Off the Beaten Path: Training Games
Hall Houston, Taiwan
Hall Houston has many years of teaching experience at universities in Taiwan and Hong Kong. His first book, The Creative Classroom, was published in 2007 by Lynx Publishing (www.lynxpublishing.com). He is currently working on his second book. His professional interests include cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, creativity and critical thinking. E-mail: hallhouston@yahoo.com
Menu
Introduction
Macro Micro
Sharing Information
Brainstorm with Post-Its
Challenging Role-Plays
Pieces of a Postcard
Hit the Buzzer
Grab Bag Review
Calendar Review
Ticket Out
Resources
In a previous issue, I presented several party games that could be used in a language teaching setting. In this issue, I will introduce some activities from the world of business training. Some can be used as warm-ups and fillers, and others can be used to review material covered in the lesson.
Prepare a story for the class. Before you tell the students the story, write the words MICRO and MACRO on the board. Instruct them to use these two phrases to change the focus of the story. If a student wants more information about the current part of the story, he should call out “MICRO! ” and you should start going into more detail. If a student wants you to reduce the amount of detail, she should call out “MACRO!” After a couple of minutes, put students in pairs and have them continue the activity, with one student telling the story, and the other calling out one of the commands from time to time.
Give each student 10 markers, such as paper clips, toothpicks, or bookmarks. Put students into groups of 3 or 4. Have members of the groups take turns telling others one piece of information about themselves (I have three children, I like football, I can play the guitar). If others in the group share the same trait or interest, the speaker should give them a marker. If not, the speaker should take a marker from them. After a few minutes, put students into new groups and repeat.
Give each student 12 post-its. Briefly introduce a problem related to the topic of your lesson. Ask students to jot down a solution on each post-it without talking. When they’re finished writing, students should put their post-its on a wall or the blackboard. Their next task is to organize all the post-its into categories. Finally ask students to sit down. Use the post-its to guide a discussion of the problem and some possible solutions.
Ask the class to think of a difficult situation, where it would be unusually hard to use the target language. Some examples: asking an unfriendly person for directions, or pretending to be knowledgeable about a field you know nothing about. Have each student write one situation on an index card. They should describe two roles, one of which is the language learner. Collect the cards and redistribute, so that everyone has another student’s idea. Put students in pairs. Ask them to role play the situations on their cards.
Before class, collect some postcards. You should have half the number of postcards as you have students (5 postcards for 10 students). Think of several questions (one for each postcard) related to the topic of your next lesson and write one on each postcard.. Cut each card in half with zigzag or wavelike patterns. At the beginning of class, distribute the pieces and instruct students to find the partner who has the matching postcard piece, then sit down and discuss the question on their card. Then ask each pair to read out their question and share their answers.
Bring a buzzer, bell or other noisemaker to class. Give each student 3 index cards, and ask them to write down a question and correct answer on each card, based on what they have learned in previous classes. Remind them of the different types of questions (yes or no, multiple choice, true or false, short answer, fill-in-the-blank). Encourage students to look over their cards for errors. Now arrange students in a circle, and put the buzzer in the center of the circle on a table or desk. Students take turn reading out their questions. If a student knows the answer, he or she should dash to the buzzer, hit the button, and say the answer. The writer of the question should acknowledge if the answer is correct. Continue until all students have asked one or two questions.
At the end of a lesson, ask each student to write down a new word or phrase they learned during the lesson on an index card, along with a sentence that makes the meaning of the word clear. Ask students to put their cards in a bag. Shake the bag, then get students to each take one card out of the bag. They should return the card if they draw the one they wrote down, and get another one. Ask each student to read out their word or phrase, as well as the sentence.
Bring a large calendar to class. Point to the date of a previous lesson and challenge students to write down everything they remember about it in 5 minutes. They can write down any words and grammar they learned during the lesson, but they are welcome to write anything else down, such as the weather that day, what a particular student wore to class, or something funny that happened in class. Put students in groups of 4 to discuss their notes for 10 minutes. Then ask each group to give the class a summary of what they remember.
During the last 7-10 minutes of class, give each student an index card. Tell them to write 4 items on the card, 2 things they learned during class and 2 questions they have. Stand near the door, and tell them they must hand you the card with all 4 items on the way out. You can use the cards to get feedback on what students learned and what they would like to know more about.
Books
Bowman, Sharon L. (2005). The ten-minute trainer. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Kroehnert, Gary. (1999). 101 more training games. Roseville, Australia: McGraw Hill.
Pike, Bob with Christopher Busse. (1995). 100 games for trainers. Minneapolis: Lakewood Books.
Pike, Bob with Christopher Busse. (1995). 100 more games for trainers. Minneapolis: Lakewood Books.
Websites
Thiagi.com - Training Games
www.thiagi.com/games.html
Sharon Bowman - Articles
www.bowperson.com/articles.htm
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the ow to teach English to Business People course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the English for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
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