21 Places to Find Free ESL Lesson Plans Online

Being an ESL teacher requires a lot of creativity, but you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for each and every lesson; here are 21 places to find free ESL lesson plans, worksheets, and activities online to make sure you always have something new and exciting for your students:

1. About.com: English Lesson Plans for ESL/EFL Classes: Over 500 lessons plans for all age and skill levels; grammar, pronunciation, writing skills, and more are covered.

2. English Club: ESL Worksheets: Reading, pronunciation, speaking, and more included in lesson plans categorized by skill level.

3. English-to-go.com: More than 1,700 “print and teach” lessons based on news articles.

4. eslflow.com: With topics like sleeping and dreaming, multiple intelligences, money and spending, and movies and celebrities, there are plenty of unique lesson ideas here.

5. esl-galaxy.com: Wide variety of printable resources including board games, crossword puzzles, word searches, and Business English.

6. ESLGold: Organized by skill level, this is a site for both teachers and students; lots of lesson plans and handouts.

7. ESL Library: Hundreds of lesson plans and over 2000 ready-to-print flash cards among other resources.

8. esl-lounge.com: Simply choose the skill level of your students, and you’ll find lesson plans, quizzes, games, and more.

9. ESL Mania: Exercises, worksheets, and lesson plans on the basics like grammar and vocabulary as well as idioms and accent reduction, e.g., “Speak Business English Like an American.”

10. ESL Teachers Board: You’ll find lesson plans, printables, handouts, and other free stuff for teachers at this popular site.

11. everythingESL.net: Lesson Plans. Forty-one ESL lesson plans for beginner to intermediate level, including seasonal and year-round lesson plans.

12. The Internet TESL Journal Activities for ESL Students: Grammar and vocabulary quizzes, crossword puzzles, and bilingual quizzes in over 40 languages.

13. The Internet TESL Journal EFL/ESL Lessons and Lesson Plans: In-depth lesson plans on Business English, conversation, grammar, pronunciation, travel survival, and more.

14. Karin’s ESL Partyland: A site for both teachers and students; for teachers, lots of ideas and printable materials.

15. Lanternfish: This lively site offers lesson plans, crosswords, word searches, worksheets, flashcards, songs, and more.

16. Online Tutoring World: Lesson plans arranged by skill level; great for one-on-one or small group sessions.

17. Teach ESL to Kids: Lesson plans, activities, and games for teaching pre-schoolers and toddlers written by an English teacher in Japan.

18. TeacherVision.com: Lesson plans broken down by grade, subject, and theme, and also includes printable forms to manage lessons.

19. Teach-nology.com: ESL Lesson Plans. List of resources as well as activities, ideas, and handouts ESL teachers can plan lessons around.

20. TEFL.net ESL Lesson Plans: Talking Point, Topic, Skill-Based, and “TEFLtastic” Worksheets to build lessons around.

21. UsingEnglish.com: ESL Teacher Lesson Plans & Worksheets. Over 140 downloadable PDF lesson plans and handouts, including answers and teachers’ notes.

Guest post by Michelle Fabio, experienced ESL teacher in southern Italy, who also writes about online master degree programs at OnlineMasterDegreePrograms.org.


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book, “If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.