8 Games For English Learners

Life is more fun if you play games

Roald Dahl

For years research has shown that playing games in the classroom is an excellent way to foster student interaction and to motivate students to practice and learn language. Games will promote friendly competition, are excellent revision exercises, and work perfectly as warm up or wind down exercises in the classroom as well. Using games to teach the English language to ELL students is fun but still challenging and has many benefits for the student.

Benefits of Playing Game with ELL Students include: 

• Providing practice in all four language domains – reading, writing, listening, and speaking
• Creating an interactive environment to practice language in, while promoting social emotional learning
• Reducing anxiety about making errors and increasing confidence in students
• Allowing students to focus on the use of the language rather than the language itself
• Motivating students to remain engaged in the language learning
• Using real life context in which the language is useful and meaningful
• Creating a more inclusive, relaxed and fun learning environment, while still providing a challenging exercises

Many games also allow teachers to adjust the difficulty levels based on the language proficiency of the students and the size of their classroom.

Here are some of the best games to include in the classroom to teach English to Multilingual students

1. I Spy – this game allows students to observe their environment and apply their knowledge to everyday life. This game is best for young or beginner learners to practice speaking and practice their vocabulary. The main learning objective is retaining vocabulary and descriptive vocabulary.
2. Simon Says – another game that is excellent for young or beginner learners, this exciting game allows students to practice their vocabulary and comprehend instructions.
3. Go Fish – this classic game is easy to set up using a deck of cards. Use a themed deck to practice numbers, colors, animals, etc. Set up students to play in groups of 3 to 6. This game is suitable for young children or beginner level students and the main aim is to construct a basic questions.
4. Heads Up – this game requires a countdown timer and prepared vocabulary cards, or you can use phrase cards for a more challenging game. This game is best for smaller classes or groups, as well as for more advanced students. This is a great way to retrieving vocabulary and forming questions.
5. Bingo -this game is so easy to adjust to any group of students and their current level of skills. You can use this as a game for word matching or make it more challenging by using corresponding words, phrases, or definitions. Plan to use 15 to 25 recently studied words and make the game set up easier by using a website to generate bingo cards for each for of your student. 
6. Guess Who – this is another game that is good for all students. This game is best played when students are split up into pairs. Asking descriptive yes or no questions about the mystery person’s appearance is a great way to use the English vocabulary in a practical way.
7. Scavenger Hunt – this game is a wonderful option for young children who get restless behind a desk. Students can explore their environment while practicing their vocabulary. Allowing students to present what they find will provide extra opportunities to practice speaking as well.   
8. Charades – this game is appropriate for all ages and skill levels and is a fun way to interact with other students. You can assign a word, phrase, theme, or allow the students to choose their charade word for themselves. This game lets students practice vocabulary and speaking skills. 

There are so many games that would benefit English Language Learners. A must have in a classroom is a dice! For more ideas of how to engage English learners using dice in very easy but super fun ways check out this blog.

Overall, playing games with your students is a powerful way to promote development in language learning. One unavoidable thing in making use of games in English is that students who speak the same language prefer using their first language. This must be allowed however, to promote trying to play games in English I would just join the game as you can see in the picture above.

Students tend to try to speak English if the teacher doesn’t understand their language, they are so kind:)