10 Captivating Games for English Learners

December 5, 2024

All students love to play games!

So for stakeholders, it is a great opportunity to plan extra speaking practice through fun and enjoyable games.

In India, English is a second language for students. However, it is still a passport to a successful life. In the global workforce, English communication has great value and recognition. 95% of the employers in most non-native English-speaking countries, consider English language skills important in the workplace. So there are many obvious reasons, to plan engaging English language speaking activities for students in all types of learning environments (traditional, online school, homeschooling students)

percentage of employers in most non-native english speaking countries consider english important

english requirements in non native english speaking countries

This blog presents the best English language learning games for traditional and online school students. Teachers/parents and caregivers can use these games both offline or online. Some of these classics have downloadable versions that can be used by parents and online teachers (in online schools). To deepen your knowledge about the benefits of game-based learning in an online environment, we suggest you read this related article.

Try out these super engaging games for English learners, and create a refreshing learning environment through these entertaining games.

Be with us!

Guess the Celeb!

Just like ‘Charades’, this is one of the most loved games for language learners. Divide students into two groups and one group decides a celebrity’s name that is given to a team member of the other group. The second team guesses the celebrity basis the clues presented by their representative. These can include his/her famous lines/quotes, body language, actions, notable achievements, etc.

Make it time-bound and encourage students to use decent yet self-explanatory words to describe the celebrity.

Synonyms Fun!

Create chits of words and put them in a basket. All students can sit in the circle and participate in this activity. Like many other English speaking activities, all students get a chance to share the synonyms of the word they picked from the chit in the basket.

Once all students get a chance, a special round can be arranged with volunteers for extra English speaking practice. These volunteers will share more synonyms with their classmates with one of the chosen words that they jotted down during the activity.

My Podcast!

English language learning games are the best when they are related to real-life scenarios. If you have a middle or high school class, arrange a podcast session with an interviewer and an interviewee. Divide students into two groups and let both groups collaborate with questions and prospective answers.

As the round begins the chosen students present their podcast. Later all students can share their feedback on the session. Include recent topics, news, events, happenings, and any other incident that can be engaging for students.

Debates

These classic spoken English activities can never go wrong. Depending on the age group, select topics, and allow a fixed time for all students to prepare and speak for or against the topic.

Encourage researching habits, and ask students to include at least 2 related statistics, facts, etc. preferably with numeric values for authenticity.

My Story

You can also play the popular speaking game, ‘storytelling’ with younger age groups!

These fun English language speaking activities are easy to plan and execute in the elementary classroom. The teacher starts a story with a sentence, and students add different characters, situations, etc. to it. Let the story end with a nice moral.

That’s Not True!

All students write down 5 things about themselves. Out of these, only 4 are true. Make chits and mix them in a jar. Students can be divided into two groups with friends in opposite groups. Ask volunteers to pick a chit and read out the student’s name from it.

Now friends from the opposite group will raise their hands and attempt to pinpoint the wrong fact about the student (who wrote on the chit).

This is one of the spoken English activities that can be customized as per the student’s age group. Ask the friend to elaborate on why he/she finds that particular fact false!

Hangman

Hangman is a classic guessing game and can be used as one of the best English language speaking activities. Students must guess one right letter from a secret word written only through blanks on the blackboard. Encourage strategies like segregating vowels and consonants, and guessing vowels first by both the teams respectively. You can make it more fun by introducing a toss, in the beginning, to decide which team gets more vowels to guess (out of 5).

For every wrong guess, the teacher draws the hangman’s body parts. And he gets hanged if the students fail to guess the word.

My Favorite……

Another simple and yet one of the best English language learning games is ‘My Favorite’. Roll the dice and give every student a chance to speak several sentences on a topic according to the figure in the dice. This can be about his/her favorite movie, TV show, tourist spot, cartoon, personality, or anything else that the student likes.

Vocab/Vocabulary Competition

Another way of playing games for language learners is to start or end the class with it.

Divide students into rows/groups, and the teacher writes a word on the blackboard in each column drawn for the team’s point table.

Now student volunteers from each team start adding new words, or related synonyms to the word under the word written by the teacher. Follow a set timer (For a minute or 2). The teacher now validates all the words with ticks and crosses for the class. And declares the winners. This will be one of the most effective games for English learners with the involvement of multiple students at a time. Teachers can add their creativity by allowing volunteers another minute to explain the meaning of the synonyms written on the board.

Reinforce with smiley stickers, applauses, and vocabulary champ of the week (maintain a chart). And do not forget to use the best words as classroom entry passwords for a least a week.

Guess My Object

For English speaking practice, you can divide students into teams or pairs. Each team decides on an object and describes it on a piece of paper without mentioning the name. Shuffle all the papers in a bowl, and let each team pick one paper and start guessing the object described in it.

Use these 10 ideas as English speaking practice and plan games for English learners to make language learning super exciting!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What games can be helpful for learning a language?
Speaking games are perfect to help students master English language. The best games for language learners are Hangman, debates, podcasts, synonyms fun, my story, etc.

What are the fun games to practice speaking English
The best games for English learners are Charades, Simon Says, podcasts, classroom debates, brainstorming discussions, etc.

How to teach a language in a fun way?
Play games and arrange English speaking activities in the classroom with groups of students.

Mention some games for improving English speaking skills.
You can play Pictionary, Charades, puzzles, That’s not true, My Story, synonyms fun, Guess the Celeb, My Favorite, etc.