My 5 Favorite Online Language Games
Now and then, I post on my twitter @ddeubel , some “tired teacher tips”. Things that a teacher can just put up on a screen with a click and get students learning/producing English.
I’ll post another time about these (the hashtag is #tttips) but I want to share something similar. My 5 top online games for students. These can also be used by “tired” teachers however the point or hope is that students will find these so engaging that they’ll want to keep playing at home. So I’m not going to list “learning” games like quizzes, matching etc… (I’ll do that another time). Just games that are truly beyond the classroom and “learning English”.
So here it goes …..
#1 Draw My Thing. Hours of “live” fun where you play pictionary online. It is full of contextualized language as competitors try to come up with the right answer. Don’t expect many second language learners to win but I can guarantee they’ll get addicted (and their English will improve).
#2 Guess The Google. An oldie but still a goldie. Grant’s game is a real classic and it also focuses on great contextual learning with photos. Students must guess the google search term for a series of photos. Absorbing and great for vocabulary practice. Now known as “Google Montage”.
#3 Name The Languages. This game focuses on knowledge of the world’s languages. Play different lengths of games and listen to language excerpts (audio) and try to guess which language it is. Perfect for fostering language awareness and talking about this big, big world.
#4 The Tipping Point. I’m not a huge fan of point and click games for language learning (many teachers are). However, this one has handy walkthroughs for the student to reference so they can actually go back and repeat the steps. Plus, the graphics/sounds can’t be beat!
#5 The Subservient Chicken. Okay, it’s Burger King and it’s only a chicken. However, there isn’t any more fun or great language prompting than making the chicken do what you want. Absorbing….
Honorable mentions: Akinator / Alice the chatterbot , Deal or No Deal
I’ve made it a kind of obsessive quest to catalog games on EFL Classroom. Use our GAMES page for a start. But also, the ARCADE and the GOAL GAMES. Others there too, just browse around.
These are nice games that you have shared in this post. Draw My Thing and Guess The Google are the games that I played often. But now I have started to play Key Mamba as it is a new game.
Very nice online games you share here.
Thanks and keep posting.
Here’s a game, not online and more for inspired than “tired” teachers since there is a bit of a learning cure involved. You’ll find students often ask to take Truth or Dare for English Language Learners home however and we suspect there’s more than a beer or two involved. Check out ToD here: http://www.speekeezy.ca/
I was keen to try these but a couple of the links are broken.
I’d like to recommend the Lex Flashcard Game app to use quizlet sets in a fun boggle/mahjong/crossword-style game. No other apps feature this kind of game plus pedagogical tracking/review, important for actually learning from games. You can try it online (including a widget version) at http://www.lexwordgameapp.com
Enjoy!
Oliver