12 Fun Speaking Games for Language Learners

Activities that will get students talking in a language they’re still learning.

By Diane Gantenhammer

November 11, 2015 Updated November 12, 2015

Edutopia

In the article "12 Fun Speaking Games for Language Learners," Diane Gantenhammer presents a variety of engaging activities designed to encourage students to speak more confidently and fluently in a new language. These activities are particularly suitable for advanced language learners and aim to overcome the common challenge of students feeling too shy or fearful of making mistakes when speaking a foreign language.

One of the activities, "Who’s Telling the Truth?" involves students writing three unknown facts about themselves. These are then used in a classroom game where students guess which fact is true, enhancing their questioning and reasoning skills in the target language. Variations of the game "Taboo" also provide dynamic ways to practice vocabulary and descriptive skills. For example, one variant uses a PowerPoint presentation with nouns that a student at the front of the class tries to guess based on peers' descriptions.

Another activity, "Descriptive Drawing," pairs students up to describe pictures that the other then draws, emphasizing the use of descriptive language and attentive listening. "Comic Strip Descriptions" requires students to describe parts of a comic strip to assemble the story in order, which is a creative way to practice narrative skills.

The "Secret Word" game challenges students to integrate an unrelated word into a speech on a given topic seamlessly, promoting inventive language use and critical listening among peers who try to guess the secret word. Debates and impromptu speaking exercises leverage controversial statements or random topics to foster spontaneous speaking skills, with students being encouraged to speak on a topic with little preparation.

In more imaginative setups, "Desert Island Activity" asks students to argue why they should survive on an island based on a random item they're given, which can lead to humorous and inventive persuasion attempts. Storytelling activities where students build a narrative together using randomly assigned nouns can help develop cooperative storytelling and adaptability in language use.

The article not only provides a toolkit of classroom activities but also addresses a significant pedagogical challenge in language learning: building speaking confidence in a supportive, fun, and interactive environment. These activities are crafted to make speaking practice less daunting and more engaging for students who might otherwise be reluctant to participate.

For educators looking to enhance their language teaching methods, these activities offer practical, enjoyable ways to get students talking, thereby improving their fluency and communicative competence in the language they are learning.

This summary is based on the article available at [12 Fun Speaking Games for Language Learners](https://www.edutopia.org/blog/12-fun-speaking-games-language-learne...).

Original Article

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com