Vocabulary Game (Revision by Topic)

This is a very simple vocabulary game for revision. I borrowed this idea from my colleague in London and used it for a couple of times when I was teaching a group of adult learners of elementary level at that time. My students absolutely loved it! Give it a try if you are looking for a simple game to spice up your classroom!

Suggested levels: Suitable for all levels

Time: Around 10 minutes (Depending on the number of cards)

What to prepare:

• A set of cards with the topics you’ve covered in the previous lesson (e.g. jobs, transportation, tourist spots).

How it works:

• Divide students into groups of 3 or 4.

• Give a set of cards to each group and ask them to turn over the cards.

• Students take turn to pick a card without showing it to other groupmates and give examples based on the topic. For example, if a student picks a card with ‘jobs’ on it, he/ she needs to come up with examples, such as ‘teacher’, ‘doctor’ and ‘chef’.

• Other students in the group need to guess the topic. The fastest student gets the card.

• The student who gets the most cards wins the game.

Easy version:

• For weaker students, you may want to show the topics on screen so that they can refer to the topics during the game.

• If you’d like to challenge them, you can ask them to play the game again at the end of the class or on the next day without showing the topics.

Difficult version:

• Prepare a set of cards with specific vocabulary items (e.g. ‘teacher’, ‘doctor’ and ‘chef’).

• Students are required to describe the vocabulary, for example, the job duties and work environment of a doctor.

• In this version, students are encouraged to use other related vocabulary items introduced in class.

Example (for elementary level):

Vocabulary Game (Catergories).pdf

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