When I was posting my list of the best of 2020, I noticed that a couple of the top ones were trivia quizzes and thought I should make sure that I had linked to them from my TEFLtastic Classics post on the topic. Then I realised that there never had been a TEFLtastic blog post on using trivia quizzes to teach English, even though the worksheet pages are stuffed with them. Especially with Zoom quizzes being such a big thing recently, perhaps it is about time…
The secrets to success with trivia in the English language classroom are to have one clear language point in mind and to make sure that students have a fair crack at getting the factual answer correct. The former could be grammar, vocabulary, numbers, or just cultural knowledge that they need to go abroad or be more open minded.
To make sure that they get a decent number of the actual trivia answers right, the best options are probably:
- True/ False or Yes/ No questions
- Multiple-choice questions (usually with one right and two wrong options)
- Hints if their first answer is wrong (in my classes usually a kind of warmer cooler game where they get hints like “much more”, “a little less” etc until they get exactly the right number, but also hints like some of the letters in the words)
In all of these cases, it’s best if the other students are the ones helping the person who has to answer the question (by making some of the statements false, making up the false multiple-choice options, giving each other the warmer and cooler hints, etc).
Here are some I prepared earlier (many only very slightly earlier), most of which follow those tips:
Trivia quizzes for grammar practice
Like as a preposition animals quiz – NEW
Past numbers trivia board game narrative tenses review
How many did…? trivia quiz irregular Past Simple practice
How often trivia quiz (Present Simple and frequency expressions)
How many… does… have? simple numbers trivia quiz
How many times…? Past Simple and Present Perfect trivia quiz
How many with irregular plurals trivia quiz
How long had…? Past Perfect trivia quiz
What were people doing? Past Continuous trivia quiz
Which had happened first? Past Perfect trivia quiz
What places used to be called trivia quiz (used to and names of places)
Is there/Are there…? trivia quiz
Where is…? I don’t know game (personal and trivia questions to practise prepositions and names of places)
Subject questions trivia quizzes
How many are there? trivia quiz
How much and how many trivia quiz (countable and uncountable, pronouncing numbers and comparing/ contrasting)
Passive tenses environmental quiz
There is/ There are numbers guessing game
Transport in the UK trivia quiz (modals of obligation etc)
Business tense review trivia quiz
Active and passive true/ false quiz
Active and passive true/ false quiz version 2
Technical English measurements and superlatives
and see the next section for some comparative adjectives and related adverbs practice.
Trivia quizzes for vocabulary practice and cultural knowledge
British or American transport trivia quiz (British and American English and transport vocabulary)
British or American trivia quiz (US and UK vocabulary and cultural knowledge)
British or American food and drink trivia quiz (British and American food vocabulary)
British or American fashion trivia quiz (British and American clothes vocabulary)
Trivia quizzes to practice numbers, vocabulary, and comparing/ contrasting
Metals industry pairwork numbers guessing game
Insurance trivia numbers pairwork
Business and financial trivia numbers review
Financial English numbers pairwork guessing game (fun game with numbers pronunciation practice, financial vocabulary collocations, and comparative adjective + adverb practice)
Social issues numbers pairwork
Olympics statistics pairwork guessing game
Numbers review for computer engineers
Numbers for architects guessing game
Medical numbers trivia (on onestopenglish, so subscription needed)
Japan numbers trivia pairwork low level version
Engineering dimensions and comparing games
Architecture dimensions guessing game
Christmas trivia numbers pairwork version 2
Christmas trivia numbers pairwork version 1
Other vocabulary practice through trivia quizzes
43 more timeless and infinitely adaptable TEFL activities here.
Updated 18 July 2022
TEFLtastic 
Hi Alex! I would love to provide a guest post/worksheet for your site… Do you have an email address that I can contact you on? :)
Thanks Alice! Have emailed you, so please check spam if it hasn’t got through.
My last email was bounced back, so here it is in case it didn’t get through
Hi Alice
Thanks, that’s very generous. However, I’m worried whether it will get enough attention to make it worth your while if it’s tucked away in my huge worksheets section. Is there any chance you could write a guest post on something more general and use that as an example of what you are talking about?
Cheers
Alex
Hi Alice
Thanks for your hard work and patience with this. Your guest post is now up here: https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/2021/04/17/guest-post-11-tips-for-teaching-controversial-topics-in-the-esl-classroom/
(my email letting you know just got bounced back again).