Four simple activities help ESL students learn adjectives: describing pictures, describing a person, guessing an object from its description, and comparing objects to learn the positive, comparative, and superlative forms.
Adjectives are an important topic to master, because they let your students express themselves in more interesting ways. That is even more true when you combine them with writing lessons: your students' work becomes richer once they get the hang of choosing the right adjectives.
So, how can you teach adjectives to ESL students? Here are some activities that work.
1. Show pictures
This activity works well in the classroom as well as online. Before the lesson, prepare a set of pictures to show your students. In class, show each picture and ask the students to describe it with any adjectives they know.
Allow students to use their native language if they don't know the English word yet, and use the moment to introduce the new adjective as the lesson goes on.
Choose the pictures to suit your students' age. Young students do well with pictures of cartoon animals, plants, and fruit. Older students may feel you are not taking them seriously if you use the same pictures. Luckily, there are plenty of free pictures online, so you won't run out of images to show any time soon.
2. Describe a person
Have your students work alone or in pairs, and ask them to describe a friend's appearance and personality. Give them a list of adjectives with their meanings. If needed, also give them a sample paragraph, so they have a better idea of what to write.
As a variation, ask students to describe a famous person instead: an athlete, a singer, an actor, or anyone else well known.
3. Guess an object
Guessing an object from a description of its features is a lot of fun, and it is also a great way to teach adjectives.
Start by telling the students that you are thinking of an object. It can be anything, as long as it is not so obscure that only a few students know it. As you describe the object, the students can take turns guessing, or you can ask them one by one.
In the classroom, you can prepare a stack of flashcards beforehand. Ask a student to take a random card and describe the object on it to the class, while the others guess.
4. Compare objects
To teach students the degrees of comparison of adjectives (positive, comparative, and superlative), comparing objects is a fun way to do it.
Say you show an orange, an apple, and a pear, each a little bigger than the one before. You can give examples like these:
- Positive: The orange is big.
- Comparative: The apple is bigger than the orange.
- Superlative: The pear is the biggest of all.
Of course, you can compare any objects you like. Let the students choose objects to compare, too. For the rules behind these forms, see all about adjectives in English grammar.
Let students check their own writing
Those are 4 simple ways to teach adjectives to ESL students. For more ideas on building vocabulary, read ways to improve vocabulary for ESL students. And when your students write, ask them to check their work with the Spell Checker before they hand it in. It marks spelling and grammar mistakes for them to fix, which can take some of the load off your shoulders.