Turn taking games

Level: B1-B2 / Age: teens, adults / Time: 20 mins

This material works very well with groups preparing for PET or FCE exams where students are assessed on using turn taking language as well as for discussions on general courses.

Procedure:

1. Revise or pre-teach phrases for agreeing, disagreeing, expressing and asking for opinion. I normally project a slide with a collection of expressions and check with the students the meaning of unfamiliar phrases. You may also first practise them with your students using Quizlet.
2. Go through the exam task (PET speaking part 2, FCE speaking part 3) and make sure students know what to do. Alternatively, you could have a list of questions/topic for students to discuss (I would give them one topic at a time).
3. Put students into pairs or threes. Give each team a set of cards with the turn taking expressions written on the them (see the pdf file below), which they then spread face up on their table.
4. Set a 3min limit for the discussion. Tell students to discuss the topic using the expressions on the cards. Every time they use one of the expressions they take away the card and keep it. The object of the game is to collect as many cards as possible in one round. (Some useful rules are: you cannot use two or more expressions one after the other, but you can use up to 3 expressions in one turn.)
5. In the next rounds students continue collecting cards without returning them to the table. They keep playing until they use up all the cards (in this way you will ensure they have practised using all the expressions).

To keep the game interesting and challenging I tend to change pairs/groups so that students have a chance to compete against people with different speaking skills.

It is a fast-paced and a highly competitive game. It is best to play it having planned a few rounds. With exam groups I would start with a few general topics/questions for them to discuss so that they get more familiar with the expressions. Then I would have one or two final rounds using an exam task. In this way students will see how turn taking skills become useful in the exam.

You can also alternate the game by making teams compete against one another in trying to collect more cards in total than the other teams. You could also put on the table a limited or a selected set of cards and ask students to try to use up all of them in one round.

Alternative games:

1. Give each player a set of 5 cards, which they put face up in front of them so that all the other players can see them. Students discuss a topic trying to ‘steal’ cards from one another and collect as many as possible in one round. Cards can be used multiple times.
2. Give each player 5 cards, which they hold up in their hand. Students discuss a topic and every time they use a card they throw it in the middle of the table. The player who gets rid of their cards first wins the round.
3. Give each pair/group a set of cards, which students put face down on the table. Students discuss a topic and draw cards from the table. They must find an opportunity to use the card they have drawn. If they do they put it on their side face up and draw another card from the table. The winner is the person with the most cards.

 

Here is a file with the cards to be printed:

turn taking cards