Esl introduction games activities

If you want students to work on their oral expression, they may present their partners to the rest of the class by using the answers provided during game time. You can turn this into an even more elaborate game by making the interviews homework and having students present their partners to the class without giving the identity of the partner. The class then has to guess the identity of each person based on the details that are presented.

Not only does this game force students to ask questions and reformulate the answers, but it also gives them a great way to practice either oral or written expression. This getting-to-know-you ESL game is a lot of fun for more advanced students. Each student must tell the class two truths and a lie about him or herself and have the class guess which statement is the lie.

Students must be able to express themselves orally in order to succeed at this game. This game allows students to get very creative, which means that they usually have a lot of fun playing. Teachers should not hesitate, however, to correct grammar and vocabulary points that have been covered already in class. This game can be played to get students up and moving, which is a big help if your ESL class has a tendency to be tired, lethargic or quiet.

First, ask each student to write down a secret on a piece of paper. Have each student fold their paper and put it in a hat. Each student then draws a secret from the hat. Once each student has a secret, have them walk around the classroom asking other students questions to find out whose secret they have. Each student writes down their favorite book, food, movie… on a piece of paper and hides it in their pocket or textbook.

Each student then goes around and asks their classmates questions to find someone who has written down the same answer. Eventually, most of the students will understand the game when they see that some students are allowed to go. You can also have the students give more information about themselves e. My Life in Five Sentences. This is a great icebreaker activity for the first day of class to help students get to know each other.

In the activity, students use sequence words to order information about a partner. Write five sentences on the board in a random order about interesting things you have done in your life.

Then, write some sequence words on the board, e. Tell the students that the sentences on the board are things you have done in your life but the order is wrong.

Have the students put the five sentences in the correct order using the sequence words on the board. The students can do this verbally or you can have them write the sentences. Then, ask the students for their sequence until someone gives you the right order. Next, tell the students to write five sentences in a random order about interesting things they have done. Tell the students to avoid writing sentences where the chronological order is obvious. When the students have finished writing, divide them into pairs.

The students read their partner's sentences and try to put them in the right order using sequence words. If the order is wrong, the student tries again until they get it right. You can make this icebreaker more challenging by using more sentences, e.

When everyone has finished, ask the students to give feedback to the class on the information they found out about their partner. Here is a fun mystery game to play on the first day of class. The game motivates students to ask Wh questions and helps them learn interesting things about their classmates. Give each student a slip of paper. Tell the students to write their name and a secret about themselves on the paper. The secret should be something that is unknown to anyone in the class, such as a hidden talent, a skill, or accomplishment.

After the students have written their secrets, collect in the slips. Read them and choose one slip that has an interesting secret on it. Next, ask three students to stand up and go out of the classroom. One of the three students must be the person who wrote the secret. Go out of the classroom and tell the three students the secret on the slip and explain to them that they must all claim to have that secret.

Bring the three students back in the classroom and sit them down in front of the class. Tell the class the secret and explain that the secret belongs to one of the three students. The students' task is to ask the three students Wh questions to determine which students are lying and which student is telling the truth. After a few minutes of questioning, the students vote for the person who they think is telling the truth.

Award one point to the students who guess correctly. Then, choose another secret and repeat the process and so on. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. Snowball Fight. Here is an inventive way for students to introduce each other on the first day of class. This game works best with younger students. Ask the students to write their name and five things about themselves on a piece of paper, e.

If you want to give the students more direction, write a short introductory text on the board for them to copy onto the paper and complete with their own information. Next, divide the students into two teams and have the teams stand facing each other at opposite sides of the classroom. Tell the students to crumple their paper into a snowball. Explain that the two teams are going to have a snowball fight. When you say 'go', the snowball fight commences. When you shout 'stop', anyone holding a snowball must open up the paper and find the person whose name is written inside.

The student then introduces the person to the class using the information written on the paper in the third-person, e. He is 11 years old', etc. When the introductions have been made, the corresponding snowballs are removed from the game. The two teams continue the snowball fight until everyone has been introduced to the class. Teacher's Question Time. This fun icebreaker game can be used to introduce yourself and the course to a new class of students.

The game also helps you gain insight into your students' level of English. This greetings and introductions role-play activity helps students to learn and practice language for greetings, making introductions, small talk and ending a conversation. In groups, students role-play a dialogue from the worksheet. Students then write down the language that was used in the conversation to greet someone, introduce someone, make small talk, end the conversation and say goodbye.

Students also suggest other possible phrases for each function. In their groups, students then write a similar dialogue where they greet each other, make introductions and small talk, and say goodbye.

These dialogues are then presented to the class. Meet and Greet Role-Play. This engaging greetings and introductions role-play activity helps to teach students various formal and informal phrases for greetings and introductions.

In two pairs, students write their partner's name on a card. Each student then greets or introduces themselves to a student in the other pair using introductory phrases on their card.

After the students have introduced themselves, they ask follow-up questions from the card and get to know each other. Students then introduce their friend to the person they are speaking to using a given phrase. Afterwards, students swap roles and repeat the activity to give them practice at using the other introductory phrases.

Finally, groups act out their role-plays in front of the class. Pleased to meet you. Here is a greetings and making introductions game to help students practice or review formal and informal phrases for greetings, making introductions and saying goodbye. In groups of three, students take it in turns to turn over two cards. The aim of the game is to find the beginning and ending of a phrase for greeting, introducing or saying goodbye.

If a student matches a beginning and ending successfully, they say the phrase aloud, keep the cards and have another turn. If the two cards don't match, they are turned back over and it's the next student's turn to play. Students then sort the cards into a conversation between three people. When the students have done this, they take on the role of the three people in the conversation and role-play the dialogue together.

Lastly, students say which phrases they think are formal and informal and suggest other language that could be used in the conversation. Warm Welcomes.

This greetings and introductions worksheet helps students to learn language for greetings and introductions in different settings. Students start with a gap-fill exercise where they complete a conversation in which two roommates meet each other for the first time.

Next, students read lines from a conversation where three people greet each other and make introductions at a party. Students then put the conversation in order by indicating who says each line. Afterwards, students answer questions based on the two conversations.