Job Discussion Forums

[Delicious]

I've been asked to play a 10 minute game with the competitors of a English song competion during the intermission. The average age is around 23 and I have no idea of their English level. I've been asked to come up with a very exciting and entertaining game. I've got a few ideas but would like to hear some other people's suggestions.

Thanks very much!

[profile]

What were the games you had in mind ?

Do you know "taboo" ? (one member of team must try to find a certain word, visible to others but not to them, by listening to the clues other team members give) It's nearly always fun.

Similar game can be played with names of famous people.

[dajiang]

Yeah, that's a nice one.
You can do it with verbs as well. I think I first heard of it as 'the coffeepot game'; making sentences with the word, but saying 'coffeepot' instead of the verb.

Some more ideas:

This was a famous game show somewhere and it works with ESL students as well:
Give 2 words, eg: "bread" and "baby". They have to link the two words through a progression of word associations.
So for example: bread-food-drink-milk-baby
You can have a contest to see which pair can do it in the fewest steps.

***********************
The 'I have never....'-game.
This is a cool one to rehearse 'present perfect' tense.

Write down 'i have never' on the board, and all the names next to each other. (only works with fairly small groups this one).
You say, 'I have never read a Chinese book.'
The people who HAVE done that, have to raise their hands. You put a mark at the ones who raise their hands.
Next student should go next: "I have never ... lalala..."

You have to be honest, and tell the truth of course, to make it fun.
So, I can't say: 'I have never been in a girl's toilet', because I have... But saying "I've never worn high heels" is possible, because I've never worn the things.

Usually you are likely to lose, cuz we teacher's have so much experience in life, but you'd be amazed what some people have done. This is originally a drinking game to play with friends. It gets very personal and occasionally lewd, but students don't usually have this kind of vocabulary yet, so there's little risk of awkward questions.

*************************

Charades, Pictionary, Famous person X.

**********************

Brainstorming: This one is a bit longer than 10 minutes, but it's fun.

I tell the students I'm going to say a word and they have to write the first ten things that come to their mind, without thinking or hesitating.
They have 10 seconds to write down the words, so they have to do it fast. Students get together in groups of 4/5 and they write down their ideas on the black/whiteboard.

Now the discussion part begins: Groups now ask other groups why they wrote down these words. Some words are funny beyond belief, so it's funny to hear why a certain person wrote 'murder' when the word you said was 'government' for instance. You get some good discussions going.
This student then asks about a word in the other groups, and the chain continues like this.

Some topics you can use:
Money
Marriage
Studying English
Beauty
Home
Police
America
etc.

*************************

have fun.
Dajiang