Do Me A Favour
Minefields

This activity is best suited to club or Eikaiwa (English conversation group) use, as it uses material outside the province of the text books. Basically, it is a complex version of 'Go Fish!'. Divide the class into groups of four and give each a set of cards and a worksheet. There are two types of cards, request cards (indicated by a question mark), and reply cards (indicated by a tick). The request cards show actions which need doing, and the task cards show the task done. The object of the game is for the players to collect as many pairs of matching request and reply cards as they can. The players should sit in their groups around a table and deal out ten cards to each player. The remaining cards should be placed face down in a pile in the middle. The players should look at their cards and sort out any pairs they may have and place these face up in front of them. They can then take turns (rotating left) to make requests based on the cards they hold. The request can be made to any member of their group. When players have a reply card which corresponds to the request, they must surrender it to the player who asked, along with the appropriate response. If they don't have the matching card they must refuse the request with the appropriate response. The person whose request has been refused then takes a card from the center, and the turn passes to the next player. The winner is the player who empties their hand first.

(Concept and game cards are from Jill Hadfield's Elementary Communication Games by Nelson Press.)

Teaching Tip Clarify the difference between 'teens' and multiples of 10 using the numbers 13 and 30 for a model. Most teachers say the difference between the two is a lengthening of the last syllable; teen as opposed to the short ty ending of thirty (or...). Something they may not recognise, however, is how important stresses are in differentiating between multiples of 10 and their corresponding teen. A teen accent stresses the second syllable (thirTEEN, fourTEEN...), whereas the stress for a 10 multiple is on the first syllable (THIRty, FIFty, NINEty). Practice this difference first by having the students repeat after you, and then in rhythm with you clapping out a four count. Practice THIRty with the THIR sounding on the 1st and 3rd beats. Next practice thirTEEN with the thir starting on the '&' of the 2nd and 4th beats. Have the JTE take 1/2 the class with THIRty, while you lead the rest with thirTEEN.

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