ESL Lesson Plans About Taking and Giving Directions

Learning how to get around in an English speaking country requires interacting with others. ESL lesson plans about taking and giving directions help students learn relevant vocabulary. Instructing others how to get to a location requires mastery of directional language, street names and transitional words.  

Overview

Helping ESL students give and receive directions can be done in lesson plans that involve role play, field trips and study of necessary vocabulary. This language skill requires repeated practice using maps and vocabulary lists.

Vocabulary Words

Beginning ESL students must first be introduced to fundamental vocabulary. Turning left, driving north, and walking east are examples of phrases to teach. Students must also learn vocabulary words that distinguish roads from highways from streets and boulevards. Transitional words must also be taught, linking each step in a set of directions.

Role Play Activities   

Students can begin learning how to take and give directions during role play activities in the classroom. Working in groups and taking turns, one student asks for directions to a specific location and, using a map, another student gives directions. It's best to demonstrate this activity with two students in front of the whole class before breaking up into groups.

Field Trips

Taking students out of the classroom is a fun way to teach them how to give and listen to directions. Students refer to maps as they walk. The teacher calls out a location on the map and asks for a volunteer to explain how to reach the destination. To teach taking directions, the teacher explains to the class in English how they will arrive at the next destination, and students listen carefully, following the directions.