Making English as a Second Language lessons relevant to the students' everyday life is the most motivating factor for adult learners, say C. Ray Graham and Mark M. Walsh in their "Adult Education ESL Teachers Guide." Students learn more when classes make a connection between life, both inside and outside the classroom. It is more useful for students to read labels on products they might buy than to learn the national anthem. They are more comfortable in class when the exercises are in context of their life situations.

Types
The first kind of exercise for beginning students is the icebreaker or warm-up. The goal is to practice speaking. The students can introduce themselves and spell their names on a white board. Word sighting exercises, such as match the word to the photo or fill in the blank letter, work well with beginners. Remember: It is ideal to use photos of things that are common in the student's world. Snow is less relevant than alligators for students living in Louisiana.

Resources
You can find an array of ESL instructional materials on the Internet -- down-loadable worksheets, reading material, puzzles, games and audio files at no cost. Websites, such as that of Texas A&I University, publish an entire curriculum for beginning ESL. The website Many Things.org offers dozens of exercises for beginners. Even commercial websites usually offer a few free lessons before requiring a subscription, so it is worth looking at them. The website Rong-Chang.com has a list of resources for beginning ESL.

Students
An ESL student might be dealing with immigration issues at the same time she is starting to learn English. Her lack of English might be keeping her from finding a job or from helping her children get settled in school. That's why it is important to know who your students are. They come to class with a lifetime of experience. Lessons for adult learners should not be juvenile. In word/picture matching exercises, use photos of job sites or streets instead of cuddly animals, as you might with children.

Balance
Beginners need to learn all four English skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. Choose activities for each class that expose students to all four areas. You can begin with an icebreaker listening exercise. Turn on a radio newscast for a few seconds, then turn it off. Have the students tell you what words or ideas they caught in that short time. That addresses listening and speaking. Write a sentence relevant to your students on the board. Leave out small words. Have them write or tell you the missing words. This is what's known as a cloze exercise.