Following on from my last post, one of the other ways that games can be useful in a classroom setting is in getting students to communicate in English using natural, functional phrases.
"Pass the dice please."
"Take a card, please."
"Here you are."
"Thanks."
"It's my turn."
"Hurry up, it's your turn!"
"Ooops, sorry!"
"Kenji, do you have a dinosaur card?"
"Yes, sure."
"No, sorry."
Teachers can encourage the use of these kinds of expressions in almost any game played, even in something as simple as a picture card memory game.
With young learners the best way to encourage the use of this language is to model it yourself first, and reinforce it during the game as needed.
You can also use games to encourage students to respond to the action taking place in a game, using expressions such as these:
"Oh, no!"
"Yay!"
"Phew!"
"That's good!"
"Uh-oh!"
"Wow, a 6, you're lucky!"
"A 1! Bad luck!"
Games are an excellent way to invite intensive use of functional language in the classroom.
Successfully communicating in this way is rewarding for both students and teachers, and it can be a good way to finish a lesson on a positive note.
Monday 30 June 2014
Thursday 8 August 2013
Games in the EFL Classroom, 1: TL repetition
One of the key elements in successful teaching is ensuring students enjoy their time in the classroom. That enjoyment may come from such things as camaraderie with other students, through performing well, through feeling that one is learning something useful, or through demonstrably developing one's skills.
The teacher cannot control all of these factors, but one thing the teacher can control is how the material is presented, and what can be more fun for children than games?
The difficulty with games of course is that this fun factor can work against us, making it feel as if games are a cop-out, a timewaster, or a way to avoid doing 'real' teaching. For many of us it is perhaps the perception that others take away that is important: if the children are sitting around a board rolling dice, what will the parents think? What might the boss say?
It is therefore essential to make sure that our games have clear goals and an educational purpose, and that these can be elucidated when necessary.
While games can be used for many kinds of educational purposes, I'd like to focus on one purpose in particular today: target language repetition.
Many of us have been in the situation where we get tired - and can tell that the students are getting tired - of repeatedly practising a grammar point until the students are able to make similar sentences for themselves. Well, if we didn't know this already, a game can do this for us, and hopefully the goal of the game will override the tediousness of the repetition.
Let's say for example's sake that we are practising sentences using 'going to' in our lesson today. Perhaps the focus is on open questions and answers of the following variety:
"What are you going to do tomorrow?"
"I'm going to go swimming."
Rather than spend ten minutes overtly practising variations on this theme with substitution drills or something similar you can do the same job by incorporating the target language into a game.
One simple and adaptable game is the true answer / false answer type.
We can have each student divide a piece of paper into boxes five wide by two deep. Across the top five boxes students will write in the words tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and next weekend, or whatever variations you would prefer they practise. Alternatively, we can provide the students with a sheet which has the boxes and times already printed on it.
In the meantime we will have written ten common actions on the board: play tennis, watch TV, go for a walk, go swimming, etc.
The students must now select one of these board-written actions for each of the times on their sheet, writing it in the corresponding box, so that their paper ends up looking something like this:
We now split students into groups of two, and they must take turns asking and answering questions based upon what they have written.
We will demonstrate the process to them, with it going like this:
Student 1 will ask Student 2 the question "What are you doing to do tomorrow?"
And here is where the game comes in: Student 2 can now choose to answer truthfully (ie, their answer matches what is on their paper) or untruthfully (ie, their answer does *not* match what is on their paper).
"I'm going to go swimming" (true) or "I'm going to (play tennis)" (false).
Student 1 must then assess whether Student 2 is telling the truth or not, saying "I see" if they think the answer is true, or "I don't think so!" if they feel that the answer is false.
If Student 1's guess is correct they will now score 2 points. If their guess in incorrect, Student 2 will score a point.
The roles are then reversed, with the second student taking their turn to ask the question.
This process will be repeated until all five time slots have been covered. The two students then compare their scores to see who has scored the most points.
Alternatively, the game can be played as a plenary exercise, with one student at a time being asked the question by the group, each member of which must then individually guess whether the answer is true or false, with the teacher keeping track of each student's score.
This simple true/false game allows for some lively classroom activity, practises the target language, and gives everyone an equal chance to ask and answer the questions using the grammar point of the day.
To finish, you as the teacher can do the activity as well, with students guessing whether your answers are true or false. It is of course entirely up to you how serious or how comical you make your answers...
This game can be adapted to practise almost any open question + answer target, and while you would not want to do it every week, it is a good way to vary the way in which you practise target language in the classroom.
Student 1: "What are you going to do tomorrow?"
Student 2: "Um, I'm going to go swimming" (true) OR
Student 2: "I'm going to visit my grandmother" (false)
Student 1: "Hmm, I see" (I think you are telling the truth) OR
Student 1: "I don't think so!" (I don't think you are telling the truth)
If Student 1's guess is correct, he or she will score two points; if Student 1's guess is incorrect, Student 2 will score 1 point.
Reverse roles and continue.
The teacher cannot control all of these factors, but one thing the teacher can control is how the material is presented, and what can be more fun for children than games?
The difficulty with games of course is that this fun factor can work against us, making it feel as if games are a cop-out, a timewaster, or a way to avoid doing 'real' teaching. For many of us it is perhaps the perception that others take away that is important: if the children are sitting around a board rolling dice, what will the parents think? What might the boss say?
It is therefore essential to make sure that our games have clear goals and an educational purpose, and that these can be elucidated when necessary.
While games can be used for many kinds of educational purposes, I'd like to focus on one purpose in particular today: target language repetition.
Many of us have been in the situation where we get tired - and can tell that the students are getting tired - of repeatedly practising a grammar point until the students are able to make similar sentences for themselves. Well, if we didn't know this already, a game can do this for us, and hopefully the goal of the game will override the tediousness of the repetition.
Let's say for example's sake that we are practising sentences using 'going to' in our lesson today. Perhaps the focus is on open questions and answers of the following variety:
"What are you going to do tomorrow?"
"I'm going to go swimming."
Rather than spend ten minutes overtly practising variations on this theme with substitution drills or something similar you can do the same job by incorporating the target language into a game.
One simple and adaptable game is the true answer / false answer type.
We can have each student divide a piece of paper into boxes five wide by two deep. Across the top five boxes students will write in the words tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and next weekend, or whatever variations you would prefer they practise. Alternatively, we can provide the students with a sheet which has the boxes and times already printed on it.
In the meantime we will have written ten common actions on the board: play tennis, watch TV, go for a walk, go swimming, etc.
The students must now select one of these board-written actions for each of the times on their sheet, writing it in the corresponding box, so that their paper ends up looking something like this:
We now split students into groups of two, and they must take turns asking and answering questions based upon what they have written.
We will demonstrate the process to them, with it going like this:
Student 1 will ask Student 2 the question "What are you doing to do tomorrow?"
And here is where the game comes in: Student 2 can now choose to answer truthfully (ie, their answer matches what is on their paper) or untruthfully (ie, their answer does *not* match what is on their paper).
"I'm going to go swimming" (true) or "I'm going to (play tennis)" (false).
Student 1 must then assess whether Student 2 is telling the truth or not, saying "I see" if they think the answer is true, or "I don't think so!" if they feel that the answer is false.
If Student 1's guess is correct they will now score 2 points. If their guess in incorrect, Student 2 will score a point.
The roles are then reversed, with the second student taking their turn to ask the question.
This process will be repeated until all five time slots have been covered. The two students then compare their scores to see who has scored the most points.
Alternatively, the game can be played as a plenary exercise, with one student at a time being asked the question by the group, each member of which must then individually guess whether the answer is true or false, with the teacher keeping track of each student's score.
This simple true/false game allows for some lively classroom activity, practises the target language, and gives everyone an equal chance to ask and answer the questions using the grammar point of the day.
To finish, you as the teacher can do the activity as well, with students guessing whether your answers are true or false. It is of course entirely up to you how serious or how comical you make your answers...
This game can be adapted to practise almost any open question + answer target, and while you would not want to do it every week, it is a good way to vary the way in which you practise target language in the classroom.
Game in short form:
Student 1: "What are you going to do tomorrow?"
Student 2: "Um, I'm going to go swimming" (true) OR
Student 2: "I'm going to visit my grandmother" (false)
Student 1: "Hmm, I see" (I think you are telling the truth) OR
Student 1: "I don't think so!" (I don't think you are telling the truth)
If Student 1's guess is correct, he or she will score two points; if Student 1's guess is incorrect, Student 2 will score 1 point.
Reverse roles and continue.
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