CEFR levels for ESL teachers

A level is a description of what a student can do, not a list of tenses. Each page here starts from the can-do statements, then says which grammar earns the lesson time, which task types suit it and which Cambridge exam sits alongside it.

The levels

Pick the level you teach. Each page lists the grammar topics at that level with interactive exercises, the teaching priorities that matter most, and the exam preparation that follows from it.

Sort

CEFR levels. Column headers with buttons sort the table
		Summary
A1 (beginner)Grammar topics: 5A1 English grammar for teachers: the core topics, what beginners can do, and interactive exercises you can share with a link.	5	A1 English grammar for teachers: the core topics, what beginners can do, and interactive exercises you can share with a link.
A2 (elementary)Grammar topics: 6A2 English grammar for teachers: past simple, comparatives, future forms and modals, with interactive exercises for each.	6	A2 English grammar for teachers: past simple, comparatives, future forms and modals, with interactive exercises for each.
B1 (intermediate)Grammar topics: 4B1 English grammar for teachers: present perfect, conditionals, passive and relative clauses, with interactive exercises and teaching tips.	4	B1 English grammar for teachers: present perfect, conditionals, passive and relative clauses, with interactive exercises and teaching tips.
B2 (upper intermediate)Grammar topics: 1B2 English grammar for teachers: reported speech and refined accuracy work, with interactive exercises you can share with one link.	1	B2 English grammar for teachers: reported speech and refined accuracy work, with interactive exercises you can share with one link.

4 items

What changes from one level to the next

A1: A1 students are learning to survive in English: introduce themselves, describe their day and ask for simple things. Grammar at this level is small and repetitive on purpose. Short, frequent practice beats long explanations.
A2: A2 students start to talk about the past and the future, compare things and give simple advice. It is the level where irregular verbs and confusing pairs (will versus going to, must versus have to) begin to appear.
B1: B1 students can cope with most everyday situations and are ready to express opinions, hypotheses and experiences. Grammar shifts from single forms to contrasts: present perfect versus past simple, real versus unreal conditionals.
B2: B2 students communicate fluently but still make predictable errors. The work is refinement: range, control and register. Reported speech, complex conditionals and the passive keep coming back until they are natural.

Choosing tasks for a level

The task type matters as much as the topic. Controlled shapes carry the early levels; the exam-shaped tasks only start to pay off once students have enough language to be tested indirectly.

Compare every exercise type

Exams at each level

Cambridge exams map onto the CEFR scale, so the level page and the exam page cover the same ground from two directions.