13 Easy ESL Icebreakers to Get Your Students Talking

By
November 26, 2021

ESL icebreakers

Whether teaching in a physical classroom or a virtual one, the first solar day of English class is crucial for setting the tone for the whole term, so information technology's important to offset with a bang. ESL icebreakers are a bang-up way to accomplish this, and they also get students moving and build confidence. However, icebreakers aren't just for day one! Throughout the term, English language students might be coming to class tired afterward a long day, then yous want to get them engaged and energetic, and it might take a little creative ice-breaking to exercise that! Let'southward take a look at some of the best ESL icebreakers out there.

Why should I utilize ESL icebreakers in course?

Outset, let's talk well-nigh how ESL icebreakers are beneficial in many classroom situations.

  • Teachers often use them on the kickoff day of class to become students comfortable with one another and to establish a human relationship between them and the students.
  • ESL icebreakers are also a way to build conviction and trust and allow students to see the classroom every bit a safe space for practicing English, asking questions, and even making mistakes.
  • Icebreakers are a lot of fun and can as well be used to give students a break from more structured class activities.
  • They can be implemented at the offset of class or anytime during the lesson to heave energy levels and recapture students' attending.
  • If you observe yous accept a few extra minutes, icebreakers tin can too brand a proficient, productive fashion to fill up the time.

Become game and activity ideas for the online classroom by taking a Bridge Micro-credential form.

What makes a good ESL icebreaker?

It's fun!

A good ESL icebreaker is, first and foremost, fun, pregnant that information technology should appeal to your students. One of the primary ideas backside icebreakers is to get students out of their shells and make them more comfortable with speaking in class, so y'all'll demand to use an icebreaker that interests them.

Effort these fun ESL speaking activities to get students talking.

Information technology's level-advisable

Make sure that the icebreaker you cull is level-appropriate and that while pushing students to share more, yous don't go overboard and make them uncomfortable by asking them to share as well much or things that are besides personal.

The rules are simple

Additionally, ESL icebreakers that but have a few rules are typically easier to explicate to English learners and ensure that you spend less time going over instructions and more time actually conducting the activity.

It'southward easy to prepare

Finally, a really good icebreaker doesn't crave too much preparation and additional materials only rather focuses on oral participation and fun.

These low-prep ESL activities are cracking for teaching online.

ESL icebreakers for in-person teachers (with adaptations for online teachers)

Each of the following icebreakers requires little to no preparation, is like shooting fish in a barrel to explain, and tin can be adapted to all levels and ages. These activities promote student talk time and encourage students to go more comfy with speaking upwards in class.

ESL icebreakers
A instructor playing ESL icebreaker games from the Bridge Teaching English to Teenagers TEFL/TESOL class

1. Would You Rather… ?

In this game, students call back most 2 scenarios and choose the one they would rather practise. The "Would you rather… ?" questions (a variety of which tin can be found online), can range from goofy to serious, such as:

  • Would you rather be poor and happy or rich and unhappy?
  • Would you rather take a missing finger or an extra toe?
  • Would you rather find your soulmate or find a billion dollars (and never detect your soulmate)?
  • Would you rather eat your favorite meal for every meal for the residuum of your life or never exist able to eat your favorite repast again?
  • Would you rather speak all languages fluently or be able to speak to animals?
  • Would yous rather lose your wallet or lose your keys?

Y'all can play this as a whole course or put students in groups and requite them a stack of cards with questions, and they take turns asking each other. Either way, following upward by request "Why or why not?" tin can atomic number 82 to some fun discussions.

  • How to arrange this action to the virtual classroom: You can simply ask your student(south) the questions or yous tin have your ain stack of cards in forepart of you and depict a card for each student, reading it aloud to the class. Alternatively, y'all can have student(s) write down their own questions earlier class and come up prepared to inquire you or their classmates.

2. 2 Truths and a Lie

This can be a good ESL icebreaker for the very offset class or equally a warm-upwardly later on on.

Ane student thinks of three statements almost himself/herself that they will share with the form. Ii are true and i is a lie. For example, the student may say something like, "I have five dogs, I've lived in three countries, and I'm a ballet dancer." Then, the other students must guess which statement is a prevarication and if they can, explicate why they think so. At the end, the student volition reveal whether the others guessed correctly or incorrectly.

If used on the first twenty-four hour period, the instructor can start by demonstrating the game every bit a good getting-to-know-the-teacher action!

  • How to adapt this activity to the virtual classroom: Teachers can easily play this game in a virtual setting by having everyone take turns making statements. Students tin can either raise their hand when they want to judge which argument is the prevarication or they can type their guess into the chat box.

Check out these ESL warm-ups for students of all ages.

three. Positive, Negative, Crazy

Write a discussion topic on the lath (for case, food, pets, social media, or dating) and so beginning passing a ball or "hot potato" from student to student. As students pass the hot potato around, they must stop when they hear you say the words positive, negative, or crazy.

When you say, "positive," the educatee holding the potato must stop and make a positive argument well-nigh the topic. For example, If the topic is nutrient, their statement might be "My favorite restaurant is Ichiban Sushi."

If you say "negative," they must brand a negative statement about the topic, e.g., "I've never eaten Chinese food!"

And, if you lot say, "crazy," the sentence they create tin be anything they like, such equally, "Ane fourth dimension I ate a whole pizza myself!"

  • How to adapt this activity to the virtual classroom: Instead of passing effectually a ball, you can assign each student a number and and so roll a dice (either physical or virtual) to see who has to make the next argument. I.due east., if the dice lands on half dozen, then the student assigned to the number six has to make the positive, negative, or crazy argument.

Strike upwardly a conversation with these TEFL/TESOL discussion questions for adults.

online English teacher
EFL teacher Rachel Cordova working with students online

4. Go along the Story

In this creative game, first think of several half-sentences and write each one on the superlative of its own piece of newspaper. The half-sentences should be written so that students tin can easily cease them to kickoff a story, such as:

  • Equally soon as I woke up…
  • Ana was walking to school when suddenly…
  • The teacher came into class with a…

Alternatively, put these examples on the board and then accept students each think of a half-sentence and write it on a piece of newspaper. Then, collect the papers and mix them upwards.

Students will then work in groups (or you lot can do this as a whole class). A grouping is given a newspaper with a half-sentence at the top and the start person in the group must read the half-judgement out loud, and then finish it with whatever they like to continue the story (they will write it down and say information technology aloud). Next, the pupil passes the paper to his or her right and writes another sentence to go on the story.

When anybody has had a hazard to contribute to the story, a representative of each grouping tin can read the completed story to the class. Non only can the stories be very funny, but this icebreaker gets students used to existence more than spontaneous with English language.

  • How to adapt this action to the virtual classroom: Skip the paper and, instead, simply verbally tell the student(south) the one-half-sentence they'll be working with. Alternatively, have students prepare a half-sentence before course and then assign the prompts to one another. You could also accept them email the sentences to you prior to grade, and you could assign them to the other students in grade.

Learn about the importance of storytelling in the ESL classroom for immature learners.

five. The Hot Seat

This ESL icebreaker is a fun vocabulary guessing game.

Put a chair at the front of the room with its back facing the board; this is the hot seat, and a student volunteer must sit hither. Then, write a word on the lath (for beginners, tell them the category or theme of words, such every bit jobs or food – ideally vocabulary they are already studying). Then, the other students attempt to prompt the hot-seater into guessing what the word is by describing it without saying the actual give-and-take (fun with famous people too!).

For instance, if you've told your beginner class the category is fruit and the word on the board is pineapple, the students can say things similar:

  • Information technology's a large fruit.
  • It grows in tropical places.
  • It'due south yellow within.
  • Information technology has spines.

With guessing games similar this one, students are really enthusiastic about trying to get their peers to guess correctly and win the game. The desire to guess takes over, and formerly reserved students forget that they were ever afraid to speak up in English.

  • How to adapt this activity to the virtual classroom: Cull a educatee to exist the guesser (in the "virtual" hot seat). So, have them close their eyes as you lot agree a whiteboard upwards to the photographic camera with the word written on it. Once the other students accept seen the word, hide the whiteboard and have students have turns describing the give-and-take to the student who is guessing. Alternatively, if your online software allows it, you lot could type the word in and send information technology via chatbox to the students who aren't guessing.

Get more ESL vocabulary games for teaching online and in-person.

6. Open-Concluded Questions

Have students each write downwards an open-ended question on a piece of newspaper. The questions could be something like "What is your favorite vacation?" or "What kind of movies practise y'all similar?"

Students and so either fold their papers or crumple them upwards into balls and drop them in a box as you pass it around. And so, go around the room and accept students take turns cartoon a newspaper from the box and answering the question. (But exist certain that students respond questions from their classmates, returning their own papers if they accidentally draw them.)

Ask follow-upwards questions if fourth dimension allows.

You can easily tweak this activity for smaller classrooms with fewer students by having them each write iii questions that have to be answered. You can as well impose a speaking time limit, so students know how long they need to talk.

  • How to arrange this action to the virtual classroom: Accept students come to class prepared with ane or two open-ended questions. They can have turns request their classmates their questions, or you could ask the students to submit their questions to you ahead of class and you can enquire the questions yourself.
BFITS Thailand teacher with class
An English teacher with BFITS, Thailand

7. One Beep

This is a very uncomplicated ESL icebreaker that works well for any historic period and is a bang-up way to do English language numbers.

Traditionally, students alternate betwixt saying a number and the word "beep" as they go effectually the room counting. For example, the starting time educatee would say, "1," the second would say, "beep," the 3rd would say, "three," the fourth would say, "beep," then on.

All the same, you lot tin brand this game as complex equally you desire, such as choosing to insert "beep" for odd or even numbers, on numbers divisible by 3, etc. Yous could as well bring it to the next level past creating other sounds or words they have to say for certain numbers. For example, every number divisible by three must exist replaced by "beep," and every odd number must be replaced by "boop." For numbers that autumn into both categories, y'all must say both ("beep boop").

Exist creative and establish the rules based on your students' level.

  • How to adjust this activity to the virtual classroom: If playing in the virtual classroom, this game is probably all-time done with only one student since it'southward supposed to be a fast-paced game and it might lag online if at that place are multiple students. The instructor and student can take turns saying the numbers and sounds with one some other.

Need more creative TEFL/TESOL activities? Here'due south how to use pop civilization to teach English.

8. Interview and Introduce

This is an easy ESL icebreaker to incorporate on the first twenty-four hours of class (or later on if you feel students could get to know ane some other meliorate). A benefit of this activeness is that it removes the pressure of students introducing themselves at the showtime of class, which can sometimes cause stress for new students.

Simply break students into pairs and have them interview one some other. To help students get started, give them a list of things to find out about their partner, such as where they're from, how many siblings they have, or what their summer plans are for the upcoming year. And so, they will introduce their partners to the residual of the class.

  • How to adapt this activity to the virtual classroom: Instead of breaking students up into groups, take turns interviewing students yourself. If your classroom platform supports a public word forum, you tin likewise assign students a partner and take them complete the interview for homework by using the forum or simply emailing one another the interview questions.

nine. Bull

This ESL activity, based on the game of the same name, works well for older and more advanced students.

Introduce a strange discussion that you're sure they've never heard earlier (ask them to be sure that no one knows information technology, and make sure nobody looks it up!). Accept each educatee write down a definition that they believe fits the give-and-take.

Collect all of the definitions and insert your own—the correct i—into the mix. Read off the definitions and take students vote on which they believe to be the correct one. Give points for students who judge correctly.

For teaching young learners, you could utilize this aforementioned idea to teach new, level-advisable vocabulary or even to review past words that yous've taught them.

  • How to adapt this action to the virtual classroom: Have students submit their definitions privately to you lot via chatbox (i.e., don't let the other students see who sent which definition). Then, read the definitions (adding in yours) randomly. Have students vote on the one they call back is correct.

ten. Detect Someone Who

This activity gets students upward and moving around and request their classmates questions.

Create a list of traits, such as someone who has a altogether in July, someone who owns a cat, someone who has traveled abroad, etc. Then, have the students mingle with i some other to find someone who fits each category. They can write down the names of their classmates side by side to each one to proceed track of who fits which trait.

If you add the dominion that they can only use someone'due south name for 1 category/trait, it will ensure that they get to speak with each of their classmates instead of but talking to the 1 person who meets all the requirements.

  • How to adapt this action to the virtual classroom: Assign the job equally homework and have students use a public word forum to inquire each other questions and find out which of their classmates fits each trait. They can share their findings in class.

Learn how to engage your older ESL students by taking Bridge's Micro-credential class: Games and Activities for the Online Classroom (Adults).

ESL icebreakers especially well-suited to online pedagogy

11. Prove and Tell

Ask your student(s) to bring a meaningful object to class and share the story backside information technology with y'all and/or their classmates. If your student is a beginner, you can take them describe their object instead. E.g., "It is majestic. It is large." If you lot only have one student, consider asking them to bring in two or three objects total.

To become students comfortable with speaking and sharing, demonstrate the action with an object of your own start.

Become more ideas for using realia in your classroom.

"Describe a Toy" online activity from the Bridge Micro-credential grade: Games and Activities for Instruction Immature Learners

12. Scavenger Chase

This activity works in both the physical and virtual classrooms and gets students up and moving, which is sometimes hard to achieve in an online classroom!

Provide students with a brusque list (3-v items) of types of objects they demand to find. East.g., something purple, something cold, something that starts with the letter of the alphabet B, something that makes y'all happy, something that was a souvenir, etc.

Y'all can then meet who tin can collect the objects from effectually their house or the classroom the fastest. Have students accept turns sharing what items they constitute. If you lot're teaching just ane student, set a timer for five minutes (or whatever fourth dimension you cull) and see if they can collect all of the required items earlier time runs out.

This activity is well suited to younger students and helps energize everyone at the start of class (or awaken everyone if the course starts to get a bit sleepy).

Looking for more ideas? Effort these fun ESL games and activities for kids and teens.

thirteen. Curl the Die

This is a great icebreaker activeness, but it can also be used to practice pronunciation or review a grouping of vocabulary words.

Before class, yous'll need to create a special die for this icebreaker. You tin repurpose a large plush dice from a craft store, utilise a small, foursquare-shaped cardboard box, or get creative here. Print off images that represent a certain action you desire students to accept, such as saying a word three times, saying it fast, saying information technology slowly, saying it loudly, whispering information technology, saying information technology in a low voice, saying it angrily, etc. For instance, a motion-picture show of an angry emoji could represent proverb the word in an angry vocalization.

Cut the images out and glue or tape them to each side of your cube. You now have your dice!

In class, have your student(s) say a word or set of words that you choose. Curl the dice and directly them to follow the instructions shown. This is a fun and silly way to go students out of their shells while helping them practice their English-speaking skills.

ESL icebreakers: An all-around win for the TEFL/TESOL classroom

ESL icebreakers are a great way to heave students' energy, become them excited about the class, and build an temper that makes them feel comfy. Many icebreakers are also adaptable and can exist used in both concrete and online classes. While in that location are tons of icebreakers out at that place, the best ones are fun and engaging, promote speaking in English, and foster confidence.

Go more fun and engaging TEFL/TESOL games for the online classroom in Bridge's Micro-credentials suite: Instruction English Online Games and Activities.