Information Line Up: A High-Energy ESL Game to Practice Speaking and Listening. Get Students Moving and Talking with This Fun, Competitive English-Speaking Activity – Free Printable Included!

Information Line Up

Information Line Up

If you’re looking for a classroom activity that gets students on their feet, interacting, and speaking English naturally, Information Line Up is a fantastic choice! This dynamic ESL game combines question practice, critical thinking, and team competition, making it ideal for reviewing personal information and everyday vocabulary.

Perfect for teens and adults, this activity can be easily adapted for different levels and group sizes. It’s great as a warm-up, review activity, or just a fun break from textbook learning!

🧠 What Skills Does It Practice?

Speaking fluency and question formation
Listening and information-gathering
Vocabulary: numbers, dates, names, places, food, sports, and more
Teamwork and social communication
Critical thinking and logical sequencing

📝 How to Play Information Line Up

Preparation: No special materials are needed! You just need enough space for students to move and line up in teams. Optionally, you can prepare printed instruction cards or simply call them out during the game.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

Divide the Class into Teams
- Each team should have 8–10 students.
- If you have extra students, they can help read the instructions or act as judges to check line accuracy.
Explain the Goal
- Students must line up in their teams according to a specific criterion (e.g., age, birthday, city name).
- To do this, they’ll have to ask each other questions like “How old are you?” or “What’s your mother’s first name?”
Scoring System
- The first team to line up correctly wins 3 points.
- The second team gets 2 points, and the third team receives 1 point.
- The team with the most points at the end is the winner!
Begin the Game
- Call out the first instruction and let the students get to work asking and answering questions to find the correct order.

🧩 Example Instructions for Lining Up

Here are some fun and varied criteria to use during the activity. Each one encourages a different kind of question practice:

By age
Alphabetically by your mother’s first name
By your father’s birth date
By your mother’s birth date
Alphabetically by your hometown (use street name if city is the same)
By the amount of money in your pocket
By house number of your current address
By the last two digits of your phone number
By the date of your last trip
By the time you woke up this morning
By the number of people in your family (include grandparents, siblings, children, etc.)
Alphabetically by your favorite sport
Alphabetically by your favorite food
By a number you choose between 1 and 500

🏁 Tips for Success

Remind students that they must speak only English during the activity.
Walk around and monitor interactions to help with language and encourage everyone to participate.
Mix easier and more challenging tasks to keep it exciting and accessible for all levels.
Use this activity as a lead-in to lessons on question forms, personal information, or adjectives of order and comparison.

📥 Download the Free Printable Version

You can download a ready-to-use printable PDF with all the instructions and scoring tips to make preparation easy. This makes it perfect for last-minute lesson planning or substitute teachers who need a no-prep activity!

Information Line Up