Maybe you have a section in your textbook about online dating, maybe you have a section about technology in the 21st century and are looking to narrow the topic a little, or maybe you just want to have a fun topic students can practice their English with—Online dating is one of my favorite topics to discuss in class!

I’m going to share five activity ideas I’ve used in my own classrooms. We all know that no two classes are the same, so pick and choose which activities will work for you or take these ideas and adjust them accordingly. Here are five online dating activity ideas that could work in your classroom!

1) Tinder Search

Type: Group Activity

Honestly, this is a twist on James Corden’s “Real-life Tinder.” You can search online for some generic tinder profiles or create your own to use. I show a tinder profile, complete with a picture, the age, occupation, and short bio, and ask the students to swipe left or swipe right on each candidate. They might need some guiding questions at the beginning, such as “What do we like about this person? What do we not like? Do you think we would have a good time on a date with this person?”

The activity could just be as simple as answering “yes” or “no,” but I suggest adding a later of complexity. Telling students they can only choose three people to swipe right on adds a sense of urgency, and really forces them to carefully consider the candidates. You could do this in two ways: 1) Just letting them know they can only choose three candidates. Once three candidates are chosen, the activity is done, and we have to “get off Tinder.” 2) Letting them know they can only choose three candidates, but if they discover a candidate they like better as they keep swiping, they can choose to remove someone from their “favorites” list and replace them. Each time students swipe right, write that candidate’s name on the board. Once three names are on the board, they can choose to erase a name and replace it with someone new if they like. This way forces them to remember key information about each of the candidates as they decide to replace them or not. For example, “Was Rachel the teacher or the doctor?” or “Was Derek the one with blonde hair who liked surfing?”

By the way, this is a great warm-up/engage activity!

2) What Are You Looking for?

Type: Partner Conversation

As much as I can, I ask questions in class. I love giving students the chance to share their opinions about a variety of topics. That’s what conversation is, isn’t it? For this activity, I simply ask students to ask their partners, “What are you looking for in a boyfriend/girlfriend?” I often like to do this activity near the beginning of the lesson, since it gets students thinking about and discussing the lesson topic.

Bonus: This is a great chance for students to use more adjectives! (Something I try to include in as many lessons as I can.)

3) Finding Mr. / Mrs. Right

Type: Partner or Group Work

This activity works great right after the “What are you looking for?” conversation, but I also love to finish out the class with this fun, casual activity. In this activity, I want students to practice their descriptions, but I also want their imagination to run wild. Ask students to create an online dating profile for their perfect Mr. Right or Mrs. Right. You can give them an official hand-out or just write what they should include on the board.

Some things to include in the profile are:

Name
Age
Location
Occupation
Picture (Having students draw this results in the best laughs.)
Hobbies
Bio (I usually tell them to write 2-3 sentences that would best portray this person’s personality.)

Tip: This can also be an individual activity, but it always goes smoother when students get to collaborate together about what they think the perfect man or woman is like.

Bonus: If you want to extend this activity, you could ask each partner or group to pass their Mr. Right or Mrs. Right to another group to see if they would swipe left or right on them. (Another great chance for students to talk to someone other than their partner.)

4) Online Dating vs. Real-life Connection

Type: Partner or Group Discussion

If your class is a little big higher-level, this could be a great discussion topic for them. Have students split into partners or groups and compare and contrast what it would be like to meet someone online or meet someone organically. I’ve had students go super deep with this topic, sharing things like the dangers of someone not being what they appear to be online, or the benefits of breaking the ice online for people who are too reserved to just ask someone out at a bar. Encourage students to share their own personal experiences as well, if they’ve trying online dating for themselves or if they know anyone who successfully found their partner through a dating app.

5) You’ve Been Catfished

Type: Dialogue / Role-play

Online dating is a fun topic, so let it be fun! In this last activity, students should prepare and act out a dialogue. Whenever I have these, I always set the stage. Tell students they have been talking to this person online for a few weeks now, and you’re ready to meet in person. Tell them a little about this imaginary person. For example, he’s tall and handsome; he’s wealthy; he’s a businessman. He posts pictures all the time wearing Rolex watches and standing next to his Ferrari. He says his hobbies are working out and traveling, and he’s been a perfect gentleman while you talked to him. Once you walk into the restaurant to meet him, however, everything changes. You find out he catfished you. He’s not tall, and not as handsome as his pictures looked. It’s obvious he doesn’t work out, and by “businessman,” he meant “cashier at the mall.” Let the students decide what happens next and let them act it out for the class!

It might be a bit much to use all five of these in the same class, especially if you have a textbook or another curriculum to get through. But hopefully some of these would work for your class or they’ve sparked an idea for you to do something else!

If you’re looking for vocabulary word ideas, check out a vocabulary list here:

Online Dating ESL Lesson Activity Ideas