iteslj.org/games
Games and Activities for the English as a Second Language Classroom
A Project of The Internet TESL Journal
This is a place were teachers can share games and activities that they have found useful in the classroom. If you know a game or an activity that works well with ESL/EFL students and it is not yet listed here, please submit it.
Last Submission: February 20, 2004 Number: 113
The newest additions are at the top of the page.
Words Beginning with a Given Letter
Level: Medium to Difficult
The teacher chooses a letter from the alphabet. Then each student must say a word that begins with that letter. If a student repeats a word that has already been said, then he/she is out of the game. The game ends when only one student remains. That student is the winner. In high level classes students lose if they say a past form of the verb. Example:see-saw. You can increase the difficulty by adding a timer. Only allow each student 5 seconds to think of a word.
Counting Liar Game
Level: Any Level
This game is similar to the Alphabet Liar game except it deals with numbers and adding the "S" sound at the end of plural nouns , all you need is a deck of cards.
Divide the students into groups of 4 to 6. Deal all the cards from the deck to the students. The player who has the 2 of Spades begins. This player puts down his 2 of spades and any other 2 he has in his hand FACE DOWN in a pile and procedes to say "one 2" or "two 2'ssss" then next player procedes to put down his 3, then 4, then 5 etc...
Let's say the player doesn't have the card he is supposed to put down, for example a 3, the player must try to "lie" or fool the other players into thinking he has the card so he can play... if other students have any doubt they shout "liar" if the player was lying he then pick up the pile at the center of the table. If the player who is accused of lying was telling the truth it is the player who accused him who must pick up the pile in the center.
All players MUST put down a card when it is their turn, even if they do not have the required card. The game is over when one of the players has no more cards.
I use this game to help practice the "s" sound at the end of plural nouns cause most students have a tendancy to say "there are 2 dog" rather than "there are 2 dogssssss" this game really helps the message get through. ***For better explanations see the alphabet liar game.***
Submitted by: Jeffrey Kelso
Act Out an Activity
Level: Easy to Medium
This is a game-like activity to teach continous tense.
One student simply acts out some activity (e.g.cooking) and the other students guess what that student is doing. The student who guesses correctly acts out another acitvity...
Submitted by: Lucia Liskova
Vacation Cards
Level: Medium to Difficult
For this activity you will need a deck of cards, and an imaginative theme that could be crafted into some sort of story. For example, I choose "send the teacher on a vacation". On the board or overhead projector make a list like the following. (You could ask your student for imput.)
- A-exciting
- 2-depressing
- 3-expensive
- 4-heroic
- 5-romantic
- 6-fantastic
- 7-sad
- 8-almost fatal
- 9-cheap
- 10-dramatic
- J-happy
- Q-wierd
- K-change one option
Prompt the students a little to get them started; perhaps offer a beginning to the story. They then must continue making an oral story by drawing one card and continuing the story along those lines. For example, if they get 4, then the teacher/protagonist must do something heroic or some kind of heroric event must occur. If the students draw a K (or whatever card you stipulate), then they can change one option. This seems to help keep the momentum in the game. Continue through all cards, with the stipulation that the story must be concluded by the end of the deck. Obviously there is a lot of room for variation here. Your word list and theme could be related to your unit of study.
My students really enjoyed this game; it is most interesting if you personalize it and insert yourself or a student (assuming he/she wouldn't mind).
Submitted by: Rebecca
Headmaster Game
Level: Medium to Difficult
Have each student take out a piece of paper and their dictionary. Write on the board:
You are the new headmaster of this school. You have two years to make this the perfect school. You can have as much money as you want, but you must spend it all in 2 years.
· What changes would you make immediately?
· What changes must be gradual?
· What would you do to make it a better school?
· What changes would you make?
Be specific. For example, don't say hire better teachers. You must say how you would find better teachers or what kind of teachers you would hire. Also, remember you must think like a headmaster, not like a student! Making school easy and letting the students do no exams or homework will not make parents happy!
Give the students 15 minutes to work alone. Then put them in groups of 3-5 with a leader to organize their thoughts. Each group's leader will give its "report" to the other students during the following class period.
If your students have a small vocabulary you can help them out by listing on the blackboard areas of discussion: teachers, buildings, classrooms, activities, dorms, lunchrooms,curriculum, sports, playground, library, bathrooms,schedules,music, art,etc.
This is a great activity for all ages. We always run out of time!
Submitted by: Victoria Throop
Can You Find What Is Different?
Level: Easy
Ask a volunteer to go out of the classroom. While the student is out of the room, the other students change their sweaters, shoes, coats and so on. Bring the student who went out of the classroom back inside. He/she has to guess the differences (speaking in English, of course.)
Submitted by: Raquel Fiol
Guess the Letter on Your Back
Level: Easy
This game is used to practice the alphabet. Divide students into groups and ask them to stand in line and give the students in the front of the line a piece of chalk to write on the blackboard. Then write with your finger a letter on the back of the students at the end of the line. They must do the same with the student in front of him/her and so on. The students with the chalk try to guess the letter and write any word that begins with that letter on the board.
Submitted by: Raquel Fiol
Fold-over Stories
Level: Any Level
This is an old favorite. Give each student a sheet of blank paper. Write the following words on the board in a vertical line: WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHERE, WHEN, WHY. Explain that everyone will be writing a sentence story. Write an example on the board, explain, asking for suggestions.
1. Tell them to write someone's name at the top of their paper, i.e., their own, a classmate's, the teacher's, a famous person that everyone knows; fold the paper over once so no one can see it, then pass the paper to the person on their right.
2. Write on the received paper what the subject did (suggest funny or outrageous actions), fold it over and pass it on to the right.
3. Continue to write one line, how they did it (adverbs), fold and pass; where-pass; when-pass; and last of all, why (because...) and pass it one more time.
4. Have the students unfold their stories, and read them silently. Help anyone who cannot read what the others wrote, or doesn't understand.
5. Ask one student at a time to read "their" story aloud, or turn the stories in for the teacher to read. Funny!
Submitted by: Vicki Konzen
Descriptions
Level: Medium
- Write down names of every student in your class on pieces of paper.
- Give the names to students. Try to make two students describe each other.
- Ask them to describe the person whose name is on the paper.
- After they finish, give the description to the person who is described. He/she has to find any writing mistakes on the paper.
- Students work in pairs to correct the two papers.
Submitted by: Nguyen Nhu
Guessing the Word from a Drawing
Level: Any Level
- Ask one student to be in front of the class. Give him/her a word that can not be seen by other students.
- He/she will draw (on the blackboard) a picture expressing the concept of the word.
- The rest of the class have to guess the word.
- If you are keeping score, the one who drew the picture gets the point if the class can guess the word.
Submitted by: Nguyen Nhu
Reviewing Tenses
Level: Any Level
Preparation:
- Print out three sentences (negative, positive, and question) of the tense you want to review.
- Cut each sentence into words.
The Activity:
- Students work in groups.
- Give each group of students words of a sentence and ask them to make the sentence.
- Draw a table on the board and ask students to tick sentences at suitable positiions, positive, negative, or question.
- Ask students to make rules of the tense.
Example:
- Three Sentences:
- I am a student.
- I am not a student.
- Are you a student?
- The Rules:
- TO BE at the present simple
I am a student. - Positive: S + am/is/are + O.
I am not a student. - Negative: S + am/is/are + not + O.
Are you a student? - Question: (Ques words) + am/ is /are + S + O?
Submitted by: Nguyen Nhu
Find Parts of Speech of Words in a Sentence
Level: Any Level
- Prepaire cards with parts of speech. Give these to your students.
- Write the sentences on the board.
- Ask your studnets to find parts of speech of words in the sentences.
- You can divide the class into teams to make the games more fun.
Example: Your sentence:
I WENT TO SCHOOL YESTERDAY.
pronoun verb preposition noun noun
Submitted by: Nguyen Nhu
Think Fast!
Level: Any Level
A game for revision (review). It also works well for the last 5 minutes of class
The teacher prepares a list of items for revision e.g. word fields, grammar, facts. In class he/she explains the procedure. Three to five volunteers leave the classroom and wait till their turn has come. The teacher appoints a student to take the exact time and another to take down a tick for every correct answer. No repetitions! (Set up or negotiate rules on pronunciation.) Then the first player is called in.
- Teacher: You have 20 second to name as many things as come to your mind.
- Your topic: Parts of the body / London sights / plays by William Shakespeare / the places in a town / traffic signs / weekend shopping-list / etc.
- Ready, steady, go
Once all volunteers have done their bit, award a small prize (e.g. a sticker) to the winner of the round. Then ask the class for additions before you pick the next item. Then pick the next item.
Allow more time (30 or 40 seconds) for longer answers: What have you done so far today? / What did you do last weekend? / School rules: What do students have to do? What are they not allowed to do? / etc.
If this game is played in groups, they should be evenly balanced.
Submitted by: Gertraud Muraoka
Alphabet Liar Game
Level: Any Level
- Take a pack of letter cards, mixed up. It is better if it is not a complete alphabet, and there are some duplicate cards.
- Deal all the cards out to the players
- Students take it in turns to play cards face down. They must go through the alphabet, starting from 'A', playing one card face down and saying the letters in Alphabetical order.
- Even if they do not have the card to be played for that turn, they must play any card and pretend it is the card they said. Say the sequence has gone A,B. The next player must play a card and say C, even if he has not got an C.
- If any player does not believe that someone has played the real card, he can say: "You're a liar" and turns the card over. If the card has the letter which was said, the challenger picks up all the cards. If it is not, the liar picks up all the cards in the pile. The winner is the first one to finish all their cards.
Submitted by: Raquel Fiol
Survivor Spelling Game
Level: Any Level
Use this activity to review vocabulary:
Make a list of vocabulary covered in previous lessons. Have students stand. Call out a vocabulary word. The first student begins by saying the word and giving the first letter, the second student the second letter of the word, the third student the third letter, and so on until the word is spelled correctly. If somebody makes a mistake they must sit down and we start from the beginning again until the word is spelled correctly. The last student must then pronounce the word correctly and give a definition in order to stay standing. The student who is left standing is the "survivor" and wins the game. I usually give them some type of prize. If all the students remain standing we have a pizza party at the end of the week.
The students love it and it is a great way to practise vocabulary!!!
Submitted by: Josie Saieva (Canada)
What's Your Name?
Level: Easy (Raw beginners)
One student sits in the front of the classroom (usually in the teacher's comfortable chair) with his back to the other students. The teacher then points to students in the class and asks "What's your name?" The student indicated must respond "My name is__________" with either his own name or the name of someone in the class. The student in the front cannot see who is speaking. The teacher says to him, "Is it___________?" and he must say "Yes, it is" or "No, it isn't". If the student in front is correct, he gets to stay there, but if he's mistaken, he changes place with the student who fooled him.
To make the game more interesting, the students are encouraged to disguise their voices.
I always do this with my beginners at the beginning of the year, but always at the end of the class, and for not more than 5 to 10 minutes. (My beginners are elementary age.)
Submitted by: Nancy Quebec
Human Bingo - Getting to Know You Activity
Level: Any Level
Have the students divide an 8.5" x 11" paper into 9 squares (two vertical lines / two horizontal lines. The middle square is the "free" space. Next, put a list of 5 questions on the board (these can vary in difficulty). For example:
1. What is your name?
2. Where are you from?
3. How long have you been in the USA?
4. What is the strangest thing you have eaten here?
5. (they make a question)
The students must then interview 8 different people in the class to fill in the bingo page. Each square on the paper represents one person's answers. When they have written all the answers from one person, they go on to someone else until all of the boxes on the paper are filled. When everyone has finished, the teacher uses the class list to call off names. For example, if the teacher says, "Who has Rodrigo?", the students who interviewed Rodrigo would then provide the answers he gave to the bingo questions.
It's a fun game that gets students speaking right away. It usually takes a while to complete.
Submitted by: Rachel Scheiner
More Games & Activities
To keep this page's filesize reasonable, we occasionally move things to other pages.
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- Page 1 - The Oldest Submissions (1998)
Copyright (C) 1998-2004 by The Internet TESL Journal
Games and Activities for the English as a Second Language Classroom
Page 6
Return to iteslj.org/games.
Ball Game
Level: Any Level
Students stand up in a circle around the teacher. A ball is tossed to a student and the teacher asks a question, e.g.: "Say a color". The student then responds and throws the ball back to the teacher.The teacher then throws the ball to another student and asks another question. For higher levels, you can ask such questions like "Give me the past participle of an irregular verb". This is a fast game, and it is great for reviewing vocabulary.
Submitted by: Ashraf Abu Ghazal
Getting to Know a Little More about Your Classmates
Level: Any Level
The teacher gives every student a piece of paper on which they write a sentence about their personal life. This sentence can be about school, family, music, friends, the last vacation, etc. For example "I went to the beach last vacation" or "I always study for my exams" or "I have two brothers" etc. When they finish writing their sentences they fold the paper and give it to the teacher.
It is very important to tell students before writing the sentence that the information they are going to write is "a secret" and not to show it to their classmates. If they have a question about something, they should ask it to you instead of a classmate. Tell students to write their names on the papers.
After collecting all the papers, ask the students to write the numbers from one to 10 (or 20, depending on the number of students you have in that moment in the classroom) in their notebooks. After that, the teacher reads the sentences in random order (without saying the name of the student), and the students write the names of the people they think wrote sentences.
After reading all the sentences, say the question number and read the sentence again for each piece of paper and ask the students to name who they thought wrote it.
Then tell the students the name from the student who wrote that sentence. Students should write (C) for correct guesses and (I) for incorrect guesses.
This is one way for studnets to start knowing a little more about their classmates.
Submitted by: Lic. Carmen Martinez
Draw the Teacher
Level: Any Level
This game helps to teach children the names of facial parts.
Divide the class into two teams. Then draw 2 ovals shapes on the board. Then yell "Draw the teacher's eyes!" and the two leading students from each team run up and draw your eyes on the oval. Then yell "Nose!" which is drawn by the next two students. And so it goes. The student get a ball out of this as they have permission to make fun of their teacher, and your image can get to look pretty distorted. You can add other features, such as nose or ear hairs. This will also work if you want to do body parts as well. Just draw the basic torso instead of ovals.
If the kids are unsure as to which facial/body part you're talking about, just point to it.
At the end say both images look pretty good and call it a tie.
Another variation on this could be for naming parts of animals. The resulting picture would be a monster. i.e. peacock's tail, snake's head, elephant feet, bat's wings, etc.
Submitted by: Tindros
Acting Adverbs
Level: Easy to Medium
This activity is a great way to introduce the idea of how adverbs affect the way a verb action is done. Divide the blackboard in two and write as many verbs on one side and as many adverbs on the other as you can (get the class to come up with them). At this stage you can also teach how adjectives 'turn into' adverbs by writing down adjectives e.g. angry, happy, and adding the 'ily'. Then divide the class into two teams and perhaps give them goofy team names (I find they enjoy giving each other names). Then get one team to choose a verb and adverb combination and the other team has to act it out, e.g. talk crazily.
My experience with this activity has been with younger learners where some kind of reward is offered at the end like stamps or being the first team to leave at the end of class. You can think of your own reward (or penalty) to motivate your class. It can be a lot of fun with both the actors and the 'directors' enjoying making fools out of themselves or watching others make fools of themselves.
Submitted by: Thomas Jackson
Suppose That
Level: Easy to Medium
This works well as a fluency activity
1. You are the black sheep of your family. Explain to us why.
2. You won a motorcycle and you are planning to embark on a voyage. Explain where you go.
3. You arrive face to face with a person who you owe 100 dollars to. What do you say?
4. You help an old woman across the street. It turns out that she is a magician. To thank you, she offers you four wishes. What do you ask for?
5. You arrive home at midnight, you open the door and ......
Submitted by Sholdstock
Cut-Up Sentence Kabadi
Level: Any
This is a combination of a basic TEFL game and the Indian(?) game Kabadi(?).
Prepare some cut up sentences from the grammar or vocab area you've been working on and place them on a table at the front of the class. Arrange the students into teams, standing behind a line or marker. They have to run to the table and arrange the words into correct sentences, however, they are not allowed to breathe in. To prevent this the students have to repeat 'kabadi' over and over. If they stop saying the word they have to return to their teams. The first team to correctly arrange all their sentences is the winner. This can get a bit wild but it's fun.
Submitted by John Mehers
Writing Idea
Level: Medium to Difficult
I asked my students to write in their daily journals what rules they would like to see implemented in our classroom and which rules they beleived would benefit our class the most. I then asked them to imagine how it would be if we had no rules in our class, in our school, and in the world. I asked them to weigh the pros and cons of this idea and write whether or not they would like to experience or live in this type of environment.
Spin Zone
Level: Any
Each set of partners receives a top. One learner says as many sentences or words in the target language as he can before the top stops spinning. His partner counts. The student who says the most words wins. We had fun letting the winners compete in "spin offs". I like to give stickers to all and candy to the winner!
Submitted by Amanda Dunaway
Prepositions Game
Level: Medium to Difficult
Prepare a text that contains prepositions. Take out the propositions and print them on a separate sheet, then cut this sheet so that each preposition is on a piece of paper, then put all of them in an envelope . Divide the class into groups and give each group an envelope. Tell the students that you are going to read a text and whenever you raise your hand they should bring a suitable preposition and put it on your desk and that the fastest team would get points. Read the text with each groups' order and cancel a point for each mistake. Finally read the text with correct prepositions. You can play this game with adj as well as a,the and an.
Submitted by: Luma Ashoo
Martian
Level: Medium to Difficult
Tell your class you are a Martian and you are inhabiting a human body to study human ways. You then ask about virtually anything in the room, and ask follow up questions:
What is this?
It's a pen.
What's a "pen"?
You use it to write.
What is "write"?
You make words with it on paper.
What are "words"?
ETC...
You can make it as difficult as possible for your higher level students; at some point, though, you'll need to say "OK, I understand", and go to the next object. Even your best students will eventually get stuck on this one!
Submitted by Chris Mattson
Punctuation Game
Level: Any Level
I came up with this game to help the students understand what the marks of punctuation are. Draw a period (.), a comma (,), a question mark (?), exclamation mark (!), and an apostrophe (') on the board and leave a few inches between each symbol. Tell the students the name of each and have them repeat each name. When they are comfortable with the names, begin by pointing to each one in succession. Once they are proficient at this, speed up the pace. This is where it gets fun. Once they are able to say the names in order, change the order on them. Speed up each time through to get the kids excited. As a final tactic, have each student go through the names of the symbols at a slow pace and then speed up. I give the one who can say the most right a piece of candy or a sticker. Have fun and you'll see a big improvement in their punctuation.
Submitted by David R. Henry
Good Morning Balls
Level: Any Level
1. You have three different coloured balls, (they should be very light weight, samll balls).
2. Get the class to make a circle.
3. Then give three people a ball.
o Red Ball - Good Morning
o Green Ball- How are you?
o Blue Ball - Fine thank you and you?
4. The class members pass or gently throw the balls and the person who receives them says the meaning of the balls.
This is fun and gets the class going first thing in the morning.
Submitted by Robyn Cooper-Pollard
Air-write
Level: Any Level
One person "writes" letters, words, numbers, shapes etc: in the air and others guess what it is. Can be done in pairs, as a group, along a chain.
Can also be played as back-write, that is, writing the letter/word/... on the back of another and they guess what it is.
Lost in a Jungle
Level: Medium to Difficult
This is a game suitable for a class of pre-intermediate and up. The game can be done in groups of three to six students. It keeps everyone involved even the quietest students.
The Teacher prepares a list of say 20 items and writes the list on the board or gives copies to groups. This is a list of things that people may need if they're lost in the jungle and things that they may not need.
For example:
- A pack of canned food
- 50 meters nylon rope
- Knife
- Torch
- Tent
- Cellular phone
- 6 gallons of water
- Petrol
- Alchohol
- Blankets
- Candles
- Matches
- ...
Then, the students in groups decide on 5 itmes on the list which seem essential to all of them.
This usually takes a whole session since they all come up with different ideas. Sometimes a creative student chooses an item apparently irrelevant, but when he/she explains how to use it, everyone agrees!
Submitted by Nazanin Nikanjam
More Games & Activities
To keep this page's filesize reasonable, we occasionally move things to other pages.
- Page 5 - (up to the end of December 2002)
- Page 4 - (up to the end of August 2001)
- Page 3 - (1999)
- Page 2 - (1998-1999)
- Page 1 - The Oldest Submissions (1998)
Copyright (C) 1998-2002 by The Internet TESL Journal
Games and Activities for the English as a Second Language Classroom
Page 5
Return to iteslj.org/games.
Intonation Fun
Level: Medium
Use this activity to underline the importance of intonation when your students, as they often do, talk like robots. Basically, get them to say the words in quotation marks in the contexts that follow.
'Hello'
to a friend
to a friend you haven't seen for 3 years
to a neighbour that you don't like
to a 6 month old baby
to someone you have just found doing something they shouldn't
to someone on the phone when you're not sure if they are still on the other end
'Goodbye'
to a member of your family as they are going through the boarding gate at the airport
to someone who has been annoying you
to a child starting his very first day at school
'How are you?'
to someone you haven't seen for 20 years
to someone who has recently lost a member of the family
to someone who didn't sleep in their own bed last night
'I never go to pubs'
by a person that totally disapproves of drinking alcohol to someone who often goes to pubs
as a response to someone who has told you they sometimes go to pubs
said before: '…but I quite like discos.'
'What have you done?'
to someone who claims to have fixed your television only that now it's worse than before
to someone who is scolding you for not doing anything when you suspect the same about them.
to someone who has just done something very bad and which has serious consequences
Truth or Lie?
Level: Any Level
This isn't really new. I got the idea from a book and have expanded on it a bit. It can be used at any level from pre-int. up. It can be used just for speaking practice but it's particularly useful if you're doing present perfect for past experiences. It works soooo well! The students just love it! Lots of question and past tense practice. Even the quiet ones will talk!
Based on a group of three (it can be done in pairs, or fours if you write some more questions), each student has a piece of paper with five questions on it (see below) and takes it in turns to ask the person on their left one of their questions. The student answering the question must answer 'Yes I have.' regardless of the truth. The student who asked the question can then ask as many further questions as he likes in order to help him decide whether the truth is being told or not. Obviously, sometimes they'll be telling the truth. The third student can also join in with questions, thereby 'ganging up' on student B. Listen how students fabricate stories in an attempt to avoid questions! When the first student feels he's heard enough he says 'No further questions' and writes 'True' or 'False' next to the question. The game then carries on (student B asks a question to student C and so on) When all the questions have been asked the papers are passed to the left for marking i.e. the truth is revealed. The highest score out of five wins.
This game will really open your eyes to people's ability to LIE.
Here are the questions. You can use different ones, obviously.
Have you ever…
spoken to a famous person?
danced on a table in a public place?
been trapped in a lift?
taken an illegal drug?
sung karaoke?
Have you ever…
appeared on television?
left a bar or restaurant without paying?
written graffiti on a wall?
appeared in a photograph in a newspaper?
chased a criminal?
Have you ever…
done a very dangerous sport?
won a medal or trophy?
missed a flight?
stayed in a five-star hotel?
swum naked in the sea?
A typical exchange might be something like:
- Have you ever swum naked in the sea?
- Yes I have.
- Where did you do it?
- Erm. On holiday in Majorca.
- Who were you with?
- Some friends.
- What were their names?
- Erm...etc.
Submitted by Bradley George
Syllable Game
Level: Medium
Write a difficult word on the board for example
ACCOMMODATION.
Then clap your hands while saying the word. Repeat as necessary.
Then ask them to count the claps in ACCOMMODATION. There are 5 handclaps. Get students to clap and say ACCOMMODATION.
Tell students these handclaps are called SYLLABLES and that every word breaks down into one or more syllables. Briefly practice saying "syllables."
On the board underneath ACCOMMODATION draw 5 medium sized boxes. Put the correct number underneath each box.
Clap and say the first syallable of ACCOMMODATION and ask your students which letters should go in box 1. They should say AC (some might say ACC.)Repeat this process until all of the letters are in the correct boxes. So now you should have
Box1 AC Box2 COM box3 MO Box4 DA Box5 TION
Then choral drill the letters like this.
Teacher: Which letters are in Box1?
Students: AC
Teacher: and in Box2?
Students: COM
Continue this until all 5 boxes (syllables) have been covered.
Then ask a student to give you the contents of BOX1 and 2. Then ask another to give you the contents of box 2 and 3. Then 3 and 4. then 4 and 5.
This gradual building of the word helps them not only to understand the rhythm and concept of syllables, but also helps them to fix the spelling in their minds.
Once they grasp the concept of syllables, Write some 3,2, single syllable words on the board and get the students to work out how many syllables the word has, and then get them to put the letters into the correct boxes
Submitted by Gary Pownall. Greenwich Community College. London. UK
Karaoke
Level: Difficult
-for larger classes
Preparation: choose songs that are easy to understand and somewhat enjoyable.
1. Divide the students up into groups of 4-5 people.
2. Give each group a different song. Have them figure out all the words to the song. Make sure that not just one person is doing the work, but that it is a group effort.
3. Give them the entire class (one hour) to work on it. Next class, have them return to their groups to practice one time.
4. You then have the group as a whole, stand up and sing along with the recording.
-this is fun for the students if they all participate and work together.
-choose both popular and silly songs to keep their attention and interest
Submitted by Melanie Dutton, University of Texas at El Paso
Getting To Know You
Level: Medium to Difficult
-for larger classes
1. Give each student an idex card
2. Have the students pair up and write the name of their partner on their card.Give them five or six questions that they must ask each other such as:
-Where were you born?
-What is your favorite color and why?
-What did you dream last night?
3. Make sure that they write down the answers to these questions on their card. When they are done, have them each choose a new partner.
4. They will then tell their new partner about their old partner based on the questions answered. Each person will record this information on the other side on the index card (the index card is only to help them remember everything).
5. Once they have finished, they each stand up in front of the class and tell everyone what they learned about one of their classmates.
-this helps them to develop their communication skills and helps them get comfortable with speaking and interacting with all the students in the class
Submitted by Melanie Dutton
Extreme Situations
Level: Medium to Difficult
The point of this activity is to make difficult questions involving choosing a course of action in extreme situations.Usually This situations will involve feelings, prejudices, ethics,,etc.
Examples 1:
You are on a deserted island. There is a motor boat and you are the only one who knows how to drive it. It is up to you to decide which people of the following people you are going to take with you in the boat. There is space for only you and 3 more people.
Here they are:
- a prostitute
- a drug addict
- a dying old man
- a doctor convicted of malpractice
- a child pornographer
- a convicted criminal
- (Note: You should adjust the list to suit the students in your class. Delete some if you find them offensive. Add others that you think would generate good discussion.)
Example 2:
You find a wallet with $50,000 and the ID of its owner. That money is exactly the amount of money you need to cover the expenses of a delicate operation for your daughter. She needs that operation to survive. What would you do with the money?
And you can create new extreme questions to challenge students to speak.
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez portegaj63$$$hotmail.com
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Level: Medium to Difficult
Divide the group in pairs.For this activity you get two apparently iqual pictures.You can get this pictures in puzzle books or internet. Give one of the pictures to a student an the counter-picture to his/her partner. Make the students sit far from his/her partner in order to describe the picture without looking at the counterpicture. The point of the game is to detect the differences without using body language or looking at the partner's counter-picture. The team that finds all the differences first is the winner.
This activity is specially good for those students who are reluctant to speak.
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez portegaj63$$$hotmail.com
More Games & Activities
To keep this page's filesize reasonable, we occasionally move things to other pages.
Copyright (C) 1998-2002 by The Internet TESL Journal
Games and Activities for the English as a Second Language Classroom
Page 4
Return to iteslj.org/games.
TRAFFIC LIGHT QUESTIONS
Level: Any Level
This games works especially with adult students who are reluctant to speak about personal issues.
Prepare three cards (a green, a yellow, and a red one) with six questions each. The questions on the green card are easy and not personal, and the ones on the red card are more difficult and personal. Each student throws a dice twice. The first time is to decide upon the color of the card (1 or 2 = green card; 3 or 4 = yellow card; 5 or 6 = red card) and the second time is to choose the question.
Submitted by Mónica Bresso
TELL ME WHY
Level: Medium to Difficult
The point of this game is to try to answer questions. We often take for granted many things but if we consider them carefully sometimes they are not necessarily logical.These questions are intended to make students speak. In most of the cases there are no "right" or "wrong" answers. Here are some examples:
If you're so WISE can you tell me WHY:
Some birds have wings but never FLY.
not all the monkeys have a tail BEHIND.
Leopards have spots and TIGERS STRIPES.
Grooms dess in black and BRIDES in WHITE.
People wave their hands when they say good BYE.
The ocean´s blue and so is the SKY.
Our EYES shed tears when we CRY.
We must WRITE letters from left to RIGHT.
Roosters crow in the mornings at six or FIVE.
People trhow RICE to the groom and BRIDE.
We strech and yawn when we feel so TIRED.
As you can see I repeated the /ai/sound to create a special sensation to the ears.These questions can also help you to teach pronunciation and intonation if you read them with the proper rhythm.
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez portegaj63@hotmail.com
LISTENING EXERCISE (SONG PUZZLE)
Level: Medium to Difficult
I really like this activity because it is easy and fun. Students will say English is music to my ears!
For this exercise you will need the lyrics of a song in English.You will need several copies, one for each student .Cut the lines of the song .The students will try to put the song in order.You will play the song as many times as necessary.The student who finishes first is the winner.
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez portegaj63@hotmail.com
FOUR-LETTER-WORDS
Level: Any Level
This game has nothing to do with offensive words.I play it just for fun and the students like it a lot.You will be amazed to see how many different words can be generated from a single word!
1.-The teacher writes a four-letter word (not a bad word but word made up four letters)on the board.
For example:
The teacher writes on the board: TIME
2.-Students will take turns generating words from the first one.The idea is to change only one letter but generate a miningful word.
TEACHER.-TIME
STUDENT1.-DIME
3.-Any letter can be change.Only one at a time, but not on the same place consecutively.Example:
TEACHER.- TIME
STUDENT1.- DIME
STUDENT2.- LIME (Wrong you should change any other letter but not on the same place consecutively).
TEACHER.- TIME
STUDENT1.- DIME
STUDENT2.- DOME
STUDENT3.- COME
STUDENT4.- CAME
STUDENT5.- CANE
Etc.
Etc.
The teacher has to limit the time the students take to write the words (may be 20 seconds). The students score a point for each meaningful word they write. If a student takes too much time he loses his turn. Finally the student who makes more points is the winner.
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez portegaj63@hotmail.com
MEMORY GAME (Long and Short forms)
Level: Medium to Difficult
RULES: The same rules as the regular memory games(the only difference is they are going to match the long forms with the sort forms).
Foreign students sometimes do not realize there are many reductions in English. They feel frustrated when they are not able to understand spoken English. This is in part to because they are not aware of short forms. A way to help them is by showing same expressions in both short and long forms. Examples:
want to- wanna
going to-gonna
ought to-outta
because-'cause
a lot of- alotta
see you-seeya
got to-gotta
let me-lemmi
give me-gimmi
what have-wattav
etc.
I advise the teacher to read aloud the cards when the students pick them up in order to encourage them to repeat and learn them.
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez portegaj63@hotmail.com
SPELLING REVIEW
Level: Medium
This activity will make students rewiew spelling in a funny way. You can create similar spellings as the following ones:
I.1.2.C.U = I want to see you
R.U.O.K? = Are you O.k?
I´s T = Iced tea
I.C.Q = I seek you
I.O.U. = I owe you
E.Z. = Easy
B.Z. = Busy
I.1.T = I want tea
I.8 = I ate
U.2 = You two/ you too.
Y? = Why?
C.U.@.9 = See you at nine
2E.Z.4U = Too easy for you
R.U.D.Z? = Are you dizzy?
stand
------ = I understand
I
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez portegaj63@hotmail.com
PRONUNCIATION BINGOS
Level: Medium to Difficult
THIS BINGO IS FOR NOUN-VERB STRESS
I came out with this idea while I was teaching pronunciation in Mexico. The idea is to make a bingo game contrasting the the pronunciation of nouns and verbs with the same spelling.(Use a stress mark (´)to show the students that nouns are stressed in the first syllable and verbs on the second).Examples:
prógress-progréss
présent-presént
prótest-protést
cóntract-contráct
désert-desért
rébel-rebél
súspect-suspéct
cónsole-consóle
cónflict-conflíct
récord-recórd
cónvict-convíct
ínsert-insért
pérmit-permít
etc.
When you name the cards let the students listen to the words but not look at them. This way they will be able to distinguish the difference.
------------------------------------------------------
MINIMAL PAIRS BINGO
The same can be done to teach minimal pairs.Examples:
sit-seat
but-bat
bought-boat
saw-so
base-vase
etc.
P.D.MAKE THIS GAME INTERESTING BY GIVING SMALL PRIZES TO THE WINNERS.
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez portegaj63@hotmail.com
SAVED BY THE BELL
Level: Medium
I discovered this game while watching T.V. With some modifications the idea of the game is the same:
1.-Place a buzz or bell inside a waste basket(a clean one, of course).
2.-Get a light ball that fits into the basket.
3.-The student will make a shot with the ball.If the student scores the bell will ring(saved by the bell) , if the student fails a indiscreet question will have to be answered by him/her.
4.-In advance, prepare as many cards with indiscreet questions as possible. For example:
Have you ever cheated in a final test? Have you ever stolen something? Have you ever had two or more boy/girlfriends at the same time?Have you ever gotten a ticket? If so why?Have you ever had a nickname? If so, which one? etc,etc.
The point of this game is to practise asking and answering in a fun way. However, you have to be very careful with the questions you write on the cards!(some questions may be very offensive if you are not careful).
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez
THE GAME OF TRUTH
Level: Medium to Difficult
I learnt this game when I was chatting with a brazilian girl.It is a very simple but interactive game. As you know people always as the same questions in chats over and over again.What do you do? How old are you? etc. She asked me if I wanted to play THE GAME OF TRUTH. I say yes of course! Here are the rules:( I made some changes for the English classroom)
1.Make a lot of small cards with interesting topics written on them, such as: LOVE,JEALOUSY,PIRACY,MONEY,SMOKING,SEX,DINKING,CLONNING,BRIBING,FRIENDSHIP,DEATH PENALTY,PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT,FAMILY,etc,etc.Look for topics that make students speak.Sometimes even CONTROVERSIAL ones.
2.-Every student in the class will take turns in taking a card.He or she will talk a little about the topic in the card he or she selected. For example:
MONEY: for me money is very important , but is not the most important thing.It is only a way to reach things.Success is not measure by the money you can get,etc,etc.
3.-Allow student to express their feelings even if it is not their turn. Remember the main point of this game is to make students speak!However don´t lose the control of the class.
P.D.If you select very interesting topics I garantee everybody will try to answer the questions even when is not their own turn.This activity is excellento "to break the ice" and to help you know each other in the classroom.
Submitted by Pablo Ortega Juárez
Invitation to an Annual Dinner
Level: Any Level
Pre-activity: The teacher should have taught students about prepositions.
Activity:In pairs, students are required to write a dialogue of about 12-15 exchanges based on an invitation card given by the teacher.
Sample invitation card:
INVITATION TO EXECS BUSINESS ANNUAL DINNER
DATE: 24 JUNE 2001
PLACE:PALOMA BALLROOM, DE PALMA HOTEL
TIME: 7.30 AM
ATTIRE: FORMAL
Allow about half an hour to prepare the text and about 3 minutes to present it in class. Ask students to be as creative as possible.
Students get to practice prepositions as well as Wh-questions. I find that my students enjoying themselves while pretending to invite their friends to the annual dinner.
Submitted by Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam, MARA University of Technology
Movie Review
Level: Any Level
This could be carried out in pairs or in groups of 3-4.
Pre-activity:The tearcher should have taught students about adjectives and adverbs.
Activity:
students can choose a favourite movie, cartoon or television series to review. They should talk about the main plot, actors and actresses, provide a synopsis and tell why they have chosen that particular movie. Once they have discussed and edited their movie review, they would have to present in front of the others, and hand over a copy of the edited text to the teacher to be correceted.They may also include pictures to make their movie review more interesting.
Submitted by Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam
Story telling & Memory Game
Level: Any Level
Ask the children {at least 5 to 6} to sit around in a circle
Ask one child to say a sentence in a story form e.g "once there was a boy".The next child will have to repeat that sentence and add something more to it like "once there was a boy whose name was John"In this way the children keep building up a story as well as remembering what the previous sentences were.The child which forgets a line will go out of the game.This game not only improves a child's memory but also encourages him/her to be creative in story telling.
Submitted by Mrs.Ranjani.R.Gehani
Teacher
Level: Any Level
I'd like to work on games is classroom. I have got students of any levels and games are a good practise to motivate students in classroom. I'd like to have more instructions of how to work with them and if there are more suggestions of the source.
Best wishes,
Marta Leone
Mini Plays
Level: Medium to Difficult
The teacher makes up a little discussion which she reads or gives to a couple of children to read. E.g.
Mum: Bye, now. Be careful!
John: Yes, Mom. I will.
Mum: Don´t forget to write.
John: No, Mom. I´ll write every day.
Mum: Call me when you get there.
And then the teacher chooses one aspect to the plays that will be improvised based on this short discussion. E.g.
"Your plays must ne about a situation where somebody is leaving away. What happens? What do you say? You have 5 minutes to practise a little play in groups of 2-5."
In five minutes the plays will be presented and some vocabulary can be marked, if you feel like it. The kids love making plays and they are pretty good in improvising incredible plays even in few minutes.
Submitted by Virpi, Finland
Active Brainstorming
Level: Any Level
This activity can be made to fit nearly any level, and works in class sizes of 6 to 40. The aims are to not only to generate lists of relevant vocabulary around a theme, but to invigorate the class with a rather noisy and rambunctious activity.
To begin with, the teacher must select three or four vocabulary subcategories within a theme, for example with a theme of housing/describing rooms, the subcategories might be things found in a bedroom, a living room, and a kitchen; in a sports theme, there might be team, individual, and non-competitive sports. Students are then paired up and asked to generate ideas together for each subcategory, preferably under a time limit to keep things pacey, much as in any brainstorming exercise. Then pairs should be grouped into 2,3,or 4 larger teams (depending on class size, logistics, etc.) to share/compare ideas and lengthen their lists if possible.
Now comes the wild part. The black/whiteboard is divided into sections, one for each subcategory, and one student from each group is called up and handed a piece of chalk or a marker of a color assigned to each team. There must be one color per team, eg. the blue team, the yellow team, and so forth. The designated writers for each team are not allowed to bring any paper up with them. Instead, their team members must shout out ideas which can be put under each/any subcategory, including the correct spelling of same. With all teams shouting at the same time, a seemingly out of control, but quite enjoyable atmosphere pervades. The object is to be the team with the most words on the board at the end.
It is best to stop every minute or two and change designated writers so that all can get a chance. Also, depending on how strict the teacher wishes to be, groups which use L1 might have their entries ereased. It is also a good idea in big classrooms to move the teams as far away from the board as possible, so as to increase the pandemonium. Finally, the teacher shouts "Stop!", and the scores for each team are tabulated.
This activity will take between 30 and 50 minutes, has been used successfully with groups ranging in age from 16 to 65, and would seem to suit younger learners as well. The only materials required are a rather large board and as many different color markers or pieces of chalk as there are teams.
Submitted by: P. Bruce Riley
A Variation on Bingo
Level: Any Level
Instead of making the cards yourself, have your students make them.
1. Get a set of review quesitons from your classes text book or trivia type stuff that they should know. Make sure the questions cover a variety of grammar points that you have studied.
2. Give each student a blank bingo grid.
3. Get the students to fill in the bingo grid with the proper answers to the questions.
4. Go over the answers just to make sure every one has got it right etc...
5. Now start the bingo game, except instead of reading off the answers, read the questions. this gets them thinking listening and writting/reading (three out of the 4 ain't all bad eh?)
The Miming Game
Level: Any Level
This is a simple game which requires little preparation. Divide your students into groups of 2 people(there may be two groups or more). Give each group a sentence that includes grammar and/ or vocabulary already practised, and underline the words that should be guessed exactly. One of the students in the group has to mime the sentence and the other has to guess. Of course the other groups will also be allowd to guess, which will create competition.
Submitted by Cris
Bingo Adapted
Level: Any Level
Use basic Bingo board (3x3 0r 5x5 with the middle crossed out)
1. Simple vocabulary bingo
From the list of words the students (Ss) are required to learn they select 9 (or 24) . Teacher to call Bingo 2 or three times until everyone knows their card.
2. Teacher calls the words. Ss with those words have to shout them out. Only the first one to shout gets to cover the square.
3. Grammar point or sentence structure.
Call the words. The first student to shout out their word in the the required structure gets to cover the square.
eg. To use the present perfect.
After practising the vocabulary Ss have to say I've been a nurse or never been a nurse.
NB the truth is not important. I was happy with I've been a village once as long as they knew what was wrong.
Gets very competitive and noisy.
Do not do with a hangover unless you get the winning student to be the bingo caller.
Submitted by jo
Find Someone Who ...
Level: Any Level
Get some questions from:
Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/questions/
Write some of them on the board and ask students to talk to each others as follows:
Find someone who...
..has already finished his/her Christmas shopping?
etc.
After a given amount of time, have the students tell the rest of the class who they found.
Submitted by Juan Silva
The Alphabet game
Level: Any Level
This game is used to practice alphabet and check their vocabulary. Do as a competition. Divide Students into groups of five ( it depends on the number of students you have) and ask them to stand in line. give to the students of the front a marker to write on the whiteboard.Then draw with your finger an imaginary letter of the alphabet on the back of the students at the end of the line. They must do the same with the student in front of him/her and so on. the students with the marker are supposed to run to the board and write any word that begins with that letter. Students love it!
Submitted by Andréia Martins
Associations Using the Subjunctive Mood
Level: Medium to Difficult
This game is very useful to teach the subjunctive mood.
All your students take part in this game. One of the students goes out of the room. All the rest think of one student (he or she should be present). The student who went out of the room comes in and asks "If this person were a vegetable (fruit, sweet, animal, car, nature, flower, city etc) what vegetable ( fruit, sweet, animal etc) would he be?"
One of the students answers in a full sentence: "If he were an animal he would be a dog" for instance
After some questions and answers the student who is asking the questions should guess who it is and the game begins again with another student going out of the room.
Submitted by L.Voronina
Making Words from Letters in a Long Word
Level: Medium to Difficult
This game is a good activity for learning new words and for reviving some word knoweledge and for giving a teacher time to prepare other tasks for students.
The class is to be divided into 2-3- teams. Give each team a dictionary and write on the board a long word. Students should compose different words from the letters of this word. After some time, the teams give their words. the team that has the most correct words wins.
For example:
R E T R I B U T I O N
return tribute iron notion note tone rib tube bruit tent tribe bur button rent burin nob bite burr run route tire tore bent bet bonnet rub nib net nub bin nut bit rube ruin rob rot unit union unite tier tie tin tint tone toe brute burn brunt butt butter riot tot tenet tenure terrier retro bone boot born bout totter tote tour bore
Then you can ask them to learn these words.
Submitted by Shipulin Vladimir
BETTING/AUCTION
Level: Any Level
CLASS SIZE: 40
PREPARATION
Prepare a worksheet with 20 or so sentences using grammar points you have recently taught. 2/3 of the sentences should include a grammatical mistake. Make fake money, it is more realistic if you use the currency of whichever country they are living in.
PART ONE
Divide the students into teams of 5 or so. The students then have 10 minutes to study the worksheet and decide and mark which sentences are correct (0) or incorrect (X).
PART TWO
Each team receives a set amount of money.
The instructor(s) reads one sentence (select sentences from the list in random order).
The instructor begins to auction off the sentence. The students should try to buy only the correct sentences. The students bid and the instructor sells to the highest bidder. (This is really fun!)
The instructor tells whether or not the sentence is correct.
IF the sentence is correct the team wins the amount which they bought if for. If it is incorrect the team looses the amount which they bought it for. ANY team may win the lost money buy stating the incorrect sentence correctly. (YOU WILL BE SHOCKED TO SEE EVEN THE QUIET STUDENTS SCREAMING FOR YOUR ATTENTION).
IF the sentence is CORRECT and NO ONE bids on it, ALL TEAMS must pay a fine.
After all the sentences have been read the team with the most money wins!
The students seem to really enjoy this game!
Submitted by Trish in Japan
The Brag Game
Level: Medium
This is a simple game I've made up to practise Present Perfect. You make up about 20-30 sentences in Present Perfect describing various activities one would share to brag. For example: "I've eaten lunch with Al Gore".
"Spielberg has asked me to play in his next movie". Students draw a slip of paper with a statement like that, he/she says it aloud to the group and they try to outdo him/her by thinking up a statement which would be more impressive. It might look something like this:
Student1: "I've eaten lunch with Al Gore"
S2: So what? I've eaten lunch with Bill Clinton!"
S3: So what? I've eaten lunch with Al Gore and Bill Clinton"
S4: So what? I've eaten Gore and Clinton for lunch"
When they can't come up with something, they just say WOW looking impressed and move on to the next statement.
S1: Spielberg has asked me to play in his new movie.
S2: So what? I've asked Spielberg to play in MY new movie.
S3: WOW
They seemed to have fun with this game.
Submitted by Andrzej J. Czopek
Adding to the Story: OHPs in the classroom
Level: Any Level
Adding to the Story: OHPs in the classroom
- By: Christine Canning-Wilson,
- Email: christine.canning@hct.ac.ae
Aim: To give students further practice in expanding paragraphs.
Materials Needed: OHP transparencies/pens/ OHP machine
Stage One: Photocopy a background scene on to a transparency. Next, put it up on the wall next to the white board. Ask students to write down ideas about the place.
Ask the students to predict what is going to happen today in the town, mountainside,etc....
(Before the class, photocopy onto an OHP different people or animals that can be cut out and dropped into the scenary or the background)
Next, say "perhaps" to their suggestions and then begin to add a transparency character to the scene. Elicit from the students information and questions about the person. Keep adding characters and letting students discuss possibilities and changes for the story.
After that, in groups ask students to write a story about the scene. Ask them to describe the environment and atmosphere in the first paragraph and to start to tell the story thereafter.
When the students complete their stories, pass the papers aroung for other groups to read and peer edit before asking the original group to tell their story about the illustration.
Submitted by Christine Canning-Wilson, CERT, Higher Colleges of Technology
Group Dialogue
Level: Any Level
Following a simple warm-up where each person must say a word associated with the word mentioned by the person before him or her, I have them repeat the same procedure but with complete sentences, as if it were a discussion between two people. For example: student 1, "Hi how are you Joe?"; student 2, "Oh pretty good Sue. How about you?"; student 3, " Well, not so good."; student 4, " Why not?", etc. The dialogue must procede in such a way that the last person concludes the discussion and they bid each other goodbye. You never know where the conversation will lead and it's excellent for listening, even without a point system!
Submitted by Tim Morgan
Present Continuous Videos
Level: Any Level
I've used this activity in just about every class I've ever had, it's suitable for any age group and any level but the best thing about it is that it requires almost no preparation.
You'll need a video. I usually use Mr Bean but anything will do as long as it isn't dialogue heavy and has a lot of action.
The students will need a piece of paper and a pen. Arrange students in two rows and seat them back to back so that the video can be seen by one row (watchers) but not by the other (writers).
Explain to the watchers that they are to describe the action taking place on the screen using the present continuous, they can also describe clothing, people, anything really but try to keep the focus on the action.
The writers have to listen carefully to the watcher sitting behind them and write down as much information as they can.
Keep this going for about five or ten minutes (or as long as a Mr Bean sketch) then get them to swap chairs and play a different sketch/segment for the new row of watchers.
Put the students into two groups according to row. They must now pool their notes and create their own version of events. Good past continuous practice!
I usually get them to share their stories with the other group and then at the end let them watch both segments again and compare their version with what actually happened.
Lots of listening, speaking, writing and lots of fun.
Submitted by Vanessa P.
Twenty Questions
Level: Any Level
Using 3X5 file cards I cut and pasted a number of articles from a catalogue. I write on the board questions such as
Would I find this in the house? (If not assume it is outside)
Does it weigh more than 10 pounds?
Does it have wheels?
Does it have a motor?
Does it make noise?
Do you have one ?
Would you like one?
Can you eat it?
Can you wear it?
Is it used in the summer? (if not therefore it is used in winter)
Students work in pairs and may answer only YES or NO and keep track of the number of questions. You can use many more questions perhaps using words that are new or different.
your email address does not work!!!!
Annette Delanghe delaa@sk.sympatico.ca
Submitted by Annette Delanghe
Essay Planning Made Easy
Level: Any Level
My students find it hard to brainstorm ideas,plan what to write and present balanced opinions. This activity seems to help because it works from a fun speaking base.
Use big pieces of paper. Write a different word within a group on four pieces of paper and stick in different corners of the room(eg. animals: horse, elephant, dog, monkey) Tell the sts to go and stand next to the (animal) you like best/fear most/want to be" etc. Students go to corners and justify their choice to other students.
This can be done in various ways to suit the situation; I sometimes end up with teams having to offer and counteract arguments publicly across the room. The topics can become more abstract, depending on the level of the students.
Finally, bring the activity together by choosing the basis of an essay topic,eg "The Rainforests". Elicit single words for the big pieces of paper, eg 'fuel/building materials/ oxygen/medicines (the brainstorm) and stick them on the board. Then invite students to sort them into two overarching groups; eg reasons for forest conservation or reasons for using the wood (the plan) Repeat the verbal argument 'game' in teams but keep notes of the submissions on the board or on paper(the body of the essay)
Finally write a sentence on the board eg:
"Although it is important to ___ because ___(give one reason) I believe it is more important to ___ because (give two main reasons."
Students then go to one of the two main groups they broadly agree with and produce their final pronouncement(the conclusion).
Review the process overtly. Get the students to write in groups next time, then go it alone with the same methods.
Submitted by Jane King, New Zealand
The Grandfather
Level: Any Level
Objective : to practice the numbers.
Procedure :
Students are sit in circle. Then, they are given a number. One of them or the teacher can be the Grandfather. The game goes like this.
A : When the grandpa died, he left twenty cups of wine.
( the person who has number 20 answers :)
B : why 20 ?
A : So, how many ?
B : what about 2 ?
( the person with number 2 says : )
C : why 2 ?
B : So, how many ?
C : what about 3 ?
(and so on..)
The winner is the person who does not hesitate and make a mistake. Advanced students must play the game in English. But if you have beginners, the game can be played in the students« mother tongue ; however, numbers must be said in English. Students need to be attentive, otherwise they are asked to leave the game.
Submitted by Hermilo Gomez Hernandez - Universidad de Quintana Roo, Mexico
MIMES
Level: Easy to Medium
THIS GAME IS VERY USEFUL TO PRACTICE PRESENT PROGRESSIVE STRUCTURES. yOU HAVE TO GIVE TO EACH STUDENT A SMALL CARD WITH AN ACTION (i.e. YOU ARE DANCING). THE STUDENT HAS TO MIME THE ACTION IN FRONT OF THE CLASS AND EACH STUDENT IN TURN WILL TRY TO GUESS WHAT HE'S DOING POSING A QUESTION LIKE: "ARE YOU DANCING?". THE STUDENT WHO MIMES HAS TO ANSWER "YES I AM" OR "NO I'M NOT". THIS WAY PUPILS PRACTICE AND HAVE FUN!
Good luck!!!
Gloria from Italy (glo75@hotmail.com)
Submitted by Gloria
NAME THE PLACE
Level: Any Level
First prepare a list of places about 20 on seperate pieces of paper and then divide the students into groups of 4-6. One member of the group chooses a piece of paper and between the group they prepare a dialogue or mini-theatre based on their place. When all the groups have prepared their work they take it in turns to read or play them out and the other students have to guess the name of the place it is taking place. A time limit can be based on the level of the students. I find this works very well with student who do not have enough confidence to just speak without preperation, but after the exercise they gain a lot of confidence by trying to speak by not looking.
Submitted by Gina Tuncer( practical teacher in Turkey)
A variation on the "NAME THE PLACE" activity above is to do the same but put times of the day on the slips of paper. Students have to write a dialogue sketch to get students to guess the time of day.
Submitted by David Hardisty, Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon
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