English Grammar Lessons For Adults
Teaching adults can be a great privilege.
Let them know you care with outstanding, informative lesson plans!
Adult students are eager to learn.
They take responsibility for their learning progress.
Understand the basic concepts of English grammar and learn English easily. Skills in both spoken and written English. Study all the lessons below and incorporate.
They often provide a wonderful snapshot of their own culture, so both teachers and students can learn in the classroom.
But adults are also more demanding. They want to know how to function in their new language as fast as possible, and they prize practicality above all else.
They’ll challenge your knowledge and methods of instruction, pushing you until they get the best information you can give.
When teaching adults the English language, it’s very important to provide practical, useful language—such as key vocabulary and phrases for survival in English speaking countries—that can help them in their everyday lives and advance them toward their lofty goals of English fluency.
What’s Different About Teaching English to Adult Students?
When adults are learning English, they often need very practical English. Functional survival English. How to shop for groceries. How to greet friends, neighbors and colleagues. Language necessary for everyday interactions and professional success.
Maybe your students are preparing for a family vacation or business trip abroad. Maybe they’re preparing for an interview where they’ll need to speak and understand English fluently. Or maybe they’ll be moving to an English-speaking country and they’ll need to know everything from how to turn on their washing machine to how to send a letter in the mail.
When organizing your lesson plans for adults, always keep practicality at the forefront. Will your students be able to use their new vocabulary on a regular basis? What will they be able to take away from your lesson?
Since they’re the grown-ups in their respective households, never forget that they’re taking time from their busy schedules to study, and they’re likely paying for lessons by themselves. This often means that they want to extract as much value from their lessons as possible.
Tips for Teaching English to Adult Students
For the previously given reasons and more, adults can be very different English students than children.
It seems a bit contradictory, since we know that most adult learners have big goals and a desire to succeed, but they’re actually often more reserved in trying new words or being bold in the classroom. The desire for success often leads to a fear of failure.
Here are some tips to get your adult students speaking and participating like free, uninhibited children.
- Connect with them. Make real connections with your students. Spend a short period in every class to get to know them personally. Are they married? Do they have children? What are their hobbies? Share your own experiences and relate to your students in any way possible.
- Make them feel comfortable. When students feel safe to speak and make mistakes, they’ll speak more often and more honestly. Reward participation with positive reinforcement, no matter if errors were made.
- Avoid childish books. Your adult students probably won’t find cartoons and other children’s books relevant to their lives or learning English. Find appropriate ESL learning materials.
- Warm up with real-world videos on FluentU. Let your students see real-world English in action. FluentU’s collection of English language video content covers everything from buying groceries to resolving business issues and conducting street interviews. They’ll get to see how natives speak English and get familiar with the language before trying it out themselves. Plus, FluentU provides plenty of tools for students to actively practice English vocabulary and grammar, like interactive subtitles, flashcards, vocabulary lists and more. Great for homework assignments and in-class activities alike.
- Learn their language, too. When I’ve taught adult Korean students in the past, I would often ask them about words in their language as well. This showed I was also trying to learn their language at the same time, which created an atmosphere where we all were working together to learn another language and culture.
- Give every student a chance to speak. One of the most challenging aspects of learning English for adults is becoming comfortable with speaking the new language. Take time to let every student practice and answer a question, even if they are just repeating one after the other. The more they speak, the more comfortable they will become.
Lesson Plan #1: English Job Interview Skills
As businesses around the world are becoming more globally-minded, English is becoming more important than ever. English language proficiency is an important skill to list on any resume. Many adult ESL students need to practice or learn English to keep their current jobs or to apply for new ones.
This lesson plan aims to help with just that.
Aim: To prepare adult students for a job interview
Skills: Speaking, listening, comprehension
Materials: Blackboard, worksheet for students
Level: Intermediate to advanced
Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Part 1: Introduction (10 minutes)
Introduce the topic to the students. Talk about job interviews and why they’re important. Ask the students the following questions to spark general conversation about the topic:
1. Have you ever had a job interview before? What was it like?
2. What’s important during a job interview?
3. How did you dress for your job interview?
4. Do your skills and personality matter for job interviews?
3. What questions do employers ask during an interview?
Part 2: Activity (20 minutes)
Hand out the worksheet given above. Explain the differences between the employer and the applicant.
Go over the first two questions in each section for practice. Write a sample answer on the blackboard for the students to see and copy down. Then, have the students finish the worksheet, working in pairs.
Part 3: Role Play (20 minutes)
Once the class finishes the worksheet in pairs, have each pair split up.
One student from each pair will be an employer and the other will be an applicant. Have all the employers remain seated and have them create their own company names (one company per person seated).
The applicants should all stand up. Once all the company names have been created, have the students go around to each employer to find out more information about their companies. The company will then ask each applicant questions as well.
Part 4: Review (5-10 minutes)
Which one was the students’ favorite company? Who had the best interview? Have the applicants and students share some of their interview highlights.
Further practice suggestions
For homework, have your students create or update their resumes in English. Have them bring these resumes into class, share some highlights and edit them using their peers’ feedback.
Lesson Plan #2: At the Grocery Store
Going to the grocery store or supermarket is a regular task in any country or language. Whether your students will be traveling or living abroad, this lesson is great for teaching food and shopping vocabulary.
Aim: To teach students about the supermarket and shopping
Skills: Speaking, listening, comprehension
Materials: Blackboard, handout for students
Level: Easy to intermediate
Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Part 1: Introduction (10 minutes)
Introduce the topic to the students. Talk about unusual things you can buy in your grocery store. Have students think and discuss scenarios when they must speak or read in the grocery store in their native language. Discuss how students can do the following in English:
1. Ask to have produce weighed. How to understand the price.
2. Ask the butcher about the price of meat and how much you want to buy.
3. Learn how grocery stores are organized (e.g. produce, processed foods, international food, candy, soft drinks, alcohol, etc.)
Part 2: Activity (20 minutes)
Hand out the worksheet provided above.
Explain the differences between the customer and clerk. Assign the students their roles in their pairs. Let each pair plan each role play scenario with the help of the worksheet.
Make sure they understand that they need to improvise a lot of the role play on their own. Have them write information and phrases down before they get started so they have something to guide them during the role play.
Get the students to do a quick practice role play session with a partner. Walk around to see if anyone needs help. Talk about how to do better role plays as a group.
Part 3: Role Play (20 minutes)
Once each pair finishes their practice role play, have each customer find a new clerk. Have all the clerks remain seated and get the customers to rotate around the classroom.
Once everyone has a new partner, have the customers initiate one of the role play scenarios and act it out with the new clerk. The clerk must respond to the new customer’s questions. This time the students should try to perform the role play without notes.
Part 4: Review (5-10 minutes)
Did anyone buy something unusual? Which grocery store was the most expensive? Which one was the cheapest? Did you understand where things were in the grocery store? Did any store not have what you were looking for?
Further practice suggestions
Have students film an exchange at a grocery store with an English speaking clerk. If you’re not located in an English-speaking country, or if they aren’t comfortable asking strangers to be on camera, have students get creative and make short videos showing themselves at the grocery store using the vocabulary they learned in this module.
Lesson Plan #3: Around Town
We all have things we need to do around town: shop, meet friends, run errands, eat at a restaurant, find some entertainment. That makes this lesson super practical. You’ll also be teaching students how to discuss options, make plans and give directions.
Aim: To teach students how to make plans with friends
Skills: Speaking, listening, comprehension
Materials: Blackboard, worksheet for students
Level: Easy to intermediate
Time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Part 1: Introduction (10 minutes)
Introduce the topic to the students. Discuss activities you can do in the town you live. Have students think about the last time they met a friend in town and what they did. Ask students the following questions to spark a classroom discussion.
1. What are common things you do with their friends?
2. How do you get there?
3. How much does it cost?
Part 2: Activity (20 minutes)
Hand out the Around Town worksheet. Have each pair plan their day out with each other by first answering the who, what, when, where, why and how questions. Once completed, discuss some of their plans as a class.
Part 3: Role Play (20 minutes)
Once each pair finishes discussing their role play information, have them write out a script following some of the cues in the given role play script. Walk around and help students fill in gaps that they’re struggling with. If there’s time, have students find a new partner and make up new conversations on the spot. They can use their scripts for reference and try to ad-lib parts of the conversation that need to be modified based on their new partner’s responses.
Part 4: Review (10 minutes)
Have students read their scripts out loud with their first partner. Have other students summarize their plans out loud or on paper.
Further practice suggestions
Have students make plans with their classmate, either in pairs or small groups. Then have them make a short 2-3 minute video recording or PowerPoint presentation documenting their day with pictures, video and audio.
Your adult students will be far more comfortable using English in everyday scenarios after trying these activities. Give them a try!
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
Why is English grammar important?
Just take a look at the cover of this magazine about celebrity Rachael Ray. The texts says:
“Rachael Ray finds inspiration in cooking her family and her dog”
Of course, what the sentence is supposed to mean is that Rachael finds inspiration in her dog, her family and her cooking. Instead, the sentence sounds like Rachael likes to cook her family and her dog for dinner!
Good grammar can save you from misunderstandings like that. Grammar involves a set of rules you use to form sentences in any language. Grammar rules tell you things like why you walk slowly (not “slow”), and when to say “they” or “them.” Without grammar, it would be very difficult for people to understand one another.
So learning English grammar is important, but it’s not always easy to start. Where can you get all the information you need, and how can you learn all of the rules (and the exceptions to these rules)?
Well, you can start right here with this list of 14 English grammar learning websites!
Smart Steps for Learning English Grammar
Even with a list of great resources, learning will be easier if you follow specific steps.
1. Have a goal. Having a goal helps you create focus. Choose a specific goal for your grammar learning, such as feeling comfortable for a job interview, or fixing your spoken mistakes in the past tense.
2. Break that goal down into smaller goals. Now that you know what you want to achieve, you can figure out how to get there. Let’s say that you want to fix your past tense mistakes. First you will need to figure out what those mistakes are. To do that, you can ask others to point out your mistakes when you speak, record yourself and listen carefully, work on the past tenses you’re less familiar with and more.
Whatever you’re working on, you should find a way to break it down into smaller chunks.
3. Focus on one topic at a time. Don’t try to learn everything at once. Instead, learn one rule at a time and practice, using and reviewing that rule until you know it so well that you could teach it to someone else.
4. Study a few minutes a day. You don’t need to study for hours to learn English. All it takes is five to 10 minutes a day, as long as you use them wisely.
Each day, you can read a grammar rule, do a few exercises and then practice it for the rest of the day. The next couple of days, use that rule while writing and speaking to make sure you didn’t forget it. Look for examples of that rule while you read, watch or listen to anything in English.
Follow these steps, and before you know it you’ll feel much more comfortable with English grammar.
How to Use This List of English Grammar Resources
We’ve put together a list of some awesome websites where you can find grammar rules, test your skills or quickly look up a grammar question. This list is not comprehensive, which means it doesn’t contain every single grammar website on the internet. That would be one huge list!
Instead, you’ll find a good mix of useful resources for any kind of grammar learning you want to do. You will not (and should not) use all the websites. Instead, look around and find a couple of sites that you like.
Then, and this is important, actually use them. Bookmark the website on your computer and your phone, download the app if there is one and include one or two in your learning schedule. Doing so will make sure that you visit the websites regularly and continue to learn from them.
Grammar Bytes
Grammar Bytes has bite-sized (mini) grammar lessons and exercises presented in a really friendly and sometimes silly way. Interactive exercises let you test your skills, and they also contain easy-to-understand explanations with the correct answers.
The site also posts a daily grammar workout on its Twitter account.
5 Minute English
The design for 5 Minute English might not be very fancy, but its explanations are clear and to the point. The site has some great information about common grammar questions and mistakes, like this page, which explains when to use “listen” and when to use “hear.”
FluentU
One of the best ways to learn English grammar is by hearing it used in real situations. The more English you listen to, the more grammar you learn—without even memorizing the rules first (although that definitely helps).
Grammar Lessons For Esl Students
On FluentU, you have access to a huge library of real-world English videos, along with clear definitions, examples and more for all words used in the videos. The more you watch, the more you learn!
While browsing our hundreds of awesome videos, you’ll have the freedom to choose which ones are most relevant to your personallearning experience.
FluentU actively teaches you new words and grammar rules while you watch. There are interactive subtitles—click on any word for an instant definition, grammar info and examples.
FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.
For example, if you tap on the word “brought,” then you see this:
You can learn any video’s vocabulary with FluentU. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.
Keep practicing with these videos, and you will see great improvement in your ability to use English correctly, the way native speakers do.
Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet, or download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play stores.
British Council
The British Council is a great resource for all language learners, especially if you’re learning British English. There is a huge amount of information here about any kind of grammar you may need to know.
Just choose your level and then you’ll get several specific grammar topics to explore.
Grammar Girl
Grammar Girl is both a blog and podcast that provides short, friendly tips to improve the grammar in your writing. Grammar Girl (also known as Mignon Fogarty) makes learning grammar fun and simple with memory tricks. This makes it easier to remember and use difficult grammar rules.
Grammar Girl is used by native speakers as well, so you can be sure it will help your English sound more natural. You’ll learn about English grammar rules as well as punctuation, writing style and even business tips.
You can find her podcasts on Apple and Spotify, or you can get a free month when you sign up with the code GRAMMAR using Stitcher.
English Grammar 101
Do you prefer learning with a textbook, but don’t want to carry one around all the time? You’ll love English Grammar 101, which is set up like a grammar textbook.
Each easy-to-understand lesson (or chapter) only covers one topic at a time, and is followed by an exercise section to test your understanding of the topic. The short length of the chapters means you can spend a few minutes a day on one grammar rule, and learn a lot within just a short time.
Alison English Grammar Courses
Not everybody likes to learn alone. For those of you who would prefer to learn in a classroom, you might to try an online course. Alison has a number of free online courses for learning English grammar. These courses usually involve watching videos and then doing assignments.
The best part is that you can often interact with (talk to) the other students and the teacher. So if you have a question or want to practice with someone, you can.
Education First’s English Grammar Guide
Education First’s grammar guide is very well organized, and is a good starting place to learn how to use parts of speech. The rules themselves are short and use many example sentences to show how everything works.
If you learn better through examples than through rules, this is an excellent place to start.
Free English Grammar Lessons
Oxford English Grammar Course
This website is meant to be a companion to the Oxford English Grammar books. Even if you don’t use those books, this is still a good place to practice your grammar.
There are no explanations of the grammar rules, but there are many interactive grammar exercises to make sure you really understand each rule. Use this website to practice the rules you’re learning somewhere else, or to find out what you need to study more.
Daily Grammar
Daily Grammar is simple both in look and content. The website has over 400 lessons on parts of speech and parts of sentences, which you can go through in order, or you can use the glossary to look up a term.
Daily Grammar also posts lessons to their blog, along with exercises for practice.
EnglishClub
EnglishClub is another website with grammar lessons, and the writing on this one is especially easy to understand and friendly. Some lessons have quizzes, and others have special tips that explain commonly misunderstood facts about each topic.
Grammarly Tips
You may have heard of the Grammarly spelling and grammar checker. It doesn’t just check your mistakes in your writing, but will also explain them to you so you don’t make the same mistakes again.
They’ve also collected a ton of rules, facts and tips on every possible grammar topic you can imagine. Explanations are written in a blog-like way: personal and using full paragraphs instead of a few lines. Because of its more advanced English usage, it’s a fantastic resource for more advanced learners.
Grammarly is not an English learner website—it’s a website for native English speakers who want to improve their grammar. Because of that, the tips might be a bit overwhelming for beginner/intermediate learners.
English Page
English Page is not organized as well as some of the other websites on this list, but it has some of the best English grammar exercises you’ll find. The exercises here don’t just ask you to choose a correct answer from a list—you have to write the answer yourself.
This gets you to actually use what you learned, and to practice instead of just memorize. There’s an excellent section with grammar rules as well, with lots of sample sentences.
YouTube
English Grammar Lessons For Adults
Visual learners, we haven’t forgotten about you! For those of you who prefer to watch someone explain the rules instead of reading them, YouTube has plenty of lessons to offer.
Some great English grammar lessons can be found on EnglishLessons4U, Let’s Talk and many other channels. For lessons on something specific, search YouTube for “[topic] grammar lesson” and you’ll find many options.
Which of these websites will join your bookmarks/favorites? Hopefully you’ve found a couple of sites that you’re excited to start using. Remember to use these websites together with other English learning methods. Good luck!
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn English with real-world videos.