Jobs & the Workplace ESL Activities, Games & Worksheets

ESL Jobs Game - Vocabulary: Bingo, Matching - Group Work In this enjoyable jobs vocabulary game, students play bingo by listening to definitions and matching them to the names of common professions. In groups, the bingo caller reads a definition at random from the caller's sheet and then puts a tick beside it. The players listen and look at the job words on their bingo cards to see if they have a job that matches the definition. If they do, they cross it off. The game continues until a player has crossed off four jobs in a row. When this happens, the player shouts 'Bingo!' and then reads out the jobs they crossed off. If the jobs match the definitions that were ticked on the caller's sheet, the player wins the round. Players then continue to see who can cross off all 16 words first. Groups play several rounds, with students taking turns to be the bingo caller and with players using a different bingo card each time. show less

ESL Jobs Worksheet - Vocabulary: Unscrambling, Spelling This free jobs vocabulary worksheet helps students to practice the names of jobs and their spelling. Students have ten minutes unscramble the letters on the worksheet to form the names of jobs. Students score one point for each correct job and spelling. The student with the most points wins. show less

ESL Jobs Game - Vocabulary and Speaking: Gap-fill, Information Gap, Asking and Answering Questions, Guessing, Controlled Practice - Pair Work This fun jobs guessing game helps students practice vocabulary related to jobs and the workplace. In two groups, students begin by completing sentences about different people's jobs using words from a box. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group and take turns asking their partner what job the people in the boxes at the bottom of their worksheet do, e.g. 'What does Tony do?' Their partner then reads the corresponding sentence about that person's job, and the other student guesses what the job is from the choices provided and writes their answer in the box. When the students have finished, they check their answers with their partner. The student with the most correct guesses wins. show less

ESL Jobs Games - Speaking and Vocabulary: Pelmanism, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Forming Sentences, Freer Practice, Guessing - Group Work In these engaging jobs vocabulary games, students practice the names of jobs and describing jobs with has to. To begin, students play a pelmanism game where they match pictures to the names of jobs. In pairs, students take it in turns to turn over a picture card and a word card. If the picture and job match, the student keeps the cards and has another turn. The student with the most cards at the end wins. Next, students imagine that they have the job shown on a word card and that the jobs on their worksheet are done by people in the class. Students then find out which classmate does which job by going around the class asking 'What do you do?' Students write each classmate's name next to the appropriate job picture on the worksheet. Next, in groups, students take it in turns to choose a picture card and make sentences about the job on the card with has to, e.g. 'The person doing this job has to work long hours'. The other students listen and try to guess the job being described. The first student to guess correctly wins and keeps the card. The student with the most cards at the end wins. show less

ESL Celebrity Jobs Activity - Speaking: Matching, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Pair Work In this intriguing celebrity jobs speaking activity, students guess what jobs fictitious celebrities did before they were famous and check their answers by asking past simple yes/no questions with the verb 'to be'. In pairs, students look at the fictitious celebrities on their worksheet and match them to jobs they think they did before they were famous by completing sentences with their names. Students then take it in turns to check their answers by asking their partner past simple yes/no questions with the verb 'to be', e.g. 'Was Paris Milton a nurse?' If the student gets the question wrong, they continue asking questions until they get it right. The student with the most correct first-time guesses is the winner. show less

ESL Talking about Jobs Activity - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Controlled and Freer Practice In this insightful talking aout jobs speaking activity, students learn and practice jobs and work-related vocabulary by asking and answering questions in a Find Someone Who activity. Students start by reviewing the jobs and work-related vocabulary on the worksheet and preparing the yes/no questions they need to ask to do the activity. Students then go around the class, asking each other the yes/no questions for the items on the worksheet, e.g. 'Do you want to work abroad?' When a student finds someone who answers 'yes', they write down the person's name and ask a follow-up question to gain more information (e.g. Why do you want to work abroad?), noting down the answer. When everyone has finished, students give feedback to the class on what they found out. show less

ESL Jobs Games - Vocabulary: Matching, Miming, Guessing, Asking and Answering Questions, Describing - Group Work These fun jobs vocabulary games consists of a matching game, miming game, quiz game and describing game to help students practice the names of jobs and their related duties. The aim of each game is to win the most cards. First, students play a jobs pelmanism game. In groups, students take it in turns to turn over a job picture card and a duty card. If the picture and duty match, the student makes a sentence, e.g. 'A chef cooks meals'. If the sentence is correct, the student keeps the cards. Next, students play a jobs miming game where they take turns miming a duty on a card to the group. The first student to guess the duty wins and keeps the card. After that, students play a jobs quiz game. The quizmaster picks up a duty card and asks a question with 'Who...?', e.g. 'Who cuts hair?' The first student to answer the question correctly wins. Finally, students play a jobs describing game where they take it in turns to pick up a picture card and describe the job on the card, e.g. 'I work in a kitchen and cook meals'. The first student to correctly guess the name of the job wins and keeps the card. show less

ESL Jobs Guessing Game - Vocabulary and Speaking: Forming Sentences, Describing, Guessing - Group Work In this entertaining guessing jobs game, students describe past and present job duties using the past simple and present simple. In groups, students take turns picking up a white card and a grey card. The white card shows the first job they did when they were young and the grey card shows the job they do now. The student then describes their first job in the past simple. For example, if the job was 'paperboy', the student might say 'I used to deliver newspapers to houses in my area'. The student then uses the present simple to describe the job they do now, starting with the phrase 'But now...' For example, if their present job was 'graphic designer', the student might say 'But now, I use a computer a lot and design logos for companies.' The other students listen and try to guess the two jobs by making a sentence, e.g. 'You used to be/were a paperboy but now you're a graphic designer.' The first student to make a suitable sentence that correctly guesses both jobs wins and keeps the two cards. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Word-Related Tasks Activity - Speaking: Rating, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this free job tasks activity, students ask and answer questions about likes and dislikes for different work-related tasks and choose a job for a partner based on their likes. First, students think about work-related tasks listed in a questionnaire and rank each one based on how much they like or dislike it. Students then take turns asking a partner 'Do you like...?' questions, completing the questionnaire with their answers and asking for explanations to gain more information. Afterwards, students think of a job for their partner based on the tasks they like doing. Finally, students tell the class about the job they chose for their partner and the reasons for their choice, and their partner says whether they agree. show less

ESL Job Interview Role-Play - Speaking Activity: Guided Discussion, Form Completion, Role-Play, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Group and Pair Work In this useful job interview role-play, students create and practice job interview questions. First, students decide on a job they would like to apply for. Next, in two groups, interviewers and candidates, the interviewers discuss and create details for the job, e.g. salary, working hours, etc. The candidates discuss and write down the ideal profile a candidate should have for the job, e.g. the person's background, work experience, etc. The interviewers then write down job interview questions for the items on their worksheet and the candidates write down questions to ask during the interview. After that, pairs of interviewers and candidates role-play the job interview. The interviewer's task is to decide if the candidate is right for the job. The candidate's task is to find out as much information as possible to decide if they want the job. Afterwards, the interviewers say what qualities they were looking for and if they found the right candidate. The candidates say what they thought of the job and if they would like to do it. show less

ESL Job Tasks Activity - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Pair Work In this work-related tasks activity, students ask and answer questions about their likes and dislikes for tasks related to work. First, students answer 'Do you like...?' questions about work-related tasks. Next, in pairs, students ask their partner the questions, note down their answers, and ask for explanations to gain more information. Finally, students give feedback to the class on their partner's likes and dislikes and together as a class students choose a job for them based on their likes. show less

ESL Jobs Discussion - Speaking Activity: Matching, Guided Discussion - Group Work In this productive jobs discussion activity, students match jobs to statements and then discuss the statements in groups to collectively agree on one job for each statement. Working alone, students think of a job that describes each statement and write down the job. In groups, students then find a job they all agree on for each of the statements. Students discuss each statement in turn and give their answers. Students also give their opinions on other students' ideas and come up with a job they all agree on, writing the job on the worksheet. Afterwards, there is a class feedback session where groups explain their choices to the class. show less

ESL Jobs Guessing Game - Speaking: Writing, Asking and Answering Questions, Freer Practice - Group Work In this creative 20 questions jobs game, students ask yes/no questions in order to find out someone's job. In groups, students begin by writing down as many yes/no questions as they can think of using the suggestions on the worksheet and their own ideas. Students then take it in turns to pick up a picture card. Next, the other students in the group ask 20 yes/no questions in order to guess the job on the card. The first student to guess the job correctly wins and keeps the card. The student with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. show less

ESL Job Descriptions Game - Vocabulary: Matching, Forming Sentences - Pair Work In this enjoyable describing jobs game, students match cards together to make sentences about jobs. In pairs, students take it in turns to turn over a card. If a student turns over a job picture card, they place the card face up on the table and can start to make a sentence about the job on their next turn by looking for word cards. All the sentences are four word cards long and start with an article. When a student finds a suitable article card, they place the card next to the picture and then move on to find the next word in the sentence. This continues until the sentence is complete, e.g. 'A postman delivers mail'. Each time a student turns over a picture card, they can start a new sentence to describe that job, so a student may be working on many sentences at the same time. The student with the most sentences at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Work Phrasal Verbs Activity - Speaking: Gap-fill, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Guided Discussion - Group and Pair Work In this free work-related phrasal verbs speaking activity, students complete questions with phrasal verbs relating to work and then ask the questions to a partner and discuss the answers. This activity is suitable for Business English students, people who work or adults. In two groups, students complete phrasal verbs in questions with verbs from a box in their correct form. Students then pair up with someone from the other group and take it in turns to ask their partner the questions on the worksheet and discuss the answers. Afterwards, students give feedback to the class on what they found out about their partner. show less

ESL Describing Jobs Game - Vocabulary and Speaking: Describing, Guessing - Group Work In this rewarding job descriptions game, students describe and guess jobs. In groups, students prepare five clues for the job shown on their card. Students then take turns saying their clues to the other students who listen and try to guess the job. The first student to correctly guess the job wins and keeps the card. If no one guesses correctly, the student with the card wins and keeps the card. This process is repeated until all the cards have been used. The student with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. For lower-level students, you can have them mime the jobs for other students to guess. show less

ESL Work Skills and Preferences Activity - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Guided Discussion, Gap-fill - Pair and Group Work Here is a memorable job skills speaking activity to help students practice talking about work skills and preferences. In pairs, students take turns interviewing their partner about work skills and preferences and writing down their answers. Next, each pair joins with another pair to make a group of four. In their groups, students discuss the jobs available on a 'Jobs Board' and say which skills are needed for each job. Next, students look at their completed questionnaire and propose a job for their partner from the 'Jobs board' by completing a gap-fill text with their partner's work skills and preferences. Finally, each student reports back to the class on the job they chose for their partner by reading the gap-fill text. Their partner then says whether they agree or not with their classmate's decision. show less