Best Friends Challenge - ESL Speaking Activities for Kids & Adults

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This fun party game is great for practicing productive and receptive skills in English. The aim of the activity is to test students’ knowledge about each other. It works best if students have known each other for a while, but you can still play it with new classmates.

Student Level: Intermediate, Advanced

Age Group: Kids, Adults

Best Friends Challenge ESL Activity Preparation:

Make sure that students have some paper to write on in class. Also, think of a few personal questions to ask your students beforehand.

The questions could be about their daily routines, favorite movies, or favorite food, etc.

Best Friends Challenge ESL Activity Guidelines:

Give a student volunteer a blank piece of paper. Tell the student that you will ask them a question and that they should write their answer on the paper. Remind them not to speak and only to write.

Then, ask your question. For example, “What time do you usually get up in the morning?”

The student writes their answer without showing anyone.

On your piece of paper, write what you think the student’s answer is. Show the class your piece of paper so that everyone can see the time that you guessed.

Finally, the student reveals their answer. They should say their answer using a complete sentence. For instance, “I usually get up at seven o’clock in the morning.”

Ask the student a few more personal questions so that everyone understands the activity.

To start the activity, put the students into pairs. Get them to create about five questions with their partners. Inform them that they will be asking the students in other groups the questions.

After completing their question lists, students randomly select students around the classroom to answer a question. The selected students write their answers on paper while everyone else in the class writes down their guesses. The students eventually reveal their answer — and say it using a complete sentence.

Finally, everyone in the class reveals their guesses on paper too. Whoever guessed correctly scores a point. You can keep track of the students’ total scores on the board.

If students make any significant grammatical errors while writing or speaking, write the sentences (with the errors) on the board. At the end of the activity, correct the mistakes with the class and review the proper form.

Follow-Up ESL Activities:

Time permitting, try some follow-up activities to reinforce some vocabulary from the lesson. For instance, pick a few words or themes from the speaking activity and try the No Harm No Vowel ESL Game. The Comparatives ESL Game and Have You Ever ESL Game are fun for all ages too.