How can you create an "English-free" classroom for your foreign language learners? This year, use some of these strategies to maximize your students' opportunity to communicate in the language.

Help third graders focus on improving their speaking and listening skills with this Common Core checklist. By phrasing each standard as an I can statement, learners can monitor their progress toward clear, attainable goals.

Improve high schoolers' public speaking with an engaging activity. Class members select three personally relevant quotes from a list. They then write a short speech for each quote, explaining how the quotes are personally relevant....

Emerging orators distinguish between effective and ineffective public speaking strategies. They read a text that fits in with a Native Americans unit and speak about the text with both ineffective and effective volume, tone, phrasing,...

Start with the question in mind with a discussion activity on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. With four focus questions, note-taking prompts, and discussion points, readers practice answering thematic questions based on textual evidence.

With the focus on 21st century skills it is even more important that all teachers incorporate listening and speaking activities into their curriculum. Here's a packet of practical ideas appropriate for any classroom.

Have you ever been so excited to talk that you interrupted another person? Help young conversationalists wait their turn to speak with a social skills activity. 

Use fables as a fun way for English Language Learners to gain confidence and fluency in their reading and speaking skills. After reading a fable in class, they retell their story to a group of their peers. When this jigsaw activity is...

After reviewing their resources from the unit, scholars participate in multiple group discussions with a World Café activity. During the discussions, they share ideas about their focus questions pertaining to Canada's natural resources...

Ensure that your pupils listen to one another in constructive ways by introducing them to active listening skills through discussion, role playing, and partner work.

Begin each day with a warm-up that has ELLs focusing their minds on a skill that will be taught that day. Focusing on verbs, each daily lesson reinforces study and self-management skills, helps learners become proficient in working with...

Using the resource, learners share their essay revisions with a partner. Afterward, they participate in a Fishbowl discussion, receiving peer feedback about their editorial essays. 

If you teach English learners and want a thorough assignment that addresses reading and listening comprehension, speaking skills, vocabulary acquisition, and more, a high-interest content worksheet on Britney Spears may be useful. It...

Develop spoken fluency, persuasive speaking skills, and confidence by having your class practice their public speaking skills. They compose and deliver persuasive speeches as they participate in five different speech tasks. A...

As learners build the "girders" of conversation by staying consistent on a particular topic, they avoid the "wrecking ball" of an off-topic comment. To help students develop this important conversation skill, this resource provides...

Help young learners become active listeners and strong public speakers with a set of activities that range from paraphrasing, to discussions, and self-reflection. Additionally, the lessons address social media skills and non-verbal...

Advanced level ESL learners engage in an increasing verbal communication skills through children's literature. The focus of these activities is for children to develope presentation skills. Each activity would compliment any class room.

Learners practice remaining on topic during a conversation using printouts of chains as visual models for their work. Chains are placed in sequence while students stay on a shared topic of conversation, and a broken chain is used as...

After reading through Act II of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, take some time to discuss the references to death in the play. For this fishbowl discussion, learners prepare questions, practice answering individually and with...

This 13-page assignment was designed for English language learners. It includes a one-page reading on the comedic actor Rowan Atkinson and 10 activities/exercises that focus on listening and reading comprehension, speaking, vocabulary...

Develop an environmental case study! Elementary learners discover how a case study is used as an analysis tool. The goal of this activity is to show pupils how techniques of persuasion (including background, supporting evidence,...

Conversational language is something that both young learners and adults learning English need to practice. This short activity, with 13 prompts, can help learners develop this skill. The sentence frames included on this worksheet...

Don't just read a poem, recite a poem! Add speaking skills to a poetry unit with an activity that promotes successful poem recitation. Scholars choose a poem then recite it with the help of several tips and videos. 

Explore communication in this interview skills activity. English learners identify the techniques native English speakers use when speaking directly to a potential employer. They read handouts detailing seven steps to improve an...