Fun and Effective Language Learning Activities Packet_30 Activities

8/14/2019 Fun and Effective Language Learning Activities Packet_30 Activities

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Its been approximately six years since I made the definitive decision to become a language teacher.

During those six years I have often either been enrolled in language classes, or have been teachinglanguage classes, or both. Nevertheless, what you see here is a product of much more than language

instruction. Since deciding to teach language, all of my teachers, notwithstanding their fields of

specialization, have taken on a dual role in my education. As a student, not only did I strive to learn the

material being presented, but I made a personal commitment to assimilate into my own teaching practicesthe effective ways that the material was presented. If a teacher utilized an activity that I liked, or a

presentation that was effective, I stole it. This packet is partially a bi-product of over half a decade ofhighway robbery. The activities and games that youll find in this packet have been pick-pocketed fromsociology, science, English, and even Shakespeare professors. But teachers arent the only source of

inspiration for a pedagogical thief. This packet also contains games and activities adapted from cereal

boxes, neighborhood parties, church outings, summer camps, board games, and family reunions. Onoccasion I do give credit to game creators, some of which are even myself, but for the most part Ive

considered everything you see here as free-ware, and I encourage all of you to look the other way and

do the same.

This packet contains 30 fun and effective language learning games that have been tried and proven

successful in my own Spanish language classroom. These activities have been categorized into the

following themes, listed in chronological order: 1 General Review Games : These games often utilize a format that is consonant with the employment of

vocabulary, grammar, morphology, syntax, communicative language use and cultural learning objectives.

Many of these games have been adapted to be low affective filter games that allow under confident

students to participate and feel validated without interference from highly competitive students.

2 Communicative Language Use Games : Although many of the games in the packet employ thiselement, these games specifically center on meaningful communicative interactions amongst students, and

the use of target language structures.

3 Vocabulary Games : The activities in this category are quick and exciting games that teach students

vocabulary and circumlocution skills. These activities are often communicative.

4 Grammar Games : Grammatical concepts and structures are specifically focused on here, although they

too have been treated in many of the other activities. Different modalities of communication that employspecific forms are stressed in this sections games, and the widely untouched topic of syntax is even

included here.

Appendix : Here you will find some of the materials that you will need to begin immediately

utilizing these activities in your own classroom.

Curtis Kleinman

Yavapai College Spanish InstructorPrescott, Arizona

Phone: 928-776-2290Email: [email protected]

If you would like an electronic copy of this packet, please see my website:

http://curtiskleinmanspanish.wetpaint.com/page/Fun+and+Effective+Language+Learning+Activities orhttp://tinyurl.com/spanishactivities.

This is a good game to use as a review for quizzes or tests. First make up short language tasks, equal to the number

of students in your class (if your class has twenty five students come up with twenty five short relevant tasks).

Tasks should be short enough to be accomplished in 30 to 45 seconds. Heres an example of a language task I use:

Translate the following to Spanish: They are from Toledo.
mailto:[email protected]://curtiskleinmanspanish.wetpaint.com/page/Fun+and+Effective+Language+Learning+Activitieshttp://tinyurl.com/spanishactivitiesmailto:[email protected]://curtiskleinmanspanish.wetpaint.com/page/Fun+and+Effective+Language+Learning+Activitieshttp://tinyurl.com/spanishactivities


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Some tasks may be as simple as supplying the correct vocabulary word, or reading a short sentence in the targetlanguage and answering a question about it. Then, print up each one of these language tasks on a piece of paper

and apply to it a number (in this case, 1-30). Finally cut each numbered task out and tape them to the tops of the

students desks, one task per desk. Students sit in a desk that has a language task on it, and number their paper from

one to thirty. Tell the students that when you say go, they will have 30 seconds (or 45) to complete the task that is

affixed to the desk in front of them. Turn music on to signal that their time with the first task has begun. Cut the

music signaling that their time has expired. Each student should write the answer on his or her answer sheet, and

when the time comes to move on to the next task, students should stand and move with their answer sheet to the

next corresponding number on their paper. The number on their answer sheet should always correspond with the

next numbered desk that they are sitting at. You may want to include a few free desks where a task is not given to

afford students a break or a chance to make sure that their numbering isnt off.

Short speaking tasks may be assigned as well by linking two tasks. Task 18 may say, Ask the person behind you

where he or she is from, in Spanish. Task 19 would then read, Wait for the person in front of you to ask you a

question in Spanish and then respond in Spanish.Cultural music can be played during this game. The teacher should lower the volume of the music to signify that

the time allotted for that question has expired. Once the students have changed chairs the teacher should raise the

volume once again.

This is a variation on Musical Chairs, and it can spice up any worksheet activity. The same idea applies as in

Musical Chairs above, but this time, instead of students moving from desk to desk, its the questions that move.

Just cut up the questions on any worksheet and hand them out, one question at a time to students so that every

student in the class has one question in hand. Give each student thirty seconds to answer each question and then

he/she must pass the question on to the person at his/her left, as well as receive a new questions from the student at

his/her right. This is an excellent way to ensure that students are working in class and using the time you have

allotted for a worksheets completion to the fullest. It also saves on photocopies, since each student writes the

answer on an answer sheet, the teacher need not create one worksheet for each student, rather, the teacher creates

one worksheet per class.

Named after its inventor, this is a good competitive game for students that are not competitive or are unconfident

about their abilities in the L2. It is a simple trivia game, where the teacher asks a question (this could come in

many forms, such as a verbal question in the target language that must be responded to on paper, or a sentence that

must be translated from the board) that students respond to on paper. The trick is in the ingenious scoring.Students are divided into groups of four or five. One paper (or white boardwhich works extremely well if

available) per group is placed on the desk of one single group member and the question is presented. If that group

member answers the question correctly by her or himself the group gets two points. If he or she answers the

question correctly with the help of the group he or she gets one point for the group and if the question is answeredincorrectly, either alone or with the help of the group, the group gains no points. Students should write the answers

and then bring the answer up to the teacher who will then tally the teams point total on a scoring sheet that the

teacher keeps. If groups are taking too much time to turn in their answers, an extra point should be given to

whichever group turns in their answer first, be that answer right or wrong. In this way, if a team member answers

the question correctly without help from his team, and he is the first to turn in his answer, he would then win three

total points for his team. {I will use both masculine and feminine pronouns in free variation throughout this work}

The teacher begins by drawing a football field on the board, similar to the figures below.

Fig. 1Football Field with ball on Pirates one-yard-line Fig. 2Football Field with ball on Dragons 25-yard-line


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The class is divided into two large teams, and the teacher flips a coin to decide which team goes first. The team

that wins the coin toss, the Pirates, in this case, (the Pirates, in the case of Figure 1) will take possession of the ball,

starting on their own one-yard-line (the teacher then draws a picture of a football on the one-yard-line on the board,

[see Figure 1]). Each team will have one representative that will be asked to answer a question presented by the

teacher (questions can be lexical, grammatical, or even cultural in nature and can be answered orally or written long

hand, and can be answered in the target language or in the L1, all depending on the needs of the situation). The

teams representative changes with every question. If the teams representative answers the question presented

correctly the team will advance the ball up the field (represented by the teacher erasing the picture of the ball at the

one-yard-line and re-drawing it at the 25-yard-line). The teams representative may receive help from his

teammates when stuck on a question, but a correct response with teammate help will only retain possession of the

ball, it will not advance the ball forward. Three non-advancements in a row will result in an automatic turnover.

However, if the representative answers incorrectly, the play is deemed a turnover and the other team will gain

possession of the ball and begin to advance the opposite way up the field. If a team scores a touch down they must

go for the extra point by first answering a question and then by making a basket in the trashcan from a distancespecified by the teacher. The team can opt at any time to attempt a field goal. The distance of the field goal is in

direct proportion to the difficulty of the question (the further the distance the tougher the question). Field goals are

made by first answering the question correctly and then by making a basket in the trash can (once again the distance

to the trashcan should be positively correlated with the difficulty of the question). This game is especially fun toplay during football spirit weeks.

The key to the success of this game is having plenty of questions that fit into four different difficulty categories.

When the ball is at a teams own one-yard-line (as is the case for the Pirates in Figure 1 above), and they are

attempting to advance the ball forward, questions should be pulled from the easiest of the four difficulty categories

(e.g. Please translate this word from English to Spanish etc.). However, if the team is on their opponents 25-

yard-line and are attempting to score on the next play (as is the case for the Pirates in Figure 2 above), the question

should be pulled from the most challenging difficulty category (e.g. Please translate the sentence, It has been

attempted but never completed etc.) On the other hand, if the team is on their own one yard line and want to go

for a field goal, instead of advance the ball forward, they should also be presented with a question from the most

challenging difficulty category. Extra point questions should be pulled from the easiest difficulty category pile.

http://www.quia.com/cb/219557.html

Jeopardy is a wonderful game for teaching interrogatives because all of the answers must be given in the form of a

question. Obviously the game can be played utilizing any one of a myriad of themes. The link above shows a goodexample of an on-line jeopardy game, created with the use of the jeopardy creator program, Quia. This particular

jeopardy game is centered around food vocabulary and grammar, but jeopardy is also a wonderful medium for

introducing cultural questions (e.g. According to the video we saw, this is the most effective way to get around in

Buenos Aires. Answer: What is the subway?). This on-line version can be played with two teams and an LCDprojector, but a poster board with categories written by hand is just as effective.

This information gap game is especially effective because it is based so integrally in authentic real life experiences

that are goal oriented. Groups of two students are given two different week long planners that contain their

schedules for one week (I use a weekly scheduler print-out from Microsoft Outlook). The weekly planners tell

each student what they are doing on a given day for a one week period. Each planner is complete with real life

activities (e.g. study sessions, work, class, sporting events, etc.). The students are then told that there is a play intown that they both want to go to see together, but they are both very busy. Luckily the play has showings every

day of the week both in the morning and afternoon. The student must find a day (or days) and time when they can

attend the play together.

I call this game Dance Cards from stories my mother used to tell me about high school dances. She said the week

prior to a dance she would walk around school with a dance card and young men would offer to sign her card,

signifying that they had pledged to dance with her at the event. In this game students are also required to obtain thesignatures of their classmates. This is a good game to encourage students to interact with new groups. First

students write five questions down in the target language on an index card, leaving space for a response between

each question. Depending on the level of the students these questions can be made up, translated off the board from
http://www.quia.com/cb/219557.htmlhttp://www.quia.com/cb/219557.html


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English, or you could just give the students these questions written in the target language on the board and studentscan simply copy them to their index cards. Students must then arise from their desks and ask five different people

to respond to the questions. If a student responds to the question in the affirmative, the asker has the responder sign

his/her card next to the question that was asked. Then on the card, below the original question, the asker uses the

name of the responder in a complete sentence, answering the original question. For example, if the original

question was Who plays the violin? and the asker discovers that John does. John would sign his name () next to

the question, and then under the question the asker would write, John plays the violin. Sometimes I allow

students to use themselves for one or two questions or require them to find two or three respondents for a given

question, which encourages them to use the plural verb conjugations as well.

Next, students go back to their seats and trade cards, with a neighbor. The neighbor then reads the signatures and

confirms that the signatures are not forgeries by going and asking the author of each signature the same original

question that he or she has autographed. If the signature is confirmed by the student, then the question is marked

correct, if the signature is a forgery, the question is marked incorrect. Give points for this assignment based on the

number of correct answers.

The teacher hands out four different sets of picture files containing pictures of various products (food, clothing,

etc.) to four different students (one set of picture files per student). The teacher then proclaims that the four chosen

students will be sellers. The teacher then distributes an equal amount of fake money (especially good to use aforeign currency like pesos, or euros) to each of the students who have not been designated as sellers (for examples

of foreign currency see appendix). The teacher then proclaims that the rest of the students are buyers. The sellers

arrange the pictures of products that they have been given in an aesthetically pleasing manneras much as

possible, given the circumstances. Then the teacher tells the students that the buyer who gets the best bargain, and

the seller that makes the most money will receive a prize. The students practice with interrogatives, with the

common cultural practice of bargaining, and with using pertinent vocabulary (usually the products that they are

buying). By changing the currency to something like soles, sucres, or bolivares, this game turns into a larger

number learning game. Now products cost thousand or hundreds of thousands, instead of double-digit prices.

Make sure that the sellers have plenty of change :0)

This a great game for reviewing numbers and for utilizing the language and monetary currency system in a real life

context. The teacher holds up (transparencies also work well or LCD projector images are even better) pictures of

products that are up for bid. Students have been given variable amounts of money (some have hundreds of

dollars while others have much less). The object of the game is to make the best purchase for your money.Students will bid on an item that interests them while trying to win it from their peers who are also bidding on the

item. Each time the price augments and a given student bids on the item the student who makes the bid must state

the amount of money in the target language that he is bidding for the product (great numbers practice). To make

this game more communicative give a short preview of the next three products that will come up for bid before theyare actually bid upon and allow students to converse about them in small groups (often students with little money

will want to pool their money and share the product). After all the products have been sold, students (or groups of

students) can present what they have purchased, after which the class will vote on which group or individual

received the best product for the money spent.

Note: I also like to use alternative currency systems such as colones in order allow students to practice using much

larger numbers.

This is probably my all time favorite game and is great to use with direct or indirect objects and even withdemonstrative adjectives. Bartering is still an important part of daily life for some developing countries and even

for countries that are developed but have faced economic setbacks causing scarceness of jobs and products. In this

game, each student brings one item from home that he/she is, and I cant stress this aspect enough, . In an effort to

make this game as authentic and fun as possible, students will actually barter with their classmates, trying to

improve upon the item that they have brought to class with them that day. A student with a Twinkie for example

may approach another student with a Chocodile and say, If you give me that, I will give you this using eitherdirect and indirect objects and/or demonstrative adjectives (both of which are complex constructions in Spanish and

many other languages and therefore benefit a great deal from repetitive practice as in this bartering exercise). Then

the student that has received the barter proposal will then decide if he/she wants to trade or if he/she would rather


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hold on to what they have, if the response is the latter then the two part ways and search the class for new barteringpartners. Students are encouraged to barter as much as possible, in constant search of an even better item. After the

students have had time to solidify their item of choice (e.g. obtain and hold onto the item that they most desire) the

students will present their new treasures. It is sometimes interesting to see how many times and item has changed

hands or who is the best barterer (one student went from a paper clip to a box of Uncle Bens Spanish Rice Blend).

Food items work well for trading, but Ive seen items such as rubber duckies, play dough, and bubble bath become

highly circulated and sought after.

Have students bring one wrapped present to class. Put all of the presents in the center of the room (preferably

under a tree of some sort) then choose a student to select a present and open it. The next student should open a

present or steal the present that student one already opened. Student three should do the same. Beginning with

student six, each student should steal a present from another student. Once a student has his/her present stolen he

must open a new present. Presents can only be stolen three times, after which they are frozen and belong to the

current possessor. When stealing a present from another student the thief should articulate what he/she is doing.

For example, Im taking it from you ( estoy quitando). This is a great way to practice using indirect and directobject pronouns together. Once all the presents have been opened and frozen, the teacher should talk about the

presents themselves, where they came from, etc. For example, Julio, who took those from you? (Julio, quin te

los quit?).

This game is great for working with interrogative words and interrogative sentence structure. In addition, I love

this game because it helps everyone in the class come to know everyone else, creating a safer learning environment.

The teacher either asks students to create a list of ten get to know you questions in the target language or the

teacher supplies these questions on the chalkboard or projector. Then chairs are arranged in two rows in a way that

allows each student from one row to be staring eye to eye with another student from the adjacent row. Students will

then have a fixed amount of time (I use one minute and thirty seconds as delineated by an oven timer) to get to

know the other student by asking the ten questions. In this case one student asks all the questions and the other

student gives all the answers. The student that asks the questions makes brief notes to remember the information

for each question. When the timer sounds, all the students that compose the questioning row stand up and move

one chair to their left, and by so doing they are now staring eye to eye with a new student and the process begins

anew. After a given number of rounds the rows switch and the students who originally responded to the questions

now have the opportunity to be the interviewers. After a fixed period of time, the teacher calls on a student at

random, and without reading the name of the interviewee, the student reads a description of one of his interviewees

based on the ten questions that were asked. Then the class tries to guess which member of the class the student isdescribing. Another variation is that before the student reads the description, all students stand up. If the

description that the student reads (as in, This student has a very large family) does not apply to a standing student

then he/she sits down. This process is continued until the entire class is sitting, save the student being described.

This game is similar to the Hasbro game Catch Phrase, and is an innovative way to help students practice and

develop circumlocution skills. There are many variations of this game; I include the format that works best for

large groups. The teacher divides the class into two groups and calls one representative from each team to come up

to the front of the room. The teacher hands one representative a pile of flash cards with vocabulary words written

on them, as well as their English equivalent. The student must now describe to his team the first vocabulary word

on the flash card without actually mentioning any of the words written on the card. Depending on the proficiency

level of the class the teacher may allow students to describe the target language vocabulary word in English, just as

long as they do not use the English equivalent that is also written on the flash card in their description. Highproficiency students will be able to describe the word in the target language. The teacher may choose whether to

allow facial expressions and/or hand gestures. The teacher gives each team representative one minute to describe

as many words as possible. One point is earned for every word that their team guesses correctly. The teacher keeps

a tally of the cumulative score of the team and chooses a winner after every student has had the chance to describe

for the team. Dividing the class into smaller groups when possible is best to give each student many opportunities

to describe the vocabulary words.This game is based on the popularScattergories game by Hasbro. The teacher tells students that they will have

thirty seconds to write down as many words as they possibly can in thirty seconds (the teacher can give more or

less time if desired) about a particular vocabulary theme that has been studied in class. For example food.


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students have guessed the word that has been placed on their backs, they sit back down in their chairs. Then theteacher tells the student to rise and place the word that was on their back on a different students back, and the game

starts again. This game can be played for many minutes, until the labels stickiness wears off.

This game is based on the popularApples to Apples game from Out of the Box Publishing. The teacher divides theclass into groups of ten or fewer. Each group gets two decks of cards, one adjective deck (containing cards that

have target language adjectives from the present or previous chapters written on them) and one noun deck

(containing cards that have target language nouns from the present chapter written on them). Each group has one

dealer that deals out five cards from the noun deck to each student in her group. The dealer now begins the game

by being the judge. The judge grabs one card from the adjective card deck and reads the adjective out loud to the

group members. If the adjective were the word horrible the group members would look through their hand of

five cards for the noun that best combines with the word horrible. The judge then collects all of the played noun

cards from the group members and reads through them aloud, trying to decide which, according to her, best

combines with the adjective horrible. If the judge chose the noun fish (from the food vocabulary theme

chapter), then the person who played the card with the word fish printed on it, would receive the adjective card

horrible. The first team member to collect five adjective cards wins the game. The dealer then passes the nouncards to the student to her left, who then deals out one more card to each group member so that each student always

has five noun cards in hand at all times. The judge draws another single card from the adjective pile, reads it aloud,

and another round of the game has just begun.

The judge role always belongs to the dealer. The dealer role rotates with each round. When a student is playingthe role of the dealer he does not play any of his own noun cards. If group members take too long to choose a noun

card to play, you might want to insert a rule to speed the game upthe last player to play a noun card, loses the

turn, and must remove his card before it can be considered for selection by the judge, thus removing his opportunity

to win points in that round. This game could also be easily adapted to teach comparisons.

Usually text books are divided up into units of two or more chapters. This is a great way to merge vocabulary

topics from two or more chapters in preparation for a unit test. I will consider a chapter that focuses on the home

and one that focuses on food here. The class is divided into groups of five or six. The groups sit together in a

circle. The teacher gives each student in a group a number 1-5 and states that the game will begin with number

one, then two and so on. Number one begins the game by saying one thing that she eats and one place where she

eats it, (e.g. I eat a banana in the kitchen). Then, student two will say, I eat eggs in the dinning room and then the

third student will say, I eat fish on the patio etc. When one student repeats a place or a food that has already been

said, that student is out of the game. The teacher has an egg timer set as well, and whoever is talking in all the

groups when the timer goes off is also eliminated. Once there is only one member of each group remaining, these

members sit in a circle in the middle of the room and have a play off to find the ultimate champion.With a little imagination this game can be adapted to a number of different vocabulary themes.

Finally, a way to use the classic elementary school game in the language learning classroom! Simply follow

Heads Up Seven Up rules. If you are not familiar with these rules, I explain here. Choose seven people from theclass and have them come to the front of the room. Tell the rest of the class to stick out their thumbs and put their

heads down on their desks and close their eyes. Then, the seven selected students will walk throughout the room

stopping only to push down the outstretched thumb of a classmate. Each selected student should touch just one

other students thumb. When all sevens students have touched a thumb, the teacher will cry out, Heads up seven

up and students will open their eyes and raise their heads. The seven students whose thumbs were touched will

stand and try to guess which of the seven students standing at the front of the room touched their thumb. Here is

the relevant part; instead of simply stating the name of the person that the student suspects, the student will describe

what the suspect is wearing in the target language. This is a great way to make using clothes vocabulary relevant inthe classroom.

This is a great way to see your students using the words from your vocabulary list. As the name suggests, this

works best if you have a document camera. First, make a pile of flashcards from your vocabulary list on 3X5

note cards. The vocabulary item written in the target language is all that should show on the front side of the card.

Then divide the class into two large teams. Each team should be composed of an equal number of players. If teamone has ten players then team two should have ten players as well. Then give each member of each team a number,

(in this case one through ten) so that each team has one number one one number two one number three and

so on. Next, start a timer that counts down from a minute or thirty seconds or some other desired time. Plop a


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flashcard down on the document cam; choose a team to go first; start with number one on that team and havehim/her use the word on the flashcard in a sentence that clarifies the words meaning. For example, for the word

maletero a student might say, Una persona que trabaja en el aeropuerto que lleva el equipaje y las maletas de los

pasajeros. Once student number one from team one has finished giving his/her sentence, plop down another

flashcard. Now student number one from team two must do the same thing. Continue rotating from student to

student and team to team in this manner until the timer expires. If the timer expires while student number six from

team two, for example, is mid-sentence, then team one receives the point for the round. This is a great way to get

even reticent students involved and talking.

This game works best toward the end of a semester or academic year when you want to review all of the vocabulary

that youve seen throughout the duration of the class. Create a large pile of flashcards with all of the vocabulary

items written in the target language. Have students form groups of two and give them a stack of ten or more

flashcards. Instruct the class that one student will be the describer and the other student will be the guesser. Now

create some kind of bracket system (see appendix for example) on the whiteboard and fill it in, pitting one group of

two against another group of two, until all of the available brackets are filled in. (One team may get a by into thesecond round depending whether you have an even or odd number of groups of two in the classroom). I like to use

sports brackets. NFL Playoff Tournament brackets are usually the best for classes of 25-30 students. Now, instruct

the describing students that they are allowed to use any word in the target language other than the word printed on

the flashcard to describe the vocabulary word printed on the flashcard. Instruct the guessers that they should try toguess, from the describers descriptions, what word is printed on the flashcard. Once a guesser guesses the word

correctly, the describer will put the card aside and go on to a new word and begin describing once again. The

teacher will start a timer that counts down from thirty or forty five seconds and the students will all begin

describing and guessing words. Once the timer has expired students will stop, count the number of words guessed

correctly and report back to the teacher. The teacher will record totals on the whiteboard and advance winning

groups to the next rounds of action until a championship group has been determined. Every round the teacher

should collect, shuffle and redistribute flashcards so that each round every group is faced with new words to

describe/guess. This can be a fun way to review vocabulary quickly. Creating a tournament and tournament

brackets sparks a great deal of healthy competition.

In this game the class sits in a circle in chairs or desks. The teacher removes any desks that may be empty do to

absences or excess chairs from the circle. The teacher then approaches a single student and asks her, Do you like

your neighbors? If she answers, No, I do not like my neighbors, the people to her right and left must stand up

and switch chairs. As they do this the teacher who asked the original question must try to steal one of the

neighbors chairs. If the teacher is successful, the person who is left standing without a chair must ask the nextquestion. He then approaches another student and asks, Do you like your neighbors? If this student answers

No, I do not like my neighbors, then the previous process repeats itself. If the student answers, Yes, I do like my

neighbors, then he must add another qualifying statement such as, but I do not like people that wear skirts.

Now, you guessed it, everyone in the circle that is wearing skirts must get up and exchange seats with someone elsewhile the person who asks the question races to steal one of their seats. The person who remains standing in the

middle of the circle, unable to find a seat chooses another individual and asks the questions again, continuing the

game. This game is wonderful for reviewing transitive indirect verbs like gustar in Spanish that seem to be so

problematic for English speakers. This game is also a good way to review clothing vocabulary.

This is a great game for teachers of languages that employ both past subjunctive and conditional tenses in if/then

statements such as Spanish. Students each write, on a small piece of paper or index card, an if/then statement. For

example, If I were Scottish, then I would wear a kilt or If I had more self confidence then I would stand up tomy boss. Then the teacher collects all of the papers and re-distributes them so that each student has an if/then

statement that is not his/her own. The students form a circle and the teacher indicates that a student should begin

by reading only the If part of his If/Then statement, after which the student to his right in the circle will start by

reading her then statement. The results are strange and humorous combinations such as If I had more self

confidence then I would wear a kilt, or If I were Scottish then I would stand up to my boss. The child who

started by reading her then statement would then continue the game by now reading her if statement, and thestudent to her right would then read his then statement. Note: In order for this game to work the teacher must

supply the person. For example the whole class must write in either first, second, or third person (singular or


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plural) all at the same time. If the teacher wishes the class to switch to second or third person (singular or plural)the whole class must make this switch together.

The teacher starts by saying A in the target language, thereafter the students are required, as a class, to continue

saying the A,B,Cs, (one letter can be said per student in large classes, two letters per student in large classes). The

difficulty of the game is that the students are situated in rows and are not allowed to look around at one another.

They must maintain a fixed gaze on the front of the room. Then they must spontaneously continue with the rest of

the alphabet, however if two students begin to say the same letter at the same time, H for example, the whole

class must start over again, with the teacher re-initializing the game by saying A. Students try to get to the end of

the alphabet, or to count to the number thirty or even to run through all of the conjugations of an irregular verb in

the past tense.

This game is an adaptation from the popular cornering the market game,PIT, by Parker Brothers, and one of fewactivities that focus on building syntax skills. The teacher divides the class into groups of five. The teacher then

gives each group a different deck of cards that he has created. The composition of the deck of cards is vital in thisgame. The teacher creates different decks of cards with one word in the target language printed on each card that

composes the deck. When the teacher creates each deck of cards he has at least one target sentence in mind, I play

cards at night for example. In this case the teacher must create a deck composed of 25 cards, (five cards that have

the word I written on them, five cards with the word play on them, five with cards on them and so on).[Note: Here the teacher can vary the game slightly by adding more or less players to a group. A group of 4 would

necessitate a deck of 16 cards, utilizing a target sentence four words long (e.g. Do you use soap?). In this case

the deck would have four cards with the word Do written on them, four with you written on them and so on. A

similar process would be followed for a sentence six words long or one of greater length.] Once each group

receives a deck of cards, the cards must be thoroughly shuffled and each student receives a hand of five cards.

Using the first target sentence example, students may receive hands with the words, I, I, night, at, and at.

When trading is opened by the teacher, the goal of the game is to form a sentence using all of the words that they

have been dealt. Obviously this students hand does not form a sentence. When trading has been opened by the

teacher, each student can call out one, one, one to the partners in her group, signifying that she would like to trade

one card for another group members one card. If she would have said, two, two, two, the student would be

trying to trade two cards at a time, which would be a good move in this case since this student has two repeated

words, I and at. Once a student has formed a complete five word sentence in this case, he or she will knock

three times on his desk, signifying that trading has concluded. He shows his sentence and the group decides if his

sentence is correct or if trading should continue. If the students sentence is correct, he has won the game. Theteacher then might want to have a playoff with all the groups winners in the middle of the room, or simply rotate

the different decks of cards from one group to another, so that each group has a turn using all of the different decks

of cards (and thus, form all of the different target sentences). This is a great game to work with subjunctive as well,

contrasting sentences that employ subjunctive conjugations with those that employ indicative.In this game, the teacher divides the class into groups of five or six. The teacher may give one initial situation to

each group written on a piece of paper or start the whole class out with a situation to build upon. For example the

teacher may say, A pushy grandmotherly woman cut in front of me in line at the bank the other day. I was going

to say something but then I saw her approach the teller and pull out a gun. Then I heard the old lady say . . . At

this point the teacher passes the situation off to the students, and in their groups they build upon the situation. Each

student adds one sentence to the story (passing one single paper around if the story is written, or just taking turns

talking if the story is spokenin this case it is really fun to pass a tape recorder from person to person as the storys

author changes). At the end, the groups read or replay their stories for the whole class to hear. Often this gameworks best with more advanced learners, but it can be utilized with beginners if a time limit (e.g. 30 seconds per

new author) is enforced.

The key to this game is structure and creativity. The teacher must give an initial structured scenario that is

interesting and creative for the students to build upon. Students must be creative too, in order to make the stories

worth while. Without these two key components all too often stories slip into clichs: e.g. A guy was walking

down the street when he saw a dog . . . well you get the idea. I like to give a grammatical structure as well (e.g.students may only use the gerund or AR verbs etc.).

This is a simple game that can be done any time as a quick activity. Students write three statements about

themselves on a piece of paper in the target language. Two of the statements need to be falsehoods and one


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statement must be true. After the statements have been written, the students stand and share their statements withthe class. The class guesses which statement is true and which statements are false.

This is a great way to teach superlatives and good way to get to know students at the onset of a semester. Give your

students a short survey about their favorite movies, foods, restaurants, books, etc. Make it mandatory or part of an

assignment to assure that students participate. After tallying the totals for each category, write down questions in

the target language such as, According to our class, which movie that has been produced in the last five years is

the best movie? According to our class, which movie is the worst? Have a large number of these questions

prepared with the breakdown of answers according to the Family Feud style point system (e.g. if the majority of the

class thinksEnchantedis the best movie [15 out of the 25 students in the class] assign the response, Enchanted,

five points; if only 8 of the 25 students thought thatFinding Nemo was the best movie assign the response,Finding Nemo three points; if only 3 of the 25 students thought thatPirates of the Caribbean was the best movie,assign the response, Pirates of the Caribbean 1 point, in this way teams receive more points if they come up with

the class most popular answers just as in Family Feud). The teacher divides the class into two teams and asks one

team the questions he has prepared. If the team guesses the most popular answer (according to the student surveygiven at the beginning of the semester) the team wins five points, if the team gives the second most popular answer

it receives just three points and so on, with the least popular answer receiving one point. If the team gives an

answer that was so unpopular as judged by the beginning of the semester survey such that only one or no members

of the class chose that answer on the survey, then the team receives one strike against it. Once a team has receivedthree strikes against it, the teacher will then allow the opposite team to begin guessing the answers to the

superlative questions. These superlative statements afford the teacher a great opportunity to teach the use of

superlatives. In addition, as a recap the teacher could use the beginning of the semester survey to teach

comparisons, as in, Okay class, if you remember, according to your survey answersNemo is better or worse than

Pirates?

This game takes a lot of preparatory work (e.g. creation and tallying of the survey) but the information contained

therein could be used for many different activities.

This game helps you get to know one another and allows your students to utilize the present perfect tense in a

meaningful context. Each student receives three poker chips, sugar packets, Lifesavers or anything that you have

handy. One student begins by telling his three group mates, I have never ridden a bicycle. If any of the other

members of the group have ridden a bicycle then they give the student one of their poker chips. The goal is to

come up with as many things as you can that you have not done but that you believe that your other group members

have. Riding a bike is a great offering since most people can do it, but some cannot. After the class has beenplaying for a few minutes go around the room and find the members of each group who have accumulated the most

poker chips. Then pull those players to the center of the room and have another tournament with these group

representatives while the whole class looks on and cheers on their group member. Lots of fun and a great way to

practice present perfect constructs.

You and your friend have been wanting to see a play thats been in town for the last few weeks but your

schedules havent permitted it. You are both very busy and never seem to be free at the same time. This

is the last week that the play will be in town, and you have just called your friend to once again try to

arrange a time to go to the play together. The play runs for two hours and has two showings per dayMonday through Friday of this week. The matinee showing begins at 11:00 am and the evening showing

starts at 7:00 pm. Find a time when you can meet your partner at the play.

My weekly schedule:Doctors

appointment:

10:30-11:30SPA 102: 5:00-

7:30

Work: 2:00-6:30 PHI 101: 8:00-9:30

Work: 10:00-4:00

SPA 102: 5:00-7:30

Work: 9:00-3:30

EDU: 4:00-6:30


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You and your friend have been wanting to see a play thats been in town for the last few weeks but your

schedules havent permitted it. You are both very busy and never seem to be free at the same time. This

is the last week that the play will be in town, and you have just called your friend to once again try toarrange a time to go to the play together. The play runs for two hours and has two showings per day

Monday through Friday of this week. The matinee showing begins at 11:00 am and the evening showingstarts at 7:00 pm. Find a time when you can meet your partner at the play.

My weekly schedule:Pick up Linda:

12:15

FRE 452: 1:00-

3:30

ANT 11:00-12:30

Work: 3:00-8:00

BIO 151: 8:30-

10:00

Work: 10:00-4:00

GEO: 8:00-10:30

ANT 11:00-12:30

River Trip: Garys

Family, All Day


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Documents

Fun and Effective Language Learning Activities Packet_30 Activities