71 Absolutely No Prep TEFL Games and Activities: The Book for Smart ESL/EFL Teachers Who Like to Save Time!

By Jackie Bolen

Have better ESL classes for all ages and save time on prep. It's time for some fresh, new ideas for the TEFL classroom.

 

Whether you're a first-time ESL/EFL/TEFL teacher, an experienced but overwhelmed instructor, or an instructor without a textbook, you need more fun ideas for your TEFL classes! The best part? These 71 ESL games and activities require no prep time!

 

In 71 Absolutely No Prep TEFL Games and Activities, you'll get a ton of ideas to use in your own classroom. The descriptions will show you exactly how to use the activities during your lessons. The clearly and concisely explained activities will help you add instructional variety and put the focus back on your students. 

 

Pick up a copy of the book if you want to...

• Add some variety to English classes with fun games and activities
• Have students coming back for more!
• Save time when planning TEFL lessons
• See happy, smiling faces
• Help students improve their English skills in a big way
• Save time when planning lessons
• Increase interaction among students

 

If you're extremely busy or you're simply out of new ideas, this book makes it easy to try out new and exciting ESL/EFL activities your students will love! 

 

Buy 71 Absolutely No Prep TEFL Games and Activities to get new lesson plans ready to go in minutes!

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jackie Bolen
• Release date: Mar 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215603536

Book preview

71 Absolutely No Prep TEFL Games and Activities:

The Book for Smart ESL/EFL Teachers Who Like to Save Time!

Jackie Bolen

www.eslactivity.org

Copyright © 2023 by Jackie Bolen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher/author at the following address: Jackie Bolen: [e-mail].

Table of Contents

About the Author: Jackie Bolen.....................................................5

Introduction to the Book ...........................................................6

Games and Activities for All Levels..................................................8

3 Things.....................................................................8

Dictation.....................................................................9

Find Something in Common......................................................9

Finish the Sentence............................................................11

I'm an Alien .................................................................12

Only 1 Question..............................................................12

Phone Show and Tell..........................................................13

Picture Dictation..............................................................14

Question of the Day ...........................................................16

Retell the Story 1-2-3..........................................................16

The Hot Seat.................................................................17

Toilet Paper Icebreaker.........................................................18

Words in Words..............................................................19

Would You Rather? ...........................................................20

Word Association.............................................................21

Games and Activities for Lower-Level Students.......................................22

Alphabet Game...............................................................22

Categories...................................................................23

Chain Spelling................................................................24

Disappearing Words...........................................................24

Flashcard Sentences...........................................................25

Flyswatter (Verb Review).......................................................26

Give a Reason ...............................................................27

In Front of/Behind/Between.....................................................28

Is that Sentence Correct?.......................................................29

Last Person Standing..........................................................29

Line Up.....................................................................30

Memory Circle...............................................................31

Me, Too!....................................................................33

My World...................................................................33

Name Five Things.............................................................35

Odd One Out.................................................................35

Pass and Ask.................................................................36

Role-plays...................................................................37

Sentence Substitution Ladder....................................................39

Spelling Bee.................................................................40

Spelling Challenge............................................................41

Telephone...................................................................42

Vocabulary Pictionary.........................................................43

What's That Called?...........................................................44

What's the Question?..........................................................45

Games and Activities for Higher-Level Students .......................................47

2 Truths and a Lie.............................................................47

5-Minute Debate..............................................................49

5 Senses.....................................................................49

20 Questions.................................................................50

120-90-60...................................................................52

Association..................................................................54

Board or Card Games..........................................................54

Boggle......................................................................55

Bucket Lists.................................................................57

Cocktail Party................................................................57

Complaint Desk..............................................................59

Conversation Topic............................................................60

Deserted Island...............................................................60

Draw an Idiom...............................................................61

Fortunately, Unfortunately / Luckily, Unluckily.....................................61

Freeze......................................................................62

Group Therapy...............................................................63

I'm Going on a Picnic..........................................................64

Interesting Story and Questions..................................................65

Just a Minute.................................................................66

Never Have I Ever............................................................67

Practice Writing Fluently.......................................................68

Round Robin Story............................................................70

Secret Person.................................................................71

Talk Show...................................................................73

The Expert Conversation Activity...............................................74

What Can I do with a _____?....................................................75

What Do you Know about Apples?...............................................76

What did you Do this Weekend?.................................................77

Word Poem/Name Poem.......................................................77

Words in Words..............................................................78

Before You Go .................................................................80

About the Author: Jackie Bolen

I taught English in South Korea for a decade to every level and type of student, including every age from kindergarten kids to adults. These days, I'm living in Vancouver and teaching English to a variety of students. In my spare time, you can usually find me outside surfing, biking, hiking or on the hunt for the most delicious kimchi I can find.

In case you were wondering what my academic qualifications are, I hold a Master of Arts in Psychology. During my time in Korea, I completed both the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA certification programs. With the combination of years teaching ESL/EFL learners of all ages and levels, and the more formal teaching qualifications I've obtained, I have a solid foundation on which to offer teaching advice. I truly hope that you find this book useful and would love it if you sent me an email with any questions or feedback that you might have ([e-mail]).

Jackie Bolen around the Internet

ESL Speaking (www.eslspeaking.org)

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/jackiebolen)

Instagram (www.instagram.com/jackie.bolen)

Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/eslspeaking)

If you can't get enough ESL games, activities, and other useful stuff for the classroom in this book, you can get even more goodness delivered straight to your inbox every week. I promise to respect your privacy—your name and email address will never be shared with anyone for any reason. Sign-up here.

Introduction to the Book

I love to make learning English fun and interesting for my students. Happy, engaged students will remember the content far better than bored, disinterested ones! That's why I've written this book—to give other teachers some fun ideas to try out with their students. The best part is that all of the 71 games or activities require essentially nothing in the way of preparation or materials.

Quite honestly, this is the book that I wish I'd had when I first started teaching. There just wasn't anything like this 20 years ago. Instead, I relied on Dave's ESL Cafe for some ideas for my classes, but it was quite difficult to find something that would work. I usually ended up making my own games instead.

Skip over the frustration and use this book! You'll find 71 TEFL games and activity ideas that will ensure a great class. You should be able to find one that'll work for whatever you're teaching in just a minute or two. These games have been tried and tested over my teaching career and the result is things that work, in the real world—your classroom!

What this book isn't meant to do is replace a textbook. The games are not a comprehensive treatment of the English language. Instead, if you teach conversation or general English, I recommend using an appropriate textbook (I like Let's Go for children, and 4 Corners, Smart Choice, World Link, and Touchstone for adults).

Then, supplement the lesson from the textbook with one or two of these fun games. Perhaps use one as a warm-up activity at the beginning and then another as a review activity at the end. Finally, you can find some just for fun activities that are ideal if you teach at a summer or winter camp, or just want to have a party day in class.

I hope this will be your go-to resource for all things no prep time required ESL games and activities! There are a variety of activities that will work well for larger classes of 20+ students. All of them will work for smaller classes of 4-12 students. And many of them are ideal for private tutoring or online teaching as well. Many of them are based on pair work but in this case, the teacher can act as the partner for the student.

The activities are organized into levels (all levels, lower-level students, and higher-level students. Each activity lists the skills needed (speaking, listening, etc.) and the time required to complete it.

***A quick note on materials*** I'm assuming that all students have a pen/pencil and paper and that the teacher has a whiteboard or smart board of some kind.

Games and Activities for All Levels

3 Things

Skills: Writing/listening

Time: 10+ minutes

Have students think of three random things for a partner. They should be objects, animals or people of some kind.

Then, students