This session proposes that grammar games can be a highly effective instructional strategy to improve grammatical range and accuracy, as well as increase learner motivation.
Participants will rank the grammar activities, and determine how they could be adapted to meet their learners’ needs.
Grammar Cards: There are different variations. A) Each team can have a full deck, and are given time to answer the questions. After, each team can choose which question they want to answer, and they receive a point for each correct response. B) One deck of cards is put on the front table, and a person from a team comes up and chooses a card. Each team has a few minutes to think of an answer. C) One deck of cards is dealt out to each team, and these are the questions they must try and answer. After, they can either read their answers out, or write them on the board. The other teams can try and steal the incorrect responses!
Two Truths and a Lie: To start, the teacher says or writes three statements: Two are true and one is a lie. The students must guess which is the lie, and Lady Gaga ‘Poker Face’ is essential! After, they can write their own, and either read them to the class, or mingle and talk to everyone and try and guess the lies. This is useful for reviewing tense (Simple past, present simple or present perfect).
Four Corners: The teacher posts the four cards on the walls (ABCD). Then the grammar questions are either read out, or shown on the screen. They must ‘vote with their feet,’ and go to the appropriate area. This is also great for reviewing reading and vocab.
Twenty Questions: The teacher thinks of a movie/celebrity/holiday/food, etc., and the students have to guess using only yes/no questions. This helps with the word order and tense in questions.
Back to the Board: One student comes to the front, and sits with their back to the board. The teacher writes a sentence on the board, e.g., The weather is lovely today. The other students must give them clues, and this requires using metalanguage (Language about language, e.g., the: definite article). Encourage them to use words versus only gestures. If the class if friendly, two students can try at the same time to see who is the fastest.
TPR (Total Physical Response): Sit Down If You’re Wearing: Everyone stands up and the teacher starts saying ‘Sit down if you’re wearing denim, buttons, blue, leather, a belt, running shoes, more than two bracelets, coloured socks, etc., and the last person standing is the winner. Variation: ‘Stand up if you were born in June, have more than two siblings, ate eggs for breakfast, have seen a movie this week,’ etc. This allows them to hear the grammar in a personally relevant context, and after they can tell you about themselves using the language. Another activity is ‘Scrambled Sentences’. The teacher hands each person on each team a word, and the teams must physically organize themselves so the sentence is grammatically correct.
Materials: Grammar dice (Verbs or pronouns on the dice), Dice: A student rolls a die (Each number represents a different form, e.g., 1: present simple, 2: question, 3: negative, etc.) and the team must make a sentence. Popsicle sticks: The teacher writes the present form of verbs on popsicle sticks, and puts the sticks in a cup so the students can’t see the words. They must take a stick and make a past tense sentence. If it is correct, they keep it; however, there are also sticks with an X, and if they get one of those, they lose two/all sticks.
Board games: There are printable and electronic board games online for many grammar points.
Online games (Can be used with the whole class or individually in the lab or at home) http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/levels/easy/index.html
PowerPoint games: https://tekhnologic.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/10-powerpoint-games/
Benefits of games: https://www.teachingenglishgames.com/why-teach-grammar-games
Games and teenagers: http://www.onestopenglish.com/teenagers/skills/games/