Necessary Skills
ESL EFL Listening, Speaking and Matching Activity - Intermediate - 35 minutes
In this engaging worksheet activity, students ask yes/no questions with 'have (got) to' and 'need
to' in order to find out which secret job each classmate has. Each student is given a copy of the
worksheet and a job card. The students imagine that they have the job on their card and think
about the skills needed for that job. The students' task is to find out who has each job on the
worksheet by asking questions about the skills needed for each occupation. Students then walk
around asking and answering yes/no questions with 'have (got) to' and 'need to', e.g. 'Do you
need to be a good communicator?' 'Have you got to look smart and professional in your job?'
When a classmate answers 'yes' to a series of questions about one job, the student writes their
name next to the occupation. Students are not allowed to ask about the name of the job directly.
They can only guess the job from the yes or no answers given by a classmate. When the
students have completed the worksheet, the correct answers are checked with the class. Students
win one point for each correct match. The student with the most points wins the game.
Songs
Song is of course another great way of teaching language. Have a look for some catchy tunes on
the Net, as there are plenty that are rife with modal verbs. Teaching them to students will add a
little bit of fun to the class and allow them to practice using the modals as well! See our section
‘ESL Songs For Teaching English’ for some ideas.
Travel Tips
Another exercise would be to read an article or travel document about a specific area. This
will often be filled with plenty of modals for students to practice on.
Tell a Story
Another great method is in the art of storytelling. Allow the students to make up their own
story. Get them to put the character in specific situations, whereby they will have a choice
between, for example, what they need to do and what they needn”t do.
Advice Column
This can be a very effective method. Try and print off articles from the Internet which come
from magazine advice columns and agony aunt pages. By reading this, one will be able to
highlight the importance of modals and point out where they are used most frequently.