ESL Classroom Games
Anyone looking to implement ESL Classroom Games into their English as a second language classes for elementary schools should first consider their students ability as well as previous exposure to the target language. Here, I will outline what I believe are three different overall styles of esl games as well as make a recommendation on how to introduce these games into your class. This article makes the assumption that your classes are somewhat large in size or at least 15 students.
The first style of ESL classroom games are called listening games. These games don’t require students to speak but only listen and react based on a preselected keyword. These games are appropriate for the lowest level ESL students as well as during introduction sessions to new vocabulary. Games of the style are the Karuta (Japanese for card slap) game, the fruit basket game.
The second style of ESL activity, requires student’s to not only listen but repeat a phrase as led by the game master (teacher). While this style is very easy for the students, it requires the teacher to be somewhat preemptive in identifying possible problems in pronunciation to be further worked out before the game starts. For example, if you were playing a repeating style game in Japan, using the target vocabulary of fruit, you can expect that your student’s pronunciation for Apple will instead be Appo. Because the students will be repeating en mass, there won’t be an opportunity to correct pronunciation once the game starts. Games of this style include the freeze game and the magic word game.
The last style of game is also the most difficult because the students are speaking English with almost no supervision from the teacher. These games basically give students an objective and a ready go and they play the games autonomously. As the teacher, you can still spot check their English but as a whole it may be difficult to do which is why I recommend using this style of game after the students have already been exposed to the vocabulary for at least two classes. Example of this style include the hot potato game and the hello game.
Hopefully by now, you have some idea on the best way to implement ESL classroom games into your elementary school ESL program. But by far the biggest benefit of using activities like these in the classroom is that students truly enjoy it.
Related posts: