ESL Teaching Materials

If you’re looking for a language-focused activity that gets students excited about speaking and listening to English, it’s hard to beat a trivia game.

Intro

My students love this activity because they enjoy good-natured competitive games. I love a trivia game because students use English while asking and answering level-appropriate general knowledge questions.

It’s also a great choice just before an exam; you don’t want to teach anything new and the reviews are done, but you want students to do something that builds skills.

Finding trivia questions suitable for non-native speakers students in an EFL context can be time consuming. So I created my own questions – 480 general knowledge questions about science, math, social studies, art, entertainment, English and culture.

Set Up

This classroom arrangement has always worked well for me and my students.

• Put students in groups of four. Move desks around if necessary.
• Two people on a team playing against one other team works well.
• This format maximizes student involvement.

Flow

Copy question sheets; one per person to start. Here is a link to a sample pack with four sheets of trivia questions.

Each page has 3 categories. Each category has three levels of questions. Level 1 to 3, from easy to hard.

• Answer a Level 1 question correctly and get 1 point.
• Get a Level 3 question right and you get 3 points.
• Wrong answers get a zero.

The winning team is the first to get 8 points in each of the four categories. The students almost always want to play until the end of the 50 minute period.

Below are four sets of question sheets, two from Volume 1 (a little easy) and 2 from Volume 2 ( a little but harder, but not much). I use these questions with high beginner+ university level students, but they also work well with advanced students in elementary, middle and high school.

Resources

If you like this game, why not get the ebook. The Monster Pack is a 240-page resource filled with activities and lessons ideas for busy teachers.

It also has 480 general knowledge questions in four categories ideal for English students.

Learn more about the ebook and get a free sample here.

Teach writing and critical thinking skills

In the ebook Teach Writing Thinkingly, you get 20 lessons that help students improve composition style and mechanics and learn language skills to express and critique arguments and ideas. Click HERE for details.

Teach writing?

Get the ebook Teach Essential Writing Skills. Transform the quality of EFL student writing by focusing on four essential skills. Click here for details about the ebook that should be part of every writing teacher’s resource library.