Studying Slang

• Teachers rarely teach a language's slang terms, so an ESL student may not understand commonly used slang. Study slang words with the ESL student. Pay close attention to words that mean one thing literally, but take on another meaning when used as slang, such as "cool." After you study slang words together, give the ESL student a writing activity to test his knowledge. Hand the ESL student a list of slang words. Ask him to write one sentence per word, using the slang word properly. Review his sentences and correct them as necessary.
  
  

Fill in the Blanks

• This activity allows the ESL student to practice her parts of speech. Write a paragraph, or take one from a famous piece of literature. Remove at least one quarter of the words and replace them with underlined spaces. Under the blanks, write the parts of speech of the original words, such as "noun," "adjective" and "verb." Ask the ESL student to rewrite the story by hand and fill in the blanks with words that fit the story. Do not encourage the student to write silly words that make the story lose meaning.
  
  

Article or Not

• Write or print out a paragraph of text. Remove any article -- "a," "an" or "the" -- that appears before a noun. Insert a blank before each noun, whether you removed an article or not. Give the sheet to the ESL student. Ask him to rewrite the paragraph, inserting appropriate articles where he thinks they belong. Correct his work and spend extra time examining any mistakes he makes.
  
  

Rearrange the Sentence

• Prepare several sentences ahead of time. These sentences should include elements with which the ESL student struggles, such as articles, dependent clauses and slang words. Before you give the sentences to the student, mix up all the words. Ask the student to rewrite the sentences in a logical order. There may be more than one correct solution. Proof his work.