Ghosts: Past tense speaking game for groups
By Assoc. Prof. Sripathum Noom-ura
Language Institute, Thammasat University
Aim: To practice speaking/ telling stories using past tense
Level: Intermediate/advanced
When teaching writing a narrative paragraph, I sometimes use a speaking activity as a lead-in
and presentation of the language model before other stages of writing. This activity is called
‘Ghosts’. It is a stage of encouraging both cooperative and competitive learning from the
learners. Students have to cooperate in their group while they have to compete with other
groups and become a winning team.
I adapted this speaking game from
http://www.eslflow.com/ESLgameGhosts.html. It helps students review past simple of many
verbs, both regular and irregular verbs.
Procedure:
1. Start by telling a story of ‘what happened to me yesterday’ to the students.
Example
I had so many things to do yesterday. First, I cleaned up my bedroom. Next, I
went outside to empty the trash bin. Then, I started cooking for my kids.
After that I drove the kids to their music school. Finally, I had a hair perm.
2. Tell students they’re going to make up similar stories using first, next, then, after that
and finally. They will work in groups; each group takes turn to create one sentence.
They have three lives to save. They will lose (become a ghost) if all the three lives
die.
3. Then show students details of how the game goes. First, the teacher draws three stick
figures on the whiteboard and uses them for explaining the game rules.
Or
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4. Here are the game rules:
Step 1: Students work in teams of 3-5 (depending on the class size).
Step 2: Each team tries to brainstorm and write down the past simple form of
as many words as they can. For example, they can think of words like “went,
read, said, found, sank, ate, ran, etc. ” and keep them as reference.
Step 3: Each team takes turns to make sentences in the past tense.
Example round:
First team:
Second team:
Third team:
Fourth team:
Fifth team:
First, he got out of bed.
Next, he brushed his teeth.
Then, he went for a run.
After that, he had a shower.
Finally, he ate breakfast.
Every time students come round to “First” the story can start a new situation.
Step 4: A team loses a life if
1)
2)
3)
4)
they repeat a verb already used
they make a grammar mistake
they take too long
they make a ridiculous sentence
and they have to cross out a life of their stick figures.
Step 5: The teams that lose three lives die and become ghosts.
The last team alive is the winner.
5. After explaining the rules and demonstrating a round as an example, I will then erase
my own stick figures and divide the board into 5 parts, if I have 5 teams. Let students
draw their own stick figures on the board and then start the game.
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6. If some students start to dominate the talk or they are the only speakers in the groups,
I will set a tougher rule. That means each group member has to have his/her turn
saying a sentence or they lose a life if the same person says two sentences in a row.
Variations: 1. This game can be used for practicing other tenses, too. However, the
teacher has to give language models of the focused language before
starting the game.
2. With students of lower level of English proficiency, it may help if the
teacher gives out a chart of some commonly used irregular verbs. When
students cannot come up with a sentence, the words they see in the chart
may help them in creating something.
Here is the example of the list:
arise
bear
become
bend
bite
break
bring
cut
hold
steal
take
wear
arose
bore
became
bent
bit
broke
brought
cut
held
stole
took
wore
arisen
born
become
bent
bitten
broken
brought
cut
held
stolen
taken
worn
However, students should be reminded that there are many other regular
and irregular verbs that they can think of. It’s not necessary to use only
the words given by the teacher.
3. The teacher may have small pieces of paper with a verb written on each
piece. Put all the pieces in a box or a hat. Each group takes turn to draw a
piece of paper from the box and create a sentence with the verb written on
the paper. This helps the teacher draw students’ attention to practice
certain targeted words.