ESL students need activities that force them to use conversational English on a daily basis in order to improve. Long-term language projects offer many benefits for ESL students over short-term assignments like worksheets or grammar exercises. Large projects that students complete over time enable ESL students to establish a set of vocabulary that they use repeatedly until internalized. Projects can involve group work and communicating with people outside of the classroom, both aspects that provide ESL students opportunities to practice speaking in a non-simulated environment.

Novel Study
A large and involved novel study is a project that enables ESL students to practice their reading comprehension and writing skills. ESL students need to be immersed in vernacular English every day. Have students read an English novel for a month or over the course of the term and answer chapter questions. Create questions that not only relate to plot but also focus on themes and literary devices that force students to engage deeply with the text. At the end of the term, students write an essay in response to the novel, using their chapter questions as notes, and then present it to the class.

Investigative Project
Assign an investigative project that involves research, such as finding information on tourist attractions in town. Students can consult books, the Internet and pamphlets, but also make interviewing people for information a mandatory component of the project. Some second-language learners feel terrified talking on the phone to a native speaker, for example. Encourage students to practice calling places for information or going there in-person and talking to someone at the front desk.

Ethnic Food Fair
A fun and engaging project is to have ESL students run an ethnic food fair. Students plan and prepare to set up tables in a hallway or cafeteria at their school or college and sell foods native to their home country. Instruct students to label items for sale with prices and brief descriptions of them, for example "noodles with chicken and a spicy pepper sauce." Students can make signs in English to attract people to their table. This activity forces students to deal with customers and answer questions about the food. It gets ESL students conversing with native English-speaking students and heightens their confidence when native English speakers understand their signs and labels.

Board Game Project
Students divide into groups of two to four with students from different countries than their own and create a board game together centered on a country. The board game includes a set of trivia questions that the students create related to the country. Students also write a set of instructions on how to play the game. Then groups exchange board games and try to play them following the instructions. Because students are grouped with people from other countries, they have to speak English the whole time.