O/X (Maru-Batsu) Game

The O/X Game is a very powerful classroom activity- In one activity students participate in all of the categories of activities on The Minimalist ALT. It is also very flexible, making it useful for almost any language pattern. Learn to use it well!

This is the activity sequence for the O/X Game--
*Listen, Repeat, Respond, Repeat, Answer & Score*

For Sentences:
Ready (optional, but suggested for elementary classes):
-WRITE a target sentence or question pattern on the blackboard, underlining or using a different color chalk for the part/parts that will be changed.

Play:
-CHOOSE a student with the dice.
-SAY a sentence aloud.
-All students REPEAT.
-All students RESPOND-raise hand for ‘O’, or don’t for ‘X’.
-SAY the sentence again.
-Students REPEAT.
-Chosen student ANSWERS- ‘O’ or ‘X’.
-Correct students SCORE a point (chosen student, too).

For Yes/No Questions:
Play:
-WRITE and PRACTICE answer patterns on blackboard.
-ASK a question.
-All students REPEAT.
-CHOOSE an answering student with the dice.
-ASK the question again.
-All students REPEAT again.
-All students RESPOND by raising hands (‘O’) or not (‘X’) to guess the chosen student’s answer.
-ASK the question again, to the chosen student.
-The chosen student ANSWERS.
-Correct students SCORE a point (chosen student, too).

Hints:

• be creative with play style and language use. For example, when teaching the pronouns he and she, ask the student a question, or use a sentence, using the student’s name. Then, ask the same student a second question, or say a second sentence, using he or she in the question or statement. When teaching we, first ask the chosen student a question, or say a sentence. Then the second time, stand next to the student, use the same language, except use we for the subject. Or, you can use a second student: after asking the first student a question, or saying a sentence about the student, use the same sentence, except use they, indicating the first student and second student.

• If you use English names for the students, this is a good time to practice ‘What’s your English name?’ before making a question/sentence about that student.

• For Wh- questions (for example, ‘What color do you like?’), put two (or more) choices for the chosen student to answer from on the blackboard (O=I like blue. / X=I like red.) This will also show the students a written model of the correct answer form.

Choral Translastion

Pair KARUTA/ Word Catcher

Hot Potato

Small Group Creative Substitution Drills for Sentences or Questions.
materials: prepared sentences or questions, timer
time: 10-15 minutes

For each of 3-6 rounds, write a sentence, a question or a short 2 person dialog on the blackboard, and underline one word or phrase for students to change with their own word or phrase (I always use the same colored chalk for this). Make successive sentences/questions/dialogs varied, and/or a little more difficult. Two parts to change for the last pattern give the students a fun challenge.
In groups of 3 or 4 (small groups give each student more chances to speak), the beginning student says the target pattern on the blackboard, then passes a pen case, or other hot potato, to the next student. If the pattern is a question, the next student must first answer the question before making a new question and passing the hot potato. If the target pattern is a sentence, the next student makes a new sentence before passing the hot potato. Students continue like this in a circle until the time limit is reached (1 minute to 1 minute 20 seconds for short patterns, up to 2 minutes 15 seconds for dialogs). Use a count-down timer that beeps loudly when the time has finished.
If you use points in the classroom for motivation, all the students can start with 5 points, and the losing student (those holding the hot potato when the time has finished) lose one point.

Example rounds for one activity:

• Have you ever been to Kyoto?
• I have never seen an alien. How about you? Me, either./ I have seen an alien before.
• Kenta has played gate ball many times.
• How many times have you climbed Mt. Fuji?I have climbed Mt. Fuji once.

CROSSFIRE/ LINEFIRE

Full Class Testing or Listen-and-Respond Activity
materials: prepared sentences or questions, or make them up as you go
time: 3-10 minutes

CROSSFIRE or LINEFIRE are testing activities that need to be used judiciously. As a game, they can be quite fun for the students (especially those sitting and watching). Students intuitively understand the testing nature of the activities, however; many students just don’t like to be one of a few students standing while all the others are sitting and watching. For the teacher, though, it is very convenient for checking students' oral production accuracy: for example, after introducing or practicing some words, structures or gestures, and before moving into an activity that doesn’t allow for direct teacher error surveillance. We often play CROSSFIRE or LINEFIRE before moving onto more free-speaking activities (or the ConFluency Card Game).

HOW TO PLAY

CROSSFIRE: With the classroom set up with the desks in rows, choose one row -either front-to-back or side-to-side- to stand. After the teacher says a sentence or asks a question, the student with the first hand up can respond. If the response is correct, this student may sit down (if incorrect, the student remains standing, and the next fastest student may respond). This pattern continues until there is one original student standing. At this time, the line of students ninety-degrees opposed to the original line and containing the last standing student, stand and become the responders.

Continue play until the students sufficiently understand the correct patterns for responding to be able to continue to the next activity. After playing several rounds, you can ask the students who haven't stood up yet to stand for the final round.

LINEFIRE: Choose one row to stand (I usually roll a single die/dice to choose one row, counting from left to right). This row stands, and in order (front-to-back or back -to-front) each student in turns responds. If the response is correct, the student sits down; if not, the student remains standing, and the chance to respond moves to the next. When all students have resonded correctly and sat down, the student who answered incorrectly is given another chance.

CROSSFIRE/LINEFIRE PATTERNS for practicing a variety of Conversation Skill patterns:

• (Teacher -> Student)
• Question -> Answer
• Question -> A + 1 Answer
• Question -> Answer (+1) & Repeat the Same Question
• Question -> Answer (+1) & Ask Another Question
• (Teacher 1) Question -> (Teacher 2) Answer (+1) -> (Student) Follow-Up Question
• Question -> Answer (+1) -> (Teacher) Pardon? -> (Student) Repeat
• Sentence -> Say the Same Sentence (Listen -> Repeat, or L & R. Great for introducing new patterns.)
• Sentence -> Say Another Sentence
• Sentence -> Say Another Sentence -> (Teacher) Pardon? -> (Student) Repeat

Pair Slap

materials: target sentence or question-and-answer pattern

time: 2-10 minutes

group size: seat pairs

For SENTENCES & NEGATIVES
Ready-
-All students stand in seat pairs. One student is designated as student A, the other, student B.
-WRITE TWO SENTENCES on the blackboard. The two sentences should be similiar, for example, A-‘I like tennis.’ and B-‘I play tennis.’ or A-‘I like pink.’ and B-‘I like blue.’

Play- for listening accuracy
-A-students first repeat the A sentence after the teacher, then B-students repeat the B sentence.
-Paired students face each other, each holding one hand out as if shaking hands, BUT the 2 students’ hands are held 10-15 cm. apart.
-Teacher says, ‘READY!’ and reads one of the sentences aloud.
-If the A sentence is read aloud, the A-student tries to slap the other student’s hand (winning). The B-student, though, tries to pull his or her hand away before it is slapped (winning).

Play- for translation
-Teacher writes ONE sentence on the blackboard, in English or in Japanese.
-All students repeat.
-One of the pair (the A or B student) is told to slap if the translation is correct. The other student is told to slap if the translation is not correct. (on the blackboard- A-O B-X ).
-Teacher says, ‘READY!’ and reads the sentence aloud.
if points are awarded, correctly guessing students get one point for each correct guess.

Hints/Options-

• For classes that don’t interact well in a free-moving activity like this, have the students Janken Conversation Round style-- seat pairs playing janken, and one side rotating back one seat after their conversation is finished.

Student 1-on-1 with Teacher

Individual Student Translation

Asking an individual student to translate your spoken or written English word or structure into Japanese can be an effective way to test comprehension of meaning and to reinforce it for the entire class. It also follows the good teaching practice of not telling an answer, but rather challenging the students to elicit it.
Beware, though, that this is a test. The student's answer will be either correct or not. And all of the other students are watching and listening. This raises the answering student's affective filter and anxiety level.
To lessen the anxiety, I usually ask the whole class to first chorally give me the translation, giving everyone the challenge. Then after this, I ask for a volunteer, or choose one by rolling the dice, to tell me the correct translation. Asking for a volunteer or choosing a volunteer by dice, rather than choosing one yourself, lessens more the stress on the lone answering student.

Find 3 People -> Tell the Teacher

This is a simple twist on the Find 3 People activity that makes it into a testing activity. Simply require that students who have found their 3 people come to the teacher and perform the Q & A with the teacher before sitting down (and to perhaps receive points).