Attention English Teachers

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TEFLGamer
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Attention English Teachers

Post autor: TEFLGamer »

Hi,

I'm an English teacher in Warsaw and I've been doing a lot of research and work recently on using board games to help student learn English. How many of you have tried the same thing? Any successes or failures? Recommendations? I've recently started a blog on the subject (if you're interested then just stick dot com at the end of my user name and you'll find it) and I'm really interested to see what other professionals are getting up to.

At the moment, my top ten is:

1) Snake Oil
Snake Oil is a party game where the players create a products to pitch to prospective buyers. The game is a lot of fun and it is extremely rich linguistically.

Good for practising: relative clauses, describing, pronunciation of compound nouns, linking ideas, clauses of contrast, negative inversion for emphasis, making a convincing pitch.

2) Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
In Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, players have to work together solve a murder case based on some clues that they are given. The kicker is that one of the players will be the murderer! In fact there are a total of 5 different roles available, and these are randomly allocated at the outset with each role playing quite differently.

Good for practising: comparing and contrasting, vocabulary (common, everyday items. Oh, and numerous causes of death), present speculation, making accusations, agreeing and disagreeing, making a persuasive argument, the passive for emphasising an action when the actor is unknown,giving a brief narrative.

3) Apples to Apples
Apples to Apples is one of the classics. From what I hear, it's been quite popular in the US as a family game for some time, but it's only recently popped onto my radar. It is a fantastically versatile game and is a great way of engaging students to practice lots of different kinds of vocabulary. From the original adjective version, all the way to idioms.

Good for practising: vocabulary (general + most idioms), persuading, explaining, describing.

4) Once Upon a Time
Once Upon a Time has a long tradition in education, both mainstream and EFL. So much in fact, that I almost feel a bit cheeky writing about it, to be honest. I only decided to write about it as it seems to have criminally fallen off the radar in recent years.

Good for practicing: narrative tenses (past progressive, past perfect simple/progressive), storytelling, vocabulary (fairy tales and folk tales).

5) Man Bites Dog
Tabloids are fascinating. It's extremely interesting how most are specifically written in order to be easily understood by the average native speaker, while at the same time remaining almost completely incomprehensible to most high-level learners.

Good for practising: passive forms, vocabulary (the kind of slang you see in tabloids), sentence structure and word order, narrative tenses, sensitivity to formal and informal register.

6) FunEmployed
Funemployed sells itself as a satirical party game. It is not wrong. It's a lot of fun both in the classroom and over a few drinks with some less prudish friends. Players need to be able to both think on their feet and spin a good yarn. In short, this is a game for bullsh*tters. With the right group, FunEmployed is absolutely splendid.

Good for practising: clauses of purpose, linking and organising ideas, negative inversion for emphasis, cleft sentences

7) Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham is one of the few games which works just fine straight out of the box. If you've never heard of or played Sheriff of Nottingham (SoN), then you should definitely try it twice. Why twice? Because you'll learn so much about the game the first play through, that it'd be a shame not to play it again.

Good for practising: negotiating, bartering and haggling, agreeing and disagreeing, real conditionals (making suggestions), hesitating.

8) Pandemic
In Pandemic, players cooperate to save humankind from four aggressive and fatal diseases. They have to work together closely, use their unique abilities and carefully plan their moves if they want to be successful in finding the four cures and winning the game.

Good for practising: the names of nations and places, polite suggesting, agreeing and disagreeing as part of collaborative decision making, using real conditionals for speculating about solutions to problems.

9) Mysterium / Tajemnicze Domostwo
Tormented spirits, psychedelic dreams and a murder most foul. Can your budding detectives discover who committed the crime?

Good for practising: present speculation, describing abstract images, comparing and contrasting, hedging (sounding less certain), agreeing and disagreeing.

10) Wits and Wagers
A really neat twist on a trivia game, where it doesn't matter if you are right, but whether or not you can guess which of the other teams is right.

Good for practising: present speculation, numbers, measures, comparing and contrasting, hedging (sounding less certain), agreeing and disagreeing.

-Dzemik
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hamish
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Re: Attention English Teachers

Post autor: hamish »

Hey mister, you've just got my attention.
Crivens! Whut aboot us, ye daftie!?
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Re: Attention English Teachers

Post autor: rattkin »

I'm not an english teacher so you can as well disregard my input (as it might be pretty obvious anyway) or take it with a grain of salt. But for what its worth, about 95% of my games is in english and I treat them as a good medium to use the language and/or practice it - for myself and for other players in my group(s).

And that would be my first observation: board games (in my mind) are in general better for practicing the language, learning new words and understanding their meanings. They don't work that well for actual "learning" the language, unless the game is educational at its core (which usually means the game is pretty boring and/or poor anyway).

Other observations:
- ideally, have at least intermediate level speakers, otherwise, they might just not profit and feel frustrated
- don't use games with time limits of any sort - again, they're ok if you're very proficient, but you don't want to put additional strain while learning. Under time pressure, people usually tend to babble and make it worse with hand motions / loud voice / exaggerated tones (to make up for the perceived lack of clear message)
- some people are not feeling well if they do not know the meaning of certain word - they're afraid/ashamed to ask and ignore the word or assume wrong meaning. This can lead to situations where the whole game can flop, because someone thought of something else, passed along the wrong info, etc. etc. Encourage people to ask about the meaning of the word, make sure they know/feel it's ok and they won't be scorned.
- which connects to the other thing: don't play a game with secret information. This further discourages from asking about meaning - sometimes, rightly so, as revealing crucial information (purposedly or not) can tank the game.
- games where people can describe things/characters/stories using their own words are nice - they don't require students to know the exact words, but they can use the counterpart they know, or at least describe what they mean and then learn the word
- encourage people to read parts of stories, flavors from card texts. Reading out loud is an important skill and is often neglected - it's easier to "hide" the training within a game, let them learn the proper tone and flow. They can also be corrected on the spot and chances are, they will remember it better, as they're emotionally invested already (they're playing the game!).

I cannot think of a single title, that would perfectly serve this purpose. In my mind, a game with a lot of theme and decent writing (sadly, still very rare in board games) can work well in helping to "learn something". Some games that could be potentially interesting:

- Gloom - lots of storytelling, but with a firm direction and a sense of purpose, as opposed to various crappy "Once upon a time" variations (not a good game, sadly), that tend to wander hopelessly and people just get tired/bored eventually playing it. Lots of bizarre words in Gloom, though I consider myself to be perfectly fluent, I had some problems with some of them, thus learned something, when checked them on the go.
- Winter Tales - somewhat similar to Gloom, but more rules (sometimes a bit wonky), different theme (dark fairytale)
- various LCG card games (FFG mostly) - but for self-learning, if you will. They usually convey a lot of new words and/or flavor texts, that help with the immersion and thus broaden the vocabulary, LOTR LCG, Android: Netrunner LCG come to mind.
- Pictomania - as sort of a reverse test - the words are there on cards, but you have to quickly sketch them, testing your understanding of the word in the first place. But you also have to guess what others have sketched, and while you know the name in your native language, you have to translate it to a word in a card. But caveat here: the base rules have some kind of time limit enforced (the last person has the least amount of points), so you might want to revamp the scoring part or remove it altogether
- Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective - a lot of collective reading (could be out loud), since it's cooperative, people can ask about meaning, try to come up with their own theories, a plan, etc. It requires some patience, though.
- Tales of Arabian Nights - "make your own adventure" kind of game, with a lot of reading and new words learning, without much strain on rules/tactics/strategy.

Hope this helps.
TEFLGamer
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Re: Attention English Teachers

Post autor: TEFLGamer »

Hi,

Yes that's really helpful. I certainly agree that games can have great value for people when they are playing on their own without any academic support, but that yes, there are some problems with this. I was really focusing more on how teachers can be discriminating in offering games that require and use specific language functions.

Some very good tips though - thanks.

BTW - would you recommend Arabian Nights over Agents of SMERSH?
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Re: Attention English Teachers

Post autor: rattkin »

I think it mostly boils down to the setting and theme preference. You just prefer one over the other. Arabian Nights is more relaxed/laidback. Myself, I'm much more tempted by Arabian Nights because of the theme and immersion. I'm also accepting the terms of such entertainment, that is, I'm ok with it being more of an experience and less of a "game" in a traditional sense. Smersh has more game in it. Again, some people will love the aimless wandering around the world and experiencing it, others will need more structure and a clear goal, that is present in Smersh.

That said, Arabian Nights use some obscure phrases and wording sometimes (to stay within the theme) - this could potentially confuse people (i.e. "ne'er do well"). Also, naturally, there's more fairytale'ish vocabulary (djinnins, efreets, etc.).

I assume you're familiar with SUSD review of it, but if not - have a look (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbYFEKoxJqE). Not to learn about the game, of course, but to listen to Quinns convincing his audience about certain "good magic" feel this game can generate.
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Re: Attention English Teachers

Post autor: schizofretka »

I would suggest Dead of Winter as an exercise in reading comprehension and public reading. While of course, as a cooperatve game, it also requires quite a lot of talking, and the traitor risk makes sure everyone is engaged and in need of performing tough negotiations, it uses a mechanic were on every turn one person gets a card full of flavour text, with the in-game effect buried in. In case the precondition is triggered, the person must read it aloud for the colony (or a single player) to make a decision.
Again, while many games have flavour text, this one has it integrated on a level beside competition, so in my experience groups who never read fluff and always play 'the blue guys vs. the red guys', are invariably interested and don't call for 'skipping it'. People usually comment it's like an interactive The Walking Dead episode.


Another game I imagine perfect for this task is Mansion od Madness 2ed - an enaging narrative read by an app as a listening/reading comprehension coupled with the usual coop discussions, but boosted by the immersion in the story, so role-playing doesn't come as incomfortable to people normally reserved towards such.

Both are suited for CAE and above I am afraid, as the whole appeal is that they aren't 'dumbed down' as most board games are. On the other hand, after a demo you might be able to hook up at least part of the students to play it outside lessons later.

I really wish I were tought this way... maybe if someone does it in spanish?


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Re: Attention English Teachers

Post autor: rattkin »

schizofretka pisze:it uses a mechanic were on every turn one person gets a card full of flavour text, with the in-game effect buried in. In case the precondition is triggered, the person must read it aloud for the colony (or a single player) to make a decision.
Given the fact, that these effects might not even trigger throughout the whole game (not an uncommon scenario at all), I wouldn't say it's worth devoting 2h just for a relatively small chance of reading one card. But the game itself is quite good nonetheless.
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Attention English Teachers

Post autor: schizofretka »

Not every card triggers, but I'd say one in five; so you get five times more private reading comprehension than public reading/listening to text read in accent, which I always found a reasonable proportion. As with most coops, this game is almost pure talking, and by the virtue of actually being interesting on the narrative level, generally convinces to participate people who normally distance themselves from such form of entertainment. The obvious downside is of course that you'd have to devote a whole lesson to a single session, which might not be doable under constraints of courses preparing to an exam. However, despite its zombie theme, it might be one of the most 'reallistic' games out there, centered about mundane objects and activities, like finding a moping stick and having to clean waste in the colony less we get drowned by it. Thus the vocab used tends to be more practical than, say, in a Lovecraftian or high fantasy setting.

While certainly not a game for everyone or every language course, my argument here is that there is not a small group of people who are prejudiced against board games and hard to make actively participate in more common, sillier (or abstract, or simple) games. On the other hand, tv series and contemporary narrative-based video games are more socially acceptable, and playing Dead of Winter doesn't nearly feel as engaging in a fairy tale setting, including often quite grim descriptions. While personally I really enjoyed Arabian Nights, the results of encounters quite often don't make much sense, they simply don't create a narrative out of themselves, and require quite a lot of willingness to fill out the gaps, and in,my experiance had a much lower acceptance ratio.

Edit: as you already use Once Upon a Time, this might not be a worry for your group.

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Ale dajcie nowe klocki, albo zmieńcie ten obrazek!
Mogę przynieść
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