Ask students to bring a newspaper or magazine article to class for a reading assignment. Students will have to become familiar with English-language publications and can choose topics they find interesting. As part of your lesson, have students take turns reading their articles out loud. Ask students to circle vocabulary they do not understand, then go over the vocabulary and discuss the article as a group. Let students talk as much as possible. Help them with grammar or pronunciation as needed.
Engage students with classroom discussions of news and trends. Unlike many younger students, adult ESL students tend to know about what's going on in the world. They also will have opinions on a wide variety of topics. Often they come to ESL classes to practice conversational English and improve their vocabulary for daily conversation. If your group of ESL students consist of outgoing individuals, engage them in open-ended discussions. Direct questions to those who are more reticent. Correct students' pronunciation and sentence structures. Introduce them to new vocabulary and phrases.
If your class is too big for each member to have a turn practicing English, divide the class into small groups for classroom exercises. Try to match students who don't have the same native tongue. Give each group grammar, reading, problem-solving or role-playing worksheets so the students can work together. As the students work in groups, you can go around to their tables to answer questions. Ask each group to present its work or solution the the entire class. To make it more exciting, you can award points and offer a prize to the top group.
Make use of multimedia, such as videos and music, to engage your students in learning. Adult students, like any age group, will enjoy learning English from songs and videos. Choose songs carefully to make sure they use standard English. Children's movies often make great learning tools because the vocabulary is simpler, which makes it easier for ESL students to follow along.