Favorite Speaking Games

Why speaking games?

Have you ever wished your multilingual learners would speak more? My students, especially in high school, did not want to speak to me, each other, and certainly not into a microphone for a standardized test like the WIDA ACCESS. I needed IDEAS, and fast. So, I explored the web and by doing so, it actually made me remember all of my tried and true favorite speaking games I like to play. The more I lean on games, the more engaged my MLs are, the more likely they are to start speaking with confidence. Keep reading for my favorite speaking games. Oh, and they require NO PREP. NO COPIES. Just words and fun.

Favorite Speaking Game#1: 20 Questions

Twenty Questions is the classic car game. The rules are simple. One player thinks of something or someone. This person is “It”. It is up to the other players to try to guess what the answer is. They have 20 questions to guess correctly. The only types of questions they can ask are yes/no questions. In my version of the game, “It” can only think of something that is a Person, Place, Animal, or Object. This reinforces nouns, and we also get to differentiate between common and proper nouns when we ask if it is a famous person or famous place. From there, we work on narrowing the answer. For example, “Is this person alive?” This game is great for newcomers, but also sparks a lot of great conversation for students in the intermediate and advanced proficiencies. What I love about 20 questions is  I can pull them out when we finish our main lesson and have 15 minutes left in the period.

Favorite Speaking Game #2: Taboo

Another game like this that I love, is Taboo.  Let me first explain the rules of the game, if you don’t already know.

Taboo Rules: A student turns his/her back to a list of words. The top word is the word they are trying to guess. The other students in the room can see the whole list. There are five words that cannot be said, or are “taboo”. The guesser has 60 seconds to guess the word correctly.

How does this game encourage speaking? First of all, the game’s main objective is vocabulary. Students must think of another way to say a common word. For example, if the word to guess is “apple,” the other students can’t say “fruit”, “iPhone”, “company”, “red”, or “orange”. This forces students to think creatively and using many synonyms. There is a term for this called “circumlocution” which means the use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive. Multilingual learners need to learn the art of circumlocution, and what better way than with a game.

When I did this word with my high school beginners, they figured out they could say “food similar to a banana,” and “It is on the back of the device you are holding.” None of those words were on the taboo list. Now you can see how it encourages speaking. In order to play this game, students must use extended speech. This builds confidence both in informal speech and on tests like the WIDA ACCESS and TELPAS.

For my lower proficiency level ELs, I don’t insist on avoiding the five words, although I scaffold that away eventually. I also go through a word generator and allow them to choose the word they think they can explain the best. Speaking of word generators, the two I like are Play Taboo Online  and The Game Gal. However, I wanted something that fit my students best without having to shuffle through to find words they knew. So, I created two versions called Forbidden Words PowerPoint or Google Slides and Forbidden Words: Animal Edition. Both of these have built-in timers. My students love these and I hope yours will also love these simple games that really hit the sweet spot of fun, vocabulary, and speaking practice.

Favorite Speaking Game #3: Pop Music Activity

I am unabashedly a pop music fan, the cheesier the better. What does this have to do speaking practice for ELs? Pop lyrics are a great way to get your students used to hearing their own voices. Also, a lot of popular songs include idioms and slang, which can sometimes be difficult for ELs to use. Here is how I teach speaking using pop lyrics.

1. Pick out an amazing pop song that is not too fast, not too slow. The ones with a Youtube lyrics video are most helpful. My favorites are anything by Queen, Taylor Swift, Pink, and the Beatles. Be sure you are using “clean” versions.
2. Make or find a worksheet with the lyrics. Leave blanks to replace certain words. What is great about teaching with these songs are you can use them to cover any grammar point.
3. Play the video one time through without lyrics.
4. You can choose to play the video with or without lyrics. It depends on the level of your students. Students fill in the blanks as the song plays. Enjoy!

I recently found a great website called Lyrics Training It takes the concept above a makes it gamified. Unfortunately, because it uses YouTube, a lot of the songs were blocked on my students’ Chromebooks. It could be good to give as homework or use the teacher’s computer and/or whole group.

I also created a full unit to use Pop Lyrics in ELA lessons. It has a plethora of song ideas and graphic organizers to teach

• Theme
• Mood/tone
• Irony
• Allusion
• Characterization
• Alliteration & Assonance
• Similes & metaphors
• Idioms, personification, and hyperbole
• Narration
• Culminating essay idea with rubric

Favorite Speaking Games #4-11 : Other Road Trip Games

After writing the first 3 favorite speaking games that require no-prep, I realized that most of the games I love are actually games I’ve played in the car either as a child or with my own children on road trips. These other classic road trip games would suit your students’ speaking needs:

#4 The Grocery Game

Choose your first player and ask them to think of an item you can purchase at the grocery store. Everyone else takes turns guessing what it might be by asking a question. Is it something you would find in the frozen food aisle, perhaps? No? Guess again!

#5 What Color is It?

One person lists a bunch of things that are the same color. For example, they may say “fire engines, apples, stop signs…” They should keep going until students yell out, “Red!” The more items you list, the better!

#6 I Spy

The first person selects something in the classroom without revealing what it is. Then they must repeat the phrase, “I spy with my little eye something that begins with the letter …” as it relates to the answer. You could also do this with colors.

If you like these ideas, come check out my TpT store where I have speaking products to practice for the WIDA ACCESS test. I have many resources for MLs and more coming all the time. If you have any ideas of products you would like me to make, leave me a comment or Ask a Question in my store. You can also Follow Me using this link that automatically sends you emails when I add or update products

#7 Triple Threat

One person chooses three nouns, like “plate,” “monkey” and “snow,” for example. The students have to create a story that includes all three things. Be warned: things will get very silly, very fast.

#8 Category ABCs

The first player choose a category and name something that begins with the letter A. The next person does the same, only their answer should begin with the letter B. The next person is in charge of letter C, and so on. Some examples for the “food” category include Apples, Broccoli, Cookies…

#9 Would You Rather

Here’s another speaking-friendly game: Choose one person to think of a question. For instance, Would you rather be the funniest person alive, or the smartest person alive? Then everyone has to make a choice. I’ve also used this game as a Quickwrite/warm-up/bell ringer.

#10 Name the Most…

Decide on a category and go around the classroom to see how many related items you can name. For example, you can start with furniture or clothing.

#11 Hypotheticals

Get everyone in the class to respond to a series of hypothetical questions, like, “What would you do if you won the lottery?”.  Or, “If you could transform into any kind of animal, what would it be?”.

If you like these favorite speaking games…

You can find more games and practice in Speaking Games and Activities for the ESL Classroom and Editable Speaking Practice Using Pictures and Illustrations.

If you like these ideas, come check out my TpT store where I have speaking products to practice for the WIDA ACCESS test. I have many resources for you and your MLs, and I am adding more. If you have any ideas of products you would like me to make, leave me a comment or Ask a Question in my store. You can also Follow Me using this link that automatically sends you emails when I add or update products.

Other blog posts you may like:

SASHES Strategy for Academic Speaking

My MLs need help passing the WIDA Speaking!

Yours in learning,

Kim Noble Beiderman