Whatever language someone speaks fluently, they naturally think it should be the easiest for others to learn. English is no different, though many believe that it is the hardest language to learn for those trying to pick it up as a second language. If you're looking for fun ways to teach English as a second language (ESL) to your students, try activities and games.

Hello Bingo
You can play a variation of bingo with your ESL students. Fill a page with five columns and five rows, with each containing a different inquiry. Have students converse with other students to see whether they fit any of the descriptions in the box. For instance, you could have boxes that read, "Someone who likes fruit," "Someone who likes to play basketball," "Someone who likes Madonna," "Someone who has a significant other" and so on. If students find matches, have them mark off their box. Whichever student scores bingo first (up, down or diagonally) wins the game.

Word Survivor
Rather than conduct a traditional spelling bee for your ESL students, have them work together to play Word Survivor. Give students 5 minutes to study the spellings and meanings of six to 10 new words. Have students stand up and inform them that they will work together to spell words. If the word is "green," the first student says "g," the second says "r" and so forth.

Make sure students do not take too much time in answering; if they do, have them sit down. If students spell the word correctly, they all remain standing. If a student makes an error, she sits down and is out of the game. The last student standing claims the title of Spelling Survivor.

Ring-a-Word
Ring-a-Word helps students with identification, no matter what part of the English language you are teaching. For an alphabet game, cover a whiteboard with all vowels and some problematic consonants, posting some letters in lower and upper case. Divide your class into two teams, giving one team a blue marker and the other a red marker.

Have the teams line up on either side of the board, and after calling out a letter, have the front students look on the board and draw a ring around it. After every one or three calls, change students. The winning team is the one with the most rings at the end of play. You can play the same game with days of the week, months of the year, numbers and so forth, even, for example, posting both days and months on the board and having students identify the right word after you say it.

Other Games
Odd-One-Out lets students practice ESL vocabulary and speaking. After making a list of four or five words--all but one sharing a commonality--have students find the word that has nothing in common with the others in the set. Have them explain why they chose the word they did. For example, if you list "violin," "viola," "trumpet," "cello" and "viol," and a student selects "trumpet," he would say that four of the words are string instruments, whereas a trumpet is not.

To identify clothing, styles, colors and shapes, play What Am I Wearing? On the board, draw a circle with four bubbles, each containing one of the four seasons. Display a series of garments in the classroom and have students discuss which seasons are best to wear each garment. You also can divide students into teams, describe a garment and have one member of each team go to the board and write the garment that you describe. The first student to write the correct word (he can receive assistance from teammates) and with the right spelling wins.