Collection of games

Level: intermediate and advanced

Age: any (except younger children)

Group size: whole class

These drill-games are like those described under ‘The same or different’, but more is excepted of the learners. They do not simply have to decide whether the utterances are different or the same, but to identify them.

The presentation can be oral or both oral and visual.

Suppose the pupils can hear there is a difference between /i/ and /ı/ as in ‘You must leave there’ and ‘You must live there.’ Let’s call ‘leave’ (go away) A, says the teacher, and ‘live’ (live in a place) B. Now, listen. Which is this? ‘You must live there.’ Tom? Mary? Yes, it’s B. now what about this? And so on, with scoring of team points if necessary.

Learners can take the teacher’s place if they are good enough, but must be supervised.

Responses can be either oral or written. If the responses is written, pupils write A or B or the words themselves.

For the sake of fun and to keep the class alert, introduce occasionally a sound which is neither of the two, even if the word in which it is put is non-existent, as in You must /lev/ there. Neither is the only acceptable response.

If isolated words are being used, several can be given at once, the class being told, for instance, Write A if you hear the vowel sound of ‘bed’ (the thing you sleep in) and B if you hear the vowel sound of ‘bad’ (the opposite of good). Now – ‘set, set, sat, set.’ The answer should be A, A, B, and A.

Say what you mean