Using three identical stacks of index cards, have each student run to the front of the class, take the top card, and write the answer to the question on the card on the board, then run back to tag next person in line. Questions will ask students to make a judgment based on looking at the rest of the class – “How many students are wearing black shoes? The latest fashion? White shirts?” Students have to write one of five answers on board: all, most, about half, some, none. The winning team is the one that completes all of the questions first without having an answer that disagrees with both other teams.
Materials: Lists of new vocabulary, pictures of models with different styles taken from local magazines and newspapers, worksheets with surveys, index cards with questions.
ESL/EFL books abound in activities and games and they can save you a lot of time and energy in thinking of ways to pass the hours. Be sure to think about the suitability of the activities for your particular country and group of students, not only for level but for cultural relevance.
Question and Answer Match-ups
This activity is similar to the cocktail party game of matching famous romantic pairs, where each person is given a famous personality and has to walk around and mingle with other guests until they find their pair (Juliet has to find Romeo, Mickey Mouse has to find Minnie Mouse). In the EFL classroom, however, the activity can be expanded to include entire question and typical response match-ups. Print several questions and typical responses on separate index cards, shuffle them, and distribute them. Students have to memorize what is printed on their card. Collect the cards, and allow the students to mingle around the room until they find their match.
Have the students report back to class, then have the two partners switch places (the old responder asks the question, the old questioner responds.) This activity can be adapted to suit many different lesson topics.
This activity is mentioned in a few older ESL/EFL texts, and works better with high intermediate to advanced students. A crime occurs (be creative – something to do with the vocabulary you are trying to target would be ideal) and three students from the class are accused. They were all together at the time of the crime, and need to submit an alibi. Have them leave the room for five minutes to decide exactly what they were doing. Explain to the students that they will be questioned separately and that the questions will be very specific (“where in the movie theater were you sitting?”) so that they can adequately prepare. Then, each of the three students should enter, one at a time, to answer other students’ questions. Once all three have answered, the rest of the class can compare stories to find inconsistencies.
This is a variation of the popular game where students have to find matches between two cards that have the same thing printed on them. The added difficulty to this game is that they have to find pairs in logical order of a sentence. Break classes into two or more teams. Place the cards with individual words on them face down in a grid, such as the following, that would test knowledge of nouns, verbs, and pronouns:
Each team is allowed to ask you to turn over two cards (for example, A1 and C2). If the two are the same, and they logically follow the previous pair found in a sentence, they get a point. In this example, the first pair picked to get a point will have to be “The school” or “The girls.” The next pair picked will have to be the verb that agrees with the noun ( “The girls grades,” isn’t correct) and so on until all of the sentences are made. Meaning of the sentences is not as important as noun-verb agreement, as long as students understand the meaning of the sentences they are creating.
Find a story, replace several words with blank spaces, and write which type of speech the missing word should be:
The ____________________________ dance gracefully under the _________.
The (number > 1) (adjective) (plural noun) dance gracefully under the (noun).
Students can work in pai