play Scenarios

• 15 unique scenarios
• 3 themed scenarios every month
• Access to all scenarios from previous months
• Guidance on how to use role play

Get the 15 role-play scenarios

Enjoy access to a trove of great resources as a newsletter subscriber.

5. Say Anything

Many games on this list are popular with native English speakers, and Say Anything is no exception. It’s a simple, but effective party game with plenty of discussion.

You can buy the board game (which I recommend), or devise your own version using paper, pens and a bit of imagination.

Estimated time: 10-20 minutes Energy level: 2/5 Materials: Board Game contents (or paper & pen/A4 dry erase pockets)

How to play One person asks a question (either written on a prompt card or something they come up with) e.g. What’s the worst place to spend the night? As soon as they’ve said the question, the other players write an answer on a piece of paper (or A4 dry erase pocket). They should aim for an answer which the person who asked the question will like the best. For example, Player A writes: “Under a bench”, Player B writes: “In a freezer” and Player C writes “At the bottom of the sea”. When they’ve written their answers, they put them in the centre of the table. They can’t repeat what someone else has written (first to put their answer on the table gets priority). The questioner then secretly makes a note of which answer they think is best. They cannot change this decision. Now, the players discuss the answers and each predict which they think the questioner has picked (the questioner doesn’t take part in this conversation). The players place a token (or write their name) on the answer they predict. For example, in the discussion, all the players might think the questioner will choose “At the bottom of the sea”. Then the questioner reveals the correct answer. Award a point for every correct prediction, and one point for the person who wrote the answer chosen by the questioner.

With creative students, this game produces hilarious answers. What’s more, if you come up with your own questions, you can adjust them to apply to the topic you’re studying.

• Be the questioner the first couple of times, so everyone gets used to the rules.
• Encourage answers using unique and creative English.
• Unless your class is very informal, avoid edgier questions (you may have to screen the cards supplied with the bought game).

6. Countdown

Another classic. Anyone from the UK will know exactly how this game works, but for those who don’t, it’s all about making words from randomly given letters.

Estimated time: 3 minutes per round Energy level: 1/5 Materials: Paper & Pen, this website: https://incoherency.co.uk/countdown/practice/

You can play the Countdown game on your phone, tablet or computer without needing to download anything by going to this website .

The written instructions are below, but here’s a video I made explaining it in detail:

How to play The aim is to make the longest word you can using the letters provided in just 30 seconds. First, let one of your students pick either “consonant” or “vowel” for each of the nine letters (4-5 of each usually works best). Everyone should write down the nine letters. Start the timer, and while the music is playing, all the students should try to make the longest words possible. They can only use each letter once. At the end of the 30 seconds, each player says how many letters they got, and then reveals their answer (shortest word first). The person with the longest word wins as many points as letters in their word. If they get a nine-letter word (very rare), they get double – so 18 points!

• If your students struggle, give them 60 seconds instead of 30. This is an option on the website linked above.
• Take part yourself. If anyone can beat the number of letters you get, give them extra points!
• Click the “Show Answers” button at the end to reveal the best possible words.
• Bonus: Click on the “Conundrum” button to get an instant 9-letter anagram and see who (if anyone) can get the word first.

7. Escape Rooms

Estimated time: 45-60 minutes or more Energy level: 2/5 Materials: Print-and-play escape room. Go to Mystery Locks to see their range.

Over the last few years, escape rooms have exploded in popularity. They often involve going to a wonderfully designed location with a group of friends or family and solving various puzzles, cracking codes and escaping the room.

But did you know you can bring these to your classroom?

I discovered print-and-play escape rooms which are perfect for advanced learners and don’t cost much at all. The reasons I like them are:

• They come with clues and instructions in English for students to test their understanding.
• Teamwork is vital. Students have to communicate effectively to solve the problems.
• Some puzzles challenge pattern recognition of English letters and spellings.
• Preparation is easy for the teacher.

It takes a little while to print the materials and cut them out, but plenty of it is reusable, and you don’t have to invent with your own complicated puzzles.

I bought The Roaring ’20s Escape Room from Mystery Locks and my students had a great time playing. The puzzles are hard, but advanced EFL/ESL students can handle them. And if the 1920s aren’t your jam, there are plenty of other themes available. For the record, I’m not affiliated nor receive money from Mystery Locks. I just think they’re great!

If you like devising your own mysteries and secret codes, why not make a custom escape room? It might be a lot of effort, but imagine the learning possibilities of tailoring each puzzle to their needs!

8. Call My Bluff

British panel shows are a treasure trove. This is probably the best-known game on this list, and for good reason. Not only does it boost vocabulary, but players really have to think about how to present words in the most natural way possible.

Estimated time: 5 minutes per round Energy level: 2/5 Materials: Paper and pen

The UK TV series ended in 2004 and used a variety of obscure words. In the EFL/ESL version, choose words which are appropriate for your students – hard enough for them not to know the meaning, but common enough for them to be useful.

Below are the written rules, but I recommend you watch this video I made first:

How to play Divide the class into 2 teams. If you have a large class (10+) divide them into 4 or 6 teams and have multiple games going on at the same time. Give both teams a piece of paper with a word they won’t know and its definition without showing the other team. For example, “to chortle” with the definition “to laugh in a noisy, happy way”. Each team has 3 minutes to come up with two more definitions for their word, which they use as bluffs. For “to chortle” they might think of “to eat so fast you get sick” and “to walk with confidence”. They then read their 3 definitions to the other team, who have to identify the correct definition. If they choose correctly, they get a point. If they don’t, the bluffing team gets a point.

The teams need to make their bluffs seem plausible. This means thinking carefully about the structure of the sentence and avoiding any mistakes that’ll give away the bluff.

• Use words which are just outside your students’ reach so they gain new vocabulary.
• Make sure the words aren’t similar in their native language, especially if they speak Germanic or Latin based languages.
• Short words are as useful as long words: pike, jab and gnat are some great examples.

I made a big list of words and definitions you can use in Call My Bluff . And it’s free! All you need to do is sign up to the Enchanted ESL Monthly Newsletter and you’ll get to my free resources for subscribers (it’s packed full of other fantastic games and activities, too!)

9. Narrative Telephone

Estimated time: 30 minutes Energy level: 1/5 Materials: A short story (2-3 minutes to read)

This one requires a bit of logistical creativity, but it’s worth the effort. You can use it in class, online, or as part of an ongoing homework activity.

Everyone knows the telephone game. You start with a message and as it gets passed down the line, it gets twisted and transformed, coming out the other side completely different. It’s a great game for beginners and intermediates.

Narrative Telephone steps it up a level. Instead of passing along a short message, players tell a story.

How to play One person starts as the storyteller. This should probably be you, the teacher, to begin with. The storyteller comes up with a short story (about 2 minutes to read out loud). They tell the story to one student in the class without the others hearing. If this is in a physical class, go out of the room to a quiet place. Online, you could go into a private chat. Between classes, it works really well to record a video/audio and send it to the student. That student can only listen to the story ONCE. And no questions. As soon as they have listened to it, they retell it to another student, trying to remember the details as best they can. Again, the next student can only listen once before passing it on, and this continues until the last student has heard the story. The last student tells the story as best they can and you all work out what has changed or stayed the same.

The amazing people at Critical Role came up with the game during the lockdown of 2020. Here’s a video so you can watch the masters in action.

• Use the starting story to introduce or reinforce content you’ve been studying.
• If you don’t feel you can come up with a story of your own, the internet is full of short stories to use.
• When you’ve done it a few times, let one of the students be the storyteller.
• Tell your students it doesn’t matter if they don’t get the story right when they pass it on – it’s all for fun. If you’re doing it outside of class with recorded video/audio, there’s a chance students will cheat and listen to the story multiple times, so make sure they all understand there’s no pressure to remember all the details perfectly.
• Encourage students to be creative with their retellings.
• If you’re doing the activity in a physical or online class, plan something for the other students to do while they’re not involved.
• Keep any videos/audios as people love to listen back.

PRO TIP : If your students are shy, or you want to practice writing, you can play a written version of this game. It works exactly the same, but instead of telling the story out loud, students write it on paper and pass it to the next in line.

Modify and Adjust

The joy of teaching English at an advanced level is the challenge of adapting to each individual student. They have different backgrounds, strengths, and interests.

Finding games and activities to suit them can be tough. And you’ll need to be flexible. Take these 9 ideas and use them as you see fit – be creative and change them to suit what your class needs.

In my free ebook of 20 EFL/ESL games , I give a lot of tips on how to adapt the games for different ages, abilities, online and offline, with groups and individuals. Get the ebook now by signing up to the Enchanted ESL Newsletter , and also get monthly emails with advanced role-play scenarios, lesson plans and more games!

If you’re looking for more games and activities, check out my other lists: 9 EFL/ESL Speaking Games & Activities Perfect for Beginners 9 EFL/ESL Games & Activities for Intermediate Learners 9 EFL/ESL Games and Activities for Advanced Learners 9 High Energy EFL/ESL Games for Boosting Vocabulary 9 Engaging Homework Ideas for EFL/ESL: No worksheets! 9 Exciting EFL/ESL Activities for Writing & Spelling 9 Fun EFL/ESL Games & Ideas With Standard Playing Cards 9 EFL/ESL Games With No Materials or Preparation Needed 9 EFL/ESL 5 Minute Games Every Teacher Needs to Know 9 Superb EFL/ESL Games & Activities Using Just Pen & Paper 9 Classy EFL/ESL Games & Activities for Adults (+ tips) 9 Confidence-Boosting EFL/ESL Speaking Games for All Levels 9 Exciting Flashcard Games for EFL/ESL Classes

I’m Will, a teacher, blogger, and fantasy author. I grew up in England, but now I live in Spain where I teach private English classes to dozens of wonderful students.

Similar Posts

5 wonderful christmas activities for efl/esl.

Christmas is an exciting time for students all over the world. It’s a time of cheer, friendship and many, many, cultural and traditional staples. So it simply…

Actually Useful Ideas For Beginner Conversation in EFL/ESL

Teaching English conversation to beginners is a tricky business. If they can hardly speak the language, how on earth are you going to maintain an hour of…

How to Use Arts and Crafts in EFL/ESL + 7 easy activities

Using arts and crafts in EFL/ESL offers a break from book work while allowing students to show their creativity and dexterity. Plus, it’s great fun. But not…

9 Games Perfect for Intermediate EFL/ESL Students

Tired of worksheets and grammar exercises? Want to spice up your intermediate EFL/ESL classes with a few effective games and activities? Look no further. I’ve got 9…

5 Brilliant House & Home Activities for EFL/ESL

A staple topic in the English classroom is the house. But beyond just teaching the names of rooms in the house, we can get our students to…

ESL Worksheets for Teachers

Check out our selection of worksheets filed under level: advanced (c1-c2). use the search filters on the left to refine your search..

FILTER LESSONS

Customised lessons

Worksheet type

1257 lessons

Intermediate (B1-B2)

In this lesson, students learn language related to human rights law and the law of the sea by discussing issues related to refugees and migrants searching for safety or a better life.

by Susan Iannuzzi

Upper-intermediate (B2-C1)

Students describe a process in an IELTS Writing Task 1. They watch a short video about making tofu at home before examining a writing task and model answer about the commercial production of this foodstuff. They then prepare to write a response to a similar task about how cheese is produced. Exam tips and marking frameworks are provided. There is also an optional extension task which provides practice in understanding and describing a similar process: making soap.

This lesson is part of one unit in the IELTS preparation course plan which provide practice in listening/speaking, reading and writing for the IELTS exam. The full lesson plan takes a minimum of 60 minutes.

by Stephanie Hirschman

Mixed levels

This lesson looks at DNA and the recent announcement that scientists have completed the human genome for the first time in history. Students will listen to a news report, read an article and be introduced to higher-level idiomatic language. There will be opportunities for students to personalise the vocabulary and build their fluency by sharing their opinions on the topic.

by Peter Clarkin

This lesson will focus on the digestive process and conditions that are related to digestion. The listening will look at the problem of lactose intolerance while the reading comprehension discusses the issue of gluten intolerance. Grammar will focus on quantifiers.

by Patrice Crysler

Students find out more about the Muslim month of Ramadan in this video-aided lesson which supports vocabulary development, listening and note-taking skills. The lesson also includes discussion questions, and an optional extension activity explains how Muslims manage to fit in sporting activities during Ramadan in the UK.

A breaking news lesson about the recent incident at the Oscars, with a news report about actor Will Smith hitting comedian Chris Rock and an article giving the opinions of four members of the public on the scandal. Students will learn related vocabulary, practise reading and listening skills and reinforce their new vocabulary with conversation practice.

by David Marriott

Note: Select the audio/video file for the appropriate level you’d like to use with your students. To change the level of the embedded audio or video file, click the play button for the level you want to use in the multimedia box.

Elementary (A1-A2)

This lesson focuses on the spelling and pronunciation of common words with silent letters. Students start by reviewing the alphabet before listening to a short speech from a tour guide and completing related activities. They list and categorise words with silent letters and then practise the target language in speaking and writing. There is a short optional extension activity in which students describe a day out in London, using words from A to Z.

Students work with the theme of cause and effect in an IELTS Reading task about children’s TV viewing. They discuss some speaking exam style questions related to the topic of television and media and then define relevant vocabulary. They also read an article and respond to matching sentence endings, matching features and true/false/not given questions, before examining useful phrases and vocabulary from the text. Exam tips are provided. There is an optional bonus reading extension activity which provides additional information on the same topic. This lesson is part of one unit in the IELTS preparation course plan which provides practice in listening/speaking, reading and writing for the IELTS exam. The full lesson plan takes a minimum of 60 minutes.

A special report news lesson about South Korea’s new solar power flowers, with a news report about the flower-shaped solar panels and an article about strange methods of generating energy. Students will learn related vocabulary, practise reading and listening skills and reinforce their new vocabulary with conversation practice.

by David J. Marriott

Advanced (C1-C2)

In this worksheet, the concept of ‘time poverty’ is discussed in relation to the workplace and how it affects families, and particularly women. Exercises focus on reading and listening skills as well as relevant vocabulary. Students will also have the opportunity to discuss ideas relevant to the topic.

by Joe Wilson

In this lesson, students learn language related to government and human rights by discussing control of technology and information. The control of technology and information is important to lawyers working in diverse fields, ranging from human rights to business.

In this lesson, students will listen to an interview discussing the trend of "boomerang kids" – young adults moving back home with their parents – and read an article about the situation. Exercises focus on reading and listening skills, related vocabulary and students will have an opportunity to discuss the issues relating to the topic.

Pre-intermediate (A2-B1)

This lesson looks at both San Diego Zoo and Taipei Zoo and the way they take care of their pandas. Exercises focus on authentic listening, through a video news report, and reading skills. Related vocabulary will be looked at and students will be given the opportunity to discuss several issues that are related to the topic.

This video-based lesson follows a thought experiment about disappearing satellites to explore cause and effect, one of the major themes of the IELTS exam. The lesson supports development of subject-specific and academic vocabulary and provides practice in conditional structures to express cause and effect. This lesson is the first part of Unit 5 in the Linguahouse IELTS preparation course plan, which provides exam practice in listening/speaking, reading and writing. The full lesson plan takes a minimum of 60 minutes.

The topic of this lesson is fundraising and how different organisations and individuals raise money for charity. Students read an article about how four different charities raise money and listen to a radio programme live from a charity fun run where the presenter is taking part and interviewing some of the competitors at the same time. Students learn level-appropriate vocabulary connected to raising money and good causes. They will also choose a good cause they would like to raise money for and try to collect sponsors for a charity fun run in the roleplay. In addition to this, students are asked to do some research on a fundraising website and select a charity they would like to donate to.

by Richard Moon

Level: C1 / Advanced

De-Google your life!

Step into the world of big tech! Students watch a video about a woman who tries to “de-Google” her life, discuss the challenges of finding alternative tools to Google’s and talk about the future of tech giants. They also practise vocabulary to talk about privacy and tech dependency.

This is why we have accents (pronunciation activities)

Engage in the exploration of accents and pronunciation! Students talk about how they feel speaking a foreign language, explore vocabulary to discuss accents and practise pronunciation skills.

The golden age of podcasting

Explore the fascinating field of technology and podcasts with this lesson! After reading an article, students discuss the use of AI in podcasts, practise vocabulary to talk about the topic and discuss their ideas if they launched a 100% AI-generated podcast.

Lone wolf or social butterfly? Understanding personalities

With this lesson, students talk about personality types, revise adjectives to describe themselves and watch a video about how birth order affects a person. They also brainstorm why people change their personalities and discuss whether they agree with different opinions.

Financial crimes

In this lesson, students practise vocabulary related to financial crimes and watch a video about money laundering. They also discuss real cases of financial fraud, read a film synopsis and talk about their personal opinions.

Let’s be clear

In the first lesson, students learn to explain things with precision and to ask for clarification. In the second lesson, they use the functional language to express their points of view on a chosen topic.

Brave new influencers

With this Flipped lesson, advanced students get a great chance to revise and practise grammatical aspects, learn collocations connected to social media activity and have engaging conversations about AI influencers.

The digital Revolut(ion)

With this lesson, students talk about online services and learn vocabulary related to the topic. They also discuss their own experiences, watch a video about a successful neobank, and discuss the features of digital businesses.

Revitalized neighbourhoods or ghost towns?

With this intriguing lesson, students explore the concept of ‘gentrification’ and its impacts. They explore and practise vocabulary related to the topic, watch a short video, analyse opinions and examine solutions for gentrification challenges.

Let’s talk money

With this speaking lesson, students talk about financial literacy, listen to excerpts from a podcast on the topic and discuss their experiences and perspectives. They also analyse money-related situations and come up with solutions.

Forming logical arguments

In the first lesson of this set, students learn and practise conjunctions while talking about argumentation. Then, they further practise the conjunctions while using arguments to discuss some moral dilemmas.

Office, remote or hybrid?

With this up-to-date lesson, students discuss work life after lockdown and practise vocabulary to talk about workplace changes. They also watch a news video about companies changing the way they work and discuss different work models.

Art that refuses to settle

With this lesson, students practise advanced adjectives to talk about art, discuss art’s purpose and analyze art pieces. They also watch a video on performance art and discuss its impact and their personal experiences.

Talking about personal traits

The lessons in this set are connected by a common topic: students discuss how personality traits affect different areas of life.

Climate change narratives

Engage students in important discussions about climate change with this lesson! After reading an article, they review key vocabulary, analyze different narratives and explore concepts such as climate justice, climate anxiety, and climate fatigue.

Fight for your (copy)rights!

With this lesson, students master vocabulary and engage in dynamic discussions on AI and copyright. Students also work with authentic headlines, and enhance listening and interpretation skills with a news video.

When familial meets professional

In this lesson, students reflect deeply on work-family dynamics, explore nuances of nepotism, and enrich vocabulary through engaging discussions. Students also listen to excerpts from a podcast to spark critical thinking.

Save coral reefs!

With this lesson, students will dive into the different uses of ‘as’ in phrases and statements. They will also explore the realm of coral reefs and watch an inspiring informational video.

Subscribe to get premium content

Subscribe to get access to professional, ready-to-use lesson plans in both digital and printable formats . Discover a variety of lesson types: Standard Lessons, Speaking Classes, Critical Reading Club worksheets and Flipped Classroom lesson plans.

Username or Email Address

Remember Me

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives. The Purdue OWL offers global support through online reference materials and services.

A Message From the Assistant Director of Content Development 

The Purdue OWL® is committed to supporting  students, instructors, and writers by offering a wide range of resources that are developed and revised with them in mind. To do this, the OWL team is always exploring possibilties for a better design, allowing accessibility and user experience to guide our process. As the OWL undergoes some changes, we welcome your feedback and suggestions by email at any time.

Please don't hesitate to contact us via our contact page  if you have any questions or comments.

All the best,

Social Media

Facebook twitter.

Writing Student Learning Outcomes

Guidelines for writing slos.

Student learning outcomes should be defined by using action terms that are:

• Performed by the learner

Outcomes that are unmeasurable or do not refer to actions performed by the learner cannot be easily assessed. We cannot measure what occurs in a student’s mind (e.g, the student understands concept X”), but we can measure actions taken by a student (e.g., the student defines, explains, and provides examples of concept X).

When writing student learning outcomes:

• Become aware of
• Become familiar with
• Avoid describing actions taken by somebody other than the learner (e.g., “the program will help students to appreciate concept X” or “the course will provide students with the opportunity to learn about concept X”).

Bloom’s revised taxonomy 1 of educational objectives can help you choose verbs that are appropriate to the level of achievement and performance you desire. Download  Action Words by Bloom's Taxonomy Level , a useful table to help you write good student learning outcomes.

Unclear and Clear Sample Student Learning Outcomes

Center for teaching excellence.

501 E. High Street Oxford, OH 45056

• Online: Miami Online
• Main Operator 513-529-1809
• Office of Admission 513-529-2531
• Vine Hotline 513-529-6400
• Emergency Info https://miamioh.edu/emergency

1601 University Blvd. Hamilton, OH 45011

• Online: E-Campus
• Main Operator 513-785-3000
• Office of Admission 513-785-3111
• Campus Status Line 513-785-3077
• Emergency Info https://miamioh.edu/regionals/emergency

4200 N. University Blvd. Middletown, OH 45042

• Main Operator 513-727-3200
• Office of Admission 513-727-3216
• Campus Status 513-727-3477

7847 VOA Park Dr. (Corner of VOA Park Dr. and Cox Rd.) West Chester, OH 45069

• Main Operator 513-895-8862
• From Middletown 513-217-8862

Chateau de Differdange 1, Impasse du Chateau, L-4524 Differdange Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

• Main Operator 011-352-582222-1
• Email [email protected]
• Website https://miamioh.edu/luxembourg

217-222 MacMillan Hall 501 E. Spring St. Oxford, OH 45056, USA

• Main Operator 513-529-8600

Initiatives

• Miami THRIVE Strategic Plan
• Miami Rise Strategic Plan
• Boldly Creative
• Annual Report
• Moon Shot for Equity
• Miami and Ohio
• Majors, Minors, and Programs
• Inclusive Excellence
• Employment Opportunities
• University Safety and Security
• Parking, Directions, and Maps
• Equal Opportunity
• Consumer Information
• Land Acknowledgement
• Privacy Statement
• Title IX Statement
• Report an Accessibility Issue
• Annual Security and Fire Safety Report
• Report a Problem with this Website
• Policy Library