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ESOL – Teaching materials - lessons and activities | Learning | Education and Training Foundation

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A series of lesson plans for teachers supporting ESOL learners on a range of topics.

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For Students - Education - Microsoft Translator

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Translate and caption live conversations Schools have become increasingly diverse. English Language Learners and deaf or hard-of-hearing students require technology that helps them to communicate inside and outside the classroom. The Translator app helps break these communication barriers so all students can be a part of the conversation.

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Wayground - The world's most engaging learning platform

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Find and create gamified quizzes, lessons, presentations, and flashcards for students, employees, and everyone else. Get started for free!

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Inclusive Lesson Planning Tool. (Select "EAL" where prompted)

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Inclusive Lesson Planning Tool. (Select "EAL" where prompted)

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Adaptify - Inclusive Lesson Planning for Further Education | Cognassist

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Lesson planning for FE tutors with inclusion built in. Create structured, professional lesson plans in minutes. Perfect for new and experienced tutors. Ofsted-ready, without the guesswork.

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Characters English World (pictures) - Unit 4B English File elemetary - Rainbow English p 63 - English plus st Unit 2 - English Plus2 Starter unit

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A great resource for teachers of ESOL students

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A great resource for teachers of ESOL students

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Includes a really good section on Vocabulary.

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By Deborah Millar, Executive Director of Digital Transformation, Hull College

In the dynamic realm of Further Education (FE), we at Hull College have experienced firsthand the power of technology to transform teaching and learning. Our pioneering use of Microsoft Translate has dismantled language barriers, notably enhancing our ESOL program. This initiative aligns with our dedication to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) and has also garnered the prestigious ALT 'Ethical Use of Edtech' award last year.

Our experience is a testament to the transformation that technology can foster. Located in the City of Sanctuary, we face unique challenges and opportunities in supporting refugees and asylum seekers. Integrating tools like PowerPoint Live, Immersive Reader, and MS Translate has significantly boosted ESOL attendance from 65% to 91.5% and achievement rates from 77% to 90%. Beyond numbers, we've changed lives-enabling better job performance and facilitating social and professional integration. Our efforts have saved over £50,000 in administrative costs, showcasing the dual benefit of technological adoption in education.

"When the teacher used technology in the classroom, I couldn't believe it. There were 10 of us with different backgrounds and languages, and we could all understand her. I had used technology sparingly before I came to the UK, but this has helped me make friends and settle in. I was alone, and now I'm not!"

The ALT Awards are highly regarded as a symbol of success and excellence. They provide a platform to recognise these achievements and share our strategies widely across the sector. The introduction of the new ALT Award for the use of Technology in Vocational Education, in collaboration with Ufi VocTech Trust for 2024, further emphasises the increasing significance of edtech across various educational fields. This is an excellent opportunity for institutions that specialise in vocational training to showcase their innovative approaches.

We encourage fellow institutions to consider entering the ALT Awards. Whether it's showcasing groundbreaking projects or learning from peers, the benefits of participation are vast. Each entry not only stands to win but serves as a lighthouse of innovative practice that can inspire and guide the whole sector.
Our Tips for Writing a Successful ALT Submission:

1. Use the ALT Awards Guidance and Framework to ensure your submission meets the judging criteria.

2. Show how your project breaks new ground in educational practice.

3. Provide compelling statistics and testimonials that speak to the tangible benefits of your initiative.

4. Show that your project is replicable, increasing its appeal and potential impact across the sector.

5. Prove how your project advances inclusivity, aligning with the core values of modern education.

Join us in celebrating and advancing the integration of technology in education. The ALT Awards are not just a competition but a celebration of innovation that is enriching the lives of learners nationwide. Let's Continue to push the boundaries of what's possible and inspire each other towards new heights of achievement.

The ALT Awards celebrate and reward excellent research and practice and outstanding achievement in Learning Technology. Established in 2007, the Awards have set a benchmark for outstanding achievement in Learning Technology on a national scale and attract competitive entries from the UK and internationally. All entries are reviewed by an independent judging panel chaired by the President of ALT.

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Empowering ESOL Excellence through Technology

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In the dynamic realm of Further Education (FE), we at Hull College have experienced firsthand the power of technology to transform teaching and learning. Our pioneering use of Microsoft Translate h...

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Designing and delivering a tailored ESOL course

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Exams E1 - ESOL - offender learning - Health and Safety at work

This lesson gives practice in elements of the Skills for Life ESOL exam papers. In each reading paper candidates are required to identify signs, recognise basic text types and purpose and identify capital letters.

esol offender-learning

e1 zip-folder

Exams E2 - ESOL - offender learning - Travel and transport

This lesson is about travel and transport within the UK and beyond. It provides learners with the vocabulary required to understand exam instruction and for the subject of travel.

esol offender-learning

e2 zip-folder

Exams E3 - ESOL - offender learning - Me and my home

This lesson is about houses and running a home. It provides some language required to understand exam instructions and for the subject of 'homes' in all modes.

esol offender-learning

e3 zip-folder

Using film to teach English - ESOL - offender learning - Lesson plan

Film is invaluable in the prison environment as a way of focusing on communication skills.

esol offender-learning

e1 e2 e3 lesson-plan zip-folder

Using the gym - ESOL - offender learning - Lesson plan

This lesson is about using the gym. It provides students with the vocabulary and speaking practice to feel more confident in understanding and talking to gym staff and users about gym equipment and exercise.

esol offender-learning

e1 e2 e3 lesson-plan zip-folder

Using the library - ESOL - offender learning - Lesson plan

This lesson is about using the library in prison.

esol offender-learning

e1 e2 e3 lesson-plan zip-folder

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English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) support - The Education and Training Foundation

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We provide support and resources for practitioners who are working with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learners.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
A note on terminology: The acronym ESL is used less often now in schools than it used to be, because we recognize that many students who are learning English already speak several other languages, so English would not be a "second" language. I use it several times in the post because schools sometimes refer to the teachers as ESL teachers, and the term is still widely used as a search term for this topic. My intent in using the acronym is to make this post easier to find online.

You have a new student, and he speaks no English. His family has just moved to your town from Japan, and though he receives English as a Second Language (ESL) support, he will also be sitting in your room every day to give him more exposure to his new language. How can you be a good teacher to someone who barely understands you?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an average of 9 percent of students in U.S. public schools are English Language Learners (ELLs); that number is closer to 14 percent in cities. Although many of these students start off in high-intensity, whole-day English programs, most are integrated into mainstream classrooms within a year, well before their English language skills would be considered proficient.

How prepared are you to teach these students? If you're like most classroom teachers, you have little to no training in the most effective methods for working with English language learners (Walker, Shafer, & Iiams, 2004). So that means we have a problem here: Lots of ELL kids in regular classrooms, and no teacher training to ensure the success of that placement.

Below, three ESL teachers tell us what they know about the things regular classroom teachers can do to improve instruction for ELL students. These 12 strategies are simple, they are not very time consuming, and best of all, they will help everyone in your class learn better:

1. Make it Visual

"Avoid giving instructions in the air," says Melissa Eddington, an Ohio-based ESL teacher. "ELL kids have a harder time processing spoken language." So instructions - even basic directions for classroom procedures - should be written on the board whenever possible. Challenging concepts should be diagrammed or supported with pictures. And modeling the steps of a process or showing students what a finished product should look like can go a long way toward helping students understand. "Sometimes showing our students what to do is all they need in order to do it," Eddington says. Not only will this kind of nonlinguistic representation improve comprehension for ELL students, it will help all of your students grasp concepts better.

2. Build in more group work.

"Kids aren't just empty glasses that we pour stuff into and then at the end of the day they dump it back onto a test," says Kim, an ESL teacher who was the subject of my very first podcast interview. "If you really want the kids to learn, they've got to be engaged." That means less teacher-led, whole-class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. And if ELL students attend your class with a resource teacher, make use of that person: In most cases the resource teacher doesn't have to work exclusively with the ESL students; they can work with smaller groups that happen to contain these students, helping to improve the teacher-student ratio and give kids more time to practice.

3. Communicate with the ESL teacher.

Mary Yurkosky, a former ESL teacher in Massachusetts, credits much of her students' success to the strong relationship she had with the regular classroom teachers. "The classroom teachers were always talking to me about what they were doing in their classes," she says. "They made it so easy for me to support them: If a teacher was going to be doing a unit on plants, I could make sure we used some of that same vocabulary in the ESL class."

Ideally, this could be systematized, where ESL teachers could regularly get copies of lesson plans or collaborate with regular classroom teachers to build solid back-and-forth support, but "it doesn't have to be that much work," Yurkosky insists. "Just talk to each other. Talk about what's going on in your classrooms, invite each other to special presentations, share what your students are learning, and the words will naturally find their way into the ESL class."

4. Honor the "silent period."

Many new language learners go through a silent period, during which they will speak very little, if at all. "Don't force them to talk if they don't want to," says Eddington, "A lot of students who come from cultures outside of America want to be perfect when they speak, so they will not share until they feel they are at a point where they're perfect." Just knowing that this is a normal stage in second language acquisition should help relieve any pressure you feel to move them toward talking too quickly.

5. Allow some scaffolding with the native language.

Although it has been a hotly debated topic in the language-learning community, allowing students some use of their first language (L1) in second-language (L2) classrooms is gaining acceptance. When a student is still very new to a language, it's okay to pair him with other students who speak his native language. "Some students are afraid to open their mouths at all for fear of sounding stupid or just not knowing the words to use," Yurkosky says. "Letting them explain things or ask questions in their first language gets them to relax and feel like a part of the class."

And this doesn't only apply to spoken language. If you give students a written assignment, but the ELL student doesn't yet have the proficiency to handle writing his response in English, "Don't make them just sit there and do nothing," Eddington says. "Allow them to write in their first language if they're able. This allows them to still participate in journal writing or a math extended response, even if you can't read what they write." There has even been some evidence that allowing second-language learners to pre-write and brainstorm in L1 results in higher-quality writing in L2 in later stages of the writing process (Yigzaw, 2012).

6. Look out for culturally unique vocabulary.

"For most of these kids, their background knowledge is lacking, especially with things that are unique to American or westernized culture," says Eddington. It's important to directly teach certain vocabulary words: "Show them videos of what it looks like to toss pizza dough, show pictures of a juke box or a clothing rack - things that are not common in their own language."

One way to differentiate for ELL students is to consider the whole list of terms you're going to teach for a unit, and if you think an ELL student may be overwhelmed by such a long list, omit those that are not essential to understanding the larger topic at hand.

7. Use sentence frames to give students practice with academic language.

All students, not just English language learners, need practice with academic conversations. Sentence frames - partially completed sentences like "I disagree with what _________ said because..." - show students how to structure language in a formal way. Keep these posted in a highly visible spot in your classroom and require students to refer to them during discussions and while they write.

For this kind of language to really sink in, though, Kim says it has to become a regular part of class. "They won't do it if it's not the norm in the class, because they'll be embarrassed to use it among their peers," she says. "But if they can put it off on the teacher and say, Oh, well, you know, Miss Kim makes me talk like this, then they don't look as hoity-toity as they would otherwise."

8. Pre-teach whenever possible.

If you're going to be reading a certain article next week, give ESL students a copy of it now. If you plan to show a YouTube video tomorrow, send a link to your ESL students today. Any chance you can give these students to preview material will increase the odds that they'll understand it on the day you present it to everyone else. "That kind of thing is wonderful," Yurkosky says. "The kids feel so empowered if they've had a chance to look at the material ahead of time."

9. Learn about the cultural background of your students...

Our second-language populations grow more diverse every year. Taking the time to learn the basics of where a child comes from - exactly, not 'somewhere in the Middle East/South America/Asia/Africa' - tells the student that you respect her enough to bother. Kim remembers one time when she had to set the record straight about the diverse South American population at her school: "I was listening to the teachers talking about the 'Mexican' kids in our building," she says, "and I was like, 'We don't have any Mexicans.'" Not taking the time to at least correctly identify a child's country of origin, much like not bothering to pronounce their name correctly, is a kind of microaggression, a small, subtle insult that communicates hostility toward people of color. Make a commitment to be someone who bothers to get it right.

Once you have the country straight, take things up a notch by learning about students' religious and cultural practices. If he is a practicing Muslim, he should be told if one of the pizzas you ordered for the class party has sausage on it. If she comes from a culture where eye contact with adults is viewed as disrespectful, you'll know not to force her to look you in the eye when she's talking.

10. ...but don't make a child speak for his entire culture.

In her podcast interview, Kim shared a story about watching a teacher ask a new Iraqi student how he felt about the war in his country, right in the middle of class. "That's not cultural inclusiveness," she explains. "I've seen teachers do this and then pat themselves on the back. The students' English is limited so they can't express themselves very well, and they don't want to 'represent'; they just want to be there." If you anticipate a theme coming up in your class that's going to be relevant to one of your students, have a conversation with them in advance, or check with your ESL teacher to see if they think it's appropriate for in-class discussion.

11. Show them how to take themselves less seriously...

By modeling the risk-taking that's required to learn a new language, you help students develop the courage to take their own risks, and to have a sense of humor about it. "I tried to say the word 'paint' ( pinta) in Portuguese and instead I said the word for 'penis' ( pinto). They all roared with laughter while I stood there with a What?? look on my face," Yurkosky says. "When they explained what I'd said, I laughed so hard! I told them that laughing was fine because sometimes mistakes are really funny, but ridicule is never okay."

12. ...but always take them seriously.

One of Kim's pet peeves about how teachers interact with English language learners is the way they often see students' efforts as 'cute,' missing the whole point of what the student is trying to say. "A student will be desperate to communicate, and the teacher will get distracted by the delivery and miss the message," she says. "That's painful for me to watch." It bothers her when teachers mistake a lack of language for a lack of intelligence or maturity. When a child can't express themselves as well as they would in their native language, it's far too easy to assume the concepts just aren't in their heads.

"It breaks my heart when I hear teachers say (ELL kids) don't know anything," says Eddington. "These are brilliant kids and they know a lot. They just can't tell us in English yet." Make a conscious effort to see past the accent and the mispronunciations and treat every interaction - every student - with the respect they deserve.

"They're doing twice the job of everybody else in the class," Kim adds, "even though the result looks like half as much." ♦

Further Reading

The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide is one of the highest-rated books on teaching English-language learners available. In addition to offering an overview of the research on second-language learners and best practices in teaching ESL, it also includes a whole section on teaching ESL in the content areas and another specifically geared toward teaching ELL students in mainstream classrooms.
References:
Walker, A., Shafer, J., & Iiams, M. (2004). "Not in my classroom": Teacher attitudes towards English language learners in the mainstream classroom. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 2(1), 130-160.

Yigzaw, A. (2012). Impact of L1 use in L2 English writing classes. Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences, 8(1), 11-27.

If you thought this was helpful, stick around.
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Click here to get a PDF of this article.

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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Advice from three ESL teachers on the things regular classroom teachers can do to help English language learners thrive in mainstream classrooms.

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A brilliant collection of contextualised activities - ideal for starter activities

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A range of flyers for different subject areas

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Vocabulary box in action available via estream

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Vocabulary box in action available via estream

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Enrolment key = progress

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A great place to find contextualised resources. You can search by level or skill. 

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A great place to find contextualised resources. You can search by level or skill. 

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Welcome...
to skillsworkshop, the home of free adult literacy, numeracy and Functional Skills resources since 2001.
The site was redeveloped in 2011 and had a major upgrade in September 2018 to reflect the Reformed Functional Skills that took effect the following year. New items are added regularly and there are now more than 2300 free Functional Skills and Skills for Life resources.

The about pages describe the history of the site, the benefits of registration, and explain how you can contribute.

Using this site

NEW Our Tag Clouds are back if you want to browse our most popular topics and categories.

The site has a powerful faceted search function: try typing something into the "Search" box at the top right of every page and then filter by author and type (resource or external link).

To look for specific curriculum topics in a given subject area use the tabs at the top of every page, such as the blue Maths tab. Then use the Maths search box (left hand side) and/or filter the resource list by level, maths topic and/or resource type.

You can see our 500+ resource contributors and follow the links to their information pages to see lists of all the resources they've contributed.

Latest Resources & Links is a chronological list (2022-2001) of all our items. The News page has all the latest site information and Recent Changes has details of updated site content.

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to skillsworkshop, the home of free adult literacy, numeracy and Functional Skills resources since 2001. The site was redeveloped in 2011 and had a major upgrade in September 2018 to reflect the Reformed Functional Skills that took effect the following year.

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Starters and Enders Cards FINAL(Feb 17).pdf

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Link to Embedding English & maths book with free downloads (included in next-door columns)

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Link to Embedding English & maths book with free downloads (included in next-door columns)

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All resources downloadable here

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embedding english and maths - practical strategies for fe and post-16 tutors

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Critical Publishing | Embedding English and Maths - Practical Strategies for FE and Post-16 Tutors By Terry Sharrock

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Embedding English and Maths - Practical Strategies for FE and Post-16 Tutors

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Resources and options for in-house delivery by Barclays Life Skills trainers.

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Resources and options for in-house delivery by Barclays Life Skills trainers.

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Teaching Resources | Interactive Employability Worksheets | LifeSkills

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LifeSkills is a free, curriculum-linked programme helping to improve the skills and employability of young people. Find teaching resources and worksheets here

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Another useful book to invest in, or you could try requesting a review copy.

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Another useful book to invest in, or you could try requesting a review copy.

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Because learning changes everything.™ We apply the science of learning to create innovative solutions to improve education outcomes around the world.

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Short video clips to explore. Press F3 and type "functional" for a quick search

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Teachers TV Series | Secondary Lesson Starters | From maths at the seaside to functional skills for engineering and hair and beauty diplomas, these short video lesson starters for secondary students present learning in a fun and relevant way.

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You wouldn't expect a maths teacher to teach plastering