I usually have older students spell their winning words out, and for the ones who really know their stuff I tell them to give me a sentence using the words. If you have older students, though, saying individual words might not fit the bill. You can also work on pronunciation by designing your bingo board around vocabulary words and having students repeat each word as it’s called out. Most likely they’ll shout “Bingo!” but you can designate any tricky-to-say vocabulary word instead. If the students want to tell you they’ve won, then they need to know how to say it. Younger students may not be able to spell or identify the letters in the word “cat,” but if you’ve been working on basic ESL words there’s a good chance they’ll be able to pick out the picture of a cat when you call it.įor more advanced students, you can use entire sentences-including some with only minor differences (like tense changes or plurals)-to really hone their listening skills. Students then need to listen for those words as you call them out so they can mark them off.įor beginners, you can use pictures on the bingo cards instead of written vocabulary words.

You can’t mark your bingo card if you’re not listening to the letters and numbers being called out!Ī traditional way to play ESL bingo is to put English vocabulary words on the cards. Let’s start with one of the most crucial skills when it comes to bingo: Listening.

Check out these four Bingo variations for your ESL class:

Some of these ESL Bingo varieties require a little more creativity than others, but with a bit of thinking, your students are sure to have fun while exercising these abilities. (Download) Unique Ways to Use ESL Bingo in Your Class Bingo for ESL Listening Comprehensionĭownload: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬan take anywhere. Plus, nothing gets your students reading, listening and talking in English like a fun game where the winners get to shout “Bingo!” at the top of their lungs.Ĭurious about how to transform plain old bingo into ESL teaching gold? We’ll show you four bingo variations you can use to target listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. You can adapt it to teach anything from basic numbers to books to spelling, as we’ll show you below. By Caitlyn Marsolek Last updated: SeptemESL Bingo: 4 Fun, Practical Ways to Use the Classic Game in Your Classroomīingo is a simple, versatile game that’s popular in many classrooms, but it’s especially useful for language educators.

Classroom bingo generator