A selection of English ESL speaking games printables

Student takes a card and answers the corresponding question. Other students or the teacher can ask additional questions about the topic. If the answer is appropriate, they keep the card; if it's not, they return it. The winner is the group/student with more cards.

Cards Speaking Game

This ws can be used either for private classes or for pair-work. Cut it into individual cards. When they have finished, they can invent other sentences using the same linkers. I hope you like it :)

Speaking game: linkers

make questions to accompany this board-game. Students land on a spot and should talk about the emotion that it represents. A question type could be: What makes you sad? What is your more joyful memory? What is the most disgusting food? etc.. 

Inside Out Speaking Game

A speaking game for the last day of term to get students using summer vocabulary and relative clauses.  Students have to describe their words to their partner in order to complete the crossword.

Summer Crossword Speaking Game

This is the boardgame connected with speaking. Students have to move the pawns and answer the following questions. Don't be afraid of speaking - just enjoy it.  

Name 3 things - speaking game

First go over questions to make plans and both positive and negative responses.  ie "Let's go swimming" or "Why don't we see a movie?" "Sure, sounds good."  "Sorry, I can't." etc.  The students secretly put their battleships in their oceans, and get into pairs.  They attack by trying to make plans on the given days, and the partner responds based on whether they hit or missed the battleship.  

Battleships Making Plans Speaking Game

Cards speaking game for beginners with the verb to be. Use a deck of cards, student takes a card and answers the corresponding question. If it's right, s/he keeps the card; if it's wrong, the card is discharged. Don't reuse cards if you don't want repeated questions. Fully editable.

Cards Speaking Game (There be)

Truth and lies - speaking activity. Create a groups and divide given situation between them. Each situation should duplicate. Every group must find a solution for given situation and compare their ideas with a group having the same situation to assess. 

truth and lies speaking game

This worksheet can be used either in a big group of students or like a kind of one-on-one activity. The topic can be anything: food, clothes, free-time activities, space travel, adventures, etc. You can also practice any grammar points you need and use the worksheet in any part of the lesson you want. E.g. I used it like a warm-up speaking activity on the topic of "How i spent my winter holidays". It\'s also useful in the practice of speech structure and storytelling.

The Secret Word speaking game 

I used the board game template from https://notebookingfairy.com/game-board-templates/ and made this speaking game that has questions based on the Japanese English test called Eiken. Eiken uses a lot of "should...?" and "do you think...?" questions. You can edit the questions, though.



Students play this game in pairs. Each pair has the board sheet and the questions sheet. One player flips a coin to move 1 or 2 spaces on the board (use erasers as game pieces). The other player asks the first player a question. More instructions are in the file. Enjoy! This really got my students talking a lot.

Months Speaking Game for High School

It is a kind of game that encourages ss to speak in given time. The teacher is supposed to explain the names of cards ( spades- hearts- clubs-diamonds) first, give the question as hand out to the ss and bring a deck of cards to the class, make students  choose one card per student one by one. The student is expected to find the question of her/his card and  tells 5-7 sentences at least about the topic.Enjoy it!

Speaking game about future goals and plans

Hand out a worksheet to every child or to each pair of students, if you prefer.
In pairs, children have to choose a set of pictures but they mustn't tell their partner. The partner has to ask  questions 'Do you like eggs?' 'Do you like strawberries?' 'Do you like milk?', and the other pupil has to answer 'Yes, I do' or 'No, I don't' according to the set he/she has chosen.
When the pupil that makes question knows the set, he/she asks 'Is it number 1?' 

You could also play Bingo with these cards.

I hope your pupils have fun!

Do you like? Yes/No questions speaking game

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

286 Speaking games English ESL worksheets pdf & doc