Board Games to Increase Language Acquisition

Who doesn’t enjoy a lively game night with friends and family? In recent years, the popularity of board games has surged among young people and adults, but have you ever considered using them as a pedagogical tool in your second language classroom? The world of board gaming offers many possibilities and benefits for language acquisition.

In this article, I will examine why board games are relevant in the language classroom. I will also provide a list of commercial board games suitable for language learning and suggest ways to adapt existing board games to meet your learning objectives and your students’ proficiency levels.

Board games as a winning strategy

Learning a language can be intimidating and challenging for some students. One effective way to improve their proficiency is by interacting with their peers, but with technology now part of our everyday lives, getting our students to talk in real life with one another is more difficult than ever. As an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, I am always on the lookout to find new ways to get my students talking and create occasions for them to socialize and interact with their peers.

In recent years, the integration of game-based activities and gamification elements, such as board games and video games, at the college level has gained significant traction. More teachers now recognize the benefits of these teaching approaches in enhancing student engagement and learning outcomes, especially for language acquisition. They provide students with a fun, tactile, and dynamic platform that stimulates essential components of language learning.

They offer a multitude of benefits:

• Boosting engagement and motivation
  Board games add a fun and competitive (or collaborative) element to learning, keeping students engaged and motivated to participate actively in language practice.
• Reducing anxiety
  Board games create a relaxed environment where students feel more confident speaking in their second language, helping to lower anxiety levels [PDF] and encouraging fluency.
• Improving language skills
  Board games provide opportunities for:
  • vocabulary expansion
  • grammar practice
  • question formation
  • idiomatic expression learning
  • overall language fluency

  Through natural communication tasks, board games can help students:

  • build vocabulary
  • practise short sentences
  • encourage storytelling
  • generate discussions
  • etc.
• Promoting social interaction
  Board games encourage teamwork, communication, and social bonding among students, fostering a pleasant classroom atmosphere.
• Providing a context
  Some board games introduce students to different cultures and perspectives, enriching their understanding of cultural nuances and use of everyday vocabulary beyond what they learn in textbooks.
• Enhancing memory
  Strategic and memory-based games improve retention of language content by repeatedly using vocabulary and grammar rules in meaningful contexts.
• Developing human skills
  Board games cultivate human skills essential for academic and professional success, such as:
  • critical thinking
  • problem-solving
  • communication
  • cooperation
  • decision-making
• Encouraging active learning
  Board games promote active language use through interactive tasks, encouraging students to practise and apply their language skills in practical, real-life scenarios.

Tried-and-true board games for language learning

During the last RASCALS Colloquium in June 2024, themed “Fun and Games”, I attended a board game workshop hosted by Cégep de Lévis. The workshop showcased commercial board games regularly used by ESL teachers as teaching tools. Drawing from this workshop, my own experience, and discussions with peers, I have selected a list of commercial board games, ranging from old favourites to lesser-known ones, that have been tested by teachers for language learners at the college level.

This collection highlights some of my favourite discoveries, but the list goes on! I’ve focused primarily on tabletop games, but many card games, such as Timeline and Once Upon a Time, are equally worth exploring. These commercial games are obviously not free, but you could try checking with your department or library about the possibility of purchasing a few.

Adapting board games, a classroom game changer

You might not find exactly what you are looking for in these commercial board games, but another option is free, customized, and downloadable board games for English language learning, which can be easily found online.

Furthermore, adapting an existing concept or template to create your own customized board games to suit your learning objectives is also a good strategy. For instance, some simple possible adaptations might include:

• adapting vocabulary to the level of students
• including elements of a specific cultural context (or theme)
• changing the grammar focus
• adding role-playing elements to practise specific functional language (making requests, giving directions, etc.)

You can find free board game templates on Canva that you can then adapt. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) can also be of great help in creating your materials! I myself used it to create an escape room for my students in my ESL classroom.

Depending on the level of proficiency of your students, providing them with the functional language they’ll need during gameplay might be necessary. Teaching phrases like “It’s your turn”, “Can you explain that again?” or “I think this means…” ensures they have the tools to engage effectively and confidently in English throughout the activity.

From critical thinking skills to vocabulary and proficiency, board games are a great way to improve second language acquisition in a fun and engaging way. Do you already use board games as part of your teaching practice? Please share your experience and your thoughts in the comments below!