Idioms: attention and concentration

With this ESL worksheet, students will learn idioms and expressions related to attention and concentration. The lesson starts with a couple of general questions related to focus. Then, the first group of idioms is introduced through a short dialogue (lost in thought, mind like a sieve, laser-like focus, the devil is in the details). Students work out the meaning of the idioms and match them to their definitions. To practise, students look at 4 sentences, each containing 1 of the idioms, and are asked to replace the underlined part with their own ideas.

Next, students learn more idioms: they match 4 pairs of sentences with similar meaning in order to discover what the idioms in bold mean (e.g. keep your head in the game, take note of something, go in one ear and out the other). Students then choose the best idiom to complete 5 sentences.

The last group of idioms (e.g. clear your mind, get in the zone, have your head in the clouds) is introduced through a dialogue between 2 friends.

The last 2 activities are focused on speaking. First, students complete 6 sentences with the correct idiom and discuss how true the sentences are for them. Finally, they take a look at different things that can either be distracting or improve concentration (depending on the person), and talk about how each thing affects them.

For additional speaking practice and to review these idioms, you can use the conversation cards.