Circle Of Death Grammar Game

A year ago I was brainstorming ideas that I could use with my professional students in our talk sessions. Sometimes it's not easy to get people talking, especially when it's the middle of the day and they are thinking about whatever needs to get done in the afternoon. I like to use as many games as possible as discussion topics are often monotonous and tiresome.

I took the idea for this exercise directly from a drinking game, I admit. I created two versions: the upper-intermediate/advanced version, and the pre-intermediate/intermediate version. The version I'm sharing in this post is my upper-intermediate/advanced version.

To play this game, you need a group (4+) and a traditional deck of 52 cards, jokers included.
The deck is passed from player to player and one at a time, they draw a card. Depending on what they draw, they must complete a task (see list below). They earn and lose points depending on how correct their answers are, and the game can be played indefinitely, as long as you can renew the deck and keep them talking. I use this game during a one-hour long talk session.

There are two types of tasks: grammar-related and amusing tasks. That keeps it light and fun. And as always, students of all ages love competition -- they will really enjoy giving and taking points from each other.

I recommend having enough print-outs of this game for every other student so that they can consult the list when they draw their card.

Without further ado, here are the rules for the Circle of Death Grammar Game for adult learners of ESL, upper-intermediate/advanced level:

Circle of Death Grammar Game

Rules:

Sit in a circle, each player draws a card and completes the corresponding action.

Evens – Questions on the right

Odds – Questions on the left

Correct answer = +5 points

Incorrect answer = - 5 points

2's : Ask a question to the person on your right using a superlative.

3's : Ask a question to the person on your left using “ever” .

4's : Ask a question to the person on your right using a regular past tense verb of your choice.

5's : Ask a question to the person on your left using an irregular past tense verb of your choice.

6's : Ask a question to the person on your right using the future tense.

7's : Ask a question to the person on your left using “would”.

8's : Ask a question of your choice to the person of your choice.

(Now for some fun..)

9's : You become the rule master. You can make any rule for the table to follow. Failure to follow the rule results in the loss of 10 points. 

10's : Stand up and mime an animal. The first person to guess correctly gets 10 points.

Jacks : “Categories” – Choose a category and each player must say a word in the category. The first player who can't think of a word in the category loses 10 points.

Queens: “7's” : Going in a circle, each player must count by 7 (7..14..21..etc) and the first player to make a mistake loses 10 points.

Kings: “Truth?” Ask the player of your choice a truthful question. +5 for asking and +5 for answering.

Aces: The teacher makes a rule for all of the players to follow. Failure to follow the rule results in the loss of 10 points. 

Joker: You can choose to add ten points to your score or to subtract ten points from the player of your choice. 

Upper-intermediate/Advanced Talk Session

At my "real" job in the web world, I host Talk Sessions twice a week during lunch. The Tuesday group is my upper-intermediate/advanced level, and my Thursday group is my pre-intermediate/intermediate group. Both groups do similar exercises but at their own level which I think is particularly cool from a teacher's perspective because it cuts down on planning time. This is something that I always strive to do -- find one central topic that can be expanded or reduced depending on the level. It was the same strategy I used when teaching little kids and it adapted very nicely to adults.

A few weeks ago, I came across some silly riddles on the internet, sort of "Whodunnit?" kind of scenarios. The answers were always the most ridiculous yet obvious scenario imaginable, but before they found the answers/were given the answers, they spent a lot of time talking it out using language for putting forth an idea,  making a suggestion, agreeing and disagreeing, and dispelling each other's ideas based on the facts. I found it to be a constructive lesson because we were able to use a wide range of vocabulary and expressions and in the end everybody was laughing. As I've said before, laughter is a key element and because these are "talk" sessions, they are meant to be fun.

I found them online.. not sure who to credit because variations of them exist everywhere. I'll just make it clear that I didn't invent any of these scenarios, but I did very much enjoy using them.

Without further ado...

1. A man in a lift

A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the

ground floor to go to work or to go shopping. When he returns he takes the elevator to the

seventh floor and walks up the stairs to reach his apartment on the tenth floor. He hates walking

so why does he do it?

02. A man walks into a bar

A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and

points it at the man. The man says thank you and leaves. Why?

03. Dead man in a field

A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is an unopened package. There aren’t any

animals in the field. How did he die?

04. Anthony and Cleopatra

Anthony and Cleopatra are lying dead on the floor of a villa in Egypt. Nearby is a broken

bowl. There is no mark on either of their bodies and they were not poisoned. How did they

die?

05. A carrot, some coal and a scarf

Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the lawn. Nobody put them on the

lawn but there is a perfectly logical reason why they are there. What is it?

06. Two sons

A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same

year. But they were not twins. How could this be possible?

07. A woman pushing a car

A woman was pushing her car. She stopped pushing when she reached a hotel and then

realized she was bankrupt. Why?

08. Heaven

A man died and went to Heaven. He saw thousands of people there all naked and young. He saw

a couple and he immediately recognized them as Adam and Eve. How did he know?

09. Friday

A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and then left on Friday. Explain.

10. Manhole covers

Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?

11. Sudden realization

A man was walking downstairs in a building when the lights went out. Suddenly he realised that

his wife had just died. How?

12. The blind beggar

A blind beggar had a brother who died. What relation was the blind beggar to the brother who

died? (Brother is not the answer).

13. Another dead body

The dead  body of a man was found in the middle of a burnt forest. He was wearing only

swimming trunks, a snorkel and diving mask. What had happened?

14. Mystery suicide

One stormy night, a person switches on the TV and watches the news. The person leaves the

room in a rush, runs up the stairs and turns on the light. Then the person commits suicide. Why?

Mad Gabs: Pronunciation and listening practice

Last Thursday I taught what must have been one of my most successful "talk sessions" ever. For my students, a talk session is where a large group (up to 15 people) of a similar level get together to do just that: talk. I facilitate the conversation, I interject questions when things start to go dry, or I orchestrate games or debates. This week with a group of upper-intermediate to advanced students, I decided to take the talk to a new level and concentrate on pronunciation.

There is a great board game that I remembered playing back in America called "Mad Gabs". Basically you have a card with what looks like nonsense written on it and you have to read it out loud until you figure out what you are saying. To take a really simple example, "Bri Tinys Pears" would be, as you probably guessed, "Britney Spears".

My objective was to force the students to stop depending on the written words in front of their face and to open their ears. I wanted to put everybody on an equal playing field by getting everybody just outside of their "comfort zone" rather than having one or two students with more confidence guessing all of the answers.

The way I set the game up was by having students read phrases off of a paper that were written how they sound and not how they should be spelled. Words ran into each other -- "aryagona getta kupa kofy" -- to get them thinking about where we put liasons in speech. Depending on where the native English speaker is from liasons can happen almost anywhere so this is tricky, but making students aware is the first step.

After everybody had read a phrase and was sufficiently relaxed/prepared, we started the game. I made it into an individual competition rather than a team or partners exercise by having each student read a phrase and the first person to guess it correctly was awarded the point. It took a lot of coaxing -- "you are doing great, repeat it again please" -- to get them into it, but by the end of the hour we were all laughing and they truly couldn't get enough of it. I have already decided that I will try this tomorrow with a slightly lower level of students to test how it will go, and that this will be a game my higher level students will play again in the future.

Here are the "warm up" phrases that I had the students read: 

Shwist Art Nao
Dywanna gedda koghy?
Eyve taleve
Ahye Gonaseim Biforee Gos?
Shizbin Promo Tidd
Shewiz Let
Didjego Winto Theofiz

And without further ado, the Mad Gabs printables that I found here: 

Isle of View

Easel Aid Ease Man

Eye Pillow Fizz Sigh

Of Lions Quarrel

Downed Rink Hand Arrive

Dew Wino Hue

Sea Can’t Higher Dove Fit

Ape Hand Hub Hair

Pretty Shack Scent

Dant Sir

Ail huck each arm

Brit Knees Peers

Black Beer Herd

Bon Knee Ankle Hide

By Chore Dung

Abe An An Appeal

Abe Autumn Lisp Hit

Abe Ax Tree Tally

Abe Hum Pen Thin Height

Ago Tidy Yeah

Ahems Hand Which

Ace Date Tough Gay Hoss

Ace Heck Hunch Ants

Ace Kits Offer in Hick

Ace Leap Lesson Height

Ace Lie Soap Eye

 Ace Nose Dorm

Ace Pea Ding Tea Kit

 Ache Hand He Eye Pull

Ache Hick Kin Tub Hut

Ache How Cue Later

Ache Leans Hurt

Ache Off Cores

Ache Up Puck Off He

Acre Hill Uh

 Age High Knees West Want

 Aged Who Woe

Agree Nap Hull

 Backed Ooze Queer Won

Bagged Who Thief Huge Her

Baldy Gull

Aid Are Crank Loud

Aid Arrive Her Slice Sins

Aid Hay Huff Ache Asian

Bee Way Rough Thud Hog

Bet Relate Thin Heifer

Aid Inn Hearse Owl Add

Aim Adder Rough Open Yen

Monk Ease

 Can Grew

Cause Mid Ticks Urge Jury

 Aim Hiker Owes Cope

Aim Honey Bag Care Runt He

Aim Other Ranch Howled

Aim Us Key To

Aim Who Vi


Stumped as to what they could be? Read them out loud as you'd have your students do until you find the answers! I'll post the answers next time so that you can test how you did.

This is only a selection of the phrases Wuzzles and Puzzles had available, so feel free to check out their site to get more. To make it more adapted to a particular group  you could even go as far as to make your own with key expressions and vocabulary words for their jobs/needs. I could have included something like "Gew Gull Anna Lit Tics" for my favorite web analyst, for example.


Thinking about giving it a try? Print off the list, cut them apart and let the games begin.
How do you practice pronunciation and listening with your students?