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* English for Communications. Click HERE. By Beatriz Papaseit Fernández and myself, María Zabala Peña

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Compoud nouns revision

Level: Intermediate and upper
Time: Flexible
Materials: some pieces of paper
Procedure:

1. Give pairs of student a piece of paper. Pairs of students need to write at least 6 compound words. Make sure they leave room between words and that their hand writing is biggish. The aim is to obtain a list of compound words that have been seen in class or that students know.

2. Pick the words and cut them. This way you can shuffle the words as if they were cards

3. Divide the students in teams of 3, 4 or 5 members, depending on how big your class is.
4. Give one member of each group a word and model the activity.

The student needs to elicit the compound nouns by miming each of the constituent words. To begin, a player indicates 'first word' by raising a finger and then acts in such a way as to suggest this word. Those watching call out any words they think of until someone calls out the correct one. The player miming then nods and begins miming the second constituent word. For example, if the word is 'basketball', the player tries to elicit 'basket', and then 'ball'. The player must not, however, mime the word 'basketball' itself by running around as if playing the game.

If no one has guessed the word within a reasonable length of time, ask for the player miming to state it

5. Be ready to give more words to groups once they have guessed the word or quit

6. Depending on the type of students, the teacher may have all the groups acting at the same time or may decide that the groups need to act one by one.

Also the teacher may decide to set a time for each word.

7. The students who guessed more words in each team are the winners.

Source: http://www.teflgames.com/wtw2.html
Adapted by Maria Zabala to avoid photocopies

Vocabulary revision from more than one unit

Purpose: vocabulary revision for more than one unit

To see vocabulary revision games for CURRENT UNIT, please click HERE

Any level but students need to have practised techniques for defining words.

Timing: from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how many times students are willing to repeat the game.

Material: one piece of blank paper per student plus one piece of blank paper per group. To save paper, these pieces of paper can be a sheet cut in 4s

Procedure:
1. Distribute students in groups of 4 or 5. Groups need to have the same amount of students. If this is not possible, make sure that two students understand they are working together as if they were ONE person.
2. Give each student a piece of paper.
3. Each student, individually, writes on the piece of paper words that he/she has learnt that year or in certain units (depending on what the teacher wants the students to revise)
4. Students compare their words and make sure there are no repetitions.
5. Nominate students in each group A, B, C, D (F, if they are 5 students) and check everybody knows who they are (As, raise hands, Bs raise hands, C…)

6. Students A from each group pick up all the pieces of paper in their group and give them to the group next to theirs, clock wise. Students A distribute the pieces of paper that have been given to them to every member of their group. The information is SECRET: students should not show their words to the other members of their group.

7.The teacher distributes one blank piece of paper to every group.

8. Teacher models. Imagine I am A, I start defining any of the words in the list. B, C, D, F (if there is F) need to guess the word. If C guesses, he/she writes the word next to his/her name in the blank sheet that belongs to the group. This piece of paper is a record of all of the words that have been guessed in every group.

E.g. A: this is a fruit. It is yellow
C: Banana!!!
C writes “Banana” on the piece of paper with a C: Banana C (this way we know that C guessed one word)

After one minute the teacher will shout “B start“ and then B has to define as many words as he/she can and A, _, C, D, F need to guess the word. This continues until all the letters/students have had the opportunity to define and guess.

9. If students do not get tired, you can have a second round. As collect all of the papers with vocabulary from their groups and they pass them clockwise to the next group. This way every group has a new set of words. Normally two rounds are enough.

10. Finally GROUPS NEED TO count:
10. a How many words they have guessed
11.b. Who was the person who guessed more words in every group? A? B? C? D? of F?


By Maria Zabala based on Julie McGuiness talk in Barcelona, Macmillan workshop in 2009

Green card/Citizenship

Laguage: Questions in present, past and future
Level: lower intermediate and upper
Materials: A sheet of paper per group of students
Possible special occasion: Saint Valentine
Procedure:
Ask students what a person can do to obtain citizenship. Prompt students to say word “MARRIAGE”.

1. Make groups of 4 or 5 students. Two people are going to be married and the other 2 or 3 are policemen that need to make sure the students got married for love and not for papers.

2. The married couples need to leave the classroom and agree on normal aspects of their everyday life (where/when/how they met, colour of toothbrush, likes and dislikes, pets, birthdays, honeymoon, which side of the bed they sleep in…)

3. The policemen need to think of 10 questions to ask to  the couple

4. The teacher needs to go out and help couples to orientate their answers if the policemen’ questions are very different from what the couples are preparing. Just stick the head out and say (have you thought about your animals or the names of your in-laws)

5. The teacher needs to help the policemen to understand the aim of the game. Some questions need to be different for each of the member of the couple, others can be the same:

e.g. “What is the name of your mother?” should be rephrased for the other member of the couple as “What is the name of your mother-in-law?” whereas “Where do you live?” is valid for both members of the couple.

6. When questions are ready, the first member of the couple comes in and answers the questions. The policemen need to record the answers. Then the second member of the couple comes in and answers the questions. The first member of the couple can stay in and sit behind his/her/wife/husband in such a way that both members of the couples can not see each other

7. If couples get 7 or more answers right they get citizenship


By Maria Zabala inspired by the game Crack the Alibi and the film Green Card

Find me at: http://mariaenglishforesonophotocopies.blogspot.com/2009/09/laguage-questions-in-present-past-and.html