Explain together, guess on your own (Listening & Vocabulary, A2 and higher)

 Explain together, guess on your own

Szabó Nikolett


Part 1: The Game

Level & Learning Outcomes

Through participating in this game students will practice vocabulary and listening skills through defining vocabulary items and guessing of these words or expressions. 

The first part of each round in the game challenges students to formulate a definition for different words and expressions collaborating with their teammate. The second part of each round requires students to guess the defined word or expression that they heard.  

The game is designed for pre-intermediate students. 


Materials needed 

  • boardmarker 

  • cards with the vocabulary items


Object of Game


To get the most points by explaining and guessing correctly as many words and expressions as possible in 2 minutes. 


Rules of Play

1. Students are divided into groups of 3. 

2. In each round one member of the group sits on a chair and the other 2 players stand behind him or her. 

3. The 2 students pick a card that contains a vocabulary item.

4. The 2 students have to explain the vocabulary item (from the card) in turns saying only one word at a time. 

Example: Player 1 – Player 2

  • This person is someone who is very close to you and who you can always count on. 

5. The player sitting on the chair has to guess as many words as possible.

6. In one round there are 2 possibilities for passing 


Scorekeeping

1. The group gets 1 point for every correct definition (based on their content).

2. The group gets plus 1 point for every definition that is grammatically correct. 

3. The group gets 1 point for every correctly guessed vocabulary item. 

4. The group loses 1 point for every passed card 


Part 2: Reflection


I tried out the game with a 6th grade pre-intermediate level English group . There were 12 students, so we could create 4 groups of three.  We played 2 rounds, so every team had 2 possibilities to get as many points as possible. 

I really liked the game, because it was very similar to an Activity or Taboo game, but here the most challenging part was defining the words, because students had to adapt continuously to their peers to continue the definition with only one word in a way that the sentence remained grammatically correct and the definition helped the third member of the team in the guessing. Students were very focused during the game, and it seemed that they had fun explaining and guessing. 

The game empowered students’ choices and autonomy because they could pick a card and they could decide on the roles. Students had the autonomy also in the formulation of the definitions that also required their creativity. With the points students get constant feedback. As the game was a competition between different groups, both cooperation and cooperation had a central role in the game. Unpredictability and curiosity were also present during the game because the sentence (definition) that one student initiated was constantly changing. The students were curious to hear what word their peer would add to the initiated definition, which in many cases completely changed the original idea. 

As for the failure, maybe the scorekeeping should be modified a little, because students didn’t really like the fact that they could also lose point in case of passing a card. It was not a problem for them if they didn’t get a point for not guessing one word, but the losing of points was quite stressful for them. 

I think that this game is a good choice to practice vocabulary, the formulation of correct sentences and to practice the listening skills. At the beginning it was a little bit difficult for students to create definitions, some of them wanted to use the words “noun” and “adjectives” so I wrote them up on the board. Maybe it would have been better if we had had more time, because 1 student in every group didn’t have the possibility for guessing, only for explaining. Or maybe the time limit should be shorter (1 minute) and that way there is a greater chance for more rounds. The cards contained random English words, but I think that it would be also possible to play the game with concrete themes.


Part 3 Appendices

Appendix: Vocabulary items

  • books

  • travel

  • dangerous

  • homework

  • old

  • beautiful

  • game

  • money

  • modern

  • holiday

  • firefighter

  • autumn

  • hospital

  • question

  • library

  • expensive

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