Six Games for the EFL/ESL Classroom



Six Games for the French Classroom

Aydan Ersöz

Gazi University (Ankara, Turkey)

Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students to practice language skills. This paper provides some sample games that can be used in the language classroom.

Why Use Games

Language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students to practice language skills. Games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. they also encourage and increase cooperation.

Some Advice

Games should be regarded as supplementary activities. The whole syllabus should not be based on games only -- even for young learners.

When choosing a game, the teacher should be careful to find an appropriate one for the class in terms of language and type of participation.

Once the game has begun, the teacher should not interrupt to correct mistakes in language use.

The teacher should not compel an individual to participate. Some learners may not want to participate due to personal reasons. Forcing students to participate usally does not have successful results.

A game which looks wonderful on the paper may not work in the actual classroom setting. If it is tiring or boring, it should be stopped.

Give clear instructions. Unless the learners know what he is expected to do and how to do it, the aim cannot be achieved, and the game cannot be played.

In order to demonstrate how to use games in the classroom, some examples are provided below.

Game 1: Whisper Circles

Aim: Speaking (using a whisper), pronunciation, listening, grammar (it takes ...to do ...)

Notes:

1. Divide the students into groups of 7 to 10.

2. Choose one leader from each group. Give the leaders the card which has the sentence "It takes about six seconds for something you drink to reach your stomach." Ask him to memorize the sentence, go back to his group and whisper what he has read on the card to the person on his right. Each person will whisper the sentence to the next person and the sentence can be said only once. The last person will say the sentence out loud. If the sentence is the same with the one written on the card, that group wins.

Game 2: Match and Catch the Riddle

Aim: Reading silently, reading aloud, pronouncing segmental and suprasegmental features correctly, listening selectively, grammar (simple present tense), linguistic and nonlinguistic reasoning.

Notes:

1. Divide the class into two groups: The QUESTION group and the ANSWER group.

2. Give the questions to the first group and the answers to the other group.

3. Each student in the first group is supposed to read the question he has aloud and whoever has the answer in the other group reads the answer aloud.

4. If the question and the answer match, put the students in pairs. If they don't, continue till the right answer is found. Each student can read his part only twice. When all questions and answers are matched ask the pairs to read the riddle they have just for fun.

5. Some Suggested Riddles

| QUESTIONS |ANSWERS |

|What animal is gray and has a trunk? |A mouse going on vacation |

|What animal eats and drinks with its tail? |All do. No animal takes off its tail when eating or|

| |drinking. |

|Why do mother kangaroos hate rainy days? |Because then the children have to play inside. |

|How can you tell the difference between a can of chicken soup and a can of tomato soup?|Read the label. |

|Why is an eye doctor like a teacher? |They both test the pupils. |

|Why did the cross-eyed teacher lose his job? |Because he could not control his pupils. |

|Why is mayonnaise never ready? |Because it is always dressing. |

|Do you know the story about the skunk? |Never mind, it stinks. |

|If a papa bull eats three bales of hay and a baby bull eats one bale, how much hay will|Nothing. There is no such thing as a mama bull. |

|a mama bull eat? | |

|What does an envelope say when you lick it? |Nothing. It just shuts up. |

|Why do cows wear bells? |Because their horns don't work. |

|Why shouldn't you believe a person in bed? |Because he is lying. |

|What is the best way to prevent milk from turning sour? |Leave it in the cow. |

|Why does a dog wag his tail? |Because no one else will wag it for him. |

Game 3: Crazy Story

Aim: Writing, reading aloud, listening, grammar (simple past tense, reported speech)

Notes:

1. Prepare sheets of paper with six columns which bear the following titles at the top

13. WHO?

(a man's name)

14. WHOM?

(a woman's name)

15. WHERE?

16. WHAT DID HE SAY?

17. WHAT DID SHE SAY?

18. WHAT DID THEY DO?

2. Divide the class into groups of 6. Give each group one sheet of paper. Ask the first student to write under the first part and fold the paper so as to cover what he has written. Tell the student to pass the paper onto the next person. As each person writes, he should only look at his fold. When all students finish, one student from each group will be asked to read their story in the following format. You can write the format on the blackboard.

19. ............. met ............... in/at ..............

20. He said ..............................................

21. She said .............................................

22. And so they ..........................................

Game 4: Missing Headlines

Aim: Reading silently, reading for specific information, speaking (discussing in pairs).

Notes:

1. Cut out news items and their headlines from a newspaper. Paste the news and headlines on separate sheets of paper. Photocopy them.

2. Ask students to work in pairs. Give each pair the photocopies of the news and headlines.

3. Ask them to match the headlines with the news items.

Game 5: Find the Differences

Aim: Speaking (describing people and actions), listening, grammar (there is/are....., s/he has ......., s/he is .......ing, s/he is + adjective)

Notes:

1. Find or draw two pictures which are the same except for seven features. Photocopy them on separate sheets of paper.

2. Ask students to work in pairs. Give one copy of each picture to the pairs. The pairs are not supposed to show their copies to each other. Partner A's will describe their copy and Partner B's will listen carefully and examine their own copy to find the differences. They can ask questions if they require more detailed information or need any clarification. The pair that finishes first wins the game.

Game 6: The Secret Code

Aim: Spelling, guessing by using linguistic clues, reading.

Notes:

1. Ask students to work individually. Give each student a sheet of paper which has the secret code on it. Tell them to translate it into English.

2. Clue: the first word is 'the'; the most frequently used word in English.

3. When they finish, ask them to write a secret message of their own to their friend. They can use the same symbols. If they need new symbols, they can create their own.

Æ#· ƶ¢·ÉÓ #OÉÄ ÉÄ*=·Æ#¶?¢ ¶?

#¶ÉÄ #O?ܧ ÉÄ. Å?#OÆ ¶ÉÄ ¶Æ?

Conclusion

Games are highly motivating because they are amusing and interesting. They can be used to give practice in all language skills and be used to practice many types of communication. The aim of this paper was to demonstrate some sample games. Teachers are encouraged to find other games which are suitable for his/her studenets or develop his/her own.

Bibiography

BALOTO, F. January 1996. "How to Motivate Learners of English". In English Teaching Forum. 34:1

SCHINKE-LLANO, L. & R. Rauff (eds) 1996. New Ways in Teaching Young Children. Alexandria, VA:TESOL Publications.

UR, Penny. 1995. Grammar Practice Activities. (9th printing). CUP.

WRIGHT, Andrew et al. 1989. Games for Language Learning. (7th printing). CUP.

|Just A Minute | |

| |The first game is called "Just a Minute" and it is adapted from a radio game show broadcast over the British | |

| |Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It was aired over the BBC many years ago and was highly entertaining. This is| |

| |how you play the game: | |

| |1. Divide your students into groups. Get each group to give themselves a name. | |

| |2. The objective of each group is to get as many points as possible. | |

| |3. The task is to speak on a topic for a minute. The referee (the teacher) will provide the topics. | |

| |4. The competition-members of the other groups-should try to "wrestle" the topic away from the person who is | |

| |speaking on it. There are three ways to do this: | |

| |Hesitation: When a student pauses for too long a break, it is considered a hesitation. | |

| |Repetition: When a student keeps repeating a particular word or phrase, it is considered repetition. | |

| |Deviation: When a student digresses, he can be faulted for deviation. | |

| |5. A timekeeper will ring the bell once the minute is up. The person who is speaking when the bell rings will| |

| |win 10 points. | |

| |6. The group with the most points is the winner. | |

| |7. The teacher should determine the topics based upon the students' level of proficiency. Some examples of | |

| |topics are: | |

| |My Childhood | |

| |My Family | |

| |My Favourite Things | |

| |Ghosts | |

| |My Ideal Partner | |

| |Teenagers | |

| |A Country I'd Like to Visit | |

| |My Favourite Food | |

| |If I Had Three Wishes, I'd Like . . . | |

| |The choice of topics would also depend on what is being taught in the lesson for the day. For example, if the| |

| |teacher is conducting a lesson on describing people and places, s/he could provide topics such as My Mother, | |

| |Someone I Admire, A Teacher I'll Never Forget, My Hometown, or My School. | |

| |This game is particularly suitable for teaching oral communication skills. It is also useful as a pre-writing| |

| |or pre- reading activity. It can be effectively utilised when teaching topics such as describing, narrating, | |

| |expressing viewpoints, agreeing, disagreeing, and describing procedures. | |

| |Win, Lose, or Draw | |

| |The second game is quite a well-known one. It is currently being aired on television in Malaysia, and is | |

| |called "Win, Lose, or Draw." You can play it with as many teams as you like, preferably keeping it to a | |

| |maximum of four or five teams. | |

| |Instead of giving the students the words to draw, I find it even more effective if you get the students to | |

| |concoct the words themselves. The words should be "drawable," not too easy nor too difficult. Give the groups| |

| |about 10-15 minutes to come up with the words; then the teacher should go round to the different groups to | |

| |check out the words. Tick out those that are suitable and try and offer alternatives for those words that you| |

| |consider 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 in front of you. | |

| |The game is then played as follows: | |

| |Divide your class into groups. | |

| |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 has to draw the topic on | |

| |the blackboard once the timekeeper gives the "begin" signal. | |

| |Appoint someone to keep time. A student has a maximum of 60 seconds to draw the object. This can vary | |

| |according to your students' abilities. | |

| |The objective is to try to score as few points as possible. | |

| |The task is for group members to try to guess what the student is drawing in as little time as possible. | |

| |The student doing the drawing cannot talk, make any sound, nor act out the word. Only when his/her group | |

| |members have guessed the word correctly, can s/he indicate or gesticulate that they have done so. | |

| |The teacher has to be alert and listen carefully whilst the students try to guess what their friend is | |

| |drawing. Once they have guessed the topic correctly, the teacher stops the action. | |

| |The timekeeper announces the time taken and records it on the board. | |

| |After this, the next group takes its turn. The game can be played for many rounds. Students in each group | |

| |should take turns drawing. | |

| |At the end of the game, the scores are tallied. The group with the fewest points is the winner. | |

| |This game is suitable for teaching vocabulary items, but phrases or sentences can also be given. For example,| |

| |"singing in the rain," "a school of fish," "the fat woman fainted," "the ostrich kicked the zebra," "the | |

| |spaceship landed on the moon," etc. Tenses and sentence structures can also be introduced through this game. | |

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