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Tips For Making ESL Quizzes

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Quizzes are a great way to introduce a topic or to end off a topic and test your students in a fun, relaxed way. Using quizzes incorporates general knowledge which is not related to their level of English, so even lower level students enjoy showing off what they know. If the quiz is done in a pub quiz-style it’s even better; students love a bit of competition. Here are a few of our favourite ways to create the perfect quiz, as well as tips to make the process quick and easy:

Use Google. There are countless websites available with ready-made quizzes on every topic imaginable.

  • Tip: When searching, don’t look specifically for an ESL or EFL quiz. Because quizzes are   actually testing knowledge first, and language skills second, the quizzes you can use can be  those used in mainstream schools. Sometimes you may need to look for quizzes used in primary school or high school as these will give you the level of language you may want.

Use your students. If you have older students, let them bring their world knowledge into the classroom and come up with a set of questions. They can spend some time researching their answers to make sure they are accurate, but the original ideas for the questions can come from them – give them a category and let them go. Once each group has a set of questions, each group can act as the quizmasters and read out the questions to the rest of the class.

  • Tip: Give your students some guidance to make the activity a bit more clear. Decide what kind of questions can be used – multiple choice or one-word answers – and the amount of questions needed.

Use the coursebook. Often your coursebook will include a quiz as an introduction to a specific topic. Instead of getting the students to do the quiz in their books, put the students into groups and turn it into a proper quiz. This will encourage more communication in the groups as the more students there are, the more ideas there are on the correct answer!

  • Tip: Copy the quiz onto the board or onto a PowerPoint presentation. This way the students will not even realise they are working from the coursebook and are likely to pay more attention.

Save your quizzes. If you find a good quiz, save it. Chances are, at some point you will find yourself looking for a quiz on that topic or for that level again, and there is no need to re-invent the wheel. Spend some time and make the quiz look more professional with images or fancy fonts, and you have materials which can be used again and again. Share your quizzes with your colleagues and they should do the same in return.

  • Tip: Keep a folder dedicated to quizzes, so when you need one you know exactly where to look.

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