Fun activities to get your TEFL students talking

If you’re kept awake at night by the fear of having thirty TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) students staring mutely back at you, worry no more. We’ve put together our top fun activities that will get even the quietest TEFL class talking!

Find someone who…

This activity is great both as a TEFL warmer and to get students talking to each other during a vocabulary lesson.

• Write five sentences on the board that are linked to your current topic. Each statement should start “Find someone who…” For example, “Find someone who takes the bus to school”.
• Give each student a piece of paper. Ask them to walk around the room and try to find a different person to match each of the statements. They are only allowed to talk in English while they do this.
• The first person to correctly find a different person for each statement wins.

Level: All levels as you can adapt the language to fit the class.

Why not try: Using this activity to start a debate in higher level classes by giving a challenge such as “Find someone who doesn’t eat meat” or “Find someone who hasn’t used public transport this week”.

Why we love it: This is a way to get students talking to people they don’t know in a relaxed environment.

Guess who?

This is a brilliant activity that really gets TEFL students talking. It works particularly well as part of a lesson on body parts, colours or adjectives – but you can adapt it to other topics by changing the pictures you use.

Preparation

• Prepare 10 pictures, each of one person who has clearly identifiable features (e.g. glasses, a beard, a specific colour of hair and eyes, etc.). You can either use pictures of real people or images you’ve created.
• Create a set of name cards to identify the person in each picture. Prepare enough sets of name cards so that you can have one full set for every three to four people in the class plus one extra to go with the pictures.

In the lesson

• Stick up the pictures on the board and put a name underneath each.
• Divide the class into groups of three to four people. Give each group one full set of name cards face down, so that nobody can read the names on the cards.
• Ask one student in each group to pick up the top card from the pile and read the name to themselves. Make sure the student does not show the name on the card to anyone else in the group.
• Tell the rest of the group that they need to ask the student relevant questions to try and find out who is on the card (e.g. “Is this person male or female?” / “Does this person wear glasses?”). The student can only answer “Yes” or “No”.
• Once the group correctly identifies the name on the card, the next student takes a turn.
• If you want to add a competitive edge, set a timer and see which group correctly identifies the most people before the buzzer goes off.

Level: This activity works best with lower-level classes – but it can be a fun refresher at all stages.

Why not try: Using photos of students in your class. It can be a fantastic way for the class to get to know each other – plus creates even more fun as the students look at the photos.

Why we love it: This is a fun, flexible activity, which you can either use as a simple warmer or to break up a vocabulary lesson about body parts.

Alphabet sentences

There’s loads of brilliant alphabet games out there – just think back to those “I went to the supermarket and I bought…” activities from your childhood for you’ll get some great ideas. However, Alphabet Sentences is probably our favourite of all as it makes the class giggle and focus hard. A fantastic combination!

• Divide the class into groups of around five people. Give each group a sheet of paper with each letter of the alphabet written down the left-hand side.
• Tell each group that they have to work as a team to write a short story. The catch is that they must use each letter of the alphabet in order to create their masterpiece. They can add extra joining words such as “a”, “an” “and” and “the” but otherwise can only use each letter once.
• Once the groups have written their story, ask each group to read it out to the rest of the class. If you want to add a competitive edge, tell the class to vote for their favourite version.

Level: Intermediate level or above

Why not try: Picking a letter midway through the alphabet to start – or even letting students use the letters in any order, as long as they only have one word per letter.

Why we love it: The creative nonsense of this game takes the pressure off students who are scared of saying the wrong thing but it also requires everyone to work together and use vocabulary to complete the task.

Reporter

This is a great activity that can work for all levels – simply adapt the language and topic to the level of your students.

• Divide students up into pairs, using your knowledge of the class to provide appropriate matches to less confident students or troublemakers!
• Give the students a topic linked to your lesson, such as their favourite food or place to visit. Tell students they have two minutes to interview their partner on the topic and make notes of their responses.
• Once the two minutes are up, tell the students to swap round so that the reporter now becomes the interviewee.
• Once the second round is complete, ask students to briefly report back their partners’ responses to the rest of the class.

Level: This activity works with all levels as you can adapt the topic, language and length of interview time to match the class.

Why not try: Adapting the activity to a higher-level class by focusing on a topic that could cause debate – such as ways to improve the environment or what they would do if they were in charge of the country. It’s a great way to springboard into a full class activity on the subject.

Why we love it: Students find it far easier to talk if they’re only speaking to one other person. By the time they report back, they’ve already practised the language in a relaxed environment – and the pressure stays off, as they’re repeating their partner’s words rather than their own.

Can I change your mind?

This activity is a fantastic way to challenge higher-level students to present persuasive arguments in English. You might need to push aside some desks before you start to create a bit of space.

• Tell all the students to stand in the middle of the classroom.
• Read out a statement about which students are likely to have different opinions. This could be anything from whether they think footballers are paid too much to whether plastic bags should be banned. Just make sure it’s a topic that’s likely to engage the class – and steer clear of controversial politics and religion!
• Tell the class that everyone who agrees with the statement should move to one side of the classroom and everyone who disagrees should move to the other. If students aren’t sure they can stay in the middle or just move a little to one side.
• Once everyone has moved, ask students on each side to explain their point of view. Depending on the class, you can ask individual students to speak or have an open floor for discussion to range freely.
• As each person speaks the rest of the class can move to a new position to show that they either agree or disagree more with the original statement.
• After a few minutes, draw the debate to a close and move onto a different statement.

Level: This activity works best with intermediate and advanced level students, as they need sufficient English language skills to develop and respond to the arguments.

Why not try: Speed debates. Set a timer for two minutes. Each person gets a maximum of 10 seconds to make their point and the debate ends when the timer goes off.

Why we love it: Debates are a brilliant way to focus students on their choice of words and find ways to communicate their points even if they don’t know every single piece of vocabulary.

Show and tell

We love this activity as it requires very little preparation and lets students talk about something that directly interests them – win-win! You can use it across a series of lessons with a couple of students showing their object each time, or as a one-off activity with the full class sharing their object in small groups.

• Ask students to bring in an object that they think is interesting. It could be anything from a ticket to a film they loved to their favourite toy.
• Ask each student to present their object to their fellow students and explain why it is important to them.
• Encourage the rest of the students to ask the person showing the object questions about it.

Level: This can work for any level by adapting the length of the presentation and the level of questions asked.

Why not try: Centring the task on a specific topic that is relevant to the lesson. For example, if you’re studying food why not ask students to each bring in their favourite fruit or pudding. You can then end the class with everyone sampling it!

Why we love it: Children in particular love sharing something they like or have done. It can be a great way to promote confidence – and for you to learn a little more about your students.

Soft ball chat

This is a great interactive activity that you can use as a warmer or to break up a lesson. It gets students moving around and ensures all students have a chance to speak in a fun, unpressured environment.

• Hold a soft ball or beanbag. Make a statement such as, “Hello my name is ___. I love doing ___”.
• Throw the ball to one of the students and tell them to do the same. Once they have given their statement, they throw the ball to another student.
• The activity continues until all students have had a chance to speak.

Level: This activity works with all levels as you can modify the statement to make it appropriate for the class. For example, in a higher-level class you might use “If I was Prime Minister I would…”

Why not try: Modifying the activity to practise vocabulary. You start by giving a word and the student who receives the ball has to think of another word linked to it. As long as it’s vaguely related, they’re okay! The student who now has the beanbag then throws it to another student who has to do the same.

We love this activity because… With a beanbag flying across the classroom, students focus on catching it and forget the pressure of having to speak.