Education of the republic of uzbekistan termez state university department of english language and literature

It’s not Musical Chairs

ESL Listening Game - Listening and Speaking Activity - Elementary and Above - 20 minutes

For this listening game, you will need an audio conversation, script and some listening comprehension questions. The conversation can come from the course book you use in class. You may wish to use one long conversation or several short ones. The game is similar to musical chairs. Organize the chairs into a circle. There should be one less chair than there are students in the class. To begin the game, ask the students a listening comprehension question based on the audio conversation you have prepared. Then, start playing the audio conversation. The students walk around the circle of chairs listening to the conversation. When a student hears the answer to the question, they sit down. There may be one or several students who sit down. At this point, pause the audio. If it is just one student who sits down, ask them for the answer to the question. If it is a few students who sit down, ask them to whisper the answer to you individually. If a student's answer is correct, they remain seated. If not, they stand back up. Next, ask another question that can be answered in the next part of the audio conversation. The students who have remained standing start walking around the chairs again until they hear the answer to your new question on the audio. Carry on like this until there is one student left standing. That student is out of the game. Remove a chair from the circle. Everyone stands up and the game continues until there are only two students competing for one chair to become the ultimate winner.

Sticky Fingers

ESL Listening Game - Listening Activity - Young Learners - 15 minutes

This engaging ESL listening game works really well with young learners. You play this game with three students at a time. Choose three students to play first. Clear a runway to the far wall of the classroom. Outstretch your arm. Each student then grabs one of your fingers. Assign the students with a special keyword, e.g. take. Tell the students that if they hear that word, they should let go of your finger and run to the wall. Start saying words, some words should have a similar sound to the keyword, e.g. took, tickle, bake, cake, etc. If a student lets go, when you haven't said the keyword, e.g. if the keyword is 'take' and the student runs when you say 'cake', they are out. If you say the keyword, the students let go of your finger and run to the far wall. Your task is to tag out the students before they get to the wall. If you do this, they are out. Repeat until only one student is left. Then, start a new round with three more students. When everyone has had a go, play again with the winners of each round until you find the ultimate champion.