Why add specific listening practice with these 3 engaging ESL listening games? Of the four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, listening’s importance is often overlooked.
What are these 3 ESL Listening Games you ask?
Listening Game #1: Musical Statues
Stand up.
Sit down.
Get a pencil.
Raise your hand.
Open a book.
Line up.
Not only is this activity great for listening practice, but it is excellent for practicing routines and incorporating movement. Once students have mastered those one step commands, add a second. Here is an example: Open a book, then raise your hand. To check for individual understanding, you can give each students a different command at the end of the game. As students become more comfortable, they can take turns giving the commands and then you can work on speaking and listening skills together. As you teach new vocabulary, you can add new themed “Musical Statues” for topics such as action verbs and body parts.
Listening Game #2 : Bingo!
Bingo is another excellent ESL listening game. It’s engaging and there are so many fun topics for playing Bingo. We work on skills such as beginning sounds, listening for details, and holiday vocabulary. Engagement is high as students listen for what to mark on their Bingo card. You can check for understanding with each question.
My favorite way to do Bingo with ELL beginners is with ‘What Am I?’ clue cards — students listen to descriptive clues and find the matching photo on their board. It builds both vocabulary and careful listening at the same time.
For the games below, the teacher reads a series of 3 clues. Students decide which picture on their game board matches those clues and discuss the correct answers as needed. Choose from general listening bingo, school vocabulary bingo, and animal listening bingo. Click on the photos here and at the bottom of the post to learn more about these resources on TPT.
Listening Game #3 : Listen and Draw
To begin, give each student a piece of paper or whiteboard and pencil, crayons, or markers.
Options for directions:
Describe a simple image. (Tell students to draw a sun with smiling face or a snowman with 4 buttons and a hat. Make the directions suitable for your content and proficiency level.)
Additionally, you can integrate letter names too. Say: draw a letter b. Turn it into a butterfly. Draw a letter o. Turn it into an octopus.
You can use it with more advanced concepts too. For example: draw a picture of a rain forest animal and label 3 of its adaptations.
Draw a picture to show the problem in the fable. Write the title above the picture and the lesson the characters learned below.
Students must listen attentively to follow directions, and can this can also lead to great follow-up discussions.
ESL Listening Games resources
The Bingo games resources above are available on TPT. For more advanced proficiency, check out Fall Listening Bingo and Animals Listening Bingo. Just click on the pictures below to check them out.
Happy Teaching!
Excited to add games to your speaking routines too?
Check out: ESL Speaking Games.
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