Ghosts: Past tense speaking game for groups

By Assoc. Prof. Sripathum Noom-ura Language Institute, Thammasat University Aim: To practice speaking/ telling stories using past tense Level: Intermediate/advanced When teaching writing a narrative paragraph, I sometimes use a speaking activity as a lead-in and presentation of the language model before other stages of writing. This activity is called Ghosts. It is a stage of encouraging both cooperative and competitive learning from the learners. Students have to cooperate in their group while they have to compete with other groups and become a winning team. I adapted this speaking game from http://www.eslflow.com/ESLgameGhosts.html. It helps students review past simple of many verbs, both regular and irregular verbs. Procedure: 1. Start by telling a story of what happened to me yesterday to the students. Example I had so many things to do yesterday. First, I cleaned up my bedroom. Next, I went outside to empty the trash bin. Then, I started cooking for my kids. After that I drove the kids to their music school. Finally, I had a hair perm. 2. Tell students theyre going to make up similar stories using first, next, then, after that and finally. They will work in groups; each group takes turn to create one sentence. They have three lives to save. They will lose (become a ghost) if all the three lives die. 3. Then show students details of how the game goes. First, the teacher draws three stick figures on the whiteboard and uses them for explaining the game rules.

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4. Here are the game rules: Step 1: Students work in teams of 3-5 (depending on the class size). Step 2: Each team tries to brainstorm and write down the past simple form of as many words as they can. For example, they can think of words like went, read, said, found, sank, ate, ran, etc. and keep them as reference. Step 3: Each team takes turns to make sentences in the past tense. Example round: First team: Second team: Third team: Fourth team: Fifth team: First, he got out of bed. Next, he brushed his teeth. Then, he went for a run. After that, he had a shower. Finally, he ate breakfast.

Every time students come round to First the story can start a new situation. Step 4: A team loses a life if 1) 2) 3) 4) they repeat a verb already used they make a grammar mistake they take too long they make a ridiculous sentence

and they have to cross out a life of their stick figures.

Step 5: The teams that lose three lives die and become ghosts. The last team alive is the winner. 5. After explaining the rules and demonstrating a round as an example, I will then erase my own stick figures and divide the board into 5 parts, if I have 5 teams. Let students draw their own stick figures on the board and then start the game.

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6. If some students start to dominate the talk or they are the only speakers in the groups, I will set a tougher rule. That means each group member has to have his/her turn saying a sentence or they lose a life if the same person says two sentences in a row.

Variations: 1. This game can be used for practicing other tenses, too. However, the teacher has to give language models of the focused language before starting the game. 2. With students of lower level of English proficiency, it may help if the teacher gives out a chart of some commonly used irregular verbs. When students cannot come up with a sentence, the words they see in the chart may help them in creating something. Here is the example of the list: arise bear become bend bite break bring cut hold steal take wear arose bore became bent bit broke brought cut held stole took wore arisen born become bent bitten broken brought cut held stolen taken worn

However, students should be reminded that there are many other regular and irregular verbs that they can think of. Its not necessary to use only the words given by the teacher. 3. The teacher may have small pieces of paper with a verb written on each piece. Put all the pieces in a box or a hat. Each group takes turn to draw a piece of paper from the box and create a sentence with the verb written on the paper. This helps the teacher draw students attention to practice certain targeted words.