ESL Lesson Plans for University Students

Lots of people are finding their way to this blog looking for ESL lesson plans for university students and adults. Help is here! I've shared plenty of my lesson plans over the years, but I'll put them all in one place to make them easy for you to find.

Sample lesson plan for Top Notch 1


Introduction to Cause and Effect Essays Lesson Plan


Smart Choice 2 sample lesson plan



Random Lesson Plans for Adults

8 conversation lesson plans for university students in Korea

Simpsons lesson plan

Second Conditional-If I Had a Million Dollars Lesson Plan

CELTA Lesson Plans

Celta reading lesson plan

Celta grammar lesson plan

Celta listening lesson plan

Top 5 Tips to Get Ready for the New Semester

It's that time again! The semester is starting up in a week and I'm sure teachers are busy getting everything ready to go.  Here are my top 5 tips to get ready for the  new semester:

1. Plan ahead There's nothing more terrible than frantically trying to pull something together an hour before class. I've been there and it's not a happy place for your mental health. I always try to stay 2-3 weeks ahead for my lesson planning.

2. Things don't work You know it always happens: Monday morning at 8am before the semester starts, there's a line-up of 5 people trying to use the photocopier to copy their syllabi and of course it breaks. Be organized and hit it a few days before, just in case.

3. Simple is best You don't need to reinvent the wheel and simple is almost always better. Of course, put a bit of effort and creative energy into your lessons, but it really is okay to use a page or two out of the textbook, or to use something like ESL Logic Puzzles and Trivia for your class warm-up instead of making your own, which would take hours.

4. Recycle Similar to not reinventing the wheel, hopefully you've been saving your lessons somewhere in a place like Dropbox or Google Documents. There are always plenty of generic "conversation" classes here in Korea where you are free to use anything you want and it's much easier to reuse an old lesson than to pull something new out of your hat.

5. Work space Make sure that you have a happy place where you can get work done so you can put some focused effort into stuff. For me, it's usually not at home and if I want to be productive, it's far better for me to go into my office, which I'm lucky enough to share with only 2 people who are rarely (if ever) there.

But for others, they share an office with 10+ people and of course, serious work is impossible in that kind of environment so those people could maybe find a quiet coffee shop near their house, a public library or set-up a space at home to do work.

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New Year's Teaching Resolutions

Here are my New Year's Resolutions with regards to teaching:

1. Plan lessons at least 2 weeks in advance. In the past, I have been very organized, planning stuff weeks ahead of time but for some reason last semester, I got into the bad habit of doing it only a day or two before, which really isn't my style.

2. Email my students back immediately. I also have been good at this in the past, but last semester I would check the email and then wait a day or two, for no really good reason.

3. Don't teach overtime classes that I hate just for the money. I stayed strong on this one last semester. It's always a temptation but I know how unhappy it will make me feel. Teaching basic conversation, or "free-talking" with students is the most terrible thing I could almost imagine and no amount of money will make me want to do it.

What are yours? It's the perfect time to make some decisions about how your next semester will look. And remember, keep 'em realistic and well-defined so you actually have a chance at meeting them.  Maybe your resolution is to learn a few new things about teaching ESL. To start, check out this book by Jeremy Harmer. It's simple, practical and an excellent book for beginners or more experienced teachers.  How To Teach English (with DVD)

Serial Podcast for ESL Students

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The Serial Podcast for ESL Students

My latest addiction is the Serial Podcast.  If you haven't heard of it, you are perhaps not really living on planet Earth and you should definitely check it out, but be ready to binge listen because it's crazy addictive.  I'm personally losing some sleep, waiting for episode 10 which was a week late due to American Thanksgiving and have had to start listening to podcasts about the podcast (Slate Serial Spoiler) in order to get my fix.

Anyway, when it came time to decide on something to study with my three, reasonably advanced and motivated students I decided to use this podcast.  I wasn't sure if it would be too difficult for them or not, but with a combination of the transcript (Episode 1 Serial Transcript) and the Podcast itself, they seemed to understand most of it.  They were pretty hooked on it right from the start, with all their papers filled with various colors of highlighter and notes and translations of words into Korean.  I seriously think that they'd studied 10+ hours in only the few days since I'd seen them last.  Our discussion was really interesting and filled with insights about human nature and other good stuff like that.  It was work that didn't really seem like work and it made me feel happy to be a teacher.

If you have high-level students, definitely consider the Serial Podcast.  I'd actually like to do an entire class using just this podcast and hope I have the opportunity in the future.

In case you're looking for more Serial transcripts:

Serial Episode 2 transcript

Serial Episode 3 transcript

What Working at a University in Korea is Really Like. Part 4: Classes (or, what I do for 4 hours)

What Working at a Korean Uni is Really Like

If you missed the first 3 parts of this series, check out:

Korean Universities: Schedules

Korean Universities: Classes

Korean Universities: Office Politics

One of the common questions that I get from Hagwon and public school teachers is what I actually do in my classes.  In hagwons, it's extremely rare to have the same students for more than an hour at a time and 40-45 minutes is more common.  In public schools, the class lengths are about the same and the Korean co-teacher usually does the bulk of the heavy lifting.

My classes range from 1.5 hours-4 hours with the same group of students.  4 hour classes can be quite hard to teach so I'll use that as my example.  Here's how I would I use the time (if I was given no materials that I had to teach):

I'd pick a topic such as "Youth unemployment in Korea," "Microfinance" or "Renewable Energy."  I choose stuff that I'm actually interested in and you'd be surprised-even seemingly difficult topics such as these can be adapted and made easier for as low level as high-beginners.  Things like movies, hobbies, food and pets are TOTALLY overdone and I refuse to use topics like these unless forced to (if I'm given a textbook with them in it, or have extremely low-level students-but I generally try to avoid total beginners!).

Hour 1: an introduction to the topic.  This usually involves some very general warm-up questions, key vocabulary, a sample conversation, or something like "describe the picture" for lower levels.

Hour 2: we get into the reading or listening (quite often both).  If you find articles from Breaking News English, you can do the listening first with some sort of "big-picture" questions.  I'd usually listen twice, with the first time just being simple true/false or matching or something and then the second time, I'd increase the level of difficulty and use some short answer or fill in the blank stuff.

Then, I'd get the students to read the same thing that they just listened to but they'd have to answer some serious "critical thinking" or advanced level "reading comprehension" questions where the answers require processing the information in a deep way, or the answers are very subtle and require some "reading between the lines."

Hour 3: Discussion questions based on what they just listened to and read.  The students would have to discuss in small groups of 3-4 people and then we'd talk together as a class.

Hour 4: Some sort of activity.  For example, when I talked about microfinance, I showed a couple videos from Kiva and showed the students my own portfolio of who I lent money to.

Or, it might involve a debate of some kind.  For example, on the topic of Youth Unemployment, it might be something like, "Who has the final responsibility for solving this problem: youth, the government, parents, industry or universities?"

Or, it could be a survey activity.  For advanced levels, they'd have to make their own survey question or two, ask their classmates, process the information and then report back to the class their results.  For lower levels, I'd probably give them the questions already prepared.

Or, I might do some writing activity of some kind where the students have to share their opinion on the topic.  But, I will quite rarely do this and my activities are generally slanted towards speaking.

Relative Clauses- Student-Centered Style

Relative clauses are important and we use them all the time in the English language.  Of course Native English speakers just use them naturally and rarely make mistakes and even use reduced relative clauses all the time without even noticing it.  The problem comes when teaching them to students because while important, it's also something that most students aren't really confident in, and it's also very heavy on the grammar and metalanguage (language used to talk about language-"reduced relative clause" for example).

So what to do? 

1. Skip that chapter in the book and save yourself a headache?  No! It actually is important and useful (for intermediate and advanced level students-I'm not sure I'd attempt this with beginners). 

2. Become a Powerpoint warrior?  No!  It goes against everything good and holy student-centered teaching.  It's the least effective teaching method and students usually just end up sleeping.

3. Attempt to teach it in a student-centered way?  Yes!  It seems like the best solution to me.

I made this Relative Clause Self-Study Worksheet in an attempt to get students to "discover" the grammar without me lecturing about it.  I'm going to point out the page in the book with the grammar explanation and direct students to refer to it if they are unsure; all of the students have studied this before so I'm hoping they can activate their prior knowledge.

After doing this worksheet, students will do a page in their book focusing on the forms (very controlled practice).  They'll compare with their partner first and then we'll check answers as a class.

Next, they'll think about 1 person-a friend or family member and write down 5 or 6 sentences about them, using relative clauses (2-3 object clauses and 2-3 subject clauses) (somewhat controlled but less than previous exercise).  They'll share with their partner who will think of some interesting follow-up questions.

Then, it's finally time for free(r)-practice!  I'll put this up on the screen: Friends and Family Relative Clause Discussion Questions and ask students to choose 2 or 3 questions to answer.  They can think of 3 or 4 sentences/ question, one of which must use a relative clause. They'll share their answers with their partner and have a discussion together.

Games and Activities for your ESL Classroom

If you're stuck in a rut and looking for some new ideas for your English learning classrooms, check out some of my other sites.  Lots of interesting and fun ideas for both adults and children.

Fun ESL Activities for the Classroom

ESL Warm-up games and Activities

Speaking Activities for ESL Classrooms

Or, check out Speaking Activities That Don't Suck: Foolproof Ways to Force Your EFL Students to Produce Enormous Amounts of English

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Cigarette Prices in Korea to Double: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is for a 1.5 hour "News Club" discussion class.  I'm actually excited to talk about it; the topic should be pretty interesting to everyone.

Cigarette Prices Lesson Plan

How to start a class

How to start a class is something that I waver back and forth on and I'd actually like some ideas and suggestions on it.  I've done a lot of things over the years ranging from the, "Hi everyone, how are you?" to giving students some free-writing time, or things like riddles as a warm-up.  They have their various pros and cons, but these days for bigger classes, I'll usually just start with "Hi everyone, this is what we're doing today...."  And then I'll go over the plan for the class.  This semester, I'm planning to follow that up with attendance and then 2 riddles as a kind of warm-up.

For small classes, I do much the same but I get a bit of banter going on.  Banter with big groups of students in Korea usually doesn't work that well so I try to avoid it.

Tips from the readers?

The 4-hour killer class

This summer and going on into the fall, I'm teaching in this Internship preparation program where there are 4 hour classes, with the same teacher and same students.  It's a bit killer on the teacher, as well as the students but I try to make it as painless as possible.  The temptation is to just do 2 or 3 different, random things but I try to avoid that if possible and have some sort of coherent theme holding everything together.  Here's the rough sketch of my lesson for today:

Topic: Youth Unemployment.

1. Warm-up riddles.  Lots of students come late so I do some riddles for 5-10 minutes while people stream in.  This was the only unrelated thing.

2. Warm-up discussion questions about youth unemployment.  Talking with a partner and then the whole class together.

3. Reading-first time.  Quickly and some true/false questions. Compare with partner and then whole class.

4. Reading-second time.  Slowly and some difficult comprehension questions.  Talk with partner

5. Youth Unemployment Video-first time.  What is the program?  Talk with partner and then whole class.

6. Video-second time.  Would this program work in Korea?  Talk with partner and then with whole class.

7. Kiva Micofinance Organization.  Show the website and talk about what they do, watch their short video, etc.  Choose someone to "lend" money to.

8. Speech time.  Brainstorm ways to reduce youth unemployment in Korea.  Groups of 4. Each person choose their favorite and prepare a 2 minute speech about why it's the best solution.  Give speech to group and other 3 members must ask a difficult question.

Finish!  It was quite painless overall :)

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Sites I use to make my own "textbook"

This summer, I'm doing an internship preparation program for students who will be working in the USA.  I was given total freedom to teach whatever I wanted to teach, based on whatever book I wanted to use.  I chose not to use a textbook, for reasons I explained in my last post.  Instead, I compiled my own book, using the following sites:

1. ESL Writing.  I particularly like the listening stuff.

2. Breaking News English.  I mostly use the 2-page "mini-lessons."

3. Film English. Fabulous lesson plans based on short videos to be found here.

4. Business English Pod. This is my go-to site for everything job interviews.

5. My own lesson plans that I've used for various classes.  Examples:  Renewable Energy,  South Korea's Education System, and Problems with Studying Abroad.

Minimum Wage in Korea Lesson Plan

This is a speaking/reading lesson plan for advanced level students.  My class is 2 hours but you could adapt it for shorter or longer, especially if the students read the article before coming to class. 

Should the Minimum Wage be Increased lesson plan.  It's based on this article in the Korea Herald.

South Korea's Education System Lesson Plan

This is for a 1.5 hour discussion club for advanced level students.  It could easily be adapted for a 2-4 hour class by finding a podcast/Youtube video of some sort and implementing listening into it.

South Korea's Education System Lesson Plan.

"Empathy" lesson plan

This time, I didn't make this lesson plan but it looks like a good one.  I'll probably use it for my Internship preparation class.  I think they'll like it and it will be a springboard for lots of interesting discussion.

"The Conditioned"-Empathy Lesson Plan

"Goose Fathers" and Studying Abroad Lesson Plan

This is for a 1.5 hour, advanced level discussion class.  It could be easily adapted into a longer class with some additional activities, such as looking at a relevant Youtube video or listening to a related podcast of some sort.  

Korean students studying abroad lesson plan

Renewable Energy Lesson Plan

I made this Renewable Energy Lesson Plan based on a Breaking News English article and have used it quite successfully for 3 classes so far.   The first page (A-D) is perfect for about a 1.5 hour, reasonably high-level class.  You can use the second page (E-H) for a longer class of 2-4 hours. 

And here's the Renewable Energy PPT, which I used for a 3 hour class.  I used the MP3 file on Breaking News English that goes along with the article for a listening exercise and then we did some reading/discussion/speaking.

Korean students generally don't think that much about environmental issues such as green energy, but I think it's actually quite an important thing to be aware of.  And even though I'm "just" an English teacher, I think I still have the potential to change lives and thinking for the better.  Go green!

"Great Essays" sample lesson plan and PPT

I must confess that I don't actually make "lesson-plans" because my PPTs are my lesson plans.  And, I will usually just write some additional notes in the book on the pages that we're covering to remind myself of things, give some extra examples, etc. 

Here is my Great Essays 4, Unit 3 Lesson Plan.  It's an introduction to Cause and Effect Essays.  A few things to note:

1. It's a lot of content, but I try to give the information in a way that is interactive and involves group work/discussion.  And minimizes the lecture time, which I think is actually quite ineffective and leads to sleeping students.

2. The PPTs are simple. 

3. Never give back midterm exams until the end of class!

4. Give the plan for the day at the beginning of class.

5. It's actually the PPTs for 2 classes.  I teach 2, 1.5 hour classes/week

Sewol Ferry Disaster Lesson Plan

This is a lesson plan for a high-intermediate/advanced discussion class of 90 minutes.  I struggled a little bit with how to approach this.  It's a sensitive topic, but one that will be valuable to talk about.  And my discussion class is actually a "News Club" and this for sure is the number one story in Korea right now, so it would be strange to not talk about it.

Sewol Ferry Disaster Lesson Plan


Check out: How to get a University Job in South Korea

The Introverted Teacher

Whenever I've done those little tests about personality (Myers-Briggs for example), I've always scored pretty high on the introverted, as opposed the extroverted side of things.  Which means that although I like being around people, large groups of them make me really tired.  Especially large groups of people that I don't know and if I spend time in situations like this, I really just need time alone to recharge and get my energy back.

One of my friends was talking about it in terms of energy credits.  Like you have a certain amount of energy and some people (energy-vampires) or situations suck up large amounts while other times and with other people, it's neutral or very little.  How does this relate to teaching?  Here are a few tips for Introverted Teachers:

1. Relax in class.  You probably cannot be one of those super high-energy teachers like some of your colleagues.  Students don't always need that.  Sometimes they just like to have a chilled-out, relaxed class.  The introverts will certainly appreciate it.

2. Design your class well.  Lots of students interaction time in pairs and groups so you don't have to be "on-stage" all the time.   Limit the lecture time where there's pressure to be funny and entertaining.

3. Think carefully about OT opportunities.  What will suck the life out of you and leave you with nothing and what will be a neutral?  Small groups or 3-4 students are my favorite and what I usually end up doing.  Ditto with things like checking writing, which involve more brain work and less interaction.

4. Boundaries.  Get them and make them strong.  Limit your office hours and even if you're in your office doing work, just lock the door.  If things like "counseling" exhaust you, make it clear that you'll help students with English related stuff, but not other stuff.

5. Life outside of work: schedule in alone time.  Limit social activities during the week.  For example, I know that I will hate my life if I teach 6 hours and then go straight to a dinner with a big group of friends.  I focus my friend energy for the weekend, when I don't teach.

Check out one of my favorite books on this topic:

Teaching: the Small Stuff that Actually Matters #9/10

So, I had a great time yesterday at the Kotesol Busan-Gyeongnam Symposium, learning lots of good stuff and my presentation went very well.  But, I didn't quite finish this series!  Here are the last 2:

#9: Plan.  It's not a badge of honor to walk into class, ask your students what page you're teaching and then start "teaching." It's actually kind of ridiculous and even teachers with 30 years experience make a "plan."  All teachers should lesson plan; it just shows respect for our students.

#10: Never lose your cool.  Getting angry in Korea will NEVER get you the results you want, so you really need to stay calm at all times in class.  If your students don't do their homework, think about why they didn't.  Maybe it's just busy work and not actually helpful.  Perhaps they have no external carrot or stick for doing it.  Give them one.

If there is a particular student who is giving you a difficult time, take them outside the class and have a talk.  If you lose your cool and show a bit of anger, it's not so terrible.  But, never do it in front of the class.  Students who are acting out, just want to cause you to have a negative reaction in front of their classmates.  Don't give that to them.  You'll find that they are probably much more humble and apologetic 1-1 outside in the hallway.