49 ESL Conversation Games & Activities - Jackie Bolen 2020

My world
English conversation games and activities for lower level students

Skills: Writing/Reading/Speaking/Listening

Time: 10-15 minutes

Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Materials Required: Nothing

This is an excellent icebreaker activity to do on the first day of class to introduce yourself and then have the students get to know one or two of their classmates.

Start by drawing a big circle on the whiteboard with the title, “My World.” Inside the circle there are various words, pictures or numbers that have some meaning to you. For example, inside my circle there might be 1979, blue, 48, a picture of a cat, and a mountain. The students would then have to make some guesses about why these things are special to me. The correct answers are: my birth year, favorite color, number of countries I've been to, my pet, and hiking which is my favorite hobby.

Teaching Tips:

This is a good activity to practice some functional language dealing with correct or incorrect guesses. Teach students how to say things like, “You're close,” “Almost,” “You got it,” “That's right,” “Really? No!”

Remember that the goal of our classes should be to make them more student-centered than teacher-centered, so try to minimize the amount of time that it takes for students to guess what's in your circle. Most of them are quite easy with only one or two more difficult ones. Then, if required, give students some hints so they are able to get the harder ones quickly. To increase student talking time, it's always better to have students doing this activity with each other instead of only with you.

For beginners, this activity might be a bit of challenge. Consider writing down these question forms to help them out:

Is this your ... (hobby, birth year, age, favorite color)?

Do you have */a/an ... (cat, three family members, etc.)?

Have you ... (visited, gone to, tried, etc.)?

Tips for Increasing Interaction:

To make this activity even more interactive, consider having students report what they learned about their partner to the class (small classes) or another pair (bigger classes).

It's also possible to require that students ask 1-2 follow-up questions for each fact that they guess about their partner.

Procedure:

1. Draw a big circle on the board and write “My World” at the top. Put in some words, pictures or numbers inside the circle that have some meaning to you.

2. Have students guess what each thing means. Give hints if necessary.

3. Students prepare their own “world.”

4. Students can play with a partner or in small groups of 3-4.

5. (Optional) Require some follow-up questions for each of the pictures.

6. (Optional) Have students report what they learned about their partner to another group or the entire class in order to practice reported speech.