6 board games for leveling English

Gamification of training is a great way to increase student motivation and improve results.

The reason is simple - the games help maintain a stable and high interest in the subject. And there, the mechanisms of memorization and associations are included. After all, you noticed that the lyrics of the song that you liked, do not even need to be taught? It is remembered as if by itself after several auditions.

If you delve into psychology, then interesting information immediately creates a stable chain of associations with existing knowledge. And the more such associations, the faster the information will go to long-term memory.

Today we’ll talk about a whole section of games that are undeservedly forgotten - board games. And we’ll tell you which tables will help you to improve your English skills.

All these desktops can be purchased in online stores without any problems. Ready? Go!

Scrabble

It would be very strange to talk about desktops for pumping English and not to mention Scrabble.

Scrabble is a board game legend that combines extremely simple rules and fun. Naturally, we need an English version of the game.

The complexity of the rules. Low
Level Strategy. Medium
Coaches skills: Attentiveness, vocabulary, anagrams, search for the optimal strategy.

Rules

Players are given 7 chips with letters. Players must put their chips on a 15x15 field in such a way that words form in the manner of a crossword puzzle. That is, you can read the words only vertically and horizontally.

Each letter has its own value. And the less often it is used in words, the more points you will get when using it. For example, “A” or “C” costs only 1 point, “F” - 4 points, and “Q” - as much as 10 points. Points from all used letters are counted and recorded.

The game is played up to a certain number of points. Whoever first achieved is victorious.

Use

Scrabble is great for working vocabulary in English. Actually, the more words you know, the higher your chances of winning. You can check for the presence of a word in any English dictionary. Better, of course, use online dictionaries - for example, Oxford Dictionaries . Total allowed words about 260 000 pieces.

If you don’t know the word your opponent laid out, spend a few minutes and look at its meaning. So you can replenish your vocabulary during the game.

Once Upon A Time

In Russian, she came out under the title “In a Realm”, which, as it were, hints at the meaning of entertainment. The task of the players is to tell a fairy tale or a fantastic story using special cards.

Complexity of rules: low
Level of strategy: low
Coaches skills: speech perception, formation of sentences, language connectivity, storytelling, mindfulness, logic.

Rules

Each player has a set of cards with characters, locations, properties and actions, as well as one ending card.

Players need to tell a fairy tale using their own cards. At the same time, it is imperative that each card is important for promoting the plot.

If the opponent in front of you falls silent, straying or contradicts an already told story, you can intercept the move and start telling yourself.

The game largely depends on the "talkativeness" of the players. It is clear that in English it will be difficult to compose a fairy tale at first, but these are only the first few parties.

To take the time and come up with the next plot twist, you can add colorful descriptions, dialogs, or some interesting little things to the fairy tale. The fairy tale will only benefit from this, and from such a training you yourself will benefit even more.

It is important not only to tell the story yourself, but also to listen to others. Therefore, “Once Upon A Time” is great for people with approximately the same level of language proficiency.

Benefit

Creating stories on the go allows you to develop the beauty, connectivity, and logic of speech. You need not only to use your vocabulary to create a story, but also to connect the narrative with the cards that you have in your hands.

Here you need to talk as much as possible. Indeed, a pause too long will lead to an interception of the move. And over time, the quantity becomes quality, telling a story becomes easier. And you can speak English fluently, about anything and for as long as you like.

Sounds like a plan

Sounds like a plan is considered a party game, but it is also great for pumping English.

The task of the players is to give advice. And how much these tips will be in the subject will mean the number of your points.

Complexity of rules: low
Level of strategy: low
Coaches skills: reading, accuracy of perception, speed of thinking, logic.

Rules

Each player has cards from the “Advice” deck. Nearby there is a common “To Do List” deck, from which each of the participants draws cards. Each move is one action.

The goal of the game is to pick up advice from your cards that will best suit the situation.

For example, you need to "Plan a family reunion." The cube shows what type of advice is needed: the best, the worst, from a child or from a grandmother. Then each player draws out a card with advice on this. The participant who pulled out a “To Do List” card ranks players' cards from the most current advice to the least suitable.

The game turns out to be very funny, and the Pre-Intermediate level will be quite enough to participate in it. Unknown words can be found in the dictionary - this will practically not affect the speed of the game. But in this way you can learn how to quickly correlate and filter information in English.

Benefit

From an English perspective, the game is pretty simple. Indeed, in fact, you only need to correctly understand the meaning of several written sentences. However, it allows you to expand your vocabulary and replenish your asset of idioms and popular phrases.

Taboo

An excellent game in which you need to explain a word to your team, without naming either himself or any other words that are directly related to him.

Difficulty of rules: low
Level of strategy: low
Coaches skills: description of words, associations, speed of thinking in English, use of active and passive vocabulary.

Rules

Everything is extremely simple. You need to explain as many words as possible in one minute. The word itself, of course, cannot be called. But one cannot also name other words that are directly related to it - they are written in the Taboo block.

For example, you need to explain the word “basketball”. The words “sport”, “basket”, “basketball player”, “ball” are prohibited. And now get out as you want.

The style of the game is a bit like Crocodile, but here it’s just impossible to explain the word with gestures - only words. By the way, this is one of those games for which you can not even buy a special deck of cards, because words can be invented independently.

Benefit

It turns out that explaining even the simplest word in this way is not easy enough. The game perfectly trains the skills of instant use of vocabulary.

Indeed, in one minute you need to explain as many words as possible. Literally in fractions of a second, you need to understand how to clearly explain the specific word “without taboos”.

PS The game "Alias" is very similar to "Taboo" in meaning - they differ only in the features of scoring and penalty systems. So if you wish, you can choose any of these two games.

Mad gab

An extremely interesting phonetic game in which you need to guess the phrase by sound.

Difficulty of rules: low
Level of strategy: low
Coaches skills: listening, using vocabulary, phonetic associations.

Rules

Before the start of the round, the referee selects several cards. They are bilateral. A meaningless set of words is written on one side, and on the other a popular phrase that phonetically resembles a set of words on the first side.

For example: "Heaven Iced Hey" - "Have a nice day."

The task of the first player is to pronounce a set of words in such a way as to guess the answer phrase.

The second player knows the answer and tells the first how to say the phrase. He can give clues about speed, intonation, accents, but cannot in any other way suggest the meaning of a phrase.

You need to guess as many phrases as possible in the allotted amount of time. Most often in 3 minutes.

The benefit

of Mad Gab is simply a great game to practice listening to English. If you learn to play it well, then understanding even the accent of Indians or Chinese will not be difficult.

The game also well includes an associative series, because the sounds of the riddle and the phrase-answer are very similar. Often the answers are daily phrases that are often used - the more interesting it will be to find them.

Apples to Apples

A simple card game for a company whose goal is to choose the word that best matches the main card. A game of association and communication between rivals.

Difficulty of rules: low
Level of strategy: low
Coaches skills: vocabulary, associative series, speed of thinking.

Rules

Rules are a bit like “Sounds like a plan”, but you need to select a description for a specific word or description.

Each player has a certain number of cards from the red deck. The leader of the round selects one card with the word from the green deck - it becomes the main one.

The task of the players is to pick up a card with a word from their hand that will most closely match the main card.

For example, the green card on the table is “cute.” In your hand there are cards: “lawn mower”, “clown”, “bottle”, “sport” and “kitten”. Naturally, the word “kitten” would be most appropriate.

After all the players have put their cards, the leader chooses the most suitable. The choice is always subjective, so the players also need to consider the possible reaction of the leader.

The player who has chosen the most suitable word takes the green card for himself. The winner is the one who first collects a certain number of green cards.

Use of

Apples to Apples is a good vocabulary trainer. Most of the words written on the cards are quite common. And if you take into account that the number of cards in the game is from 200 to 400 (depending on the version), then this is a very good way to learn a few hundred new words or to consolidate already learned ones.

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Conclusions

Buying any of these board games in English is easy. In online stores they are in sufficient quantities.

Dashboards are a great way to spend time with your family or friends and train your English along the way. If you are participating in a conversation club, try bringing one of these games to the meeting. And we assure you, classes will become much more interesting.

In this list, we specifically did not include games with complex rules or highly strategic ones. After all, you can play Dungeons & Dragons in English, if you really want to. But before that, you need to be mentally prepared to read and understand a few hundred pages roulbook.

There are only proven simple entertainment, which, nevertheless, perfectly helps to pump English. Have fun!

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