Here you can find a range of short activities to use in your secondary classroom with students at pre-intermediate level. All of our activities are designed around themes engaging and relevant to secondary learners and can be used to complement your school curriculum, giving students an opportunity to develop their English language and skills in motivating and enjoyable ways. Written by young learner experts from around the world, our activities are easy to use and aim to give your students the skills and confidence they need to enjoy learning English.

Grammar auction

This is a teacher led auction. It can be played with mixed language points which are causing difficulty or on a specific area.

A dark and stormy night

The main focus of this activity is on developing writing skills, but it's also good for developing listening, speaking and reading skills and also for practising past tenses, descriptive vocabulary and generally having fun.

What's the question?

This is a pair-work reading and speaking grammar-based activity for elementary students that practises question formation, reading comprehension and the ability to identify and correct factual mistakes in a text.

Having fun with dialogues

Here are some ways to encourage learners to make their own dialogues and to experiment with the language they know.

Same as the teacher?

This activity is designed to be used as a vocabulary review or test of existing knowledge of the learners' vocabulary.

Stop, go back dictation

This is a dictation activity which pushes students to make sense of the language they hear by writing it down as accurately as possible.

Mingling: true or false?

This is a simple mingling activity that can be used with low level groups to provide practice in asking and answering questions. 

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight