Typhoon ESL Speaking and Listening Review Game

If you’re looking for a fun review game for children, teenagers, university students, or adults, then consider using Typhoon! It’s heavy on the listening and speaking skills and it’s the game I usually play at least once a semester in the review class before a midterm or final exam. It’s so fun that students keep asking to play the typhoon game again!

Typhoon ESL Game

Skills: Listening/speaking
Time: 30 minutes
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Materials: Whiteboard and questions

Typhoon is a fun review game that any age group of students will love that requires a little preparation but no materials. Every single time I play it, my students always want to play again and talk about it for the rest of the semester. It’s better with smaller classes of less than 20 so that everyone gets a chance to participate.

Draw a grid on the board, marking one row with numbers and one with letters. 5×5 works well for a 30-minute game. Put in two or three of each of the special letters (T/H/V), secretly on your master paper, but not the board. On the board will just be a blank grid.

T = typhoon: lose all your points
H = hurricane: pick 1 team for minus 5 points
V = vacation: get 5 points for free

E = easy question: 1 point
M = medium question: 3 points
D = difficult question: 5 points

Fill in the rest of your grid with these easy, medium and difficult questions. Then depending on how big your class is, make 4-5 teams. They pick a square, (B-6 for example), then you write the letter in the box and ask them the question or reveal the “special square” that corresponds to it.

It’s certainly possible to focus on almost any grammar point or vocabulary. One thing that it works well for is a gerund and infinitive activity.

Have a list of easy/medium/hard questions prepared beforehand. If they get the question correct, give them the points and if not, erase the letter in the box and another team can pick that square if they want and get the same question. Here is what an example grid would look like (not for the students to see-only you!).

T	H	E	D	V
M	D	M	T	M
V	E	D	M	E
E	T	E	E	H
M	E	H	D	V

Teaching Tips for the Typhoon Game

If one team is running away with certain victory, you can adjust it on the fly by switching some squares around but don’t be obvious about it. For example, if the team who is in the lead gets a vacation or hurricane, you can easily switch it with an easy question. Then later in the game, hopefully, one of the last-place teams will get the vacation or hurricane instead (remember a hurricane is where that team can choose another team to lose points, therefore reducing the gap).

If you want to make it more fun, you can be kind of dramatic when writing the letter up in the grid on the board. For example, just do the single line-stroke to start off T, H, E, etc. and students will be anxious to know what it is (because the horizontal strokes of each letter are missing).

I also often say things, “Ooooohhhh, bad weather is coming.” Or, “Hmmmm . . . the sky is getting very dark.”

Make sure that all the students get a chance to participate by saying that once a student on a certain team has answered a question, they can’t answer again until all the other team members have. However, their teammates can help them by giving some hints if necessary so that the lower-level students won’t feel embarrassed or like they’re letting down their teams.

In order to ensure that everyone is paying attention, I make a point of including at least a few questions directly from the exam that students will have in the next class. And I explicitly tell them this and mention that taking notes during the game wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Procedure for Typhoon Games

1. Prepare review questions beforehand, as well as a “grid” with the appropriate letters marked on it (T, H, V, E, M, D).
2. Write the corresponding grid on the whiteboard, but be sure not to reveal the letters. It should just be blank at this point.
3. Put the students into 4-5 teams. They can rock-scissor-paper to decide who goes first. The first team chooses a square and then you reveal which letter it contains. If a special square, perform that action and if a question, ask the appropriate level of question. If the answer is correct, they get the points and that square is finished. Finally, if incorrect, nothing happens and that square remains in the game.
4. The next team chooses a square, performs the action, and so on it goes with the next team.
5. Keep track of the total points and continue the game until all squares are revealed.

Did you like this ESL Game?

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Have your say about this typhoon game

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Last update on 2023-09-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API