One of the first lessons an ESL student must learn is how to navigate the English-speaking world in which they live. By engaging your ESL students in activities designed to teach skills necessary for daily life, you can prepare them to communicate their needs and wants in English. Not only do these activities prove useful to ESL students, they are also highly engaging, as students can easily see how the exercises are relevant to their daily lives.

News Article Dialogues

Give your ESL students the opportunity to practice their dialogue skills by engaging them in news article dialogue activities. To prepare for this activity, ask each student to select one article from the newspaper that interests him and bring the article to class on a set day. When students arrive in class with their articles, divide them into pairs. Ask each student to present his article to his partner, explaining what the article said and why he selected the piece. After both students have presented their articles, instruct pupils to talk about the contents of each, engaging in a simple English dialogue as a means by which to practice their language skills.

Shopping Trip

Role play a shopping trip to help your students prepare for real-life visits to the store. To prepare for this activity, gather an assortment of candies and create play money. Place your candies on a table, laying them out as they would be in the store. Provide each pupil with a set amount of money and place the remainder in a cash box next to the candies. Select one student to act as store clerk or, if all of your students are still new to English, serve as the clerk yourself. Allow students to come up one at a time and purchase one of the candies using the play money provided. Require that they engage in conversation with the clerk, requesting a specific bar, giving money and receiving change as they make their purchases.

Menu Reading and Ordering

Provide students with an off-campus treat by taking them to an area restaurant for a menu-reading and ordering activity. In the days before this activity, review copies of area restaurant menus with pupils. Allow them to take turns reading over the food descriptions contained in each. Pair students up, and ask one to act as the waitress and the other as patron, moving through the ordering process.

After students have honed their skills, take them to a restaurant and allow them to put their skills to use by ordering lunch from the menu.