Department for Continuing Education

Grammar games and

activities

• Why use games for practising grammar

• Grammar games to take away and use

in your next class.

where / from? what / do / last night ?

what / this time last week? favourite colour?

what / do / this evening? do any sports?

first time in Oxford? how long / teach?

Conventional published grammar practice exercises help with formal,

declarative mastery, but make the task of developing procedural skills

more difficult. David Nunan

Random sentences like random notes of music are heard and then

forgotten … But arrange those notes into the context of a catchy melody

and the tune will stick in the mind. Noel Goodey

The teacher has to contrive a situation in which learners are

simultaneously alert to language as form and language as meaning.

Peter Skehan

The great challenge is to set up activities which are essentially

meaning-focused, but within which a focus on form can be engineered.

Scott Thornbury

Conventional published grammar practice exercises help with formal,

declarative mastery, but make the task of developing procedural skills

more difficult. David Nunan

Random sentences like random notes of music are heard and then

forgotten … But arrange those notes into the context of a catchy melody

and the tune will stick in the mind. Noel Goodey

The teacher has to contrive a situation in which learners are

simultaneously alert to language as form and language as meaning.

Peter Skehan

The great challenge is to set up activities which are essentially

meaning-focused, but within which a focus on form can be engineered.

Scott Thornbury

Conventional published grammar practice exercises help with formal,

declarative mastery, but make the task of developing procedural skills

more difficult. David Nunan

Random sentences like random notes of music are heard and then

forgotten … But arrange those notes into the context of a catchy melody

and the tune will stick in the mind. Noel Goodey

The teacher has to contrive a situation in which learners are

simultaneously alert to language as form and language as meaning.

Peter Skehan

The great challenge is to set up activities which are essentially

meaning-focused, but within which a focus on form can be engineered.

Scott Thornbury

Conventional published grammar practice exercises help with formal,

declarative mastery, but make the task of developing procedural skills

more difficult. David Nunan

Random sentences like random notes of music are heard and then

forgotten … But arrange those notes into the context of a catchy melody

and the tune will stick in the mind. Noel Goodey

The teacher has to contrive a situation in which learners are

simultaneously alert to language as form and language as meaning.

Peter Skehan

The great challenge is to set up activities which are essentially

meaning-focused, but within which a focus on form can be engineered.

Scott Thornbury

Conventional published grammar practice exercises help with formal,

declarative mastery, but make the task of developing procedural skills

more difficult. David Nunan

Random sentences like random notes of music are heard and then

forgotten … But arrange those notes into the context of a catchy melody

and the tune will stick in the mind. Noel Goodey

The teacher has to contrive a situation in which learners are

simultaneously alert to language as form and language as meaning.

Peter Skehan

The great challenge is to set up activities which are essentially

meaning-focused, but within which a focus on form can be engineered.

Scott Thornbury

Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of

processing: A framework for memory research. Journal

of Verbal Learning and Verbal behavior.

Grammar games

What’s the purpose or benefit of playing games?

Do you have any favourite games for practising

grammar points?

Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a break and at

the same time allow students to practise language skills ... Furthermore,

they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. Aydan Ersoz

Games add variation to a lesson and increase motivation by providing a

plausible incentive to use the target language. Gordon Lewis

Most language games make learners use the language instead of thinking

about learning the correct forms. WR Lee

Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely.

Richard-Amato

Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work.

Wright, Betteridge and Buckby

Key benefits …

- student-centred

- class cohesion / cooperation

- lowers affective filter

- focuses on grammar communicatively

- makes it memorable

• present new language = A1

• drill repeatedly > boredom = A2

• too much challenge > anxiety = A3

• right amount of challenge = A4

• games offers an effective way to achieve this.

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Different types of activities:

Structure drills

Using imagination

Challenges

Shared knowledge / Quizzes

Cooperative games

TPR

Bingo!

Remember, remember

What can you remember?

1 What was the builder doing?

2 Who was using their phone?

3 Was the cyclist wearing a helmet?

4 What was the thief stealing?

5 How many people were wearing some kind of hat?

6 The graffiti artist, what was he drawing?

7 What was the guy playing the guitar wearing?

8 What was the man sitting on the bench doing?

1 Choose an image

2 Find a partner

3 Make two sentences

comparing the things.

eg

A book is more educational

than a shower.

A shower is more fun

than a book.

Crazy

Comparatives

a noise a mistake nothing

a mess the washing up a photo

my homework lunch a speech

an aspirin some damage an exam

some washing the bed a break

some ironing a decision your time

a coffee care some work

an effort a phone call some exercise

Make, do or take?

Superlative Seconds

1 a (Mandarin)

2 c (Russia)

3 b (Christianity)

4 t (e)

5 a (spiders)

6 b (Nile)

7 c (the)

8 a (France)

9 a (Ukraine)

10 c (Mohammed)

Students learn more effectively … when their feelings, opinions,

experiences and knowledge are valued and crucial to the success of the

activities. Griffiths & Keohane

Language learning is most effective when students engage in meaningful

activities on a personal level rather than just ‘going through the motions’.

Kay & Jones

It is the need to get meanings across and the pleasure experienced

when this is achieved that motivates second language acquisition.

Rod Ellis

where / from? what / do / last night ?

what / this time last week? favourite colour?

what / do / this evening? do any sports?

first time in Oxford? how long / teach?

@jonhirdelt

Jon Hird ELT

jonhird.com

jon.hird@conted.ox.ac.uk