what age? it sounds like there are too many kids in a small room. with such a large audience, the best way to keep people's attention is by going through the audience. a microphpne is effective of soliciting responses. practice, play games and tell jokes randomly. make fun of their bad pronunciation; even you get to laugh. your performance.skill can hide part of the poor classroom planning of the school, but ultimately you need to talk to the staff to make the situation more workable. get a microphone, or move the class to a bigger room.

Coin's is good advice. I did similar things when I came to the country three years ago.

There is a game you can try: you draw a circular target on the board, just like a darts board - try a radius of something like half a metre for the widest field.

Descending inwards write name 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1.

Give them a tennis ball and tell them to throw it at the target. If you hit the bullseye, you only have to name one of something. Use your imagination for categories. I just use new vocabulary from their book or just guess based on their age and English level what I think is appropriate. I'm sure you'll be safe. If anything, I've tended to make it a little difficult at first until I realized many students here aren't as flash at English as all the foreign suppositions about Chinese education will lead so many back home to believe.

Another game they like is Jeopardy. You can make PPT versions of this and put in words they've learned most recently in class. Chinese kids are super competitive.

One you probably can't do is getting them into two teams to write words on the board based on a given subject. It seems like a simple game, but of all the games I played with high school and college students, they love this one the most. It's because it gets them out of their chairs and thinking fast as well as co-operating with each other.

I draw a line down the centre of the board, divide the class in half, and tell them they need to run through the entire team with each individual writing a word associated with the one I write on the board. You get ten points for finishing first and each word is one point if it's spelled correctly and has an appropriate association. The second criteria is great because it will encourage the students to to justify their more tenuous attempts. 40 to 60 students is definitely too many people though.

You can make it even more fun and do pictionary as well. Whisper a word to a group and give each member ten seconds to draw a picture before handing the chalk to the next person. I used words like "museum", "zoo" and "library" and if you really want to get some crazy things drawn on the board, try "market".

There are some great esol sites online, but very few which cater for your situation. I've no idea why this is. If there's one thing about Asia besides that they don't speak English and want to learn, it's that it's full of people.

Good luck 

Why  take the job if you can't do the job?

Chinese 'assemble' large classes, because they save on the pay to FT. You must convince them, teacher is ineffective in such large class, and for kids would be much better, if class wouldn't be bigger than 20 - 30 students.

This is collection of games, and 'things to do in the classroom' I got hanging on the Board:

Songs:

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs

http://answers.echinacities.com/question/do-you-know-interestinglive-classroom-games-winter#answer32013

http://www.mes-english.com

All kinds of resources for teachers, including flash cards and games

http://www.pdictionary.com/english/flashcards.php

http://www.teachchildrenesl.com/

http://www.bogglesworldesl.com/

http://a4esl.org/


http://justthink.org/curriculum/english-as-a-second-language/?gclid=CNTuybCp76wCFQNz4god00z3JA


Games:

- Have some sort of team activity that you can turn into a competition, such as getting them to match words with opposite meaning. I have done this with about 50 pairs of words (100 words in total)

- Giving advice to a stranger is a great adult game that can easily kill half an hour. Give everyone paper and a pen. Have everyone write 1 problem. Have everyone crumble their paper and put it in a cup. Each student will choose 1 problem and give the 'stranger' advice. Excellent speaking activity.


- Different ages? Different games.
 

Sentence game: Write 5 sentences on the board, number them 1 - 5. No. 6 is the monster. They will do everything with the die to make it land on 6 so you can grab them and eat them! Kids age = 5 - 7
Sentence game: Same as above but throw a 6 they have to change seats. Mark one chair with a cross. No-one is allowed to sit there.
Sentence game: make some action cards such as - Stand on one leg for 15 seconds, Do 5 push ups, Dance with the teacher. Sing a song. I do about 5 actions and if the student throws a 6 they select an action card.
Spelling game: Divide the class into however many teams you need. About 5 or 6 to a team maximum. Divide the board into 2 columns, 1 side for each team. Hand the first student in each team a marker. Yell out one of the words they have been learning and then it's a spelling relay. Each student runs to the board, writes a letter, races back to the line passing the marker, next student writes the next letter and so on. Not only great action for the kids but hilarious when you point out errors and weird looking letters written in a hurry!
Games are only limited by your imagination. Some more sophisticated games you can play with the older students. In another answer to a similar question I described my magnetic letters game. I play 2 to 3 games per lesson if it's a 2 hour class. But I also with hold games if the class misbehaves.
I have just downloaded Scrabble and played that last week with the kids. The best they can do is 3 letter words with an occasional 4. Wifi mouse, projector and screen and classroom computer required.


- My kids go nuts for it.  I combine it with
tic-tac-toe, where if the kid guesses a letter right they put up a thing
for their team on the tic-tac-toe board.  You can mix up the tic-tac-toe
pieces too, X's vs. O's, sun vs. moon, ice cream vs. cake, whatever you and
the kids can draw.

- I also play pictionary, where I choose 1 kid and write down a word in a
notebook.  Secretly show them the word, and they have to draw it, while the
class guesses what he's drawing.

- My favorite game to play (but best for small classes) is "I'm going on a
trip and I'm gonna bring" (or "I'm going to school and I'm gonna bring" or
whatever.)  One kid names something to bring, the next kid names the first
item and adds one, keep adding one until you can't remember them.  Make
sure they say the whole sentence every time.  Also, point to the kids to
help their memory (point to student 1 to name first item, student 2 for 2nd
item...).  Make sure the kids know they can say silly things (i.e. "I'm
going to school and I will bring grandma").  Once they understand the game,
you can vary it by using the alphabet, (student 1 - an A word, 2-B and so
on).

- Lastly, a game I made up that works pretty well is to draw a lower case "T"
on the board, with "start" on the top left and "End" on the top right (a
simple chart).  Next, write "start" in the T, with the first two letters
seperated on one side and the others on the other side (ST|ART).  Now,
below that, keep the ST from start but have the kids think of a new word
(example stand).  Now, keep the ending but change the beginning (___|ND).
 I've found two letters work best, and if they're stuck do 1 letter.
 Alternate between beginnings and endings.  It's a good way to practice
rhyming and alliteration, which I don't think students get to do often.
 I've tried to think of a way to add a point system to the game, but
haven't found a good one without one team always doing starts and the other
always stuck with ends.

Lets see if this works as an example:

*START | END*
       ST |ART
        ST|AND
       HA|ND
       HA|
 

Loads of them you can play. Depends a lot on what kind of resources you're
working with...

- if you have a whiteboard, you can do lots of things like race games with
markers where you yell out numbers, words, etc...and two have to run to the
board and write it down.

Sticky balls also work great - you write down a bunch of words and then
they have to hit the one you say out loud with the balls.

- Cut a sentence or text in strips of paper and ask the kids to put it back
in order. Have it be a competition.

It's usually the best age group - those kids really love whatever you throw
at them. Just make sure it's presented as a game, of a competitive nature,
and they'll love it


- I play different types of games. I play counting games, flash card games
then we have our outside games and then other games. My counting games
would include 4 corners and rocket countdown. My flash card games include
the hammer game, slow motion, hidden pictures, pop goes the weasel. We have
outside games to but you wanted classroom games so I do have other games
that aren't counting games or flashcard games such as alphabet train game,
roll call game and magic word. We also play simon says for learning body
parts as I have a lesson on body parts at least once a week.


Games in the classroom:

- What time is Mr. Wolf?
- Modified version of Beer Pong. Cups with water and a ping pong ball.
- Giving advice to a stranger.
- Random reading games.


 
Twisters:

I focus on only a couple RELEVANT twisters based on students usual problems
- /th/, /dzh/ and the /f/ and /l/ issue.


- All loyal warriors will rarely worry why we rule.

- whether the weather is hot, whether the weather is cold, we'll weather
the weather, whatever the weather.

- She threw three free throws.

- Theophilus Thistle, the thistle-sifter, sifted a bag of unsifted
thistles. (they groan when they first see it, but by the end of the time,
they're fine with it!)

- Her seizures usually impaired her vision (many get 'seizures' and
'vision' right, but say 'urali'in the middle...you'll need to explain what
a seizure is)

- He measured his pleasure in treasure.

After that, I give them specific words to practise - this, that, then,
there, with, math, bath, etc etc... you need to have BOTH /th/ sounds, AND
in ALL positions in the words - beginning, middle, and end... or they end
up doing 'thank you' perfectly, but still say 'nossing'.... or 'wiz'.


- Soggy Sandy Sat Somewhere Safe So Sally SOSO should Save Sammie

- Big Bold Beautiful Billy Bossed Bender Back But Butchered Bobby

- Coco Cream Coconuts Covered Candies Caught Chris Chocolaty

- Elephant Ears Easily Eases Edwins Eggs Enough Each Evening

- Red lorry, yellow lorry. (repeat 4 times)

- The thunder tore through the thicket, where there were three thousand three hundred thick and thin trees!
 
- That thunder thinned out those trees!
 
- Theresa the tree keeper, thinks thoughts about the trees in the thicket as there are now only three hundred trees there!
 
You may have to explain 'thicket', 'tore' and how to pronounce 'Theresa'.

Thanks for the great suggestions ICNIF77 !!!