Former teacher and Games Meister John Greenway is running a workshop at OurLearning on July 1st where he’ll introduce languages teachers to free and cheap games and fun activities for teaching languages at all key stages. As a taster to what’s on the course, here are John’s five favourites:
- Hotpotatoes – not strictly speaking “games” but free, easy and highly customisable activities that play nicely on a white board as crosswords, matchups, gap-fills and more. You’re not tied to plain text either: audio, images and video are easily included. For some great examples using Spanish, head off to http://www.asisehace.net/
- Content generator – a selection of free and very good value flash games that build on that very popular element of cruelty to teachers (!), these allow you to make multi-choice games, matching games, fling the teacher games, retro Invaders games and more – all with great graphics and sound effects. The subscription site www.atantot.co.uk has an example preview game here
- Languages Online (Australian site) These are specifically designed for consolidating language learning and come complete with sound effects and different funky backgrounds. Check out this page for some examples in various languages.
- What2Learn Unlike the others above, these games are created by you (or indeed your students!) online and played online. There is a variety of fun flash activities ranging from Sudoku to Alien Invasion (get the answers right before granny gets abducted!) Have a look at some French examples here.
- Sandfields games A page of flash and powerpoint games made by a skilled ICT teacher, these are freely downloadable and easily customisable for language teachers. Fancy German Blockbusters? Or French Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Find them here!
John has many more such resources, freely available online and simple to use. If you’re interested in knowing more about how to enhance your MFL lessons with games for your whiteboard, get in touch with Paula on our contact page.
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