Abstract The main purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of communication games when teaching English vocabulary to Saudi female elementary students. Eighteen fourth- grade students participated in the study. They were divided into control and experimental groups. The control group received instruction using flashcards and pictures only, and the experimental group received the same instruction with the additional use of communication games. A pretest, posttest, classroom observations, and questionnaires distributed among students in the experimental group were used to collect the data. Results showed a significant difference in the learning exhibited by the two groups. The results of the experimental group were higher than those of the control. The study also proved that communication games enhanced students' motivation and improved their English speaking ability.