Making Requests ESL Games, Activities & Worksheets

ESL Making Requests Game - Speaking: Drawing Pictures from Prompts, Guessing, Forming Questions - Pair Work In this creative making requests game, students draw pictures of 'Can you...?' requests and try to guess requests from pictures a partner has drawn. First, in two groups, students draw pictures that illustrate 'Can you...?' requests in numbered squares. Students then pair up with someone from the other group and give their partner the drawings. Next, students take turns guessing the 'Can you...?' request for each of their partner's pictures. Students have three chances to guess the request for each picture. If a student guesses correctly the first time, they score three points. On the second try, they get two points. On the third try, they score one point. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Making, Accepting and Declining Requests Activity - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Communicative Practice In this free making requests speaking activity, students practice making, accepting and declining requests using prompts on cards. Give each student a request card. On one side is a picture and request prompt and on the other side is a tick or cross. Students hold their cards so the request prompt is facing towards them and the tick or cross is facing away. Students then go around the class making, accepting and declining requests with as many different partners as possible. If students see a tick, they accept the request. If there is a cross, students decline the request. When the students have finished, they exchange cards and repeat the activity, but this time they hold their cards the other way around so the request prompt is facing away. Students then go around the class, making a different request each time they speak to a classmate. show less

ESL Could You Requests Game - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Controlled Practice - Group Work In this engaging making requests game, students race to find someone to accept their requests. The aim of the game is for students to make requests and find the person in their group who has the 'Yes, of course...' response to each request. Student A begins by reading the first request to one of the other students, e.g. 'Could you lend me ten dollars?' That student then looks for a matching reply on their card. If the chosen student accepts the request by saying 'Yes, of course...', Student A crosses off the request. If the chosen student declines the request by saying 'I'm sorry...', Student A has to wait until their next turn before making the request to another student. Student B then reads the first request on their card to one of the other students, and so on. The first student to cross off all three requests wins the game. show less

ESL Making Requests Game - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Communicative Practice In this communicative making requests game, students practice making, accepting and declining requests by racing to find classmates who are free to help them with five tasks. First, students write five tasks they plan to do and need help with in a diary, e.g. wash the car, clean the house, etc. Students then go around the class making requests to find classmates who are free to help them with each task, e.g. 'Could you help me wash my car on Tuesday afternoon?' Students also fill in the rest of their diary with tasks their classmates have asked them for help with. If a student is free, they accept the request and write the task in their diary. The student then signs their name in the square under the task on their partner's worksheet. If a student already has something to do, they decline the request and give their reason, e.g. 'I'm sorry, I can't. I'm helping Tim clean his house.' The first student to find classmates to help them with their five tasks wins the game. Afterwards, continue the game to see who can complete their diary with the most tasks. show less

ESL Accepting and Declining Requests Game - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this fast-paced making requests game, students race to accept and decline requests. In groups, students take turns picking up a card, making an appropriate request based on the situation and placing the card face-up on the table. Students with a matching accept or decline picture card then race to respond to the request. The first student to accept or decline the request and lay their matching picture card down on top of the request card wins and keeps the two cards. The student with the most pairs of cards at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Polite Requests Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Binary Choice, Gap-fill, Matching, Unscrambling, Error Correction, Rewriting and Writing Sentences In this comprehensive making requests worksheet, students learn and practice how to make polite requests with 'Could you...?' and 'Would you mind...?' Students start by underlining the correct phrase to complete each request. Students then complete polite requests with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. Next, students match polite requests to suitable responses. After that, students put words in the correct order to form polite requests and complete an error correction exercise. Lastly, students write a polite request for each situation using 'Could you..?' or 'Would you mind...?' show less

ESL Polite Requests Worksheet - Vocabulary Exercises: Forming Questions, Word Completion - Speaking Activity: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Pair Work Here is a free polite requests worksheet to help students practice a variety of phrases for making, accepting and declining requests politely. First, students use polite phrases to write requests for ten situations. Next, students complete phrases that accept and decline requests. Finally, in pairs, students take turns making, accepting and declining requests using the situations and phrases. show less

ESL Making Requests Game - Speaking: Forming Questions, Communicative Practice - Group Work In this productive making requests game, students practice a variety of request phrases by racing to make suitable requests for common situations. In groups of three, one student picks up a situation card, while the other two students each take a phrase card. The student then reads the response or statement on the situation card, e.g. 'The plants need watering.' The two students then race to come up with an appropriate request using the phrase on their card. The first student to make a suitable request wins and keeps the situation card, e.g. 'Would you mind watering them for me?' The next student then picks up a situation card, and so on. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Requests Worksheet - Vocabulary Exercises: Gap-fill, Identifying, Writing Sentences, Error Correction - Speaking Activity: Role-Play, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this free making requests worksheet, students practice making, accepting and declining requests using various phrases. First, students read two dialogues and complete them with words from a box. Students then role-play the dialogues with a partner to compare their answers. Next, students identify the phrases to make requests in the two dialogues and write them in a table. After that, students identify and write the phrase used to accept or decline each request. Next, students use the phrases from the table to write a request and reply for each prompt. Following that, students write four requests of their own and practice making, accepting and declining the requests with their partner. Students then read short impolite dialogues and rewrite the requests and responses to make them more polite. Finally, in pairs, students write and then present a conversation where they make, accept and decline requests. show less

ESL Requests Board Game - Speaking: Forming Questions from Prompts - Group Work In this fun making requests board game, students practice making requests in everyday situations using various phrases. Players take turns rolling the dice and moving their counter along the board. When a player lands on a square, the student to their right takes a card and reads the situation on the card to the player, e.g. 'You are at a hotel reception. You need a taxi. Make a request.' The player then tries to make a request for the situation using the request phrase on the square, e.g. 'Do you mind calling a taxi for me?' If the request is grammatically correct and appropriate, the student who read the situation accepts the request, e.g. 'Sure. No problem.' If the request is incorrect, the student refuses the request, e.g. 'Sorry, but I do mind.' The player then goes back two squares. The first player to reach the finish wins the game. show less

ESL Suggestions and Requests Activity - Speaking: Planning, Asking and Answering Questions, Table Completion, Guided Discussion, Presenting - Pair and Group Work In this imaginative making suggestions and requests activity, students plan and organise a class party by making, accepting and refusing suggestions and requests. Students imagine that they are going to organize a class party and that there is an unlimited budget as the teacher is going to pay for everything! In pairs, students then make, accept and refuse suggestions and write down their agreed-on ideas for the party. Next, each pair discusses their suggestions for the party with another pair and writes down the best ideas. After that, students take turns making requests to each other to complete tasks in preparation for the party, e.g. 'Could you possibly go to the shop and buy ten bottles of Champagne?' Students only agree to a request if they genuinely think they wouldn't mind doing it. When a student agrees, the group writes down their name and task. If students don't want to do something, they decline the request and explain why. Afterwards, groups tell the class about their party plans and what each student is going to do in preparation for the party. Finally, the class votes for the group with the best party ideas. show less

ESL Would You Mind Activity - Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Communicative Practice In this communicative making requests activity, students practice making 'Would you mind -ing...?' requests and accepting and declining them. Students go around the class making requests for the things shown on their worksheet using 'Would you mind -ing...?' Students only agree to a classmate's request if they think they wouldn't mind doing it. If students don't want to do something, they decline the request and explain why. For each request, students speak to two people. When a classmate responds to a request, the student writes down their reply and name. When everyone has finished, students give feedback to the class on the people who accepted and declined their requests. show less

ESL Requests Game - Vocabulary, Gap-fill, Guessing - Pair Work In this entertaining making requests game, students practice phrases for making requests. In pairs, one student begins by guessing the missing words in the first request. Their partner listens and tells them if they are correct or not. If the student guesses correctly the first time, they score three points and write the words in the gaps. On the second try, they get two points. On the third try, they score one point. After the missing words have been guessed correctly or three chances have passed, their partner guesses the missing words in the second request, and so on. The student with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. show less