The Teacher's Breakroom

Imagine living in a foreign country where you don’t understand a word of the language spoken around you, yet you have to interact with the native people everyday.   It would be intimidating, wouldn’t it? That’s what many ESL students experience when they first enter your classroom.

Often times, ESL students come to school with only the fundamentals of the English language.  They may know the English alphabet, but they cannot speak or read the language.  That’s when ESL activities become important.

Obviously, the goal is to become proficient in understanding, reading, writing, and speaking English. The task for teachers is to lay a strong foundation while engaging students in fun activities that will build their confidence.

With any new language, it’s important to that they learn to speak the language as they would their mother tongue, using proper subject and verb agreement and complete sentences. Learning vocabulary words alone is not enough. They need to grasp the meaning and correctly apply the words while speaking and writing. In order to do this, engaging and interacting with other students or even computer software is essential.

The importance of learning proper sentence structure

A sentence delivers a lot of information that allows us to communicate:  vocabulary, proper sentence structure including grammar, as well as meaning. For ESL students, a complete sentence helps them recognize the rhythm and pattern of proper English.  When students learn a new vocabulary word, it’s crucial that students practice using the word in complete sentences.

Helpful activities for the beginning English speaker

Research indicates that oral questions are often the most helpful way to understand context and meaning. One way to do this is for the ESL teacher to ask random questions about the topic they are studying. Adding appropriate levels of humor is important to engage the student. For example, the teacher can ask, “Are you a kangaroo?” or ask a girl, “Are you a father?” Encouraging communication is often difficult because students don’t feel confident enough to speak. However, if the subject is interesting to them they are much more likely to participate.

Here’s one activity that encourages active participation…

The ESL teacher puts students into groups and has them name their group after a favorite musical band or sports team. Have each team face another team.

Each student receives a list of questions that have answers.

Examples:     “Do you like ice cream?”

“Yes, I like ice cream.”

“Do you have a dog?”

“No, I don’t have a dog.”

A student from one team asks a student in the other team one of the questions they were given. For each correct answer that shows understanding of the question, a point is awarded to that team. This continues until everyone has had a turn asking and answering.

Other Fun Activities For Practicing English

Teachers can incorporate fun games as learning strategies and simply give them an ESL twist.  Playing ESL Tic-Tac-Toe is a perfect example.

On a tic-tac-toe sheet, the teacher alternates within the individual squares examples of sentences that are grammatically correct or incorrect. Make sure there are an equal number of both and allow for a free space in the middle.

An X can be for correct sentences and an O for incorrect sentences.

Another childhood game that’s easy and fun to play is Simon Says. Choose a student to be Simon and have him or her direct the others what to do. For example, “Simon says raise your right hand, touch your ear, take one step back, etc.” If Simon does not begin with “Simon says…” and the student carries out the action, that student is out of the game.

Using games as teaching tools is a time-tested strategy that is engaging and makes learning fun.  By beginning with a long-term goal in mind, teachers can turn practically any game into a vehicle for learning the English language.