An old friend emailed me yesterday asking about a few warm-up activities we used to do together whilst working at
Pilgrim's Language Summer School at Bradfield College in Berkshire way back in 2006. This prompted me to finally resolve to get together a selection of warmers, games and other activities I use in my EAL (English as an Additional Language) lessons in one place, in order to share with other teachers, encourage other ideas/approaches, and to avoid constantly forgetting them myself! Let me say from the off that I'm totally against the idea of filling lessons with games just to distract students and kill time. I know teachers who favour that, out of laziness, but I obviously don't concur. There is undoubtedly, however, a place for warmers at the beginning of lessons to focus or relax students, games to reinforce learning points in a creative way, and non-traditional classroom activities to appeal to different learning styles as well as adding variety to lessons and stimulate interest.
Most of what I'm going to write, you'll probably have heard of before in some form or another. I just want to have it all in one place and encourage others to offer their ideas and suggestions. Here's an outline of just
some of the activities I have used (to varying degrees of success) over the years, and in no particular order:
Tongue-twistersThis can be a fun activity that usually leads to a fair bit of laughter and confusion whilst encouraging students to practice sounds that might not be common in their native language (the 'r/l' problem in Korea, for example). You need to be careful not to shatter their confidence and there's no better way to do so than attempting (and probably mucking up) a tricky one yourself so tat they see how difficult it is even for a native speaker. There are plenty of examples to be found online but, as I already mentioned the 'r/l' sound, here's one I use from time to time:
A flea and a fly flew up in a flue.
Said the flea, "Let us fly!"
Said the fly, "Let us flee!"
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
Trivia Quizzes
Another obvious choice, but an activity I use from time to time to review material covered in a group activity which encourages a bit of healthy competition too. The problem can be that it doesn't encourage as much speaking (from students) as I would like, and they can easily slip into conferring amongst themselves in their own language. A way around that is to run a few rounds as quiz-master to give them a feel for the format of the activity before turning over the responsibility of creating and asking questions to the students themselves. Instruct each team to choose a topic (sport, movies, music, etc.) and create 3-5 questions that they will later ask the other teams. Advise them that the questions shouldn't be too obscure and that THEY MUST KNOW THE ANSWER. There are potential pitfalls in this, but I've always had it work out (so far). You just need to supervise the activity closely. At the end of the day, if you make it clear that it's just for fun, they tend to not get too competitive. I have recently started doing quick-fire buzzer rounds for spot-prizes/points. I give each team some kind of buzzer (a bicycle bell, squeaky toy, etc.) and it always turns out to be pretty amusing.
Crossword Puzzles
Word-searches seem to be pretty popular amongst teachers of EAL, but I'm not sure how helpful they can claim to be for anyone other than the very lowest-ability students. They smack of 'time-fillers' as far as I can see. Mind you, sometimes there really is a need for some of that. Crosswords, on the other hand, can act as a means by which to review past vocabulary or (if a selection of possible answers are provided) introduce new words. You can create your own crosswords online (
for example here) and easily white out any unwanted ads in the printed version before photocopying for students. I always do this as a pair activity to encourage conversation and the sharing of ideas.
Running Dictation
This is a VERY fun activity that involves reading, speaking, listening, writing and should be carried out as a team activity. One student from each team should volunteer (or be selected) as the 'runner'. You should have a sentence (I usually use a proverb such as, 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.') printed clearly on an A4 piece of paper (best if it is laminated). The aim of the activity is for the runners to go to you (all the runners together) and dash back and forth to their team, reporting the sentence to their team-members, who should write it down. The teacher should only display the sentence for 3-5 seconds at a time, so that the students can't simply read it all at once. To make things more interesting, I tend to move around the classroom so that the students are never sure where to run to. The winning team is the one that can tell me the correct sentence without ANY errors. You need to keep an eye out that the runner doesn't write anything and, of course, that a team-member other than the runner is the one who repeats it back to you. You can then ask the students if they can explain the meaning of the proverb, and tell them if necessary. If you do this activity with only paper then I think you'll figure out why I suggested that you laminate. Many a piece of paper I've had torn out of my hand by overly-competitive students...
What did you do?
This is a VERY common activity among teachers but one that can be used to settle students between activities or at the end of a lesson to award team points, etc. Very simply, one student comes to the front of the classroom and spins around so that the others can have a good look at him/her. The student is then instructed to go outside the door and change ONE thing about his/her appearance. You should offer one or two suggestions (such as rolling up/down a sleeve, removing jewelry, etc.) but encourage the students to be subtle and creative so that it's not too easy. The other students guess what has been changed when the volunteer returns. You can do this by putting up hands or simply calling out, but I require the students to use full sentences. Otherwise, they tend to just shout out, 'hair!', 'buttons!', etc. A variation is sending one pupil out of the room before changing something inside (removing a bin, rearranging desks, etc.) and requiring the student to ask yes/no questions to figure out the change, although I don't use this very often.
I have never...
Most of you may have done this activity before, but as a drinking game! It can be used very effectively to revise the present perfect tense. Start by telling the students something about yourself that will be false for at least some of the students. For example, in Korea, I would say, "I have never been to Jeju Island". Then ask students if they have been to Jeju. If they have, they should stand up. Those who haven't visited Jeju Island will remain sitting down. Offer a few more examples until you're confident that the students understand that they should stand up if the statement is false for them, and remain sitting if it is true. Maybe try a more daring sentence, if you feel it's appropriate. Then, instruct each student (or in pairs) to write at least one statement beginning, 'I have never...'. Elicit a few responses from random students and continue the activity. This can be a good way to encourage new classes to get to know each other better toward the beginning of their time together with you, and can reveal some funny and interesting information if you're students are inquisitive enough! On the other hand, it can sometimes be a bit bland, so judge the time you allocate to it carefully.
Hot-seat
Introduce your chair as the 'hot-seat' and indicate that one student will soon be sitting there, facing the class, with his/her back to the whiteboard. You will write a word on the board (preferably something you have covered in class, but not something that's too easy to explain) and the other students need to explain it to the person in the 'hot-seat'. Once they have arrived at the correct answer, I usually ask them which student gave them the most helpful information, and that's the student I give the point to and invite into the hot-seat next. A variation is putting up a picture of a famous place/landmark (for example, the Statue of Liberty) and requiring students to describe it. You need to make it clear that you want them to describe the picture, not what's on it. For example, I want them to say, 'It's a tall woman holding something in her right hand', rather than, 'This is a famous landmark in New York' because the latter is simply too easy most of the time and the activity is over as soon as it begins.
Taboo
This is a well-known game that works really well in EAL classes of virtually any ability. A volunteer will come to the front of the class and you will give him/her a card. On the card will be one word underlined and in bold above three or four other related words. The aim of the game is for the student to explain the top word (underlined in bold lettering) without saying it or any of the other words on the card. For example, the student may be asked to explain 'garden' but without being allowed to say, 'flowers', 'grass', 'outside' or 'lawn'. You can vary the difficulty according to the level of the students. I usually offer points to the student who guesses correctly and invite them to do the next word. Simpler variations of this involve giving the student a card containing only one word, which they must explain either in words, mime or by drawing, according to your preference.
Alright I think that's quite enough for one entry but I have tonnes of other activities so I'll add to this with a similar post tomorrow, if I have time. Please offer any suggestions and other ideas as you see fit. I know some of the ideas I outlined aren't exactly revolutionary so please don't think that I'm insulting your intelligence as teachers. I simply want to bring a range of ideas together for my own and others reference.
