TABOO
I learnt to play this game during rainy nights in the USA. Each time I played it I thought I could be an equal participant of a native-speakers’ team. Was I smart enough to guess the words as quickly as native-speakers did? Did I know enough words to explain notions so that other people could easily understand me?
The game is very simple and at the same time useful as it teaches one to think in English and to express oneself.
The players are divided into two teams: A-team and B-team. A participant from the first team picks up a card and (not showing it to the other members of his team) tries to explain the meaning of the upper specific word without using the words written under it (or words of the same root). A participant from the second team has to supervise and stop the game if any of the taboo words are pronounced. The members of the first team are supposed to guess the upper word during a definite period of time (one or two minutes). If they can guess the word quicker, the same person takes the next card. The team which manages to guess more words wins.
If you think that this game is difficult for your students, you can change the rules and ask them to use the “taboo” words.
Don’t give the students a lot of time to think, they will be bored. If they can’t explain or guess the word, the card may be skipped. Make it a rule: if a person who explains a notion skips a card, his team looses one point.
Usually the cards are mixed, but you may pick up only one topic and check how the students remember vocabulary.
| jeans | tie | hat | mittens | scarf |
| pants | neck | head | wool | clothes |
| cotton | around | clothes | winter | neck |
| clothes | man | cap | hands | long |
| hen | cock | puppy | bird | snake |
| bird | hen | dog | fly | poison |
| domestic | male | cub | sing | long |
| egg | bird | animal | wing | bite |
| cabbage | milk | sugar | lemon | bread |
| vegetable | drink | sweet | yellow | bake |
| green | white | tea | fruit | wheat |
| round | children | white | sour | rye |
| Coca-Cola | chips | ice-cream | spaghetti |
| soda-water | potato | cold | macaroni |
| drink | food | tasty | Italy |
| brown | slice | food | long |
| school | book | chalk | maths | gym |
| teacher | read | blackboard | number | sport |
| pupil | paper | white | count | work out |
| building | writer | write | subject | exercise |
| sofa | curtain | carpet | oven | sink |
| furniture | window | floor | cook | kitchen |
| live | cloth | soft | bake | water |
| sit | theatre | cloth | kitchen | leak |
| actor | driver | director | dentist | secretary |
| film | car | boss | tooth | office |
| theatre | road | main | ache | type |
| play | wheel | manager | doctor | telephone |
Teaching steps:
1. Ask the students to prepare a riddle at home (“Describe an object from our classroom without naming it and let your classmates guess”). This practice will be helpful during the game.
2. Cut the cards from the newspaper and glue them to cardboard.
3. Divide your students into two teams. A fun way to do it with young learners is to play an animal game: whisper “a rhinoceros” to half of the students and “a spider” to the other half. Ask them to find their animal team with a help of mimics or sounds (no English or Russian words should be pronounced.)
4. Explain the rules.
5. Have fun!