top of page
Search

Why Barrier Games Give ESL Students a Real Reason to Speak

  • Writer: Alan David Pritchard
    Alan David Pritchard
  • Jul 3
  • 5 min read

Updated: Jul 26


Three ESL students playing a barrier game in class, using visual cards and dividers to practice speaking and listening skills.

ESL-Wise: Blog 3

Why Barrier Games Give ESL Students a Real Reason to Speak

By Alan David Pritchard


In a high school ESL classroom, where confidence is often fragile and fluency is still forming, meaningful interaction doesn’t happen just because we say so. It has to be built. And one of the simplest, most powerful ways to build it is with barrier games.


Yes, barrier tasks are often associated with younger learners (Spot the Difference games worked very well with primary school ESL students). But if framed with care and pitched at the right level, they can become useful exercises for teenagers too. They require interaction and a need to communicate clearly in order to complete a task.


What is a Barrier Game?

Essentially, a barrier game is any task where:


  • Two students hold different pieces of information

  • A barrier (real or imagined) prevents them from seeing each other’s materials

  • The only way to succeed is through spoken interaction.


That interaction might involve clarifying, correcting, checking, instructing, or negotiating. It’s not scripted. It’s not rehearsed. It’s responsive, and that’s exactly what makes it so effective.


Barrier games create a need to speak. And when students have a reason to speak, they do.

 

Why Barrier Games Belong in the Secondary ESL Classroom

A lot of high school ESL speaking tasks fall into one of two traps:


  1. Opinion-based conversation starters that fall flat.

  2. Over-scaffolded roleplays that feel too staged.


Both can work in the right moment. But neither guarantees genuine interaction.

Barrier games, on the other hand, naturally:


  • Encourage risk-taking and spontaneous language use

  • Promote active listening and turn-taking

  • Reinforce functional language like “Could you repeat that?” or “I’m not sure I understand.”

  • Support repetition without feeling repetitive

  • Offer instant feedback: if communication breaks down, the task fails, and that’s part of the learning


They’re practical. They’re student-centred. And they often lead to laughter, and, sometimes, frustration because the wrong questions have been asked or students have not expressed their intentions clearly.


In a recent activity where I had year 9 students sit back to back and each had a copy of a text about context clues (the same text, but different aspects had been blanked out for each speaker), there were often moments when one student's lack of attention led to a lot of prompting by the other ("Dude, I told you: look under the heading that says ... ").


This is not just communicating, it's problem solving too.

 

Six ESL-Friendly Barrier Games (A2–B1)


These aren’t curriculum-heavy or content-driven. They’re designed to build confidence, fluency, and communicative control - the skills that make all other language learning possible.

 

1. Describe and Draw

Focus: Prepositions, present continuous, spatial awareness. Student A describes a picture; Student B draws it, without seeing it.

“There’s a girl sitting under a tree. She’s reading.”“To her left, there’s a dog sleeping.”

This helps with precision, clarification, and descriptive fluency.


I found some really complex images on Pinterest (link below) and had students sit in groups of 3. One had the image (unseen by the others), another was the artist who had to draw what was being described, and the third student had a list of prepositions, and had to tick them off when they heard them being used. After a time limit, they then had to grade the artist's efforts by ticking everything that the artist had gotten right. Then they swapped roles and a new image was given.


An image of a student using the barrier game technique.
Here is one of my students explaining what needs to be drawn.

The net result? Lots of talking, and lots of laughing.

 

2. Spot the Difference (Teen Edition)

Focus: Present simple, “there is/are,” comparatives. Each student receives a similar but slightly altered picture. They talk to find the differences.

“In my image, the teacher is standing.”“Really? Mine shows her sitting!”

Great for repeated structures and detail-rich communication.


There are loads of Spot the Difference images easily found in a Google search.

 

3. Information Gap/Student Profiles

Focus: Question forms, routines, personal info. Each student completes a classmate’s profile, but they only have half the data.

“What subject does she like best?”“Does he have siblings?”

Perfect for reinforcing newly learned question forms in a purposeful way.

 

4. Jumbled Story Fix

Focus: Past simple, sequencing, connectors. Student A has the story in order. Student B’s is jumbled. Together, they put it right.

“First, he missed the bus.”“Then he walked to school?”“No, he called a taxi next.”

Reinforces logical sequencing while practising past tense structures.

 

5. Grid Game – Find the Word

Focus: Spelling, letter-sound awareness, vocabulary review. Each has a word grid. One describes or spells; the other finds.

“The word in row C, column 2 starts with ‘th’ and ends with ‘k’.”“Think?”

Fun, visual, and a good way to reinforce older vocabulary sets.

 

6. Story Roleplay with a Twist

Focus: Past tenses, storytelling, question building. Student A tells a weekend story. Student B doesn’t know the twist and must uncover it by asking questions.

“We went to a café.”“What did you order?”“Well… we thought it was coffee…”

Playful, creative, and rich in natural language use.


Side-by-side context clues worksheets for Person A and Person B in an ESL barrier game. Each student has partial information and must communicate to complete the task.
Here is a barrier game about context clues that I recently used with my year 9 ESL class.

 

The Teacher’s Role: Set It Up, Then Step Back

Barrier games don’t run themselves, but they don’t need you to dominate either.


Your job is to:

  • Model the task

  • Scaffold useful language

  • Pair strategically (balance fluency and confidence levels)

  • Circulate and listen

  • Debrief afterwards: What worked? What was tricky? What new language came up?


The real magic happens between the students and not between you and them.

 

Final Thought: Give Them a Reason to Speak

Barrier games aren’t about tricking students into talking.They’re about reminding them (often without saying a word) that language has purpose.


When students are focused on solving a task, getting it right, making themselves understood, they stop worrying so much about mistakes. They start listening better.


And listening is essential to effective communication.


So next time you want your students to talk more, don’t just tell them to. Give them a reason. Then let them get on with it. Observing how they do so is always a joy.


Please feel free to share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.

I’d love to hear from you.


Further Reading


 

ESL students playing an academic vocabulary game with the words “start” and “commence” on a smartboard. The caption reads “Want an easier way to teach academic vocabulary?”
Right Fast is my teacher-designed, classroom-tested game series that helps learners build academic language through fast-paced retrieval and timed oral rehearsal. Perfect for ages 14+

 Click the image or explore all 10 categories and 100 sets HERE.

 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page