ESL Drilling Activity Games

This drilling activity game is ideal for practicing question and answer structures. The game works best with small class sizes. Write numbered question and answer structures on the board. There should be one question and answer pattern for each student in the class. Sit the students in a circle. Have the students repeat the first question on the board three times. When the students have repeated the question a third time, start to spin a coin on the floor. As the coin spins, the students answer the question in turn going around the circle. When the coin stops spinning, the student whose turn it is to speak, answers the question and is out of the game. Erase the first question and answer structure off the board and then repeat the game with the second question and answer structure. When the coin stops, the student whose turn it is to speak answers the first and second question and then leaves the game. This process is repeated until there is one student left. That student wins the game.

This fun ESL game is perfect for drilling question and answer structures that you have recently covered in class. Start the game by selecting four students. These students are hobbits. Their task is to ask questions. Have the four hobbits stand in a line in front of the board. You are the King. You sit on your throne behind the hobbits. Assign each of the four hobbits with a question, e.g. 'What's your name?' 'How old are you?' 'Where do you live?' 'What's your favourite food?' The remaining students are orcs. The orcs form a queue near the first hobbit. The first hobbit asks the first orc in the queue their assigned question, e.g. 'What's your name?' The orc replies 'My name is...' and the two students rock, paper, scissors. If the orc wins, they move on to the second hobbit, who asks the orc the next assigned question, e.g. 'How old are you?' The orc replies and the two students rock, paper, scissors. If the orc wins, they proceed to the third hobbit and so on. However, if at any time an orc answers incorrectly or loses at rock, paper, scissors, they must return to the back of the queue and repeat the whole process. If an orc manages to get past all four hobbits, they have a showdown with the King! You can ask the orc any question that you have covered in class. If the orc answers correctly, you rock, paper, scissors. If the orc wins, you are dethroned and the orc is now the King. You then rejoin the game with the other orcs in an attempt to get past all the hobbits to reclaim your throne!

Here is an enjoyable ESL drilling game for young learners. Divide the students into equal teams of five or six. Have each team stand in a line. Hold up a flashcard and make a sentence based on the picture. The teams then repeat the sentence three times and sit down. The team that sits down first scores a point. Then, repeat the game, but this time have the students do an action before they sit down, e.g. clap and then sit, jump and then sit, etc. Repeat the game with a different action or actions each time. As the game progresses, instead of every member of the team speaking at the same time, have each student repeat the sentence one at a time, do an action and then sit down. The idea is to make the tasks more challenging as the game progresses. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.