1.

Telephone
Best for: Big groups; speaking skills; pronunciation practice
Telephone is another classic. Students will whisper a given phrase down the
line. The last person will announce the likely convoluted sentence to the class
for everyone’s amusement.
This ESL game is easy to play—no materials needed!
How to play:

 Have all of the students sit or stand in a straight line or a circle.

 Make up a phrase or sentence and whisper it in the first student’s ear.

 That student then whispers the phrase to the next person, and so on and
so forth.

 If a student would like the phrase repeated to them, they can say
“Operator!” This can only be done once per person.

 The last person to hear the phrase will repeat it out loud. It’s always funny
to see how different the phrase turns out!
To make this game competitive, split the class into two teams and see who
gets closest to the original phrase.

2. Storytelling Memory Game

Best for: Speaking skills; memory recall; vocabulary building; sentence
structure review
Together, the class will tell a story out loud by finishing each others’
sentences in this ESL game.
Smaller groups make this game easier, while larger groups will really test
students’ memories. No materials needed!
How to play:

 Begin by sitting in a circle.

 The first person (this can be you, but it doesn’t have to be) starts the story
with a fragment, such as: “It was a dark and stormy night…”

 The next person in the circle must repeat what the first person
said and add a phrase of their own.
 Continue going around the circle until someone messes up. You can start
over, prompt them or something else.

 In the end, you could have students write down the story. Or write it on a
poster board and hang it up in your classroom for students to remember
and get a good laugh!
Example:
Teacher: It was a dark and stormy night…
Student 1: It was a dark and stormy night and no one was around.
Student 2: It was a dark and stormy night and no one was around. Suddenly,
there was the sound of…

3. Written Storytelling
Best for: Working as a team; writing practice
This is a bit like a word association game, but requires that the students
expand on that to create a story.
For more advanced students, consider assigning topics that require students
to discuss customs or cultural norms, like privacy, personal space, hygiene or
dining.
How to play:

 Divide the class into small groups.

 Each group gets to choose three random words from a bag and must
incorporate each word into a short story.

 Depending on your students’ level, you can assign specific numbers of

characters, amount of dialogue, length, etc. to be included in the story.

 At the end of the lesson, groups can take turns reading stories aloud.

 For increased participation and extra practice with speaking, you can ask
the students who are listening to the story to comment on their classmates’
work. For beginning students, sentence starters like, “I liked….” or “what
did you mean by…?” can be helpful to encourage feedback.
Both the written storytelling and the small group discussion that follows are
valuable practice time. Together, they’ll help students practice written and
spoken English in one swoop.

4. Spelling game with spoon

How to play:
  For each color have a set of vocabulary about a different topic, each
color will be divided into 2/3 teams depending on the students’ number.
 Have prepared 2 or 3 spoons for each color, and small balls that can be
placed into the spoons with a letter from the abecedary (i.e. ping-pong
balls).
 At the beginning of the lesson, present the vocabulary to each color and
make sure to revise the spelling.
 Position two desks at the front of the class each of which should have a
spoon and the ABC balls. And two desks on the other side of the class
with a container to place the balls.
 The students will be placed in line behind the desk containing the spoon
and the letters.
 The teacher will pronounce a word from the vocabulary set, the students
must figure out how to spell the word, the first student must pick the
spoon and hold the first letter of the word that the teacher said and run
to the other side of the room where the other desk is placed, if he or she
makes the ball fall down, they must start from the desk again. Once the
student has successfully placed the letter in the container, he or she
must come back and place the spoon in the starting desk to let the
second student repeat the activity with the second letter and so on.
**If we can’t find small affordable balls we can use chopsticks and
scrabble letters instead.

5. Draw from memory

How to play:
 Present a set of vocabulary words that are about a topic and are
recognizable to draw.
 Divide each color into 2 or 3 teams depending on the number of the
students.
 Each student but the first one will have a piece of paper, they will sit
down in line.
 Teachers will show a picture of the object or animal that the students
will draw to the last student of the line, the student has 10 seconds to
complete the drawing. Once the time is over, we will show the drawing
to the next student who will have 10 seconds to do the same.
 The activity will continue until we reach the first student who will have to
guess what object or animal is it. We can show in the end every painting
to see who got closer to the original picture.