Make Your Own ESL Worksheets Online - Free
On this TEFL.net page you can quickly make sorting and matching worksheets that you can print out for your students, complete with answer sheets. The sorting worksheets are perfect for exercises on regular/irregular verbs, parts of irregular verbs, synonyms, word stress patterns, male/female, countries/continents, capitals/countries...and anything you can think of. The matching worksheets are good for things like collocations, translation of short phrases, first and last names of famous writers, presidents etc, phrasal verbs, opposites, synonyms, animals and countries, buildings and cities...and so on until you run out of ideas :)

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Getting to know you activities for teens

Q: Dear Lucy:  I'm about to begin my first assignment teaching English to 15/16 year old Russian teenagers at an Easter camp. Classes will be every morning for one hour for approximately two weeks. The emphasis is on fun and although I do have a course book, I believe we are free to do our own stuff as well. It's some time since I did my CELTA and I've had no experience teaching teens. Can you offer any tips or hints? Also, I need to come up with some "getting to know you" activities. Can you recommend some good ones? I believe they are pre-intermediate to intermediate. Edaco

A: Dear Edaco: For "getting to know you" activities, these work best if you don't get too personal. Teens are not very comfortable talking about themselves and are very prone to peer pressure. I think you'll have more chance of success if you steer away from personal information. Ask students to write down their favourite TV programme, video game, music, animal, film...

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Talking Point: What's in a Name
A fun worksheet on a universal theme - your name. This lesson includes vocabulary built from the base-word "name" as well as some common phrases and idioms connected with the topic. Fluency is practised through stimulating and personalised discussion questions such as: "What names did/will you choose for your children? Why do you like those names?"

download lesson plan...

Talking Point worksheets are designed for pre-intermediate and above levels. They are printer-friendly and come with Teaching Suggestions and answers.

 

Which of these shapes has the most sides?

a) an octagon
b) a pentagon
c) a hexagon

See end of newsletter for answer.

A Tip for the Possessive Apostrophe
Apostrophes need not be learning catastrophes
by Rolf Palmberg

What is the difference between

   a. The boy's books are on the table, and
   b. The boys' books are on the table ?

The position of the apostrophe in a noun (to indicate possession of something) often causes problems for ESL/EFL learners. Yet the rules are simple. In fact, learners only need to decide whether the possessive noun (the possessor, which, by the way, can also be a name) is singular or plural and whether or not it ends in -s in its written form.

The following rules apply:

1. If the possessive noun is singular, always add an apostrophe + s.
2. If the possessive noun does not end in -s (in its written form), always add an apostrophe + s.
3. If the possessive noun is plural and ends in -s (and this is a characteristic feature of the large majority of plural nouns), just add an apostrophe.

This is why you say James's books, the children's books, and even the boss's books. This is also why you don't know whether something belongs to one or several boys until you see the sentence in writing.

To simplify things further, all you really have to remember is Rule 3. If Rule 3 does not apply, always add an apostrophe + s.

(Note that American English does not always follow these rules.)

Focus on IELTS
Author: Sue O'Connell
Publisher: Pearson Longman

As is the case with other internationally recognised exams, the IELTS testing procedures and criteria are under constant review. For this reason it is a good idea for both teachers and students to have access to the most recent study materials available. This book is an up to date study aid for the current IELTS tests. It aims to help students prepare for the IELTS test, and used in conjunction with the cassette and skills book is equal to that task...

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Reviewed by Kaithe Greene

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a) an octagon

This is a level 5 question and answer from Word Up, the ESL board game that's fun to play in class.