ALLENGLISH Blog » ESL Activities

Less and Fewer – Quantity Activity

Debra — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:52:51 +0000

Another activity is available from the AllEnglish collection for you to use in practice or in your classrooms.

Less or Fewer

Here’s a hint: less is used with non-count nouns; fewer is used with count nouns. They both mean a lower quantity.

This is free to use. Just remember to credit AllEnglish as the reference.

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The difference between it’s and its

Debra — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:33:26 +0000

Practice combining words to make contractions with this activity. Here’s another activity to practice the difference between contractions and possessives.

A or An – Vowels and Vowel Sounds Watch this video for suggestions on how to use a...

A or An – Vowels and Vowel Sounds

Debra — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:13:21 +0000

Watch this video for suggestions on how to use a or an correctly.

Here are links to more activities to practice a or an:

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Puzzling Plurals: Daylight Saving and other Savings

Debra — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 09:51:36 +0000

Sources on the internet state, and I agree, that the standard is to call it Daylight Saving Time (no -s on saving)

I recommend just remembering this, but some people like rules, so here’s my attempt:

Consistent with the rule that nouns that function as adjectives are never plural (except the word sport, as in sports bar, or sports team), if you put the gerund (noun) saving in front of the word time, there is no need for an -s ending on saving.

Click here for an activity to practice this rule.

However, the rule is challenged when you use the word saving to modify bond or account, which become savings bond and savings account.

In marketing and consumer materials, the word savings is used as a plural noun as seen in these examples: “Storewide Savings” and “Mega Sale Savings“.

Incidentally, in 2010 in the United States (but not all states), Daylight Saving Time begins on November 7, 2010 at 2:00 am.

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Question: How can you squeeze more English practice into 2 minutes?

Debra — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:01:21 +0000

Answer: Make lists!

If you’re a student, and your teacher has been telling you that you need to practice more, or you need to work on your vocabulary (you know who you are!), make a list! This will help you with classification as well as vocabulary growth. Do you need to go to the grocery store? Make a list! Would you like to learn what’s going on in your neighborhood this weekend? Make a list!

Teachers, if you have an additional 2 minutes in class, it’s easy to have students divide into partners that compete to write the longest list. It helps students organize their thinking for classification essays, builds their vocabulary, and adds a little friendly competition to make the class a little more challenging.

Click here for the link that describes one version of this activity.

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Activity: Past Simple vs. Past Progressive

Debra — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:00:27 +0000

Here’s an activity you can use to practice the difference between the Past Simple and the Past Progressive. Remember: use the past simple if the action happened once in the past; use the past progressive if the action happened over a period of time in the past.

Past Simple and the Past Progressive

This activity is also available in PDF.

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Future Tense Activity: “will”

Debra — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:17:14 +0000

In my experience, it’s always been easier to teach the future with will after a couple of grueling semesters of drilling irregular past forms and mastering the verb to be with the present participle for the present progressive. The ease of this verb tense is a welcome change.

Learning the future with will is like a vacation! So, as summer comes to an end, and you think about your future classes, here’s an activity to help you practice changing verbs from the present simple tense to the future tense.

Future Tense Activity: will

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Sense and Sentence Ability: Noun Clauses

Debra — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:47:30 +0000

Test yourself: Write a sentence in which both the subject and the object are noun clauses. One thing to remember is that noun clauses can appear in declarative and interrogative sentences, so don’t forget to punctuate correctly.

Examples:

What you see is what you get.
Did what you just said answer how we can fix the problem?

Practice with this Noun Clause Activity. (also in PDF)

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Present Perfect Progressive ESL Activity

Debra — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:20:06 +0000

Although it’s not the most frequently studied verb tenses, the present perfect progressive is used quite frequently in speech.

It is used to describe the beginning of an ongoing action in the past that is continuing now and will continue into the future. Here is an activity to help you recognize how it is used in everyday speech.

Present Perfect Progressive (also in PDF)

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Past Simple or Past Progressive? ESL Activity

Debra — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 09:21:01 +0000

When deciding whether to use the past simple or the past progressive, consider this:

The past simple is used to describe an action that happened once and now it’s finished. The past progressive describes an ongoing action in the past that is now finished.

Read this dialogue and decide which verb tense fits the context better:

Past Simple vs. Past Progressive

This activity is also available in PDF.

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Sense and Sentence Ability: Prepositional Phrases

Debra — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:13:47 +0000

Test yourself: Write a sentence that begins with a prepositional phrase. Don’t forget to punctuate correctly!

Example: In the morning, my alarm goes off at 6:00 am.

Here is an activity that might help you use prepositional phrases as transitional phrases:

Prepositional Phrases as Transitions (also in PDF)

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Now or Later? Activity with the Present Progressive

Debra — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:47:45 +0000

Students learning English tend to use only will or going to to express the future, but did you know that the present progressive can also be used to express events in the near future?

The present progressive form of the verb (to be + ___-ing) stays the same; all you have to do is add context, and you’re finished! Until you get comfortable using the present progressive to express the future, you can become familiar with the form and meaning with this activity:

Present Progressive (action in progress vs. immediate future) 1

This activity is also available on a combined PDF document.

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List of US Holidays 2010

Debra — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:53:19 +0000

This is a list of all the official government holidays for 2010 in the United States. This list comes from this website.

Friday, January 1 = New Year’s Day
Monday, January 18 = Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, February 15 = Washington’s Birthday
Monday, May 31 = Memorial Day
Sunday, July 4 = Independence Day
Monday, September = 6 Labor Day
Monday, October 11 = Columbus Day
Thursday, November 11 = Veterans Day
Thursday, November 25 = Thanksgiving Day
Saturday, December 25 = Christmas Day

Here’s one thing about the word holiday. In British English, holiday is used as Americans use the word vacation. In America, however, when using holiday, Americans are talking about these specific days, times of celebration, in which our jobs might give us a day off. We might take a vacation during the holidays or on a holiday weekend, but the words are not synonymous.

Here to confuse the issue is an American pop star mixing both the British and American uses of holiday:

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Sense and Sentence Ability: Interjections

Debra — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:55:36 +0000

Test yourself: write a sentence with a two-word interjection. Don’t forget to punctuate correctly with interjections.

Example: No way! I didn’t say that!

Click here for an activity to practice punctuation with interjections (also in PDF).

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Contractions: The Missing Letter

Debra — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:03:21 +0000

I was surprised to discover that some students don’t know this! When you form contractions, the apostrophe replaces the missing letter or letters. For example: if the contraction is written “isn’t”, the apostrophe replaces the “o” in the word “not”.

There are some exceptions, but you shan’t (shall not) and won’t (will not) be confused by the exceptions on these practice activities:

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Puzzling Plurals: Adjectives

Debra — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:31:52 +0000

In some languages, the adjectives agree with the noun that they modify. English is not one of those languages. In English, adjectives are never plural…with one exception. The exception is the word “sports” when it is used as an adjective.

You can support a sports team, use sports equipment, or have lunch at the sports bar. However, you can’t support a goods team, you can’t use heavies equipment, and you can’t eat lunch at a locals bar. Why? Because the words in italics are adjectives, and you know adjectives can’t be plural.

Click here for an activity to help you identify and correct plural adjective errors.

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Break it up vs. Break it down

Debra — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:07:50 +0000

When you break something up, you crush or tear something whole into smaller pieces. In “break it up”, “it” refers to something concrete or tangible.

You break something down when you explain it in a way that is easier to understand. In “break it down”, “it” refers to an idea, a thought, or a concept. Breaking something down can also mean separating something tangible from a larger whole into its unique parts.

Neither break it up nor break it down refers to a relationship or a car, but this activity can help clear that up:

Expressions with “Break”

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Sense and Sentence Ability: there, they’re, & their

Debra — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:32:12 +0000

Test yourself: Try writing 3 sentences using their, they’re and there correctly.

Click here for an activity that might help.

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Is or Has?

Debra — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:53:56 +0000

Deciding whether to use is or has when describing someone or something is very common issue for ESL students. If you don’t know whether to use is or has, follow this guideline to help you decide:

First of all, only use is and has in the present tense if your subject is third person singular (he, she, or it).
Use is when you are describing a noun. You are linking the subject to the description of the subject with the word is. Use has when the subject possesses something, a noun.

There is one more thing to pay attention to…

If the word that follows the subject is an adjective followed by a noun, use has.

Here’s an easy-reference chart to help you:

is	adjective	She is beautiful.
has	noun	He has talent.
has	noun + adjective	He has green eyes.

Click here for an activity to practice using is or has.

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Sight Words: Speakers Keepers

Debra — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:42:17 +0000

Here’s a fun activity with sight word flash cards that you can play with your youngsters. Create flashcards with sight words on them. The teacher, parent, sibling, or reading partner holds the cards. The rule of the game is if the young reader can say the word, they keep the card. If they cannot say the word, the dealer keeps the card. Mix it up by adding new words to the pile (but make sure your reader has practiced them beforehand).

I have seen children get really motivated to learn their sight words so they can win all of the cards with this game!

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