Dixit Picture Cards (Beginning Integrated Skills)

 Learn words with Dixit cards

Kamilla Varga, Fanni Hegedűs

Part 1: The Game

Level & Learning Outcomes

Level: Beginner

During participation in the game, all students, regardless of age, who are at the beginner level, will learn new words thematically and then practice them. Learning the meaning of words, pronouncing them, and using them in sentences is the goal of the game.

Due to the group work and the complexity of the game, their social skills, vocabulary, writing skills, and listening skills also develop.

Materials needed 

Dixit Cards  (cards that have pictures of simple scenes)

Word cards (can be nicely handwritten or printed)

Object of Game

To get the most points by correctly matching the right words to the pictures.

Rules of Play

Divide the group into three or four teams.

Each team gets 5-7 Dixit cards with matching word cards (mixed). 

The first task is to match the Dixit cards with the word cards (3-5 minutes).

The second task is to write a short story using all of the given words (7-10 sentences).

The Third task is to organize the Dixit cards in chronological order (based on each team’s own short story)

The final task is to choose one presenter from each team, who reads the short story out loud. In the meantime, everyone should pay attention and write the verbs they hear. Finally, the opposing teams must try to match the correct verbs to the Dixit cards based on the pictures on the cards and the verbs from the story that were noted. Whichever team says the correct matching verb faster will get the point.

Scorekeeping

In the last stage of the game, based on the pictures on the Dixit cards and the short stories read by the other groups, each Dixit card has to be matched with the right word. One point is awarded for each guessed word. After the stories are read out, we add up the teams' points.

Part 2: Reflection

Dixit cards can be used to play many games during a lesson, and with the help of the cards, almost without exception, we can easily come up with tasks to develop all skills. That is why we chose Dixit cards for this task. The game aimed to develop vocabulary playfully, we also focused on pronunciation, written and listening comprehension, and working in groups to develop social skills. In short, we improved almost all skills during the game. This game can be a good way to introduce new vocabulary or practice the ones that the students are already familiar with. The game consists of 3 parts and all of these sections focus on different skill developments. In the first part of the game the students work in small groups and they have to pair the words with the pictures, during this time they expand their vocabulary since the words are new and also use their association because they don’t have any prior knowledge of these words. The second part of the game focuses on writing skills since students have to come up with a short story using all the words they were given. In beginner classes, the teacher can provide more scaffolding but in more advanced ones the students can freely use all their imagination to create short stories. With the help of story writing the students have the opportunity the practice the words and contextualize them. During the third part of the game, the focus is on the development of the speaking and pronunciation skills, moreover, the listening skills are also developed. The last part of the game focuses mainly on listening skills, they have to actively listen to each group’s short story and find out the words that they used. they had to note down and identify each word that the other teams used. If the game is played in a real classroom the teacher can come up with a reward system to collect points so it motivates the students to concentrate more. --FH

I have already played a lot with the board game Dixit, and I have heard from others that its cards can be used for many other purposes, including introductions or even teaching. In this case, I think the cards worked very well, since the students were given the word that had to be paired with the pictures, but they also had to use their imagination and association skills a bit.

If I think of Chou's 8 drivers in Octalysis, then ownership also appears on some level. After all, the students get the words for the pictures, but if they match the words to other pictures based on their imagination, the game can go in a completely different direction. Of course, there is an answer key on the basis of which the game was originally designed, but if the students shape the game for themselves from this point of view, it might become even more interesting, since there is no other limitation for the first stage of the game except to match the words with the pictures .

The game itself consists of 3 main parts and I think that each part develops a different area, however, the development of social skills is present throughout due to teamwork. In the first part of the game, the ability to associate develops and their vocabulary expands in an inductive way (because words have to be paired with pictures without any prior knowledge). In the second stage of the game, writing skills develop a little while writing the short story, and they also learn to put words into context. In the third stage of the game, the pronunciation of words and speaking skills develop, as well as listening skills develop the most here. Although reading and listening to the rules before each part of the game improves listening skills, in the last part of the game they have to actively listen to their fellow students' reading aloud, understand it and even make a short note. In this way, listening skills are actively developed. The listening subskills here would be the identification and the note taking (they had to recognize specific words and then note them down) that improved the most.

In the previous lesson, we did not give points for the correct answers, but in order to encourage the students and to give them a sense of victory, 1 point can be given for each word-picture pairing that was solved the fastest and correctly. KV 

Part 3 Appendix

Dixit Cards

Suggested Answer Key

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