Conversations

• This exercise is similar to role-playing, as it involves guided conversations between pairs of students. Introduce a topic, such as places people go for fun. Then hand students photos of different places. Tell students to pretend they have been to the place in the photo and to describe it to their partner. Go around to each group, making sure students are not stumped about what to say. Encourage them to use tenses appropriately and pronounce words correctly. If they use an incorrect tense of word, repeat the sentence stressing that word, prompting them to correct themselves.
  
  Then have the students arrange themselves in a circle and take turns briefly describing the places they have talked about with their partners. Have the rest of the group guess where each student went.
  
  This exercise could be adapted to fit other topics as well to fit the vocabulary you have been introducing in class.
  
  Using pictures can be a great way to introduce new vocabulary as well. As the website ESL Partyland--a great resource for teachers--says, once students begin talking about the pictures, they realize the need for the vocabulary they are lacking. It gives them a stronger desire to learn the new words, so they are more likely to retain the words.
  
  

Skits

• Have students perform skits. Include new vocabulary terms and variations in tense, and ask students to pay close attention to what is being said. Have them take brief notes as they watch. Then, talk about it as a class. Have the performers or other students explain what some students might not understand.
  
  

Storyboards

• Creating a storyboard can be another group activity. The class writes a story together, and each student takes a turn writing a sentence on the board to continue the story. You give students a word bank of recent vocabulary words they can draw from. Encourage students to vary their sentence structure, too.
  
  

Reading

• Some students process new information well through silent reading. Pass out copies of the story to your students, explaining that they will first read it to get the main idea and then details. They can underline words or take notes as they read. After they are finished, have them take notes about what they think it is saying.
  
  Then introduce the concept of learning the meaning of words from the context. Have students read the article more carefully, for details. Have them jot down new words and what they think the words mean, based on the context.
  
  

Games

• Many games can be used, or adapted for use, in the ESL classroom. Pictionary and Taboo are especially good for an advanced ESL class. Other games that focus on language, like Apples to Apples or Balderdash, also might work in a class of advanced learners.