This is a kind of like a communicative version of the board game “snakes and ladders”, and quite possibly the best way of getting students to practise the same language over and over without getting bored.
Students ask each other questions to try and get the answer that is on the next rung up on the ladder, e.g. asking a “How often do you…?” question to which they think the answer will be “Usually”. If they don’t get that answer then they fall all the way down to the ground and have to start again, but they can reuse the same questions during later attempts if they can remember them.
Be used to and get used to ladder games – NEW
Advice ladder games (in this new e-book) – NEW
Apologies ladder game (in this new e-book) – NEW
Giving good and bad news ladder games (in this new e-book) – NEW
Requests ladder game (in this new e-book) – NEW
Thanking ladder game (in this new e-book) – NEW
Quantifiers ladder games – NEW
Adverbs of manner games (miming, make me say yes and ladder game)
Adverbs of frequency ladder game
Likes and dislikes ladder game.
There must be more uses for this game too – maybe language of generalisation (“almost everyone”, “most people” etc)??
Click on the TEFLtastic Classics tag for many more great activities.
Updated 14 October 2026
