Room 20: EFL Thoughts

Since I started remembering what English teaching was years ago, I thought I’d continue. I remembered two techniques we used years ago that seem to have disappeared. They really weren’t very “communicative”, but students enjoyed them. I’ll describe them briefly.

Materials: A large sheet of paper. (Big enough for everyone to see from their seats.) Color markers.
Preparation: Draw a grid on the sheet, either 3×4 or 4×4. In the top three/four boxes either draw (or paste magazine photos) three/four different people (could be family members), one per box. Outline each box with a different color. In the bottom boxes, draw (or paste photos) different activities/belonging (for have)/occupations (for be). You can even add a clock for time relation. Outline each box with the color that represents the person in the upper boxes who is related to the activity/belonging/occupation.
In class: Put the AV on the wall and be sure students know the vocabulary involved. Then, in groups they can make sentences about the people and their activities or ask each others questions about each one.

(2) The Lady or the Dragon. We used this game to review any structure. Basically it is just an artifice for any two-team game. Instead of just counting points, you use the drawing. It might seem very childish, but adults and adolescents enjoyed it.

Preparation: Draw a princess tied to a stake with 4-6 ropes visible on one side of the board. Draw a horrible dragon on the other side. Draw 4-6 (the same number as the ropes) ocean waves between them.
The game: Form two teams. One team is the princess and one is the dragon. When the princess team gets a point, erase one of the ropes. When the dragon gets a point, erase a wave. The princess team wins when there are no more ropes and the princess escapes. The dragon team wins when there are no more waves and the dragon eats the princess.