Activity: vocabulary tennis

This is an activity that requires no setting up and can be done at the drop of a hat just the kind of activity that I love to have in my toolbox! Essentially, the idea is to promote automatization through quick responses, under moderately stressful conditions.

Aim: learners will recycle vocabulary and/or create short sentences under moderately stressful conditions.

Materials: none - don’t you just love it …

Level: Any level - but works best with lower levels. I find this activity especially suitable for false beginners.

The most basic form of this activity consists of two seated learners facing each other. They are given the same topic and each in turn, serves a word to their opposite number. They take it in turns to say or serve words to each other until one of them makes a mistake.

1. Divide the class into two teams. [There are varıous ways of doing this which is tackled in a post yet to be published.]
2. Place two chairs opposite each other with one volunteer seated on each.
3. These two ‘volunteer’ are the first competitors.
4. Give the competitors a suitable lexical set. Suitability will be determined on age, level, syllabus, curriculum, current interests and so on.
5. Nominate one competitor to say any word from the possible lexical set.
6. Within (the suitably flexible) time limit, the other competitor has to answer with another word from the set.
7. Continue until mistakes set in.
8. Nominate another pair to go. Allow them to nominate each other.
9. Sit back and watch them do the work.

Ratıonale

• Many learners lack confidence when the time comes for speaking - especially under stressful test conditions. This activity provides the opportunity for learners to practise under peer imposed stress - which though undoubtedly stressful, is arguably less stressful than examinations.
• Many learners lack the ability to make quick responses. Automaticity is a feature of competence: when people are good at a task - they are naturally fast. Look at a brick-layer, plasterer or a car mechanic - if they are skilled they will work quickly and with little apparent effort.
• The group provides a moderately stressful environment whist at the same time provides opportunities for mutual support and improved group cohesion though team work and providing help to team members by feeding answers to them. In other words - a little cheating…
• Learners who are not one of the two competitors are actively engaged: they most often:
  • listen for repetition, hesitation and off-topic items in order to challenge, or
  • go through dictionaries, word lists and or texts, looking for items, preparing for their turn.
    • Learners engaged in these activities are directly focussing on the target language.
    • Learners do not have to be told to look through their books - they generally are grateful if they are given this option - because there is a definite outcome to the activity.
• There is a definite outcome to the activity - even if not strictly communicative. If you don’t know the lexis - you do know that your performance is public.

Extensions and ideas

Allow learners access to their texts and their dictionaries while they are waiting for their turn.

Allow some degree of ‘cheating assistance’ from team members.

To give the game a more competitive edge, I sometimes award penalty points against each competitors’ team for hesitation, repetition of items and for irrelevance.

The winner may stay on to be all conquerer and become class champion, or you may prefer (as I often do) to make it a team game.

Use pictures as prompts as per Cambridge Suite examinations [KET, PET and First Certificate].

Give learners two pictures ask them to:

• compare and contrast;
• what the causes of the incident;
• what the people did before the picture was taken;
• what the people did just before the picture was taken;
• what they are going to do after,
• give only facts,
• give only opinions;
  • and so on, sentence by sentence until the arbitrary line of acceptability is crossed.

Make the learners remember all the previous words in any particular turn. In this case, the learners will recite a list that will grow longer with each competitor’s turn.

Allow learners to challenge each other regarding:

• pronunciation,
• segmental stress,
• hesitation,
• repetition,
• syntax and morphology,
• whether an item belongs to a lexical set or not…

Happy teaching

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