If you speak English as a second language, you want your children to do so as well. However, practicing English speaking for children solely with textbooks and whiteboards is ineffective. They can enroll in sessions that just teach spoken English to children. By incorporating a little bit of excitement and adventure into English practice, you can also successfully get your kids interested in speaking English.
Try the ten fun English speaking games for kids below, and watch them eagerly anticipate their next speaking practice session.
Passwords Game
Password game helps in improving vocabulary. Make one kid stand in front of a group of kids with a placard over his/her head with a word written on it. The group of kids needs to give hints about the word to the kid standing with the placard to guess the word. For instance, if the word is “orange”, the hint can be that it’s the name of a fruit and color.
You may choose vocabulary from different categories like-
- Kitchen
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Sports
- Home
- Bedroom
- Part of body
- Stationaries
- School
- Vehicles
- Place
- Famous Personality etc.
Disappearing Text
Make groups in your class according to your convenience. Ask one group leader to write some words on a white sheet with a pencil and then instruct them to erase them properly. Now ask another group to guess the erased words and also correct their pronunciation if they mispronounce. Teachers are advised to ask students to write sentences that are frequently used in school conversations.
You may choose the following situation, expression and vocabulary-
- Classroom conversational Sentences
- Likes and Dislikes
- Command and Order
- DOs and DONTs
- Morning Affirmation
- Promise to self
- Most commonly mispronounced words etc.
Chain Spelling
This is one of the most innovative English activities for kids, focusing on sharpening listening skills while perfecting spelling knowledge. Let your kids and their friends stand in a row, and you give them a word. The first kid will say the first letter of its spelling, and the next kid will tell the following letter. One who makes a mistake can sit down. Keep playing this game with different words
You are advised to choose the most commonly used words that have strange spelling which generally do not match their pronunciation.
- Busy, Fuzzy, Cricket, Beautiful, Europe, Computer, Science, Scientist, Sketcher, Scissors, Police,
Would You rather..
This English-speaking activity for kids is amongst the personal favourite of many parents and teachers. You need to ask questions to your kids based on fun and challenging two hypothetical scenarios. You can get as imaginative as “would you rather slide on a rainbow or jump on a cloud.” Be prepared to listen to some out of the box thoughts!
Other examples-
Would you rather play with an ostrich or a whale?
Would you rather run on the boat or snow?
Would you rather eat a melon or a balloon?
Picture it
Get a whiteboard, marker, some kids and be prepared for a hilarious session of spoken English! Tell a kid to think about a picture of anything. A monster, alien, or superhero would be great picks. Now this kid needs to describe the image to his/her partner. The partner will draw the picture on the whiteboard based on the description.
Ask the Students to make Joker, Hen, cow, Airplane, house, Crying baby, etc.
Hide and Direct
Your kids must be well-aware of the directions to participate in this English-speaking activity. In the game of hide & direct, one partner will hide an object in the corner of the room, and the other partner will be blindfolded. The kid with the blindfold will search for the hidden object based on the directions like left, right, under, above, etc., given by the partner.
For Indian School teachers, It is better to hide something in the box, on the table, under the table, behind the blindfolded student etc.
Guess Who
You need kids in the team of 2 for playing the game of guess who. Make chits with the name of famous personalities. Each pair will pick one chit. One kid will see the name on the chit. The other one will guess the personality by asking yes or no questions. You can keep the names of famous cartoon characters also. This game is ideal for improving vocabulary and spoken English in kids.
Teachers are advised to choose the personality of their own country who are highly famous/infamous
MK Gandhi, Shivaji Maharaj, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Sir Sayyed Ahamad Khan, Subash Chand Bose, Ravindra Nath Tagore, Narendra Modi, Sharukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Amir Khan etc.
Yes Or No
Yes or no is also played in pairs. One partner will ask a close-ended question to the other partner. But here’s the trick! The other partner is not allowed to answer in Yes or no. Any other sentence or word can be used. For instance, if the question is “do you like drawing” the answer can be “I love to draw” or “I am not a fan of drawing.”
Memory Power Check
Show 5 small objects to kids for a minute. Now hide the objects from them and see how many things your kids can recall. If you think it’s easy for your kids to remember 5 objects, make the game challenging by adding more items. Memory games is a unique English-speaking activity for kids that work both on their memory power and English-speaking abilities.
Two Truths One Lie
This is the most popular activity in language learning. It ranges from beginner to advanced level. Students are advised to tell one lie and two truths about anything. eg. I am 12 years old, I am a wrestler. I love eating fish. Which one is lie? the teacher will ask the students and then verify with the speaker.
You may advise the students to choose any topic from the following
- I am good at…..
- I am fond of …..
- I like ……
- I am…
- My family is…
- I have…..
- My uncle is……
- My favorite fruit is…
- My role model is…
- My favorite country is
- My friend
Story Chain
Get a nice picture containing different characters in it. Ask the students to look at the picture carefully. Then start with the beginning of the story like- Once upon a time there was a monkey in the forest. Now ask students to add a sentence to continue the story….. then ask another student to add …….. Then conclude the story with a happy/sad ending.
