ESL GAMES
Games are an excellent way to review grammar and vocabulary. I have had a lot of success with the following games. They energize the classroom and relieve a lot of tension. Students of all ages love them.
All you need for this game is a chalkboard, and
a list of vocabulary. Draw a nine square grid on the board and fill each
box with one word. Divide the class in half, and designate one
half as -x- and the other half as -o-. The students
on each team collaborate in coming up with grammatical sentences using
the vocabulary. When they use a word in a correct
sentence, mark either x or o over the word. Three
in a row wins! I used this game to review general vocabulary, parts of
speech, and verb forms. It can be played for an hour without
the students seeming to tire.
THE PICNIC (For Intermediate to Advanced Level Students)
This is a simple game that requires students to
generate vocabulary in English. The class is asked to imagine that they
are going on a picnic. Their job is to suggest things to bring
along. The teacher says yes or no to each suggestion.
What the students do not know is that the teacher says yes when a student
suggests something whose first letter is the same as
the first letter of the name of the student.
The teacher says no if the first letter of the suggested object and the
first letter of the name of the student do not match. For example:
Alicia: I want to bring apples.
Teacher: You can bring apples, Alicia.
Alicia can bring apples. What do you want to bring, Marco?
Marco: I want to bring a radio.
Teacher: Sorry, you cannot bring a radio.
If students need a hint after a while you can interject something like:
Maria: I want to bring bananas.
Teacher: Sorry, you cannot bring bananas.
Why not ask Barbara to bring bananas?
Usually someone figures out the game. Knowing the secret forces them to narrow their suggestions to words beginning with the same letter as their name.
THE SENTENCE AUCTION (For All Levels)
For this game you need to prepare a list of about
twenty sentences. Make roughly half the sentences grammatical, and the
rest ungrammatical. Give the students a few minutes to
read and discuss which sentences are correct.
It is good to assign partners to discuss which sentences are grammatical.
They can then bid on the sentences that they think are good.
You get to play the auctioneer. Students love
it if you play the role to the hilt, and do not forget to slam the gavel!
Sentences can be draw from student writings, common errors, etc....
This game forces students to use dollar amounts,
and to focus on the fine points of grammar.
This is a simple vocabulary game that can be played
with two levels of difficulty depending on the level of your students.
In the easy version, draw five columns on a chalk board.
Assign each column a letter from the alphabet
and shout Go! The first student to fill in all the columns with a word
that begins with the letter of each column shouts, STOP! My high
school students like to accumulate extra exam
points with this game. You can go through the whole alphabet like this
and also use common two letter word beginnings like ex, sh, sp,
ch, etc....
In the more difficult version, assign each of
the five columns a general catergory like food, clothing, emotions, office
items, things in the house, etc.... You then call out a letter from
the alphabet. Students have to fill each column
with a vocabulary word that begins with the letter and pertains to the
category.