Jazz Up Your Lesson
1. Love or Hate?
This is a pair game aimed at intensive interaction in between students.
The students get the chart with useful phrases that help them to speak about what they like and what they do not like. They read and translate (if necessary) the phrases.
Then the students get together in pairs and ask each other about their preferences. After a while, the process of exchanging opinions stops and every student tells others what he/she has just learnt about likes and dislikes of his/her partner.
| LIKES: | DISLIKES: |
| I enjoy doing something… | I don’t really like… |
| I really like… | I hate… |
| I really care for… | I am fed up with… |
| I am keen on | I can’t stand… |
| I am longing for… | I loath… |
| I adore… | I suffer greatly from… |
| I am looking forward to doing something… | It is disgusting when… |
| I have a strong desire to see something… | It bores me when/to... |
| I would really love to go somewhere… | It makes me cross when... |
| I am fond of… | It makes me feel sick when... |
| ... appeals to me greatly. | I would rather die than… |
| ... attracts my attention. | ... is not my cup of tea. |
2. New Personality Game
For this games it is not important whether students know each other.
Each student makes a badge for him/herself. He writes his/her new, imaginary name, age, job, country.
After making badges, the students write a small personal introduction (2 minutes long) including the information from the badge and some facts about his/her likes and dislikes.
(If the level of the students is comparatively low, the teacher may prefer to give the following scheme as linguistic support:
| My name is ____________________________________.
My family name is _______________________________. I’m ______ years old. I work as a ____________________________. I’m from _____________. I come from ______________. I live in __________________. I like doing ____________________________________. I don’t like doing ________________________________. |
For describing likes and dislikes you may prefer to use the table from Exercise 1.)
After the texts are ready every student makes a self-presentation. Others listen to him and fill in the proposed chart, gathering information about everybody.
Chart:
| Name: | Age: | Job: | Country: | Likes: | Dislikes: |
After the presentations are made, the students read out their table, telling the information they managed to get from their partners. (Try to make sure that nobody speaks about him/herself.)
You may also wish to play a couple of active games on the topic.
“With love from me to you”
All the students stand in a circle. The first player has a ball (a soft toy will also do). He says “My name is … and this is with love from me to Sally” and throws the ball or a toy to Sally. Sally says “Thank you. I’m Sally. This is with love from me to Mike.” Thus a ball or a toy should pass, eventually, to everybody’s hands.
“Beyond the cover”
The students take off their badges and are divided in two teams. Two people take a blanket and hold it between the teams, so that the teams do not see each other. One person from every team comes closer to the blanket.
The blanket falls and the students should remember the name of the person in front of them. The one who says the name first is the winner, who brings 1 point to his/her team. The game may be played up till 10 points, for instance.
3. Invitations Game
This game is aimed at training social skills and activating the vocabulary concerning making arrangements.
The students may read the following chart of useful questions and replies and keep it during the game as a crib.
Chart:
| QUESTIONS: | REPLIES: |
| What are your plans for Monday night? | No plans. Why? |
| What will you do on Tuesday? | I will be outside the city. |
| Why don’t we go to the movies on Wednesday? | Unfortunately, I can’t. I’ve already got plans. Thank you anyway. |
| Let’s go to the party on Thursday! | That would be perfect. |
| Can we meet and talk on Friday? | Sure, with pleasure. |
| What about meeting on Saturday? | No, I’m sorry, I’m busy. |
| Will you join me on Sunday for a cup of tea? | That’s a great idea! |
After reading and translating (if necessary) the chart, the students mix and talk to each other trying to invite a friend to every day occasion.
When the teacher stops the process the students share the results.