Welcome! My name is Matt Noyes. This is an online handbook for people learning, and helping others learn, English. You will find here a collection of participatory activities -- games -- that will help you learn English with fun, imagination, and friendship.
How to use this handbook
It's easy. Find a game that seems fun and useful to you. Read the game instructions carefully. Try to visualize each step. Get people together and play! After you play, talk about what you saw and learned, and how to improve the game. If you want to, play again. Some games become really useful when you have played them a few times.
No teacher? No problem.
What does a teacher do?
- We think about the people in the class and what we can do to help them learn.
- We use what we know and our skills and talents.
- We look for useful resources and ideas (we are always looking for new ideas, materials and activities!)
- We plan the course and the lessons.
- We facilitate the class.
- We take care of people and the class, encourage people, challenge people.
- We evaluate the effectiveness of the lesson.
- We think and look and plan more.
These are all things that you and your friends can do together. If you want to work with a native speaker of the language you are trying to learn, find another student who is a native speaker, or someone with more knowledge of English, and ask them to play with you. You can use that person as a resource when you play. They can be the judge or referee.
If you have a teacher, you can talk with her or him about using some of these games. You can volunteer to facilitate a lesson!
If you want advice about using the games, feel free to ask me through the contact form.
The games are organized in five categories:
- Games for Getting to Know Each Other
- Games for Communicating
- Games for Creating and Exploring
- Games for Planning Action
- Games for Evaluating and Redesigning
You can also see a list of games according to the skills you can practice with each one: speaking/listening, reading/writing, acting/moving, dreaming/creating, questioning/analyzing.