GamesHow AI Can Generate Custom ESL Games for Your Class
I searched "ESL food vocabulary game" on three different platforms last month. Every single one used the same 20 words: apple, bread, cheese, milk. My B1 adults in Phoenix were learning restaurant ordering vocabulary -- words like "appetizer," "entrée," "split the check," and "dietary restrictions." None of the premade games came close.
That's the problem with generic ESL games. They don't know your students.
Why Custom Beats Generic Every Time
Premade ESL games work fine for common topics at beginner levels. But the moment you're teaching something specific -- workplace vocabulary, medical English, academic collocations -- you're on your own. Or at least you were, until AI tools got good enough to generate game content on the fly.
Custom games match your curriculum. They reinforce the exact words and structures you taught this week, not some random list a publisher decided was "intermediate level." That alignment is what turns a fun activity into actual learning.
Tools That Generate ESL Game Content
ChalkLab is where I start. You tell it your topic, level, and what skill you're targeting, and it generates question sets you can export into platforms like Blooket or Kahoot. Last week I generated 25 multiple-choice questions on past continuous vs. past simple for my intermediate class in about 90 seconds.
ChatGPT works too, but you have to be more specific with your prompts. A prompt like "Create 15 Kahoot questions about prepositions of place for A2 ESL adults" gives you usable output maybe 70% of the time. The other 30% needs editing -- wrong difficulty level, ambiguous answer choices, or questions that test general knowledge instead of English.
Twee is excellent for vocabulary-based games specifically. It generates matching exercises, fill-in-the-blank sets, and definition quizzes from any text you paste in. I'll grab a paragraph from our class reading, run it through Twee, and have a vocabulary game ready in under two minutes.
A Real Example From My Classroom
My Thursday evening adult class was working on job interview vocabulary -- words like "qualifications," "references," "salary negotiation," and "probationary period." Here's what I did:
- Used ChalkLab to generate 20 multiple-choice questions matching definitions to terms
- Exported the questions into a Blooket set
- Ran it as a 10-minute Tower Defense game at the start of class
- Used the same word list in a Wordwall matching activity for homework
Total prep time: about four minutes. The questions were level-appropriate because I specified B1, and the vocabulary matched exactly what we'd covered in class. No apple-bread-cheese in sight.
Tips for Better AI-Generated Games
Always specify the CEFR level or grade level in your prompt. "Intermediate" means different things to different tools. B1 is specific.
Include context. Don't just say "make questions about food" -- say "make questions about ordering food at a restaurant for adult ESL learners." The specificity changes the output dramatically.
Review before you play. AI occasionally generates questions with two correct answers, or uses vocabulary above the target level in the question stems. A two-minute scan catches these. For more on choosing the right game platform, check out my comparison piece.