‘Mafia’ Will Make You Talk

Aziz Kholmatov, Uzbekistan

Aziz Kholmatov is an Associate Lecturer at Westminster International University in Tashkent. His current professional interest is conducting research on the role of humour in teaching foreign languages via Computer Assisted Language Learning; implementing humour techniques in teaching foreign languages as a means of motivating students. He enjoys working with different teaching techniques, which can help the students to progress in learning.

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Introduction
Overview: The game ‘Mafia’ for the language class
My own classes
Conclusion
References

Introduction

In many language classes, some shy or anxious students might be hesitant to speak in the foreign language. This may affect their learning process adversely, as according to Swain (2000, p99) in language learning “output pushes learners to process language more deeply – with more mental effort – than does input”, and it encourages them to try “to meet communicative goals”. In addition, using the language forms they acquire while speaking helps the learners internalize the learned input. In other words, language learners need to try to write and speak to make a better improvement.

At the same time, Krashen (2009) believes that the lower the learners’ anxiety is, the better they learn. Hence, creating an agreeable and stress-free learning atmosphere could positively encourage even the hesitant students to talk. In order to alleviate the stress that the learners might feel, positive humour (Chiasson, 2002), music in the background and interactive games are among the means that can be used.

According to Sánchez, Morfin and Campos games “help teachers to create a better teaching-learning process. They could be presented at different stages of the class at the appropriate moment to create a positive atmosphere while learning without thinking about learning” (2007, 47).

To this end, I have used a game called Mafia with my adolescent students. They seem to have enjoyed it and learned from it; and therefore, I would like to firstly share the rules of the game with you and then talk about my experience with the game in my own classes.

Overview: The game ‘Mafia’ for the language class

The game ‘Mafia’ is designed to be played in a group. The group is supposed to find the mafia among them through some discussions. At the very beginning, the participants are secretly assigned their roles by randomly choosing a card from the block of cards provided by the facilitator in which the role has been written on. The game has two phases: night time and daytime. At night the task of the mafia is to covertly ‘murder’ (eliminate) one of the citizens. During the day the citizens try to identify who mafia is by discussing and providing argumentation to support their choice. The mafia, too, joins at this phase, so that his/her identity would be kept hidden. Each participant has the right to express his/her opinion about who the mafia could be. If one participant is ‘accused’ of being the mafia, he/she can give counterarguments to defend himself/herself. The discussion is moderated by the facilitator and this role can be taken up by the teacher. Besides, other optional roles such as a doctor and police officer could also be assigned to the participants particularly if the group of players is large. The doctor saves the citizens during the night and police officer is supposed to identify the mafia via his/her investigation.

General information about the game:

• Roles: mafia/s, citizens, a doctor and a police officer, a moderator/ facilitator (mostly the teacher takes up the role of a moderator/facilitator but a student can also be selected as well.)
• Number of Participants: minimum 6, maximum 20
• Length of a round: depends on the number of the students; approximately 20 minutes for a round with a group of 18 students

What is needed:

• Cards: (may be prepared by a teacher on small sheets of paper or on small pieces of cardboard) they hold the assigned roles: mafia/s, citizens, a doctor, a police officer (as mentioned above, if the teacher would like to assign a student to the role of the facilitator/moderator, he/she can also deliver a card with this role).

The process:

1. The facilitator distributes the cards with the roles written on them among the participants. Each person is given a role then, which he/she should keep secret. The number of ‘mafias’ depends on the number of participants. For instance, in a group of 16-18 students, 3 to 4 roles can be assigned to mafias. On the other hand, if there are not many participants, the roles of the doctor or police officer can be omitted from the game.
2. After all roles have been assigned, the facilitator states that night has come and all participants should sleep.
3. Then the facilitator calls mafia/s to wake up. Mafia/s wake/s up and agree/s on the candidate to be ‘murdered’ (eliminated) that night by pointing at him/her. After the mafia/s choose/s the candidate and the facilitator is notified of this choice, the facilitator lets them go back to sleep.
4. Later, the facilitator calls the police officer to wake up and begin the investigation. The police officer selects that participant he/she is suspicious of and believes to be the mafia. The facilitator nods ‘yes’ if it is the right choice and ‘no’ if it is wrong. Then the police officer, too, gets back to sleep.
5. Afterwards the facilitator wakes up the doctor and the doctor chooses a participant who he/she wishes to save from being ‘murdered’. If the choice falls on the person who was previously selected to be “murdered” by the mafia/s, then this participant will be revived. In this case, mafia fails to ‘murder’ a person that night. It should be also mentioned that the doctor can choose himself/herself. However, this can be done only once.
6. Then the facilitator states that the day has come and everybody should wake up.
7. The facilitator informs the members about who was ‘murdered’ (eliminated) and who was ‘saved’ during the night. The participant who was ‘murdered’ will have to quit the game, but before he/she quits, he/she will have a chance to tell his/her opinion who the mafia could be.
8. Then the discussion and argumentation about who the mafia could be starts. If a participant is accused by other players of being mafia he/she can defend himself/herself by giving counterarguments (even if the participant’s role is truly a mafia he/she can defend himself /herself to stay undercover)
9. After the discussion ends, the players vote against the participants who they suspect to be the mafia. The player who receives the most votes against loses and has to quit. If the discussion was successful, the citizens can thus eliminate mafia (or one member of mafias); however, the citizens can on the contrary exclude one of the ‘innocent’ members (citizen/doctor/police officer) of their team if the discussion was not effective. In case a citizen/doctor/ police officer was voted against by majority, he/she can give his/her final speech in which he/she can share his/her opinion who the mafia could be.

The game continues until the mafia/s has/have been identified or until the mafia/s outnumber/s the rest of the citizens.

My own classes

The classes I have are part-time, pre-Foundation studies designed for 15-18 year-old students of lyceums and colleges who wish to study at Westminster International University in Tashkent. The main purpose of these courses is to help the students improve their knowledge of English and Mathematics. English is divided into two levels and it is called Basics of English for Academic Purposes (BEAP). BEAP 1 (the level I worked at) enhances the language skills of students from B1 level to B2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Therefore, at the end of the course the language proficiency of the students should be upper-intermediate.

There are normally 16-18 students in each group and they attend the classes twice a week. Overall, the students have four hours of class per week plus one- hour of extra-curricular activities such as reading clubs, movie clubs and discussion clubs all held in English. The language lessons cover all language skills.

It is sometimes difficult to make the students volunteer to do the speaking tasks during the lessons. It also happens that students answer, but with minimum use of their language knowledge. Therefore, in order to give the students more opportunities to express themselves in less lesson-framed conditions, I sometimes encouraged them to play games such as ‘Mafia’ as an extracurricular activity after the lessons. Depending on time, we played two up to three rounds of the game.

According to the rules of the game, the students have to express their opinion concerning the identity of the mafia/s or they have to defend themselves if they are suspected of being mafia/s, and this is exactly what we have done during the game. Playing this game and wishing to win it has encouraged the students to communicate in the target language more. The game itself has created a positive and light atmosphere so the students could express themselves without feeling anxious or stressed to use the foreign language. Besides, as the game is group-oriented, it has helped to enhance the student’s skills of working in a team and thus served as a good teambuilding tool. Hence, the results of using this game with the adolescent language learners have been quite positive. Most of the students who initially were not feeling confident to use their language during the lesson would practice their knowledge with their group-mates while playing this game. They were willing to express their opinions and arguments and defend themselves.

As a teacher, it is always interesting to observe the students and learn about the level of vocabulary and grammar that the students use while playing the game. The language the students use during the game is usually beyond what they use during the lessons.

Conclusion

All in all, creating a relaxed situation to practice the target language through activities such as interactive games may have positive effects on students’ language learning achievements. The game ‘Mafia’ as an extracurricular activity is a good example, as it provides the students with opportunities to exercise their language skills in a less controlled learning situation. As a result, the students have the opportunity to use the vocabulary and grammar forms that they have learnt and in short, to communicate in the foreign language they are learning more freely. Moreover, during the game, the students work in a team and this favourably affects teambuilding in the groups. Overall, the game ‘Mafia’ could be used not only as a good out of- class activity but also as an in-class speaking exercise.

References

Chiasson, P. (2002) Using Humour in the Second Language Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, 8 (3). Available from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Chiasson-Humour.html [Accessed 20 February 2017] Krashen, S. (2009). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition, 1st Internet Edition. Available from http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/books/principles_and_practice.pdf [Accessed 20 February 2017] Martínez Sánchez, M.M., Pérez Morfín, A. and Portillo Campos, V. E. (2007). Interactive games in the teaching process of a foreign language. Teoría y Praxis (4), 47 -66. Available from: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=456145112005 [Accessed 20 February 2017] Swain, M. (2000) The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. In: Lantolf, J. P. (ed.). Sociocultural Theory and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 97 -115.

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