Word games in teaching english

FAQ: Vocabulary Games

Here are answers to common questions about vocabulary games and activities.

What are vocabulary games?

Vocabulary games are word and language games you can play with students, coworkers, or family and friends. These games challenge players to hunt for words or definitions, brainstorm terms, deduce phrases based on clues, or create words under certain conditions. Language games are a great way to teach new vocabulary and help students practice recognizing and using new words. These activities are also known as “vocabulary building games” and “vocab games”, and are similar to “word games” and “letter games”.

What are some fun word games for groups?

Some fun word games for groups include Pictionary, Tree or Bob Ross, and word scrambles.

What are some online vocabulary games?

By using virtual meeting software like Zoom, you can play any word game online. Some good virtual vocabulary games include Scrabble, Scattergories, and online crossword puzzles.

What are good ESL word games?

The best ESL word games are easy to understand and play yet expand the vocabularies of participants. Good ESL word games include word association, word searches, and hangman.

What are fun ways to teach vocabulary?

Word games are one of the most fun and easy ways to teach vocabulary. While some kids get frustrated with straightforward reading or language exercises, word games disguise vocabulary lessons as a fun challenge. Plus, playing language games together is a great teamwork exercise.

The acquisition of new vocabulary is essential in terms of overall language advancement. However, there is always a need to review active words from time to time in order to use them fluently in speech. Here, we will present a couple of great vocabulary revision games which will perk up every classroom. Through these games the learners will feel how fun, entertaining and effective the learning process can be.

1. Charades

Charades is a fun and cool revision game. Students need to practice their acting skills to explain the words. This game is extremely easy to organize with minimal advance preparation. The only thing to be ready for is to keep a collection of vocabulary cards for the words you have studied.

The class is divided into two teams. Each team member takes turns acting out one of the words from the vocabulary set and explains it by acting out the word. If his or her own team can’t guess the word, the opposite team gets the chance to guess it. Each right answer equals one point.

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2. Pictionary

Pictionary is also an  entertaining game to play for vocabulary review. The rules are similar to those of charades except that instead of acting out the word, it is drawn on the board.

3. Bingo

Bingo can serve as a good revision game. From my experience, most of the groups/students like playing bingo because it gives them the chance to  reflect on the words they have digested.

Students are given a blank bingo board and are asked to put the review words into the squares randomly. The teacher puts the active words in a hat or a box, takes them out one by one and defines them. If the student has a word corresponding to the definition, he crosses it out on his bingo board. When someone gets five squares in a row, they should shout, “Bingo!”

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4. A memory style

A memory style card game can be another effective way for reviewing vocabulary. It requires some preparation before the game starts. For each word to be reviewed, one card should have the target vocabulary word and another card should have the definition of the word. You also need to have a big playing grid where you put the words and their definitions face down.

Each person turns over two cards each turn trying to find a match. If the cards do not match, he turns them over again and the next person tries to find a match. If he succeeds, he keeps the cards and gets an additional turn. The player with the highest number of cards at the end of the game wins.

The game can be modified even further. If you have accumulated enough synonyms or antonyms to the target vocabulary, you can practice matching target words to their antonyms or synonyms.

5. Categories

Categories is another awesome revision game which will make students energized and empowered. What they need for the game is to draw 4-6 columns on their paper and write a category at the top of each column. Categories fit the topics covered during the course. For example, if you have covered the business topics of Marketing, Work and Leisure, Ethics, Human Resources, Travel, you write these topics as categories.

You time the students and ask them to write as many words as possible under each category. As a further modification, choose a random letter and write it on the board. Give students enough time to write down a word for each category that starts with that letter.

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6. Letter scramble

Letter scramble will make students really competitive and super fast. What you need is to take a list of words that your students have recently learned and write a scrambled version of each on the board. Students need to unscramble the words on their paper. The first one to finish deciphering all the words wins.

7. Stop the bus

Stop the bus is a cool game my students adore.  I usually divide the class into 2-3 teams. One student from each team. This student sits on a chair facing his peers. Then from behind the student in the hot seat, show the other students a word from the lesson. The other students must try to describe what the word is without saying the actual word. And the student in the hot seat must guess.

The student who guesses the word shouts out “stop the bus” and checks the word with the teacher. If correct, the team gets a point. If wrong, other teams have the chance to guess the word by writing their versions on a piece of paper and passing the papers to the teacher.

8. Puzzles

Puzzles  is another cool and easy tool to review the material in an effective way. What I like about this way of vocabulary revision is that students can work in pairs or groups while trying to find words matching the definition in the crosswords. They learn by listening to each other, cooperating to find the right answer. In this way, they both review the material and improve their teamwork skills.

Follow this link to get templates of different types of puzzles.

We also recommend watching a video with Alexei Konobeev. The speaker shared games to help your students remember new vocabulary. These games do not require special training and you can adapt them to any age and level.

We hope that all these games would serve their best to liven your vocabulary revision sessions and make them more meaningful and effective.

Which of these games have you tried? Which ones have you picked up for your next revision slot?

The article describes the role of games in the process of foreign language teaching. Using games in teaching vocabulary skills develops habits and skills of dialogue speech, promotes students’ speaking initiatives and enhances the natural communicative orientation of the lesson. The authors suppose that while playing games students involuntary memorize new lexical and grammar material. Thus using games in foreign language teaching is one of the most effective ways that provide students with speaking opportunities and at the same time, motivate them.

In learning a foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is one element

that links the four skills оf speaking, listening, reading and writing all together. In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately. Vocabulary is the total number of words in a language. Vocabulary is an important part to master English well. There are essential steps of learning vocabulary (Hatch and Brown) [1]:

• Having source for encountering new words;
• Getting a clear image for the form of new words;
• Learning the meaning of new words;
• Making a strong memory connection between the form and the meaning of the

To increase the vocabulary we need media to be used. One of them is game. The definition of game is an activity that you do to have some fun. Games can make the students more focus in learning, because they do not feel that they are forced to learn. Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely. They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinion and feelings. They also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson. Games can be media that will give many advantages for teacher and the students as well. The use of games  attract the student to learn English  because it is fun and make them want to have experiment, discover and interact with their environment. Some experts have also figured out characteristics of games that make vocabulary learning more effectively. Lee (1996) lists several main advantages when games are used in the classroom, including «a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class», «motivating and challenging», «effort of learning», and «language practice in the various skills». Ersoz holds that games are highly appreciated due to their amusement and interest. Teachers can use games to help their students practice more their skills of communication. Besides, Uberman also states the helpful role of games in vocabulary teaching after quoting and analyzing different opinions of experts. And also, Uberman observed the interest of her students in learning through games. She believes that games are a way to help students not only enjoy and amuse with the language they learn, but also practice it incidentally. To be short, games can be considered useful and effective tools that may be applied in vocabulary classes. The use of games in teaching vocabulary is a way to make the lessons more interesting, enjoyable and effective [1].

Vocabulary acquisition is increasingly viewed as crucial to language acquisition. However, there is much disagreement as to the effectiveness of different approaches for presenting vocabulary items. Moreover, learning vocabulary is often perceived as a tedious and laborious process.

In the article we would like to present some ways of using games in vocabulary teaching. There are numerous techniques concerned with vocabulary presentation. However, there are a few things that have to be remembered irrespective of the way new lexical items are presented. If teachers want students to remember new vocabulary better, it needs to be learnt in context, practiced, and then revised to prevent students from forgetting. Teachers must make sure students have understood the new words, which will be remembered better if introduced in a «memorable way» [2]. Bearing all this in mind, teachers have to  remember to employ a variety of techniques for new vocabulary presentation and revision. We believe that one of the effective ways of vocabulary presentation isusing games.

Games are an important part of a teacher’s repertoire. The purpose of games in the learning process is to reinforce what has already been taught. During the game, learners are engaged in an enjoyable and challenging activity with a clear goal. Often, students are so involved in playing the games that they do not realize they are practicing language. So games can provide vocabulary practice. Vocabulary games facilitate initial practice and periodic revision of vocabulary in an enjoyable context, thus making classroom vocabulary study an amusing and satisfying experience for teacher and student at the same time. Some games are played with the whole class, often with the students divided into two teams, while others can be played in pairs or small groups.

Many experienced textbook and methodology manuals writers have argued that games are not just timefilling activities but have a great educational value W.R.Lee holds that most language games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms [3]. He also says that games should be treated as central not peripheral to the foreign language teaching programme. There are many advantages of using games. «Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely» [4]. They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings. Games also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson [5].

Games encourage, entertain, teach, and promote fluency. If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems that at times seem overwhelming.

Teachers should be very careful about choosing games if they want to make them profitable for the learning process. If you want the games to bring desired results you must be sure that they correspond to the student’s level, or age, or to the material that is to be introduced or practiced. Games become difficult when the task or the topic is unsuitable or outside the student’s experience.

One of the factors influencing the choice of a game is its length and the time, necessary for its completion. Many games have a time limit, but according to Siek-Piskozub, the teacher can either allocate more or less time depending on the students’ level, the number of people in a group, or the knowledge of the rules of a game etc. (1994:43). Some teachers suggest that games be used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen. At different stages of the lesson, the teacher’s aims connected with a game may vary:

1. Provide a good model making its meaning clear;
2. Controlled practice. Elicit good imitation of new language and appropriate responses;
3. Communicative practice. Give students a chance to use the language [6].

After the teacher chooses what items to teach, Haycraft suggests following certain guidelines. These include teaching the vocabulary «in spoken form first» to prevent students from pronouncing the words in the form they are written, placing the new items in context, and revising them. A number of techniques can be adopted to present new vocabulary items. The presentation of new vocabulary is classified according to verbal and visual techniques according to Gairn’s and Redman’s classification. Among visual techniques are flashcards, photographs and pictures, wall charts, blackboard drawings, word pictures, realia, mime, and gesture. Students can label pictures or objects or perform an action. Verbal techniques consist of using illustrative situations, descriptions, synonyms and antonyms, scales, and using various forms of definition: definition by demonstration (visual definition), definition by abstraction, contextual definitions, and definition by translation [7].

Now let us look at what games the teacher may exploit while working with words.

1. Word association requires students to name all the words they know associated with any lexical category. One student says a word from the category, then the next student must immediately say another word from the category. The next student continues with another word and so on around the class. For the category health, for example, the game might begin this way:

Student 1: illness Student 2: catch a cold Student 3: sneeze

Student 4: cough

Student 5: remedy

Anyone who can’t think of a word immediately has to drop out of the game.

1. Memory game begins with one student saying a sentence and the next student in turn adds another word or phrase to the sentence, repeating what has gone before in the same order, for example,

Student 1: I went to the library.

Student 2: I went to the library and took some books.

Student 3: I went to the library and took some books and began writing my course paper.

and so on. Anyone who cannot add to the list or makes a mistake in ordering the words must drop out of the game. The last player remaining is the winner. This game may be exploited while working with words related to any topic.

1. Miming can be used as a guessing game. This wordless activity leads the students to speak quite naturally. Someone mimes an action and the others try to guess what it This kind of guessing game can provide further practice of a wider variety of lexical and grammatical units, such as those related to occupations. One student chooses an animal and mimes a typical action that it involves. The others try to guess the animal by asking either about the action or the animal, for example, Can it fly?., Does it crawl?., Is it a wild animal?., Is it a domestic animal?. The student miming provides only nonverbal clues to help the rest of the class guess what the animal is.
2. Crime and punishment. The class is divided into two The students of the first team write on a sheet of paper what «crime» was committed. e.g. «The window was broken. The bag was stolen». The other team writes what punishment to be followed for it. e.g. He must be taken to prison. Then all the crimes and punishments will be read.
3. Guess the tool game provides a good opportunity to develop students’ skills in defining words and paraphrasing. For this game the teacher puts the students in pairs, facing each other, and gives a card with two words written on it to each student and asks them not to show each other their The two words written on the cards are a tool and a related occupation, for example, saw and carpenter, blackboard and teacher. One at a time, each student describes the tool without saying its name. The other student has to guess the tool and name an occupation that uses the tool, for example,

Student 1: It is used for painting windows and doors. Student 2: It is a paintbrush. A decorator uses a paintbrush.

1. Suggestion chain involves reviewing both leisure activities vocabulary and ways to make For this game students first make an individual list of leisure activities. Then using their lists, one student begins by suggesting something to do in the evening or next weekend, for example, Let’s go to the disco.

The next student has to disagree and, using another way of making a suggestion, suggest a different activity, for example:

Student 1: Let’s go to the disco! Student 2: No, not the disco.

What about going to the park? Student 3: We could go to the theatre.

Student 4: No, not the theatre. Why don’t we visit Saule?

Students continue the game until they have used all their leisure activities. Another way to end this game and have a winner is to eliminate the student who repeats a leisure activity that was suggested before or uses the wrong verb form in the suggestion.

1. Team game. For this game the teacher has to prepare cards with the names of different The students are divided into two teams. Then the teacher takes any card and reads out the country. The first team must name the language of this country (or nationality), the second team — the capital (or state symbols) of this country. Then the teams exchange their tasks.
2. Topic discussion. The students of the group choose a topic for a discussion (cinema, ecology, education). Then the group is divided into two teams. The students of each team have to give sentences on the topic one by one using the emphatic construction «it is …. that». The winner is the team that gives the last sentence on the topic. Time is
3. Exaggeration game gives students the opportunity to practice strong adjectives, such as enormous, delicious, fascinating, horrible, marvelous, astonished, and furious, along with intensifying adverbs, such as extremely, quite, rather, really and absolutely by answering questions. Beforehand the teacher must prepare cards, each with a question, which may be tag (Americans are punctual, aren’t they?), (Wasn’t she furious when she heard the news?), or yes/no (Are you patriotic?). The game begins with the cards face down on the table. The teacher calls on someone to pick a card and read out the Then that person calls out the name of another student, who has to answer the question using an appropriate strong adjective, for example,

Student 1: They serve nice dishes in that restaurant, don’t they? Laura! Student 2 (Laura): Nice? The food is absolutely delicious there!

The second student now picks a different card, reads out the question, and names another student to answer it, and the game continues. Any student who does not use a strong adjective and/ or intensifying adverb while answering is eliminated. It is best to play this game after the students have matched common, weak adjectives with their stronger synonyms.

1. The most interesting The students are divided into two teams. Each team is given a task to make up a story on a certain topic. («In the zoo», »Sport games», «A trip to the country», «At the University library»). The winner is the team that makes up the most interesting story with few mistakes.

The games included in this article are by no means an exhaustive selection. We have only tried to present some nuggets from our teaching for others to try out in their classes. The games are intended to be integrated into the general language syllabus of any course book and can be an important and enjoyable way of practicing vocabulary for learners. If the examples we’ve provided do not allow teachers to exploit a particular game in other teaching situations, they may need to adapt it to the proficiency level of their classes by changing the target lexis. Teachers may also modify any game to suit different teaching environments.

In EFL contexts, learning vocabulary has been considered a boring subject for a long time and the traditional way of learning vocabulary by mere copying and remembering has shown to be less than effective. Meanwhile, games are also seen as a time-filling activity in most English classrooms. It is believed that games are just for fun and they have very little effect in teaching and learning. However, our research reveals that games contribute to vocabulary learning if they give students a chance to learn, practice and to review the  English language  in a pleasant  atmosphere.  From the research,  we found that students are  demanding a new way of teaching vocabulary, and they themselves are in search of a new way of learning this subject as well. Under such circumstances, games have been shown to have advantages and effectiveness in learning vocabulary in various ways. First, games bring in relaxation and fun for students, thus help them

In conclusion we would like to note that games are effective activities as a technique for vocabulary revision. Students also prefer games and puzzles to other activities. Games motivate and entertain students but also help them learn in a way which aids the retention and retrieval of the material. Recently, using games has become a popular technique exercised by many educators in the classrooms and recommended by methodologists. Many sources, including the ones quoted in this article, list the advantages of the use of games in foreign language classrooms. Though the main objectives of the games are to acquaint students with new words or phrases and help them consolidate lexical items, they also help develop the students’ communicative competence.

Our observations testify that those students who practice vocabulary game activities feel more motivated and interested in what they are doing. The fun and relaxed atmosphere accompanying the activity during the game facilitate students’ learning. All of the learners expressed their wish to learn vocabulary effectively in more interesting ways than the traditional ways that they knew. So, our goal was to define the efficiency of the use of vocabulary games in developing students’ communicative skill in English. The result of our research work shows that learners were interested in games on the whole and preferred mostly joint group games, they did their best to become winners. Students collaborated quite actively in games that required group work, even the shy students. They said that they liked the relaxed atmosphere, the competitiveness and the motivation that games brought to the classroom. EFL students in our classes are gradually making progress in vocabulary and the games help them memorize new words and expressions that are used by them in the games. The classroom atmosphere was exciting as our EFL students discussed and worked together. Besides, our students’ communicative skills and practice showed that the games were very useful for enriching their vocabulary level because they played with each other, interacted and as a result they cooperated in developing their language skills and could learn a lot from their classmates. Using games in the classroom sometimes fails due to the lack of cooperation among members of the class. Games require all students’ involvement; therefore, it is very important that students have a cooperative attitude.

Regarding the effectiveness of games, we can say that our students seemed to learn new vocabulary more quickly and retain it better when it was applied in a relaxed and comfortable environment such as while playing games. Most students agreed that their use of vocabulary was becoming better since they actively joined games and involved in cooperative learning. Although Games are effective in cooperative learning new words, they cannot be successful if the teacher does not explain the tasks and roles of students clearly in playing games.

Games should be an integral part of a lesson, providing the possibility of intensive practice while at the same time immensely enjoyable for both students and teachers. And we would like to recommend the wide use of games for enhancing students’ vocabulary knowledge and skills as a successful way of language competence formation. 

References

1. Ersoz A. ‘Six Games for the EFL/ESL Classroom’, the Internet TESL Journal. Retrieved July,
2. Hubbard et al. English Teaching Forum, 2003, р. 50.
3. Lee W.R. English Teaching Forum, 2004,
4. Richard Amato. English Teaching Forum, 1988, р.
5. English Teaching Forum, 1994, р. 118.
6. Siek-Riskozub. English Teaching Forum, 1994, р.
7. English Teaching Forum, 2000, р. 70.

Word games are an engaging way not only to practice vocabulary and spelling in class but also to hone important language skills such as defining and describing. They’re fun, too, make ideal warmers and fillers, and generally don’t require much preparation – especially if you get the students involved in setting them up. Plus, many work well as competitions and can easily be adapted to suit different ages and levels. Here are 6 easy word games for the English language classroom. Why not give them a try?

***Call my Bluff***

If you want to challenge your advanced learners, get them into teams to play this competitive word game based on a popular old-time British quiz show. Give each team a set of dictionaries and a list of words, making sure to choose vocabulary that is useful but unlikely to be familiar. Teams look up the definitions of the words on their list and then – this is where the game gets tricky – invent two alternative but plausible definitions for each one. The contest involves the teams taking turns to read out their words along with the three definitions and asking their opponents which definition is correct. Award points not only for correct answers but also for the most inventive alternative definitions. Here’s an example:

distraught – a) completely ruined   b) extremely worried   c) blown down by the wind

***Tailcatcher***

Get your younger learners into a circle and see how quickly they can play this simple spelling game without getting dizzy or confused. The first student says a word at random – let’s say, ‘cheese’ – and then the student to his or her left has to say a word beginning with the last letter of the that word – for example, ‘elephant’. The game carries on with students taking turns to say a word beginning with the last letter of the previous word – ‘elephant’, ‘tennis’, ‘stick’ and so on. If the word starts and ends in the same letter – say, ‘kick’ – then the direction reverses. Give students a time-limit to come up with a word to avoid elimination, or make things more challenging by sticking to categories, such as food, animals or sports.

***Here comes the shark! or Bang!***

Everyone knows how to play Hangman, and it works well with younger learners not only to practice spelling but also to practice the names of the letters, but why not replace the traditional gallows and prisoner set-up with something more unusual? The burning fuse on a bomb that ends the game in an explosion or a swimmer and a Jaws-like approaching shark-fin are guaranteed to amuse the students (see image). You might even let them come up with their own version.

***Half a crossword***

This is an excellent way for students to learn the all-important language skill of describing or defining something for which they lack the particular item of vocabulary. Create a crossword (there are plenty of crossword-creator sites online) and give one half of the answers to student A and the other to student B (you can prefill in the answers on the separate handouts). Rather than provide clues, the pairs of students have to work together – without showing their half of the crossword to their partner – to complete the puzzle by giving definitions of the words their partner is missing.

***Ring-ding-dong**

Here’s another game that works well with young learners and requires no preparation. Board a simple word such as ‘shoe’ and give teams of students a couple of minutes to come up with as many new words as they can from that word by changing one letter at a time. Step – stop – shop – shoe – show – chow – chop – chip etc. It’s not easy, but you can vary the rules by allowing the addition or subtraction of a letter instead of a replacement. The team with the most words wins.

***Taboo***

Here’s a well-known word game that can even be challenging for native speakers. In teams, players attempt to get a teammate to guess a particular word on a card by giving clues or definitions. The challenge is that they are forbidden from using the most obvious clues, which are laid out in a list on the card. They might have to define ‘exam’, for example, but without using the words ‘test’, ‘study’, ‘pass’, ‘fail’ or ‘grade’. It’s an excellent way to hone those skills of definition, as well as a sure-fire means of raising the volume in class. If you have teams prepare the cards for their opponents, you could even join in yourself.

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