Homestay Games
When you’re hosting homestay students, it can be difficult to engage the whole household in conversation, especially if your students are lower levels, particularly in the first few days. I tend to find there’s some dead time after dinner, rainy days and long journeys when everyone is gathered together and conversation can be difficult.
Here are some games we’ve used. The title of each game links to instructions. The language areas specified give an indication of lexical and grammatical areas practiced in the games, but these aren’t classes – the aim should be communication and fun, rather than accuracy.
I’d love to hear what games and activities you like to use.
Board / Card Games
Age: 6+
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 2+
Time: 20 mins+
Language area: Vocabulary, Spelling/Pron.
Students with a bigger vocabulary will be able to think of more words beginning with the letter but as the winner is the last person to say a word before the timer goes off, elementary students have a good chance of winning. This is a good game for a mix of age groups and levels.
Age: 5+
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 2
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: Physical description or (alternative) Hobbies, Interests, Life Stories; To be like / To look like; Does he/she have? / Has he/she got?
Everyone knows the classic version, surely? Alternative play: Instead of describing what the characters look like, you can ask about the kind of person you think they are, ‘Does he look like he’s bored of life?’, ‘Does she look like she’s a cat person?’. This game is funnier but not for anyone who cares about the rules.
Age: 5+
Level: Beginner – Elementary
No. of players: 3+
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: Jobs; Do you have? / Have you got?; Possessives; Families
You probably want to make sure you get a modern pack, the ‘classic packs’ have some odd jobs and is sexist. Better still, make your own. Tip: If you are using a pack you brought, it’s a good idea to go through the pack with the student(s) first and help them identify the families e.g. Mr Field the Farmer (or Farmer’s husband), Mrs Field the Farmer (or Farmer’s wife), Master Field the Farmer’s son, Ms Field the Farmer’s daughter etc. as most packs only have the names and not the occupations or family relationships printed on the cards.
General Card Games (Rummy, Slam, Spoons etc.)
Age: 10+
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 2+
Time: Various
Language area: Card game specific vocab.
Card game specific vocab may not seem like a priority for a lot of language learners but I’ve filled the time in various places around the world playing card games with people whose language I don’t share. Also, once they have some of the vocab, students can teach you card games they know, which is a powerful confidence builder.
Little/No Prep Games
Age: 5+
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 2+
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: Question forms; Various
The difficulty with this game is finding characters you all know. This is an issue when you buy the game. One way of getting around this is using titles e.g. ‘The King of England’, ‘The President of the USA’ and fictional characters e.g. Harry Potter.
Age: 10+
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 2+
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: Various
Age: Teen+
Level: Intermediate+
No. of players: 2+
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: Unplanned speech
The classic radio game allows others to interrupt speech when there is hesitation, deviation or repetition. Even for advanced players, I allow deviation and hesitation.
You could introduce the game by playing a snippet of the radio programme.
Age: 5 – 10
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 1+
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: Directions, Riddles
I’ve played this with little children with riddles like: the next clue is in a cold place in the kitchen, behind a drink beginning with ‘m’ and rhymes with ‘silk’. The book which I’ve linked to the title here is a great book for teaching children to sight read, unfortunately it’s out of print but you can still pick up a second hand copy.
Age: 5 – 10
Level: Beginner – Elementary
No. of players: 1+
Time: 5 mins+
Language area: Concrete Nouns
Blind Tasting / What’s in the bag?
Age: 5+
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 1+
Time: 5 mins+
Language area: It feels/smells/tastes like…; Adjectives; Modal verbs
Alternative version: For adults try ‘blind wine & cheese tasting’.
Blindfold Obstacle Race
Age: 5+
Level: Elementary – Pre-intermediate
No. of players: 2+
Time: 5 mins+
Language area: Directions; Imperatives
We used to do this with and without blindfolds. With blindfolds, the person directing should walk alongside the blindfolded player (obviously). Without blindfolds, the person directing can call novel ways of completing the obstacle course before or during the race e.g. going over/under/around an obstacle, going left/right, running forwards/backwards, hopping/skipping/tiptoeing/walking sideways etc.
Age: 10+
Level: Pre-intermediate+
No. of players: 3+
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: You use it to…/for…; It’s used to…/for; Paraphrasing
You could buy a board game version of this, but I think it’s a waste of money: for lower levels you probably have to make this yourself or get players to write words on cards.
Pictionary
Age: 5+
Level: Beginner+
No. of players: 3+
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: Various
You could buy a board game version of this, but I think it would be too difficult / random for most students. For more advanced students, Pictionary idioms has been fun. It doesn’t really matter whether the students know the meaning of the idiom, they can picture the literal meaning of the words. Tell them the idiomatic meaning afterwards and they’ll be more likely to remember it.
Travel Games
Age: 5+
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 2+
Time: 10 mins+
Language area: Question forms; Concrete nouns
I went to the zoo / market and I saw / brought…
Age: 5+
Level: Elementary+
No. of players: 2+
Time: 5 mins+
Language area: Vocabulary; Spelling
Alternative Versions: With pre-intermediate students and above, we sometimes play this using adjectives and animals/products beginning with each letter e.g. I went to the zoo and I saw an adorable aardvark, a blue baboon, and a cute cat…. To make it even harder, players need to change the adjective each time e.g. I went to the zoo and I saw an amazing aardvark and a bouncy baboon, and a curious cat..
Age: 5+
Level: Beginner+
No. of players: 1+
Time: 5 mins+
Language area: Concrete nouns; Geographical vocabulary
For beginner level children, you can make bingo cards with pictures of items they have to look for and cross off e.g. a yellow car, a bird, a bus etc. The game can be adapted to focus on different vocab / grammar points e.g. a person walking a dog, a cat sitting in a window, a person window shopping etc.
