7 Great Games for Your ESL Conversation Class

Teaching speaking skills is an important part of an ESL class. Sometimes, entire conversation classes are established that focus solely on speaking. Here are 7 great games for your ESL conversation class.

1. Mystery Party Guest

Write down the names and key points about five celebrities and assign them to the same amount of students in your classroom. One by one, a student enters a “party” with another student playing the host. The host must then find out the identity of each guest by having a conversation with everyone.

2. Choose Your Victim

Have your students stand in a circle. Choose a specific grammar point and have the first person asks a question using the grammar structure. The student then throws a ball to another student who answers the question making sure to use the correct grammar. If the student answers in a grammatically correct form, they can ask the next question. If the student answers incorrectly, they must return the ball and sit down. The last student still standing wins the game.

Also read: 7 Activities for Teaching the Present Perfect for the ESL Classroom

3. Ice-breaker Jenga

Use Jenga or another tumbling block game and write an icebreaker question on each of the blocks. The students then pull a bock from the stack and answer the questions before placing the block at the top of the stack.

4. 20 Questions

Write down several objects on cards. Have the first student pick a card and answer yes/no questions about the object from the other students. After 20 questions have been asked and the class hasn’t guessed the object, the student with the object wins.

5. Apples to Apples

This game involves cards with things that relate to one another. Every round has a judge who lays down a card. The other players must then choose a card of their own that they think related to the judge’s card. Once everyone has placed their card, the judge turns them over and chooses the card that matches theirs the most. The student whose card was chosen earns a point.

6. Get to Know You Bingo

Brainstorm activities and experiences a person might have done; flown in an airplane, have a younger brother, been to China, etc. Have the students fill in their own empty bingo chart with the questions and then have them mingle and ask other students. If a student answers yes to a question, the student asking writes the other student’s initials onto their chart. The first student with five initials in a row wins the game.

Also read: 7 Misconceptions about TEFL Uncovered

7. Create A Game

Get the students talking with each other by making up their own board game. Brainstorm board game pieces and rules and group up your students to put them to work. After they’re done making up their game, they need to present and explain it to the whole class.

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Do remember that reported speech requires a lot of practice by students learning the language, so these ideas should enable you to ensure students have fun whilst improving their English speaking skills.

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