Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 3; May 02

by Mario Rinvolucri

Level: intermediate to advanced

Preparation: add another twenty questions to twenty given below. Photocopy the 40 questions so each student can be given a copy. Ask the students to bring in 10 sweets each to this class. Have a watch with a second hand with you.

Aim: to offer the students snippets of listening comprehension which they have to decode and respond to fast. To have students experience the difference between listening under stress and listening in a more relaxed way. ( they relax when "eliminated" from the quiz.

In class:

1. Collect all the sweets from everyone.
   
   
2. Divide your class into teams of around 6 people and ask them to sit in tight clusters, facing you in a semi-circle. Number the teams.
   
   
3. Explain that you are going to do an elimination quiz with the class. The quiz will consist of language and general knowledge questions. Tell the students the first round will last 4 minutes.
   
   
4. Put your first question to the first team and give them 10 seconds to consult with each other. When they give the answer tell them if it was right or wrong + give them the right answer. Each correct answer is worth five sweets- keep a score sheet.
   And now the second question to the second team.
   
   Stop the round when 4 minutes are up or when you have asked each team one question.
   
   
5. Now explain that, after the first round they have a right to throw out the "weakest link team " - they have to decide which team to eliminate from the quiz.
   
   Give them two minutes to consult in their teams of six and then ask each team to declare which team they feel should go. Ask some of the teams to justify their vote. Do this is a fast, crisp way.
   
   The majority decision holds – ask the "weakest link" to leave the semi-circle of teams and sit where they can watch the rest of the quiz. ( if there is a voting tie, toss a coin to decide which team to eliminate).
   
   
6. Proceed with Round 2 as in steps 4 and 5. At the end of the round again they vote on which team to exclude.
   
   
7. Continue until only two teams remain. They are the winners and take all the sweets that have been won- see your scoresheet.

Note 1: Conduct the quiz is a sharp, critical way. Don't make life easy for the teams.
Read the quiz questions fast and do not repeat.

Note 2: Some teachers of a humanistic frame of mind object to competition, as they see this as a mean side to human nature. They emphasise collaboration.
I see collaboration and competition as being naturally closely intertwined, as they are in this game. Within the teams there is tight collaboration. Between the teams there is fierce competition.

Variation : Preparing a quiz like this is quite time-consuming. Why not get one of your classes to prepare a set of quiz questions that you can then use in another of your classes? In doing this the quiz setters learn a lot more language than you will! In Lesson from the Learners, Sheelagh Deller exhorts us to stop doing " busy work" and to get the students doing it.

Acknowledgement: This game is a simplified version of a UK TV quiz game called " The Weakest Link".

1. Spelling: how do you spell immigrant?

2. Grammar: What are the two past tense forms of the verb to hang?

3. Proverbs: Can you finish this well known proverb: a stitch in time saves……..

4. Pronunciation: How do you pronounce this word : t h r o u g h?

5. Translation: Can you put this sentence into your language: I've been sitting here for over two hours.

6. Word definition: If you heard this definition what word would come to mind: – the mouth of a river comprising many different channels with mud between them.

7. Geography: Which is the longest of these two rivers, the Nile or the Amazon?

8. History: Which year did Joseph Stalin die in?

9. Number work: Suppose you heard these numbers 12, 36 and 48, what would that come to if you add them all together?

10. Pop culture: Can you think of a film and a song that had " yellow" in the title as well as the word for a special kind of boat?

11. Spelling: which way do you spell Thai when it means a person's nationality?

12. Grammar: how would you spell the plural of the word thesis?

13. Proverbs: which are the two words missing from the start of this saying:
…………. doesn't make a summer.

14. What are the two pronunciations in English for this word that I am going to spell out : u s e ?

15. How would you say this in your language: better late than never?

16. What's the place in a harbour where a ship can float in and then the water can be drianed away from round it?

17. Washington is to New York as…what ….. . is to Sydney?

18. The Treaty of Westphalia ended which very long European war?

19. If you multiply 13 by 5, what do you get?

20. Which singer, from a group that makes you think of a German car, has received a knighthood?

Key:

2. hanged and hung ( they must have got both)
3. nine
6. delta
7. the Nile
8. 1953
9. 96
10.Yellow Submarine
12. Theses
13 One swallow…
16 dry dock
17 Canberra
18. The Thirty Years War
19. 65
20. Sir Paul McCartney

Only accept perfect answers
No kindness!