Critical Thinking - ESL EFL Teaching Resources


What makes you happy?

ESL EFL Lesson - Pre-intermediate - 1.30 Hours
This critical thinking activity helps students to consider what makes them happy in their lives. The students share the information with their classmates and examine their findings by looking at reasons for happiness and studying the most popular categories for happiness. Students begin by writing down ten things that make them happy. The students then work in pairs and share their information. The students also talk about why those things make them happy. The students are then put into groups of four. They discuss and find out the most popular categories for happiness, e.g. health, education, money, etc. The students then give feedback about their findings to the class and create a poster about happiness in order to educate other students about choosing the right things to make them happy.
What makes you happy.PDF

When Prayers are Answered

ESL EFL Lesson - Pre-intermediate - 2 Hours
This engaging four-page critical thinking lesson can be used to teach the topic of reincarnation. The lesson starts off with a song gap fill exercise. The song is “The one that got away” by Katy Perry which introduces the topic of reincarnation. Students then read a short story also covering the topic and answer true or false and reading comprehension questions based on the text. Students then create their own ending to the story. After that, the students use a set of discussion questions to help them use their critical thinking skills to talk about the topic of reincarnation. This lesson covers individual, pair and group work, discussions, critical thinking, speaking, reading, writing and listening activities as well as a variety of language points. Detailed teacher's notes are also provided.
When Prayers are Answered.PDF Exclusive

Island Adventure

ESL EFL Writing and Speaking Activity - Intermediate - 1 Hour
In this creative teaching activity, students use their critical thinking and problem solving skills to survive being stranded on a desert island. The students are told that their boat is sinking and that there is a desert island nearby. In groups of three, students choose four items to help them survive on the island. The students write about their choice of items and their reasons for choosing them. Each group then explains their choices to the class. After that, the groups find out what challenge they face on the island by picking a card. Each group picks a card and makes a plan of what they will do to survive on the island, and how the four items they brought will help them. The groups then present their plans to the class. The teacher assesses each group's chances of survival according to their plan and how risky their ideas are. Each group is awarded a score between zero and three. After each group has presented, they roll a dice and the awarded points are combined with the number on the dice. Groups need to score four or more to survive, and more than six to thrive on the island.
Island Adventure.PDF

Lateral Thinking Exercises

ESL EFL Speaking Activity - Intermediate - 45 Minutes
Below is a link to a set of 15 lateral thinking puzzles. Each puzzle comes with a clue and then the answer. These puzzles can be used in many ways to improve students' critical thinking skills. You can hand out the puzzles without the answers and have the students try to complete them. The students could complete a 'Find Someone Who' activity with the puzzles and answers. You could also use the puzzles in a quiz game.
Lateral Thinking Exercises.PDF

Lost at Sea

ESL EFL Writing Activity - Intermediate - 25 Minutes
Here is a link to a thought-provoking critical thinking exercise in which students are presented with a 'Lost at Sea' scenario. The students have to rank fifteen undamaged items still left on their sinking boat in order of importance. They rank the items from 1 to 15 according to how important they are for their survival. Once the students have ranked the items, the teacher goes through the correct ranking with the students. An answer key and rational sheet are provided.
Lost at Sea.PDF

Stress

ESL EFL Lesson - Intermediate - 1.30 Hours
This captivating three-page lesson will help educate your students about the topic of stress. To begin this critical thinking lesson, students work in pairs and interview each other about the top ten most stressful things in their lives. The students then make a group of four and compare their answers. The group members find the most popular stressful things or situations for their group. After that, the students complete a class stress survey. Students find out the ways each person reduces stress and how they relax. Once the survey is complete, the students re-group and read all their data and categorize it. Students then make posters showing the results of the survey. This lesson involves pair and group work as well as a class mingling activity. Critical thinking, data collection, analyzing and evaluating skills are also used. Detailed teacher's notes are provided.
Stress.PDF Exclusive

The Elevator

ESL EFL Speaking Activity - Intermediate - 30 Minutes
This teaching activity is useful for practicing negotiating, critical thinking, prioritizing and making preferences. It can also be used to practice giving opinions, agreeing and disagreeing. In groups of four, students are presented with a situation that they have to discuss and then negotiate an outcome. The situation is that there are fourteen people trapped on the 26th floor of a burning building. There is one elevator working, which holds a maximum of eight people, and it can only go down once. Each group has to decide which eight people they will save, and why.
The Elevator.PDF Exclusive

The Rose

ESL EFL Lesson - Intermediate - 1.30 Hours
This compelling three-page lesson teaches students about the topic of love. The lesson begins with a short story. This is followed by some reading comprehension questions. After that, there is a song gap fill exercise based on the short story. There are also discussion questions to teach the students to think critically about the topic. This lesson covers individual, pair and group work, discussions, critical thinking, speaking, reading, writing and listening skills as well as a variety of language points such as metaphors and similes. Detailed teacher's notes are provided.
The Rose.PDF

Your Views

ESL EFL Speaking Activity - Intermediate - 30 Minutes
This productive speaking task is useful for teaching students to use their critical thinking skills. The students discuss two controversial statements in groups. Students then give their opinions, agree and disagree. The groups write down the reasons for their decisions and present their results to the class. This then leads into a class discussion.
Your Views.PDF Exclusive

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