An excellent strategy to use when teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) is to incorporate games to either teach a new skill or to practice a newly acquired skill. Learning to speak English requires a lot of practice and games provide such practice in a relaxed, enjoyable atmosphere. Conditional games for ESL can be found in ESL textbooks and supplemental materials, online, or created on your own. The list below should help you mix and match these options to find the best solution for the particular needs of your ESL students in learning conditionals

Conditional Games Online
There are many online resources for ESL games. I particularly like ESL Tower. At this site you can download a PDF version of a conditionals board game called "What if?" and print it, along with the directions, for quick and easy use. Another good website is ESL Games World. Here you can get templates for all kinds of games for all ages of students and edit them so that you can put your own conditionals into the game. This is really nice because you can add to the game and increase its level and challenge as your students gain mastery over their skills. As you continue to explore online resources on your own, add to this list for easy reference.

Teacher-Generated Games
This game is called "The Last Comes First" and is based on a Japanese children's linguistic game. First make a list of 30 verb phrases and write each one on an index card. Then make a chart with three columns and ten rows. Head each column "IF", "THEN", "AND." Give each team of students two blank charts. The students will draw three verb phrase cards at a time and create a conditional sentence using the chart. Repeat until the first chart is complete.

Next have the students take the last verb phrase in each of their sentences and put it in the "IF" column on the second chart. Mix the cards again and have the students draw two cards at a time to fill in the second chart to create ten new conditional sentences.

Finally, as a bonus, students can mix their sentences to create one very long conditional statement. The objective of the bonus is to see which team can create the most outrageous conditional sentence that actually makes sense.

Teacher and Student-Generated Games
Choose a game that students are already familiar with such as a popular TV game show. Following those same rules, have students work in small groups to create the questions for the game. Make sure the students also create a list of correct answers. Have a craft day in which the students design the playing board or question card. Finally, have a game day in which students in one group teach another group how to play their game. Enjoy the games and provide prizes for the winners.