ESL Lesson Plan · CEFR A2

Adverbs of Manner and Adjectives vs Adverbs ESL Lesson Plan (A2, 60 Minutes)

A complete 60-minute A2 lesson on Adverbs of Manner and Adjectives vs Adverbs, built round the theme "How Do You Do It?".

CEFR A2
60 minutes
Teenagers and adults
Grammar
Adjectives and Adverbs
Adverbs of Manner and Adjectives vs Adverbs

About this lesson

Who it is for. Elementary students who use adjectives accurately before nouns and after be. They use adjectives to describe actions (He drives careful, She sings good), put adverbs between the verb and object (She speaks very well English) and over-regularise (fastly, hardly for hard).

Everything the lesson needs is on this page: the language analysis, the timed stages with the teacher's own words and instruction-checking questions, the differentiation, the printable handouts and the answer key.

At a glance

Level: CEFR A2 (Elementary)
Learners: Teenagers and adults
Length: 60 minutes. For 45 minutes, run only "Mime game" of the two tasks in "Freer practice" and cut "Feedback and wrap-up" to board-based error correction.
Skills: Speaking
Language focus: Grammar: Adverbs of Manner and Adjectives vs Adverbs (quick / quickly, good / well)
Framework: PPP (presentation, practice, production)
Materials: Handout 1 (a sports day report), Handout 2 (practice), Handout 3 (mime cards and survey), adverb cards.
Preparation: About 10 minutes: print Handouts 1 to 3, one per learner, and read the language analysis. The answer key is for you, not the class.

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Google Docs · 60 minutes · PPP (presentation, practice, production)

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Aims

Main aim. To clarify and practise adverbs of manner (slowly, carefully, well, fast, hard) to describe how people do things, contrasting them with adjectives, and their position after the verb or object.

Learning outcome. By the end of the lesson, students can describe how people do things, e.g. My brother is a careful driver. He drives carefully. Nadeesha sings beautifully. I can't run fast.

Subsidiary aim. To learn spelling rules (happy → happily, careful → carefully).
Subsidiary aim. To develop speaking through a mime game and a "class survey".

Language analysis

What to know before the lesson: the meaning, form and pronunciation of the target language, and the problems learners usually have with it.

Adjective or adverb?

Adjective (describes a noun)	Adverb (describes a verb: how?)
He is a careful driver.	He drives carefully.
She is a beautiful singer.	She sings beautifully.
It's a slow bus.	The bus moves slowly.

Form

Most adverbs: adjective + -ly: slow → slowly, quiet → quietly, careful → carefully.
-y → -ily: happy → happily, easy → easily.
-le → -ly: terrible → terribly, gentle → gently.
Irregular: good → well · fast → fast · hard → hard · late → late · early → early.
hardly means "almost not" (a different word), not hard.

Position

After the verb: She runs fast.
After the object: He speaks English well (not He speaks well English).
very / really + adverb: very carefully, really well.

Pronunciation

-ly is weak /li/: carefully /ˈkeəfəli/, quietly /ˈkwaɪətli/.

Concept-checking questions

He drives carefully. Does this describe the man or how he drives? (How he drives.) So adjective or adverb? (Adverb.)
She speaks English well. Can I say She speaks good English? (Yes: good + noun.) She speaks English good? (No.)

Anticipated problems and solutions

Problem	Solution
Adjective after a verb (He drives careful).	Question test: What kind of driver? (adjective) / How does he drive? (adverb).
goodly / fastly / hardly (for hard).	Board the irregular list in a box.
Adverb between verb and object (speaks well English).	Board: verb + object + adverb.
Spelling (happyly, carefuly).	Spelling rules with examples; dictation.

Board plan

Left: adjective → adverb	Centre: grammar	Right: irregular
slow → slowly · quiet → quietly · careful → carefully · happy → happily · easy → easily · terrible → terribly
ADJECTIVE + noun: a careful driver · ADVERB + verb: He drives carefully. · verb + object + adverb: She speaks English well. · not: She speaks well English ✗ · not: He drives careful ✗ · What kind? → adjective · How? → adverb
good → well · fast → fast · hard → hard · late → late · early → early · hardly = almost not!

Warm-up5 minutes · Whole class

Aim: To engage students.

Walk across the room slowly, then quickly. Ask: "How did I walk?" Accept slow / fast.

Whisper, then shout a sentence. Ask: "How did I speak?"

Presentation20 minutes · Individual, pairs, whole class

Aim: To present adverbs of manner in context and contrast them with adjectives.

Part A: Reading (6 minutes)

Give out Handout 1. Say: "Read the report about the school sports day. Who won the race? Three minutes."

Pairs compare. Students answer the questions. Check as a class.

Part B: Noticing (4 minutes)

Say: "Underline the words that tell us how people did things. What do they end in?" Pairs compare. Elicit -ly and the irregular ones (fast, well, hard).

Part C: Clarification (10 minutes)

Board Kasun is a fast runner. and Kasun runs fast. Then Dilini is a careful player. and Dilini plays carefully. Ask: "Which words describe a person? Which describe an action?"

Ask the CCQs. Teach the question test (What kind? / How?).

Build the spelling rules and the irregular box.

Board She speaks well English ✗ → She speaks English well.

Pronunciation. Drill carefully, quietly, beautifully with weak -ly.

Controlled practice10 minutes · Individual, then pairs, then whole class

Aim: To practise form and choice accurately.

Give out Handout 2. Say: "Exercise A: adjective or adverb? Exercise B: write the adverb. Exercise C: put the words in order. Seven minutes."

Pairs check. Check as a class.

Freer practice18 minutes · Groups, then mingle, then whole class

Aim: To use adverbs fluently.

Mime game (8 minutes). Give out the mime cards from Handout 3. In groups, a student takes a verb card and an adverb card (e.g. eat + slowly) and mimes. Others guess: "You're eating slowly!"

ICQs: "How many cards do you take?" (Two: a verb and an adverb.)

Class survey (6 minutes). Students mingle and ask the survey questions: "Can you swim well?" "Do you get up early?" "Do you drive carefully?"

Report (4 minutes). Students report: "Three people can sing well. Nobody gets up late!"

Monitor and note errors.

Feedback and wrap-up7 minutes · Whole class

Aim: To give feedback and consolidate.

Board four sentences from your notes (two with errors). Students correct them.

Quick fire: say an adjective; students say the adverb.

Set the homework.

Homework Write about three people you know (8 sentences): what they do and how they do it. My grandmother cooks very well. My cousin drives fast.

PPP (presentation, practice, production). Stage times add up to 60 minutes.

Differentiation

Support: Give weaker students the adjective–adverb list during practice. In the mime game, let them choose from five adverbs only.
Stretch: Stronger students use comparatives: She runs faster than me. He speaks more slowly. They use hardly correctly: I hardly sleep before exams.

Adapting the lesson

For	What to change
A large class (40 or more)	Keep the pairwork in "Freer practice" in fixed pairs rather than a mingle, and take feedback from four or five pairs instead of the whole room. Run "Mime game" once, with two pairs reporting, rather than hearing every pair. Monitor one half of the room during "Controlled practice" and the other half during "Freer practice".
A class with no photocopier	Put the exercises from Handout 2: Practice on the board for learners to copy into their notebooks, and read any text aloud twice instead of printing it. Handout 3: Mime Cards and Survey works read out from the front: learners note what they need rather than holding a card. The board plan above is this lesson's minimum - with that on the board, it runs on no paper at all.
An online class	Send Handouts 1 to 3 in the chat before the lesson and put the board plan on a shared slide. Use breakout rooms for "Mime game" and visit each room once. Have learners type the controlled answers in the chat, so you see every answer at once instead of nominating.
A different age group	With young learners, cut the writing at the end and give that time to the speaking task; keep the drilling short, and let them draw or mime where the plan allows it. With adults, keep the writing and ask for a short spoken summary in place of anything drawn or mimed.

Checking learning

12 out of 14 or better on Handout 2. Students use adverbs (not adjectives) to describe actions. Students put the adverb after the object.

Teacher's reflection

Did the question test (What kind? / How?) help students choose? Were the mimes clear and fun?

Handout 1: Sports Day

Name: ______________________________ Date: ______________

Sports Day at Royal Primary School

It was a hot day, but everyone played well. In the 100-metre race, Kasun started slowly, but then he ran very fast and won easily. Amali fell, but she got up quickly and finished the race. Everyone clapped loudly.

In the netball match, the Blue team played carefully and passed the ball beautifully. The Red team tried hard, but they lost 12–8.

At the end, the principal spoke quietly to thank the parents, and the children went home happily.

Answer the questions.

Who won the race? ______________________________
What did Amali do after she fell? ______________________________
Which team won the netball match? ______________________________

Handout 2: Practice

Name: ______________________________ Date: ______________

A. Choose the correct word.

B. Write the adverb.

C. Put the words in order.

She is a good / well teacher.
He plays the guitar beautiful / beautifully.
Please speak quiet / quietly. The baby is sleeping.
My father is a careful / carefully driver.
They worked hard / hardly all day.
slow → ______________
happy → ______________
good → ______________
easy → ______________
fast → ______________
well / speaks / she / English → ______________________________
carefully / the / read / instructions → ______________________________
sings / he / very / badly → ______________________________
runs / my brother / fast / very → ______________________________

Handout 3: Mime Cards and Survey

Verb cards

Adverb cards

Class survey: find someone who ...


eat	walk	sing	dance
write	drive	read	talk on the phone


slowly	quickly	happily	sadly
carefully	angrily	quietly	loudly

Question	Name
Can you swim well?
Do you get up early?
Can you cook well?
Do you speak more than two languages well?
Do you type fast?
Do you sing loudly in the shower?

Answer Key

Handout 1

Handout 2, Exercise A

Handout 2, Exercise B

Handout 2, Exercise C

Common errors to watch for

Kasun. · 2. She got up quickly and finished the race. · 3. The Blue team.
good · 2. beautifully · 3. quietly · 4. careful · 5. hard
slowly · 2. happily · 3. well · 4. easily · 5. fast
She speaks English well. · 2. Read the instructions carefully. · 3. He sings very badly. · 4. My brother runs very fast.

Error	Correction
He drives careful.	He drives carefully.
She sings good.	She sings well.
She speaks very well English.	She speaks English very well.
He runs fastly.	He runs fast.

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Google Docs · 60 minutes

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Written by RCF English to the RCF English international standard: levelled by the CEFR, original throughout, and suitable for classrooms in any country. Last reviewed 22 September 2026.

Adverbs of Manner and Adjectives vs Adverbs ESL Lesson Plan (A2, 60 Minutes)

About this lesson

At a glance

Download this lesson plan

Aims

Language analysis

Adjective or adverb?

Form

Position

Pronunciation

Concept-checking questions

Anticipated problems and solutions

Board plan

Warm-up5 minutes · Whole class

Presentation20 minutes · Individual, pairs, whole class

Controlled practice10 minutes · Individual, then pairs, then whole class

Freer practice18 minutes · Groups, then mingle, then whole class

Feedback and wrap-up7 minutes · Whole class

Differentiation

Adapting the lesson

Checking learning

Teacher's reflection

Handout 1: Sports Day

Handout 2: Practice

Handout 3: Mime Cards and Survey

Answer Key

Download this plan

Elsewhere in Global English

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