According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 3.8 million students in the United States enrolled in English learning classes for the 2003--2004 school year. With the rise of multicultural families at home and abroad, the need for English as a second language (ESL) curriculum has become prevalent. Teachers educating such students need to incorporate fun yet challenging techniques to ensure success in the classroom. Integrating games to the program keeps things interesting and stimulating while teaching the students the necessary grammar, pronunciation, listening, reading and other skills.

Hangman
The teacher divides the class into two groups, thinks of a word and draws blanks corresponding to each letter on the blackboard. The students suggest letters and try to guess the word. For each wrong guess, the teacher draws a tally mark indicating a component of the hangman. The team that guesses the word before the teacher completes the diagram wins. Hangman facilitates vocabulary and spelling skills.

Simon Says
"Simon says" is an entertaining game that encourages ESL students to follow directions and issue commands. The students only follow those commands that follow the phrase "Simon says." Commands given are simple and easy to perform. Any student who acts out the command not following "Simon says" is out of the game.

Taboo
The game of Taboo enforces learning, stimulates the brain, challenges the students and keeps things competitive. For an ESL classroom, teachers play a simplified version of the game available in retail stores, preparing index cards with a word and a couple of related words. The students break into teams and take turns trying to describe the word to their teammates without speaking any of the words provided on the index card; teammates try to guess the word. Players can offer visual cues as hints. For each correct guess, the team gets a point. The team with the maximum points wins.

Online Games
Manythings.org offers Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) for ESL students. Along with providing sections on grammar and vocabulary, the website provides several games, quizzes and puzzles. Students can play games to scramble words and learn spellings. The site also has a featured listening and reading section that offers ESL students several books to listen and read along.

Printable Board Games
ESL-galaxy.com provides board games ideal for beginner, elementary and intermediate students. The website provides an entertaining medium for learning complex skills about grammar, conversation and expressions. The teacher can download and print the board games. Most of the games require dice and chips.