Games are not only used for entertainment but also for educational purposes as well.  In fact, games are an essential part of any ESL Curriculum and one of the most useful ESL Activities you can use in the classroom. Using games is a good technique in teaching the English language to non-native speakers because it makes learning fun and it also addresses several problems.  Some teachers encounter problems like students not paying attention in class, lack of motivation in learning, making lessons more interesting, among others.  Using esl games and esl activities, while teaching in class, could actually solve these problems.

Using games, especially during teaching English as a second language, offer a lot of benefits.  The following are some of the benefits:

• The students have more fun learning and participating in class because games provide them with more enjoyment and help them do better and feel better about themselves.


• Playing ESL games gives the students a reason to communicate.  So instead of just repeating things back mindlessly, they would be encouraged to know more, think more and also learn more.


• Students get to practice their English while playing. Games give students more motivation and stimulation.  It makes them pay more attention to the lessons and exert mental effort in memorizing the rules so they would be able to play well and not let themselves or their teammates down.


• Repetition is an important part in learning and using games makes it fun instead of boring.  For instance, using games in vocabulary lessons would help the students remember the words easily, as opposed to just teaching vocabulary through lectures.
  
  ESL Vocabulary games allow the teacher can review a large amount of vocabulary and grammar quickly.


• Some games involve physical movement and this keeps everyone focused and stimulated.  Making occasional movements prevents students from feeling bored and restless and increases the participation level.
  
  
• Using games is also a venue to help all the students gain more confidence. 
  There are plenty of ways to adapt games into the curriculum and appeal to a broad age range, which is between about four to twelve years old. 


• A lot of the games do not require much material and time preparation.  The usual materials needed are classroom props and black board.  This would effectively give more stimulating and fun classes in so little effort too.


• Games can be used to control the atmosphere in the class.  If the students are a little bit unruly, the teacher could use calming games to settle them down.  Or if the teacher wants to pick up the pace, an exciting game would definitely do the trick.