By: Zoe W.

I have taught English as a second language for four years, and I have always found that, no matter what ages your students are, games can be some of the best ways to learn. Keeping students engaged and having fun makes the learning experience better for everyone! So, here is a list of a few of my favorites to play with students learning English.

Guess the Word

This is a great game both for vocabulary and for speaking. One player must think of a word and describe it without using the word itself to the other players. They in turn must guess what the player is describing. The student who correctly guesses the word gets to pick and describe the next one. To make this a little easier, you can go by categories, such as ‘animals’ or ‘countries.’ If you have very early learners, you can have a list of ten words or so that you assign as vocabulary words, and players can pick from those. 

Pictionary

This is just like Guess the Word, but students must draw the word instead of describing it. This is an excellent one for younger learners or those who may have a limited vocabulary. You do need a whiteboard or somewhere you can draw, and with GOAT, with the screen sharing options, you can share a virtual whiteboard for this! 

20 Questions

This is a great game to play if you are teaching a conversation class. Students can work in pairs or small groups and think of twenty questions to ask each other. You can make the game more challenging for more experienced learners by adding conditions, such as “don’t use adjectives”, or “make sure to answer in a complete sentence.” This is a great way to practice speaking and to learn new vocabulary.

Related Words

To play this game, each player either needs the ability to write on the virtual whiteboard or a sheet of paper which they can share with the class. The teacher should present a word to the class, such as, for example, “GOAT.” Then, set a timer for a certain amount of time – usually, between 30 seconds to a minute works well. The students have that much time to write down as many words as they can think of that are related to your word. With “GOAT”, for example, they might write “best”, “greatest”, “teaching”, “tutoring”, and so on. This helps expand vocabulary and word choice. To make this a competition, you can split the class into teams, and whichever team has the most words when the timer goes off wins.

These are just a few of the endless possibilities of games you can use to make your lessons educational, memorable, and fun!

For more engaging games, check out our “Filling Gaps during Online Lessons” and “Formative Assessments that Entertain”