Menu Listing Game - Research Paper Example

Menu Listing Game Objectives: 1. To exercise the ability of the students/ participants in developing their skill with adjectives and their capacity in describing nouns. 2. To be more acquainted with common and proper nouns, synonymous words, and familiarizing themselves with uncommon lexicon and to be able to use these words more frequently in their day-to-day interaction. 3. To help English Language Learners be more comfortable in communicating with other people of different cultural backgrounds through fun interactive activities that fosters language learning and social interaction. Mechanics: I. Goal: The goal of the game is to be able to list down or catalog as many words as possible from the given category within the allotted time. II. Players: The participants are divided into two to four teams. Each team is divided into equal members. Ideally, each team should be composed of at least four members but not more than eight people in one group to make sure that each member are able to contribute and participate in the activity. III. Materials: white board (paper), markers (pens or pencils), whistle, and timer. IV. How to Play: First, the moderator/ teacher would provide the instructions of the game—each team would be given two minutes to list down as many words as they could think of per category mentioned. Then, the teams would have to wait for the signal from the moderator before they could proceed from writing. And once the category is given, the moderator would signal that the time had start by whistling. When the time is up, the moderator would whistle again and the participants would have to hold up their markers/pen to ensure that everyone had stopped writing. For instance, the category is “continental breakfast” each team would then have to make a “menu list” of dishes that are considered to be continental breakfast—i.e. omelets, hash browns, French toasts, oatmeal, bagels. Categories could also work based on themes like ‘fruit-based dishes,’ ‘salads,’ ‘Mexican food,’ ‘pasta,’ ‘liquid form,’ any category that would inspire participants to think creatively and would invoke fun and humor to the game. This would make learning more interactive and enjoyable without the participants noticing that they are not only learning new words but they are also developing their socialization skills and confidence through interaction, team work and cooperation by working together as one group. V. Winner: To determine the winner, for each category, the moderator would have to check the list that each team had made for any errors and repetitions. The checking would be done by the moderator and the other teams to ensure transparency. The most number of items listed per category wins one point. Points are cumulative. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. VI. Variations: There are many variations that could be made to this game. Though the game is called “menu listing” modification could be made to fit required lesson. If for instance the lesson is about pronouns or synonyms/ antonyms, ask the participants to catalog pronouns or synonyms/antonyms of the given category. Menu Listing Game, an Analysis Vocabulary games are important learning tools for English Language Learners because it helps them get more acquainted with recognizable words and familiarize themselves with words that they do not often hear or use. Vocabulary improvement activities according to August, et al (2006), must include “both definitional information and contextual information about each word’s meaning, and that effective instruction actively involves students in word learning and provides multiple exposures to meaningful information about each word” (p. 97). Vocabulary games also develop the students’ knowledge with the various parts of speeches as it becomes the focal point of the game—through the categories, to which the game is played. For instance, since the topic of our discussion is noun/ pronoun I based the ‘menu listing game’ on that theme but it is very flexible ad could easily be used in studying various parts of speeches. Despite its flexibility and the seemingly general appeal, ‘menu listing game’ does follow and highlight some of the key principles that Sökmen (as cited in Schmitt, 2000, p. 146-147) have identified to be effective means in teaching vocabulary among English language learners. For one, Sökmen have documented that one of the key principle in teaching and promoting vocabulary development effectively is to “build a large sight vocabulary” and “integrate new words with old” (Schmitt, 2000, p. 146). By forcing students to think within a limited time, there is a sense of pressure for them to think more in-depth and incorporate words that they commonly use to words that they would rarely use in their day-to-day interaction or communication. This way, the activity promotes or links old words with new words; at the same time it expands the learners’ vocabulary collectively because they are learning as a group. Word-association becomes a more interesting activity and more often than not, it is things that you associate with positive memory that sticks to a person’s recollection the most. Another key principle that ‘menu listing game’ has that Sökmen identified to be of importance in promoting vocabulary development is that it has the ability for students to have an encounter with the same word/s repeatedly (Schmitt, 2000, p. 147). Because the participants would only be given one category, the likelihood of having the same answers is very high. Thus, there would be redundancy of words and the more students encounter the word—hear, see, read it; the more they get familiar with it. Lastly, Sökmen mentions that vocabulary development should “promote a deep level of processing” and “encourage independent learning strategies” (Schmitt, 2000, p. 147). By allowing students to think on their own—individually and as part of a group, they are expected and stimulated to think and process on their own, with their own strategies of recalling and thinking. The game leaves much room for the participants to be creative in their thought process as it only requires them to perform and complete their task in the given amount of time. By also allowing them to work by themselves, there is less supervision from the teacher, the teacher in this case only acts as moderator or arbiter to ensure that the catalog of words that the groups have submitted actually fits the category. Analyzing the words also opens up the group to a new level of discussion which promotes a more in-depth analysis of words. References August, D., Carlo, M., Lively, T.J., McLaughlin, B., & Snow, C. (2006). Supporting the Literacy Development of English Learners: Increasing Success in All Classrooms T.A. Young & N.L. Hadaway, (Ed.). Delaware: International Reading Association, Inc. Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in Language Learning. New York: Cambridge University Press. Read More