Rhythm oral circle game

Materials

Name tags (recommended)

Instructions

The pedagogical goal of this game is to get the students to practice saying certain new vocabulary words. It works best for things that are closed sets - numbers, days of the week, months - and which match the numbers of the class.

The game itself is played in a circle. The goal is to not get 'out' which happens if you mess up and fall outside of the rhythm of the game. Everyone in the group should stand and clap or chant a 'chorus' phrase to a pretty basic rhythm. The chorus phrase is best as something culturally appropriate, so in Arabic I use the phrase 'yalla' 'let's go!', but the way I learned this game originally was as an ice-breaker game used to learn names, with the very silly chorus phrase "big booty" repeated three times. 

Everyone in the playing group should be assigned a vocabulary word as their 'name' - it can help to write this on a nametag and put it on their shoulder. Each 'turn' of the game goes like this - this is an example for an English language class, with chorus phrase 'yeah!'):

Person 1 (with label "Monday"): Yeah yeah yeah, Monday Thursday

Person 2 (with label "Thursday"): Yeah yeah yeah, Thursday Saturday

Person 3 (with label "Saturday"): Yeah yeah yeah, Saturday [name of another day of the week]

Players MUST say their label first, then the name of the person who they want to go next.

If a player messes up (doesn't say their own day of the week, falls out of the rhythm, says the label of someone who is out, etc) they are 'out' and stand back from the group, though they should keep clapping and helping keep the energy high. As the number of players dwindles, you should encourage them to up the rhythm. You can also forbid them from going in a circle or from sending the game back to the person who called them.

You can play this with the whole class, but it's best in smaller groups of 5-8.

Filibuster

Someone shared this game with me right as there was a series of high profile political filibusters, but it's a good game at any time.

The idea is for the students, taking turns but judged as a class, to continuously speak as long as possible. The best incentive is to offer them a delay, or even a break from, planned activities in class which they do not enjoy.

Start by announcing that you had an activity planned, and wait for their groans. Offer them the option of filibustering: so long as they continue speaking (in turn) in the target language, you won't move on to that activity. One student will go as long as they can, and the student next to them will pick up the thread. The filibuster ends when they mess up, depending on criteria appropriate to their level. Suggested criteria for ending the game are:

1. Repetition of the same stretch of speech
2. Use of the L1
3. Hemming and hawing
4. Not making sense
5. Not using complete sentences
6. Specific mispronunciations

Flyswatter vocabulary game

The flyswatters and fast pace make this vocabulary game really fun. I originally played it in my high school Latin class, and remembered it years later.

Required Materials

2 flyswatters

Blackboard/whiteboard

List of target words and cues

Instructions

1. The teacher writes all of the target vocabulary words scattered across the board.
2. The class is divided into two teams. A representative from each team comes up to the board and each representative is given a flyswatter.
3. The teacher reads a cue, and the students might strike the corresponding vocabulary with their flyswatter. The first student to hit the correct vocabulary word wins. You can limit the number of times students are allowed to hit the board to keep them from just guessing.
• Cues can be anything as long as they allow the students to uniquely guess the word. Typically cues are the translation of the word, or even better, a sentence in the target language with a "blank" where the word would be.
4. For the student who didn't choose the correct word, or who was slower, you can ask them to give a sentence with the word, and they can receive a point for a well formed, meaningful sentence.

Taboo

This is a vocabulary game where students try to use descriptions and speech to get other students to guess a word. The name comes from the more advanced variation where not only is there a target word, but there are also "taboo" words which a student may not say while trying to get their group to say the target word.

Required Materials

(ideally) Small slips of paper with current vocabulary words
(for advanced students) Small slips of paper or small cards with the target word, and "taboo" words written on them

Instructions

1. Divide students into groups - you can divide the class in half or into smaller groups.
2. One student in each group is given a vocabulary word card, and required to use sentences, descriptions, etc, to get the other students to guess the target word. 
3. If playing a more advanced version and the speaker uses the "taboo" word, then their turn is over (or alternately, they lose a point for each taboo word they use).

Variations

• This game can be played for points between two teams, in which case a time limit should be set. During the time limit, only students from the same group can try to guess the word. If the student exceeds the time, students from the other group may guess the word. Whichever group guesses the word correctly receives a point.
• The game can be played as a race between two groups. Each group is given the same number of vocab cards. Each person in the group is required to draw a vocab word. When the group guesses the word correctly, the next person in the group has to draw. The first group to guess all of the vocabulary words wins.
• In order to make the game more communicative, one can ask students to use a correctly guessed word in a sentence for an extra point or a piece of candy.

Charades

This is a vocabulary game where students try to guess a vocabulary word based on another students' gestures. It can be played in small groups or as a class.

Required Materials

(ideally) Small slips of paper with current vocabulary words

Instructions

1. Divide students into groups - you can divide the class in half or into smaller groups.
2. One student in each group is given a vocabulary word, and required to use gestures to get the other students in the group to guess the word. The gesturer must be silent the entire time.
3. You may give students special signs to indicate part of speech so they can reduce the scope of possible words. Some other special signs are typically used in charades: 

• A tug of the ear is used to indicate "sounds like" (followed by gestures for a similar sounding word)
• Touching the forearm with fingers indicates a particular syllable in the word (the first time this is done, it typically indicates the number of syllables in a word.) So the person gesturing would first touch their forearm with 3 fingers for "elephant," and then could touch their wrist again with one finger to indicate they are going to make gestures that are for the first syllable.
• When the word has been guessed correctly, the gesturer touches their nose. 

Variations

• This game can be played for points between two teams, in which case a time limit should be set. During the time limit, only students from the same group can try to guess the word. If the student exceeds the time, students from the other group may guess the word. Whichever group guesses the word correctly receives a point.
• The game can be played as a race between two groups. Each group is given the same number of vocab cards. Each person in the group is required to draw a vocab word. When the group guesses the word correctly, the next person in the group has to draw. The first group to guess all of the vocabulary words wins.
• In order to make the game more communicative, one can ask students to use a correctly guessed word in a sentence for an extra point or a piece of candy.

Pictionary

This is a vocabulary game where students try to guess a vocabulary word based on another students' drawings. It can be played in small groups or as a class.

Required Materials

Chalkboard/whiteboard/large drawing pad or students' notebooks

Pens, etc.

(ideally) Small slips of paper with current vocabulary words

Instructions

1. Divide students into groups - you can divide the class in half or into smaller groups.
2. One student in each group is given a vocabulary word, and required to draw something that will help the other students guess the word. They are not allowed to write any words, or to use gestures or speech (except to confirm whether or not the guesses are correct).

Variations

• This game can be played for points between two teams, in which case a time limit should be set. During the time limit, only students from the same group can try to guess the word. If the student exceeds the time, students from the other group may guess the word. Whichever group guesses the word correctly receives a point.
• The game can be played as a race between two groups. Each group is given the same number of vocab cards. Each person in the group is required to draw a vocab word. When the group guesses the word correctly, the next person in the group has to draw. The first group to guess all of the vocabulary words wins.
• In order to make the game more communicative, one can ask students to use a correctly guessed word in a sentence for an extra point or a piece of candy.

Human Typewriter

This is a game which helps students solve dictation exercises as a class. It works well in that it gets students moving and relying on each other to complete the task.

Required Materials

1. Cards or pieces of paper with all of the letters of the languages' alphabet or writing system written on them.

Instructions

1. The cards containing the alphabet are distributed among the students. In most classes, some students will have more than one card, though they should be distributed so that no student will be relied upon to much (so that for English, one student might have "X" "Y" and "Z" rather than giving one student "A" "B" and "C").
2. The teacher says a word aloud.
3. The class is required to spell the word by standing up holding the appropriate letter in order. So for English, if the teacher said "cat" the student holding "C" would stand up, then the student holding "A" would stand, followed by the student holding "T." The students should say the name of their letter aloud.
4. You can also have the students say more information about how the word is spelled. So a student could say "capital" for the first letter in an English word, or give the name of the vowel for languages with an abjad like Arabic and Hebrew (e.g. "Jiim wa-fatha")

Liar Liar

This is a good game for students to practice asking questions and to make sure they listen to the responses from their fellow students. It helps if the students are familiar with each other enough that they know when someone is giving incorrect information.

The game is played by choosing several students who are not allowed to tell the truth. A single student is also chosen who must ask questions of the other students until they can figure out which students are the 'liars.'

Detailed Instructions

1. All students in the class sit in a circle, facing the center
2. One student is chosen to be 'it.' 
3. Once the student is chosen, they are asked to leave the room. Once out of the room, the teacher chooses one to three students to act as 'liars'. Students may also volunteer themselves.
4. The chosen students are not allowed to tell the truth in response to questions, but must give a response.
5. The student who is 'it' returns to the room, and must ask questions of the other students in the target language until they can discover which students are 'liars.'
6. The game can end either when the student who is 'it' finds one liar, or all of them. One of the 'liars' then becomes it for the next round.