I have used this ESL Trading Game when I needed something to keep a crazy class from climbing the walls and torturing each other. I've used it many times and they keep asking for it! It's not an ESL Software Program but no computer required..

Materials: just a set of flashcards with a picture and the written English word on it

Hand out all the flashcards to the students. It doesn't matter if some have more than others. The purpose of the game is to buy and sell the flashcards, using the number of letters per word as currency. Before you start anything, have the students count how many letters they have in total with all their cards. This is their base amount, and at the end you want to see who 'made' money.

Let's say I had the flashcards "desk", "elephant", and "school". Respectively, "desk" is worth $4, "elephant" is worth $8, and "school" is worth $6. However, if I wanted to sell my "desk", I would sell it for double what it is worth - so $8. But when buying an item, your currency is still worth its regular price. Let's say another student wanted to sell me "cat", which is worth $6, I could give him my "school" card b/c it is worth $6. Only when selling are the cards worth double their letter value. Make sense? Kids catch on fairly quickly.

For vocabulary, I've used "What do you want?" "Would you like ____?" "How much is it?" "Sale!!" "Can I have ____?" etc. I'm sure you can think of others too.

Within minutes, you'll have kids haggling over prices, creating sets (all the color cards, or the mother/father cards) and selling them for way higher. It is fun to watch, and you will definitely pick out the business people!

Another great ESL trading game I've used with students uses 18 items. Ideal from an intermediate level upwards. Give one weird gift and 50 dollars of play money to your students each (get banknotes from the internet). Tell them the game is to sell their gift at the best price they can. Once they’ve sold it, they should buy another one as cheaply as possible and, again, resell it with a profit again. The goal is to make as much profit as possible in 45 minutes, and/or get a nice collection of gifts. You’ll be surprised how much highly motivated speaking you will see from your students. Also, the game will create tons of fun & laughter.

Another ESL Trading Game that I've come across and which has worked very well. This game takes a little bit of prep work, but once you've got it made you can use it again and again.... Great for grade 5 and 6

1. First, prepare a lot of cards related to shopping...close to 30... (clothes, food, etc.) and some fake money.
2. Make shopping lists (as many as their will be teams), with the the name of the item and a place for the price. Each team should have a different list, and no two items should overlap.

Pants (picture) _________\
Shirt (picture) _________\
shoes (picture) _________\
Toque (picture) _________\

3. Make vendor inventory Cards. Each vendor should have a different card and no two items should overlap onto two lists.

Jeans - 5\
pants - 2\
Hat - 5\

4. In the Gym, or outside, set up five tables and sit a student at each table (make sure they are well spread out). Give each student at the table a vendor list and the matching cards.

5. The rest of the teams should be in line away from the tables ready with their shopping lists. When the teacher says go, the first person runs to a table and asks if they have the first item on the list. If they do, they buy it, and return to the group where the second person looks for the second item on the list. If they don't, go to a different table and ask again. Continue until one team is finished their list.

Excuse me, do you have a_______?
Yes, I do!! or No, I don't.
How much is it?
Its_____\$
(change money for the card)
Thank You
You're Welcome.

6. The winning team now becomes the vendors and we repeat the process.

This game work very well with grade 5 and 6, and the difficulty can be easily changed. I use it is as a writing practice game, as they have the write all the names of the items beside the picture (on their shopping list) and also add up the total of everything they bought. The kids love it!!! and they really forces them to use English.

I think their is an ESL Trading Software equivalent of this but I'm yet to find an ESL Trading Software application that involves the kids like this..

Fantastic Xiavier, I really like this idea!! It sounds like a great way to include the whole class into the exercise. That's what I love about ESL teaching is that there are so many ways of conveying a lesson to students in ways that makes the journey enjoyable for them. This would be a lot harder to achieve using the likes of ESL Trading Software or similar. Thanks for the great idea. X