Power Up Your Online ESL Lessons: 5 Fun & Effective Low-Prep Games
Who doesn’t love playing games even adults will draw towards games that are engaging and fun. As an ESL teacher, whether you want to teach vocabulary or have ice-breaking sessions in your classroom, online games can be a perfect way to make your English language classroom more engaging and interactive.
According to techreport.com, the online game industry is predicted to grow to $32.56 Billion Dollars till 2027.
Those TEFL teachers, who have pursued courses like Bachelor of Education in TESOL, know the benefits of using online ESL games for teaching.
However, if you want to know some easy low-prep games that you can use in your ESL classroom, then we have got you covered.
In this blog post, we will be sharing the best low prep games for teachers to play with students online that require little or no extra preparation from your side.
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So, without any further delay, let’s get started.
Best Low-Prep Online ESL Games For Teaching Language Learners
Here are some of the easiest low prep games for teachers to play with students online:
Drawing Dictation
Drawing Dictation is one of the best low-prep games that you can incorporate into your ESL classroom. It helps learners to develop their language skills like-
- Listening
- Speaking
- Descriptive Language
- Target Vocabulary
You can conduct this game by putting students in pairs (Student A and Student B). Then you need to share any image link over the chat section like- an image of an orange cat. Then either of the students in pairs has to draw and the other student needs to describe the picture in the virtual classroom within one minute.
This online ESL game is suitable for one-on-one or groups of students as well. If you are conducting this game to bigger groups of students then it’s suggested to share the image with the whole group and whichever pair performs best, you can appreciate their effort. Or, in the case of one-on-one teaching, you can become a partner with your ESL student.
Learn, various ESL teaching method for your online English lessons, here:
Missing objects
Missing objects is one of the effective ways of teaching and enhancing the vocabulary skills of ESL students. The only requirement of the online ESL games for teaching is “Realia” in your home or office.
You can conduct this game by gathering a handful of objects and putting them on a tray. Then you can ask students to guess the object and to make the game more interesting you can even let them describe the object's appearance and its function. Make sure the tray is visible to all of your ESL students in the virtual classroom.
Odd One Out
Odd One out is one of the effective ESL games, which enhance students listening and vocabulary skills and also keep them focused in the classroom.
You can conduct this ESL game by calling out five objects like- Carrot, Guava, Apple, Banana, and Grapes. Then you can ask your ESL students to find the odd one out from the list of objects that you have just described. In the above example, the carrot is the odd one out because it’s vegetables and the rest of them are fruits.
Tell Me 5
Tell Me 5 is one of the effective low prep games for teachers to play with students online, which helps them to enhance their speaking skills and vocabulary. The best part of conducting this game is, it doesn’t require much preparation or setup.
You can conduct this game by listing any random categories like-
- Animals
- Vegetables
- Food
- Colours, etc.
Then, let your ESL students decide on any of their favourite categories. Suppose an ESL student selected the Animals category. Then, you must ask them to “Tell me 5 Animals names, and they need to come up with 5 different animal names within one minute.
Word Chain
Word Chain is one of the simplest online ESL games for teaching, which is an excellent option to enhance the vocabulary skills of students and to check their pronunciation skills at the same time.
To conduct this game you can provide any of the categories and every ESL student one by one needs to say a word related to that particular category. Once a student says a related word to a category, then the next student needs to say a word, which ends with the last letter of the previous word.
For example- If a student said a word Tomato then the next student can come up with Onion.
This word chain will go on till a student not being able to come up with a relevant word and they will get disqualified from the game.
Make Language Learning Fun With Available Online ESL Games
Keeping ESL students engaged in your virtual English class is not an easy task. However, with the above-mentioned low prep games for teachers to play with students online, which doesn’t require much preparation, you can help your ESL students to improve their language acquisition skills significantly.
If you want to learn more fun-filled and engaging ESL teaching strategies for your virtual classroom. Then, consider pursuing courses like Bachelor of Education in TESOL, where you will get assistance from top expert trainers.
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