domenica 26 novembre 2017

Teaching For Exams? Have fun! Word Formation... Bingo!

⚠️UPDATE⚠️
This blog post has been shortlisted for this month’s TeachingEnglish blog award 💖🥇

Hi  again my fellow EFL teachers!
Are you in trouble with training your students for English language exams? Don't worry! Here I am with a new, fun game you can play with your students!

This time I'm focusing on:

Cambridge First Certificate
Reading and Use of English part 3
This task is called word formation and it focuses on candidates' knowledge of how prefixes, suffixes, internal changes and compounds are used in forming words.

So many affixes, which don't always follow a rule, drive my students nuts. Thus, I created this simple, but fun game!

What you need:
a 3x3 grid [students can make their own grids during the lesson]
pencils/pens
What you have to do:

If you make copies beforehand, write a suffix (e.g. -ist) or prefix (e.g. ir-) on the top of each box and write a grammar category (e.g. person noun), whether the word is negative/plural at the bottom of each box. Otherwise, you can write the affixes and the other information about the word formation on the board and ask students to copy them on their papers.

Rules of the game:
1) Once all the students have their grids,
E.g.


the teacher says a word
E.g. football
2) The teacher says a grammar category
E.g. noun person
3) The learner writes the noun person for football in the right box. --> Footballer 

4) When the learner has completed all the boxes, s/he shouts out BINGO!

The list of words for the grid above are:
- football (person noun)
- society (adjective)
- survey (person noun)
- polite (abstract noun)
- maintain (abstract noun)
- relevant (negative adjective)
- journal (person noun/plural)
- patience (negative adjective)
- happy (manner adverb)

5) To make it more challenging add a few more words to the list which don't fit in the grid. Students need to realise that they must not write anything when the teacher calls out that word + grammar category. Remember to tell them before you start playing!
E.g.
- kindness (negative adjective --> UNKIND)
- politics (person noun --> POLITICIAN)

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR MORE GAMES TO PRACTISE THIS PART OF THE EXAM, TAKE A LOOK HERE.

20 commenti:

  1. I played this with my second year B2 students and it went so well. I love the idea, the concept and the fact its Use of English, but a game! They loved playing it! Thanks a million!

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Dear Shazbo,

      Thank you so much for your comment! I'm really glad you have enjoyed it!

      Larissa

      Elimina
  2. Hi Larissa,
    Just to let you know that we’ve shortlisted this blog post for this month’s TeachingEnglish blog award and I’ll be putting up a post about it on Saturday’s TeachingEnglish Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TeachingEnglish.BritishCouncil, if you’d like to check there for comments.

    Best,
    Ann

    RispondiElimina
  3. Dear Ann,

    Thank you so much. It's always my great honour to be shortlisted!

    Larissa

    RispondiElimina
  4. Larissa, che bella idea! Le griglie sono le stesse per tutti gli alunni oppure diverse?

    RispondiElimina
    Risposte
    1. Grazie cara! Io ho usato la stessa per facilitare il feedback. Se tieni conto del punto 5, però, è molto più divertente averne diverse!
      Un abbraccio,
      Lara

      Elimina
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    RispondiElimina