Phrasal verbs: new ideas

With this ESL worksheet, students will learn useful phrasal verbs used when talking about new ideas and idea generation. The full set of materials includes Student’s and Teacher’s PDFs, and INTERACTIVE PDF for online teaching, as well as a set of printable conversation cards for additional speaking practice. It can be combined with lessons about innovation and creativity, for example with the worksheet “Phrasal verbs: change and innovation”.

The first 6 phrasal verbs (e.g. jot something down, draw on something, mull over something) are introduced through an interview with an artist talking about their creative process. Students work out the meaning of the phrasal verbs from contact and match them to their definitions. To practise, students complete 4 statements with the correct phrasal verb and then say whether or not they agree with the statements.

Next, the rest of the phrasal verbs are introduced (e.g.put forward, play around with, bounce something off someone) through a conversation happening during a business meeting.

To practice, students paraphrase 5 sentences, using the correct phrasal verb.

The last 3 activities are focused on speaking. First, students complete 6 sentences with their own ideas and use them to start a conversation with a partner. Then, they discuss 4 conversation questions given. Finally, students are given 3 different prompts to brainstorm ideas.

You can use the conversation cards to review these phrasal verbs related to new ideas.