Countries and Nationalities ESL Activities, Worksheets and Games
Here is a useful countries worksheet to help students practice countries, nationalities and flags. First, students complete each sentence on the worksheet by writing the name of the country each nationality comes from. Students score one point for each correct country and one point for each correct spelling. Students then write the country they think each flag on the worksheet belongs to, scoring one point for each correct answer. The student with the most points at the end wins.
In this free countries and nationalities role-play activity, students take on the identity of someone from another country to practice introductions and to learn about traditional names, countries and national languages. To begin, students take on the identity of the person on their role card and go around the class making introductions. Students find out one another's name, country and national language and complete a worksheet with the information. Lastly, students give feedback to the class on the people they met during the activity.
This handy countries and capital cities worksheet helps students practice countries, capital cities and their spelling. In pairs, students unscramble letters to form the names of countries and then write the name of each country's capital city. Students score one point for each correctly spelled country, and one point for each correctly spelled capital city. The pair with the most points wins.
In this fun guessing countries game, students listen to clues and guess which country someone comes from. This activity covers countries, continents, captial and major cities. In groups, students take turns picking up a card and using the information on the card to make three sentences about where they come from. The sentences talk about the continent the country is in, what the country is famous for, and a capital or major city in the country. The first group member to guess where the student comes from wins and keeps the card. If the group members don't guess the answer, the student gives additional clues about the country. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins.
Here are two engaging country and capital city games that students can play to learn the names of countries and their capital cities. Students begin by playing a pelmanism game where they match countries and capital cities together. In groups, students take it in turns to turn over a country card and a capital city card. If the two cards match, the student makes a sentence using the two cards, e.g. 'Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand'. The student then keeps the cards and has another turn. If the cards do not match, the student turns them back over. The student with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. Next, students play a game where they race against each other to match capital cities to countries. One student picks up a country card and reads out the country on the card to the other two students. The two students then race to find the corresponding capital city card and give it to the reader, saying the name of the capital city at the same time. The first student to do this wins and keeps the two cards. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins.
In this enjoyable countries and nationalities game, students play bingo by listening to nationalities and matching them to countries. Call out nationalities at random from the caller's sheet. If students have the corresponding country on their bingo card, they cross it out. When a student has crossed out all nine countries, they shout 'bingo' and say the countries on their card and the corresponding nationalities. If the countries and nationalities are correct, the student wins the round. If not, the game continues. Play several rounds with students receiving a different bingo card each time. As an alternative or extension, students play the game in groups with group members taking it in turns to be the bingo caller.
This free countries and nationalities worksheet helps students practice the names of countries and corresponding nationalities. To start, students write the nationality of each country shown in a chart. Next, students categorize the nationalities, according to their suffixes. After that, in pairs, students test each other on the countries and nationalities. The student being tested puts their worksheet face-down. If their partner says a country, the student replies with the corresponding nationality. If their partner says a nationality, the student replies with the corresponding country. Afterwards, students swap roles and repeat the activity. Finally, students take turns imagining they are from a country on the worksheet, and their partner asks yes/no questions with the verb to be to find out which country they are from.
In this rewarding describing countries activity, students complete a crossword by describing and guessing different countries. In two groups, students invent and write down clues for the countries written on their crossword. The clues cover things like the geographical location of the country, what the country is famous for, what the capital city is called, etc. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group and take it in turns to ask their partner for a clue to one of their missing words. Their partner reads out the clue for that word and the other student tries to guess the name of the country. If the student guesses the country successfully, they write it on their crossword. If not, their partner continues to give more clues until the student is able to guess the country. When the students have finished, they check their spelling by comparing crosswords.
In this memorable countries game, students find countries in a word search and then play a game where they make sentences about the countries. First, students look for the 24 countries shown on the worksheet in the word search and tick the words off as they find them. Afterwards, put the students in teams and call out a country at random from the word search. The first student to put up their hand and make an appropriate sentence about the country scores a point for their team. Students can make a sentence about anything related to the country, such as the geographical location, capital city, what the country is famous for, what the country produces, etc. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
Here is an insightful countries and nationalities speaking activity for pre-intermediate students. Students begin by going through the items on the worksheet and reviewing the yes/no questions they need to ask in order to do the activity, e.g. 'Did you visit two countries last year?' Students then go around the class, asking each other the questions. When a student finds someone who answers 'yes' to a question, the student writes down their name and asks a follow-up question to gain more information, noting down the answer. When everyone has finished, students give feedback to the class on what they found out.
In this light-hearted country information speaking activity, students invent a new country and then ask questions to find out information about countries that other students have created. In pairs, students imagine that they come from a planet called Olympus. Explain that Olympus is made up of many island countries and the islands are separated by a great ocean. The people from the different island countries have never met each other until today! Students begin by inventing information about the country they come from and writing it down, such as the name of the country, nationality, language, how people greet each other, etc. When the students have finished, they write questions in order to find out information about the other countries. Students then go around meeting people from the other countries of Olympus, asking and answering the questions and completing information about two other countries. Afterwards, there is a class feedback session to find out about the various countries of Olympus.
In this productive country information worksheet, students read a presentation about Canada, identify descriptive language and use the language to create a presentation about their home country. Students begin by reading Sabrina's presentation on Canada and answering comprehension questions about the presentation. After that, students answer similar questions about their own country. Next, students create a presentation about their home country using the information from the previous exercise and Sabrina's presentation as an example. Finally, students take it in turns to present their home country to the class.
In this imaginative country information activity, students create a new country made up of the best qualities and features from other countries. In pairs, students begin by deciding on a name for their country. Students then complete their country's information, such as the climate, food, culture, people, environment, etc. Afterwards, pairs take it in turns to present their country to the class. Lastly, the class decides on which countries they liked the most and why.
In this free countries information gap activity, students ask and answer questions about countries in order to complete missing information in a chart. In pairs, students take it in turns to ask and answer questions about each country on the worksheet and complete the missing information in their chart. The questions cover land area, capital cities, population, climate, natural resources and interesting facts. When the students have finished, they compare charts to check their answers.
In this creative Asian countries role-play activity, students ask and answer questions in order to find out factual information about 12 Asian countries. In groups of 12, six students take on the roles of representatives for different Asian countries. The other six students are visitors to the representatives' countries from other countries in Asia. The visitors go to visit the representative of the first country on their card. The representative from that country reads an introductory text to the visitor who listens for specific information in order to answer questions on a card. The information they need to listen for includes the nationality of the people, capital city, geographical location and facts about the country. After the introductory text has been read, the representative asks questions to the visitor about their country. The visitor uses the information on their card to answer the questions and the representative and writes down the answers. The visitors then repeat the process with the second country on their card. Afterwards, students swap roles and repeat the activity.
This comprehensive countries worksheet helps students learn and practice advanced words related to countries. Students begin by unscrambling words to complete questions about countries. Students then tick the correct answer to each question. Next, students match the country-related words with their definitions. After that, students complete imperative sentences using the country-related words. Lastly, in pairs, students think of a country that matches each sentence.
In this interesting country-related speaking activity, students practice advanced country-related vocabulary and ask and answer topic-related questions. First, in two groups, students find ten country-related words in a word search. Students then complete conversation questions using the country-related words found in the word search in their correct form. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group and take turns asking and answering the questions with their partner, giving as much detail as possible. Finally, pairs share their answers to the questions with the class. Any interesting findings can be discussed in more detail.
This entertaining countries guessing game helps students review and practice vocabulary related to countries. In two groups, students begin by completing descriptions of countries with the vocabulary provided. Students then find and circle the names of ten countries in a word search. Afterwards, students pair up with someone from the other group. Next, students take turns reading each description to their partner, who checks their word search and tries to guess which country is being described. Students are only allowed one guess for each description. Students score one point for each correct guess. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins.
