Chore time also can be a great time to practice oral language skills by talking about who is going to complete which chores and when. Use a chore chart to organize your conversation.

Learning English with your Children and Teens: Using a Chore Chart to Practice Overall Fluency

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Written by

Nicole DeSalle, M.F.A.

Editor’s note: Learning together can improve your children’s and teens’ English language skills as well as your own. This post is part of an ongoing series designed to help caregivers who are English learners find English learning opportunities for the family in their everyday lives.

Practicing English while completing chores around the house is a great way for you and your children or teens to learn. Because chores are part of a daily or weekly routine, family members have multiple opportunities to practice vocabulary and sentence structures, which may improve their overall English fluency. Most of all, the process of deciding which chores need to get done, when they need to be done, and assigning those chores to family members is an example of problem-solving. Research shows that when English learners work together to solve problems, they focus more carefully on language structures so they can express their meaning as accurately and as clearly as possible (Kim, 2008).

A chore chart is a way to organize the household tasks that need to get done. You can make a chore chart that shows the day or days of the week when the chores need to get done. You can also show which family member is responsible for doing the chores (see Supplemental Resources for Families for a chore chart template).

You can ask the following questions of your children or teens in English or in your native language:

Why is it important for everyone in a family to help with chores?
Which chores get done every day? Which chores get done every week?
What chores do you think you are good at? What is your least favorite chore?

You may choose to revisit some or all of these questions with your children and teens as you create and use your chore chart.

Building English Skills Together: Using a Chore Chart to Practice English

Create a Chore Chart

Follow these steps to create a chore chart like the example chart below.

In the first column, list the different chores that need to get done.
In the top row, write each day of the week.
With your children and teens, discuss the chores that each member of the family will do for that week. Write their names beside each chore and underneath the day of the week on which the chore must be done (more on this below).

Figure 1. Example Chore Chart

The Garcia Family’s Chore Chart

Chore	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Vacuum			Carmen
Do the laundry					Dad
Do the dishes	Carmen	Marco	Mom	Marco	Carmen	Dad	Dad
Set the table	Marco	Carmen	Dad	Carmen	Marco	Mom	Mom
Clean your room				Carmen	Marco
Take out the garbage			Marco

Practice Speaking Skills by Asking and Answering Questions About the Future

Ask and answer questions aloud in English to decide who will be responsible for each chore.

Ask: Who will take out the garbage this week?
Answer: I will do it on Wednesday.

Ask: Who will do the dishes on Monday?
Answer: I will do them.

Grammar Spotlight: “Will” Versus “Going To”

Both “will” and “going to” are used to talk about future actions. However, they are used in different circumstances.

When to Use "Will“

When making a decision, use “will” to express future actions at the moment of speaking. For example:

Person 1: Who will wash the dishes on Monday?
Person 2: I will.
Person 1: Great! Let’s write your name down on the chart.

When to Use “Going To”

After the decision has been made, use “going to” to express future plans decided before the moment of speaking. For example:

Person 1: Who is going to set the table tonight?
Person 2: I’m not sure. Let’s look at the chart. Marco is going to set the table tonight.

Which should you use when filling in the chore chart? Since the chores are to be decided at the moment you are filling in and discussing the chore chart, “will” is used to discuss these future actions.

After you have finished filling in the chore chart, you and your children and teens can keep using it for speaking practice. However, since the chart shows future plans that have already been decided, use “going to” instead of “will.” Use the sentence frames below to practice using “going to” when talking about chores.

Sentence Frames for Speaking About Future Plans for Chores

Question

Who is going to _____ this week?

Examples

Who is going to do the laundry this week?
Who is going to take out the garbage this week?

Answer

_________ is going to _______on ________.

Examples

Dad is going to do the laundry on Friday.
Marco is going to take out the trash on Wednesday.

Practice Speaking Skills by Asking and Answering Questions About the Past

You and your children or teens also can use the chore chart to keep track of chores as they are completed. In the example below, the “x” marks show the chores that have been done.

Figure 2. Example Chore Chart With Completed Tasks

The Garcia Family’s Chore Chart

Chore	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Vacuum			x Carmen
Do the laundry					Dad
Do the dishes	x Carmen	x Marco	Mom	Marco	Carmen	Dad	Dad
Set the table	x Marco	x Carmen	Dad	Carmen	Marco	Mom	Mom
Clean your room				Carmen	Marco
Take out the garbage			x Marco

With your children or teens, check off the chores that have been completed. Practice asking and answering questions about completed chores.

Ask: Did Marco do the dishes on Monday?
Answer: Yes, he did.

Ask: Has Carmen cleaned her room?
Answer: No. She is going to clean it on Thursday.

Grammar Spotlight: “Past” versus “Present Perfect”

Both the past tense and the present perfect tense can be used to talk about completed chores, depending on the circumstances.

When to Use Past Tense

Use past tense with a finished action with no result in the present. For example:

Person 1: Did Carmen vacuum?
Person 2: Yes, she did.

Use past tense when stating the specifics about when an action was completed. For example:

Person 1: Did Carmen Vacuum?
Person 2: Yes, she vacuumed on Wednesday

When to Use Present Perfect Tense

Use present perfect tense with a finished action with a result in the present. For example:

Person 1: Has Marco set the table?
Person 2: Yes, he has. Now we can serve dinner.

Use present perfect tense with no finished time word. For example:

Person 1: Has Carmen cleaned her room?
Person 2: No, she hasn’t. She is going to clean it on Thursday.

Chores aren’t always fun. But talking about chores with your children and teens is an excellent way to practice your English skills.

Building Background Knowledge Together

For English learners, this information is helpful to know before you begin the activities in this post.

A chore is a task that you do around the house. Some chores are done each day. Some chores are done each week.

Here are some examples of common chores:

clean your room
make your bed
pick up/put away/hang up your clothes
wash the dishes
wash the car
mow the lawn/cut the grass
pick up toys
prepare/cook dinner
set the table
clear the table
wash the dishes
clean out the refrigerator or freezer
clean the shower or tub
wash the clothes
dry the clothes
put away the clothes
mop the floors
vacuum the carpets/rugs
rake the leaves in fall
shovel the snow in winter

Supplemental Resource for Families

Chore Chart

Use this template to fill out a weekly list of chores to be done, indicating which family member will do each chore and what day they will complete each chore. Discuss with the family as you go to practice English skills.

References

Kim, Y. (2008). The contribution of collaborative and individual tasks to the acquisition of L2 vocabulary. The Modern Language Journal, 92, 114–130. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25172996