To get students to learn the many ESL vocabulary words that you will present in any given class you will need lots of different activities to change things up. This next activity has the students competing in groups of fours to verbalize the meaning of English words you are covering for that lesson.

Split your class into groups of fours and have the students sitting across from each other. Tell one student that he is to have his book or notes open to the page with the vocabulary definitions. The rest of the students will have nothing on their desk. Pass out a piece of paper that you print out before class, which contains five lists of vocabulary words. Each list will have exactly six words. Provide one game playing die to each group and have them wait for your instructions.

Explain that on your signal one member of each group is to roll the die. Whatever number the die lands on is the word that is to be defined. Everyone will start on list one and won’t move to list two until you give the word to move on. When a particular student rolls the die he is to give the group leader the definition of the word and this leader confirms it with his notes. For example, if a person gets a six, and on the board number six is the word “airport”, that student is to define “airport”. The student leader checks the definition and decides who rolls next. He is also to keep score.

Each group stays on the first list until you indicate that it is time to change to the next list. Every time you move on to the next list a new student will be the leader. Whoever got the most correct answers in the previous round can be the new leader. Again, the three students who don’t have their notes open will be taking turns rolling the die and stating the definitions for the words that they roll.

Make sure to walk around the room and check for participation and to settle any disputes between students. Some people may not trust that the leader has read the correct definition of the word accurately. You may also want to make sure that the ESL students are speaking in English. Try to put high performing students with the struggling ones. Give the class enough time to get through each list and follow the activity up with an ESL worksheet or something that can be done quietly at the desk.