What is this/that? Who is this/that?

Collection of games

There are a lot of games, by means of which we can develop speaking skills. These games are much diversified. We can choose among structure games, vocabulary games, spelling games and pronunciation games.

 Many games provide experience of the use of particular patterns of syntax in communication, and these are here called structure games. Among them is a number of guessing games, which can be played at various age levels. In general, the challenge to guess arouses considerable interest and encourages the learners too communicative what they see as possible ‘right answer’.

 In the following we would like to show some among structure games, which we can use in, develop speaking skill.

Where is it?

Level: elementary and intermediate

Age: any

Group size: whole class

Use: to practise prepositional phrases. (Variant B: also the ‘may’ of possibility.)

Learners turn round and close their eyes while a small object (or several objects) such as a coin, a ring, a sweet, or a small doll is hidden. Questions: Is it behind the cupboard/in X’s pocket/in Y’s desk/in your shoe/under those books? Etc. Each learner should make at least one guess. Statements can be made instead of questions: It’s behind the cupboard/in X’s pocket, etc.

Variants

A. Using tag-questions: It’s behind the cupboard, isn’t it? etc.

B. A small object is hidden. Where can it possibly be? Everybody suggests a place: It may be in your pocket/on top of the cupboard/in Tom’s desk/behind that picture/in the waste-paper-basket, etc. A team point for the first to guess correctly, using may. Might or could are also possible. It might/could be in your pocket. Could it be in your pocket?

C. Using the past: I’ve just found this button, etc. Guess where it was. It was behind the cupboard/in the drawer of your table/under the vase, etc. No, it wasn’t there or Yes, that’s right.

D. Several learners go out of the room while a small object is hidden. They know what the object is. On re-entering the room, each in turn asks a question, naming someone to answer it. This is done three times. Thus if there are six questioners, eighteen different learners are asked a question. The six in front listen carefully to each other’s questions, which they may have planned together before they came in, and especially to the answers. They try to guess where the object is before they finish asking all their questions. Only yes-no questions are permitted, e. g. Is it on anybody’s finger? Is it on the floor? Is it near us? Is it in the teacher’s pocket? It’s in your desk, Peter, isn’t it? and so on. As soon as a successful guess is made, another group (which should include learners who have not had a chance of speaking) goes outside and another object is hidden.

E. Hide a puppet, or a cut-out of an animal (e. g.), before the lesson. Say I’ve lost…(naming a puppet), or I’ve lost my cat. Where is he? The learners guess. It’s in your bag outside the room/behind those big books, etc. (For young children.)

Whose is it?

Level: elementary

Age: children

Group size: whole class

Use: the practise possessive pronouns

Objects belonging to various learners are placed beforehand in various parts of the room. They are all visible. For example, there could be a red pencil on one of the desks (all other pens and pencils should be put away). A black raincoat hanging at the side of the blackboard, a pencil-box on a chair, a pair of shoes near the door, an apple or an orange on a shelf, etc. The objects should be numerous and they should not be familiar, e. g. the coat should not be one, which a particular pupil in the class always wears.

The game proceeds as follows. Hold up or point to one of the objects and ask What’s this? or What are these? This is a pair of shoes. Then talk about them a bit, e. g. Are they black or brown? Are they girls’ shoes or boys’ shoes? Then ask Whose are they? or Who do they belong to? and guesses are made. They’re Mary’s. Mary says: No, they aren’t mine. They’re Alison’s. Are they yours, Alison? No. No, they aren’t hers. And so on, until the right guess is made. The guesses may of course be either statements or questions.

If there are many objects of a kind, e. g. many books, scarves, coats, or oranges, which and pronominal one will also be needed. Which coat is yours/his? etc. (pointing). Which book is Eve’s? Is the one on the table? Or that longs one? etc.

The materials needed for this game are many common objects which belong to the learners, but which they do not normally have at school.

Lucky dip

Level: fairly elementary

Age: young children

Group size: whole class (small)

Use: to practise possessives and to brush up vocabulary

This is an occasional activity for a small class. The children, and also the teacher, put various articles (including models) into a large bag. Later, everybody takes out one without looking to see what it is. Informal conversation: What have you got, Pamela? An aeroplane, miss. Oh, that’s good. What have you got, Jack? What’s it called? It’s a calendar. And so on.

If most of the articles belong to the children, there can now be exchange. Whose is this? Is this yours or his? It’s mine, etc.

A few of the articles, not belonging to the children, can be marked ‘First prize’, ‘Second prize’, etc. Those who have them will keep these.

There may also be a few ‘messages’ inside small envelopes, e. g. Find something behind this cupboard. Look it my left pocket. There is something behind the green books. The articles hidden there should be similar to those in the bag.

Everybody gets his own article back, and may get another one also.

Teach the children to ask one another some of the questions, so that the teacher is not the only one to talk.

Where are you off to…? (or Where are you going?)

Level: intermediate

Age: fairly young children

Group size: whole class

Use: to practise the infinitive of purpose

Somebody walks to the door and says Goodbye, everybody, goodbye. The class says: Oh, where are you going? Reply: I’m off to/going to the supermarket/butcher’s/stationer’s/greengrocer’s, etc. Class: What are you going there for? or Why are you going there? Reply: Guess (You must guess.). Everybody guesses. To buy a kilo of beans/a chair/a pint of milk/some potatoes, etc. (choosing the vocabulary according to the kind of shop mentioned). Whenever a correct guess is made, the ‘guesses’ change places with the ‘shopper’.

What is it? Is it…?

Level:elementary, intermediate, and advanced

Age:any

Group size: whole class, groups, or pairs

Use: to practice ‘yes-no’ and other questions and to brush up vocabulary

Somebody thinks of an object or person the class knows the name of, and the others ask questions, putting up their hands and waiting to be called on: Is it a green book?, Is it Mary’s desk? Is it my face? Is it the door? Is it John and Peter? Is it the railway station? Is it the man who came here this morning? etc. The first to guess correctly takes the ‘thinker’s’ place.

After the class has successfully played such a game as a whole, it can be played in groups or even in pairs.

Members of another team may question the learner who has thought of something only, and points scored according to the number of questions asked (e.g. one point for a guess after only five questions). There should be a frequent change from one team to another, to keep the whole class active.

The number of yes-no questions may be limited (e.g. to twenty), after which the answer must be given and the game started again.

Out of place

Level:intermediate

Age:any

Group size: whole class

Use:to practice ‘there’s’ and prepositional phrases, the present perfect (variants A and B), the passive (B), and ‘should/shouldn’t’, ‘ought/oughtn’t’

At least a dozen objects are placed beforehand in unfamiliar positions, all being in ‘full’ view. The learners are not told what the objects are, but are given a minute or two to look about them, and then are asked to say what have noticed. They may say, for instance: There’s a book on top of the door. There’s a bag in the waste-paper-basket. There’s a hairbrush on the record player. There’s a ruler in the vase, etc.

At another stage the past tense could be used, if the objects have been taken away. Thus: There was a book on top of the door. Was there? Yes, there was. Is there a book there now? No, there isn’t.

Or, if some of the objects have been removed and not others, one of the uses of still can be practised. Is it still here? No. Is my bag still there? Yes, it is – it’s still in the corner.

How?

Level:intermediate

Age:children

Group size:whole class

Use: to practise adverbial of manner

One learner goes out of the room and thinks of a simple action – such as cleaning the blackboard, drawing or writing something, counting objects or people, telling about what happened the day before, etc. Meanwhile the class has chosen an adverb of manner e.g. quickly, slowly, softly, loudly, etc. Back comes the one outside and performs the action in various ways until he hits on the manner chosen by the class and guesses the adverb. But he may have to change the action to discover what the adverb is – one can hardly clean a blackboard loudly!

The class should respond to each ‘performance’ by using the adverb that seems appropriate to it, e.g. No, it isn’t ‘quickly’. If the ‘performer’ does not agree with their choice of adverb to describe the way he performs an action, he can say so, e.g. I wasn’t writing carelessly.

It should not take long for any ‘performer’, by means of his actions to discover what adverb the class has chosen.

If it happened…

Level:intermediate and advanced

Age:any

Group size:whole class

Use:to practise conditional clauses (hypothetical)

While the class, with the teacher’s help, is imagining something that might happen, one learner is out of the room. On returning, he or she asks various learners What would you do if it happened? Until in due course it becomes clear what the imaginary event must be. Answers begin I would…

Examples

a. I would visit Britain/move to a bigger house/take my mother for a long holiday/give presents to all my friends, etc. (Answers such as these would doubtless lead the questioner to guess If you won a lot of money.)

b. I would stay here/ring up home to ask somebody to come/take shelter in a shop/run home very quickly/borrow somebody’s coat, etc. (Such answers might bring the guess If it began to rain hard.)

Answers should be so worded that the secret is not given away immediately, as it would be, for instance, if an umbrella were mentioned in connection with If it began to rain.

Both possible and impossible ‘happenings’ may be allowed, and some of the answers are bound to be a bit improbable. The teacher’s help should be directed towards ensuring that ‘happenings’ are chosen which enable as many suggestions are possible to be put forward.

Hide and search

Level:intermediate

Age:children

Group size:whole class

Use:to practise conditional clauses (factual or open condition) and the ‘may’ of possibility

A small object, such as a button or coin, is hidden somewhere while the searcher waits outside. Converse with the rest of the class in this way: What will Jim/Jane find/see if he/she looks in your desk/in Sally’s bag/in the cupboard/under that papers/behind the stove? etc. He’ll/She’ll find four books and a ruler/some sandwiches/six piles of books and three bottles of ink, etc.

Preliminary conversation might also involve the may of possibility. What may she/he open/move/look behind? Where may she/he look? At a more advanced stage should and were might be practised in the same situation: If he should look in your desk, what would he find? If he were to move those books, what would he discover/see there? etc.

The search may be for several objects, and there may be a number of searchers. The teacher need not know where the objects are – members of the class can place them.

So Jim or Jane come back and search. As they search, teacher and class have a little conversation. Where has Jim looked (so far)? Where is he going to look now? Has Jane looked under the table (yet)? Is she going to open the cupboard? And so on. Have you looked in my bag (yet), Jim? But do not bother the searchers too much.

Where could…have looked?

Level: intermediate and advanced

Age: children

Group size:whole class

Use:to practise ‘could/might have…’

This is an activity, which follows upon the previous game. Everybody looks back at what has happened.

For instance: Did Jim look in the cupboard, Alan? No, miss. Could he have looked there? Yes, he could, but he didn’t. Where else could he have looked, but didn’t look? Everybody makes one suggestion. He could have looked under my foot/behind that picture/in the vase, etc. Did you look under his foot/behind that picture, etc. Jim? No. Could you have looked there? Yes. The class is talking about what they saw happen and not happen.

An alternative to could here is might.

The type of games belongs to vocabulary games. A vocabulary game is one in which the learners’ attention is focused mainly on words. Many of these games give incidental vocabulary practice.

What is this/that? Who is this/that?

Level: elementary

Age: children

Group size: whole class or groups

Use: to practise naming people and objects

Learners in turn hold up or touch or point to objects or people (or to pictures of them), naming a pupil in another team to answer. Those who answer correctly ask a similar question in return. If an answer is incorrect, the questioner (or perhaps someone else from the same team) asks another question. A point may be scored for every correct question answered.

Replies take the form It’s a…It’s the…It’s my/your/his/her…It’s X. They’re…and…Yes, it is. No, they aren’t. No, I’m…, etc.

At a slightly less elementary stage a game can be made out of the following kind of naming sequence: A (to B): What is this?, B: It’s a…A (to class or group): Is it a…? Reply: Yes/No.

‘Choice’ questions also lend themselves to this game: Is this a lemon or an orange?

Shopping

Level: elementary and intermediate

Age: any

Group size: small class or groups

Use: to practise the vocabulary needed for various kinds of shopping

 There are many vocabulary games of this type. They can be adapted to circumstances. Examples:

A. My father/sister/I/You and I, etc. went to (name a town). Oh yes, did he/she/you? What did he/she/you bring back? He/she/I/We brought back…Each learner adds an item and repeats the items already mentioned by other learners. If this is found unduly difficult, write some of the items on the board. Keep a note of what is mentioned. In a large class the list becomes unbearably long and the game is then better played in-groups.

B. I went to the market/shops/supermarket with…and there we bought…,etc. The vocabulary can be restricted to what is obtainable at one kind of shop, and this varies from country to country.

C. Amounts can be specified: I went shopping yesterday and bought a dozen eggs, a pound/half a kilo of coffee, a pound of butter, etc.

D. Other tenses can be used: My mother and sister have gone to… What are they going to buy? Guess… Every Saturday we go shopping, and what do you think we buy? etc.

E. ‘Uncountable’ and ‘countable’ may need practice: some rice, some cheese, some bacon, two packets of rice, a quarter of bacon, six eggs, etc.

I spy

Level: elementary

Age: children

Group size: whole class or groups

Use: to brush up known vocabulary

This is an old and simple vocabulary game. Somebody says: I spy with my little eye something beginning with B. Others guesses what the object is. Susan: The blackboard? No, no the blackboard. Dick: A biscuit? No, I can’t see a biscuit. Stephen: Dick’s ball? Yes that is right, Dick’s ball. It then becomes Stephen’s turn. He thinks of something beginning with another letter, e. g. S. I spy…something beginning with S. The object must be visible in the room or in a wall picture.

If anyone dislikes spy because it is not among the ten thousand most frequent words in printed English or because of its associations, then the following rhyme can be substituted: One – two – three, what can I see? Something in this room (or garden) beginning with…

Remembering

Level: elementary

Age: children

Group size: whole class

Use: familiarisation with known vocabulary, spelling practice

Simple sketches are drawn on the board. If you have a long stretch of board there can be several ‘artists’ drawing at once: they can be, for instance, three learners from each of two teams. As soon as they have finished, they print neatly under each drawing what it is supposed to be (a kitchen, a tree, an aeroplane, etc.). The class is given a few moments to look at these words, then the teacher rubs them out and the class writes them from memory, looking at the drawings (some of which would no doubt be unrecognisable if one had not been told what they were). Then other learners come forward to draw and name other things, and the procedure is repeated. With a quick class this can be done three or four times. The team with the most words right, legible, and correctly spelt is the winner.

Classroom shop

Level:intermediate

Age:children

Group size:whole class or groups

Use:to practise the vocabulary of shopping

The pupils provide the articles for sale – or pictures, drawings, or models of them, or simply their names on cards – and the teacher, to get the game going, acts first as salesman and then as customer. Useful phrases: Can I help you? Have you got a…Have you got any…? I want to buy…pounds/kilograms of…Please give me…How much is (all) that? Is that right? (when handing over the exact money), I’m sorry we’re out of stock/we haven’t got that, etc.

Aunt Mary’s cat

Level:intermediate and advanced

Age:any

Group size:whole class or groups

Use:a vocabulary stretcher (adjectives and adverbs)

This is an old party game played by children and adults together, the adults usually saying whether the word chosen is possible or not. Again, the name can be varied: My uncle’s parrot. The grocer’s horse. Bill Lee’s bulldog. My grandmother’s monkey, etc. The first player begins with ‘a’ and says perhaps My Aunt Mary’s cat is an alarming cat. The second has to use an adjective beginning with ‘b’; e.g. My Aunt Mary’s cat is a bad cat. The third may continue My Aunt Mary’s cat is a careful cat. And so on through the alphabet.

Adverbs can be added to adjectives: My Aunt Mary’s cat is an alarmingly fierce/badly behaved/carefully fed/dangerously thin cat, etc. Or…is alarmingly fierce, etc.

Incomplete definitions

Level:intermediate and advanced

Age:any (except young children)

Group size: whole class and groups

Use: to practise how to describe things they know

A member of one team defines something and challenges somebody in the other team to guess what it is. Team points are given for correct guesses and an extra point if the word is spelt correctly.

Much depends on what is chosen for definition, and also on not giving away too much. For example an elephant can be defined as a large animal which lives in India and Africa and which can carry people as well as goods – but do not mention it trunk, which would make it too easy to guess.

Examples: a piece of furniture in which we keep clothes (a wardrobe). A way of telling us to stop or go ahead in the street (traffic lights). A place where a farmer keeps his cows (a cattle-shed). A means of sending a spoken message a long way (the telephone).

Shipwreck lists

Level:intermediate

Age: any

Group size: whole class or groups

Use: to brush up the vocabulary of food, drink, clothing, tools, etc.

Each group has pencil and paper and the group leader does the writing. First, the names of foods must be written down. Allow two or three minutes for all the groups to do this, then ask for drinks, and finally for articles of clothing.

Group ‘A’ leader reads out Group A’s list, while the other group leaders cross out on their lists anything he mentions. Then Group ‘B’ leader reads out what his group still has, and the other groups cross out those items if they have them, and so on with all the groups. The result will be that the items not crossed out on any list will be those that only that group has thought of. You have been wrecked on a desert island, and this is all the food and drink and clothing you have. The surviving items are read out. The group with the longest list (including no doubt one or two items that would not be essential or even suitable on the island) is the winner.

Coffee-pot

Level:intermediate

Age:any

Group size: whole class and groups

Use: to brush up vocabulary: food, drink, clothing, tools, etc.

This is usually played as a vocabulary game. Somebody thinks of an object and others ask questions such as Where do you keep your coffeepot? Is your coffeepot big? What is your coffeepot made of? Can we see your coffeepot in the room? Can we eat your coffeepot? Do you wear your coffeepot? Both yes-no question why-questions can be asked.

The coffee-pot may be almost anything – somebody’s TV set, somebody’s stamp album, the local railway station, the post office, the teacher’s hat, somebody’s bicycle, your shoes, the moon, etc.

Coffeepot can also stand for a verb, and the questions might include Can everybody coffeepot? Do you coffeepot very often? Where do you go to coffeepot? etc. Almost any action verb is possible here, e.g. dance, swim, go for walk, climb, etc.

Word bag

Aims:Vocabulary practice, the development of attention, listening skill

Level:Beginner/Intermediate

Time:-

Organisation:Groups

Procedure:This is to get your students to write down new words they hear in class.

At the beginning of the term/course divide students into groups of about 5 and give each group a number (e.g. 1-6). At the beginning of each class give each group about 10 cards on which they write the number of their group and the new words they hear in class. At the end of each class they put their cards into the "word bag" and every 2 weeks you check whether they still know those words and which group has the most cards. In the end there are two winners: the group that has the most cards, and the one that knows more words.

Especially for you

Aims:Vocabulary practice, reading skill

Level:Beginner

Time:10 minutes

Organisation:Individuals

Procedure:The teacher prepares a list of words. Each student gets one word which is prepared especially for him or her. The trick is that each student gets a word whose initial letter is the same as the initial of the student's first name, e.g. Linda gets listless. Each student must look it up in the dictionary during the class and after a few minutes report to the class. E.g. "My name is Linda and I'm listless. That means that I am ... (definition)...". For homework students can do the same using their surname.

Word tour

Aims:The development of imagination, vocabulary practice

Level:Beginner/Intermediate

Time: -

Organisation: Individuals

Procedure:Instructions for your students: 'Think of a town or city you know well. Imagine that you are organising a sightseeing tour. Think of 5 places you would include on your tour and write down the order in which the tourists would visit them. Learn your tour off by heart so that you can picture it in your mind. Whenever you have 5 new English words to learn, imagine these words are the tourists on your tour and picture the words in the places on your tour like this.
Tour: Trafalgar Square; Buckingham Palace; Houses of Parliament; Westminster Abbey; Downing Street. Words to learn: apron; dustpan; vacuum cleaner; feather duster; broom. Imagine Nelson on his column in Trafalgar Square wearing an apron, the queen brushing the floor in Buckingham Palace and using a dustpan...

Selling and Buying Things

Aims:Vocabulary practice, speaking skills

Level:Beginner/Intermediate

Time:15-20 minutes

Organisation:Individuals/Groups

Procedure:This game is playing in two different classes. 10 students were shopkeepers selling fruits and food to the rest of the class. The shopkeepers had to sell all food they had and the shoppers had to buy all food they needed in the shortest time. We observed the same students' reaction in both classes. Before the game started, the teachers tried to explain the game' rules to students and gave some examples. Once students understood the rules, they quickly rearranged their seats and grouped as instructed. The classes became as noisy as a real market. Students tried to use as many phrases and words they had learnt as possible. Thus, through this kind of activity students may be able to remember their vocabulary better.

Snakes and Ladders

Aims:Vocabulary practice, speaking skill, answering correctly to questions

Level:Beginners/Intermediate

Time:10-20 minutes

Organisation:Groups of five

Procedure:Students worked in groups of five and everyone went from the start and tried to reach the finish as soon as possible by answering correctly to questions which were prepared by the teacher. After observing the game, we gave a small survey to 20 students with some questions about their feelings toward the game like; "Do you think this game is useful for you to remember words you have learnt?" and, "How can your classmates help you learn through the game?"... From this survey, we learnt that all 20 students agreed that games help them a lot in vocabulary learning. Among them, 12 students said that said that they could answer well two-thirds of questions in the game; and only one student could always respond to all questions.

Fish of the Sea

Aims:Vocabulary practice, to enliven the children’s attention

Level:Pre-intermediate

Time:5 minutes

Organisation:Groups

Procedure:The children make up groups, each with the name of a fish. The teacher, as the Sea, walks about, calling them to follow: “The Sea wants the shrimps. The Sea wants the cod...” When they are all gathered, the Sea says “I am calm”: children move on tiptoe, gliding. “I am rough”: children hop. “I am choppy”: children skip. “I am stormy”: children run, waving their arms about.

What animal is this?

Aims:To learn the names of the animals, imagination, miming

Level:Beginner

Time:10 minutes

Organisation:Individuals

Procedure:It is very useful when children are learning the names of the animals.

Children silently act as animals, and other players try to identify them:

Tiger-paces,

Bull- paws the ground

Monkey- jumps and swings with tail

Kangaroo- bounds

Crocodile- swims and snaps mouth

Cat- washes face, curls up

Gorilla- beats chest

Dog- begs

Rabbit- bunny-hops

Bingo

Aims:Vocabulary practice, listening comprehension

Level:Beginner/Intermediate

Time:10 minutes

Organisation:Individuals

Procedure: This involves selective copying and is an excellent way of revising vocabulary sets (e.g. colours, occupations, clothes, etc.). through a game.

Write, with the help of suggestions from the class, 12 – 16 items on the board (e.g. for clothes: jacket, hat, shirt, socks,etc.). Ask the students to copy any words from the list.

Then read out the words from the list in any order. The first student to hear all his words read out calls out BINGO!

From these suggestions it should be clear that copying need never be a boring activity! Some of the following activities, particularly dialogue writing, also involve copying: the students do not actually have to contribute to the text.

Associations

Procedure: Start by suggesting an evocative word: ‘storm’, for example. A student says what the word suggests to him or her – it might be ‘dark’. The next student suggests an association with the word ‘dark’, and so on round the class. Other words you might start with: sea, fire, tired, holiday, morning, English, family, home, angry. Or use an item of vocabulary the class has recently learnt.

Blackboard bingo

Procedure:Write on the board 10 to 15 words which you would like to review. Tell the students to choose any five of them and write them down. Read out the words, one by one and in any order. If the students have written down one of the words you call out they cross it off. When they have crossed off all their five words they tell you, by shouting ‘Bingo’. Keep a record of what you say in order to be able to check that the students really have heard all their words.

Sentence Race

Level:Any Level

A good game for large classes and for reviewing vocabulary lessons.

1. Prepare a list of review vocabulary words.
2. Write each word on two small pieces of paper. That means writing the word twice, once on each paper.
3. Organize the pieces like bundles, 2 bundles, 2 sets of identical words.
4. Divide the class into 2 teams. get them to make creative team names.
5. Distribute each list of words to both teams. every student on each team should have a paper. Both teams have the same words.
6. When you call a word, 2 students should stand up, one from each team. The students must then run to the blackboard and race to write a sentence using their word.

The winner is the one with a correct and clearly written sentence.

This is always a hit with kids. For more advanced students, use tougher words.

Catching up on your ABC's

Level:Any Level

This game is short and simple. Write the alphabet on the board. Throw a bean bag to someone and say a word begining with the letter A. This person must catch the bean bag, say a word begining with the letter B and then throw it to another person This third person says a word begining with the leter C and so on.

Obviously the game is meant to be played fast. If played with higher level students you may not want to write the alphabet on the board. There are many ways to change the game to make it adaptable to your level of students.