Games To Play With Esl Students

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Quanzhuang Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Linyi Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Classroom games are truly important in every class for every ESL teachers because it’s a very effective tool to get your students attention especially if you’re a new teacher or you are assigned to cover up a class for your colleague. Students don’t want a boring class with a teacher who is so strict and doesn’t even smile in the class. One of the most...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I love flashcards. Honestly, I really do. For me, they are a never-ending source of games and activities. Nowadays I work as an ESL teacher in a training center and I teach mostly young learners (students from 3 to 8 years old) and I am strongly convinced that this age group may learn a foreign language only through games, entertaining activities and live communication. Therefore, I am trying to be creative and use plenty of teaching aids and props, such as IWB, OHP, whiteboard, course books, board games, balls, balloons, hoops, various arts and crafts, etc. However, I find that using flashcards is simple yet one of the most effective tools to increase my student’s vocabulary. And here are some of my favorite games: This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Flashcard is an indispensable tool that every teacher needs during the studying process. Regardless of the age of the students, it can be used effective equal with young learners or adults. Usually, in the ESL classes, the teacher uses flashcards when they need to teach new or review the previous vocabulary. It’s also one of the easiest ways to add some games into your lesson, cause mostly it doesn’t need special preparations. Young learners especially like flashcard games because usually it’s active games and allow them to have fun during the lesson. There are different types of flashcards, for instance, on one side could be a word or picture on another side – it's the English translation. Those types of flashcards are useful for memory games. It...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Liangcheng Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Jining Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. We must up our game as ESL teachers in the 21st century – both figuratively and literally. I use games to engage students and promote learning in my classroom for a wide range of learning objectives. Below is a short list of icebreaker games that I regularly use in my classroom, and I will discuss the learning target(s) that each game aims to facilitate and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Why are games important? Why do we play games? How do people play games in the class? These are the questions people usually ask. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jessie l. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Normally their concern is what they can learn from the games? In my opinion, playing games in the classroom is not only for fun but also for practicing and reviewing what you have learned. In my class I have always enjoyed playing games, I have used many different games as well. Students may be able to understand a new concept or idea. At the beginning of the class(Engage), you do not have to teach students the grammar in this part. We just have fun and engage the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences We must up our game as ESL teachers in the 21st century – both figuratively and literally. I use games to engage students and promote learning in my classroom for a wide range of learning objectives. Below is a short list of icebreaker games that I regularly use in my classroom, and I will discuss the learning target(s) that each game aims to facilitate and deliver as well as the context in which the game is used. Since I work with high school age and adult students, the games are geared for English Language Learners in these age groups. As learning communities become more globalized and data give more information on how people learn, one major challenge I find with gamifying learning in the ESL classroom is making the games that I use more culturally...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Huaishuguan Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Hanzhong Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Games and fun activities are a vital part of teaching English as a foreign language. Whether you’re teaching adults or children, games will liven up your lesson and ensure that your students will leave the classroom wanting more. Games can be used to warm up the class before your lesson begins, during the lesson to give students a break when you’re...  [Read more]

Shirin Sophy Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Today's pedagogical approaches put considerable emphasis upon the importance of providing students with the opportunity to have a joyful educational experience through adding enough and well-located variety to the lessons. One practical way to do so is designing and adding aimful games to your plan in order to inject positive energy into your lessons, improve the mood of your class and make your lessons stick in students' long-term memory. Since not only young learners but also grownups enjoy playing fun games while taking English lessons, teachers, therefore, are always trying to come up with games that serve this purpose. So here are some ESL game ideas that you can adapt to your aim and objectives and play in your classes. You need dice...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Yaomiao Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Linfen Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Some people might ask “Why play games in the classroom?”. Personally, I’ve loved playing games since childhood. I’ve incorporated this into my teaching philosophy. I believe learning a foreign language shouldn’t be a serious thing and it is mostly a teacher’s responsibility to make a lesson more fun and enjoyable for students. There exists a wealth of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas There are many famous games used by TEFL teachers that students know like the back of their hand. If you want to change up your online lessons and bring even more fun in your teaching, check out these seven non-trivial online ESL games to help you in every stage of the TEFL class. For this activity, you will need to prepare a digital image and share it with a student during the online class. You can find plenty of connect-the-dots worksheets on the internet. The student needs to have access to the drawing tool, so make sure the online conference program you use has this feature. Choose a picture that would accompany the lesson's topic. Ask a student to connect the dots at the beginning of the online class to find out...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching language to children is a rather delicate and complex process that requires a careful approach and patience from the teacher. To make this process more vivid and interesting for children, it is necessary to remember the existence of such an important and very useful tool as games. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Aleksei K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In my opinion, games act like some kind of a magic wand which forms the foundation of trust between the teacher and the child, helps to build a psycho-emotional connection, and greatly diversify the learning process as well. Games, in my opinion, have a very important advantage (which can rightly be...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas We all know what it’s like to teach a class with reluctant students who don’t want to talk. It’s like pulling teeth. However, with these 7 awesome ESL conversation activities, you can really get your students talking! For this activity, you simply use a tumbling block game such as Jenga and write 1 simple ice breaker question on each block. Before a student places a block on the stack, they must first answer the question on the block. This activity is especially great for small ESL classes or for small groups in a big class. Also Read: The 5 Best Ways To Build Rapport With Your TEFL Students First, take a few minutes to brainstorm characteristics a person might have. This could be something like “has flown in an airplane” or “has a younger...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences When an English speaker is traveling in the Philippines, it is not uncommon for a friendly conversation with a local to end with the local stating they have a nosebleed and escape from the conversation. In Filipino culture, nosebleeds indicate that the brain is too stressed. Although Filipinos pride themselves in being fluent in English, many are not as confident to speak it when the time requires. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Terence L. This phenomenon of foreign language speaking anxiety is not limited to just the Philippines. Anxiety is one of the vital factors when learning any foreign language. Multiple studies have shown that ESL learners struggle with the language because of the stresses that are brought about through...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When it comes to learning ESL, most learners associate it with memorizing spelling rules, doing countless grammar exercises, making abstract speaking topics, and translating sentences from L1 into English. In these, there is little or no listening and speaking practice involved, making English just one of the numerous boring school subjects. However, there is so much more to learning and activating the language if the fun element is involved. This doesn't only include traditional classroom games but also learning both at school and home with the usage of modern technology. Most children born in the 2000s have grown up using iPads and mobile phones, which makes them much more tech-literate even compared to the children born in the 90s. This calls for...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Rencun Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Hanzhong Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. INTERNATIONAL TEFL AND TESOL TRAINING GAMES IN THE CLASSROOM: THE ANTIDOTE TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPEAKING ANXIETY A Summative Task Presented to The Faculty o f International TEFL and TESOL Training In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate BY: TERENCE D. LUSTAÑA Manila, Philippines January 2019 BACKGROUND:...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas ESL games are games that can be used in the classroom to practice certain language points and encourage active and creative communication between your students. There are many different games created specifically for use in the English language classroom that can be found online or in any number of resource books. But we are not limited only to those games designed for the class; the majority of games that we played as children or still play as adults can be adapted and used in lessons. Whether games are co-operative or competitive, they are a great way to provide students with a goal to be achieved by using the English they have learned. “Games are fun but are not suitable for the classroom.” There is plenty of research to show that this is simply not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have been teaching English to young learners in China for almost a year and I tried to make my lessons with and without flashcards. And I can say for sure, that it’s really hard to teach children (3-12 years old) if you don’t have prepared flashcards for your classes, but only an interactive whiteboard and some stuff to play games. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kelly P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I’d like to reveal a paragraph about games more deeply, because games in a classroom allow you to keep your students motivated and interested in what’s going on. Also Read: "7 Great Games for Your ESL Conversation Class" Show the flashcard to the students...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Mingcun Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Qingdao Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. As a relatively new teacher with very limited teaching experience,I have quickly come to understand the important value of games as a core teaching methodology in any English Speaking Language (ESL) classroom. Games incorporated through lesson activities have provided the platform for critical thinking and problem solving amongst the students. Games used in a lesson...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Hello everybody and welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. It's Liza here and I'm super excited that this stream happens every week and we can talk about teaching and TEFL and stuff like that. So welcome and thank you for joining me. Today, we are going to talk about online ESL game design. Last week I started showing you the game I was designing, it was Monopoly. Today I'm going to show you the outcome of the game and also tell you a little bit more about online game design. Thanks a lot for letting me know that you are watching and right now please let me know at what stage of your ESL career you are at. As for me, I'm an online ESL teacher currently. I used to teach in a real classroom several years ago, but then I decided to switch to the online mode of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Most everyone has a favorite game that they play over and over again. Games go further than just a simple competitive interaction between two people or teams. In a way, games teach the average person how to navigate life with two outcomes; either the joy of winning or the disappointment of losing. Although it is not necessarily bad to lose it is an inevitable outcome for each person who participates. The idea is to learn from the failure to gain experience in which you can strategize a new way to achieve victory. The act of winning is simply the reward for playing the game as it is expected to be played. The main concept of games is competition and how we as human beings are constantly competing whether we realize it or not. As we go about our day to day...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences All humans are raised with an innate love for games. Since we were all children, playing games was our pastime activity. When comes to teaching either young learners or adults, in-class games are the foundation stone of learning. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Pavlina M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teaching Business English (BE) to clients/adults must be a fun procedure. There are many reasons why a teacher must use games when teaching English in class regardless of students’ age or occupation. To begin with, students can learn with great easiness through the game process. New concepts or language perspectives can be understood much easier when learners...  [Read more]

Anna Domiczek TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Preschool curriculum or lesson plan designed for English language learners should incorporate several basic and common themes. Those popular themes created for young learners will introduce students to new, interesting vocabulary words and phrases. Learning about animals, clothing, food, family, shapes, colors, numbers, or daily activities makes students deeply engaged in learning. They are discovering the world around them versus memorizing/repeating abstract words and phrases. Thanks to such theme-based lessons, English language students genuinely engage with the content being taught and make real-life connections while developing new vocabulary and enhanced language skills. The animal theme is immensely popular with...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Games and fun activities are a vital part of teaching English as a foreign language. Whether you’re teaching adults or children, games will liven up your lesson and ensure that your students will leave the classroom wanting more. Games can be used to warm up the class before your lesson begins, during the lesson to give students a break when you’re tackling a tough subject, or at the end of class when you have a few minutes left to kill. There are literally hundreds, probably thousands, of games that you can play with your students. EFL games are used to test vocabulary, practice conversing, learn tenses - the list is endless. Also read: The 5 Best TEFL Games For Adult Students This list of some basic classic ESL games every teacher...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Xiaqiu Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Yantai Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Anyone who has ever been in a classroom knows how much students enjoy playing games. Playing games is exciting and a great time for the students to get to know each other better as well as feel more at ease with the teacher. Consequently, a good English Teacher should know how to use games I order to achieve goals like reviewing previously learned vocabulary,...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Zongjia Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Haixi Mengguzu Zangzu Zizhizhou? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. When I was a beginning teacher, I rarely concerned myself with the engagement of my students. I was fortunate to teach a subject which in itself is often highly engaging; music. I thought that there was no need for students to laugh in my classroom. In fact, I often thought that laughter was a sign that my students were "fooling around", thereby...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Anyone who has ever been in a classroom knows how much students enjoy playing games. Playing games is exciting and a great time for the students to get to know each other better as well as feel more at ease with the teacher. Consequently, a good English Teacher should know how to use games I order to achieve goals like reviewing previously learned vocabulary, enhancing spelling skills, practicing grammar points, promoting a nice and positive attitude in the classroom and many more! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xenia P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Students of all levels and ages usually like playing games in the classroom, but no age group is as rewarding as...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Muhuguan Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Shangluo Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Games are one of the most important components in EFL classrooms. They include activities which have goals and rules at the same time fun. Hadfield (1990; Quoted in Deesri, 2002) describes games as “an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun.” Foreign language learning games can be considered as a framework to provide a meaningful context for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning an unfamiliar language is no easy feat and with the globalization of the English language, more and more people are faced with the task of learning English to better their lives. It is no secret that English is one of the more difficult languages to learn given its many peculiarities and the lack of clues to pronunciation. This makes learning English not only more complicated but often frustrating for students who have difficulties understanding certain concepts. This is where games can have a huge impact. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Randi B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The most important job of any teacher, especially language teachers, is to keep...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As with any subject, a student’s motivation can affect their interest in the subject matter. English is no different, in fact, I believe that motivation is the key difference in students who continue to progress and improve in English and those who don’t and discontinue English in their future. Now, this is not to say that all students with low motivation do not pick up any English through their learning, nor does it mean that a student with motivation will find English learning to be easy. However, I believe that motivation plays a key role in ensuring that a student remains engaged with the English language and eventually progresses into fluency. I wouldd like to present ideas that can add to student’s motivation and improve their English...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The online mode of teaching has become a primary one in the COVID-19 era. For many teachers, remote work is not easy especially due to a different approach to creating materials. If you still struggle with games and activities for your activate phase of the lesson, take a look at the following three tools that can help you to versatile your Zoom classes and make your students super happy! Yes, it’s that easy! This tool is like a magic wand for ESL teachers because it’s easy to use and very flexible in adjusting dozens of favorite games. It's not just a visual aid for delivering a presentation to an audience, in fact, Google Slides can be used as a tool to create a unique learning experience for students. All you need is to be creative! For example,...  [Read more]