TEFL Game: Games that can be used in an English Class

TEFL Game -- games I have found to be effective in the ESL/EFL classroom.

(Pictured, 10 Days in Europe)The following games, while not designed to teach English, can add some spice to our classes if you occasionally use them, and have some rules about English usage.

Some of them require some basic English, but I might add a house rule, that on every turn, each player must ask another player a question in English.

TEFL Game: Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is a card game produced by Atlas Games, originally released in 1994 with a second edition published in 1995.

The object of the game is to tell a story as a group. So you can put the students into groups, and using cards they tell a story. While the main goal is to tell a story, they also have the goal individually to use up all of their own cards,so their is an individual motivational aspect that lends itself well to English classes and motivating your students.

Only one student at a time is the storyteller, while other students can interrupt at any time to play their own story telling cards, and become the storyteller.

Some English teachers in Japan have raved about this game.TEFL Game: Raconteur

From the box:

"Raconteur is entertainment, a game of shared stories, fun and laughter. Friends and family will enjoy this game again and again. Each story is different and there are over 10,000 combinations. You will live your stories as they unfold . . .

Be a Magician. Be an Explorer. Be Yourself. Be Extended. Be Amused!"

--from Boardgame Geek

This is a cool game. A really cool game. Not just a single rule which says "tell stories".

--Adrian G. at the Boardgame Geek Forums

Many English teachers in Japan have said that this is a great game for getting their students to tell stories.

TEFL Game: Mystery of the Abbey and Clue or Cluedo

It is a very simple whodunit game that you can use in English classes to teach: Where~~~~~~~~~~? questions, and also teachin, on, under etc.,

Mystery of the Abbey is a whodunit game with a twist. A monk has been murdered in a medieval French abbey. Players move through the Abbey examining clues and questioning each other to find out who is the culprit.

A masterful game of deduction and one that we can use in our English classes.

The game is produced by Days of Wonder. The reprint included the Pilgrims' Chronicles expansion.1

--1. Credit to Boardgame Geek

TEFL Game: Traders of Genoa

Students are Renaissance traders moving through Genoa purchasing goods and filling out orders for goods. Students must deliver messages and hope to gain privileges.

The part that makes this a good game for English classes is the negotiation necessary to play the game. As students strive to be the richest deal-maker they must negotiatiate about everything--which incidentally is allowed by the rules of this game.

This game comes with the recommendation of a group of English teachers in Japan.

*Credit Boardgame Geek for information about this game.

TEFL Game: Fluxx

Fluxx is a card game, played with a specially-designed deck.It is unique among card games in that the rules and the way towin changes throughout the game. The way it changes is throughthe cards played by the students.

Hobby Japan produces the game in Japan (Japanese version).English versions are also available from Looney Labs and IronCrown Enterprises. Teaching through historical simulations and games.

Settlers of Catan, the Multiaward Winning Game