Classroom language games

1. Simon says
In this well known TEFL game, students only do the action they are told to when the sentence starts with “Simon says…”, e.g. “Simon says open your books on page 27”. If they hear any other command, e.g. “Knock on the door”, they should remain totally still and not even start doing the action. To add some more useful language, you can replace “Simon says…” with “You have to…” or “The teacher wants you to…”.

2. Only when it matches
Students only copy if the action and what the teacher says is the same, e.g. if the teacher both says “Stand up and face the window” and does that action. If the action and words don’t match, e.g. if the teacher faces the window while saying “face the door”, the students should just stay still. You can give points to individuals or teams who do the correct actions the quickest, and take points away or make them sit down out of the game if people do things when they shouldn’t.

3. Tell me off
Students should only copy if the action and what the teachers says is the same, and shout something negative like “No” , “That’s wrong”, “They are different”, “One more time, please” or “You’ve made a mistake” if they don’t match (unlike just staying still like the variation above)

4. Do as I say, not as I do
When the actions and what the teacher says don’t match, students don’t copy the action, but do what the teacher says instead

5. Do what’s right, not what I say
Students don’t copy if you ask them to do something that they shouldn’t do in the classroom, e.g. “Shout”, “Bang on the table” or “Kick a boy”, but race to follow instructions that are okay, e.g. “Bow to your neighbour” or “Shake hands”


Parinyaporn 062 (3EN)

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Tawanporn 043 3EN