Duelling Sentences

 Duelling Sentences

Two students come to the front; one from each team. The teacher shows them a flashcard and they compete to be the first to make a sentence with this piece of vocabulary. The first student to successfully make a sentence is the winner. This game works well as a ‘best of three’ mini-battle, i.e., the teacher shows them three FCs one at a time; after this, the students return to their seats and a new pair come up for their ‘sentence duel’.

Let us say that the #3 students are called up. The teacher shows them an FC for [bottle].

“I have a bottle of water!” says the #3s from team A.

1 – 0 to team A.

The teacher shows an FC for [cup].

Two sentences (one from each student) immediately come out: “There is a cup on the table!” and “Would you like a cup of tea?”

2 – 1 to team A.

The teacher finally shows an FC for [glass].

“Sorry, I have broken the glass!” says the #3s from team A quickly.

3 – 1 to team A.

The two #3 students now return to their seats and a different pair is called up.

Finally, once all the students have taken a turn, the points are tallied up and the team with the most points is the winner.

This game works for all levels. For lower levels the sentences can be simple, such as “It is a bottle” or “I like bottles”. However, the game does work better when the students are of a level when they have more language to draw from.

You can of course play this game without FCs. The teacher simply says a word, any word, and the students compete to make a sentence with this word. You can mix in a variety of vocabulary for review:

“Bigger.” – “An elephant is bigger than an ant.”

“Sofa.” – “What colour is your sofa?”

“Computer.” – “I like to play computer games.”

“Hospital.” – “I went to the hospital yesterday.”

If the students create sentences with slight imperfections, it is up to you as the teacher to decide whether to allow it. Often it will depend on the level and ability of your class. For example, with my intensive classes (that attend the school almost every day) I will be stricter on not allowing small mistakes; but with my part-time classes (two evenings a week) the students are less practised and need more positive encouragement.

Other duelling games

The sentence duel is a kind of ‘shoot-off’ with words. ‘Get two students to the front to compete in who can say something first’. And with this basic game structure, you may come up with other workable ideas.

Taboo – the teacher describes a word and the first of the two students to say this word is the winner, e.g., “It’s tall, has leaves, a monkey likes to climb it.” – “Tree!”

Mixed Sentence Game – the teacher says a jumbled up sentence and the first of the two students to say this sentence in the right order is the winner, e.g., “Morning he every brushes teeth his.” – “He brushes his teeth every morning!”

Auxiliary game – the teacher asks the two students a yes/no question and the first student to answer with the correct auxiliary is the winner, e.g., “Do you like swimming?” – “Yes, I do!”

“Did you go swimming yesterday?” – “No, I didn’t.”

“Are you a student?” – “Yes, I am!”

Mallet’s Mallet – a game based on part of a popular British TV show from the Eighties.

The original game used word association, e.g., the teacher starts off the game with, “Tree”. The [team B #4s] says, “Climb”, the [team A #4s] says, “Mountain”, the [team B #4s] says, “Walk”, the [team A #4s] says, “Drive”, etc. When a student is stuck for what to say, the teacher can do a countdown: “5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ...” and if they still haven’t said anything, they are out and the other student is the winner. Also, if a student says a word that has already been said, they immediately lose the game.

This game can be played in other ways too, e.g., the teacher starts off the game with, “Ok, colours, go!” The [team B #2s] says, “Red”, the [team A #2s] says, “Green”, the [team B #2s] says, “Orange”, the [team A #2s] says, “Purple”, etc. When a student is stuck for what to say, or if they repeat a [colour] that has already been said, they are the loser. This game can be used for colours, animals, food, verbs, adjectives, and the list goes on. …

Make a Sentence – Finally to get back to sentences and FCs again the teacher could hold up an FC (e.g., an FC for ‘book’) and the two students take turns to make a sentence from the FC. The student who finally becomes stuck for something to say is the loser:

Team A’s #1s: “It is a book.”

Team B’s #1s: “I like books.”

Team A’s #1s: “There are books in my bag.”

Team B’s #1s: “There is a book on the desk.”

Team A’s #1s: “I can read an English book.”

Team B’s #1s: “…?”

Teacher: “5, 4, 3, 2,1 ... sorry ... 1 – 0 to team A.”

The teacher shows the next FC (or introduces the next word), and the game continues ... all the students take a turn; points are tallied up at the end.