English games have many uses other than just filling up the last 10 minutes of a lesson. They can be a good way to get a class of 30 children to concentrate on the topic and they build interest in the lesson. English games can also be valid teaching methods, particularly when it comes to vocabulary building.
When to use
Games and activities are particularly useful in the setting of the first lesson. It can help you and everyone else to relax, and it may even help you to get to know each other (such as this memory game in which you have to remember everyone’s name).
ESL games can also be used as warming-up activities. You can use variations on well-established games in order to incorporate vocabulary or sentence structures that will be featured in the lesson.
Students need to relax sometimes. It’s not a cop-out on your part to plan a deliberately fun lesson. In this situation, you can use games as a means of revision or building rapport.
And finally, of course, there is the filler. A lesson plan that you thought would last well beyond the allotted time somehow gets finished too quickly. What do you do? A repertoire of TEFL games will get you out of any sticky situation.
What to do
Divide students into two or more teams. Depending on the class size you can use the board or paper. Give the students two or three categories within a topic area (i.e. Transport: jobs, vehicles, issues) and get them to list as many words as they can within a time limit. Some manic scribbling of half-baked words should ensue.
Where to find
I would be a fool to repeat here what others have already said, so my advice is to use the internet to find English games and activities that suit you.
There are too many useful websites to mention when it comes to finding games for the classroom, but the links below should start you off in the right direction.
British Council – have a look at the bountiful activities section
ESL Classroom Games – nicely illustrated resource for some simple games
The Internet TESL Journal – difficult to navigate, but more contents than you can swing a cat at…