Saturday, July 5, 2008

Celebrity Heads - A vocabulary game

By Betty Lee - Shengda College, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

There is a game called Celebrity Heads - or something like that. In its original form the names of famous people are used and the object is to discover which celebrity you are. It is usually used by teachers as an end-of-year activity. I have used a modified version of it in all sorts of classes - maths, science,... even oral English in China.

Normally you have 3 students at the front facing the class - I think it is preferable to have seats for them.

Someone writes a word on the board behind each student. They are not to see the word.

The first student now asks the class a question requiring a "yes" or "no" answer. If the class answers "yes" the student may ask another question but if they answer "no" then the next of the 3 students may ask a question.

Continue in this manner until the first person guesses the word on the board behind them. You may continue until each guesses their word or finish then.

Reward the winner by having them write the next 3 words down or have each student who has just been "in" write the new word for the person to take their seat.

There are some skills to be learnt about choosing "good" words and also about how to ask the questions.

It lends itself well to learning new vocabulary.

My college students only had one session with it but really enjoyed themselves.

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