Free ESL Worksheets

Short Stories - These high-interest short stories are designed for ESL students from beginning-low to intermediate reading levels. Each story is based on an everyday problem that a character is having and includes an image. The stories are designed with lifeskill lessons in mind and should work well with the units found in a typical ESL picture dictionary. All the worksheets start with a short reading assignment and include a true/false exercise and an easy writing prompt. I've written all these stories myself, and I'm providing them here for free. You may reproduce these worksheets for classroom or home use. Please let me know of any mistakes. Happy reading!

Crossword Puzzles - Crossword puzzles provide a fun and easy way for ESL students to improve their vocabulary and spelling skills. The intellectual stimulation provided by solving crossword puzzles keeps students focused and engaged while creating a joyful atmosphere in the classroom. If the puzzle clues prove too difficult for your students, you can always make things easier for them by writing the words from the answer key on the board. Allowing students to work in pairs will also make solving the puzzles faster and easier. I've written all these puzzles myself, and you are free to use them as often as you'd like.

Read Aloud Worksheets - Reading aloud helps ESL and K-12 students improve their verbal and pronunciation skills. Students can read aloud in pairs, in small groups, to the whole class, or to several classes. It is best to practice these worksheets chorally with the class before putting the students in pairs or groups. A fun variation to this exercise is to divide the class into two groups and have them stand in two circles, an inside circle and an outside circle. After partners have practiced reading aloud for three minutes, the teacher can blow a whistle as a signal for the outside group to circle clockwise and read aloud to a new partner.

Vocabulary Match - ESL students can easily complete these simple vocabulary worksheets by using a dictionary or an electronic translator. The lessons can be expanded by instructing students to turn their papers over and write one sentence for each of the twenty words in the first column. Most experts suggest reading the words aloud to the class before students tackle the writing part of the assignment.

Lifeskills Worksheets - Lifeskills are basic everyday skills like reading charts, schedules, recipes, and completing forms. Most adult ESL programs assess students with lifeskills tests to discover what level English as a Second Language class they need. After students complete a designated amount of instruction, they are given another test to determine their progress. Funding for ESL programs is largely based on the benchmark gains that students make on these tests. The free worksheets found in this section will help students improve their performance in completing lifeskills tasks. They can be downloaded and used in class or passed out as homework assignments. They can also be shown on interactive white boards.

Handwriting - Tracing develops the small motor skills needed for mastery of handwriting. It allows literacy students to practice holding and using a pencil or pen. The worksheets here come in two types: printing and cursive. All the fonts are clear and clean, and some of them have lines to help beginning students write straight. Be sure to review basic letter formation to reinforce the proper strokes to use when writing. If you read these worksheets aloud to the class, they can also provide listening practice. You might want to have the students practice reading the worksheets aloud to each other.

Writing Worksheets - The blackline pictures at the top of these worksheets provide a fun and easy writing prompt for multi-level classes. Beginning students can create short descriptive sentences while intermediate students can write more elaborate sentences. After the students complete the writing assignment, they can share their sentences and stories with a partner. Some classes might want to color the pictures and display them on the wall or in a group portfolio notebook.

Blank Maps - Maps show the physical and political boundaries of states, countries, and places. The maps in this unit can be traced, labeled, and colored. They also make great report covers for geography homework assignments. Some of the maps are in worksheet format and include lesson exercises.