ESL Video

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9 Ideas for Creating ESL Video Lessons

Jump to Friends Video Activities

1. Creative Writing Prompt

Play a movie clip without any sound. Students watch the movie clip and create the story. Then, give the students time to write their stories.

2. Predicting what will happen next

Play a movie clip. Stop the movie clip at an interesting point, and ask the students to think about what will happen next. Students write the ending to the movie.

3. Jigsaw Speaking

Divide the class into two groups: Group A and Group B.

Students in Group B leave the room or turn their back to the TV. Students in Group A watch the first-half of the movie clip. Then, reverse. Students in Group B watch the second-half of the movie clip. 

Then, students pair up, A and B, and describe the movie to each other.

4. Describing Vocabulary

Play a movie clip without any sound. Students pair up and describe the scene in the movie to each other.

5. Cultural Discussion

Play a movie clip. Ask students to think about cultural differences, such as scenery, dress, behavior, or language.

6. Writing a dialog

Silently play a movie clip with 3 or 4 characters. Ask the students to get into groups with 3 or 4 people, depending on the number of characters in the movie clip. Students create the dialog of the characters.

7. Character Role play

Start with #6. Then, have each person choose a character to role play. Ask students in each group to present their role plays to the class.

8. Act out the movie

Choose a movie clip with 4 characters and get the script. Divide the script into 5 equal parts (based on 20 students in the class). Put the students into 5 groups, and give each group a script. 

Students in the groups take a role and practice their lines. Then, have the students perform the movie clip in front of the class. Finally, play the movie clip for students to watch.

9. Using the Friends TV Series

Just because it’s not on the air anymore doesn’t mean it isn’t a good resource of useful expressions and cultural discussion topics.

Try these 10 ESL video worksheets using episodes of the Friends TV series.