Chapter

IN THIS CHAPTER
PART PART PART PART PART 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 DASH IT! TELL ME MORE VOCABULARY MAP SORT FAMOUS SPORTSPERSON THE DE-VOWELLING GAME

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Activity type : Aims : Vocabulary This activity can be used to check the meaning and pronunciation of vocabulary from previous lessons or to pre-teach vocabulary needed for a reading or listening activity. It can also be used to check pronunciation of the letters of the English alphabet. Teams of 4, 5 or 6 students. Whiteboard and pens/blackboard and chalk 20 minutes (for about 8-10 words)

Grouping Materials Timing

: : :

Assumed Language

Students should be familiar with the pronunciation of the English alphabet. Students should have already worked on the target vocabulary in a previous lesson. The lesson should not be too recent; this would make the game too easy which would be de-motivating (see Introduction for the importance of planning activities at the right level of challenge for your students.) If necessary pre-teach or elicit the following: guess, word, letter and It's your turn.

Procedure

Organize your students into teams of around 5. Students can choose their own team names. Write the team names on the board to help scoring the game later. Write your gapped words on the board. Your whiteboard might look like this:

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Team Names 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sport (soccer) (basketball) (referee) (racquet) (skiing) (windsurfing) (tournament) (court) (badminton) (athletics) Answer (Dont write!)

Ask the 1st team to suggest any letter of the alphabet. Check the gapped words and f ill in every time the letter occurs. For example the team suggests 0. 1 -0 - - - 7 -0 - - - - - - - 8 -0 - - 9 - - - - - - -0Students are given one point for every time the letter occurs, in this case 4 points. If students have correctly guessed a letter they may then guess one whole word. If they guess a word correctly, they get points according to the number of letters in the word (i.e. soccer 6 points.) If they guess incorrectly they get minus 6 points. Teams don't have to make a guess. They can pass and then the game moves on to the next team. Move to the next team. Students suggest another letter. Repeat the same procedure. Teams may only make a guess when it's their turn. Teams may only guess one word then the turn goes to the next team.

Is it Soccer?

Dash It!

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The game continues until all the words are f illed in. The winning team is the one with the most points.

Suggested Instructions

1. Work in teams with 5 students. Give your team a name. Students group themselves in teams, choose a name and write the team names on the board. Write up the gapped words. 2. Look at the whiteboard. Point at the whiteboard. How many words are there? What is the topic? 3. Team 'A', guess one letter. If the letter is correct Good that's correct you get__points. Fill in the suggested letter everytime it occurs. Now you can guess one word. If the word is correct Good that's correct you get_ more points. Fill in the correct word. If the word is incorrect Sorry you get minus_ points. Now team B it's your turn. 4. If the letter is incorrect Sorry that's wrong. Now Team C it's your turn. 5. Repeat this procedure working around the groups until all the words are correctly guessed. The winning team is team.... Well done! Vocabulary Extension. You could ask your students about which of the sports uses a referee, which of the sports need a net etc.

Possible Follow up Activities

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Pronunciation. Ask your students to mark in the word stress. For example: referee athletics Study Skills. Encourage your students to record any useful new vocabulary in a memorable way. (see Vocabulary Map Sort in this unit) Speaking. You could ask your students to work in pairs or small groups and brainstorm other sports. This could lead into a discussion about which of the activities is: the most dangerous the most expensive the most difficult the most fashionable the most exciting the most tiring the most popular

motor-racing, hang-glidling and skiing Is it' the most expensive'?

When groups have finished their discussion don't forget to give some feedback. (See introduction for some ideas on giving feedback.) Grammar. The above activity is an excellent lead in to work on comparative and superlative adjectives. Speaking. Ask your students to work in pairs. Students each think of 3 sports which could fit into one of the above categories (see table above).They read out the 3 sports and their partner guesses which category. For example: : : motor-racing, hang-glidling and skiing Is it' the most expensive'? : No, it isn't. : Is it 'the most dangerous'? : Yes, it is! Your turn.

Dash It!

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Variations This activity can also be used: to practise vocabulary on any given topic. with vocabulary taken from a text in your course book, which you wish to use in this or a future class. Students could predict the theme of the lesson from the words in the game. with vocabulary f rom one story (see example below with some possible words underlined). Your students could then try to predict orally the events of the story. You could remind your students that their predictions will not be correct or incorrect.

A man and his wife visited a small village on holiday one summer. They walked around for a couple of hours but got tired so decided to catch a bus to the next village. They found a bus stop and stood beside it. after waiting for nearly 2 hours, there was still no bus and they started to get worried. Just when they were about to walk away a man came, picked up the old bus stop and carried it into the antique shop behind them.

with various parts of speech (verbs, adjectives, adverbs etc.) with a sentence rather than a list of words. The number of words is not limited. You could for example, choose a sentence using a structure /tense you wish to study. with I or 2 words already filled in (not the first letter!), especially if you think the vocabulary may be too challenging for your students. without a topic heading or title. Any team who guesses the theme of the vocabulary at any stage in the game could be awarded bonus point. with extra points awarded for correct pronunciation of the words

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Activity type : Aims : Grouping Materials Timing : : : Listening/writing To practise listening for detailed information and writing short sentences to describe something or someone. Groups of 4 or 5 students. Paper and pen or pencil for each group. 67 minutes to play the example game. 1015 minutes for preparation. 67 minutes to play each group's description.

Assumed Language

Students should be familiar with the vocabulary of the topics in the example (i.e. sport) and their own chosen topics. The teacher could give students a list of possible topics to choose from to ensure students have sufficient vocabulary to complete the task successfully. Students should be familiar with the use and form of the present simple to describe facts. Students should be aware of the use of 'you' to mean 'people in general'. Students should be familiar with game instruction vocabulary such as 'guess', 'get into teams', 'it's your turn', 'pass' etc. If not pre-teach or elicit the necessary vocabulary. Before the lesson make a description of a sport in 8 separate sentences. The 8th sentence is the answer. Make sure that your sentences are graded i.e. the 1st gives the subject and the 7th is the most specific. For example:
It's a sport. You play it outside. You play with a ball. You play in teams. There are 2 goals. You get one point for a goal. You play with a stick. It's hockey.

Procedure

Tell Me More

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Arrange the students into groups of 4 or 5. Write their team names on the board. Read your first sentence at normal speed. You could repeat the sentence if necessary, as long as the students ask in English! (Pre-teach 'Can you say that again please?'). Each team can have one guess at the name of the unknown sport. Write the guesses under the teams' names. Now read out the 2nd sentence. All the teams whose 1st guess is also true for the 2nd sentence get one point. For example: If team A guessed 'soccer' after hearing the 1st sentence they will get 1 point, as soccer is a sport and is an outdoor sport. If team B guessed 'gymnastics' they won't get a point as it is a sport but isn't an outdoor sport. Write the scores on the whiteboard. Erase all incorrect guesses from the whiteboard. Teams who make incorrect guesses are not eliminated from the game. The students now guess again, taking into account the information in the 2nd sentence. You may need to repeat the 2nd sentence. Students may choose the same sport again or a completely different one. Read out the 3rd sentence. All the teams whose 2nd guess is also true for the 3rd sentence get one point. For example: If team C guessed 'tennis' after hearing the 2nd sentence they will get one point as tennis is an outdoor sport and is played with a ball. If team D guessed 'horse riding' they won't get a point as it is an outdoor sport but isn't played with a ball. Repeat the same procedure asbeforewriting up the scores and erasing incorrect answers. The game continues in this way until the final guess. Teams who successfully guess the name of the sport (sentence 8) get 3 points.

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The winning team is the team with the highest score. Students now make their own version of the game, perhaps choosing from a list of topics on the whiteboard (see 'variations' below). You will need to work through an example with your students to ensure they understand the importance of grading their answers from most general to most specific. You may choose to ask students to write fewer sentences. Go back through the sports sentences one by one. Get students to shout out possible answers for each sentence. They will see that there are many more possible correct answers for sentence 1 or 2 than for sentence 6 or 7. After students have written their sentences in groups, they can then read them out in the same way for other groups to guess.

Suggested Instructions

1. Work in teams with 3 or 4 other students. Give your team a name. Students group themselves in teams and choose a name. Write the team names on the board. 2. I'm going to read 8 sentences. After each sentence, guess which sport I'm talking about. Here's the 1st sentence. 3. Read the 1st sentence. Team A what's your answer? Write up the guess under the team name. Now Team B? and so on. 4. Now here's the second sentence. Award points to the teams whose 1st guess is also correct for the second sentence. Team A you get 1 point. Team B, sorry no points. 5. Continue around the groups. Now guess again. You can keep the same answer if you like. Team A what's your answer? Write up the guess under the team name. Now Team B? and so on. 6. Continue the game in this way until the end of the game. The winning team is Team_. Well done!

Tell Me More

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Possible Follow up Activities
Writing. Ask your students to write a paragraph about their chosen topics. They could work on the sentences they wrote for the game and try to use simple connectives to join them. You could give an example on the board. Students could make their paragraphs into a gapped text for another group to fill in. They could for example erase every 5th word. Students can easily check each others' answers. For example:

This is an outdoor which you play with ball. You play in teams. is a referee. There 2 goals and you one point for a .You play with a . The sport is hockey.

Variations

This activity could be used with some of the following topics: animals jobs countries a person in your class a teacher in your school a famous person You can decrease the number of sentences to make the activity shorter and easier, though a minimum of 5 sentences is recommended. Play the game in reverse. Give your students the final sentence (i.e. the answer) and ask them to guess the sentences used to describe it.

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Activity type : Aims : Study skills (organizing vocabulary) To check students' understanding of vocabulary in the context of word groups. To expose students to different ways of storing and remembering new vocabulary and to encourage students to become independent language learners. Pairs or small groups. Whiteboard and pens/blackboard and chalk. Pens and paper for students. 8-12 minutes

Grouping Materials Timing

: : :

Assumed language

Students should have at least a passive knowledge of most of the vocabulary in the game.

Procedure

Lead in: Ask your students to work in groups to talk about different ways of recording and learning new vocabulary. In this lead in you should focus on production of ideas. You could get your students to discuss this in Indonesian. Give your own example first. Bring together students' ideas (see Introduction for ideas on feedback sessions.) If the vocabulary map is not mentioned by the students, you could give a simple example of a vocabulary map (see below) on the board to illustrate one technique for recording vocabulary.

Vocabulary Map Sort

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An example of a simple vocabulary map

Bikini

Pool

Table

Bat

Home Run

Diamond

Stick

Ice

Swimming Non Team Sports

Table Tennis

Base-ball

Ice Hockey

Team Sports

Golf

Skiing

Basketball

Football

Sand Trap

Hole

Snow

Jump

Dunk

Hoop

Offside

Striker

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Explain you are going to play a game where students will practise organizing words in a word map. Draw up on the board 2 vocabulary maps which you have already prepared (see examples below). All the words, including the subject headings should be mixed up. You can either fill in the words mixed up on a map or write them separately under an empty map.

The example of the vocabulary map sort

Home

Jump

Bat

Football

Offside

Stick

Baseball

Swimming

Dunk

Table Non Team Sports

Striker

Team Sports

Pool

Sand Trap

Ice Hokey

Hoop

Ice

Table Tennis

Bikini

Skiing

Basketball

Snow

Golf

Diamond

Students work in pairs in a race to re-order the vocabulary correctly in the appropriate vocabulary map. When the first pair finishes, check their answers. After this the winning pair can be responsible for checking other students work (see Introduction for more ideas on checking.)

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Possible Follow up Activities
Set your students a project or homework to write a word map on a given or chosen topic, either individually or in groups. You could offer a small prize as an incentive for the most original. Displaying the finished work is also very motivating for your students. Ask you students to discuss which of the techniques discussed in the lead in would be most suitable for them (all students have different learning styles!) Remind students that if they reorganize their vocabulary at home, the process of doing so will help them remember the words and phrases.

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Activity type : Aims : Grouping Materials Timing : : : Writing, grammar and speaking To give students freer practice of question forms using various tenses. Whole class for the lead in and small groups for the game. Whiteboard and pens/blackboard and chalk. Pen and paper for each group. 5 minutes for the lead in. 15 minutes for the game.

Assumed Language

Students should be familiar with question forms, especially present simple. Students should be familiar with some basic sports vocabulary (for example names of sports, places and peoples involved in sport.) Students may need to talk about nationalities.

Procedure

Lead in Think of a famous sportsperson who most of your students will be familiar with. Ask a student to come out to the board. Whisper the name of the famous sportsperson to the student or write it on a piece of paper to show the student. Ask the student to draw a sketch of the person on the board (the worse the drawing, the more laughter in the next stage!) Now ask the rest of the class to guess who the person is from the sketch! Encourage them to shout out their suggestions. You may need to pre-teach language such as: I think it's

Famous Sports Person

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If the class can't guess after one minute you could gradually offer a few clues. (She's from Indonesia. She plays badminton.) Elicit some questions you might like to ask him/her with some possible answers (students use their imagination) and write the best ones up on the whiteboard. You could drill pronunciation at this stage.

Game

Now ask the students to work in small groups and to think of their favourite sportsperson. The students now ask the same or similar questions. Students take on the role of their favourite sportsperson and use their imagination to answer the questions. Don't worry if the students' grammar is wrong if your aim is to develop fluency and don't insist that students use full sentences. After giving feedback (see Introduction for tips on giving feedback) you could ask one or 2 of the groups to 'perform' their interview for the rest of the class.

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Variations
If the students enjoy the activity it can be extended to famous people in general. Students could write the questions themselves then give the name of a sportsperson to another student who tries to answer the questions. If you wish to focus on grammatical accuracy get your students to write up their interview. This could be developed into a guessing game.

Famous Sports Person

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Activity type Aims Grouping Materials Timing : : : : : Vocabulary To check students' vocabulary and spelling in specific subject areas. Pairs Whiteboard and pens/blackboard and chalk. Paper and pen for each pair. 5 minutes preparation for teacher before class. 5-6 minutes to play the example. 8-10 minutes preparation for students in class. 5-6 minutes to play students' games.

Assumed Language

Students should already familiar with the vocabulary in the teacher's example. They should have a wide enough knowledge of vocabulary in the subjects chosen by the teacher for their own examples to be effective.

Procedure

A nice way to introduce the game is to write a 'devowelled' greeting on the board without giving any explanation to the students. For example:
"Gd mrnng clss. Tdy wr plyng_gm bt mssg lttrs."

("Good morning class. Today we're playing a game about missing letters.")

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Get the class to tell you what the message on the board says and what kind of letters are missing. List the vowels (a,e,i,o,u ) on the board and be sure the students are clear what they are and how to say them. Arrange students into teams and choose team names. Write the team names on the board. (Students could give you the 'de-vowelled' spelling for extra practice!) Present your example without giving the subject. Example board layout: Team Names 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Subject:??? bsktbll rcqt rfr jd stdm thttcs cmpttn tm (Dont write!) basketball racquet referee judo stadium athletics competition team

The 1st team to write out completely correct answers wins 15 points, the 2nd to finish gets 12, the 3rd 10, the 4th 8 and the 5th 5 points.

Possible Follow up Activities

Students create their own 8 word 'de-vowelled' games for other groups to solve as a race among all the teams. Suggested topics

The De-vowelling Game

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countries food parts of the body jobs verbs adjectives fruit electrical equipment animals

Tips: Encourage your students to make the games as challenging as possible; choosing examples that begin with a vowel (e.g. athletics) helps here! Get your students to write a short 'de-vowelled' description of another student in the class. The first team to write out the complete description and correctly identify the student will get points. This technique could be used with any short text.

Variations

The same technique can be used with sentences. For example writing up a de-vowelled question for a rather 'dry' reading comprehension text can make the task more fun and motivating for students. A similar game can be played where the same letter (not necessarily a vowel in this case) is removed from a selection of words.

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