Repetition is a powerful tool for learning certain things in a new language. While you certainly don’t want to overdo it, running through a list of vocabulary words, verb forms, or idioms with your students can help smooth over some of their trouble spots, and increase their confidence about speaking and writing what they’ve learned. When balanced with a variety of other speaking, reading, writing, and listening activities, memorization drills can prove to be powerful tools in your teaching arsenal.
So what’s the best way to get your students to rehearse a list of words or phrases that they’ve just got to get memorized? Some teachers write out the list on the board, or print it out on a worksheet - and while those methods can sometimes work, there’s something about flashcards that seems to make memorization a lot more intuitive. Maybe it’s the fact that students can flip through the deck at will, and only see one item at a time. Maybe it’s the friendly pictures and boldly printed words on each card. Whatever it is that makes them so engaging, flashcards are a tried-and-true way to help your students absorb the basics of a new ESL topic.
The 308 flashcard sets available here on BusyTeacher.org are especially handy, because they all come with big, bright pictures and easy-to-read words. They cover all kinds of grammar and vocabulary areas, from body parts and household items to emotions and even technical terms. Here on BusyTeacher.org, you’ll never run out of fun flashcards - whether you’re working through a unit on food, holidays, cultures around the world, or even people and characters from modern pop culture.
Some of our flashcards can help your students learn simple words, while others can help them learn descriptive vocabulary, verb forms, English phonemes, and much more, by challenging them to match the right pictures with the descriptions, tenses, or sounds. From level one students learning the English alphabet, all the way to level five students learning to express themselves with fluency, every ESL learner can have fun and sharpen their language skills with our flashcard sets.
Every single set of flashcards on this site is completely free to use and download - and you have BusyTeacher’s worldwide community of ESL teachers to thank for that. All the worksheets on this site were created by ESL teachers like you - and you can print, duplicate, and share them without paying, or even registering. And if you’ve got a worksheet or flashcard set that’s come especially handy in your classroom, you’re more than welcome to share it with the community by clicking the “Submit a worksheet” button at the bottom of this page.
Got to run to class soon? Just skim through all the flashcard sets using our handy thumbnail view, which lets you get a glimpse of each printable set of flashcards without even downloading it. Once you’ve found one (or a few) that you like, print ‘em off, try ‘em out, and see why thousands of ESL teachers all over the world have made BusyTeacher.org their number-one stop for fun free flashcards!
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This is a set of cards for teaching or revising feelings and emotions related vocabulary. They are easily adaptable to any level or age and they can also be used as conversation cards, or classro ...
This is a set of flashcards as an additional material for my power point presentation about the halloween story "the old witch". It can be used after or before the presentation to practise new voc ...
This classroom language activity can be used in many ways, the easieast as a matching exercise once the sentences have been presented and practised in the classroom. It can also be used as a memo ...
Well this is a worksheet I made in order to cut for teaching vocabulary and explaining SOME / ANY , HOW MUCH / MANY. It is very useful for telling the difference between countable and uncountable ...
Numbers worksheet from 30 to 39 is for teachers of English all around the world. The worksheet has full-page numbers from 30 to 39, the figure with its spelling.
This is a set of 33 high-quality flashcards which can also be used as classroom posters for teaching or revising jobs and occupations related vocabulary. They are excellent for vocabulary building ...
It is a power point presentation for beginners about the alphabet, in which you will find the picture and the name of the animal and at the end a song of the alphabet . You can use it to introduc ...
A funny way to practice modals with this set of 20 cards. With lower level students, you can simply have them make sentences with must / don't have to {or should}, with other levels, you can add u ...
You can use Farm animals flashcards to learn beginners new vocabulary. You can play "What is missing" or ask questions like: What is it? What colour is a hen? Where is a hen? You can play charade ...
This is a set of invented tarot cards. I use them to review simple tenses with lower levels, but I'm sure it's also perfect with more advanced students. Divide the class in pairs or groups of four ...
This is a set of 33 high quality cards / flashcards for teaching or revising sports related vocabulary. They are excellent for vocabulary building and discussion practice! Challenge your students ...
This is a set of high quality flashcards for teaching or revising fruit related vocabulary: grapes, banana, orange, apple, pear, pineapple, cherries, kiwi, lemon, orange, etc. They can also be use ...
This is a picture dictionary which can also b4 used as a classroom poster or a study sheet for teaching or revising international food related vocabulary: Chinese food, Greek food, Italian food, J ...
A great game for teaching phonics to ESL students. I printed two sets, cut them out and laminated the game pieces to make them a little more durable. I play this game when teaching vowel sounds ...
Wouldn’t it be nice to see just how much your students are imaginative and creative? These photos can be used to provoke critical thinking. Pre-intermediate students can practise past tenses ...
This is a set of high-quality flashcards for teaching summer related vocabulary. Each card contains illustrations and the corresponding words/expressions for easy memorization. Recommended for e ...
Baby animals and farm animals, comparison of baby animals and adult animals. Nice and colourful flashcards showing some characters from cartoon, like garfield and donald duck. Kids really enjoy ma ...
This worksheet provides cliparts so that students can practise modal verbs of obligation (must- musn't - can't) in the classroom. They can stick it on a cardboard and write the rules. Then they ca ...
I created this powerpoint for my 5th grade students. They are in their second year of learning English. This was originally a lesson required by the Ministry but I spiced things up a bit with cute ...
Colourful and funny numbers (1-10) with their writings under it. This can be used with children to present them numbers. Each number is a character, so it can be used as flashcards or in games (u ...
This set of cards is designed to help students practice or review color and shape words. Printed double-sided, the cards can be used as flashcards; printed on two separate sheets, they can be use ...
This set of cards is designed to help students practice or review color and shape words. Printed double-sided, the cards can be used as flashcards; printed on two separate sheets, they can be used ...
This set of cards is designed to help students practice or review basic color and shape words. Printed double-sided, the cards can be used as flashcards; printed on two separate sheets, they can b ...
This set of cards is designed to help students practice or review basic color words. Printed double-sided, the cards can be used as flashcards; printed on two separate sheets, they can be used for ...
These funny pictures can help you not only to practice Present Continuous tense, but also to revise the sports vocabulary. You can use them to elicit the words that your children has already known ...
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