Games for Language Teaching

The synonym game Preliminaries Number of players: any Age/ Proficiency Level: minimum A2 level Preparation Time: no need Play Time: any Preparation The teacher has to write the students’ names on the wheel of names in order to start the game. This wheel should be updated according to the present students in class. The objective of the game The game aims to enrich students’ vocabulary. They become able to list as many synonyms as possible for one word. Many students use the most obvious words in English, their vocabulary can be increased with this game. It is useful a game for any English language learners and students can learn from each other. Rules of Play The game should be played individually but it can be also played in pairs or groups as well. A wheel of names will decide who will start the game. With this webpage, we can randomly pick a person: https://wheelofnames.com/ . When the first player is selected, he/she needs to say a word. The person sitting next...

  COMPARDYVISION (Competition, Jeopardylabs, Revision) Link for the game: https://jeopardylabs.com/play/unit-6-revision-29 Compardyvision can be a fun game for students of all ages! It is the mixture of competition, jeopardylabs and revision. It can be played in groups or there can be individual players as well. Game stats: Number of players: adjustable (at least 5) Age and proficiency level: A2, but the game can be altered and used at any level Preparation time: 5-10 minutes Play time during: it depends on the number of players, and the number of questions (at least 20 minutes) Preparation: Before class, we prepare a chart that has 5 columns and 5 lines and we create different kind of questions by using a chosen topic. Then, in class, we have to open the link of the game and project it onto the smartboard, so students can see it. We divide students into 5 groups. Heterogeneous group is better in this case because weaker students can also have the “feeling of suc...

 Places of Szeged Game When I created this game using wordwall.net ( https://wordwall.net/resource/31729200 ) my main aim was to make a game that is intriguing but promotes language learning and improves our general knowledge at the same time. Preliminaries Number of players: any Age/ Proficiency Level: minimum A2 level Preparation Time: 3-4 minutes Play Time: 10 minutes Preparation Firstly, the players need to open the game on wordwall.net and once they found it the teacher will explain the rules of the game and what they need to do in order to win. If somebody has issues with finding the link and connecting to the game, the teacher can provide extra instructions. Roles There are no roles in this game since every participant competes against each other and their goal is to be faster and more accurate than their peers. Rules of Play The game should be played individually using a smartphone but it can be also played in pairs in case a student doesn't have one. The players will see 1...

  Plane seats I came up with this game a few years ago and played it with a group of kids of mixed age. They really liked it, and made it fun to test their knowledge. This game was part of a bigger role-play style of lesson series, but I'm sure it can be used on its own too or in other contexts. Preliminaries Number of players: the main disadvantage of this game is that it can be only played with certain number of students. That is, it can be played with either 9, 12, 15, 16 or 20 students. Age/ Proficiency Level: beginners, young learners Preparation Time: setting up the room with big enough space in the middle for rows of chairs. Play Time: 10-15 minutes   Preparation In advance, paper money bills need to be printed and cut out, at least 20 or 25 or as many as to how many questions we want to ask students throughout the game. Teacher needs to prepare with as many questions for the game as there are dollar bills. Again, at least 20-25 would do. The question...

  License plate game I used to play this game with my family every time we traveled and wanted the time to pass quicker. We used to play this in Hungarian. I wanted to create a game using our experience and have fun while practicing the target language. Preliminaries Number of players: any Age/ Proficiency Level: any Preparation Time: no time needed Play Time: 10-15 minutes   Preparation It can be played without any preparation, but if you want to make sure, you can make some cards with license plate characters. If you are not creative or do not want to spend much time thinking about it, you can write your family’s license plates or just look out the window and write what you see. Object of the game The goal of the game is to write the most original words using those characters and get the highest points. Roles This is a player vs player, or group vs group game, which means that everyone (every pair) wants to win and collect the highest number of ...

  Pillow advisor What inspired you in the creation of this game? https://www.boredpanda.com/international-proverbs-illustration-james-chapman/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic&fbclid=IwAR2W65xcVVhoO_oXJc8mKQGjSrfdm-0UOmv8pWcJF8lFC9OUpOEWXXUm5LA   https://www.thoughtco.com/famous-proverbs-and-quotes-2833003   Preliminaries Number of players: 1<= Age/ Proficiency Level: B1-C1 Preparation Time: none Play Time: 20 minutes  Preparation What did you do to get ready for the game? Print the handouts    Proverb Meaning Country Picture  1 “The pillow is the best advisor.” Sleep on a problem and see how you feel in the morning.  Sweden  2 “When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets hurt” Fighting the powerful only hurt the little guys. Kenya 3 “Hunger is the best sauce.” Everything tastes better when you are angry. Ancient Roman 4 “To live with the wolves,you have to howl like a wolf.” In dangerous situations...