Your adult ESL student needs a haircut, but between not knowing the right words, not wanting to offend the stylist, and not being sure how to explain what they want, walking into a salon takes more courage than it should. This Getting a Haircut role play pack gives your students the language and the confidence to handle that appointment before it happens.

A haircut is one of those small, recurring moments of adult life that can feel so stressful when they're still building confidence in English. Students need to describe what they want, ask questions when the stylist suggests something different, and handle the moment when things don't go quite as planned…all while sitting in a chair, feeling unable to walk away. For students who are new to the country or the culture, even knowing what services a salon offers here can be its own learning curve.

WHAT'S INSIDE the 50-page ROLE PLAY PACK:

• ✅ Teacher pages — a full lesson guide covering goals, engagement strategies, previewing, how to use the scripts, and how to use the scenario cards
• ✅ Anticipation pages — statements related to the theme for students to reflect on and rate (scale of 1–5), designed to spark discussion before the role play begins
• ✅ Idioms and expressions handout — common idioms and expressions related to hair, with brief definitions
• ✅ Essential vocabulary handout — relevant words and phrases for discussing the theme, reading scripts, building role plays, and joining in discussion; includes blank lines for students to add words of their own
• ✅ Conversation matching worksheet + answer key — students organize match lines to build smooth two-person conversations between a client calling to make an appointment and a receptionist. 3 separate conversations + answer keys + script versions.
• ✅ Dialogue prompts — structured prompts that give students ideas for what to say and when, without scripting the language for them; printed two to a page (cut in half for pairs)
• ✅ Scripts — 10 scripts to use as reader's theater
• ✅ Scenario cards — 6 sets of character information cards for impromptu role plays or script writing; 4 sets for two characters, 2 sets for three characters
• ✅ Writing prompts — two pages of situational prompts (5 per page) where students write their response to a given situation
• ✅ Script starters — 6 total, printed two to a page; each features an opening line from a hairdresser, a response from a customer, and blank lines for students to continue

THIS IS DESIGNED FOR YOUR ADULT ESL STUDENTS

Every scenario, every script, and every conversation in this pack was written with adult students in mind. Your students are people who have real appointments to make, stylists to talk to, and consequences when communication breaks down. There's nothing childish or contrived here. The situations are the ones your students could easily walk into.

This role play activity pack also works well with older secondary students in life skills classes who are building the same practical communication skills. If your students are mature enough to come up against these situations on their own in the real world, they're the right audience for this pack.

This is included in my Adult ESL Role Plays Bundle.