Taboo (Listening and B2 Vocabulary)
Taboo
Kertész Laura, Fodor Balázs
Part 1: The Game
Level & Learning Outcomes
The level of the game is B2 level, as most of the words are advanced. Playing this game can check and improve the oral skills and proper understanding of vocabulary.
Materials needed
taboo cards (see appendix for examples) Editable and printable
whiteboard, or a sheet of paper for scoring
Object of Game
To get the most points by describing and guessing correctly.
Rules of Play
Divide the group into two or three teams.
A member of a group draws a card. On the top of the card they will see the word to be described. Below the word are the four taboo words, that must not be used by the student.
The student has 80 seconds in total to describe the word drawn. In the last 60 seconds, the other teams can steal the point, if they guess correctly.
If a word from the taboo list is used, the student has to draw another card and describe the new word. The timer is not reset.
If the groups cannot guess the word, no one gets points.
Scorekeeping
Each word is worth 1 point.
The point can be stolen by any team after 20 seconds.
If no one gets it right during the 80 seconds, no one gets points.
Variation (Bálint Fanni & Vigh Molli)
Color-code the words according to difficulty
If they guess the words correctly within 60 seconds, they get
a) green: 2 points
b) blue: 3 points
c) orange: 4 points
Part 2: Reflection
This game is a better spin on Activity’s description task. It requires more attention, and engages the student’s passive vocabulary and language skills, as the taboo words are usually the ones with which one would describe.
Conducting the game is not too difficult on the teacher either. They do need to pay attention, making sure that the student describing does not use a taboo word, but aside from that, it does not require too much planning, as the rules are rather simple. As such, the game is more often than not rather dynamic and competitive.
One thing we could have done differently is the tiering of words. In the original game of Taboo this does exist and more difficult words reward more points. This can elevate the pace and thrill of the game, but would require more planning.
Another “criticism” by our peers was the randomness of the words, as they have no connections to each other. This can be a fair point, but playing taboo in only one topic can introduce issues, such as cross-referencing previous answers and using previously guessed words as synonyms, if we are not careful.
All in all I think that our game was successful, as it managed to engage the students’ vocabulary, both productive and perceptive. FB
In Hungary, Taboo is a very popular game among young generations and we play it a lot with friends. For this reason, if we bring into a classroom environment students connect it to a nice memory. If I saw it well, students enjoyed it a lot, although it was challenging for them as well especially because of the limit. As we discussed in the class, it is good when we use words from different kind of vocabulary, for example, as a revision. In this way, it is more difficult for the students to recall that many words. In my opinion, if we play it once again, we should increase the time a little bit, because for younger and beginner students this 20 seconds wouldn’t be enough. However, in general, I think it is a very enjoyable activity where students can use both speaking and listening skills. In our game we used discriminative listening skills, which is a basic listening skill, comprehensive listening skill, because students have to decode and use messages in order to get the correct word. Critical listening can be used as well, when the explainer gives more complicated description of the words. KL
I think this game, based on taboo, was also really enjoyable, but it was way more competitive than our first game. I think it can be mentioned in both a positive and a negative way because if someone likes to compete, it is a plus motivation, however, if someone does not, it can make them stressed. It also means a lot who are your teammates, so it is a must to create heterogeneous groups to make the game fair.
We must focus on picking colours that are not visible from the other side of the paper. Another idea is that we can let our students choose whether they want to choose a card for 2,3 or 4 points. (As our group wanted to make it exciting, we mixed the cards.)
In conclusion, I would say we can use this game from level B1 and above because we need our students to be able to express themselves even if they have to avoid certain expressions. BF
We enjoyed creating this game. However, it was a little bit time-consuming to find out so many words in connection with this topic. In my opinion, everyone enjoyed this game, we laughed a lot while playing the game. I think that this game improves speaking, vocabulary, listening and improvisation skills too. No one said at the end of the game that they felt uncomfortable. However, this game hardly can be played below the B2 level because it contains vocabulary that is connected to a B2-level topic. This game is good for improving vocabulary and for revising a certain topic. It can be varied with different topics or different words. Moreover, it can be played with mixed topics and words. I think the time limit was enough for our classmates.
All in all, in my opinion, everybody liked this game. However, it would be hard for students below B2-level knowledge but it can be created for students with lower or higher levels too. VM
Part 3 Appendix
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