This content below is fully provided by Dr. Hetty Roessingh - 50+ ESL Teaching Ideas.

In the end…its all about vocabulary. Many of these teaching ideas can be used across all age levels, and proficiency levels. Just adapt, and use in the context of the topic/theme unit you are teaching.

1. Contextual guessing: Model how to guess at the meaning of unknown words, based on automatized sight vocabulary of 2500 high frequency words and context clues. For example, "People in the far North build their winter homes, called igloos, from snow."
2. Morphological analysis: Look for root words.
3. Direct teaching of key affixes
4. Phonics: Sound it out.
5. Appropriate use of bilingual and English only dictionary: Use direct teaching and modeling.
6. Flashcards: To develop sight word recognition.
7. Teach for transfer: Look for cognates
8. How many different meanings? Take a common word like ‘work' or ‘make' and ask students to write as many different sentences they can think of illustrating different meanings. For example:
   1. We can work it out. (negotiate)
   2. I'll do this for home work. (practice on my own)
   3. I have a lot of house work to do. (cleaning, tidying)
   4. Come on! Work with me on this. (co-operate)
   5. I went for a good work out this morning. (physical exercise)
   6. … and so on …
9. How many words do you see? Take a long word like ‘Valentine' or ‘Endangered' and see how many small words students can generate. What strategies do they use to make their lists?
10. Cloze exercises: Reconstruct a reading passage where every 5th word has been deleted.
11. Story prediction task: Look at 10 key words teacher has selected from an upcoming story and written on blackboard in order they will appear. Student writes a sentence using each word and makes a guess or forms an impression about the story.
12. Frayer model for concept teaching
13. Semantic webbing
14. Syllogisms/analogies:
15. Odd man out...
16. Dictation
17. TPR (Total Physical Response): "What's in the bag?"
18. Language Experience Approach (LEA): Copying a group constructed text off the blackboard
19. Timed readings
20. "Contact activities...": Mini interviews with native English speakers (NES) using a data collection sheet and rehearsing questions beforehand. For example: "Filling in data sheets."
21. Picture story telling: What happened before? What's happening now? What's going to happen next?
22. "Story retellings...": Supported with a visual representation.
23. Match labels to pictures on the bulletin board display
24. Recognize/match word labels, accompanied by a picture, to the same word in environmental/authentic print (e.g. a flyer for food specials)
25. Match simple oral descriptions to pictures: For example: weather, landmarks/familiar places, what's in the shopping cart...
26. Learn spelling rules
27. Key visuals/Visual representations: For example: Understand information about the story setting and character of a video with the help of visual representations, such as a map, and the first 20 minutes of the video (e.g. "To Kill a Mockingbird").
28. Reading comprehension: Answer 3 levels of reading comprehension questions.
29. Make up a crossword puzzle... clues include definitions, examples, synonyms, antonyms, syllogisms, etc.
30. Listen to a guest speaker
31. Listen to music... a ballad, and take down the words or make a cloze activity. Work on rhyming words. Record how many times it took to listen through.
32. Use songs: Learn the words, together as a class, to a catchy song. Students polish pronunciation, repeat, rehearse with the teacher. Take the tape home to work on it.
33. Write a business letter... scaffolded support/model
34. Listen for specific information from a taped message that the teacher has modified the input for speed. For example: theatre offerings, airflight arrivals and departures, weather forecast, etc.
35. Information gap: Agree on a meeting time.
36. Jigsaw technique
37. Prepared oral reading (just between student and teacher) on a familiar topic, independent reading level, rehearsed at home. For example: "Jane Goodall's Animal series."
38. Scaffolded essay: Using data from contact activities as a springboard for writing. Focus is on good Intro paragraph, Opening sentence for each body paragraph and Conclusion.
39. Poster projects/booklets to illustrate a variety of concepts. For example: Canadian diversity, nature imagery in Romeo and Juliet, etc.
40. Create a new ending to a story: (scaffolded - "Titanic", "Romeo and Juliet", "The Black Stallion Returns")
41. Patterned practice of a targeted grammar structure.
42. Text supported opportunity (from teacher created materials) to inductively "get" a targeted grammar structure.
43. Field trips: For example: Complete charted information on four different animals from a zoo field trip (Animal, Name of Mother, Name of Baby, Baby's birthweight) and then generate written sentences (simple substitution format) following a model
44. Take notes from a 10-12 minute video. Answer comprehension questions, using notes.
45. KWL: Know, Want to know, Learn.
46. Picture bingo
47. "Who's in the Hotseat?" Classmates ask only yes/no questions to figure out who's "it?" For example: an endangered animal.
48. Read between the lines: Teacher created material to help ESL learners begin to "read between the lines" (make inferential leaps) that NES can already handle and hence do not need. For example:

    [NES]: Recently I holidayed in Mexico. The food was delicious! One step on my weigh scale back home, however, told me exactly what I would have to do next.
    
    [ESL]: Last week, I holidayed in Mexico. The food was delicious! I ate and ate and ate. I couldn't get enough. Back home, my weigh scale told me I had gained 10 pounds. Now I will have to go on a serious diet to undo the damage from my holiday in Mexico.
    
    List 3 inferences and 2 new words. Can you "guess" at the new words?

49. Newspaper pictures and stories: Look at a picture (e.g. a newspaper picture of an ailing baby whale, a bear cub, a crime or accident scene - the article and caption accompanying it are folded back.). Student generates 10 questions about the picture and exchanges the questions with a partner. Students answer each other's questions. Check out answers together, then begin to read.
50. Targeted structures: Complete a multiple-choice worksheet on all the structures that have been targeted/taught in one way or another in the theme.
51. Use a newspaper: Look at newspapers to find a romantic partner, a house for rent, or a job - focus attention on descriptive vocabulary and abbreviations students will need to understand.
52. Picture scatter: Look at 20-30 numbered pictures. On a worksheet, student attempts to name, categorize and write something about as many as possible (animals, food, famous faces, "Moments Frozen in Time"). Then, in small groups or as a class, students complete as much of the information as possible.
53. Open Word Sort: Students are given 30-50 key words to the theme. They group/categorize or sort them as they like. They make up headings for the categories.
54. Closed Word Sort: Students are given 30-50 key words to the theme, along with category headings. They place the vocabulary under the appropriate category heading.
55. Match definitions with meanings: Give students key vocabulary in context - in a sentence. Students select meaning of words from a list of definitions supplied, or they can write a definition of the word.
56. Recall key vocabulary, decontextualized: Give words with no context. Students must recognize this word (A piece of clothing, food, a place in the community, family member) and choose the correct meaning from a multiple-choice format. 2500 high frequency words.
57. Interviews: The teacher is "it" (a famous person, someone from a film in study). Students ask questions related to motive for doing something, feelings about something that happened in the story...
58. Fractured newspaper stories: Teacher gives out a newspaper clipping (a love story, murder story, hero anecdote) which has been cut into 4 segments and the title has been cut off. In groups of 4, students must put the story back into order, and think of a title.
59. Plot summary: Use a timeline to write the plot summary of a story seen on video such as "The Terry Fox Story".
60. Read simple instructions accompanied by visual representations to complete a simple task. For example: Put together a bed frame, bake an uncomplicated cake, etc.