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ESL Bingo Cards

Any language that is widely used beyond the population of native speakers is known as a “lingua franca.” Such languages ​​are widely used, for example, in business and commerce, science, diplomacy, and culture. During antiquity and until the late Middle Ages, two of the main lingua francas in Europe were Latin (mainly in Western Europe) and Greek (mainly in Eastern Europe). With the rise of the Habsburgs, Spanish became the language of international diplomacy, until it was in turn displaced in this field by French. Many other languages ​​have sometimes been set apart as a lingua franca for international communication, and some of these include German, Russian, Portuguese, Polish, Classical Chinese, and Arabic. Today, due to the former British Empire, the events of World War II, and the enormous cultural, economic, and political influence of the United States of America, English has become the dominant lingua franca of international trade, science, technology and aviation. Furthermore, English has become the leading language on the Internet, partly due to the fact that the Internet was first developed in the United States, partly due to the fact that English was already dominant among the scientists and technologists who they were the first users of the Internet, and in part due to the enormous influence of technology companies founded in English-speaking countries (especially the United States).
Given the importance of English, more and more people want to learn the language. This, in turn, further entrenches the importance of understanding and speaking English, which encourages more people to learn English, and so on.

Many non-native speakers, of course, can learn some English by hearing and seeing the language in everyday use. It is also true that a huge number of people have learned some English as a result of watching Hollywood movies, watching British or American TV shows, or listening to popular Western music. However, non-native speakers who want to use English as part of their professional lives generally find that a more formal education in English, studying “English as a Second Language” (sometimes also known as “English as a Foreign Language”, abbreviated like “ESL” or “EFL”) – to be useful.

Teachers of ESL courses will generally try to impart to their students a good knowledge of both spoken and written English. This will be done through various classroom activities, including speaking, reading and writing the language, as well as classroom games.

One game in particular that is becoming more and more popular in ESL courses is bingo. Bingo is ideal for teaching situations because it is so easy for students to learn and play, because it does not require expensive materials, and because it can be adapted to teach many different subjects. The game is played in class:-

1. Before class, the teacher prepares a set of bingo cards (one per student), which contains the elements to be taught or reviewed. Depending on the topic of the lesson, this may include numbers, dates, times, or English words (high-frequency words: words that cannot be pronounced, but are common in the English language and must be recognized for reading fluency) . are particularly popular). Please note: Although a small amount of preparation is required, it is not something teachers should not worry too much about: they can download free ready-to-use bingo printables from the Internet, or they can purchase bingo card printing software from low cost that will allow them to print unlimited quantities of bingo cards on any subject or theme.

2. At the beginning of class, each student is given a bingo card. The teacher acts as the bingo caller and the students play the game, either marking items on their cards or covering the squares with a coin or counter if they wish to reuse the cards in a later lesson.

Of course, since the purpose of the game is to practice English, it is very important that the entire game and the discussion during the game take place in English! Enterprising teachers can also adapt the game if they wish; for example, they could ask the winning student to read aloud, in English, the items they have marked.