Area : Vocabulary
Rate : ★★
Target : Middle and High school students.
English club is an interesting website.
You can play crossword games and cloze games.
A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer words and phrases are placed in the grid from left to right and from top to bottom. The shaded squares are used to separate the words or phrases.
Squares in which answers begin are usually numbered. The clues are then referred to by these numbers and a direction, for example, "4-Across" or "20-Down". At the end of the clue the total number of letters is sometimes given, depending on the style of puzzle and country of publication. Some crosswords will also indicate the number of words in a given answer, should there be more than one.
A cloze test (also cloze deletion test) is an exercise, test, or assessment consisting of a portion of text with certain words removed (cloze text), where the participant is asked to replace the missing words. Cloze tests require the ability to understand context and vocabulary in order to identify the correct words or type of words that belong in the deleted passages of a text. This exercise is commonly administered for the assessment of native and second language learning and instruction.
In this case, here is the hangman game.
The word to guess is represented by a row of dashes, giving the number of letters and category of the word. If the guessing player suggests a letter which occurs in the word, the other player writes it in all its correct positions. If the suggested letter does not occur in the word, the other player draws one element of the hangman diagram as a tally mark. The game is over when:
The other player completes the diagram:
This diagram is, in fact, designed to look like a hanging man. Although debates have arisen about the questionable taste of this picture,[2] it is still in use today. A common alternative for teachers is to draw an apple tree with ten apples, erasing or crossing out the apples as the guesses are used up.
The exact nature of the diagram differs; some players draw the gallows before play and draw parts of the man's body (traditionally the head, then the torso, then the arms & legs one by one). Some players begin with no diagram at all, and drawing the individual elements of the gallows as part of the game, effectively giving the guessing players more chances. The amount of detail on the man can also vary, affecting the number of chances. Many players include a face on the head, either all at once or one feature at a time.
Some modifications to game play to increase difficulty level are sometimes facilitated, such as limiting guesses on high-frequency consonants and vowels. Another alternative is to give the definition of the word. This can be used to facilitate the learning of a foreign language.
"The origins of Hangman are obscure, but it seems to have arisen in Victorian times," says Tony Augarde, author of "The Oxford Guide to Word Games" (Oxford University Press). The game is mentioned in Alice Bertha Gomme's "Traditional Games" in 1894 under the name "Birds, Beasts and Fishes." The rules are simple; a player writes down the first and last letters of a word for an animal, and the other player guesses the letters in between. In other sources[where?] the game is called "Gallows", "The Game of Hangin'", or "Hanger". Hangman has featured in the 1978 Speak & Spell video game system under the name "Mystery Word" and is sometimes played today as a forum game.
But quizes in here are not explicit so students can have many problems to solve the quizes.
And its plain designs can't grab young kids' attentions.
1)Learner fit
The vocabulary words can be controlled to fit the learners in terms of the topics that are coverd. And the students can see the need for learninf the vocabulary words well. Also vocabulary words are chosen to match the students' levels of language.
2)Explicit vocabulary teaching
The activities don't provide explicit instruction to teach vocabulary.
3)Interaction with the computer
The activities provide opportunities for interaction with the computer in a way that focuses students' attention on unfamiliar vocabulary. And the computer provide students with help understanding the vocabulary that they do not know.
4)Interaction with other learners
The activities can guide learners to work with classmates and but not to contribute to online discussions. I think other collaborative activities we could develop that are based on the vocabulary.
5)Two types of evaluation
It can't provide details of feedback but they are quizzes themselves, also reactions are immediately appeared.
6)Strategy development
When the learners want to know vocabulary of other topic, they can use it again. So it promote good vocabulary learning strategy. But it is not close to reading strategies.
How to use?
This classic and nice games will help you to teach your learners. Well, there is a saying " The simple is the best"! You can print them out and share with your students. Let them decode the puzzles. All play hang man together in-class. It will improve your students' vocabulary skills.
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