GAMES IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Silly Answers

The students are told to take out a piece of paper and

tear it in half. On one slip of paper they write a question, and on the other, the answer. After all the questions have been at random collected and placed in one pile and the answers in another, the teacher calls two students to the front. One students selects and reads a question, and the other selects and reads an answer. As can be imagined, some of the combinations will be quite comical.

Confession

The students are divided into three groups, and

each group is given as many slips of paper as there are students in the class. The first group writes the name of a different famous person on each slip of paper. The second group writes places or situations; for example: at home, in Tokyo, on top of the Statue of Liberty. The third group writes what the students want to become. A member of each group reads out, in turn, what is written on one slip of paper.

Jumbled Words

Each student or team is given a lis t of

words within a specific category, such as fruits, means of transport, colours, occupations, and so on. The letters in each word are jumbled so as to make the original words somewhat difficult to recognize. The object of the game is to rewrite correctl y the jumbled words. The winner is the student or team with the most correct words within an allotted time.

Pheasant

The teacher starts the game by saying one word in

English. Then, students have to continue with another words and every word has to start with the last two letters of the previous word. Shiny nymph philosophy hymn X

Word Endings The teacher writes on the board about twenty

word endings, which the students must use to form words, some for each ending. The student or team that comp letes the most words within the given time is the winner. See how you do at forming words with the following endings. Remember: no proper nouns are acceptable. One possible response for each ending is given below: able: readable, uneatable, ible: visible, incredible, . ish: childish, stylish,

ily: noisily, happily, .. al: usual, practical, ance: attendance, evidence, ation: nation, invasion, ment: apartment, garment, re: theatre, centre, ed: washed, walked, ence: independence, mainte nance, ent: student, clement, er: teacher, waiter, or: actor, doctor, ess: princess, actress, The teacher reads a text to the students,

Spot the Change

changes.

and then reread it making some changes. The learners task is to spot the Example: Three (five) elephants (lions) attacked a village (town) in South Africa (Japan) crushing to death a six -year-old boy (girl) and destroying three houses (cars). The village headman (priest) said the attack was the second this year (month).

Picture Observation

About twenty different pictures are

cut out from magazines and pasted on a large sheet. The students, either individually or in teams, make a list on everything they can see. One point is scored for every object correctly listed, and two po ints are deducted for any item that is not listed. Each team makes a single list.

Building a Poem

Try this exercise in brainstorming a

poem. The teacher give a word, for example, rain, and the class must think of as many words as possible associated w ith that word. These are immediately put on the blackboard. The final list may include something like this: umbrella, clouds, thunder, frogs, raining cats and dogs, singing in the rain, wet, soaked, raincoat, etc. Students must now compose their own poems using the building blocks provided. This exercise produces a useful chart of contextualized vocabulary; it also provides a fairly easy introduction to the process of poetry composition.

Building a Composition

Students are asked to write

down approximately fifty words in English, whatever they like. Then, they

will have to read these words aloud after that to build up a composition with the written words.

Win, Lose or Draw

Students are asked to write down

words. The words should be draw able, not too easy, nor too difficult. The teacher gives the groups (preferably 2 -3 teams) about 10 -15 minutes to come up with the words, and then the teacher should go round to the different groups to check out the words. The teacher ticks out those that are suitable and try to offer alternatives for those words that he/ she considers unsuitable. Each topic should then be written out on a small piece of paper, which can be rolled or folded up. Then, collect all the topics and place them in separate boxes. The game is then played as follows: 1. Divide your class into groups. 2. Start with the first group. A member of the group should come to the front of the classroom and pick out a piece of paper containing a topic given by members of the other groups. S/he then h as to draw the topic on the blackboard once the timekeeper gives the begin signal. 3. Appoint someone to keep time. A student has a maximum of 60 seconds to draw the object. 4. The task is for group members to try to guess what the student s drawing in as little time as possible. 5. The student dong the drawing cannot talk, make any sound, nor act out the word. Only when his/her group members have guessed the word correctly, can h/she indicate or gesticulate that they have done so. 6. The teacher has to listen carefully; once the students have guessed the topic correctly, the teacher stops the action. 7. The timekeeper announces the time taken and records it on the board. 8. After this, the next group takes its turn. The game can be played for many rounds. A student in each group should take turns drawing. 9. The group with the fewest points is the winner. This game is suitable for testing vocabulary items, but phrases or sentences, tenses, and sentence structures can also be given. For example: the fat woman fainted, the lion killed the king, singing in the rain .