10 Essential ESL Teaching Tools

I taught English in Taiwan for two years and I quickly discovered that in order to be successful in the classroom, I needed a wide variety of tools at my disposal. These tools not only helped me engage my students, but also created a fun learning environment. I hope this list of tools will help you as much as they helped me as a new ESL teacher.

10. Large Dice

There are endless games you can play with a large six-sided dice. My favorite was a variation of Russian Roulette. Students each picked a number before I rolled the dice. Anyone who chose the number I rolled was out. We would continue playing until all students were out save one; the winner! It is a simple idea, but my students seriously loved this game.

9. Hula-hoops

Another fun and equally versatile tool. I would often use hula-hoops to help my students recognize different colors. Simple games like, "Place the ball inside the yellow hoop," were very effective and allowed for a lot of fun racing games.

8. Sticky-ball

A sticky-ball is almost standard issue in every ESL classroom. Students love throwing things so why not direct that energy toward a specific target? I would often play a variation of darts that incorporated the days vocabulary and team points.

7. Team Mascots

To help manage my classroom I often divided my students into two or more teams. This allowed me to award points for good behavior, but also take them away when a particular student misbehaved. It then seemed obvious to create mascots for each team to rally behind. GO! Tigers!!

6. Bucket + Balls

A simple bucket with balls is a great tool to use when teaching students numbers. For example, start by ask your students "How many balls are in the bucket?" You can also reverse the questioning and have your students ask you how many balls are in the bucket to help improve their listening skills. For added fun learn how to juggle and break up the lesson with a little show!

5. Imagination

This one is the glue that binds the rest together. Without imagination all of these tools will quickly bore you and your students. Always be thinking about new ways to utilize these tools and how to effectively incorporate them into your lesson plans.

4. Plastic Cups

I have a small confession to make. Flip-cup was my favorite drinking game in college and I just could not miss the opportunity to incorporate it into my classroom. Obviously there was no drinking involved, but my students took to it immediately and would often beg me to play. There are many other uses for plastic cups, but flip-cup was definitely the crowd favorite.

3. Whiteboard/Chalkboard

I would be willing to bet that as long as there have been teachers, there have been chalkboards. They are almost indispensable as a teaching tool. One of my favorite activities was Speed Spelling; divide your students into two teams, arm them with markers, call out a word, and see who could correctly spell it first. For added fun use a stop-watch and record your students best times!

2. Prizes

You are going to need prizes for all of these games. The school I taught in had a sticker-reward system in place; good deeds earned stickers, which eventually turned into actual prizes. However, I still brought in sweets for my students from time to time for a little extra incentive to pay attention.

1. Flash-cards

Flash-cards are another indispensable tool to use when teaching any language. There are countless ways to use them in the classroom. My favorite game involved adding a 'bomb' flash-card into the mix. I would flash each card one by one as students said the word aloud. When I flashed the 'bomb' card I would scream and chase some poor student down. Ah, good times!

Thanks! If you have any other fun ESL tools you would like to share with the community, please leave them below in the comments