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Unread Apr 22nd, 2013, 02:22 am
LouannePiccolo LouannePiccolo is offline
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Join Date: Oct 14th, 2010
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Default Re: Adult Conversational Class Ideas

If you sit down and write up a list of grammatical points and language structures (a mini-curriculum) they need to revise and then another list that you should do with them for them to improve their English, you may get a clearer idea of the kinds of games you can play and in which order. For the moment, I get the impression that there's not much structure and that will only make you anxious and your students will end up feeling like they having learnt anything.

Here are some ideas:
- To revise closed (yes/no) questions and to teach vocabulary, I often use a game called Qui est-ce, here in France. Students play in pairs. They each have a card with lots of different pictures according to a theme (animals, children, monsters, household appliances etc.). The cards are the same for both partners. They must choose to be one of the pictures without telling their partner who they are. The aim is to ask only yes/no questions to try and find out who your partner is. For ex: you can ask "Have you got red hair? Are you a girl? Is your t-shirt pink? Have you got glasses? You can find this game on Amazon or make it yourself.
- To revise -wh questions you can always use Trivial Pursuit. Find a version that's in your students' mother tongue so that they have to translate the questions into English (to make it more difficult) or use an English version if you want it to be a little easier. This revises -wh questions, the passive voice, vocabulary, sentence order, gerund etc.
- Jeopardy is great to revise whatever you like as it's you who chooses the categories in the game. Draw up a grid on the board with 5 columns and 5 rows. Make each column a category for ex: prepositions, questions, vocabulary, passive voice etc. and make each row an amount of money, for ex: 100-500 euros/dollars. Each student has a turn to play a category for a certain amount of money. For ex: student A might choose prepositions for 200 euros. You then give him a sentence to complete with the correct preposition such as "I ran (along) the corridor". If he answers correctly he wins the 200 euros, if not someone else can play for his money. Once the question has been answered correctly, you cross it off and it cannot be replayed. The student with the most money at the end wins.

These 3 games are complex enough for you to be able to play them more than once to learn different structures or points. So, they may bore your students less. You can always stop the game to explain an element of grammar if you see that your students have not mastered it which means that they are also learning and not just playing games. In fact, I think you should! However, I must stress that if your students really want to learn English, there is no quick-fix solution. They may have to sit down and do more classical classroom work from time to time. They can't expect to just play games without any structure and get their money's worth in the end.

I hope this helps!
Louanne
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