Snake Word/Ladder
Memory Game - Collocations
This activity allows the teacher to focus on students’ vocabulary knowledge, building on word strength and testing implicit knowledge of a particular topic.
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It is a timed activity and can be done to the teacher's discretion. Students work in teams or by row seating, and send a 'representative' to the board. The teacher writes a starting letter and the first student has to write a word beginning with that letter. The following student must write a new word beginning with the last letter from the previous word. For example:
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D
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Data
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Amount
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Tomorrow
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The words are written out linearly, forming a 'snake' (i.e. datamountomorrow)
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One critique I have of this activity is the linear fashion in which it is written. The overall effect can be hard to read, and may be frustrating to read. A simple modification given by a teacher, Varinder, whose lesson plan my class watched was simple and effective. Varinder had a similar format, but in lieu of making a full snake, she separated the words by drawing out a ladder. Keeping the words separated allows for easier reading, with the topic or theme keeping the words together.
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I have done similar games in my own language classes. They are a fun game without getting too competitive. The necessary tools are very minimal as well, all you need is a board and chalk/marker.
Favorite Classroom Activities
Here are three of my favorite classroom activities I have come across so far in my TESOL journey. Some have been edited to my teaching preferences. I have also included principles of instructed language learning developed by Rod Ellis to better relate how these activities can contribute to learning in your classroom.
All of these activities were found from the British Council's Teaching English website.
This activity also works on vocabulary knowledge and focuses on learning collocations within a particular topic. It is supposed to aid efficient memorization of the target language.
During class, write down word combinations/collocations that come up. Separate the collocations onto separate pieces of paper, with the first set laid out, face down; the second set will be jumbled. The students must combine the words into the proper collocation; if they produce something incorrectly, they can go over the proper phrase with classmates and the teacher.
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Example from a topic on environmentalism
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Ozone + layer
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Oil + spills
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Animal + poaching
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Matching games are always a fun, easy way to test vocabulary knowledge and the student can also learn more about collocations. They may be able to produce more than one correct output, which should give the teacher more opportunities to show the diversity of phrases. I like this game because it is a deviation on standard memory games, which can be stressful for some students. It provides a low-stakes pressure atmosphere as students can work individually or in pairs. One drawback is that this was set up with a two-word set phrase in mind, some collocations may be more complex. Also, renaming the game from might be wise, as relying on pure memorization is not conducive to retaining knowledge
Principle 2: Instruction needs to sure that learners focus predominantly on meaning - students will be working with vocabulary words and need to have a good breadth and depth understanding.
Principle 4: Instruction needs to be predominantly directed at developing implicit knowledge of the L2 while not neglecting explicit knowledge - students will need to have implicit understanding of vocabulary.
Principle 5: Instruction needs to take into account the learner’s built-in syllabus - I took this to mean lexicon, and as the student learns more of the target language, their built-in syllabus will continue to grow, this game help strengthen words into their vocabulary, while testing implicit knowledge.
Ellis' Principles
Ellis' Principles
Principle 1: Instruction needs to ensure that learners develop both a rich repertoire of formulaic expressions and a rule-based competence - the memory game relies on making collocations for a given topic.
Principle 2: Instruction needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning - students will be learning about collocations and need to focus on meanings of separate words, and what the combinations of words mean.
Principle 7: successful instructed language learning also requires opportunities for output - this can apply both for students writing their answers out, and if there is an added verbal component.
Hot Seat
This is great for working with vocabulary breadth, and depth. Its also a good activity for bringing the energy of the class back up.
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Split your class into different teams (if you have a small class, one student can be sent at a time with the entire class helping), with all students facing the board. Each team will send a 'representative' to sit in a chair with their backs to the board. These chairs are the 'hot seat.' The teacher will write the vocabulary word on the board, which the students in the hot seat cannot see. Each student will be tested on a vocabulary word, whoever can guess correctly the fastest will win their team a point.
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The student's team cannot directly say the vocabulary word. Rather, they must describe the word using synonyms, antonyms, definitions, and so on to their team mate who is in the hot seat. The student in the hot seat must figure out the correct word before the other team's representative does. When the word is correctly guessed, each team will send a new representative to the hot seat, and a new word will be written on the board.
This game allows the teacher freedom to pick and choose a variety of topics, and is good for practicing vocabulary before a quiz or exam. It can bring out a strong competitive nature in some students, so the teacher should be aware of this when separating students into teams.
Ellis' Principles
Principle 2: Instruction needs to ensure that learners focus predominantly on meaning - as with the previous two activities, the Hot Seat focuses on vocabulary and the students' implicit knowledge of the meaning of words. This includes being able to successfully talk about synonyms and antonyms.
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Principle 7: Successful instructed language learning also requires opportunity for output - this activity gives both the person in the hot seat, and their teammates opportunities to not only produce the correct form, but chances to talk about the word in less explicit ways. Learning to give the answer by talking around it gives students an opportunity to work with the language in an indirect manner.
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Principle 8: The opportunity to interact in the L2 is central to developing L2 proficiency - this activity allows students to engage with each other in a new context. It allows for more free production than more traditional activities that follow a script do. Students can be more creative in their language output, and may produce non-traditional (but still correct) clues.