Review Vocabulary With ESL Baseball Game Lesson

Students Practice English While Learning a New American Sport

Oct 24, 2009

Predictable pre-test games can render a class bored. Playing ESL baseball not only gives students insight into American culture, but helps them stay alert to review.

Whether it's weeks into the post season games of autumn or the beginning of spring training that ultimately sparks baseball fever, a cultural lesson in America's favorite pastime compliments any sort of ESL vocabulary and/or informational review.

ESL Baseball Review Game Preparation

What makes the ESL baseball game ideal is that it's so versatile. It can be used for several purposes and with many different levels, the exception being extreme beginners. First, teachers must decide what type of material they'd like to review with the class.

Any set or sets of ESL vocabulary can be the focus of the baseball review game, however having a team of students write questions from a reading a sample while the opposing group must answer them works well with students with higher English levels.

After deciding what type of information to review, the teacher can move forward in preparation. Practicing vocabulary doesn't require much preparation beyond creating flashcards. However, if the goal is to review reading comprehension, the teacher needs to set aside two class periods.

The first will give time for the students to read a story, passage, or article and then write comprehension questions in groups. The second allows time for a quick lesson on rudimentary baseball rules and the chance to play.

Teaching ESL Classes the Basic Rules of Baseball

For some non-American students, the concept of baseball is sometimes more complicated than speaking English. It's certainly not essential to be familiar with every baseball rule for this game. Instead, students just need to get the gist.

It may be helpful to show a few minutes of a real baseball game with teacher's favorite team, of course. This can easily be done from the Internet on You Tube or even from a baseball movie, like The Sandlotor Field of Dreams.

After an animated visual of the game, the teacher can demonstrate the rudimentary actions on the chalkboard and with gestures. Essentially, the concept of a hit, an out, and the way around the field from from first base to home plate is enough for students to know.

A printed hand-out of the basic rules may be a nice souvenir for students to keep for their own interest.

ESL Baseball Game Procedure

On the day of the game, students should divide into their separate teams on respective sides of the classroom. Team names are encouraged and can be represented on the board with a cut-out of a tiger or lion, for example. The teacher can simply draw a baseball diamond on the board.

The teacher can adapt this game in any way he or she sees fit, spending more or less time on the rules of baseball. All of this depends on the interest and level of the class.

Sometimes, teachers forget to include aspects of English-speaking country culture into their lessons, seeing it as unnecessary and a waste of time. However, cultural tidbits may just be the thing that gets students interested in learning English and something that they will remember for a long time.

The copyright of the article Review Vocabulary With ESL Baseball Game Lesson in ESL Programs/Lessons is owned by Katherine Kocisky. Permission to republish Review Vocabulary With ESL Baseball Game Lesson in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.