WebThe four units below are all taken from our book Write Right: 9 Beginner ESL Writing Lessons, available for instant download! UNIT 1 Sample Essay: “My Hobby” – Web · 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 Web · Building on the theme of combining imagery with writing for younger ESL learners, consider showing students a picture (the more vibrant, colorful, and detailed, ... read more
Good writing starts and finishes on the same subject. Everything between the introduction and conclusion is there to elaborate, examine, or evaluate that same topic. Now that you know what to look for in a good writing sample, here are some ideas to help your students get started. Simple process writing can be nothing more than a numbered list of steps written in the simple present with imperative grammar. You can also use these prompts for intermediate and advanced students by asking them to write full paragraphs using smooth transitions. When brainstorming ideas, ask your students to list the steps of how they came up with the content to write about. If you want to challenge intermediate and advanced students, have them write paragraphs describing the brainstorming process rather than writing a numbered list.
For certain topics, students may need time for additional research, like when writing about science. Also, be aware of any vocabulary that may be specific to the process students are describing. kimchi, herbs de provence that may not have a good English equivalent. Opinions are everywhere. Here are some prompts to help your students vocalize their opinions. Before starting the assignment, review modal verbs with your class. Graphic organizers are a great way to help students think through what they believe about a given topic and get those thoughts in the right order for writing. Curriculum developer, Scholastic, has some great organizers you can print and give to your students to help them gather their thoughts before they write.
Good opinion writing takes both sides of an argument into consideration. This is called the rebuttal and should come just before the conclusion in an opinion piece. Moreover, narrative writing covers a sequence of events, telling the reader how these events relate to one another. 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. 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. Semi-colons — Introduction to this often baffling piece of punctuation, with a review exercise. Review of these Transitions and Connectors — Review worksheet to practice using all of the transition words above. Despite vs. Although — Explanation of how to use these similar transition words, with several sample sentences.
Because vs. Because of — Explanation of how to use these similar transition words correctly, with several sample sentences. Although — Explanation of the difference between these two words, with several examples and a review exercise. Because of vs. Learn more about this fun writing activity here: ESL Postcard Writing Activity. Remember that writing is more than a 5-paragraph essay. With that in mind, you may want to try out this ESL writing game for beginners. The way it works is that you name a topic. Jobs or animals for example. Then, students have to think of one word for each letter. I give my students a certain amount of time and the team with the most words is the winner. Do you want to give this writing activity for beginners a try?
Check it out here: A-Z ESL Writing Activity. Words like but, so, and, however, etc. are key in English writing because they join ideas, sentences and paragraphs together. This makes writing easier to understand and helps it to flow better. Even beginners can learn about using things like and or but. Here are some of the ideas for teaching these words: ESL Conjunction and Transition Activities. There are a ton of relay type ESL writing activities that you can do. Here are some of the best ones:. ESL Whiteboard Activities. If you want to challenge your students with some serious listening and writing, then consider this dictogloss ESL activity.
The way it works is that you find a passage or write one at an appropriate level for your students. Then, put the student into pairs and read out the passage at a slightly faster pace than normal. Students have to take notes and then attempt to recreate what they heard by writing. Read the passage again and students add to what they have. Finally, they can compare their version with the original one. Do you want to give it a try? Read this first: Dictogloss ESL Writing and Listening Activity. It can actually be any time the students are writing something in English. With this in mind, here are some of the best activities for absolute beginners to English writing:. Teaching ESL Writing to Beginners. One very practical writing activity that we can do with our students is getting them to fill out an application form.
More details here: ESL Writing Application Form. In speaking, our students can sometimes get away without having great sentence structure. This is because people often speak in sentence fragments and rarely in full sentences. However, in writing, sentence structure is key and vital to helping our students get their ideas across on paper. Here are some of the best activities to help our students practice this:. ESL Sentence Structure Games and Activities. A simple reading and writing activity is this one that focuses on error correction. The way it works is that you make some sentences, some of which have errors and some that do not.
Students have to decide which ones are incorrect and them correct them. Learn more about this writing activity here: ESL Error Correction Activity. A key part of writing well is proof-reading and editing. Everyone does it, even professional writers! Instead of the students relying on me to correct their errors for them, I like to teach them do to edit their own work. Check out this activity for helping students with this writing skill: ESL Proofreading and Editing. Spending some time working on self-editing skills, instead of relying on the teacher-editing model is a nice way to improve student autonomy in English writing classes.
Many ESL writing textbooks and teachers too focus on accuracy in English writing at the expense of fluency. However, both are needed if students are to become proficient in English essay writing. After all, no employer is going to appreciate an employee who can write a simple, but perfect email in half a day! Most would expect it to happen in a few minutes.
Adult ESL learners may not have a lot of time outside of class to devote to their English studies but assigning homework once in a while can be beneficial. Having students complete exercises at home allows them to maximize their speaking time during class periods. Since adults are often very busy, it is important to assign homework only when you feel it is necessary. Reading Texts As Homework? Why Not? For discussion lessons, send students home with the reading assignment instead of setting aside time for them to read it silently in class. You should introduce key vocabulary beforehand and give students some topics or questions to think about during their reading so that they will know what to focus on. You can then do some pronunciation practice and comprehension checks in the next lesson.
A discussion could also be based on the material students read. This type of homework activity really makes the most of the time you have with students and gives them an opportunity to think about the material before having to discuss it. This activity is especially good for students of Business English but could also be used in other lessons to focus on giving advice , voicing an opinion , or politely agreeing or disagreeing. Give students a dialogue to read and ask them to think about the different characters. These dialogues could be based on work, school, or personal interactions. Ask students to defend their choices. For instance, give students a conversation in which two colleagues are discussing Employee C and end the material you give them for homework with one person complaining that Employee C did not deserve to get a promotion.
In the next class you can talk about the appropriateness of this conversation, what students think of the two characters, and what the other character should say next. Simple interview activities can be done with students of all ages. For this activity, ask students to interview family members or friends. This is especially good practice for using reported speech but can be used to talk about other topics too. You can provide students with some basic questions to give their interview some structure and have them build on it using their own questions. In the next lesson, students can report their findings and discuss the material with the rest of the class.
Adult learners are generally more reluctant than younger students to do role plays but if you think your class would be willing to give it a try, sections of the activity can be assigned as homework. Students will have to work together in class if you want them to develop their own scripts but they can practice and memorize their lines as homework. Since students may not be able to meet one another outside of class, be sure to give students some time to practice together in their groups before the final presentation. You must allow enough time for students to prepare for the role play so spread it out over several weeks.
Remember that you do not have to make it the focus of all your lessons from the time it was introduced until its completion. Introduce the activity in one lesson, check to see if students have any questions about it in each class period after that, give them time to practice, and finally have students present their role plays. Some worksheets may also be appropriate for homework. If there is an exam coming up, students may appreciate optional study material for further practice. While crosswords are not a great use of class time for adult learners, providing students with an occasional crossword for homework may be fine. They are enjoyable and do not take long periods of undivided attention to complete; in fact, crosswords can be done gradually in free time such as during the commute to work.
They are good practice material because they focus on checking vocabulary comprehension or expanding vocabulary; both of which are very important to adults. Talk to students at the beginning of the course about what they expect in regards to homework and ensure that you always give students plenty of time to complete exercises. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English. Adult ESL Learners Homework Assignments That Work.
Related Categories. Get the Entire BusyTeacher Library:. Dramatically Improve the Way You Teach. Save hours of lesson preparation time with the Entire BusyTeacher Library. Includes the best of BusyTeacher: all 80 of our PDF e-books. That's 4, pages filled with thousands of practical activities and tips that you can start using today. Popular articles like this. How To Assign Highly Effective Homework Your Students Will Actually Enjoy 0 80, 0. Teaching Ideas. To Assign or not to Assign ESL Homework That is the Question. Classroom Management and Discipline. ESL Teachers Ask How Can I Get Adult Students to Do Their Homework? How to Teach Reported Speech Alternative Approach.
Reported Speech. How to Teach English Using Role-Plays, and When Not to Use Them 0 , 0. org Copyright пїЅ About Submit a worksheet Log in Terms Privacy Contact us Mobile version. Please wait Adult ESL Learners Homework Assignments That Work by Tara Arntsen , views Adult ESL learners may not have a lot of time outside of class to devote to their English studies but assigning homework once in a while can be beneficial. Try These Homework Assignment Ideas 1 Reading Texts As Homework? While adult learners may have less time than younger students for homework, it is important that they devote time to their studies in order to make progress. Popular Articles: How to Teach Conversational English: 9 Best Practices How to Teach the Present Simple Tense 9 Absolutely Essential ESL Games for Vocabulary Review Spooky Halloween Fun for Your ESL Class Give Your ESL Students a BOOst with These Halloween Themed Language Activities Related Categories Teaching Ideas Get the Entire BusyTeacher Library: Dramatically Improve the Way You Teach Save hours of lesson preparation time with the Entire BusyTeacher Library.
Learn more Popular articles like this How To Assign Highly Effective Homework Your Students Will Actually Enjoy 0 80, 0 Teaching Ideas To Assign or not to Assign ESL Homework That is the Question 0 21, 0 Classroom Management and Discipline ESL Teachers Ask How Can I Get Adult Students to Do Their Homework?
Web · Building on the theme of combining imagery with writing for younger ESL learners, consider showing students a picture (the more vibrant, colorful, and detailed, WebThe four units below are all taken from our book Write Right: 9 Beginner ESL Writing Lessons, available for instant download! UNIT 1 Sample Essay: “My Hobby” – Web · 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 ... read more
Thought so. Jobs or animals for example. Try it out with your students today. One Stop English. 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. Then, they give those words to a partner who has to write a short story using them.
Busy Teacher, writing assignments for esl students. Here are some of the best ones:. Grammar: Past Tense — Simple introduction to past tense verbs. Check out the book on Amazon, but only if you want to get yourself a serious dose of ESL teaching awesome in your life:. Manage Settings Continue with Recommended Cookies. Journal Buddies Jill November 2, September 25, Special Writing Topics. Stick with short assignments to ensure they master basic sentence-level writing skills before moving on to working on more ambitious pieces.