Vocabulary classroom activites

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Lingoat

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Hi,
I'm looking for some ways for my students to practice vocabulary in the classroom. These are intermediate and high intermediate students in a pre-academic program. We have exercises in the book, of course, online quizzes, and class quizzes. I'd like to do some more in-class activities to reinforce the vocabulary, especially vocabulary from units that we have finished and need to revisit.

THanks!
 

emsr2d2

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I've always liked the game where you must speak for one minute without repetition, hesitation or deviation. You give the student a topic and they must talk about it for one minute. They cannot veer away from the subject matter. They must not stop to say "um/er" etc but, most importantly they are not allowed to repeat a word (there are a few exceptions to that. They can say "the/a/it/is/I etc" more than once). It's a great way to force students to think of a different way of saying something so if you have all that vocabulary from finished units, broken down into subjects, then you're sorted!

The game is called "Just A Minute" - if you Google it, you will find more info and you can find some clips of the radio/TV versions.

To make sure that all students can get involved, the other students can challenge if they think they have noticed a repetition, deviation or hesitation. If they are correct, the first student has to stop talking and the student who made the challenge carries on speaking about the subject for the remaining time.
 
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TomUK

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"Just A Minute" - I have been listening to this radio show for nearly 17 years, since I moved to the UK. In the early days it helped me quite a lot with improving my English. I even went to a live recording once. I can highly recommend this. It is not always on, but its usual slot is at 18:30 (UK time) on Mondays on BBC Radio 4. I can recommend Radio 4 to any student of English. I especially enjoy the comedy programs like "I am sorry I haven't a clue", "The News Quiz", "The Now Show", "Count Arthur Strong" and some others I can't think of the titles now.

TomUK
 

emsr2d2

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It's also now a TV show. In a spooky turn of events, just as I was typing my first post, seconds after I typed the name of the show, the TV announcer (on a channel I rarely watch) said "And now ... Just A Minute"! I had no idea it wasn't only on the radio and I certainly had no idea it was due to be on at 4pm today.
 

TomUK

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It's also now a TV show.

I watched it once or twice, but somehow I prefer the radio show. Maybe next time I should try to watch it with my eyes shut, but then I fear I might nod off.

TomUK
 

emsr2d2

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I watched it once or twice, but somehow I prefer the radio show. Maybe next time I should try to watch it with my eyes shut, but then I fear I might nod off.

TomUK

I prefer it on the radio too. Somehow, seeing the participants takes something away from the words. I know the radio version has a studio audience but on the TV version, you can actually see the participants hamming it up (physically) to the audience. They might well do the same thing in front a radio studio audience but we can't see that. The game is all about words - there isn't really a physical aspect to it so it is absolutely made for radio.

Having said all of that, I have played it with a group of learners and it worked really well!
 

barb9

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Great advice shared here.
 
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