6 board games for upgrading English

Gamification of training is a great way to increase student motivation and improve the results.



The reason is simple - games help to maintain a stable and high interest in the subject. And there are included the mechanisms of memorization and associations. Did you ever notice that the lyrics of a song that you liked do not even need to be taught? He is remembered as if by himself after a few auditions.

')

If you delve into psychology, then interesting information immediately creates a stable chain of associations with already existing knowledge. And the more such associations, the faster the information will go to the long-term memory.



Today we will talk about the whole section of games that are undeservedly forgotten - board games. And tell you what nastolki help you to improve your English skills.



All these desktops can be purchased in online stores without any problems. Ready? Go!

Scrabble

It would be very strange to talk about the desktops for pumping the English language and not to mention Scrabble.



Scrabble is a legend of board games, which combines extremely simple rules and fascination. Naturally, we need the English version of the game.



The complexity of the rules. Low

Level strategy Average

Trains skills: Mindfulness, vocabulary, anagram compilation, search for the optimal strategy.



rules



Players are issued with 7 chips with letters. Players must place their chips on a 15x15 field in such a way that words are formed in the manner of a crossword puzzle. That is, you can only read words vertically and horizontally.



Each letter has its own value. And the less often it is used in words, the more points you get when using it. For example, "A" or "C" are only 1 point, "F" - 4 points, and "Q" - as many as 10 points. Points from all used letters are counted and recorded.



The game is up to a certain number of points. Who first achieved - and he won.



Benefit



Scrabble is great for working out vocabulary in English. Actually, the more words you know, the higher your chances of winning. You can check the presence of a word in any English dictionary. It is better, of course, to use online dictionaries - for example, Oxford Dictionaries . Total allowed words about 260,000 pieces.



If you do not know the word that your opponent posted, take a few minutes and see its meaning. So you can during the game to replenish your vocabulary.

Once upon time

In Russian, she came out under the title "In a certain kingdom," which seemed to hint at the meaning of entertainment. The task of the players is to tell a fairy tale or a fantastic story with the help of special cards.



The complexity of the rules: low

Strategy level: low

He trains skills: listening comprehension, sentence formation, language coherence, storytelling, attentiveness, logic.



rules



Each player has a set of cards with characters, locations, properties and actions, as well as one card ending.



Players need to tell a fairy tale using their own cards. In this case, it is imperative that each card is important for the advancement of the plot.



If the opponent in front of you becomes silent, gets lost or contradicts the story already told, you can intercept the move and start telling yourself.



The game depends on the "talkative" players. It is clear that in English it will be difficult at first to compose a fairy tale, but these are only the first few games.



To draw time and come up with the next plot twist, you can add colorful descriptions, dialogues, or any interesting trivia to the tale. The tale will only benefit from this, and you will win even more from such a training.



It is important not only to tell the story yourself, but also to listen to others. Therefore, “Once Upon A Time” is great for people with approximately the same level of language proficiency.



Benefit



Creating a story on the go allows you to develop the beauty, coherence and logic of speech. You need not only to use your vocabulary to create a story, but also to link the story with the cards that you have in your hands.



Here you need to talk as much as possible. After all, too much pause will lead to the interception of the course. And over time, the quantity goes into quality, telling the story becomes easier. And you can speak fluently in English about anything and for as long as you want.

Sounds like a plan

“Sounds like a plan” is considered a party game, but it is also great for pumping English.



The task of the players is to give advice. And the extent to which these tips will be in the subject, will mean the number of your points.



The complexity of the rules: low

Strategy level: low

Trains skills: reading, perception accuracy, speed of thinking, logic.



rules



Each player has cards from the “Advice” deck. Nearby there is a general deck “To Do List”, from which each of the participants draws cards. Each turn is one action.



The goal of the game is to pick up advice from your cards that will best fit the situation.



For example, you need to "Plan a family reunion." The cube shows which type of advice is needed: the best, the worst, from a child or from a grandmother. Then each player draws a card with a tip to that effect. The participant who drew the “To Do List” card ranks the cards of the players from the most current advice to the most inappropriate.



The game is very fun, and to participate in it will be quite enough and the level of Pre-Intermediate. Unknown words can be peeped in the dictionary - this will have almost no effect on the speed of the game. But in this way you can learn to quickly correlate and filter information in English.



Benefit



From the point of view of English, the game is quite simple. After all, in fact, you only need to correctly understand the meaning of several written sentences. However, it allows you to expand your vocabulary and replenish your asset with idioms and popular phrases.

Taboo

A great game in which you need to explain your team a word, without naming himself or any other words that are directly related to him.



The complexity of the rules: low

Strategy level: low

He trains skills: word description, association, thinking speed in English, use of active and passive vocabulary.



rules



Everything is extremely simple. You need to explain as many words as possible in one minute. The word itself, of course, can not be called. But you cannot also call other words that are directly related to it - they are written in the “Taboo” block.



For example, you need to explain the word "basketball". The words “sport”, “basket”, “basketball player”, “ball” are prohibited. And now get out how you want.



The style of the game is a bit like “Crocodile”, but here it’s just impossible to explain the word with gestures - just words. By the way, this is one of those games for which you can not even buy a special deck of cards, because you can invent words yourself.



Benefit



It turns out that to explain in such a way even the simplest word is quite difficult. The game perfectly coaches the skills of instant vocabulary use.



Indeed, in one minute you need to explain as many words as possible. Literally in a split second, you need to understand how to explain the concrete word “without taboo” as intelligibly as possible.



PS The game “Alias” is very similar to “Taboo” in its meaning - they differ only in features of scoring and penalty systems. So if you want, you can choose any of these two games.

Mad gab

Extremely interesting phonetic game in which you need to guess the phrase by sound.



The complexity of the rules: low

Strategy level: low

Trains skills: listening comprehension, vocabulary usage, phonetic associations.



rules



Before the start of the round, the referee chooses several cards. They are bilateral. On one side is written a meaningless set of words, and on the other - a popular phrase that phonetically resembles a set of words on the first side.

For example: “Heaven Iced Hey” - “Have a nice day”.

The task of the first player is to speak a set of words in such a way as to guess the phrase-answer.



The second player knows the answer and tells the first exactly how to say the phrase. He can give hints about speed, intonation, accents, but he cannot suggest the meaning of the phrase in any other way.



It is necessary to guess as many phrases as possible in the allotted amount of time. Most often in 3 minutes.



Benefit



“Mad Gab” is just a great game to practice listening to English. If you learn to play it well, then even the accent of the Indians or the Chinese will not be difficult.



The game also includes an associative array well, because the sounds of the riddle and the phrase-response are very similar. Often the answers are daily phrases that are used often - the more interesting their search will be.

Apples to Apples

A simple card game for a company whose goal is to choose the word that best matches the main card. A game of association and communication between rivals.



The complexity of the rules: low

Strategy level: low

Trains skills: vocabulary, associative, speed of thinking.



rules



The rules are a bit like “Sounds like a plan”, but you need to select a description for a specific word or description.



Each player has a certain number of cards from the red deck. The leader of the round chooses one card with the word from the green deck - it becomes the main one.



The task of the players is to select a card with the word from their hands that will most closely match the main card.

For example, the green card on the table is “cute.” In your hand cards: "lawn mower", "clown", "bottle", "sport" and "kitten". Naturally, the most appropriate word would be "kitten".

After all the players have put their cards, the presenter chooses the most appropriate one. The choice is always subjective, so players must also take into account the possible reaction of the lead.



The player who chooses the right word picks up the green card itself. The one who first collects a certain number of green cards wins the game.



Benefit



Apples to Apples coaches vocabulary well. Most of the words written on the cards, quite common. And if you consider that the number of cards in the game is from 200 to 400 (depending on the version), then this is a very good way to learn a few hundred new words or to fix already learned ones.



***



findings



To purchase any of these board games in English is not difficult. In online stores they are in sufficient quantities.



Nastolki is a great way to spend time in company with your family or with friends and simultaneously train your English. If you participate in a talk club, try bringing one of these games to a meeting. And we assure you, the classes will become much more interesting.



In this list, we specifically did not make games with complex rules or very strategic. After all, you can also play English in Dungeons & Dragons if you really want to. But before that you need to be mentally prepared to read and understand a rollbook of several hundred pages.



Here, only proven simple entertainment, which, nevertheless, perfectly help to pump over English. Have fun with the benefits!

EnglishDom.com is an online school that inspires learning English through innovation and human concern.

→ Crank in English on online courses from EnglishDom.com

According to the link - 2 months of premium subscription for all courses as a gift.



→ For live communication - choose individual training via Skype with a teacher.

The first trial lesson is free, register here . The promo code goodhabr2 - 2 lessons as a gift when buying from 10 lessons. The bonus is valid until 05/31/19.



Our products:



ED Courses application in Google Play Store



ED Courses app on the App Store



Our youtube channel



Online simulator



Talking clubs