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Unit 8, Jobs & Careers, is an exciting, high-engagement ESL speaking unit designed for multilingual learners ages 6–18. Students explore a wide range of jobs—from builders and plumbers to scientists, artists, park rangers, and tour guides—while practicing essential speaking and listening skills.
These lessons help students build real conversational fluency around a universal topic: work.
Teachers searching for:
Jobs ESL speaking lessons
Occupations conversation worksheets
Workplace English for beginners
ESL speaking curriculum for kids & teens
Career-themed ESL discussions
…will find this unit a perfect fit for both classroom and pull-out ESL settings.
This unit builds job vocabulary, develops workplace-related communication, and encourages future-focused discussion—perfect for early career awareness and meaningful conversations.
This unit teaches students to talk about:
Trade jobs (builders, plumbers, electricians, farmers, carpenters)
Professional jobs (scientists, accountants, engineers, office workers, designers)
Creative jobs (artists, musicians, photographers, sculptors)
Outdoor & travel jobs (flight attendants, sailors, park rangers, delivery drivers, tour guides)
Across all four lessons, speaking is the central focus:
✔ Chat-a-Bit warm-up
✔ Clear job readings that introduce workplace vocabulary
✔ Comprehension speaking questions
✔ Four speaking dialogues per lesson
✔ Partner Q&A practice
✔ “Would you rather…?” career-speaking tasks
✔ End-of-lesson oral reflection
The unit gives students dozens of opportunities to speak in each class session.
Students practice:
Describing jobs and what people do
Asking & answering questions about work
Expressing opinions (“I think…,” “I prefer…”)
Talking about skills, tools, and daily tasks
Giving reasons and making comparisons
Discussing future interests (“I want to be…”)
Students learn to:
Respond to peers during partner dialogues
Follow spoken directions
Engage in multi-turn conversations
Students use vocabulary like:
skilled, strength, measure, shock, focused (trade)
experiment, document, details, organized, discover (professional)
design, sculpture, stylish, unique, perform (creative)
turbulence, passenger, deliver, fasten, knowledgeable (travel/outdoor)
Vocabulary is always used in an oral context.
Present simple for duties (“They fix…,” “They build…”)
Talking about abilities (“They can…” “They need to…”)
Giving opinions and reasons (“because…”)
Conditional speaking (“I would rather…”)
Students practice real conversations about real careers.
Students complete meaningful mini-tasks:
Describe a job
Explain a skill
Compare two careers
Role-play workplace situations
Give advice for different jobs
Younger learners: simple sentences, picture support
Teens: extended answers, deeper reasoning
Newcomers: sentence frames + vocabulary repetition
Students discuss jobs in their home country vs. jobs in their new community.
This is the eighth speaking unit in the full curriculum.
It builds on:
Daily routines (Unit 1)
Neighborhood helpers (Unit 2)
Animals (Unit 3)
Food & restaurants (Unit 4)
Hobbies (Unit 5)
Travel (Unit 6)
Planet & environment (Unit 7)
Unit 8 expands speaking into career exploration, an essential theme for older students, high-intermediate learners, and goal-setting conversations.
This unit prepares students for future speaking units on:
Money and responsibilities
Community participation
Future plans and goals
Speaking Objective: Students describe hands-on jobs and talk about tools, tasks, and skills.
Speaking Vocabulary: skilled, focused, shock, raise, measure, strength
Speaking Activities:
Warm-up about building & fixing things
Speaking questions after each reading
Vocabulary discussion in conversation
4 guided dialogues (building, leaks, electricity, woodwork)
“Would you rather…?” job choices
Speaking Benefit: Builds strong descriptive language around everyday jobs kids see often.
Speaking Objective: Students talk about desk jobs, science jobs, and creative professional roles.
Speaking Vocabulary: experiment, document, creative, organized, discover, details
Speaking Activities:
Warm-up about working with people vs. alone
Speaking Q&A after each reading
Partner conversations with workplace vocabulary
4 dialogues (office, science, engineering, accounting)
Speaking reflection about future careers
Speaking Benefit: Helps learners talk confidently about future education & career paths.
Speaking Objective: Students describe creative talents and talk about service-based jobs.
Speaking Vocabulary: design, sculpture, stylish, unique, perform, patient
Speaking Activities:
Warm-up about creative strengths
Read & speak sections for each creative job
4 creativity-focused speaking dialogues
Pair tasks about music, art, and style
“Would you rather…?” creative job questions
Speaking Benefit: Builds expressive language, feelings vocabulary, and descriptive detail.
Speaking Objective: Students discuss travel jobs, nature jobs, and customer-service jobs.
Speaking Vocabulary: turbulence, passenger, instructions, deliver, fasten, knowledgeable
Speaking Activities:
Warm-up about outdoor vs. indoor work
Speaking questions about safety, travel, and exploration
Oral vocabulary practice
4 job-based dialogues (planes, ships, nature parks, city tours)
“Would you rather…?” job decision-making questions
Speaking Benefit: Encourages students to speak about adventure, travel, movement, and culture.
Use photos of jobs to spark rich conversation.
Encourage students to ask follow-up questions.
Provide sentence starters for newcomers (“A plumber fixes…,” “I think…”)
Create partner interview cards about job duties, tools, and skills.
Use role-plays (interviews, job helpers, customer service conversations).
Oral job description
Dialogue performance
Speaking interview: “Which job is best for you and why?”
Compare two jobs using speaking frames
Group project: “Jobs in our community” (oral presentation)