Icebreakers for ESL Classes

Icebreakers are actually pretty important. You want your students to relax and enjoy class time enough that they can attempt communication. Nervousness is a major barrier to learning! And language learners need focus and participation in an English classroom in order to improve their communication skills. Icebreakers can make your students see that your classroom is a safe place to practice and that they are among friends.

Icebreakers are a tricky thing. Done properly, they help students to get to know each other and adjust to their new learning partners (you and their other classmates). Icebreakers can also be perceived as a waste of precious class time by students who are accustomed to very different styles of teaching and different levels of classroom formality. Some students may have spent years learning English in formal classes using mostly lecture and the grammar-translation method of teaching. They may lose respect for a teacher who forces them to play childish games when they have the very serious task of improving their English for education or better jobs.

With that in mind, how can you use icebreakers effectively? Your goal in choosing an icebreaker game or activity would be to make the game relevant to what you are learning in the classroom. If your class focuses on conversation and public speaking, you should do speaking games or activities. If you're teaching a reading skills class, have students start using reading skills from the first warm-ups. Writing classes can do written icebreaker games to be shared with the class.

To be successful in the classroom, students need to build community with each other. The first icebreaker should involve students' names and something to help them remember each other.

If you want to do a writing and speaking activity, making name cards can be a good way to get started. Each student can make and decorate a placard to place on their desk or table. If students are from a variety of backgrounds, it can be interesting to talk about differences in names and how children are named, and this can be the start of a good class discussion.

Students may also be eager to talk about their outside lives. The "find someone who" game is eternally popular to help students find common interests and activities.

Maybe you want students to form study groups or pairs. It would be good for them to take time during the first class to exchange information like emails, phone numbers and possibly addresses to encourage getting together outside of class.