ESOL Resources

This teaching and assessment resource combines reading comprehension and a letter writing task based on an advert for a volunteer role as a Customer Service Assistant for a charity shop.

In Task 1, students read the job advert and answer questions to check their understanding. In Task 2, they make notes about their personal skills and qualities, then draft and write a letter to apply for the volunteer role. An additional, extension task is provided for students who either work at a faster pace or at a higher level, and involves writing a personal statement for a college course.

4 Oct 2017. Updated information on source material added

A reading activity on legal age limits in different parts of the UK. Includes: education, voting, driving, marriage and work. Based on materials at: http://esol.britishcouncil.org/content/learners/uk-life/be-safe-uk/what…

This resource has a range of activities to help students learn useful expressions/ language to make a complaint.
It is useful in building confidence in making complaints in person and on the telephone.

Editor’s note
Includes sample dialogue with questions (can also be used as a reading comprehension), matching cards, sammple scenarios, curriculum mapping and teaching notes.

Video task and reading comprehension based on the style of Entry ESOL reading exams. Taken from BBC Newsround website.

Editor’s note
Questions suitable for mixed ability classes from E2-L1 and make good discussion prompts for further work.

This resource will help learners recognise words related to personal information. Learners will read, match, fill in the gaps and identify the number of syllables.

A-Z chart of pictures with the corresponding initial sound. I’ve tried to select pictures which Beginner ESOL adults will recognise.

This resource is useful for lessons relating to sports and diversity. It includes reading comprehension, alphabetical ordering, reading simple instructions, using a map/key, and a short writing task.

Editor’s note
Written for E1-E2 ESOL students but also suitable for E1-2 Functional English.

The first page of this resource will help students to identify consonants and vowels, which then leads onto CVC word building and reading skills.

Pages 2 & 3 have two short texts that my students enjoyed very much. These help students practise reading and identifying the structure of CVC words. They will then be able to answer simple comprehension questions.

You may want to cut up the passages and set up a jigsaw reading activity. Can be used with lower level students.

A huge and extremely comprehensive pack of resources. Written for ESOL learners but many parts are also suitable for Functional English and/or Job Skills groups. Includes:

A reading comprehension activity, based on an extract from a Guardian article on the value of smart meters. Questions cover the following skills: reading for gist, skimming, scanning, identifying the use of a pronoun, vocabulary matching and inferring. Suitable for Entry 3 – Level 1. Could also be used as a starter activity at Level 2, prior to using the full text of the article for other activities.