When teaching English as a second language or even as a primary one, games can be an invaluable tool that allow players to more easily assimilate the knowledge. Games with simple rules are best to avoid conflicts or confusion about the objective of the training.

Vocabulary Games
There are many options with vocabulary games. The most common form is the crossword puzzle. You can use the puzzle to help new English speakers figure out the meaning of words based on clues either in their original language or in simplified English diction. These are great follow-up exercises to a week's vocabulary lesson. Twenty questions is a game in which people attempt to identify an item based on descriptive answers. It is both a great teaching tool for new vocabulary and an exercise in reinforcing previous lessons. Helping your students construct their own vocabulary games can become a game itself, and one that will involve them and aid with English language immersion.

Board and Card Games
There are board games and card games designed specifically for English language training. The most common feature of these games is that they require identification of an object and its associated meaning. Commercial games such as Memory and Scrabble are great tools for this purpose. When using these commercial games, encourage the students to not only construct the word but to define it as well. Memory is especially prized for second-language learning games where the participants may identify an object in both the native and English equivalents.

Computer Games
Computer games may be made with English learning in mind, or may have features that play to that effect. Popcap Games produces Bookworm, a game in which a user must construct English words from random letters. A simple story is told as the game progresses. Digital Dialects specializes in language training computer games and offers free versions online for students interested in training on their own, as well as classroom downloads and installations. These games range from vocabulary to comprehension and even include numerical training.