英语学习游戏

英语学习游戏(English Learning Games)
Students greatly welcome games. They can create a cheerful and light-hearted environment and arouse students’ interest in learning English. Games are co nsidered one of the most effective ways to improve efficiency（效果）in langu age learning. Following are some 50 games for various levels of English stud ents. I collected some of them and created others.
Vocabulary and Phrase Games
1. A Game of Collocation Cards
Aim: To let students review and memorize collocations（搭配）.
Preparation: Make a set of cards with the verbs (or verb phrases) such as ta ke, have, do, play, make, and give. Prepare a second set with nouns (noun p hrases) such as homework, a meeting, a trip, a test, a lecture and basketball.
Procedure: Two or more than two students can play this game. The purpose is to form a collocation.
1) Put all those cards in random order in a pile on the table with students si tting around.
2) In turns, each student takes 6 cards from the pile one by one. Then one s tudent takes one card from the pile. The student keeps it if he/she finds a c ollocation with one of the cards in his hand or he/she thinks he/she can find a collocation easily with this card later. Otherwise, she/he gives it to the nex t person.
3) The next person keeps it, if he/she finds a collocation with one of the car ds in his/her hand.
4) Then the student chooses one of the difficult cards in his/her hand and gi ves it to the next person.
5) If he/she cannot form a collocation, he/she takes another card from the pil
e. The next person does the same until one of them forms three collocations.
The first person that forms three correct collocations wins.
Variation: You can play this game with prepositional phrases and adjective ph rases, as well as verb phrases or you can put all these together.
2. Word Spelling Cards
Aim: To review and memorize the English words students have learned.
Preparation: Make at least 100 cards with the following written on them: letter s, roots, suffixes（词缀）, such as, -tion, -ment, and -or prefixes, such as, -un, -im and –ir, clusters of vowels, such as, -ow-, -ight and -oo- and consonants （辅音）, such as, th-, ch- and sp-.
Procedure: Two or more than two students can play this game.
1) Put all cards in random order in a pile on the table with students sitting a round.
2) Each student takes 4, 5, or 6 cards from the pile one by one. (Students d etermine the number of cards they hold in their hands before the game starts. The bigger the number, the easier the game is.)
3) The object is to construct meaningful words (a word found in the dictionar y) by putting the cards together. When successful, the student shows the wo rd to the other players and puts the cards aside. At the same time, he/she g ets the same number of additional cards from the pile.
4) The first player tries to form more words, which he/she shows to the other players. If he/she cannot form a meaningful word, he/she can take another c ard from the pile.
5) If he/she still fails to form a word, he/she chooses one from his/her cards and gives it to the next person.
6) The next person can get this card if he/she can form a word with the othe r cards. Each time a word is formed, the student shows the card(s) to the ot her players and puts the card(s) aside.
7) If the player cannot form a word with the card given by the previous playe r, he/she can get one from the pile and try to form a word. Again, if a player fails to form a word, he/she selects one of his/her cards and gives it to the next person. The next person will do the same.
Finally, the person who gets the most meaningful words wins.
3. Preposition Cards
Aim: To practise prepositions.
Preparation: Write a number of prepositions (say, 10–20) on separate cards. E ach student has a set of the cards.
Procedure: The aim is to make up sentences using common prepositions.
1) Students can hold the cards in their hands or put them on the desk.
2) The teacher says a noun, a verb or an adjective or a phrase (or writes on the blackboard.)
3) The students think of a sentence quickly using one of the prepositions on their cards. The student who thinks his/her sentence is right can raise his/h er hand and the teacher nominates（指定）him/her. He/She reads out the sent ence. If the teacher says "correct" (the sentence is correct in grammar and m eaning), the student can put that preposition card aside.
4) The procedure is repeated. The student who surrenders all his/her cards fir st will win.
4. Bingo
Level: Absolute beginner to lower intermediate
Aim: to review or preview letters, or vocabulary
Materials: item list, bingo cards (students can make these)
Procedure: Draw a 9-square box (as in tic-tac-toe) and ask students to draw a picture with the target words in each box. You might draw each picture on the board in random（随机）order and have the students draw them in their grid. (This is very useful since you can review the words together with the w hole class as you go along and help students with ideas of how to draw the m). Then draw the pictures in your box on the board and ask the students to choose a word. Choose the students at random. When they get a bingo (any three in a row), they get a team point, a card or a reward. A variation may be to reward them only if they get a bingo before you. This makes it more c hallenging and covers more vocabulary.
5. Slap it
Aim: to recognize words and listen for relevant information
Preparation: a set of 10-15 pictures of different kinds of food items for each t eam of 4 to 6 people
Procedure: Put the items on a desk and the students sit around the desk. T h e teacher describes the food item. When a student has an answer, she/he slaps th e card and says the word aloud. If the student is correct, he/she gets a team poin t. If the student is wrong, he/she is out of the game. Alternatively, in each group e ach student plays independently. If the student slaps the correct picture, he/she ke eps the card as a point. The person or team with the most cards/points wins.
6. Hangman
Level: Absolute beginner to lower intermediate
Aim: to practice vocabulary
Materials: writing surface
Procedure: First, the teacher thinks of a word and writes the same number of dashes, as there are letters in the word on the board.
Then, students begin to call out letters from the alphabet. When a student gu esses a correct letter, he/she will put the letter in its proper place. The letter may be repeated. If a letter that is in the word has not been mentioned, the t eacher will draw one stroke for the hangman. If they can guess the word bef ore the picture of the hangman is finished, they will win. Otherwise they will lose.
Variation: This works best with phrases, not individual words. Scoring need n ot be a hanged man. It can be any picture, or word that has about 10 parts. The pictures can be drawn bit by bit or erased bit by bit.
7. Word Shark. (Similar to hangman) Similarly confusing
Aim: to practise vocabulary.
Procedure: Instead of a man being hung, you can draw a man dangling（悬浮）from a cliff, with the ocean, complete with one ravenous shark, underneath him. When the first incorrect letter is guessed, the man begins his descent to ward the shark, who, five or six wrong guesses later, will eat him. Graphicall y, （图形上）I find Word Shark more interesting than Hangman.
8. Scramble
Aim: to review vocabulary
Procedure: You first write one or two letters in the centre of the blackboard. Then ask the students one by one to form a meaningful word by putting ano ther letter on the left or right, over or under the given letter. The student wh o fails to form a meaningful word loses one point.
9. Musical Chairs with a Twist
Aim: to review vocabulary
Preparation: all the chairs are arranged in a circle and a tag with the target v ocabulary (i.e. jobs) is placed on each chair
Procedure: Play music and have the students march in a circle. When the mu sic stops, the students all go for the chairs. There is a chair for each studen t except one. Then the IT (person in the middle) can ask anyone sitting down, "Who are you?" If they know what the tag on their chair represents, they re main seated. If not, that student becomes IT. This is continued 3 times and t hen the music is played again. The students like this game and it reviews vo cabulary very well.
10. Last Letter
Aim: to review vocabulary
Procedure: First, have a student say a word. For example: "apple." Then have the next student say a word that begins with the last letter of the last word. ("apple" "elephant" ) and so on through everyone in the class. This can hel p you to know the kinds of words your students know, which helps communi cation with them. You can also use a ball to do it or a screwed-up piece of paper. The teacher throws the ball to one student and says a word such as "dog". The student must reply with a word starting with "g," such as "girl". When answered, the ball is thrown back to the teacher and it is then thrown to the next student, who continues.
Variation: you can ask a student to say a short sentence and then ask the n ext student to say a sentence that begins with the last word of the last sente nce.
11. Dictionary
Aim: to learn the meaning of vocabulary
Procedure: In each round, one player reads aloud from the dictionary a word without the meaning. Players announce if they know the meaning. If anyone does, that word is abandoned and a new, unknown word is selected. Then ev
eryone writes a definition for the word, with the dictionary holder writing the correct meaning but not exactly a direct copy. All the definitions are handed to the holder who mixes them up and reads each one. Players declare their picks verbally clockwise from the holder. Alternately, all the students could w rite down their guesses. Everyone that guesses the right answer gets 1 point. The writer of the wrong definition gets a point for every guess of their defin ition. The dictionary holder gets one point anyway. The dictionary is then pa ssed on.
12. Fast Words
Aim: review vocabulary
Procedure: The class is arranged into rows. The first person in each row is g iven a piece of chalk. The blackboard is divided into sections. No more than six teams are formed. The teacher names a letter and the students must writ e as many words beginning with that letter as they can in the allocated time. Their teammates can call out hints. Be warned: this is very noisy. Next, the second team member takes the chalk, goes to the board and the teacher call s out a new letter. The team with the most correct words is the winner.
13. Vocabulary Tic-Tac-Toe
Students' Level of English: Beginner Intermediate Advanced
Materials Needed: The attached handout
Aim: Practice using the words like "want" "have" and "need"
Procedure: Read through the activity with the students and explain that they are to fill in the answers to the number 1 paper with a partner. Ask partner A to guess partner B's answers. If they guess correctly, they get to mark "X" on the answer. If they guess incorrectly, they mark a "0" on the answer. Th e goal is to get a line of three "Xs". When finished, partner B tries to guess partner A's answers using the same sentence patterns.
14. Adjective and Noun Combinations
Aim: To get students to think about and practice combinations.
Level: This game works well with all levels. Lower-level students can make u p simple sentences and higher level students more complex ones.
Procedure: The purpose of this game is to give students the chance to practi ce adjective-noun combinations. Begin by giving them a male or female first name. They must then invent a sentence similar to the following: Albert likes
awful apes. Linda likes little limes. Richard likes roaring racecars. Wendy lik es wiggling（蠕动的）worms. The game should move fast, so you should be prepared with a list of names to fire at your students. You should go throug h the list ahead of time to make sure that you can think of matching adjectiv e-noun combinations within the vocabulary range of your students. It is some times helpful to have a large list of alphabetized adjectives copied off and rea dy to hand out, especially for lower level students.
Variation: you can use this to practice other combinations, for instance verb-noun combinations.
15. Frozen tag
Level: any
Materials: cards (with words or pictures representing vocabulary) space
Aim: review, fluency
Procedure: Hand out the cards, one to each student and practice the vocabul ary so that everyone knows their own word. One person is "it." When "it" to uches another person, he/she becomes "frozen" (cannot move), but their frien ds can unfreeze him/her. To do this, the friend tells the frozen person what's on their card. The frozen person then either repeats or acts out the item. If correct, they are free.
Variation: from time to time have students switch cards and teach each other the new vocabulary and change the person who is "it."
16. Word Category
Aim: to review vocabulary
Procedure: This game calls for words within categories(范围）and sets up a hand-clapping or finger-snapping rhythm with a circle of students. At a desig nated rhythmic point, the first student must call out a word in the target cate gory (country name, flower, article of clothing, etc.) Then at the same point i n the rhythm, the next student must supply an appropriate word, and so on, around the circle until someone gets stuck. Since no word can be repeated, i t also promotes listening to each other.
17. Jumble Word
Aim: to review vocabulary
Procedure: Give students some letters and ask them to form words. At first, you can give them a few letters and then progress to more letters. The stude nt(s) who can form the most words or form a word using most of the letters given is the winner.
18. Christmas Pudding
Aim: to review vocabulary
Procedure: This game is an anagram（颠倒字母顺序）activity. Have students make as many words as they can out of the letters in the words "Christmas Pudding" ex. mud, camp, or aspirin. Have them work individually and then ch eck in small groups. As they check, common words are crossed out. Devise a point scale appropriate to the students' level. Try again with different words: "Silver bells," "Happy Holidays," etc.
19. Word Race
Aim: to review target vocabulary
Procedure: The teacher says a word like bedroom or kitchen and the student s in groups have to draw as many items related to that word as they can. Af ter 5 minutes the teacher calls "pencil down." The students must call out the names of all the pictures they have drawn. The team who can call out the most is the winner.
20. Wolves and Lambs
Aim: to reinforce and review vocabulary
Preparation: 2 or 3 sets of the target vocabulary
Procedure: The teams or groups sit in circles well apart from each other, and are visited by 'wolves' from other teams. Each "wolf" has a list of pictures/w ords to be recognized. Anyone who does not know the words has to stand a side as a captive 'lamb.' (The wolf may ask anyone, What is this?) After som e time, the 'shepherd' (teacher) chases the wolves away and the wolves take the 'captives' back to their groups. The team with the most captives wins.
21. Preposition Cards
Aim: to practise prepositions using kinesthetic（肌肉运动）drama techniques.
Preparation: Cards with prepositions written on them.
Procedure: Each student takes a card. In turns, they have to mime the prepo sition they have until the class guesses which preposition it is. When this ac tivity is over, they have to create a scene where everyone has to speak usin g his/her preposition; they should not use any other prepositions. Students r ole-play their scene.
22. Cards on the Table
Aim: To memorize the correct spelling of words in an enjoyable way.
Procedure:
1) Give the students one letter card each.
2) Clear a space in the classroom and put a table in the middle.
3) The students stand in a circle round the table, 3 or 4 meters from it. Each student has one letter card each.
4) The teacher calls out words he wants to revise, one at a time, and any st udent who holds a letter that is in that word must run forward and put the le tter on the table.
5) The last person who puts his letter down must spell the word and give its meaning. If unsuccessful, s/he is out of the game, and the teacher gives the correct answer.
6) Students should take back a different letter from the table each time, i.e. t hey should swap with someone else.
23. In the Manner of
Aim: To practise adverbs
Procedure: Elicit adverbs from the students and ask a scribe to write them o n the white board. On a different part of the whiteboard write, 'You sat on th e chair _____ly." Explain that you are going to sit on your chair in the mann er of one of the adverbs on the board. Sit on the chair appropriately and usi ng the sentence on the board, elicit from the students how you sat down. Fo r instance, 'You sat on the chair slowly.' Invite learners to take turns sitting on the chair using adverbs from the board and elicit the sentence from their classmates. As the learners warm up to the activity, erase the material on the whiteboard and see how much they remember.
Variation: The teacher calls out a series of imperatives and students sit down appropriately. For example: sit down heavily, sit down sadly, sit down angril y.
24. Word Guessing
Aim: to review vocabulary
Procedure: Divide the class into teams. Give one student on each team a pie ce of paper with seven words on it centered on a theme. For example, 7 wor ds that start with M, or 7 words that are parts of the body. In two minutes (l et the other teams watch the clock for you), the student with the paper must try to get one of the students on his/her team to say as many of the words on the list without using the word itself. One point is scored for each word guessed. The challenge here with a class full of students who all speak the s ame language is keeping them from giving hints in their native tongue. Usuall y, the other teams are vigilant about policing this for you, but when they are lazy, you'll have to lay down the law on your own.
25. The P icnic
Aim: to review vocabulary
Procedure: This is a simple game that requires students to generate vocabula ry in English. The class is asked to imagine that they are going on a picnic. Their job is to suggest things to bring along. The teacher says yes or no to each suggestion. What the students do not know is that the teacher says yes when a student suggests something whose first letter is the same as the fir st letter of the name of the student. The teacher says no if the first letter of the suggested object and the first letter of the name of the student do not m atch. For example: Alicia: I want to bring apples. Teacher: You can bring app les, Alicia. Alicia can bring apples. What do you want to bring, Marco? Marco: I want to bring a radio. Teacher: Sorry, you cannot bring a radio. If students need a hint, you can interject something like: Maria: I want to bring bananas. Teacher: Sorry, you cannot bring bananas. Why not ask Barbara to bring ba nanas? Usually someone figures out the game. Knowing the secret forces the m to narrow their suggestions to words beginning with the same letter as the ir name.
26. Feel and Guess
Aim: to review vocabulary
Preparation: bring plastic or real food in a bag
Procedure: The class is divided into teams. A representative（代表）from eac h team comes to the board and the teacher places a food item in their hand s behind their back. The first person to identify the food correctly scores a p oint for their team. Then new representatives come up.
27. Word Association
Aim: to review vocabulary
Procedure: The teacher starts the game by saying a word such as "Hotel." F or example: Teacher: Hotel. Student A: Bed. Student B: Room. Student C: Ser vice. Student D: Food. As you can see, any association is ok. If the studen t cannot answer (5-second limit), he or she must stand up. The last student seated is the winner. If the association is not obvious, the student is asked t o explain the association.
Games for Listening and Speaking
1. Chinese Whispers
Aim: to practice time and pronunciation
Procedure: Have 2 teams in a U- shape facing each other: Team A and Team B. Call 2 representatives, one from each team, to your desk and whisper a t ime. Then they go back to their teams and whisper the time into the ear of t he first person, who whispers it to the next person, and so on down the line. The last person writes it down and gives it to the person who whispered it first. Then the 2 original representatives run to write it on the board. If the w ords written on the paper and the board are the same, the fastest team score s a point; however, if it is not correct they have to go back and whisper it a gain. This encourages not only time recognition but good pronunciation, like distinguishing between 15 and 50 or 14 and 40. The students love this game.
2. Twenty questions
Aim: to practise saying interrogative sentences
Procedure: One student has something on his mind. Other students try to fin d what he is thinking of by asking twenty questions, e.g., "Are you thinking of a person? Are you thinking of a man?" etc. The student answers only wit h "yes" or " no." If the students can guess the answer with twenty or fewer questions, they win; otherwise they lose.
3. Taboo word description
Aim: to practise speaking
Procedure: One student thinks of a certain word in his mind and describes it without mentioning any words related to it. For example, with the word "boo k," you cannot mention the words: book, letter and paper. Another student ac ts as judge. Other students listen. If the student mentions those taboo words, he will lose. The winner is the student who can talk the longest time withou t using taboo words.
4. Charades
Aim: to get students to describe class items
Procedure: Have a representative of each team go to the board and stand wit h their backs to it. Then the teacher puts up or draws a picture on the board behind the representatives. Then, the teams take turns describing the picture to them, without mentioning the word itself. When one of the representatives identifies the picture correctly, he/she scores a team point. (In the beginning, you might like to choose the most alert students.)
5. Repeat and Add
Aim: to practise speaking
Procedure: First, one student says a sentence of an improvisational（即兴）st ory. The next student repeats the sentence and adds another one. The 3rd st udent repeats the sentences and adds one more sentence. This continues unt il a student fails to repeat all the sentences correctly. Typically, this will mak e a funny story. The student who can repeat the story fully will win.
6. Speak and Guess
Aim: to practise speaking
Procedure: Choose 4 students to come to the front of the room or the middl e of the circle with their ears covered so as to prevent them from hearing. T hen, show the other students an expression or a sentence without letting the four students see it. Finally, the students try to convey to the four students the word or expression with gestures. The student who guesses correctly win s.
7. Right or Wrong
Aim: to practise listening and speaking
Procedure: First ask 4 students to come to the front of the room. Have other students ask them some questions or tag questions concerning geography, history, music, arts, etc. For example, "Name the parts of Great Britain." [Eng land, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.] Then the four students try to an swer them. The student who answers the most questions correctly wins.
8. Description
Aim: to practise speaking
Procedure: Use a homework assignment from the previous day. For example, the assignment was to describe the student's bedroom or dorm room. In the game, the student reads the description of his/her room. The class draws a replica of the room as they hear it described. When the student finishes, s/he draws the room for the class. Often, the comparisons are very funny. It is also a good vocabulary builder. Time needed per student about fifteen minu tes.
9. Catch
Materials: ball (or other throwable item)
Aim: review, student fluency
Instructions: List a set of vocabulary items on the board. The student holding the ball selects an item says it and throws the ball to another student. The 2nd student has to say the previous item, select, and say another item.
Variation: Assign students one vocabulary item. Have the first student pronou nce her/his item and the item of the student to whom the ball is thrown.
10. Blind Olympics
Aim: to reinforce direction
Preparation: rearrange the class into an open space. Make two (or more) tea ms and in each team blindfold one person. Assign a scorekeeper/judge for ea ch team. The students sit at the back of the classroom after creating an obst acle course from desk and chairs. Then the students from each group have t o give directions to their candidate to reach the finish line at the end of the room. Each time their competitor touches an item in the room, they loose a point. If they touch the other competitor, they loose two points (or any combi nation you like). This is a very noisy game, but students love it. It is very us eful in reinforcing directions. (It is ideal for a big class to split them into 4 t eams and start at opposite ends of the classroom.)
11. Hide and Find
Aim: to practice directions
Preparation: paper cups and something to blindfold half the students
Procedure: Number 12 paper cups on the bottom from 1 to 12, depending on the number of students. Divide the students into two teams. For larger class es, you could make three teams or more. Students on each team are paired. One student is blindfolded （蒙上眼）and the other student becomes the guide. Hide the cups all over the room but they should not be under anything. Ass ign team one cups 1-6 to find and team 2 cups 7-12. Guides cannot touch or lead their partners by the hand. They can only give them directions such as turn right, turn left, go straight, etc. They cannot use their native language, only English, to explain the cup's location. When they have found a cup, they must return it to the place that has been chosen by the teacher. I have the m stack each cup on top of the cup they have just found. They remain blindf olded until they have completed finding and returning the cup to the proper place. Their partners must give them directions on where to put the cup that has been found. As soon as a cup has been found and returned by one pai r of students, the next pair goes, etc. The cups must be found and returned in order. The first team to find and return all the cups is the winner.
12. Magic Bag
Aim: to have students ask questions and answer them correctly Preparation: Bring an empty bag.
Procedure: Before the game, collect items from the students' desks or bags a nd put them in your bag without them seeing what you have taken. Then the y have to ask you, "Do you have a...?" If the guess is correct, her/his team gets a point. After you put all the items on the table, one team asks the othe r, "Is this your ...?" For every correct response, add a point to the team's s core.
13. Have You Seen My Sheep
Aim: to encourage careful description and listening about dress
Procedure: A circle is formed with one player called IT outside the circle. He/ She moves around the outside of the circle and taps someone on the should er asking, "Have you seen my sheep (or dog, cat, goat...)?" The Student re sponds: "Yes I have seen it." IT asks, "What's it wearing?" or "How is it dressed?" The student must describe someone in the circle e.g. green sh。