Topic: Directions

Speaking focus: Turn left, turn right, go up, go down

Time: 10 minutes (or as you see fit)

Game: Pacman & Orbox

Preparation

Either play this in a connected classroom and have this game on the board using a projector or IWB or play this in a computer room with two learners to each computer.  this game does not last long but remember the aim of the game is to see how high a score you can get using English.

1) While one person has access to the keyboard (and preferably can’t see the screen) the other learner (s) sit in front of the screen with their arms folded.

2) When the game starts the learner(s) with their arms folded shout out instructions to the keyboard gamer.

3) The person at the keyboard has to listen and use the arrow keys to guide the pacman blind.

4) Make sure you are standing near by so that when they lose a life the pause ‘P’ key can be pressed and learners can swap roles.

5) When learners are ready to continue press ‘P’ again to resume the game.

Student A can say the following words: Student B uses the following keys:

(turn) left = left arrow P = pause/ resume game
(turn) right = right arrow
(go) up = up arrow
(go) down = down arrow

NOTE

Playing Pacman in this way means that most games won’t last longer than 10 seconds or so.  Make a note of the scores and see who can get the highest score.  Remember you can always use this as a warmer.  If you want a game that can be played in the same way but hasn’t got such a demanding/ stressful time limit then play Orbox.

Don’t forget to familiarise yourself with the games before using them in the classroom.  Also, be prepared to teach your learners how to play them.  These games are either well known or fairly simple to get across (even just by miming) but should be used as practice not presentation.

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1  Decoroate

Do your learners know their furniture vocab?  Have your pre-intermedaite learners practice their listening and reading skills as they furnish Roger’s flat.  Great for 1:1 learner/ computer ratio classes or set as a fun homework activity.  Learners read the speech bubbles and listen to Roger tell them how he wants his flat furnished.  Vocabulary sets include furniture, colours and patterns.

2    Sveerz

This is a musical arcade game which is a cross between Tetris and simon says.  It’s great for drilling colours with a primary class in open class.  Simply play the game at the front of the class and have your learners sitting in front of the game shouting out the colours.  You play the game by clicking the colours they shout.  When they know how to play get a volunteer up to take your place at the keyboard.

3    Arcane season

Use the great video sequences, nice special sound effects and what the in-game characters say to stimulate a creative writing activity with an upper intermediate and beyond class.  The good thing about this?  Just click here for a more comprehensive lesson plan.

4    Hot shot business

Disney scored a bit of a hit with this game.  Listen to the two presenters and in game newsflashes as you open your own skateboard retailers, comic shop or pet shop.  Learners can read the speech bubbles as they listen for extra support.  Some nice arcade style games breaks give learners a short break from language and they keep the adrenalin level up.

5    Case of the crabs

This is a point and click game which is great to use with a walkthrough class activity.  Admittably the sound effects are more there to add atmosphere rather than provide some skills practice but it’s still a nice little game.  The opening sequence allows learners to read and listen to the storyline.  Click here for the walkthrough.  Read out the walkthrough, relay dictation from the teacher’s computer screen or tell learners where to access it.

6    Mingoville

Fun English learning games, grammar and songs all with flamingos that speak English.  A popular one with Primary English learners though the activities are very much based on drilling language items.  If this is the thing for you and your learners then set this up at the front of the class.

7    Stage 07

A very engaging point and click adventure game you can use with a walkthrough.  Choose how you interact with the in game characters to solve a mystery.  Both Listening and reading skills practice.  Great for pair work in the computer room for intermediate English learners and above.  Click here for the walkthrough.

8    voki

This website allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on blogs, profiles, and in email messages.  Get students to record themselves talking about their voki avatars – likes/ dilikes, habits and daily routines are all good areas to cover.

9    Cuboy

Lots of audio for your learners to listen to and they can also read the text with the in game characters’ speech bubbles.  Nice little game with lots of puzzles to solve.  Use the walkthrough to help your learners.  Click here for the walkthrough.

10    Hewitt

Help Hewitt to find a girl for the school dance. This game takes a minute or so to load so be warned.  Use YOUR MOUSE to play the game and make sure you read the instructions to the tutorial at the beginning of game.  Click here if you want the walkthrough.

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Level: Upper Intermediate & above (adults)

Topic: Crime (Solve a murder)

Language Focus: Understanding Language in Context

Time: Computer room + homework to finish (1 hour to complete)

Game: Crime & Investigation

Preparation

A There is an in-game toolbar that you need to make learners aware of before they play the game:

1 Access to all the files containing information on autopsy room, case screening room, investigation board, interrogation room , evidence lab and research library

2 Quick link to the evidence lab.

3 Checklist – tells you what you need to be doing.

4 Messages – During the course of the game you will get calls on the case.  If you hear it ringing you should answer it.

5 Map – Includes areas where clues, witnesses and suspects can be found.

The two most important in-game tools are the checklist and Case Files.

B Learners should make an ingame dictionary and take their notebooks to the computer room to make notes on difficult language.  Dictate the following table in class:

Play

1 Learners access the game and can watch or skip the introduction at the beginning

2 Learners play the game recording any language they feel is particularly important and that they don’t know in their tables (see above)

3 As you monitor look at the language they record and ask questions like:

“Where did you see this word?”,  “What were you doing?”, “How is this word(s) relevant to the case?” etc

Learners describe the game context they saw the language in and you negotiate the meaning of the language.

4 If a learner is having difficulty and is further behind the others you should be able to direct them to another player/ pair who can help them.

Post Activity

Back in the classroom set learners some dictionary work to find out the meaning of any of the language they are still unsure about.

Learners can teach and test each other on the new language items.

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An Interview With Hayo Reinders from darren elliott on Vimeo.

One thing that comes out of the interview, that Hayo also mentioned in his keynote, is that existing games should be adapted, which is exactly what we are doing on Digital Play. There’s no need to try to get involved in game design – it’s too expensive and Reinders suggests adjusting existing games.

Reinders also mentions being disappointed with existing language learning games that have been produced for platforms such as the Nintendo DS. Most are not interesting or interactive and would not be motivating for students. In the abstract to his keynote, he states that “the pedagogical approach underlying such games is often not clear…the games were intended to develop fluency but in fact offer only simple spelling exercises with right-wrong answers.”

Reinders has a website, http://innovationinteaching.org/ , which has some details about the research related to gaming and language learning that Reinders is involved in:

“One of my PhD students (Sorada Wattana) and I are looking into the effects of game play on students’ Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and their actual in-game interaction. We are also looking at the effects of different types of instructions (in the form of in-game quests) on the quantity and quality of target language use“

Also on the website is an article that Reinders wrote for English Teaching Professional called ‘Using computer Games to Teach Writing‘, which is full of useful ideas for teachers. One of these, which is new to us is ‘Gamics’. This is a contraction of games and comics, and would involve students using images from their favourite games to create their own comic.

Finally, Reinders has also been involved in making games for the ipod – he calls them podquests (a combination of ipod and webquest) and wrote a chapter of a book about this, which is available here: Podquests: Language Games on the Go

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Language Focus: Present Perfect simple /passive

Time: 30 – 40 minutes

Game:Droppy

Help Droppy to solve problems in 11 different situations and help him stay out of trouble.

Preparations

Download a single copy of the walkthrough for you to use in class and download a copy of the Droppy worksheet. Play the game yourself to get a feel for the game. In class have the game set up at the beginning ready to start and in a place where can be easily seen. Download the present perfect passive exercise sheet for extra language support for lower levels.

NOTE The majority of sentences in the walkthrough are in the present perfect simple but it is possible to produce a present perfect passive structure and still be correct. Be aware that learners may produce grammatically correct sentences that are part of the language focus but that are not included on the walkthrough sheet.

Playing

Hand out a copy of the Droppy worksheet to your learners. Ask them to compare the picture they have on their worksheet with the game on the screen. In pairs, ask them to find as many differences as possible between the two. While they are doing this write this on the board:

The rock on the ground has been moved.

He the top of the cactus has been cut off.

Droppy has put a hat on.

Feedback on any differences the learners have found. Get them to connect the differences to the three sentences on the board. Ask a volunteer to come up and complete this level of the screen.

When the first level has been completed and the game level menu is up tell your learners you now want them to talk about the differences but write down what has happened by comparing their picture with the game on the screen. The first pair to finish should say stop. They then read out their present perfect passive/ simple sentences and you tick them off against your walkthrough. If the pair have identified all elements of your walkthrough, one of them can come up and play the game to the next level. If they have failed to identify all elements of the walkthrough then you should give them clues on where to find them.

e.g.

In the 6th level (roasting marshmallows) Droppy has to get a magnifying glass out of his bag to use the suns rays to start a fire. This is not apparent from the learner’s picture. You can give clues like:

“What do you notice about what has happened to his bag!”

When the magnifying glass comes out you can ask:

“Has anyone seen this object before? What have you used it for?”

Notice how the questions use the present perfect. You can then tell them what the object is “It’s a magnifying glass”.

Repeat for all 11 stages of the game.

Post Playing

Learners use the present perfect to write their version of the Droppy walkthrough (either in class or for homework but you will need extra copies of the droppy worksheet, one for each learner, if you do this). When they have finished they compare their walkthroughs with others and discuss the differences.

NOTE

This activity can be easily adapted to Present Perfect passive by changing the object in the present perfect sentences to the subject.

e.g.

‘He has made a fire’ to ‘A fire has been made’.

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Language Focus: Alphabet

Skills Focus: Pronunciation

Game: Alphattack

This game is used to practice and consolidate the pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet.  It can be played either in a connected classroom or a computer room.

Bombs drop from the sky and need to be stopped before they destroy the city. Destroy the bombs before they do by pressing the corresponding letter on the keyboard.

Pregaming Activity

Lower levels
To do this you need to have a data projector, a computer with internet access and Flash player installed. Seat the class in rows in front of the data projector. Go to the game and skip the instructions so that the game is started as quickly as possible.

1. As the bombs start to fall look at the screen and call out the letters. If you want, don’t touch the keyboard and point to the letters. This means that you lose the game but encourage the learners to call out the letters as this is happening.
2. When the game ends start again and encourage the learners to call out the letters but this time you move to the keyboard and type in the letters that the learners call out. At this stage it is not neccessary for you to look at the game on the data projector.
3. When you have completed a stage ask for a volunteer or nominate one of your learners to come and stand by the keyboard.
4. Start the next stage of the game. The learner at the keyboard now listens to the others calling out the letters and the learner types in the corresponding letters on the keyboard.
5. Move to the computer room so the class can play the game in pairs (see gaming activity below).

Higher levels
To do this you need to have a data projector, a computer with internet access and Flash player installed. Seat the class in rows in front of the data projector. Go to the game and put the instructions on the board. Choral drill (all the class reading at the same time) the instructions on the screen. Then start the game. Pretend you don’t know how to play the game at the start and ellicit from the class what you should be doing? As the class tells you what to do play the game. Then conduct the game from stage 3) above.

Gaming Activity

In the computer room sit two learners (A and B) to a computer. Learner A sits in front of the screen with their arms folded. Their role is to “look at the letters and tell your partner”. Learner B sits in front of the keyboard and CAN NOT see the screen. Start the game and monitor to ensure that Learner A is calling out the letters in English (correct pronunciation) and learner B is not taking a look at the screen. Once a pair completes a stage or loses a life the learners can swap roles/ seats.

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Skills Focus:   Listening

Language Focus:   First Aid

Game:   Casualty Challenge

Help your learners practise their listening skills in the computer room with this BBC Skillswise words game based on the UK TV Programme “Casualty”.

Preparation

Make sure that there are enough computers and headphones for your learners and that the game is either ready for them to start or that you can successfully guide them to the website.

Pre- Playing

Dictate the following questions in chunks ‘/’ and as naturally as possible:

1) What kind of things/ does a paramedic/ have to do/ at the scene of an accident?

2) On arrival at the hospital/ how does a doctor/ take over?

3) How might the nurses/ help get the patient/ back into shape?

Learners discuss the questions and feedback before playing the games.

Play

Learners listen to the descriptions of first aid proceedure for a paramedic,  a doctor and a nurse and then move pictures of the proceedures they have just listened to into the correct order.  They have three chances.  If your learners are extra keen then get them to note down any difficult language.

Post Play

In class ask them how they did, if they have any questions about the language, what they remember and what they have learnt from playing the game.

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An EVOKE is defined as an urgent call to innovative solutions to real life problems.  In the same way that EVOKE is calling for gamers to solve in-game problems which could then be applied to real world strategies.   Think of the gamers as parts of a huge organic computer brain being set the task of solving problems facing Africa within the context of an online ARG.

The game targets Africa and aims to look into using playfulness and gaming as a tool for solving the bigger issues facing the world today, such as “hunger, poverty, disease, war and oppression, water access, education, climate change”.

Could this game as a languguage learning tool?  Such a game could not only have great potential within the TEFL context for motivating language learners but ARGs have had a fair share of success stories already.  The European Union ran an Education Project called ‘Babel Tower’ aimed at Secondary school language learners from around the world.  This was part of their ARGuing for Multilingual Multivation Project and was rated as a huge success.

ARGs run prior to Evoke have included Superstruct and World without oil and Superstruct which reached ‘Game Over’ status in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

To learn more about the EVOKE Alternate Reality Game project then visit the official website, Watch the trailer, or read up on the game story so far by checking out the graphic novel storyline.

So why not Make Life a Game and Change The World?

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One idea would be to play the game in a whole-class situation and ask the students to guess what has to be done to pass the robot to the next room – there could be two teams and points awarded for the team which guesses correctly the right way to get the robot to the next room.

Another team-game way of using Gateway could be to award each team a number of seconds (accumulated for answering questions) – they ’spend’ the seconds trying to get the robot through the door, winning points for each door they pass the robot through. Read more about Gateway here / walkthrough

The game’s puzzles are easy until you get to the TV at level 9 (see image on the right), which requires more thought to solve (answer = the sequence on the TV monitors shows the numbers you need to press on the keypad to let you out the door = 95271)

There is a sequel, which continues the story, Gateway II – this continues with the story, but involves a lot of text that would be quite difficult for all but higher levels. See walkthrough here

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Topic: Border Country

Speaking Focus: Expressing opinions

Time: 30 – 45 minutes

Game: Against all odds

Preparation

You also need to go through a few steps after entering the site before you can get to play the game. The steps are:

1) Click on Open in full screen.

2) Click on Play against all odds.

3) Choose your game characters identity. i.e one of the characters (use the left right arrow to move between the characters) and write in a name before clicking on No! Play without registering.

4) Click on the number 1 in the A New Life box.

Playing

Learners can play this game in a computer room or a connected classroom . In the computer room it acts as an interactive reader though you may wish to incorporate some of the ideas below as note taking activities.

1 Learners read the job letters and agree on one explaining why.

2 They then choose the best clothes to wear to the interview.

3 In the reception there are three other candidates for the job.  Ask learners to note down what they say and what they would say to them in return and who they would most like to sit by and why.

4 Finally the job interview consists of a few questions.  learners should say which is the worst answer to the questions and explain why.

Learners visit each of the shops looking to buy a mobile phone.  A pre play activity could be for learners to discuss what phones they have, which is the best and why.  They then play the game:

1 Take notes on who says what in the shops.  i.e. age, gender, looks etc and what opinion they express.  Later learners can discuss what sort of views they have on immigrants and how these opinions may be true/ false and what affect they may have on an immigrant who hears them.

Quickly drag objects into origin categories of either the USA or Other Countries.

1 Start the game and as the objects go past one learner watches and dictates the objects to a partner.  Play the game until they have all objects.

2 Learners discuss the country of origin for each country.   (pyramid discussion).

3 Ask a volunteer to come to the front to play the game as the rest of the class shouts out where each one goes.

4 If they get it wrong click on web facts and tell learners they have 2 minutes to find the answers on that page.  Scroll down/ up every 30 seconds so that learners can read all the text.

5 Repeat steps 3 & 4 until the game has been finished.

Post Play

Learners write up their reflections on what some of the emotions and feelings an immigrant may feel.

To research and write about an invention from their own country, any other country or a predetermined country (England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales).

Debate with half the class presenting and anti-immigration view point and the other half a pro-immigration view point.

Role play the situation in the reception between them and the three other candidates.  First brainstorm the characters and personality to establish character roles.

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