 7. Awesome ESL Conversation Activities to Really Get Your Students Talking. We all know what it's like to teach a class with reluctant students who don't want to talk. It's like pulling teeth. However, with these 7 awesome ESL Conversation Activities, you can really get your students talking. 1. Icebreaker Jenga. For this activity, you simply use a tumbling block game such as Jenga and write one simple icebreaker question on each block. Before a student places a block on the stack, they must first answer the question on the block. This activity is especially great for small ESL classes or for small groups in a big class. 2. Get to Know You Bingo. First, take a few minutes to brainstorm characteristics a person might have. This could be something like has flown in an airplane or has a younger sister. Next, students fill out bingo boards with these characteristics as they please. Next, they mingle among the class asking a question to one student at a time. If student 2 answers positively, student 1 can check their bingo board. The first student with 5 in a row shouts bingo. And wins the game. 3. Mystery Party Guest. To play this game, the teacher assigns a mystery identity to about 5 students. One at a time, these students enter a party, where another student is playing the host. It is now the host's aim to find out the identity of each person by having conversations with each guest. 4. 20 Questions. Have a student choose an object. The rest of the class then take turns asking yes or no questions to find out what the object is. The class can only ask 20 questions to determine what object student 1 has chosen. If they cannot solve it with 20 questions, student 1 wins the game. 5. Create a Game. Have students group up and get them talking to each other by making up their own board game. Once they are finished, they present their game to the class. After, you can keep the games in your classroom collection and play them as a reward. 6. Apples to Apples. This is a very popular game involving play cards. Group up your students and determine a judge for the first round. The judge then lays down a card and the other students need to play cards that they think relate to the judge's card. When all cards have been laid down, the judge chooses the card that is most appropriate and then must explain his reasoning behind the choice. Another student then becomes the judge for the next round. 7. Choose Your Victim. This game is great for practicing a specific grammar point with your students. Have all students stand up. The first student to start asks a question using the grammatical structure and then tosses a ball to another student, who must answer. If they answer correctly, they may ask a question and toss the ball to another student. If they answer incorrectly, they must return the ball and sit down. The last student standing wins. Are you ready to teach English abroad? These 7 activities will definitely get your students talking and make your classes interesting at the same time. Thanks so much for watching. We are ITTT, the leading provider for TEFL and TESOL training courses. If you liked this video, please subscribe by clicking that button down here and click on any of the videos here on the left for more interesting teaching tips for getting certified to teach English abroad and online.