… una persona famosa

… cosa hai mangiato … un luogo che ricordi

che vorresti conoscere
oggi. dalla tua infanzia.
e perchè.

… il film più triste che

… dove ti piacerebbe … il tuo negozio hai mai visto, o il libro
vivere e perchè. preferito. più triste che hai mai
letto.

… il tuo/la tua migliore … una stella del cinema

… il tuo programma
amico/a della scuola che non ti piace e
televisivo preferito.
primaria. perchè non ti piace.

… la peggior vacanza
… qualcosa che ti dà
che hai mai fatto. … la tua 'bestia nera'.
veramente fastidio.
 … la tua canzone e
… un posto in cui … una persona di cui ti
brano musicale
odieresti vivere e ricordi dalla tua
preferito.
perchè. infanzia.

… il tuo animale …il tuo insegnante

domestico l’animale preferito a scuola e … il tuo hobby o
che ti piacerebbe cosa ti piaceva in interesse.
avere. particolare di lui/lei.

… qualcosa di bello che … uno/a sportivo/a

… il tuo/la tua migliore
ti è successo questa famoso/a che ti piace e
amico/a attualmente.
settimana. perchè.
PARLA PARLA PARLA
DI… DI… DI…
  

PARLA PARLA PARLA

DI… DI… DI…
  

PARLA PARLA PARLA

DI… DI… DI…
  

PARLA PARLA PARLA

DI… DI… DI…
  
It's on the Cards: Adapting a Board-game
Communicative Activity
Bob Gibson, Free University Berlin

Many of you will know Friederike Klippel's 'Keep Talking'

(Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers, 1984; ISBN 0
521 27871 6), a collection of 'communicative fluency activities'
for the classroom. One of my favourite activities in the book is
the 'Values Topics' board game, in which players take turns
throwing the dice and talking about the topic specified in the
squares on which they land.
One feature of this game about which I'm ambivalent, however,
is the fact that players are able to see beforehand all the topics
they might have to talk about. Certainly, this can be
advantageous. On an affective level, weaker or less confident
students have a chance to prepare what they're going to say. In
psycholinguistic terms, the availability of topics can pre-activate
appropriate schemata and lexical resources.
Equally, though, there are drawbacks to the board game format.
For one thing, you may want to discourage preparation of
possible turn topics, especially as this often takes place at the
expense of actually listening to what other players have to say.
What's more, the game as it stands is a major activity, which
requires a big chunk of classroom time. You can cut the game
short, of course, but students seldom take kindly to any
curtailment--especially if they've invested serious effort in
planning what to say about upcoming topics!
One way around both these problems is to turn the board game
into a card game. The topics are put onto separate cards which
are shuffled and placed face-down on the desk. Players take the
topmost card, and when they have said their piece the card is
returned to the bottom of the pile. Players don't know which
topics will come up, thus preserving something of the
excitement but cutting out preparation. If you've ever looked for
an authentic context for your students to practise 'hesitation'
expressions ('ummm...'; 'aaah...';'let me see...') then this is ideal.
The time required for the game can easily be controlled by
limiting the number of cards available. Even if you have to stop
a card game part-way, however, the disappointment factor
seems to be much less than with the board game version.
Another advantage is that cards are easier to produce than
boards. You can thus have students work in more and smaller
groups--which of course maximises each player's talking time.
You can inject as much or as little organisation into producing
cards as you choose. For example, you may find it helpful to
colour-code cards with topics such as 'Tell us about the different
jobs you've had' or 'Tell us about what's in your bedroom',
which target tenses and prepositions. As well as making it easier
for you to make up balanced sets of cards, colour-coding offers
players a hint that they should pay attention to a particular
aspect of their language.
As I regularly use http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Gibson-
BoardGame.html as a warm-up activity (or in evening classes
where students are not always punctual), I need to keep the
range of topics fresh. I've found it useful to give each card an
identifying number, as this allows me to keep track of which
cards have been used. I can then recycle particular topics and
add new ones, as well as weed out topics which don't seem to
work well or are inappropriate to a particular group.
Taken over from Klippel's original board game is the idea of
making a proportion of cards 'free' topics, in which either the
speaker or her/his fellow players decide the topic. In some
situations you may prefer to hand out blank cards onto which
students write their topics (Remember to edit out inappropriate
suggestions!) before the game begins, as this cuts out any first-
language haggling over what the 'free' topic should be.
Technical notes: You might be surprised at the thickness of card
which will go through a photocopier, and using heavier material
will of course make your card-sets last longer. In many places
you can even buy A4 sheets of pre-perforated 'business cards',
and photocopying your master pages onto these lets you
prepare card-sets very quickly indeed.
Moving a 'Values Topics' type board game onto individual cards
lets you fit the activity into smaller slots of time, and encourages
spontaneous student speech. Next time you're looking for a
flexible 'warmer' or 'filler' activity, why not give it a try?

The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. II, No. 4, April 1996,

http://iteslj.org