World Language Lessons: 5 Weeks of Low and No Prep Fun- Week 4

Looking for some easy-to-implement, engaging world language lessons? Check out the following activities that can be used for any language at any level.

Card Games 

Beginner/A. Practice big numbers (War) or Go Fish for example. Concentration works nicely, too. Any deck you can make with matching concepts is great, too. Essentially, the cards serve as engaging speaking prompts. Any world language lesson that keeps students interested in talking is great in my opinion. They never fail us.

Intermediate/B. A game like Would you rather?., with you creating the questions in the target language. 

Advanced/C. Games like Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly offer a lot of complex input for learners. While this may not be appropriate for anything but advanced classes, I love to have this on hand. They make great supplemental world language lessons for advanced students.

Shopping 

Beginner/A. Simple lists of vocabulary. Put them in teams, give them the list and scavenger hunt with the students collecting the items. I love creating shopping lists for food, or furniture when I moved house. They create a relevant active world language reading lesson.

Intermediate/B. The students have to create lists that they give to others. For example, they might make a list of chores they want someone to do. This is interactive and fun.

Advanced/C. If you can’t take them abroad, you can go online with the list. I love to have my students shop at FNAC or El Corte Inglés. It’s a great way to interact with Spanish language and culture. IKEA in different languages makes a fun world language lesson, too.

YouTube 

Beginner/A. You can have a flipped classroom using grammar tutorials and playlists that kids can watch. This can save your class time for communicative activities. This also offers students a resource for extra help on concepts that might need more review. This can transform the way you plan your lessons for world language classes.

Intermediate/B. Students can make their videos private, where they can create and record tasks. This could serve as a great diary of their language progress. For example, one day they might talk about what they did over the last week. Maybe a week later they talk about their plans for the summer. It’s a great way to document every week and hear improvement.

Advanced/C. There is no greater joy than being able to binge watch! Youtube has tons of telenovelas are there. Students can learn how to dance salsa completely in the target language or cook target language food. If you love French, you can watch great reality shows like Le Jour Où Tout a Basculé– addicting fun French immersion. 

Crystal Ball 

Beginner/A. You can simply ask and answer questions about them in the target language. This can be a great way to deliver comprehensible input in a novice world language lesson. 

Intermediate/B. I love to pretend that I have some knowledge of the future and I make predictions using the future tense. 

Advanced/C. Students can write a future of the world essay or give a talk on that same topic.

Races 

Races make your classroom fun. They give everyone a chance to be up and moving around and can be adapted to any world language lesson. 

Beginner/A. I love to display things on my digital whiteboard and I have them ID them. Maybe they get in two lines and I say a word in the target language. They have to come up and be the first one to touch it.

Intermediate/B. I love to have chain stories, or play telephone, where you make them do it a little bit faster each time. It’s a great way to build up fluency.

Advanced/C. Students can each be assigned a different race or competition in your target language. For example, if you teach French, students will research something like the Tour de France. You can find small traditional competitions from villages. Some students can even research games like Les Sept Familles. Each student researches and reports on a different topic in the target language to the class.

Exercise 

Beginner/A. Having activities, like Simon Says, where they’re doing what you say. 

Intermediate/B. I love going on YouTube and getting some target language culture. For example, I teach Spanish and I love Batuka. The students have to follow the directions in the target language. This world language lesson offers culture, input and movement.

Advanced/C. Have them actually make their own exercise video for lower level students. They’ll have so much fun doing it. The crazier the costumes, the better!

Looking for more fun world language lessons? Go here: