Games for English Class

Game Bahasa Inggris

1.   Chain Spelling (Shiri-tori)

Level: Easy to Medium

The teacher gives a word and asks a student to spell it, and then a second student should say a word beginning with the last letter of the word given. The game continues until someone makes a mistake, that is, to pronounce the word incorrectly, misspell it or come up with a word that has been said already, then he/she is out. The last one remaining in the game is the winner.     

This game can be made difficult by limiting the words to a certain category, e.g.. food, tools, or nouns, verbs, etc.

2. Describing Appearances & Characteristics of People

Level: Easy to Medium (Low to low intermediate)

Each student is then give one sheet of paper.  One student sits at the front of a room.  He/she describes a person and the rest of the class draws the person being described.It is more interesting if the person being described is known by everyone. Once the student has finished describing that person then he/she reveals who it is and each student shows his/her drawing. The laughter from this is hilarious as the impressions tend to make the character in question look funny.

It is a good idea to encourage students to ask the interviewee student questions about who they are describing.

3. Spelling Contest

Level: Any Level

First, if you have a large class you have to divide it in 2 teams. then the teacher says a word or a sentence depending on the level for the students to spell.  Students should spell these correctly with not even one mistake. The team that has more points is the winner.

4. Truth or Lie?

Level: Any Level

This isn't really new. I got the idea from a book and have expanded on it a bit. It can be used at any level from pre-int. up. It can be used just for speaking practice but it's particularly useful if you're doing present perfect for past experiences. It works soooo well! The students just love it! Lots of question and past tense practice. Even the quiet ones will talk!
Based on a group of three (it can be done in pairs, or fours if you write some more questions), each student has a piece of paper with five questions on it (see below) and takes it in turns to ask the person on their left one of their questions. The student answering the question must answer 'Yes I have.' regardless of the truth. The student who asked the question can then ask as many further questions as he likes in order to help him decide whether the truth is being told or not. Obviously, sometimes they'll be telling the truth. The third student can also join in with questions, thereby 'ganging up' on student B. Listen how students fabricate stories in an attempt to avoid questions! When the first student feels he's heard enough he says 'No further questions' and writes 'True' or 'False' next to the question. The game then carries on (student B asks a question to student C and so on) When all the questions have been asked the papers are passed to the left for marking i.e. the truth is revealed. The highest score out of five wins.
This game will really open your eyes to people's ability to LIE.
Here are the questions. You can use different ones, obviously.

Have you ever…
spoken to a famous person?
danced on a table in a public place?
been trapped in a lift?
taken an illegal drug?
sung karaoke?

Have you ever…
appeared on television?
left a bar or restaurant without paying?
written graffiti on a wall?
appeared in a photograph in a newspaper?
chased a criminal?

Have you ever…
done a very dangerous sport?
won a medal or trophy?
missed a flight?
stayed in a five-star hotel?
swum naked in the sea?

A typical exchange might be something like:
- Have you ever swum naked in the sea?
- Yes I have.
- Where did you do it?
- Erm. On holiday in Majorca.
- Who were you with?
- Some friends.
- What were their names?
- Erm...etc.

5. Name the Place

Level: Any Level

First prepare a list of places about 20 on seperate pieces of paper and then divide the students into groups of 4-6. One member of the group chooses a piece of paper and between the group they prepare a dialogue or mini-theatre based on their place. When all the groups have prepared their work they take it in turns to read or play them out and the other students have to guess the name of the place it is taking place. A time limit can be based on the level of the students. I find this works very well with student who do not have enough confidence to just speak without preperation, but after the exercise they gain a lot of confidence by trying to speak by not looking.

6. Verb Review Game

Level: Any Level

This game can be played in teams or individually, depending on the size end knowledge of the students.

Step 1:

The teacher gives the students 5 minutes to review a list of both regular and irregular verbs.

Step 2:

Then the teacher writes something like this on the board : "things we do with our feet"

Step 3:

The students then have exactly one minute to write all the verbs related to this topic, such as: walk, kick, dance, run, jump, etc.

Step 4:

After the time is up, the teacher checks the students' lists of vebs. Each verb counts for one point. Any verbs appearing in more than one list are elliminated.

Then the teacher writes another topic on the board, "things we do with our mouth", for instance.

The student or team with the most points is the winner.

NOTE:This game can be used to review ot only verbs but also adjetives, nouns etc.

7.  20 True or False Items

Level: Easy to Medium

Print this out and give it to your students.

1. I never go to bed after 1 am
2. I study English more than 2 hours a week
3. I had a great time at secondary school-I loved it
4. My ambition in life is to get a permanent job
5. My parents started giving me pocket money when I was five
6. I don't mind wet days, there are still plenty of things to do
7. I really believe that motorbikes are dangerous
8. Parents spoil their children nowadays
9. The beach is for relaxing and doing nothing
10. I am an adventurous person
11. I never run for a bus-I can catch the following one
12. In the end, most people are very nice
13. I absolutely hate Mondays
14. I have never stolen anything-never
15. People who smoke are crazy
16. Tall men/women are more interesting than small ones
17. People who watch more than 2 hours of TV a day are wasting time
18. Spending 4,000 pesetas on a permanent is immoral
19. Keeping animals at home is cruel
20. I am intelligent

8. People Who ...

Level: Any Level

An activity whose aim is to complete sentences and also take advantage of the contributions in order to generate debate and interaction.

How: Just hand out the following sheet with the heading

PEOPLE WHO ...

and tell the students they have to complete the sentences with realism-not just adding on a grammatically correct ending.

PARK THEIR CARS ON THE FOOTPATH ...

WHO DON'T PAY TAX ...

WHO THROW LITTER ON THE GROUND ...

WHO GIVE MONEY TO CHARITIES ...

EAT CRISPS AT THE CINEMA ARE ...

WHO DRINK AND DRIVE ...

WHO TRAVEL A LOT ...

WHO SAVE LOTS OF MONEY ...

WATCH TV ALL DAY ...

GO TO THE OPERA ...

EAT FROG'S LEGS ...

CLIMB EVEREST ...

HUNT WHALES ...

EAT TOO MUCH ...

DRIVE TOO FAST ...

JUMP QUEUES ...

WHISTLE AT GIRLS ...

SMOKE IN PUBLIC SPACES ...

EARN A LOT OF MONEY ...

THROW THEIR OLD COOKER INTO A FIELD ...

SNORE ...

Etc .......... (Add more!)

NB: The idea is to get personal, individual endings. For example, for

"People who eat crisps in the cinema ...",

I got:
annoy me
should eat them before the show
make a lot of noise
have a right to do so (!)

As you can see, everybody has a different answer-and opinion. The latter is what generates talk.

So you kill two birds with one stone: You practise grammar and you get students talking.

9. Add a Word

Level: Any Level

Rationale: Students practise grammar and syntax.

Materials: None.

Levels: All levels, though better for more advanced students, because the game is more fun at a quick pace.

Method: One student begins a sentence by saying only one word. A second student must say a word which continues the sentence. A third must continue, and so on, until someone says a word that does not fit syntactically or grammatically. If the sentence comes to a logical end without error, the next student may say "period" and begin a new sentence with a new word.

The teacher may suggest a topic to get things started. What the students say may also be recorded and played back, so the class can discuss the error that stopped the sentence.

Example:

Teacher: The topic is 'pets'.
First student: "My . . ."
Second student: ". . . dog"
Third student: ". . . has . . ."
Fourth student: ". . . spots . . ."
Fifth student: ". . . brown . . ."

The sentence would stop here. The teacher would ask the students why, hoping someone explains that the adjective 'brown' normally comes before and not after the noun 'spots'.

10. Guess the Object

Level: Any Level

The teacher prepares cutout pictures that are pasted or taped to index cards. One student selects a card and must describe it in English until another student can guess the object. This is very much like "20 Questions" but instead of the challenge being to ask questions, the bonus is on the cardholder to verbalize the description.

The teacher should be careful to select pictures that reflect the vocabulary level of the students. Simple objects, like "baby", "door" or "car" are good for beginners. Later on, more complicated pictures that suggest actions, scenes and relationships could be used, like: "mother bathing child".

11. Whispering Game

Level: Easy

Divide the class into two teams. Line up the players. If there's an odd number of players, one can be the teacher's "helper". The teacher or his helper whispers a message to the first person of both group A and group B. The game only starts when both players know the message. Then each player whispers the message to the next player in his group sucessively until the last player gets the message. The team which can repeat the message first and correctly receives a point. Start the game over with the second student of each group becoming the first ones in line.