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Games are very useful in any ESL classroom, whether the students are young or old, in individual or mixed classes. Games help students to relax and have fun with learning English. The English language will come naturally in play. Games also encourage the student attendance, as play and games simply make learning enjoyable. Frankly, the students won’t even think about “learning” English as they are just having fun! There are many games from which to choose, depending on age and level of the student: Hangman, Throw the Ball, Flash Card/Alphabet Match, Pin the Tail, What’s Missing and Bingo to name just a few. Hangman: Using a word that was used earlier in the study portion of the lesson the teacher decides how many letters there are in the word and draw underscore marks, one for each letter. Now have the student(s) guess different letters and when they get a letter correct, put that letter in its correct spot. If they call out a letter and it’s not correct, draw one body part of the “hangman”. Keep going until they guess the word. Usually in this game the idea is that there are only so many chances to guess before you have a full “hangman” but in a teaching environment the game goes on until the word is guessed. It is also useful to turn the game around and have a student suggest a word so that they’re in charge of the game and the teacher is the one left guessing. This can be great fun and good for homework as well! Students can play with family or friends. Throw the Ball: This game works best with a group of students. Have the students sit in a circle and have a soft ball. The students become very attentive as they don’t know who the ball will be thrown to! When a ball is thrown to one student, the teacher asks a question related to whatever was taught that day. For instance, what fruit is long and sweet and yellow? Depending on their knowledge level, they can throw the ball back to the teacher or if they’re slightly advanced, they can then throw the ball to another student and ask a question. The ball keeps going around and around. Other students can help their fellow student if they’re having difficulty answering the question. Flash Card/Alphabet: This game is particularly helping in teaching new words with the alphabet. It’s a fairly simple game whereby the student has flash cards with both pictures and the alphabet. When the teacher puts down either type of flash card, the student must match the correct matching flash card. This is fast paced and fun. Pin the Tail: This game can be played with sticky notes with words that were studied that day, or words already known. Typically, this is best with regular things you would find in a classroom such as pens, desk, wall, clock, door, window, etc. Making this a timed game, the student must run around placing the sticky notes in the correct place or object as quickly as possible. If the student has any incorrect, the teacher can remove the sticky notes and give a second chance or hand the sticky note to another student to try. This can really enliven the classroom. What’s Missing: What’s Missing is a great game for memory and recently learned language. Flashcards are placed on the board using tape and students try to memorize what’s there. The students turn away from the board and the teacher removes one of the cards. Turning back to the board students then have to try to guess what’s missing. This game can become quite noisy as students yell out what they think is gone. The first student to guess gets to hold that flashcard and this is repeated until all the cards are gone. The winner is the student holding most of the flashcards. BINGO: BINGO is a great game for learning numbers and has the benefit of being known to most students already. Each student gets a BINGO card and numbers are drawn one by one until the card is full or if not enough time, one line is full, diagonally, horizontally or vertically. One twist with this game is to have the student who wins become the caller. The game can also be slowed down for newer learners or sped up for more advanced learners. In summary, while learning English isn’t easy, introducing games to the learning environment makes the process more fun, interactive, exciting and memorable.
