5 of My Favorite English Games for ESL Students. I saved the best for last.
My students requested this game more often than any other game we ever played. It's based on the old drinking game "Ring of Fire," modified for the classroom. Materials needed:A standard deck of playing cards, a whiteboard, 20-30 small slips of blank paper, and a bowl. The setup:Almost none! Place the bowl in the center of a table and spread the cards out, face down, in a circle around the bowl. The activity:Before you start the game, hand every student two small slips of paper.
The students will take turns pulling a card. Here are the actions I assign to cards and the penalties involved: ESL Discussions: English Conversation Questions / Debates: Speaking Lesson Ac... Using a "Three-Two-one" Speaking Activity. Using a "Three-Two-One" Speaking Activity English-language teacher trainer and author Paul Nation has developed the “4-3-2″ Fluency Activity.
In it, students line up (standing or sitting) facing each other. Each one must be prepared to speak on something that they are already quite familiar with. First, they speak to their partner for four minutes about the topic. It’s a great idea, and I think my colleague Katie Hull Sypnieski (my co-author in The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide) and I were able to build on it and make it even better in our classes. Speaking: Leadership skills. Tell a story or personal anecdote. Examiner: OK, Kelvin, so I’d like you to tell us a short personal story.
Here are the topics. Please take one. Kelvin: Tell me about a great surprise you had. OK. Examiner: OK? Examiner: OK, Kelvin, you can start when you’re ready. Kelvin: OK. Examiner: Yeah, what a great surprise! Kelvin: Actually, no, because they hadn’t mentioned anything about my birthday before the match, so I hadn’t expected they would do this. ESOL: Complaining with confidence. Me too! Wooden Spoon Speculations. Copyright © 2014 Emma Gore-Lloyd I found this game on a party games website sometime a couple of years ago.
It’s a guessing game that works well in a class of students who are fairly comfortable with each other and have a good sense of humour. Students can use it to practise speculative language. Equipment needed: 2 wooden spoons; one scarf/blindfold First, elicit speculative language from the students, eg. Next, ask for or choose a volunteer (probably best to choose one of the most outgoing students here). Give the blindfolded student the two wooden spoons, one in each hand. Once they’ve made their guess, they can take off the blindfold and see if they were right. Replay the game with the second volunteer as the blindfolded player and choose another student to be guessed, until they’ve all had a go (or at least all the ones that are up for it). Picture Description Lesson Plan. This is a fun lesson plan in which students work in pairs describing and drawing pictures.
It will be useful for students preparing for Cambridge exam speaking activities. You will need this handout: Pics for describing Put the following picture on the board and hand out other copies to the class: Ask students what they can see in the picture. What’s in the background? What’s in the foreground? Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom. If this is your first time here, then read the Teacher's Guide to Using These PagesIf you can think of a good question for any list, please send it to us. Home | Articles | Lessons | Techniques | Questions | Games | Jokes | Things for Teachers | Links | Activities for ESL Students Would you like to help? If you can think of a good question for any list, please send it to us. If you would like to suggest another topic, please send it and a set of questions to begin the topic.
Copyright © 1997-2010 by The Internet TESL Journal Pages from this site should not be put online elsewhere.Permission is not required to link directly to any page on our site as long as you do not trap the page inside a frame. English conversation phrases and expressions for speaking practice. 5 Ways to Make Class Discussions More Exciting. Classroom discussions have been a staple of teaching forever, beginning with Socrates.
I have taught using discussions, been a student in discussions, and observed other teachers' discussions thousands of times -- at least. Some have been boring, stifling or tedious enough to put me to sleep. Others have been so stimulating that I was sad to see them end. The difference between the two is obviously how interesting the topic is, but equally important is the level of student participation.
It's not enough for students to simply pay attention -- they need to be active participants to generate one of those great discussions that end far too quickly for both the teacher and students. The best discussions keep everyone active, either by sharing or thinking. 1. Just the name "lightning round" suggests energy. Socratic Smackdown Tutorial. IOP PrintPlay SocraticSmackdown v1. Activate Games for Learning English - Guess What?