Fun ESL Speaking Games That Get Students Talking

The anxiety problem is real. For a lot of learners, being asked to speak English in front of people, even classmates, triggers a kind of shutdown. They know what they want to say but the fear of saying it wrong is louder.

ESL speaking games chip away at that. Not overnight, and not for everyone equally, but the shift in focus helps. When a student is trying to convince classmates that their “lie” is believable, they’re thinking about the game, not about whether their present perfect is correct.

The other thing fun ESL games do is force genuine interaction. It’s not performing English at someone, it’s actually needing to communicate something. That’s a different cognitive experience, and it’s closer to what language actually is.

Would you rather?

Level: A1–B2

This one is almost unfairly simple and it works every single time. Two options, no right answer, and students have to pick one and say why.

Would you rather live somewhere with no internet or no hot water? Would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?

What I like about it is the range. A very weak student can say “I choose fly because… nice” and that’s a win. A stronger student can argue, get challenged, change their mind. The same prompt works across levels without any modification.

This game takes five minutes and students are usually still bickering about their answers when I ask them to move on.

Roll & speak

Level: A1–A2

Assign a topic to each number on a die. Students roll and speak about whatever comes up.

Topics I use:

• My favourite food
• My best friend
• My school
• My weekend
• My hobby
• My family

For very low levels, I put sentence starters on the board: My favourite food is… / At the weekend I usually…
Without that scaffolding, some students just stare at the die like it’s betrayed them.

It sounds almost too basic, but beginners need structure. The randomness of the dice actually helps, removing the paralysis of choosing what to talk about.

Find someone who…

Level: A1–A2

Students walk around asking classmates questions to find people who match a list of statements.

Find someone who has a pet. Find someone who likes spicy food. Find someone who woke up late this morning.

The movement alone changes things. And because students repeat the same questions several times, the language starts to feel automatic, which is exactly what you want with A1/A2 learners.

One small warning: this can get loud. Which I personally consider a sign of success, but if you’re next to a colleague with a headache, maybe warn them first.

30-second talk

Level: A2–B1

A topic, 30 seconds, no stopping.

Your dream job. Go.

The first time I tried this, a student looked at me like I’d asked her to sprint up a wall. But I give them ten seconds to think before they start, and that makes a surprising difference. After a few rounds, most students stop worrying about filling the time and start actually saying things.

This is probably the activity I’ve seen do the most for fluency over time. Hesitation drops. Sentences get longer. Students start connecting ideas instead of just listing them.

Two truths and a lie

Level: A2–B2

Three statements: two true, one false. The class asks questions and tries to guess the lie.

I played this with a class of teenagers once and one student claimed she had met a famous footballer. The entire class interrogated her for four minutes in near-perfect English because they were convinced it was the lie. (It wasn’t.)

That’s the thing about this game: students actually want to know the answer. The motivation is real, not performed.

Role play cards

Level: A1–B2

Everyday situations: ordering food, asking for directions, returning something to a shop. Students act them out with a partner.

These feel slightly more “teacherly” than the other games, but they serve a different purpose. This is where students practice the kind of language they’ll actually need outside the classroom. It can feel a bit stiff at first, especially with shyer groups, but once students let themselves be a little silly with it, it loosens up.

Debate corners

Level: B1–B2

Write a statement on the board. One side of the room is “agree,” the other is “disagree.” Students move to their corner and defend their position.

Homework should be banned. Social media does more harm than good.

This ESL speaking game isn’t for every group. With the right class, motivated, reasonably confident, and willing to argue, it generates some of the best English I’ve heard in a classroom. With a reluctant group, it can feel forced. I usually save it for later in a course when students know each other and aren’t afraid to disagree.

At A1, the goal is recognition and very basic production. Students should be able to name common items and slot them into simple phrases. Red hat. My shoes. I wear a jacket in winter. That is enough at this stage.

A simple list of clothes vocabulary for kids could be: bag, boot, clothes, coat, dress, glasses, hat, jacket, jeans, pair, shirt, shoe, skirt, style, sweater, trousers, T-shirt, watch, wear.

I usually introduce these with pictures, or more often, by pointing at what people in the room are actually wearing. Younger kids especially respond well to that because it keeps things concrete.

Most of these fun ESL speaking games work across a range of levels with small tweaks. For A1 students, add sentence starters, keep turns short, and use visuals where possible. For B1 and above, remove the scaffolding, push for longer responses, and add follow-up questions.

The mistake I made early on was thinking I needed a different game for every level. Usually you just need the same ESL speaking game with different amounts of support.

Sometimes a game just dies. A student refuses to speak, someone takes over the whole activity, the class finishes in three minutes and you have twenty left, or everyone quietly switches to their first language the moment you turn around.

A few things I’ve found actually help:

If one student dominates: assign roles before you start. Someone asks, someone answers, someone times, someone reports back. It’s harder to take over when everyone has a job.

If students go quiet: don’t immediately ask the whole class. Go to pairs first. Give them a minute to talk to one person before you open it up.

If they use L1: rather than just saying “English only,” give them tools. Can you say that in English? What’s the word for…? How do you say…? Make it a problem they can solve rather than a rule they’re breaking.

If the game runs short: have a backup question ready. What did you like about this activity? What would you change? Sometimes the meta-conversation is more interesting than the game itself.

Students don’t get better at speaking by being told to speak more carefully. They get better by speaking more, in situations where the stakes are low enough to take risks.

Fun ESL games create that space. Even a ten-minute activity two or three times a week adds up significantly over a course. And sometimes a student who hasn’t said a word in three weeks will come to life during a guessing game, and you’ll remember why you started teaching in the first place.

Roll & Speak and Find Someone Who… are good starting points because they offer structure and predictable language patterns.

As often as they fit. A short activity two or three times a week is more useful than a long one once a fortnight.

Often yes, but it depends on the game and the student. Pair-based activities tend to work better than whole-class ones for anxious learners

Generally, let them speak and give feedback afterward. Interrupting kills the flow. Note down common errors and address them as a group at the end.

Yes. Most games just need different levels of support: more scaffolding for lower levels, more open prompts for higher ones.

Al-Garni, S. A. (2019). The effect of using communicative language teaching activities on EFL students’ speaking skills at the University of Jeddah. English Language Teaching, 12(6), 72–86. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v12n6p72

Maryam, S. (2020). Utilizing communicative language games to improve students’ speaking ability. Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, 8(3), 251–263. https://doi.org/10.33394/jollt.v8i3.2733

Richards, J. C. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today. Cambridge University Press.