Heh, I knew what you meant, Heath, and was just trying to suggest (not too clearly though, it must be said! LOL) that the AE forum seems to get less threads/posts/replies, even if the few who frequent it might have more to say. Anyway, this thread here's taken off now, so that's a moot point thankfully (for Pengyou)!
So, not a bad little list there, Heath! I can't really add that much to it generally and off the top of my head, but here are a few suggestions (even if just variations) in terms of specific (though just 'practice' rather than any "super-increased-
learning"!) activities:
* Board
associations for/from a central starting word, in the form of "mindmaps" or similar.
* Expanding on
definitions/defining/paraphrasing, here's a time-honoured "translation" activity: Carefully select enough relatively low-frequency, but still reasonably interesting English words to enable every sudent in the class to potentially have a turn at defining an item, then make a set of cards with just the Chinese equivalents written on the undersides (top side is blank). Examples words from the 'A' section of a dictionary might include the Chinese equivalents of 'abacus', 'abbatoir/slaughterhouse', 'abdicate', 'abominable snowman/yeti' etc (you get the idea). In class, divide the class into two teams, give each team half the cards, and get each team in turn (with a different team member stepping up each time) to draw the top card from their pile and try to define the Chinese in English - but they can't say what the actual word being defined is in English (and obviously not in Chinese; and gestures are also not allowed) even if they know the English - that will be for either team to guess, which will obviously depend on the clarity of the definition. Points awarded as follows: the team that guesses correctly knows the answer and provides the exact matching English word - both teams get 3 points; the team that guesses correctly provides a not exact but close enough English synonym - the defining team still gets 3 points, but the guessing team only 2 points; and finally, if the team that guesses correctly can only guess in Chinese, then they only get 1 point (but the defining team still gets 3 points). So points are always skewed in favour of the defining team, but correct (English) guesses will help level the scores. Deduct a point or two/don't always award the full three as you see fit for defining team rule infractions or too-obvious errors. Finally, whenever neither team can guess at all then nobody gets any points for that item!
Then, I quite like the following suggestions from chapter 5, 'Classroom strategies, activities and exercises', of the
Teaching Collocation book edited by Michael Lewis:
10. Five-word stories
Look up
order and
exam(ination) in a (collocation) dictionary. Find five verbs for each which suggest a 'story' if they are in a particular order like this:
place, get, process, dispatch, receive
an order
enter for, revise for, take, fail, re-sit
an exam(ination)
You can do the same for any noun which suggests an extended process such as:
problem, product, relationship, research, system, letter, war, negotiations, job.
14. The collocation game
(Paraphrasing here!) Select a target (and secret) word and arrange up to five collocations for it in a
rough weaker > stronger collocate order. For example:
dark, plain, white, milk, bar of (=chocolate)
Student teams listen to you call out the first collocate ('dark') and have one guess each (fastest stands best chance of winning) to guess the target word. If they are correct after only 'dark' they get 5 points; each subsequent collocate needed reduces the potential score by one point, meaning if you have to tell them the answer ('chocolate') even after saying 'bar of' then they will get zero points!
15. Noun + noun combinations
(Paraphrasing) Or rather, compound nouns. This is basically like word dominoes, or Morgan & Rinvolucri's 'Tails to Heads' game (though the latter uses final letter rather than whole word to begin the next item). For example, you start them off with 'blank cheque' and they continue thus: cheque book - book club - club sandwich - and so on.
Maybe allow students to use dictionaries (within a time limit of 30 seconds say and/or with a penalty point attached for each use), and/or award negative points for every time a team is stumped and a completely fresh new chain has to be begun.
The other example in the book is table top - top quality - quality time - time management - and so on...
But this last activity especially might perhaps be a bit too difficult for those much below upper-intermediate!
