ESL Game: Swatter Stories

This is a very easy teaching activity which will help with your students English listening skills. You can play it with children, but I actually think this TEFL activity is best suited to teens and adults. For this game, all you need are two fly-swatters and a short story. You can also play this language game with music, too.

On the board, write key words from your short story or song. Fill up your whiteboard with 20 or so words. Write the words haphazardly and all over the place.

Split your class into two teams and have them form two lines facing the board. Give a fly-swatter to the first person in each team.

When you are ready, start reading your short story or play your song. The students need to listen carefully and hit the word on the board after you have said it, or it appears in the song. A point goes to the fastest correct student. The two students now go to the back on the line and it is two new students’ turn to play.

The teacher carries on reading the story or presses play on the song again. The team with most points at the end of the story or song is the winner.

Stuart tip: To help tune your students’ listening, before you play this game, read the story or play the song once first. Ask your students to write down any words they hear. At the end, ask your students any words they heard. Now your can write your own keywords on the board and play the game. Their listening will be tuned and they’ll be ready to listen and learn.

Have fun!

Did you like this TEFL Activity?

Here are three more TEFL activities which perfectly suit your older learners!

The London Taxi - students roleplay common questions and conversation they might hear and be engaged in when they visit another English speaking country. They’ll be chatting to a London cabbie!

Einstein’s Riddle - Can your adult students defeat this devilishly tricky IQ test perfectly adapted for English learners?

Five Mixed Shopping Roleplays - Your adult ESL students have to write out or improvise their own dialogue in these five interesting situations to do with shopping. Students are put into pairs.