ESL Icebreakers - Getting to Know You Games

ESL Teachers meet tons of international students in a year and teach a multitude of classes. You never seem to have enough ESL icebreakers. So here are 5 more "Getting to Know You Icebreakers" that you can use in your first week of a new class.

In this icebreaker students are getting out of their seats, speaking English and getting to know each other.

Have the students stand in two rows facing each other. Tell them they have 5 minutes to introduce themselves to their partner. After 5 minutes, use your loud voice to say "STOP" or "CHANGE".

One row stands still, the other row moves down one. Person at the end comes to be partners with the person at the front so they will each have a new partner. Repeat. Afterwards, have students tell you something they have learned from another person or introduce the person who they spoke to last.

Variations:

1. Topic Interviews: Each new partner, tell students a new topic. (ie. Family, Hobbies, Hometown, Internet, Travel)

2. Interview Questions: Each new partner, ask students a question they have to answer. (ie. What are your hobbies?, Tell me about your family, What is famous in your hometown?, What is school like in your country?)

I was inspired by the game show "Jeopardy" where they give you the answer and you have to guess what the question is.  That is exactly what this icebreaker does. 

First I write down answers about myself on regular paper.  One answer per paper.  This is my demonstration that I do first.  (Note:  If you have a computer and projector in your classroom, you can write the answers on powerpoint slides).  Then I show the class the answer one at a time and they have to guess what the question is.  You want to do at least 5 answers as your example and you want to start with the easy ones first.  It's fun to hear their guesses and they get to know me better as I reveal the true answers.

Answer: 

Hong Kong  (students guess what the question is.  answer is "Where was I born?"

One (answer:  "How many brothers or sisters do I have?"

Blue (answer: "What is my favourite colour?"

Ten years (answer:  "How long have I lived in the city?"

After knowing about you (the instructor), students individually write down their own answers for 15 mins.  Then get them into small groups of 4 and they play jeopardy with each other.  Have each group share one with you to guess.

There are great ESL Surveys at this site and in particular for the Survey Results sheet and blank template.  You can use them to tailor the questions to be related to getting to know each other.  If you have advanced students, as a class you can brainstorm topics and then have the students write the questions on their survey results sheet. 

Examples of survey questions if you do your own for beginner students.

How many brothers or sisters do you have?

Where are you from?

How old are you?

What is your favourite musician? 

When students are surveying each other, they are also getting to know each other because they have to write their classmates names.  After the surveying, as a class students can present their results.

Here is a super popular activity to get students mingling with each other and out of their seats.  Find Someone Who worksheets are simple to make your own for your class.  Have them use follow up questions to make sure they speak lots and get to know each other in the process.

One simple rule for this activity:  Can only use one classmate's name once!

You'll need to monitor to make sure they are mingling or make it into a game.  First one done with different names for each question wins!  Either way, students will be talking!

Give each student an index card and they write four different likes or topics or hobbies of their choice in each corner. (or have them write eight on the card). The idea is to get the student's ideas on the card of topics that they can talk a lot about.

They mingle and show their card to a classmate who chooses a topic or asks a questions about what's on the card and they can discuss that topic.

This puts the discussion in the hands of the students. It's hard to know what they will like so have them decide. Do an example to the class first with your own card. My index card would have words like TRAVEL, BLOGGING, CRAFTS, FOOD, FAMILY. Those are 4 topics I could talk a lot about but the partner decides what they want to listen to :)