EFL Speaking Game | Who Am I? | Great for PRE-TEENS, TEENS, and ADULTS

If you've seen Inglorious Bastards, you may have noticed the soldiers playing a table game in one of the scenes. Let's bring that game to our English class, of course with a few tweaks to help it flow for a lesson.

In class, I like to combine games in a general theme for a given class. This helps the flow of a class as one activity builds on another. In this lesson, I like to use two types of games that go well together.

The focus  we're working with today are questions and answers. In particular, YES/NO questions.

How it works:

Activity I: ​20 Questions

LESSON PLAN
LESSON: 20 Questions/ Who am I?
OBJECTIVES: a.) Forming and asking questions b.) Using adjectives, nouns, verbs, and other vocabulary
LEVEL: Pre-intermediate+(Upper White Belt and above)
TIME:20-30 minutes

Pre-Activity: 4-6 minutes

· Say you're going to play a guessing game. Write a question on the board, "What am I?" 
· Write the forms of yes/no questions
(Are you ____?/ Can you____?/ Do you (have) ____?)

ESL Speaking Game: Who Am I?

Tell the rules of 20 questions and begin playing. Teacher thinks of a word first. Choose a student to go next.
(8-12 minutes)

1) The chosen person thinks of a word, and the class has up to 20 YES/NO questions to figure it out.
2) The chosen person can only say YES/NO
3) The person who correctly guesses the word goes next (if they want).

· Break bigger classes into small groups to continue playing the game.

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Activity II: Who am I?

Explain the rules of "Who am I"
​
1) Give everybody a small piece of paper.
2) Students write a thing on the piece of paper.
3) Pass the paper to the right
4) Ask questions to figure it out
5) If the answer is 'yes', go again. If the answer is 'no', it's the next person's turn. (10-14 minutes)

· Begin playing in their groups.

​Pro Tips:

· More advanced classes can work with questions like, "Can I ____ with you?" and other types of questions
· Keep track of how many questions remain on the board for the class to see
· Explain Activity II to individual groups around the room for classes of 20 or more.

Good luck! Let me know how it worksfor you and if you have any special touches that I can try in my classes:

Easter Egg Lessons

Using Authentic Language - They want to find out the answer, so they will ask questions. It's our job to help them ask it correctly.

Listening - They will have to pay attention to other people's questions so they don't waste a question and repeat a question (which will happen in 20 questions)

Great for ​1-on-1 Lessons

Both of these games would work perfectly fine for you your 1-on-1 lessons, too!

The only adjustments you would have to make for your 1-on-1 students are:

•  You would have to be their partner and play the game as well.
•  It might be helpful to make a category if only two people are playing. If not, it may become boring because the options are too broad.

​Test it out and try different things, and let us know what works best for you!

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