4. They can be adjusted to suit the individual ages and language levels of the students

5. They contribute to an atmosphere of healthy competition, providing an outlet for the creative use of natural language in a non-stressful situation.

6. They can be used in any language-teaching situation and with any skill area whether reading, writing, speaking or listening.

7. They provide the immediate feedback for the teacher.

8. They ensure maximum student participation for a minimum of teacher preparation.

A game should be planned into the day's lesson right along with exercises, dialogues and reading practice. It should not be an afterthought.

Games are a lively way of maintaining students' interest in the language, they are fun but also part of the learning process, and students should be encouraged to take them seriously. They should also know how much time they have to play a game. It's not useful to start a game five minutes before the end of the lesson. Students are usually given a `five-minute warning' before the time is over so they can work towards the end.

The older the students are, the more selective a teacher should be in choosing a game activity. Little kids love movements, while older ones get excited with puddles, crosswords, word wheels, poster competitions whatever.

Modern language teaching requires a lot of work to make a lesson interesting for modern students who are on familiar terms with computers, Internet and electronic entertainment of any kind. Sympathetic relations must exist not only among students but between students and a teacher. It's of special importance for junior students because very often they consider their teachers to be the subject itself, i.e. interesting and attractive or terrible and disgusting, necessary to know or useless and thus better to avoid.

A teacher should bear in mind that it is the content, not the form, which is of interest to the child. A toddler does not learn to say,” Cookie, please”, in her native language because she is practicing the request form. “Cookie, please” is learned because the child wants a cookie.

So children learn with their whole beings. Whole-child involvement means that one should arrange for the child's participation in the lesson with as many senses as possible. Seeing pictures of children performing actions and repeating, “The boy is running”, “The girl is hopping” is not at all as effective as when students do the actions themselves in response to commands and demonstrations from the teacher.

All said above is fairly true to adult learners not only children, because of our common human nature to possess habits through experience. We all learned to understand and speak our first language by hearing and using it in natural situations, with people who cared for and about us. This is the most effective and interesting way to learn a second language as well. The experts now advise language teachers to spend most of the classroom time an activities that foster natural acquisition, rather than on formal vocabulary and structure explanations and drills. They insist that “once you have become accustomed to the rewards and pleasures gained from teaching through activities, you will wonder how second-language teaching ever got to be anything else. Your own ideas for activities and their management will flow, and your students' learning rates will soar!” “Activities' mean action games, finger and hand-clapping games, jump rope and ball-bouncing games, seat and card games, speaking and guessing games and even handicraft activities. Judging the results we have nothing but believe them.

2.1.5 Linguists opinions on using games.

In this chapter we would like to reflect how modern teachers evaluate the adequacy in using games when teaching English language

Famous British teacher and educator Andrew Wright in his books'Language learning is hard work ... Effort is required at every moment and must be maintained over a long period of time. Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work.'

'Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and in order to do so must understand what others are saying or have written, and they must speak or write in order to express their own point of view or give information.''

The need for meaningfulness in language learning has been accepted for some years. A useful interpretation of 'meaningfulness' is that the learners respond to the content in a definite way. If they are amused, angered, intrigued or surprised the content is clearly meaningful to them. Thus the meaning of the language they listen to, read, speak and write will be more vividly experienced and, therefore, better remembered.

If it is accepted that games can provide intense and meaningful practice of language, then they must be regarded as central to a teacher's repertoire. They are thus not for use solely on wet days and at the end of term!' (from Introduction, p.1)

Another distinguished scholar, Aydan Ersoz, of USA noted thew following

'Language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students to practise language skills. Games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. They also encourage and increase cooperation.'

'Games are highly motivating because they are amusing and interesting. They can be used to give practice in all language skills and be used to practice many types of communication.'

In Korea a noted teacher Lee Su Kim distinguished games as follows Lee Su Kim. Creative Games for the Language. Class Forum Vol. 33 No 1, January - March 1995, Page 35.:

'There is a common perception that all learning should be serious and solemn in nature, and that if one is having fun and there is hilarity and laughter, then it is not really learning. This is a misconception. It is possible to learn a language as well as enjoy oneself at the same time. One of the best ways of doing this is through games.'

'There are many advantages of using games in the classroom:

1. Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class.

2. They are motivating and challenging.

3. Learning a language requires a great deal of effort. Games help students to make and sustain the effort of learning.

4. Games provide language practice in the various skills- speaking, writing, listening and reading.

5. They encourage students to interact and communicate.

6. They create a meaningful context for language use.'

A great Polish educator the opinions of whom we mentioned within one of our chapters said,

Many experienced textbook and methodology manuals writers have argued that games are not just time-filling activities but have a great educational value. W. R. Lee holds that most language games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms (1979:2) Lee, W. R. 1979. Language teaching games and contests. Oxford: Oxford University Press.. He also says that games should be treated as central not peripheral to the foreign language teaching programme. A similar opinion is expressed by Richard-Amato, who believes games to be fun but warns against overlooking their pedagogical value, particularly in foreign language teaching. There are many advantages of using games. "Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely" (Richard-Amato 1988:147). They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings (Hansen 1994:118). They also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson. Furthermore, to quote Richard-Amato, they, "add diversion to the regular classroom activities," break the ice, "[but also] they are used to introduce new ideas" (1988:147). In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better (Wierus and Wierus 1994:218). S. M. Silvers says many teachers are enthusiastic about using games as "a teaching device," yet they often perceive games as mere time-fillers, "a break from the monotony of drilling" or frivolous activities. He also claims that many teachers often overlook the fact that in a relaxed atmosphere, real learning takes place, and students use the language they have been exposed to and have practised earlier (1982:29). Further support comes from Zdybiewska, who believes games to be a good way of practising language, for they provide a model of what learners will use the language for in real life in the future (1994:6).'

Games encourage, entertain, teach, and promote fluency. If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems that at times seem overwhelming.'

When to Use Games

Ms. Uberman noted that 'Games are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some time left at the end of a lesson. Yet, as Lee observes, a game "should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do" (1979:3). Games ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign languages. Rixon suggests that games be used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen.'

'Games also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way. All authors referred to in this article agree that even if games resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate fluency.'

Learning Vocabulary

Games have been shown to have advantages and effectiveness in learning vocabulary in various ways. First, games bring in relaxation and fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words more easily. Second, games usually involve friendly competition and they keep learners interested. These create the motivation for learners of English to get involved and participate actively in the learning activities. Third, vocabulary games bring real world context into the classroom, and enhance students' use of English in a flexible, communicative way.'

'Therefore, the role of games in teaching and learning vocabulary cannot be denied. However, in order to achieve the most from vocabulary games, it is essential that suitable games are chosen. Whenever a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency level, cultural context, timing, learning topic, and the classroom settings are factors that should be taken into account.'

'In conclusion, learning vocabulary through games is one effective and interesting way that can be applied in any classrooms. The results of this research suggest that games are used not only for mere fun, but more importantly, for the useful practice and review of language lessons, thus leading toward the goal of improving learners' communicative competence.'

Why Use Games in Class Time?

· Games are fun and children like to play them. Through games children experiment, discover, and interact with their environment. (Lewis, 1999)

· Games add variation to a lesson and increase motivation by providing a plausible incentive to use the target language. For many children between four and twelve years old, especially the youngest, language learning will not be the key motivational factor. Games can provide this stimulus. (Lewis, 1999)

· The game context makes the foreign language immediately useful to the children. It brings the target language to life. (Lewis, 1999)

· The game makes the reasons for speaking plausible even to reluctant children. (Lewis, 1999)

· Through playing games, students can learn English the way children learn their mother tongue without being aware they are studying; thus without stress, they can learn a lot.

· Even shy students can participate positively.

How to Choose Games (Tyson, 2000)

· A game must be more than just fun.

· A game should involve "friendly" competition.

· A game should keep all of the students involved and interested.

· A game should encourage students to focus on the use of language rather than on the language itself.

· A game should give students a chance to learn, practice, or review specific language material.

One more scholar, M. Martha Lengeling said the following:

'In an effort to supplement lesson plans in the ESL classroom, teachers often turn to games. The justification for using games in the classroom has been well demonstrated as benefiting students in a variety of ways. These benefits range from cognitive aspects of language learning to more co-operative group dynamics.'

General Benefits of Games

Affective:

- lowers affective filter

- encourages creative and spontaneous use of language

- promotes communicative competence

- motivates

- fun

Cognitive:
- reinforces

- reviews and extends

- focuses on grammar communicatively

Class Dynamics:

- student centered

- teacher acts only as facilitator

- builds class cohesion

- fosters whole class participation

- promotes healthy competition

Adaptability:
- easily adjusted for age, level, and interests

- utilizes all four skills

- requires minimum preparation after development

So language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students to practise language skills. Games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. They also encourage and increase cooperation.

Games are highly motivating because they are amusing and interesting. They can be used to give practice in all language skills and be used to practice many types of communication.

Below there are some practical examples of using games at the lesson.

Chapter 2. Practice Part (on the example of grammar games)

In this part of our qualification work we shall give the examples of various activities for Azar. B. Fun with grammar. New York. 2000. p. 241

2.2.1 Competitive games

Speed

Grammar: Collocations with wide, narrow, and broad.

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Time: 15-20 minutes

Materials: Three cards, with wide on one, narrow on the second and broad on the third

Preparation

Prepare three large cards with wide on one, narrow on the second and broad on the third.

In class

1. Clear as much space as you can in your classroom so that students have access to all the walls and ask two students to act as secretaries at the board. Steak each of your card on one of the other three walls of the room. Ask the rest of the students to gather in the middle of the space.

2. Tell the students that you're going to read out sentences with a word missing. If they think that the right word for that sentence is wide they should rush over and touch the wide card. If they think the word should be narrow or broad they touch the respective card instead. Tell them that in some cases there are two right answers (they choose either).

3. Tell the secretaries at the board to write down the correct versions of the sentences in full as the game progresses.

4. Read out the first gapped sentence and have the students rush to what they think is the appropriate wall. Give the correct versions and make sure it goes up in the board. Continue with the second sentence etc.

5. At the end of the strenuous part ask the students to tale down the sentences in their books. A relief from running! ( If the students want a challenge they should get a partner and together write down as many sentences as they remember with their backs to the board before turning round to complete their notes. Or else have their partner to dictate the sentences with a gap for them to try to complete.)

Variation

You can play this game with many sets of grammar exponents:

Forms of the article; a, the and zero article

Prepositions etc.

2.2.2 Cognitive games

a) Spot the differences

This activity can be adapted for use with all levels

Grammar: Common mistakes

Level: Elementary

Time: 20-30 minutes

Materials: One copy of Late-comer A and Late-comer B for each student

In class

1. Pair the students and give them the two texts. Ask them to spot all the differences they can between them. Tell them that there may be more than one pair of differences per pair of parallel sentences. Tell them one item in each pair of alternatives is correct.

3. Ask them to dictate the correct text to you at the board. Write down exactly what they say so students have a chance to correct each other both in terms of grammar and in terms of their pronunciation. If a student pronounces `dis voman' for `this woman' then write up the wrong version. Only write it correctly when the student pronounces it right. Your task in this exercise is to allow the students to try out their hypotheses about sound and grammar without putting them right too soon and so reducing their energy and blocking their learning. Being too kind can be cognitively unkind.

Variation

To make this exercise more oral, pair the students and ask them to sit facing each other. Give Later-comer A to one student and Late-comer B to the other in each pair. They then have to do very detailed listening to each other's texts.

2.2.3 Feeling and grammar

a) Typical questions

Grammar: Question formation-varied interrogatives

Level: Beginner to elementary

Time: 20-30 minutes

Materials: None

In class

Ask the students to draw a quick sketch of a four-year-old they know well. Give them these typical questions such a person may ask, e.g. `Mummy, does the moon go for a wee-wee?' `Where did I come from?'. Ask each student to write half a dozen questions such a person might ask, writing them in speech bubbles on the drawing. Go round and help with the grammar.

Get the students to fill the board with their most interesting four-year-old questions.

Variations

This can be used with various question situations. The following examples work well:

Ask the students to imagine a court room-the prosecution barrister is questioning a defense witness. Tell the students to write a dozen questions the prosecution might ask.

What kind of questions might a woman going to a foreign country want to ask a woman friend living in this country about the man or the woman in the country? And what might a man want to ask a man?

What kind of questions are you shocked to be asked in an English-speaking country and what questions are you surprised not to be asked?

b) Achievements

This activity also works well with: present perfect+yet, like doing, like having done, and modals.

Grammar: By+time-phrases Past perfect

Level: Lower intermediate

Time: 20-30 minutes

Materials: Set of prepared sentences

Preparation

Think of your achievements in the period of your life that corresponds to the average age of your class. If you're teaching seventeen-year-olds, pick your first seventeen years. Also think of a few of the times when you were slow to achieve. Write the sentences about yourself like these:

By the age of six I had learnt to read.

I still hadn't learnt to ride a bike by then.

I had got over my fear of water by the time I was eight.

By the time I was nine I had got the hang of riding a bike.

By thirteen I had read a mass of books.

I'd got over my fear of the dark by around ten.

Write ten to twelve sentences using the patterns above. If you're working in a culture that is anti-boasting then pick achievements that do not make you stand out.

Your class will relate well to sentences that tell them something new about you, as much as you feel comfortable telling them. Communication works best when it's for real.

In class

Ask the students to have two different colored pens ready. Tell them you're going to dictate sentences about yourself. They're to take down the sentences that are also true for them in one color and the sentences that are not true about them in another color.

Put the students in fours to explain to each other which of your sentences were also true of their lives.

3. Run a quick question and answer session round the groups e.g. `At what age had you learnt to ski/dance/sing/ play table tennis etc by?' `I'd learnt to ski by seven.'

Ask each students to write a couple of fresh sentences about things achieved by a certain date/time and come up and write them on a board. Wait till the board is full, without correcting what they're putting up. Now point silently at problem sentences and get the students to correct them.

Variation

You can use the above activity for any area of grammar you want ti personalize. You might write sentences about:

Things you haven't got round to doing (present perfect + yet)

Things you like having done for you versus things you like doing for yourself

Things you ought to do and feel you can't do (the whole modal area is easily treated within this frame)

c) Reported advice

Grammar: Modals and modals reported

Level: Elementary to intermadiate

Time: 15-20 minutes

Materials: None

In class

Divide your class into two groups: `problem people' and `advice-givers'.

Ask the `problem people' to each think up a minor problem they have and are willing to talk about.

Arm the `advice-givers' with these suggestion forms:

You could…	You should…	You might as well…
You might…	You ought to…	You might try…ing…

Get the class moving round the room. Tell each `problem person' to pair off with an `advice-giver'. The `problem person' explains her problem and the other person gives two bits of advice using the grammar suggested. Each `problem person' now moves to another `advice-giver'. The `problem people' get advice from five or six `advice-givers'

Call class back into the plenary. Ask some of the `problem people' to state their problem and report to the whole group the best and the worst piece of advice they were offered, naming the advice-giver e.g. `Juan was telling me I should give her up.' ` Jane suggested I ought to get a girlfriend of hers to talk to her for me.'

Variation

If you have a classroom with space that allows it, form the students into two concentric circles, the outer one facing in and the inner one facing out. All the inner circle students are `advice-givers' and all the outer circle students are `problem people'. After each round, the outer circle people move round three places. This is much more cohesive than the above.

d) Picture the past

Grammar: Past simple, past perfect, future in the past

Level: Lower intermediate

Time: 20-40 minutes

Materials: None

Class

Ask three students to come out and help you demonstrate the exercise. Draw a picture on the board of something interesting you have done. Do not speak about it. Student A then writes a past simple sentence about it. Student B write about what had already happened before the picture action and student C about something that was going to happen, using the appropriate grammar.

I got up at eight a.m.

I've just got off the bus

I'm going to work today

Put the students in fours. Each draws a picture of a real past action of theirs. They pass their picture silently to a neighbor in the foursome who adds a past tense sentence. Pass the picture again and each adds a past perfect sentence. They pass again and each adds a was going to sentence. All this is done in silence with you going round helping and correcting.

e) Impersonating members of a set

Grammar: Present and past simple-active and passive

Level: Elementary to intermediate

Time: 20-30 minutes

Materials: None

In class

Ask people to brainstorm all the things they can think of that give off light

Choose one of this yourself and become the thing chosen. Describe yourself in around five to six sentences, e.g.:

I am a candle

I start very big and end up as nothig

My head is lit and I produce a flame

I burn down slowly

In some countries I am put on Christmas tree

I am old-fashioned and very fashionable

Ask a couple of other students to choose other light sourses and do the same as you have just done. Help them with language. It could be `I am a light bulb-I was invented by Edison.'

Group the students in sixes. Give them a new category. Ask them to work silently, writing four or six forst-person sentences in role. Go round and help especially with the formation of the present simple passive (when this help is needed).

In their groups the students read out their sentences.

Ask each group to choose their six interesting sentences and then read out to the whole group.

Variation

The exercise is sometimes more exciting if done with fairly abstract sets, e.g. numbers between 50 and 149, musical notes, distances, weights. The abstract nature of the set makes people concretise interestingly, e.g.:

I am a kilometre.

My son is a metre and my baby is centimetre.

On the motorway I am driven in 30 seconds. (120 kms. per hour)

We have also used these sets: types of stone/countries/items of clothing (e.g.socks, skirts, jackets/times of day/smells/family roles (e.g.son, mother etc.)/types of weather.

Rationale

The sentences students produce in this exercise are nor repeat runs of things they have already thought and said in mother tongue. New standpoints, new thoughts, new language. The English is fresh because the thought is.

2.2.4. Listening activities

a) No backshift

Grammar: Reported speech after past reporting verb

Level: Elementary to lower intermediate

Time: 15-20 minutes

Material: None

In class

Pair the students. Ask one person in each pair to prepare to speak for two minutes about a pleasurable future event. Give them a minute to prepare.

Ask the listener in each pair to prepare to give their whole attention to the speaker. They are not to take notes. Ask the speaker in each pair to get going. You time two minutes.

Pair the pairs. The two listeners now report on what they heard using this kind of form:

She was telling me she's going to Thailand for her holiday and she added that she'll be going by plane.

The speakers have the right to fill in things the listeners have left out but only after the listeners have finished speaking.

The students go back into their original pairs and repeat the above but this time with the other one as speaker, so everybody has been able to share their future event thoughts.

b) Incomparable

Grammar: Comparative structures

Level: Elementary

Time: 15-20 minutes

Materials: None

In class

Tell the students a bit about yourself by comparing yourself to some people you know:

I'm more … than my husband.

I'm not as…as my eldest boy.

I reckon my uncle is … than me

Write six or seven of these sentences up on the board as a grammar pattern input.

Tell the students to work in threes. Two of the three listen very closely while the third compares herself to people she knows. The speakers speak without interruption for 90 seconds and you time them.

The two listeners in each group feedback to the speaker exactly what they had heard. If they miss things the speaker will want to prompt them.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 so that everybody in the group has had a go at producing a comparative self-portrait.

c) One question behind

You can adapt this by preparing your own question sets for different interrogative structures

Grammar: Assorted interrogative forms

Level: Beginner to intermediate

Time: 5-10 minutes

Materials: One question set for each pair of students

In class

Demonstrate the exercise to your students. Get one of them to ask you the question of a set. You answer `Mmmm', with closed lips. The student asks you the second question - you give the answer that would have been right for the first question. The student asks the third question and you reply with the answer to the second question, and so on. The wrong combination of question and answer can be quite funny.

Pair the students and give each pair a question set. One student fires the questions and the other gives delayed-by-one replies. The activity is competitive. The first pair to finish a question set is the winner.

Question set A

Where do you sleep? (the other says nothing)

Where do you eat? (the other answers the first question)

Where do you go swimming?

Where do you wash your clothes?

Where do you read?

Where do you cook?

Where do you listen to music?

Where do you get angry?

Where do you do your shopping?

Where do you sometimes drive to?

Question set B

What do you eat your soup with?

What do you cut your meat with?

What do you write on?

What do you wipe your mouth with?

What do you blow your nose with?

What do you brush your hair with?

What do you sleep on?

What do you write with?

What do you wear in bed?

What do you wear in restaurant?

Question set C

Can you tell me something you ate last week?

Tell me something you saw last week?

Is there something you have come to appreciate recently?

What about something you really want to do next week?

Where have you spent most of this last week?

Where would you have you liked to spend this last week?

Where are you thinking of going on holiday?

Which is the best holiday place you have ever been to?

Variation 1

Have students devise their own sets of questions to then be used as above.

Variation 2

Group the students in fours: one acts as a `time-keeper', one as a `question master' and person 3 and 4 are the `players'.

The `question master' fires five rapid questions at player A which she has to answer falsely. The `time-keeper' notes the time questioning takes. The `question master' fires five similar questions at B, who answers truthfully. The quickest answerer wins. (The problem lies in choosing the right wrong answer fast enough.)

Possible questions:

How old are you?

Where do you live?

Which color do you like best?

What time is it?

How did you get here?

What time did you get up today?

What did you have for breakfast?

Where does your best friend live?

What sort of music do you dislike?

How many brothers and sisters do you have?

2.2.5. Movement using in game learning

a) Sit down then

Grammar: Who + simple past interrogative/Telling the time

Level: Beginner to elementary

Time: 10-20 minutes

Materials: None

In class

Ask everybody to stand up. Tell them you're going to shout out bedtimes. When they hear the time they went to bed yesterday, they shout `I did' and sit down. You start like this:

Who went to bed at two a.m.?

Who went to bed at ten to two?

Who went to bed at quarter to two?

Who went to bed at half past one?

Continue until all the students have sat down.

Get people back on their feet. Ask one of the better students to come out and run the same exercise but this time about when people got up, e.g.

Who woke up at four thirty this morning?

Who woke up at twenty to five?

Repeat with a new question master but asking about shopping, e.g.:

Who went shopping yesterday?

Who went shopping on…(day of the week)

b) Only if

This activity is particularly suitable for young learners

Grammar: Polite requests, -ing participle

Only if + target verb structure of your choice

Level: Elementary +

Time: 15-20 minutes

Materials: None

In class

Make or find as much space in your room as possible and ask the class to stand at one end of it.

Explain that their end is one river bank and the opposite end of the room is the other bank. Between is the `golden river' and you're the `keeper' of the golden river. Before crossing the river the students have to say the following sentence:

Can we cross your golden river sitting on your golden boat?

They need to be able to say this sentence reasonably fluently.

Get the students to say the sentence. You answer:

Only if you're wearing…

Only if you've got…

Only if you've got … on you

Supposing you say `Only if you're wearing trousers'. All the students who wear trousers can `boat' across the river without hindrance. The others have to try to sneak across without being tagged by you. The first person who is tagged, changes places with you and becomes `it' (the keeper who tags the others in the next round).

Continue with students saying `Can we cross your golden river, sitting on your golden boat?' `It' might say, `Only if you're wearing ear-rings.' etc.

Variation 1

To make this game more lively, instead of having just one keeper, everyone is tagged becomes keeper. Repeat until everyone has been tagged.

2.2.6 Meaning and translation

a) Two-word verbs

Grammar: Compound verbs

Level: Upper intermediate to advanced

Time: 40-50 minutes

Materials: One Mixed-up verb sheet per pair of students. The Jumbled sentences on a large separate piece of card

In class

Pair the students and ask them to match the verbs on the mixed-up verb sheet you give them. Tell them to use dictionaries and to call you over. Be everywhere at once.

Key to first group of verbs:

To back-comb/to cross-reference/to ghost-write/to soft-soap/to blow-dry/to double-cross/to ill-treat/to spin-dry

Key to the second group of verbs:

To cold-shoulder/to double-glaze/to pooh-pooh/to spoon-feed/to court-martial/to dry-clean/to proof-read/to stage-manage

Key to third group of verbs

To frog-match/to wrong-foot/to toilet-train/to tape-record/to short-change/to rubber-stamp/to force-feed/to field-test/to cross-question/to cross-examine/to cross-check

Ask them to take a clean sheet of paper and a pen or pencil suitable for drawing. Tell them you're going to give them a few phrases to illustrate. They're to draw a situation that brings out the meaning of the phrases. Here are the phrases - do not give them more than 30 seconds per drawing (they will groan):

To toilet-train a child

To soft-soap a superior

To force-feed an anorexic

To court-martial a soldier

To back-comb a person's hair

To cross-examine a witness

To spin-dry your clothes

To cold-shoulder a friend

Give them time to compare their drawings. The drawings often make misunderstanding manifest.

Split the class into teams of four. Tell them you're going to show them Jumbled sentences (see below) and their task will be to shout out the unjumbled sentence. The first team to shout out a correct sentence gets a point.

b) Jumbled sentences

Will still can you and it it dry retain its spin shape

You can spin-dry it and it will still retain its shape

Cold him we shouldered first at

At first we cold-shouldered him

Our ill ancestors treated they

They ill-treated our ancestors

Clean it don't dry

Don't dry-clean it

Black frog they Maria to the marched him

They frog-marched him to the Black Maria

Double your windows glaze to like we'd

We'd like to double-glaze your windows

Pooh just his poohed offer they

They just pooh-poohed his offer

Don't soap me you soft dare

Don't you dare soft-soap me!

c) The world of take

Grammar: Some basic meanings of the verb take

Level: Intermediate to advanced

Time: 40-50 minutes

Materials: Set of sentences below (for dictation)

In class

Put the students in small groups to brainstorm all the uses of the verb take they can think of.

Ask each group to send a messenger to the next group to pass on their ideas.

Dictate the sentences below which they are to write down in their mother tongue. Tell them only to write in mother tongue, not English. Be ready to help explain any sentences that students do not understand.

The new president took over in January.

The man took the woman's anger seriously.

`You haven't done the washing up, I take it,' his wife said to him.

The little boy took the old watch apart to see how it worked.

`I think we ought to take the car,' he said to her.

This bloke always takes his problems to his mother.

`We took the village without a shot being fired,' she told him.

`Take care' the woman said, as she left home that morning.

He took charge of the planning team.

The woman asked what size shoes he took.

`Yes I really take your point' he told her.

`If we go to a movie,' she told her boyfriend, `it'll really take you out of yourself.'

The news the boy brought really took the woman aback.

The chair asked him to take the minutes of the meeting.

`You can take it from me, it's worse than you think'

Ask the students to work in threes and compare their translations. Go round helping and checking.

Check that they're clear about the usual direct translation of take into their language. Now ask them to mark all the translations where take is not rendered by its direct equivalent.

2.2.7 Problem Solving

This activity provides good skills practice in scan reading a dictionary.

a) A dictionary game

Grammar: Comparatives, it (referring back)

Level: Elementary (or as a review at higher levels)

Time: 45 minutes

Materials: One dictionary per two students

Preparation

On the board write the following:

Abcdifghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

It's got more letters than…

It's got fewer letters than…

It's the same length as….

It's earlier in the dictionary than…

It's later in the dictionary than…

It's further on…

Back a bit.

The first letter's right

The first two/three/four letters are right

(or you could dictate this to the students if you want a quiet settling in period at the start of the class)

In class

Explain to the students that you're going out of the room for a short time and they're to select one word for you to guess when you come back. They find the word in their dictionaries.

Go back in and have a first wild guess at the class's word. The students should tell you whether their word is longer, shorter or the same length as your guess and whether it's earlier or later in the dictionary. Here is an example (teachers can correct pronunciation as they go along ):

teacher: Middle

students: It's shorter. And it's later in the dictionary.

teacher: Train.

students: It's Earlier. It's Got The Same Number Of Letters.

teacher: Plane.

students: It's Later.

teacher: Rains.

students: It's Later. It's Got The Same Number Of Letters.

teacher: Seat.

students: It's Longer.The First Letter Is Right. It's Later In The

Dictionary.

teacher: Stops.

students: It's Earlier.

teacher: Skirt.

students: It's Later

teacher: Spend.

students: The First Two Letters Are Right. It's Later.

teacher: Spine.

students: It's Later.

teacher: Spore.

students: The First Four Letters Are Right. You're Really Warm

Now. It's A Bit Further On.

teacher: Sport.

students: Yes.

You can write the words you guess and notes of the students' answers on the board as you go along, to help you to remember where you are. At the beginning, you can prompt the students by asking questions such as `Is it shorter, longer or the same length as my word? Is it earlier or later in the dictionary?' etc.

When the students have got the idea of the game, reverse the process; you think of a word (one from a recent lesson works well) and students guess. You give them information as to length, place in dictionary and any letters they've guessed right.

Now hand over the exercise to the students. They should scan their notes, textbooks and /or minds (but not dictionaries) and create a short wordlist. Then in pairs or small groups they can repeat the activity.

Rationale

This is a good game for teaching scan reading and alphabetical order when using dictionaries. The revision or introduction of the grammatical structures in a meaningful context is disguised since the students usually see this is vocabulary game. Because it has a pretty tight structure and build-up, it's a good exercise for establishing the principle of group/pairwork with a class that does not take readily to working in different formats.

Note

With some classes we have asked the students to analyze their own guessing processes. Some students have written interesting short compositions on the best guessing strategies.

b) Eyes

Grammar: `Second' conditional

Level: Lower to upper intermediate

Time: 30-45 minutes

Materials: None

In class

Ask a student to draw a head in profile on the board. Ask the student to add eyes in the back of his head.

Give the students this sentence beginning on the board and ask them to complete it using a grammar suggested:

If people had eyes in the back of their heads, then they … would/might/could/would have to … (+ infinitive)

For example:

`If people had eyes on the back of their heads they could read two books at once' (so two pairs of eyes).

Tell the students to write the above sentence stem at the top of their paper and then complete it with fifteen separate ideas. Encourage the use of dictionaries. Help students all you can with vocabulary and go round checking and correcting.

Once students have all written a good number of sentences (at least ten) ask them to form teams of four. In the fours they read each other's sentences and pick the four most interesting ones.

Each team puts their four best sentences on the board.

The students come up to the board and tick the two sentences they find the most interesting. The team that gets the most ticks wins.

Note

Students come up with a good range of social, medical and other hypotheses. Here are some examples:

then they would not need driving mirrors.

they would make really good traffic wardens.

then you could kiss someone while looking away!

c) Umbrella

Grammar: Modals and present simple

Level: Elementary to intermediate

Time: 30-40 minutes

Materials: One large sheet of paper per student

In class

Ask a student to draw a picture on the board of a person holding an umbrella. The umbrella looks like this.

Explain to the class that this `tulip-like' umbrella design is a new, experimental one.

Ask the students to work in small groups and brainstorm all the advantages and disadvantages of a new design. Ask them to use these sentence stems:

It/you can/can't…

It/you + present simple…

It/you will/won't…

It/you may/may not…

For example: `It is easy to control in a high wind', `You can see where you're going with this umbrella'

Give the students large sheets of paper and ask them to list the advantages and disadvantages in two columns.

Ask the students to move around the room and read each other's papers. Individually they mark each idea as `good', `bad' or `intriguing'.

Ask the student how many advantages they came up with and how many disadvantages. Ask the students to divide up into three groups according to which statement applies to them:

I thought mainly of advantages.

I thought of some of both.

I thought mainly of disadvantages.

Ask the three groups to come up with five to ten adjectives to describe their group state of mind and put these up n the board.

Round off the exercise by telling the class that when de Bono asked different groups of people to do this kind of exercise, it turned out that primary school children mostly saw advantages, business people had plenty of both while groups of teachers were the most negative.

Note

Advantages the students offered:

In a hot country you can collect rain water.

It won't drip round the edges.

You can use it for carrying shopping.

It's not dangerous in a crowd.

It's an optimistic umbrella.

It's easy to hold if two people are walking together.

With this umbrella you'll look special.

It'll take less floor space to dry.

This umbrella makes people communicate. They can see each other.

You can paint this umbrella to look like a flower.

You'll get a free supply of ice if it hails.

2.2.8 Making presentations and critical thinking

a) Listening to time

You can use this idea to practice a variety of different structures-see variations bellow for some examples

Grammar: Time phrases

Level: Upper intermediate to very advanced

Time: 40-50 minutes

Materials None

Preparation

Invite a native speaker to your class, preferably not a language teacher as they sometimes distort their speech. Ask the person to speak about a topic that has them move through time. This could be his country history. The talk should last around twenty minutes. Explain to the speaker that the students will be paying close attention not only to the content but to the language form, too.

In class

Before the speaker arrives, explain to the students that they are to jot down all the words and phrases they hear that express time. They don't need to note all the words!

Welcome the speaker and introduce the topic.

The speaker takes the floor for fifteen to twenty minutes and you join the students in taking language notes. If there are questions from the students, make sure people continue to take notes during the questioning.

Put the students in threes to compare their time-phrase notes. Suggest the speaker joins one of the groups. Some natives are delighted to look in a `speech mirror'.

Share your own notes with the class. Round off the lesson by picking out other useful and normal bits of language the speaker used that are not yet part of your student's idiolects.

Example

One speaker mentioned above produced these time words: only about ten years/there was a gap of nine years/ at roughly the same time/over the next few hundred years/from 1910 until the present day/it's been way back/ within eighteen month there will be/until three years ago/when I was back in September

Variations

Choose the speaker who is about to go off on an important trip. In speaking about this, some of the verbs used will be in a variety of forms used to talk about the future.

Invite someone to speak about the life and habits of someone significant to them, but two lives separately from them, say a grandparent. This topic is likely to evoke a rich mixture of present simple, present continuos, will used to describe habitual events, `ll be -ing etc.

Note

To invite the learners to pick specific grammar features out of a stream of live speech is a powerful form of grammar presentation. In this technique the students `present' the grammar to themselves. They go through a process of realization which is lot stronger than what often happens in their minds during the type of `grammar presentation' required of trainees on many teacher training courses. During the realization process, they are usually not asleep.

b) Guess my grammar

Grammar: Varied+question form

Level: Elementary to intermediate

Time: 55 minutes

Materials None

In class

Choose a grammar area the students need to review. In the example below there are adjectives, adverbs and relative pronouns.

Ask each student to work alone and write a sentence of 12-16 words (the exact length is not too important). Each sentence should contain an adjective, and adverb and a relative pronoun, or whatever grammar you've chosen to practise. For example: `She sat quietly by the golden river that stretched to the sea'.

Now ask the students to rewrite their sentences on a separate piece of paper, leaving in the target grammar and any punctuation, but leaving the rest as blanks, one dash for each letter. The sentence above would look like this:

--- --- quietly -- --- golden ----- that --------- -- --- ---.

While they are doing this ask any students who are not sure of the correctness of their sentence to check with you.

Now ask the students to draw a picture or pictures which illustrate as much of the meaning of the sentence as possible.

As students finish drawing, put them into groups of three. One person shows the blanked sentence and the drawing, reserving their original sentence for their own reference. The other should guess: ` Is the first word the?' or ask questions `Is the second word a verb?' etc. The student should only answer `yes' or `no'. As they guess the words, they fill in the blanks.

They continue until all the blanks are filled and then they do the other two person's sentences.

Note

Groups tend to finish this activity at widely different speeds. If a couple of groups finish early, pair them across the groups, ask them to rub out the completed blanked out sentences and try them on a new partner.

Acknowledgement

Ian Jasper originated this exercise. He's a co-author of Teacher Development: One group's experience, edited by Janie Rees Miller.

c) Puzzle stories

Grammar: Simple present and simple past interrogative forms

Level: Beginners

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: Puzzle story (to be written on the board)

Preparation

Ask a couple of students from an advanced class to come to your beginners group. Explain that they will have some interesting interpreting to do.

In class

Introduce the interpreters to your class and welcome them.

Write this puzzle story on the board in English. Leave good spaces between the lines :

There were three people in the room.

A man spoke.

There was a short pause.

The second man spoke.

The woman jumped up and slapped the first man in the face.

Ask one of the beginners to come to the board and underline the words they know. Ask others to come and underline the ones they know. Tell the group the words none of them know. Ask one of the interpreters to write a translation into mother tongue. The translation should come under the respective line of English.

Tell the students their task is to find out why the woman slapped the first man. They are to ask questions that you can answer `yes' or `no'. Tell them they can try and make questions directly in English, or they can call the interpreter and ask the questions in their mother tongue. The interpreter will whisper the English in their ear and they then ask you in English.

Erase the mother tongue translation of the story from the board.

One of the interpreters moves round the room interpreting questions while the other stays at the board and writes up the questions in both English and mother tongue.

You should aim to let the class ask about 15-25 questions, more will overload them linguistically. To speed the process up you should give them clues.

Finally, have the students copy all the questions written on the board into their books. You now have a presentation of the main interrogative forms of the simple present and past.

After the lesson go through any problems the interpreters had-offer them plenty of parallel translation.

Games for critical opinion development

a) The second man was an interpreter.

Further material

Do you know the one about the seven-year-old who went to the baker's? His Mum had told him to get three loaves. He went in, bought two and came home. He put them on the kitchen table. He ran back to the backer's and bought a third. He rushed in and put the third one on the kitchen table. The question: Why? Solution: he had a speech defect and couldn't say `th'.