Only in English

Kevin Hong

OBJECTIVES:

1. To utilize and promote student’s creativity

2. To get students used to hearing and comprehending spoken English.

3. To connect the definitions of English words with something other than its meaning in Japanese.

PREPARATION:

1. Copy the two worksheets provided and cut out each word on the sheet. You can create your own list and/or use as few or as many words as you see fit for your class.

2. Place words in a box or hat. That’s it.

PROCEDURE:

1. Warm up the class by either playing Criss-Cross or having all the students stand up and volunteer what their favorite Musician/Band or Book is. Those who answer first can sit down. This promotes volunteers because the kids don’t want to stay standing up the whole time.

2. Explain the Rules. Each student is to pick a single word from the Hat and DESCRIBE the WORD without using the actual word, ONLY IN ENGLISH! They may also use Gestures. After all the students reply in a collective “EHHHHHHH?!?!” you tell them that they are not to show each other the words that they have selected. Then let each student chose a word from the Hat.

3. You may find that some of the words are little difficult for a student to describe so take a few minutes walking around helping students with descriptions if they are completely stuck. While you are doing this the rest of the students may ponder how they will describe their word by using only English and Gestures.

4. After a few minutes of preparation start either with a volunteer or pick an outgoing student to Stand Up and Describe their word. Pick outgoing students at least for a few rounds so that the shy students get used to seeing how it’s done.

5. Example: America - “It is a BIG country near Mexico and Canada, 50 states, Hamburgers, Hollywood…”

6. Make it a class effort by allowing any student to guess the correct word being described.

NOTES:

• Alternatively this activity can be conducted in a team competition fashion. Break up the students into Teams, divide the chalkboard up into columns, give one representative from each team a word to describe and start the game with a time limit. As each team correctly guesses a word they can come up and write it on the board, pick another word and run back to describe it. The Team with the most words at the end of the time limit WINS!

• Lastly, the word “LOVE” is a really good word to use in this activity. It’s funny to see how students in the class try to tackle describing this word in English when most native English speakers have a hard time defining it themselves. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised…

Handouts and Worksheets:

Handouts for this activity are here