ESL Drilling Activity Games
Coin Races
Age/Level: Any Time: 15 minutes Players: Individual Preparation: A list of question and answer structures
Aim: To practice and repeat question and answer patterns
This drilling activity game is ideal for practicing question and answer structures. This game works best with small class sizes.
Procedure
Write some numbered question and answer structures on the board.
Sit the students in a circle.
Have the students repeat the first question three times together as a class.
When they have repeated the question three times, start to spin a coin on the floor.
As the coin spins the students answer the question in turn around the circle.
When the coin stops on a student, you ask the question again to the student and he/she answers it. That student is then out of the game.
You then rub the first question and answer structure off the board.
Then play again using the second question and answer structure.
When the coin stops, the student must answer the first and second question and then leave the game.
This process continues until there is one student left.
That student is the winner.
You can also play this game with the students just repeating a language focus. The student who is speaking when the coin stops spinning is out.
Lord of the Rings
Age/Level: Any Time: 20 minutes Players: Individual Preparation: None
Aim: To repeat and practice questions and answers
This ESL game is great for drilling the structure of questions and answers that you have recently covered in class.
Procedure
Start the game by selecting four students. These students will be the hobbits and will be asking the questions.
Get the four hobbits to stand in a line in front of the board.
You are the King. You have to sit on your throne behind the hobbits.
Assign each of the four hobbits 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. They 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 they rock, paper, scissors.
If the orc wins, he/she moves on to the second hobbit, who asks the orc the next assigned question, e.g. How old are you?
The orc replies and again, they rock, paper, scissors. If the orc wins, he/she proceeds to the third hobbit and so on.
However, if at any time an orc 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 them any question that you've covered in class.
If the orc answers correctly, you rock, paper, scissors. If the orc wins, you have been dethroned and the orc is now the King.
You must rejoin the game with the other orcs in an attempt to get past all the hobbits to reclaim your throne!
Three Times
Age/Level: Young learners Time: 10 minutes Players: Teams of 6 Preparation: Flashcards
Aim: To repeat sentences
Motivate younger learners to speak English with this ESL drilling game.
Procedure
Divide the class into teams of six.
Have each team stand in a line.
Hold up a flashcard and make a sentence based on the picture.
Each team must repeat your sentence three times and then sit down.
The team that sits down first wins.
You can vary the ending by having the students do different actions like turn around or jump before they sit down.
Also, instead of every student speaking at the same time, you can get each student to repeat the sentences one at a time and then sit down.
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