Alphabet and Spelling Games

Simon Mumford, Turkey

Biodata: Simon Mumford teaches at the University of Economics, Izmir, Turkey. He enjoys designing language learning activities and edits the Practical Teaching Ideas column in IATEFL Voices. Email: simon.mumford@ieu.edu.tr

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Introduction
Guess the letter
Elimination spelling
Cooperative spell
Preposition anagrams
Spelling moves
Dictionary directory enquiries
Misheard words
Guess the word
Word formulas
Hesitation dictation
Conclusion

Introduction

Numerous spelling games already exist, but as long term vocabulary retention means seeing and hearing words in different contexts, this suggests a need for a greater variety of activities in this area. Different types of game will appeal to different types of students, some will enjoy listening, others working words out from formulas and spelling the words aloud. In addition, we can use the way spelling is used in authentic communication, eg for repair, as the basis for activities.

Guess the letter

This game works in reverse from most games, instead of finding the word from the letters, students have to find the letter from words. The teacher thinks of a letter and makes two lists on the board, one for words that contains the letter, and one that does not. Students call out words at random and the teacher puts them in the appropriate list. Skilled players can think of words that cover as many different letters as possible, then narrow down the possibilities by choosing shorter words. After seven guesses, students should be able to work out the teacher’s letter by looking at the lists. In the following example, the letter is P.

Elimination spelling

Choose a word and write a blank for each letter on the board. Going round the class, ask for one letter from each student. Those who choose a letter that is in the word are eliminated, so the idea is to try to find letters that are not in the word to stay in the game. This means that letters like X, Q, J, Z and X will go first. When a correct letter is given, it is written in the appropriate blank, and the student is out. As the game progresses, the word becomes clearer; students can see which letters to avoid. However, as each letter can only be used once, elimination is inevitable and the winner is the one who is left ‘in’ at the end. Write the alphabet on the board and cross out each letter once it has been said.

Cooperative spell

This is a more sophisticated game for higher-level learners. Tell students that, in pairs, they have to spell a word by saying alternate letters, but they are not allowed to tell the other which word they are thinking of. The words students think of will therefore probably change as the game progresses. You can, if you like, specify the first letter and/or the number of letters. Example:

T: Six letters beginning with L
S1: (thinking of little) L
S2: (thinking of letter) E
S1: (thinking of leader) A
S2: (thinking of leaves) V
S1: (seeing only one possibility) E
S2: S

Preposition anagrams

On the board, write an anagram of the word you want students to find, eg LEMON. Give instructions to make a new word, as follows: M is at the beginning of the word, N is at the end. E is next to M and O is before N, and L is between O and E. If they follow the instructions correctly, they should produce MELON. The anagrams, of course, do not necessarily have to be words themselves. Here’s another example: OR SHE: R in the middle, S is behind it, and O is in front. Put H next to O and then E on the end (=HORSE).

Spelling moves

This is a game will appeal to higher level learners who are competitive and like using logic. Draw five lines and place the two letters on the line at each end, eg D and R. In pairs, players take turns making words by moving one letter and adding any other letters they choose to fill the blanks. At the beginning of each turn, one of the letters must be repositioned, while the other stays where it is. The game continues until one player cannot make a new word. Note that the positions of the letters can be repeated, but not words. Here is a sample game:

The first player makes donor.
D _ _ _ R

The second player moves R to make drawn.
D R _ _ _

The first player moves D to make grade.
R _ _ D _

The second player moves D to make order.
R _ D _ _

The first player moves R to make rides,
R _ D _ _

and so on.

Dictionary directory enquiries

Choose a word from a dictionary (or other word list) at random for a student to spell. To make it more interesting, set the scene as follows: the teacher is calling directory enquiries on the telephone, and the word becomes the name of the person whose number he is trying to find. The student plays the person on the other end, who needs to know how to spell the word to find the number. The quickest way is to do this is to make a guess, which is then confirmed or corrected using contrastive stress. If there are enough dictionaries, students can play in pairs. Examples:

T: (Opening a dictionary at random.) Could you get me the number for Mr. System?
S: Is that S-I-S-T-E-M?
T: No, S-Y-S. (Stress on Y)
S: Oh, yes, it’s 1234567.
T: Thank you.

T: Could you get me the number for Mrs. Various?
S: Is that V-A-R-I-O-U-S?
T: That’s right.
S: 7654321.
T: Thank you.

Misheard words

Explain that some words sound similar and this can cause misunderstandings. Spelling the words out is one way of correcting these. The teacher says a sentence which he pretends to have misheard. The students must correct the mistake, stressing the correction and spelling the word out. You may need to do some work on minimal pairs before you start. Examples:

T:(Puzzled) John scored a girl?
S: No, John scored a goal. G-O-A-L!

T: (Puzzled) You had soap for lunch?
S: No, I had soup. S-O-U-P!

T: (Puzzled) You went to France by boot?
S: No, I went by boat. B-O-A-T!

T: (Puzzled) You had an ache for breakfast?
S: No, an egg. E-G-G!

T: (puzzled) Your neighbour gave you a cut?
S: No, she gave me a cat. C-A-T!

Other minimal pairs: Sheep/ship, sleep/slip, glass/grass, pray/play, house/horse, goat/coat etc.

Guess the word

Put a word on the board as follows: write the first and last letters with the other letters between represented by a number, so that Bread is B-1-2-3-D. Tell the students they have to find the word by nominating a letter for a position, eg A-1. They can say each letter of the alphabet only once, so if they nominate the letter A for position 1 they cannot use it for any other position. Record the incorrect letters used by writing them under the number chosen. In the example below, E has been guessed correctly, but the other letters are wrong, since A and R have been nominated for the wrong position, and L and N are not in the word. When students have been through the alphabet, or they are ready, they should try to guess the word.

B 1 E 3 D
A R
L N

Word formulas

Students have to recognize a word from its‘formula’, consisting of two letters of the word chosen at random, and the number of letters that follow each of them. For example, L3E1 is L followed by three letters then E followed by one, that is: L _ _ _ E _. The clue is part of a word, and the answer is LETTER. Students have to guess the word for each formula by matching them to the meanings. An example of an activity at elementary level follows:

The answers are: L3E1=letter (a part of a word), H1R2=horse (a large animal), T2N2=tennis (a sport), P1N=pen (something for writing), I2C4=icecream (something cold), H1T2=hotel (a place to stay), C2K2=cooker (a machine for making food hot), H4N3=happiness (a feeling), C2R2=carrot (a vegetable), T4E2=trousers (a piece of clothing).

Hesitation dictation

The hesitations umm and er are amongst the most common spoken word-forms in native-speaker English. They sound rather like the letters M and R. In this spelling dictation activity, students have to differentiate between actual letters M and R, and hesitations umm and er to write the words correctly, i.e. they should ignore the hesitations. Before you start, you could practise saying the ‘names’ of these letters (as opposed to the sounds they make) and also the hesitations. Students can play in pairs, practising their English hesitation forms. Note all words used contain M and R.

Examples:
B, er, E, D, R, umm, O, O, M= Bedroom (+ 2 hesitations)
M, A, er, R, umm, R, Y= Marry (+ 2 hesitations)
er, R, umm, E, M, A, umm, A, I, N= Remain (+ 3 hesitations)
M, O, umm, R, A, er, L = Moral (+2 hesitations)
M, er, I, R, umm, R, O, umm, R= Mirror (+ 3 hesitations)
R, umm, E, er, M, umm, E, M, B, er, E, R= Remember (+4 hesitations)

Conclusion

Many traditional word games tend to concentrate solely on word structure, i.e. spelling. Games can, however, also work on letter order using prepositions, correction and stress, roleplay, hesitation and using strategy, thus allowing for a variety of learning styles. Games like these help students to get enough practice saying the ‘names’ of the letters of the alphabet and can also allow them to play with spelling and have fun while getting a different perspective on words.

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