Boys and girls in the early years of adolescence can best learn ESL communicative skills if the instructor has an understanding of the main characteristics of early adolescence and an appreciation of the teaching techniques best adaped to them. Characteristics which should be taken into account when designing an ESL course include the following: (1) extreme swings of mood, emotional unbalance, and quickness to take offense when none is intended; (2) painful shyness and self-consciousness; (3) a need to conform and be accepted by the group; (4) the striving for independence; and (5) the search for identity. Many of these characteristics are especially pronounced in students in ESL classes, who have been uprooted from their own cultures. Among the instructional techniques which can be readily adapted to such students are human dynamics exercises, small group activities, individual projects, a multi-talent approach, a multi-media program of individualized instruction, and the supportive environment of the humanistic classroom. Suitable teaching aids for an ESL classroom include student-made materials (games, slide-tapes, skits), teacher-made materials, magazines, games, and pop music, the international language of adolescence. (Author/AMH)