Board Game for ESL/EFL

[Jazzy]

Hi everyone! Does anyone know of a board game designed for ESL/EFL?
Thought it might be fun.

[RebeccaG]

Hello Jazzy, welcome to our forums!

You ask a great question. I think there are a few board games on the market designed specifically for EFL. If you are in Madrid, you ought to go to Booksellers in Plaza de Olavide (metro Bilbao) as they have a lot of that kind of material there.

I love board games and use them from time to time in my classes, but I just use normal board games. Monopoly is great for teaching financial expressions, numbers and requests/offers (modal verbs). Taboo is great for speaking skills and vocabulary development (you can play without the timer and without the taboo words to make it a bit easier), Scrabble and Boggle for vocabulary development/spelling, Guesstures for speaking skills/vocabulary development and also Clue for expressing opinions.

Hope that helps you in your quest

-Rebecca

[MadridTeacher]

Here are a couple of "real" games I use:

Apples to Apples (Adjectives)
I bought this game and three or four expansions and divided the adjective cards by levels. Students absolutely love it.
http://www.madridteacher.com/articles/apples-to-apples.htm
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/74

Once Upon a Time (Narrative Tenses, Fantasy Vocabulary)
This game works well with upper intermediate and advanced students once you've got the students fluent with the past simple, past continuous and past perfect. It works ok with pre-intermediate if you set it up first well a-la Apples to Apples by pre-teaching all the vocabulary first.
http://boardgamegeek.com/game/1234

Chrononauts (Past Conditional)
By the way, I've also used Chrononauts, a time travel game, just to practice the Past Conditional: http://boardgamegeek.com/game/815 .

[RebeccaG]

Hi MadridTeacher,

Thanks for those suggestions! I am not familiar with any of them but will definitely be checking them out over the Christmas holidays.

Have a merry one! 

Rebecca