Games For Esl Adult Students



On this page, you will find several simple yet fun games, printable activities, and ideas for injecting fun into your ESL classes. Whether teaching younger, beginner-level students or older, more advanced students, these games are tried and true ways to make the learning process a little more enjoyable.

#ESLGames #TeachEnglishAt Linguish, we thrive on getting our ESL students to actually speak in English. To do this we use ESL games and activities to teach t. This site is dedicated to helping teachers by providing Fun esl games for Classrooms, Powerpoint Game & Templates, Printable Board Games, Interactive Games for Classrooms, Games for ESL Kids & Adults, Grammar Games, Vocabulary Games, Reading Games, featuring Snakes & Ladders, Hangman &. ESL Games: More Resources from Us. We hope you enjoy these 67 free ESL games that you can use today in your classroom. We’ve tested them out and they are among the favorites for students. If you’re looking more from us, be sure to check out our other ESL games, activities and worksheets: 43 Free ESL Worksheets for Teaching English. ESL Speaking Activities for Adults. Let’s get to the top picks for speaking and conversation activities for adults. Have a great ESL class for adults. #1: Conversation Starters for Adults. An excellent way to begin your class off is with an interesting question so that each student can share a little bit about their life.

This activity is most effective when the students work together as partners, reading and discussing the correctness of sentences. Students are encouraged to use English to discuss their strategies with their partner. This well-known ESL game is great speaking practice for adults.

ESL Games for Younger Students (Beginner/Low-Intermediate Levels)

Simple and Classic ESL Games – A list of many time-tested games for teaching ESL to young learners.

Circle Memory Sentences – Students must remember all of the sentences said before his/her turn. Great for killing time at the end of class or reviewing vocabulary words at the beginning of class.

Read for Speed (all levels) – Read as fast as you can – can you beat the teacher’s time?

DICE BOMB! – Complete a task and roll the dice for points…but don’t roll the wrong number, or else!

Dice Gambling – Test your students’ gambling instincts with this fun way to review previous lessons.

Around the World (Flashcard Game) – A classic competitive flashcard game.

Hoops (Flashcard Game) – Get students running around and looking for the right flashcard in the right hoop!

Phonics Hammer (Flashcard Game) – An endlessly fun way to review phonics.

Memory Game (Flashcard Game) – Another way to turn reviewing flashcards into a fun activity!

ESL Trivia Time! – Printable trivia game that can be played with beginner-level ESL students.

ESL Trivia Time! (2) – Another printable trivia game that can be played with beginner- or intermediate-level ESL students.

ESL Categories (Beginner / Intermediate) – Similar to “Scattergories,” students must come up with words for different categories, using the same first letter for each word.

ESL Ad Lib Madness: “My Favorite Foods” – Similar to the popular “Mad Libs” activities. Good for reviewing parts of speech in a fun, silly way!

ESL Ad Lib Madness: “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” – Similar to the popular “Mad Libs” activities.
Good for reviewing parts of speech in a fun, silly way!

ESL Ad Lib Madness: “Manners” – Similar to the popular “Mad Libs” activities. Good for reviewing parts of speech in a fun, silly way!

I Dare You! – A fun team game in which students must complete tasks to earn points for their team.

The Question Game – You read the answer, and students must come up with the correct question!

Tag Question Game – Fun and simple review activity to practice using tag questions like “…do you?” or “…can we?”.

Don’t Say the Words! (Beginner) – Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to “Taboo”)

Don’t Say the Words! (Intermediate) – Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to “Taboo”)

Don’t Say the Words! (Intermediate) – Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to “Taboo”)

Grammar Shapes – A printable board game for reviewing different English tenses (present, past, and future tenses)

The Bubble Game (parts of speech) – A printable board game for reviewing different parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives)

Phonics Flags (short vowels) – A printable board game for reviewing words with short vowel sounds.
Phonics Flags (long vowels) – A printable board game for reviewing words with long vowel sounds.
Phonics Flags (consonant blends) – A printable board game for reviewing words with consonant blends.
Phonics Flags (ar/er/ir/or/ur) – A printable board game for reviewing the ar/er/ir/or/ur sounds.

Phonics BINGO – Free, printable sets of Phonics BINGO cards. Each set includes 10 unique BINGO cards, plus a list of all the words contained on the cards.

ESL Games for Older Students (Intermediate/Advanced Levels)

ESL Trivia Time! – Printable trivia game that can be played with intermediate- or advanced-level ESL students.

ESL Trivia Time! (2) – Another printable trivia game that can be played with advanced-level ESL students.

ESL Categories (Advanced) – Similar to “Scattergories,” students must come up with words for different categories, using the same first letter for each word.

Don’t Say the Words! (Advanced: Weather) – Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to “Taboo”)

Don’t Say the Words! (Advanced: Jobs) – Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to “Taboo”)

Don’t Say the Words! (Advanced: Sports) – Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to “Taboo”)

Don’t Say the Words! (Advanced: Transportation) – Students must get classmates to guess a word without saying the banned keywords! (similar to “Taboo”)

Survey Says – Give your students a survey, and turn the results into a fun activity! (Similar to the popular game show “Family Feud”)

Conversation Activity: Secret Sentence – Students try to slip a “secret sentence” into a conversation, and their classmates try to detect which sentence is the “secret” one!)

Conversation Activity: Sentence Pairs – Students receive half of a sentence and must find the student who can complete their sentence.

Conversation Activity: Dialogue Strips – Students receive individual lines from a dialogue and must find the students who can complete their dialogue.

Conversation Activity: Unfinished Dialogues – Students collaborate to complete (and expand upon) these unfinished dialogues.

Interactive Writing – This is a great writing activity in which each student writes a part of each story.

The Lying Game – Students take turns coming up with lies about themselves, and their classmates must guess which statements are true, and which are the lies!

Write Your Personal Information Speaking Activity

Adult Learners, Getting-to-Know Each Other, Directions - Giving and Asking, Say/Tell/Speak/Talk
This worksheet can be used to practice 'how to introduce yourself' and 'giving personal information' in a role play or just as a speaking activity. It contains 5 tables were your students can fil ...
1 4,709Beg

F.R.I.E.N.D.S - TV Clip Video Lessons for Adult English Learners :)

Teaching Different Ages » Adult Learners
Don't stress about lesson preparation! My 1 HOUR lessons use short English TV video clips and cover speaking, listening, vocabulary and comprehension. Download the lesson for classroom use. ...
1 3,129Pre-IntIntAdv

Step-by-Step Process Description

Adult Learners, Office
This worksheet is to boost the skills of describing different processes. This one is about arranging a meeting. It is good for business English. You can use it as a part of speaking practice when ...
1 2,581Int

Hope & Optimism in a Global Pandemic

Questions and Short Answers, Adult Learners, Everyday/Social English, Flashcard Sets
There are a lot of reasons to be down with all the bad news during the current global pandemic, but this lesson will have your students talking about positive things in no time. Teach vocabulary ...
1 8,346BegElemPre-IntIntAdvGames For Esl Adult Students

Memory Game of Electrical Components

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Describing Things, Flashcard Sets
This is a memory game based on fourteen electronic components and their definitions. Students display the cards upside down on the table. In turns, they turn over two cards at a time with the goa ...
Adults1 14,816Pre-Int

How (Not) To Swear In English (Adult Learners)

Adult Learners, Wordsets/Collocations
This is a collection of ideas how to approch the topic of Swearings/Bad Words in English. Mind: Adult Learners. There you may find a list of questions for speaking part of the class, some ideas f ...
1 6,476IntAdv

Essay Writing Made Easy (With Scaffold)

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Everyday/Social English, School/University/Education, Reading Comprehension, Coursebook Resources
The worksheet can be used for ESL or middle and high school. It takes the student through the actual process of writing an essay. It tell the student what should be in an introduction as well as ...
1 11,112Int

New Words from 2019 in the Oxford English Dictionary - Reading Comprehension and Quiz

Adult Learners, Collocations, Everyday/Social English, Newspaper English
This is a newspaper article about the new words added to the Oxford English Dictionary in October 2019. There is a multiple choice and fill-in quiz after the reading. Topics: Star Wars, politic ...
1 10,452ActivitiesIntAdv

Third Person Singular Pronunciation Maps (Simple Present)

Present Simple, Teenagers, Adult Learners, Crosswords/Boardgames
This is a game based on Marck Hancock's maze available on his website. Students have to find the path through the verbs with the same pronunciation: e.g. cooks - visits - helps. It aims at helpin ...
1 14,513BegElem

Lottery Game Q Skills 1

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Jobs and Professions
Games For Esl Adult Students
This is a lottery game for helping my students to practice the vocabulary from unit 1 Q Skils book one. it is suitable for adults and teenager students and you can use it too if you want to check ...
1 6,730Pre-IntInt

Don't Drink the Water, Song Activity - Part 2

Teenagers, Adult Learners
This is the second part of a set of activities. I designed different activities for one of my favorite songs. This set is composed of two files: a listening comprehension one and a questions for ...
1 4,364Pre-IntInt

Don't Drink the Water, Song Activity - Part 1

Teenagers, Adult Learners
This is the first part of a set of activities. I designed different activities for one of my favorite songs by Dave Matthews Band. This set is composed of two files: a listening comprehension on ...
1 4,824Pre-Int

Proof Reading Rubric

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Homework
Here is a template wherein a student (or the teacher) can record the type of grammatical errors that the student has made in his/her composition(s). This will enable the teacher to clarify the sp ...
1 4,983Pre-IntIntAdv

Netflix Reading Comprehension (Business English, Statistics, Graphs)

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Mass-media, Newspaper English
Newspaper article about the Netflix streaming service and its current challenges. Current affairs, the media world, reading comprehension, graphs, TV series, seasons, British and American English ...
1 13,025IntAdv

Placing Adverbs of Frequency in Sentences

Adverb, Present Simple, Word Order, Adult Learners
This is a quick and easy exercise of adverbs of frequency. It has both the verb be and regular verbs, so the teacher should have already explained the difference in adverb placement. The student ...
1 14,708Pre-IntInt

Inspirational Oscar Speech – Matthew McConaughey

Adult Learners, Motivation, Celebrities/Biographies
It is an Oscar Speech for advanced level students. It is a very interesting listening exercise. It is very motivational and inspirational. It includes lots of useful vocabulary. This exercise can ...
1 5,984Adv

At A Restaurant - Common Words and Phrases

Can/Could, Teenagers, Adult Learners, Restaurants and Cafes
This is an activity to fill in phrases related to dining at a restaurant. It is a series of words and phrases typically used in Restaurants. At the end students can prepare a conversation using th ...
1 20,371ElemPre-Int

Donald Trump's Speech (Designed for Russian-speaking Students)

Adult Learners, Motivation, USA, Dictionary Activities
This worksheet will help your students improve their listening skills and grab some useful vocabulary on the topic of politics. It is primarily aimed at adult learners.Thought it was created for R ...
1 6,564IntAdv

Constitution Day in Russia

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Politics, Customs and Traditions
The worksheet includes 4 short texts about Constitution Day in Russia and 10 exercises. Most of the exercises are based on the texts, but some of them are also connected to the topic 'The Politica ...
1 4,466ElemPre-Int

Role Plays For ESL Classes

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Role Playing Games, Warmers and Fillers
This sample worksheet contains six role playing situations from the book “ESL role plays for English teachers: 40 great role plays for ESL classes.” Each role plays presents some usef ...
1 109,584IntAdvExam

Reading and Writing Collaborative Activity Using Sticky Notes

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Creative Writing Prompts
This is a worksheet to get students thinking about what they read and write on a daily basis. It is particularly useful for students who claim they never read by getting them to explore what they ...
1 15,487Pre-IntIntAdv

Possessives, Verbal Phrases, Infinitives, Sentence Writing Spanish and English

Infinitive and Gerund, Possessive Case, Adult Learners, Phrasal Verbs
Part 3 of this 24 lesson series for intermediate native Spanish speakers. Different possessives used (don't be fooled into thinking there's only one type used here). Verbal phrases are very impo ...
1 10,542Pre-IntInt

Prepositions of Place and Direction

Prepositions and Conjunctions, Teenagers, Adult Learners, School/University/Education
This worksheet contains three exercises on prepositions of place and direction. The vocabulary is mostly connected to the topic 'My College,' though there other words and expressions. As usual, I ...

Esl Group Games

1 19,096Elem

A Single Life - Tell a Story with Sequencing Words

Adverb, Adult Learners, Movie + Video + Cartoons, Creative Writing Prompts
A worksheet to accompany a short animated video. Includes vocabulary for different life stages, sequencing words to help students write a plot summary of the video, discussion questions and ...
2 27,473Pre-IntIntAdv

How To Speak To Be Understood - A Funny Conversation Activity

Teenagers, Adult Learners, Role Playing Games, Intonation, Rhythm and Stress

Games For Teaching Esl Adults

An amusing idea of how to practice intonation and communication. The students are asked to put the missing punctuation marks, make dialogues according to some specific clues, use their imagination ...
1 92,819

Free Online Esl Games

Pre-IntInt