Sometimes the same old exercises and games get a little too boring for your class - and that’s normal. The learning process requires some switching up from time to time. Too much repetition and structure make it much harder for students to absorb and work with a new language - but a relaxed and playful environment lets them know it’s safe to play around with what they’re learning, and use their grammar and vocabulary in new and creative ways.
Some teachers aim to address this problem with games like “hot seat” and “telephone” - and there’s nothing wrong with those games, in and of themselves. But repeating the same games every few days will bore students quickly, and make them feel like even the “fun” aspects of your classroom are still too rigid to really engage them. This is why new ESL teachers often find themselves looking for games and activities that break through those worn-out routines and breathe some fresh air into the class atmosphere.
If that’s where you’re stuck, why not help your students switch up their identities a little? BusyTeacher.org’s 286 free role playing game worksheets will help bring your students out of the everyday, and put them in all kinds of situations that’ll challenge them to use their language skills in unusual ways. Our community of ESL teaching experts has done all the hard work for you - each worksheet provides clear and complete directions on how to set up and manage a role playing activity, so you’ll be ready to go as soon as you print it off.
These 286 worksheets offer role playing activities of every shape and size. Some put the students in various roles to act our common real-life situations - while others invite them to imagine voyages to foreign cities, challenge them to take on different jobs, or even cast them as characters in movies and fictional stories. From everyday dialogues to far-flung adventures, you’ll find a role playing activity for any occasion among the 286 worksheets we have to offer.
What’s more, BusyTeacher.org’s worksheets cover an abundance of ESL levels and topics. Whether you’re practicing basic sentence structure with students around levels two and three, or pushing for fluency with advanced students at level five, we’ve got a worksheet for you. In fact, many of the 286 worksheets you’ll find here can easily be adapted for a variety of levels. And the topics they focus on range from pronunciation to grammar to vocabulary - and beyond.
How can you be sure that these worksheets will work in your classroom? Because every single one of them was created by an ESL teacher like you, and used successfully in a classroom somewhere in the world. All the worksheets on BusyTeacher.org are contributed by our community of hard-working ESL teachers all over the globe - and they’ve made their resources available to you for free. That’s right - you don’t have to pay, or even register, to download, print, use, or duplicate any of the worksheets on this site.
Have a worksheet you’d like to share with our community? Just click the “Submit a worksheet” button below. Or browse the list in thumbnail view until you’ve found a role playing worksheet you can’t wait to use. It’s all easy with BusyTeacher.org!
Create awesome-looking custom word searches in seconds!
Make A Word Scramble:
Instantly create custom word/sentence scrambles for your class!
Make A Double Puzzle:
Generate double puzzles your students will love - hours of fun!
ESL Articles
View our latest knowledgebase articles that will help you become a better English teacher. Learn from
professional teachers and put a bit of your own creativity into it!
I created these ten roleplays to use with my students of marketing and communication. Before attempting these roleplays,the students were given some guidance on how to negotiate, as well as review ...
This is another .ppt set of Role Playing games. Each slide has one situation. I put them on the board with the projector. You can also always print it and give half to each person. The students li ...
This is a very simple, unattractive .ppt. I use this as a way to get students to talk. So far they seem to like it. (Chinese 18-22y.o) Each slide has a topic/situation to talk about. I make the st ...
Conversational role play using directional vocabulary about how to find things in the supermarket. Worksheet can be used by students who have limited language as a comprehension tool and also sup ...
Introducing '7 New Go To Activities for Conversation Class' - one more reference poster with 7 fresh and creative conversation activities for your next speaking class! Click the image below to vie ...
Introducing '7 More Go To Activities for Conversation Class' - another reference poster with 7 more fresh and creative conversation activities! Click the image below to view the full-size poster [ ...
Introducing '7 Great Go To Activities for Conversation Class' - our next reference poster with 7 fresh and creative conversation class ideas. Click the image below to view the full-size poster [HI ...
This worksheet is a short role play based on the Christmas song Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. The guideline is adapted for children of elementary level to be dramatized in front of the class. It ...
This worksheet is suitable for intermediate students. There's a role play that can be used as a warm-up. Students are encouraged to learn new vocabulary (slangs, phrasal verbs, etc.) in context. I ...
The following is a set of daily situations where learners can face every day in their life, working, traveling…in fact, there are 30 situations where role A and B are clearly stated. Teache ...
Here is just a hint to help the kids improve their speaking skills. It can be used for speeches, but also for role-plays, in pairwork (talking about a selected topic), creative writing. I think it ...
Looking for subject matters to get debates and discussions going. Here's a list to stimulate you. Also comes in quite handy as speaking in groups at oral exams. Subjects that are part of our youn ...
Teachers can use this worksheet to have students of intermediate level practice their interviewing skills such as questioning, analyzing, decision-making… The class will be divided into two ...
Pair work speaking activity: Students A and B have different pictures. First, teacher elicits the needed vocabulary with the whole group. Secondly, students work on the questions individually, w ...
I designed this worksheet to practice indirect questions. A student will play one of the roles in it as a celebrity, while the others may ask questions based on the gists given. Of course, you can ...
This is a role-play game for intermediate and advanced students. They have to work in pairs, one student will be a famous person and the other one will be the interviewer. Students will practice t ...
Weather girl/boy activity: The document has weather symbols to cut out and use. I usually get the student to draw a Map of Spain or other country and have them choose five cities. They make up a w ...
This is a pairwork about daily routine. Pupils usually start a conversation on daily routine using vocabulary on this theme. There is a little bit of grammar and then they sum up their neighbours' ...
This is a cloze test in the form of a dialogue. Students could work in pairs or small groups in order to complete the conversation using the words given. When they have finished they could act t ...
This exercise is good for developing conversation skills. It contains situations for pairwork practice. One student is a customer, the other a shop assistant and they need to negotiate, compromise ...
4 unusual and fun situations for students to role play. Tested in the classroom. Students love them and get all involved and enthusiastic. Perfect for intermediate level and up. For your convenien ...
This is an interesting activity for your students to use past tense and question formation. In pairs they have to prepare an interview to a famous person, the dates and facts are provided. 10 minu ...
This game (board and situation cards) was created to revise and practice functional language: apologizing, socializing and asking for help. Originally tailored to upper-intermediate and advanced s ...
This worksheet offers a gap fill activity, a present simple / present continous activity, an irregular verbs activity, a speaking activity (students imagine her side of the story and come up with ...
A list of useful conversational phrases used to express or ask for an opinion, agree or disagree and express doubts. Last section suggests that the students think of more topic-appropriate phrases ...
42 67,787ElemPre-IntIntAdv
Got a great worksheet on
Role Playing Games?
Tell us about it and become a BusyTeacher contributor!