Communication Games
Communication games are structured, interactive activities in which students must use the target language to accomplish a concrete goal, most often by closing an information gap, solving a problem, or reaching a shared decision. Because each player holds information the others need (as in barrier games, find-someone-who, twenty questions, describe-and-draw, or matching tasks), real communication becomes necessary rather than optional. The game format creates authentic reasons to ask, clarify, confirm, describe, and negotiate meaning, which prompts learners to produce comprehensible output and attend to the language they hear. These activities live in the speaking and listening domains and can be designed for any content area or proficiency level.
How it’s typically applied
- 1Choose a clear communicative goal tied to your content and language objectives (for example, identifying differences between two pictures, locating items on a grid, or sorting a set of cards), so that students must talk to one another to succeed.
- 2Design a genuine information gap: give each partner or small group a piece of information the others do not have, so exchanging language is the only way to complete the task.
- 3Pre-teach and post the key vocabulary, sentence stems, and question frames students will need (for example, Where is...?, Do you have...?, I think it is... because...), then model the game with one student or a small group before releasing the whole class.
- 4Set up partners or small groups intentionally, pairing students so that home-language and peer support are available, and arrange seating so partners cannot simply see each other's information.
- 5Play the game while you circulate, listen for negotiation of meaning, offer just-in-time scaffolding, and take notes on language use instead of interrupting to correct every error.
- 6Build in a brief debrief or report-back where students share results, compare strategies, and you highlight a few useful words or structures you heard, reinforcing accuracy after meaningful use.
- 7Rotate roles and replay or extend the game with new content so students get repeated, low-anxiety practice with the same structures across the week.
Why it works for emergent bilingual students
Communication games create the conditions that second language acquisition research identifies as most productive for emergent bilingual students. Because a game has a real outcome, learners are pushed to make their meaning clear, which Long's interaction hypothesis describes as negotiation of meaning through clarification requests, confirmation checks, and comprehension checks, the process that makes input comprehensible and supports acquisition (Long, 1996). The need to convey a precise message also elicits comprehensible output, prompting students to notice gaps in their own language and test hypotheses about how the target language works (Swain, 2005). Game formats can lower anxiety and raise motivation, which weakens the affective filter so that more comprehensible input is taken in and processed (Krashen, 1982). These activities position emergent bilinguals as capable communicators with valuable knowledge and ideas to share, and they invite students to draw on their full linguistic repertoire, including the home language as a resource for problem solving and peer support. Sheltered instruction and scaffolding frameworks both emphasize frequent, structured peer interaction within the learner's reach as a core feature of effective instruction for multilingual learners (Echevarría et al., 2017; Gibbons, 2015).
Adapting it across proficiency levels
Pre-Production
At Pre-Production, students participate non-verbally and through highly supported responses. Use games that let them point, match pictures, sort cards, act out, or hold up a response card to show comprehension (for example, a listen-and-point picture lotto or a Total Physical Response command game). Provide a partner who can model, accept gestures or yes/no answers, and honor the silent period while still including the student in the goal of the game.
Beginning
At Beginning, students use single words, short memorized phrases, and high-frequency social language. Provide picture-supported word banks and sentence stems (for example, I have..., Do you have...?, It is a...) and use simple barrier games, find-someone-who grids, or guessing games with a fixed set of choices. Accept short, formulaic responses and allow home-language support and rehearsal with a partner before playing.
Intermediate
At Intermediate, students can produce original sentences and sustain short exchanges with some errors. Use information-gap games that require describing, comparing, and asking follow-up questions (for example, spot-the-difference, describe-and-draw, or twenty questions). Provide stems for clarifying and negotiating (Can you repeat that?, Do you mean...?, What do you mean by...?) and expect students to give reasons and ask for clarification, not just trade single facts.
High Intermediate / Advanced
At High Intermediate and Advanced, students handle more abstract, content-rich, and open-ended games with extended discourse. Use decision-making, ranking, debate-style, and problem-solving games (for example, reach consensus on a survival ranking, justify a choice, or give precise directions through a complex grid). Push for precision, elaboration, justification, and academic vocabulary, reduce the scaffolds gradually, and ask students to evaluate one another's reasoning and use the language to persuade and negotiate.
In the classroom
In a fifth-grade science class studying landforms, the teacher sets up a barrier game. Partners sit with a folder standing between them. Student A has a completed map showing a labeled mountain, river, valley, and plateau in specific locations; Student B has a blank map and the same set of landform labels. Without looking at A's map, B must recreate it by asking questions while A gives directions using the target vocabulary and prepositional language (The river is between the mountain and the valley. The plateau is in the top right corner.). Posted sentence stems support both roles. An emergent bilingual at the Beginning level uses a picture-supported word bank, while a partner at the Intermediate level practices clarification questions (Do you mean the tall one with snow?). When the barrier comes down, partners compare maps, celebrate matches, and the teacher highlights two or three useful phrases she heard for the whole class.
Research basis
Communication games drive negotiation of meaning (clarification requests, confirmation checks, and comprehension checks) during interaction, which makes input comprehensible and promotes second language acquisition.
Long, M. H. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W. C. Ritchie & T. K. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 413-468). Academic Press.
Requiring learners to convey a precise message pushes comprehensible output, prompting them to notice gaps in their language, test hypotheses, and reflect on form.
Swain, M. (2005). The output hypothesis: Theory and research. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 471-483). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Low-anxiety, motivating, meaningful activities can lower the affective filter, allowing more comprehensible input to reach the language acquisition system.
Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Pergamon Press. [link]
Effective sheltered instruction for English learners provides frequent, structured opportunities for student-to-student interaction, with grouping configurations and scaffolds that support both language and content objectives.
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. J. (2017). Making content comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP model (5th ed.). Pearson.
Classroom talk and structured peer interaction within the learner's zone of proximal development scaffold both language development and content learning for multilingual learners in mainstream classrooms.
Gibbons, P. (2015). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching English language learners in the mainstream classroom (2nd ed.). Heinemann.
The English Language Proficiency Standards adopted in 2024 for implementation beginning in the 2026-2027 school year define five proficiency levels (Pre-Production, Beginning, Intermediate, High Intermediate, and Advanced) across the listening, speaking, reading, and writing domains, requiring differentiation of oral language instruction by level.
Texas Education Agency. (2024). English language proficiency standards (19 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 120, Subchapter B). https://tea.texas.gov/curriculum-and-instruction/english-language-proficiency-standards [link]
Sources reviewed by an independent second-language-acquisition specialist and an adversarial citation audit.
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