ESL: English as a Second Language

These PowerPoint game templates can be downloaded from the site and customized with vocabulary from your course content. The files include hyperlinks (hot spots that, when clicked, go from one slide—such as a question slide—to another slide, such as a correct or incorrect answer slide). With Word Jumble, learners are given a word taken from topics from the course content. The word is jumbled, and participants must reflect on course content in order to be able to un-jumble the word. With Flash Cards, learners connect definitions with keywords or concepts. A definition is shown to the learners and they must make the correct association of the definition to the word or concept it defines. The games can be used as team competitions for vocabulary teaching review and reinforcement.

Screenshot of the University of Wisconsin's Parade of Games

Use the activity in conjunction with a lesson plan or unit on money, shopping, or paying bills. (Here is a lesson plan from KQED on Understanding Check and Checking Accounts which may be useful.) Use this handout to teach about the parts of a check. The handout includes a pair speaking/comprehension step.

In this activity, students practice using "should" to give health-related advice and "have to" to express obligation.

In this activity, students listen to a conversation between a doctor and a patient, and answer questions about the dialog.

In this activity, students read a list of tips for losing weight, make sentences about what they should and should not do based on the advice, and write what they should and have to do to be healthy on the Passport to English blog.