Theme: the role of games in teaching speaking for a2 level learners c0ntent introduction

The Association Game

This is a great game to help learners build their vocabulary. You can stick with one topic and use it at the end of a lesson for learners to practise what they’ve learnt, or even use it at the end of the year and explore a range of vocabulary that you’ve covered. To play, all of your children should stand in a circle. You pick a word and then the person next to you has to say another word that is somehow linked. For example, if the first person said ‘strawberries’, the next person might say ‘red’, and then the next person might say ‘tomatoes’. Set a time limit for how long children have to pick a word, and if they can’t think of one in that time, they’re out. It gets harder the further around the circle you go as you can’t repeat anything that’s been said before you. If you want some inspiration for what topics to cover, take a look at this page that covers everything from shapes to superheroes.

3. What’s Wrong With Me?

A game where everyone gets sick! . This is a great game when practising vocabulary related to illness. Write out different illnesses onto sticky notes, or use these handy flashcards, and stick them onto learners’ backs. Learners then walk around the classroom, asking advice for their illness from classmates. Based on this advice, learners should try and work out what their illness is. ¹

4. Scrambled words

A fun game that tests vocabulary, grammar and spelling. A triple threat! Write a sentence up on the board with words in the wrong order and include one misspelling. Get your learners to work in teams to try and get the sentence back into the correct order again and to find the word that is misspelt. The team that raises their hand first and that has correctly rearranged the sentence and found the misspelt word gets a point.

What am I?

Split the class into teams. Get learners to take it in turns to come up to the front of the class, facing away from the board. Pick an item or object to put up on the board that the rest of the class can see, but not the learner. You could use these Alphabet Cards. Each team has to try and describe the object on the board to the learner without using the word in a set amount of time. Keep playing until at least one person from each team has come up to the front to try and guess the item.