English Students’ Favorite Flashcard Activities

People say that language is a tree and the vocabulary is the leaf of that tree. Therefore teaching vocabulary items are indeed an essential part of any English learners’ growth. Especially for younger students, who are motivated to learn the basic words, they need to get by in the language. There are many different ways to teach vocabulary. Using flashcards is one of the most suitable media in teaching vocabulary. Because learners can easily memorize and understand the meaning of vocabulary through flashcards.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Huong Hoang T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

I am going to share with you my 5 favorite and effective activities with flashcards:

1. Spin the Bottle:

Students sit in a circle with a bottle in the middle. The teacher spins the bottle. When it stops spinning, the student who it is pointing to is shown flashcards and asked to say what it is. If the answer is correct, then that student can spin the bottle. This is a good activity to review vocabulary.

Also Read: Can Americans teach English in Europe?

2. Rope Jump:

The teacher needs a rope for this kind of activity. It’s easy but funny. The students stand behind each other in a line. Hold a rope (have a student hold the other end) at a height that the students should be able to jump over in front of the line of students (if the students are just little ones, the teacher can just lay the rope on the ground for them to jump over). On the other side of the rope spread out some flashcards and a box. Call out the name of one of the flashcards to the first student. The student has to jump over the rope, pick up the correct flashcards and put it in the box.

For other rounds, the teacher can hold the rope down low, so students have to crawl/roll under.

3. Roll the Dice:

The teacher prepares six flashcards that the teacher would like to introduce to students and place them on the board. Mark each card with a number from 1-6. Divide the class into two teams. Have one student roll a large dice. The first student who says the name of the vocabulary card with the same number as the dice wins a point for her/his team. If nobody knows the vocabulary word, the teacher introduces it and have the students repeat it. They’ll try hard to remember so they can answer it correctly the next time. Play until one team reaches a set number of points.

Also Read: Are there any age limits for TEFL teaching?

4. Picture word match race:

The teacher uses two sets of pictures and word cards. Mix all of the cards and give each team a set of words and pictures. The students then race to match the words and the pictures and place them together. Ask both teams to call out the words at the end so that they get practice at saying the words.

5. Over-under:

Line up the student in two teams. Give the two students at the front each a flashcard. When the teacher says go, the first in line says the word and passes the flashcards over their head, the next student says the word and passes the card under between their legs, the student kid over, then under, etc. The last student in the line races to the front to hand the flashcards to the teacher and says the word. The first team to do so gets a point.

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These are 5 activities with flashcards that I have been applied to and achieved great results. Students are very excited about these activities.

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