When teaching English to speakers of other languages (known as TESOL) it is vital to incorporate appropriate language games into your lessons. This is because games encourage students to practice using the language they have learned in class, thus consolidating it. For that reason, the games are valuable resources for improving both fluency and accuracy.

Survival
Write on the board a list of 20 items that might be useful for surviving in the jungle. You might include "matches," "a knife," "rope," "a tent" and "mosquito repellent." Divide the class into groups of four and tell each group that they should discuss amongst their group which are the five most important items and why. After 15 minutes ask each group to tell the class which items they selected, for example, "the first thing we selected was a knife as we can use it for killing animals and chopping down small trees."

What Does It Mean?
Divide the class into groups of three. Give each group a dictionary and, written on a slip of paper, a word that you have not previously studied and is almost certain to be unknown to the class. Each group looks up the word in the dictionary and copies the correct definition. They also write two more incorrect definitions for the word. After 15 minutes stop the activity. Each group reads their three definitions and the class votes on which is the correct choice. This group can then reveal which is the correct definition.

New Words
Divide the class into two teams. Write a word containing four letters on the board, for example, "Limp." Ask one team to make a new word with four letters by changing just one letter of the word on the board. This team might say, "Lime." The other team now changes one letter of the word, such as from "Lime" to "Time." Continue alternating between the teams until one team cannot think of a new word. This team loses one point. Continue with a new word.

Words in Words
Divide the class into teams of three students. Write a long word on the whiteboard, for example, "Synchronicity." Each team writes down as many words as possible using just the letters from the word on the board. A team might write, for example, "city," "tin," "chronic," "hit," and "nit." After two minutes stop the activity and award each team one point for each correct word they have written. Continue with a new word.