Reading Skill outside the classroom ( July 6 2013 week 5)

Game Vocabulary Practice

34 A P R I L 2 0 0 2 E N G L I S H T E A C H I N G F O R U M

Shalva Shaptoshvili

G E O R G I A

GAMES ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF A TEACHER’S REPERTOIRE. ALTHOUGH THEY ARE  recreational activities by nature whose main purpose is enjoyment, in the language learning process their purpose is to reinforce what has already been taught.In the course of a game, learners are engaged in an enjoyable and challenging  activity with a clear goal. Often, students are so involved in playing the games  that they do not realize they are practising language.In addition to spelling and grammar, games can provide practise in another key language area: vocabulary. Such games facilitate initial practice and periodic revision of vocabulary in an enjoyable context, thus making classroom vocabulary study an amusing and satisfying experience for teacher and student alike. Some

games are played with the whole class, often with the students divided into two teams, while others can be played in pairs or small groups. Now let us look at what games the teacher may exploit while working with words.

1. Memory game begins with one student

saying a sentence and the next student in turn  adds another word or phrase to the sentence, repeating what has gone before in the same

order, for example,

• Student 1: I went shopping.

• Student 2: I went shopping and

bought a jacket.

• Student 3: I went shopping and

bought a jacket and a cap.

and so on. Anyone who cannot add to the listor makes a mistake in ordering the words must drop out of the game. The last player remaining  is the winner. This game may be exploited while working with words related to any topic.

 2. Word association requires students to name all the words they know associated with  any lexical category. One student says a word

from the category, then the next student must immediately say another word from the category.The next student continues with another

word and so on around the class. For the category classroom, for example, the game might begin this way:

• Student 1: chalk

• Student 2: book bag

• Student 3: tape recorder

• Student 4: ruler

Anyone who can’t think of a word immediately has to drop out of the game.

3. Miming can be used as a guessing game.  This wordless activity leads the learners to talk quite naturally. Someone mimes an action and the others try to guess what it is. This kind of guessing game can provide further practice of a wider variety of lexical and grammatical

units, such as those related to occupations. One student chooses a job and mimes a typical activity that it involves. The others try to guess the job by asking either about the activity or the job, for example, Do you work outside (in an office)?, Do you wear a uniform (use a tool)?. The student miming provides only nonverbal clues to help the rest of the class guess what the job is.

4. Guess the tool provides a good opportunity to develop students’ skills in defining words and paraphrasing. For this game the teacher

puts the students in pairs, facing each other, and gives a card with two words written on it to each student and asks them not to show each other their cards. The two words written on the cards are a tool and a related occupation, for example, saw and carpenter, chalkboard and

teacher. One at a time, each student describes the tool without saying its name. The other student has to guess the tool and name an occupation that uses the tool, for example,

• Student 1: It is used for painting walls

and doors.

• Student 2: It is a paintbrush. A decorator

uses a paintbrush.

 5. Human sounds can be used after students have learned the vocabulary of some of the sounds that humans make, for example, cheer, cough, cry, hum, scream, shout, sing, whisper, whistle, and mumble, and have grouped them according to the following categories: happiness, pain, sadness, disapproval, annoyance, fear, and excitement. The teacher gives the class situations in which people make noises and asks students to make the sound corresponding

to each situation as well as say what it is, for example:

• Teacher: you are in a choir

Student: sings and says I am singing

• Teacher: you don’t want the others to

hear what you are telling someone

Student: whispers something and says

I am whispering

• Teacher: you are in great pain

Student: screams and says I am screaming

At the end of the game, the teacher may get

students to suggest new sentences and contexts

in which to use these verbs.

6. Suggestion chain involves reviewing bothleisure activities vocabulary and ways to makesuggestions. For this game students first make an individual list of leisure activities. Then using their lists, one student begins by suggesting something to do in the evening or next

weekend, for example, Let’s go to the concert. The next student has to disagree and, using another way of making a suggestion, suggest a

different activity, for example:

• Student 1: Let’s go to the concert!

Student 2: No, not the concert.

What about going to the cinema?

• Student 3: We could go to the

football match.

Student 4: No, not football. Why

don’t we visit Alec?

        Students continue the game until they haveused all of their leisure activities. Another way to end this game and have a winner is to eliminate anyone who can’t think of anything to do, repeats a leisure activity that was suggested before, does not use another way of making a suggestion, or uses the wrong verb form  in the suggestion.

7. Notices and warnings practises the phrases and short sentences people come across in an English-speaking environment. For this game the teacher needs to prepare two sets of cards. The cards in the first set (notices) contain phrases and sentences of different kinds that

give information or warnings. The cards in the second set (settings) contain the names of places where people would see or hear each

notice. The teacher divides the class into two teams, distributing the notice cards among the students of one team and the setting cards

among the students of the other team. One member of the notices team begins by reading aloud the notice on his or her card. The members of the other team quickly decide which settings from those on their cards is where the notice would be made. For example:

• Student from team 1: sorry, tickets are sold out

  Student from team 2: outside a cinema

• Student from team 1: queue for currency exchange

  Student from team 2: inside a bank

  The order can be reversed, for example:

• Student from team two: beware

of pickpockets

 Student from team one: on a crowded  bus or subway

Afterwards, the teacher assigns students to think of some other possible notices and warnings that they would find in one of these

places: a hospital, an airport, a library, a school, a hotel, or a park.

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 8. Exaggerate gives students the opportunity to practise strong adjectives, such as enormous, delicious, fascinating, horrible, marvelous, astonished, furious, and terrified, along with intensifying adverbs, such as extremely, quite, rather, really, and absolutely by answering questions. Beforehand the teacher must prepare cards, each with a question, which may be tag (He is funny, isn’t he?), negative (Wasn’t she surprised when she heard the news?), or yes/no (Did you have a bad day?). The game beginswith the cards face down on the table. The teacher calls on someone to pick a card and read out the question. Then that person calls out the name of another student, who has to answer the question using an appropriate strong adjective, for example,

• Student 1: They serve nice dishes in that restaurant, don’t they? Bob!

• Student 2 (Bob): Nice? The food is absolutely delicious there!

The second student now picks a different card, reads out the question, and names another student to answer it, and the game continues. Any student who does not use a strong adjective and/or intensifying adverb while answering is eliminated. It is best to play this game after the students have matched common, weak adjectives with their stronger synonyms.

9. Expand the sentence should be played after students have learned about ordering a series of adjectives in English, because this game provides practise in placing adjectives in the correct order. The teacher starts by giving a short sentence. Students, in turn, have to expand the sentence with an adjective by putting it in the right place and then saying the sentence aloud. A player who cannot think of an

appropriate adjective or puts it in an unacceptable position must drop out. For example:

• Teacher: She bought a jacket.

• Student 1: She bought a black jacket.

• Student 2: She bought a long-sleeved black jacket.

• Student 3: She bought a long-sleeved black wool jacket.

The game continues until the sentence would sound unusual in natural speech. The teacher can then start a new sentence with the students

remaining in the game.

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Conclusion

The games included here are by no means an exhaustive selection. I have only tried to present some nuggets from my teaching for others to try out in their classes. These games are intended to be integrated into the general language syllabus of any course book and can be an important and enjoyable way of practicing vocabulary for learners. If the examples I’ve provided do not allow teachers to exploit particular game in other teaching situations, they may need to adapt it to the  proficiency level of their classes by changing the target lexis. A teacher may also modify any game to suit different teaching environments. I hope these suggestions will act as a catalyst to trigger further ideas for teachers to create games of their own.

SHALVA SHAPTOSHVILI has been teaching EFL in Gori, Republic of Georgia for 33 years. His favorite tea is an Ahmad blend, from Sri

Lanka, with milk and sugar. KNOW-HOW MOTIVATION  AUTONOMY SELF-ESTEEM

I can achieve my learning goals. Being a successful learner increases my enthusiasm. I know how to be a successful learner. I always look for better ways to learn. Knowing how to learn increases my enthusiasm. To be a good learner, I need to learn on my own. I can learn on my own outside the classroom. I know better ways to learn outside the classroom. As a good learner, I can learn what I need to learn. Learning must happen inside and outside the classroom. Being independent increases my enthusiasm. Being able to learn on my own makes me a successful learner.

MacIntyre, P. D. and R. C. Gardner. 1994. The

subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive

processing in the second language. Language

Learning, 44, 2, pp. 283–305.

Moskowitz, G. 1978. Caring and sharing in the

foreign language classroom. Rowley, MA: Newbury

House.

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Nunan, D. 1989. Understanding language classrooms.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Prodromou, L. 1994. The good language teacher.

In Teacher development: Making the right moves,

Selected articles from the English Teaching

Forum 1989-1993, ed. T. Kral. Washington, DC: U.S. Information Agency.

Stevick, E. W. 1980 Teaching languages: A way and

ways. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Turula, A. 2002. Language anxiety and classroom

dynamics: The teacher, peer students and the classroom

as inhibiting factors: A study of the adult

beginner. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Katowice, Poland: University of Silesia.

Wenden, A and J. Rubin. 1987. Learner strategies

in language learning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

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ANNA TURULA has taught EFL for 13 years

and is a PhD candidate at the University of

Silesia in Poland. Her favourite tea is Lady

Grey, strong with sugar and no milk.

 Language Anxiety & Classroom Dynamics…

continued from page 33.
 

vocabulary	Pronunciation	Meaning
1.     Excitement  (n)	/ɪkˈsʌɪtmənt/	-ความตื่นเต้น, ทำให้ตื่นเต้น, -a feeling of great enthusiasm and eagerness: -EX: her cheeks were flushed with excitement
2.     Enjoyable (adj )	/ɪnˈdʒɔɪəb(ə)l, ɛn-/	-ที่พอใจ ออกรส, สนุก, สำราญใจ, เพลิดเพลิน - (of an activity or occasion) giving delight or pleasure: -EX: they had an enjoyable afternoon
3.     challenging (adj )	/ˈtʃalɪn(d)ʒɪŋ/	-ที่ท้าทายความสามารถ -testing one’sabilities;demanding: EX: challenging and rewarding employment
4.       satisfying(adj )	/ˈsatɪsfʌɪɪŋ/	-ความพอใจ, ดีถึงขนาดที่ต้องการ -giving fulfilment or the pleasure associated with this: EX: these are very satisfying books
5.     periodic(adj )	/ˌpɪərɪˈɒdɪk/	-บางครั้งบางคราว ซี่งเป็นช่วงๆ -appearing or occurring at intervals: EX :the periodic visits she made to her father
6.     revision   (n)	/rɪˈvɪʒ(ə)n/	-แก้ไขใหม่, ปรับปรุงใหม่, พิจารณาแก้ไขใหม่ -the action of revising: EX :the scheme needs drastic revision
7.     exploited ( v)	/ɪkˈsplɔɪt, ɛk-/	-ความสำเร็จ -make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource): EX :500 companies sprang up to exploit this new technology
8.     associated (adj)	/əˈsəʊʃieɪtɪd/	- (บรรณาธิการ) ร่วม, (ผู้พิพากษา) -(of a person or thing) connected with something else: EX:two associated events
9.     recreational(adj)	/rɛkriˈeɪʃənl/	-เกี่ยวการสันทนาการ -relating to or denoting activity done for enjoyment when one is not working: EX:money to provide recreational facilities
10. opportunity(n)	/ɒpəˈtjuːnɪti/	-กาละ, ช่อง, เหมาะกาละ, เหมาะโอกาส, โอกาส -a time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something: EX:increased opportunities for export
11.reinforce(v)	/riːɪnˈfɔːs/	-กำลังเพิ่มเติม, ส่งทหารไปเพิ่มกำลัง -strengthen or support (an object or substance), especially with additional material: EX:the helmet has been reinforced with a double layer of cork
12.  nuggets   (n)	/ˈnʌgɪt/	-ก้อนทองคำที่ขุดได้จากดิน -a small chunk or lump of another substance: EX:nuggets of meat