Quick answer: The best ESL homework is short, task-based and always followed up in the next lesson. Five ideas that work: 'truth or lie' story preparation, revising for a team quiz, a class group online with a weekly question, riddles and tongue twisters, and watching graded YouTube video stories to report back on. Students do homework when they know it will be used in class.
Why set homework for ESL students at all?
While most people don't want to do extra outside of class, there is no denying that having some English input between lessons is a great way for our students to take ownership of their learning and see faster English improvement.
So here are five great homework ideas for ESL students:
1. Truth or lie?
Students prepare three short stories about themselves for homework. One is true, the others are false. In the next lesson they tell their partner their stories while their partner asks questions to decide which story is true. Then reverse roles.
A game element is really motivating and this works with many different language levels.
2. Prepare for a quiz
Do you want them to remember new verbs, tense structures or vocabulary? Are you doing a general revision lesson next? Ask your students to revise at home, telling them you’ll put them into teams next week to answer questions. Have each team make up a distinct buzzer sound if you like so they can ‘buzz in’ with the right answer. Winning team gets a prize.
Works best with teens and kids; a neat reason to revise at home and much more fun than an individual test.
3. Set up a class group online
Ask a question a week, invite responses and encourage respectful conversation and debate. Be careful; not everyone likes social media and you may choose a more appropriate platform for sharing ideas outside of class.
Collaboration in English outside of class can be stimulating, build relationships and practice real-world English.
4. Riddles/puzzles/tongue twisters
A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, and rode out again on Friday. How did he do that? (*answer at bottom of the page)
Lateral thinking questions like the above can be fun and all the while, students are reading English. Alternatively, have students practice tongue twisters at home and either translate one from their own language or make one up. Have them share with the class next time.
It is a lot of fun hearing tongue twisters translated from other languages.
5. Watch YouTube video stories and report back
There are plenty of great story videos ESL students can watch at home and which are graded for level.
In the example video at the bottom of this blog, you'll see a short past tense story, suitable for low level learners. After watching it for homework, here are two ways you can work on it in your next class:
1. Ask general comprehension questions on the video.
2. Re-create the story as a class, eliciting it from students piece by piece with the help of key words from the story as prompts on the board.
Alternatively divide the class into A and B.
For homework, A's watch one video and B's another. Pair an A and a B up in class afterwards to summarise the stories to each other.
Video is so engaging and it is much easier to get students to watch something than write something. For adult and exam classes, the graded articles with audio at Breaking News English and the short courses on BBC Learning English make equally good report-back homework.
Which homework idea suits which class?
| Homework idea | Best for | Class follow-up |
|---|---|---|
| Truth or lie? | Almost any level; great for new groups | Partner questioning and guessing game |
| Quiz preparation | Teens and kids; revision weeks | Team quiz with buzzers and a prize |
| Class group online | Adults who like social media | Read out the best responses; one language tip |
| Riddles and tongue twisters | Mixed-level and multilingual classes | Share, solve and vote for the best |
| Video stories | Low-level and visual learners | Comprehension questions or A/B retelling |
What makes ESL homework actually get done?
As teachers, we can help our students by giving homework tasks that are meaningful, relevant and engaging. Also students are more likely to do the work if it will be checked or used in some way in the following lesson.
We hope we have inspired you to choose fun, task-based homework activities that have a solid focus and outcome. Notice, too, how there is always a meaningful follow-up to the homework task in class.
When planning homework tasks, you can also take your inspiration from the real-world and ask students to do things like text each other or listen to English music.
The possibilities for productive homework tasks are endless.
Homework is one half of a bigger goal: students using English between lessons at all. For the other half – social groups, individualised reading and real-world speaking missions – see the sister post to this one, how to get your students to use English out of class. And to make the in-class follow-ups sing, our tips for TEFL discussion classes and these 5 TEFL warmers turn homework feedback into full speaking activities.
Frequently asked questions
What is good homework for ESL students?
Short, task-based work with a guaranteed follow-up: prepare stories for a guessing game, revise for a team quiz, watch a graded video to retell, or respond to a weekly question in a class group. The follow-up is the secret – students do homework they know will be used in class.
How can I adapt these homework ideas for beginners?
Shrink each task and provide the language: 'truth or lie' becomes three single sentences using a model frame, quiz revision covers eight words instead of thirty, and video homework uses the shortest, lowest-graded stories with two or three set questions to answer.
Do these homework ideas work for online lessons?
Yes – they were practically made for it. Send links and instructions in the chat at the end of a video lesson, collect quiz answers with a shared document, and run 'truth or lie' or A/B video retelling in breakout rooms or 1-to-1 at the start of the next call.
How much homework should I set ESL students?
Little and often beats occasional and heavy: ten to twenty minutes between lessons is enough for most adult and teen classes. Overloading students means many won't start at all, and a short task completed by everyone gives you a far better class follow-up than a long one completed by three.
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*Answer to lateral thinking question: Friday is a horse.
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What next?
The Global English 120 hour TESOL Premier course. contains great content on crafting lesson plans and a section on how to give homework effectively.
Check out our ready-to-print and use TEFL lessons here.
Ask any questions about TESOL training and ESL classes directly here or join the chat in our friendly Facebook group.