Provide the definitions after providing some context and familiarity with the terms. Offer your ESL Students a blank crossword puzzle with the definitions as clues. This is the first time your ESL students will receive definitions for new terms. If you have already provided the word roots and the terms in context, your ESL learners should be able to match the majority of them to the proper meanings. The extra information about the correct answers is the advantage of utilizing a crossword puzzle over a basic list of definitions. 

 

If ESL students are unable to discern any of the proper matches for the offered definitions, a crossword puzzle provides further clues: how many letters are in the target word and what some of the letters in the solution are after filling in certain other answers. This will reduce their anxiety while increasing their sense of success and linguistic independence.