Sites for games and other ESL Diversions

I believe that games are great to incorporate into lessons because they raise the interest level and motivate students to learn English. I am sharing a handful of sites that I found. Please feel free to add to this list!

http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/templates/index.html

This site offers a variety of ESL powerpoint game templates that you may adapt to fit into your lessons. The site also offers samples along with tutorials on how to play the game. I especially like Jeopardy which is a great way to practice vocabulary. This site also has free printable boardgames as well as various card games.

http://www.eslflow.com/games1.html

This article has a variety of communicative icebreaker games, grammar games, card games, and even a pronunciation game which focuses on word stress.

http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/02/13/esl-games-survivor/

I thought this is a great spin off of the traditional spelling bee. It's called "Survivor". I could see my students having a lot of fun with this and it doesn't have to take a lot of time.

http://www.mes-english.com/games.php

This site features a number of different games that could be suitable for pre-teens. I liked Big Town and Grammar Casino (although I would adapt Grammar Casino to fit their more advanced level).

http://www.esl4kids.net/games.html

This site has quite a few creative game ideas which could be suitable for most age groups. I really liked Thwibbledy-Thwap, Sentence Scramble, and Sorry. The first two are great for vocabulary building.

Useful Speaking and Pronunciation Sites

Blabberize

http://blabberize.com/

This is kind of silly but I the students in my context would have fun with it because its kind of like making a puppet where they can upload an image of an animal, cartoon character, or famous person and record their voices to make them talk. They can also listen to the ones that others have done.

The Art of Storytelling

http://voicethread.com/#home

This site gives students the opportunity to record a story based on a work of art at the museum. Students can also listen to stories that other students have created. This works a lot like creative writing, but it's creative speaking. Students could record a story about the same picture, then they could vote for the funniest or most creative.

Speaking avatar

http://www.voki.com/

This site is a free service, which allows you to create your own talking avatar. Students can customize their avatar and add it to an English blog. Teens could have a lot of fun with this.

Oral English Activities: Resources for Teachers

http://waze.net/oea/

These activities have been rated by other teachers and they are presented in order of popularity. This site divides activities into general (in which there is no particular theme and may be easily integrated into any classroom lesson), adaptable (where teachers can adapt the activities to suit a particular theme), and themes (such as food and drink, recreation, health, home, etc.) I liked the communicative crossword activity and the one question survey activities.

Speaking games for kids in Asia

http://www.teachenglishinasia.net/efl-esl-games/middle-school-efl-esl-games

This web site is full of speaking games that would be suitable for middle school students. The three kingdoms game looks like it would be a good activity to get students talking.