Conversation cards

Conversation Card Activity: Listen and Guess


This is a simple and useful activity for building listening comprehension and new vocabulary skills in the students. It can be used as a warmer or as a prelude to more demanding activities that follow.


Simply distribute each card to a student. Let them all look at the information on their cards for a minute or so, and then ask them to pass their card to the student sitting to the right of them. Repeat the process until the card they started with originally returns to them. Then collect all the cards and shuffle them.


Now begins the guessing game. The teacher takes a card from the deck, ensuring students cannot see either side of it, and says something along the lines of "I am going here because..." then read a hint from the information part of the card, for example "...because I want to munch on some pizza". The first student to say "You are going to the fast-food restaurant" (using correct grammar according to person and tense from the teacher's initial clue) gets the card, which comprises a point. If no-one can guess, give them another clue from the card. If you have read all possible clues out, announce what destination you were talking about and place it to the side as a "null card" for no points. You have the option to have a bonus round at the end where you re-apply these cards, which is a great follow-up technique for vocabulary the students are obviously not familiar with or just couldn't remember on spot.


At higher levels, you can play this sort of game in reverse fashion, simply saying where you are going. Students must then come up with a full sentence from the information section, eg. Teacher: "She went to the fast-food restaurant..." - Student: "Teacher! She went to the fast-food restaurant because she likes to eat hamburgers!"


How fussy you are about exact grammar and pronunciation is of course up to you, depending on the purpose of the activity and the students' level. You could use it to facilitate listening and communication in general, or to reinforce correct grammatical application.

 ~ Jason

Conversation Card Activity: Guess About Someone Else



This game is fairly similar to the ones listed above, except that it has less to do with memory and much more to do with guesswork and experimentation. This would be a good productive activity to follow up on the more "practice-orientated" activities listed above.


Distribute a piece of paper to each student, and then give them each a card. Have them look at the card for a minute and then pass it to the right. Repeat the process until all students have seen all the cards. Then collect the cards, and instruct the students to select a destination and an accompanying reason to go there. They can choose whatever they like, as long as it makes sense. They then write this information on their piece of paper and conceal it from the other students.


Now begins the guesswork and the elimination! Students take turns trying to guess where another student in the room is or went, using appropriate yes/no questions. If they guess correctly, they must follow up with a guess as to the reason the other student is or went to the destination they selected. When a student correctly determines both the destination and the reason another student listed on their paper, the latter student must surrender their paper to the teacher. That student has lost the opportunity to win the game, but they can still make guesses themselves to eliminate other students (and it will usually be the student who eliminated them!). The game continues in turns until there is just one student left with a piece of paper. That person is proclaimed the winner, but the first student to correctly determine the place and reason for the winner is awarded second place. 


This can be a tense and yet exciting game. It really encourages students to remember and apply more complex language when they are selecting reasons for themselves (as a measure of protection, so to speak), and also encourages them to experiment a lot through guesswork. They must also pay attention to the guesses of other students in order to "narrow down" the range of possible answers they are trying to find.

 ~ Jason

Conversation Card Activity: Describe and Flip



The conversation cards can be used to play a simple "flip-game". First spread the cards out on some table space, with the information section of the cards face-up. Let students look at them (and/or) talk about them for as long as they feel they need. Then turn all the cards over so that the destination image is face up.


Students then take turns choosing a card by saying "I will/want to go to (destination)." The teacher then asks the student a random question orientated around like, want or need. For example, if Sally chooses "fast-food restaurant", the teacher can ask her "Why Sally? What do you like to do there?" or "Why? What do you need ?" If the student can come up with an answer that is represented on the back of the card, using the correct vocabulary and grammar as dictated in the teacher's question, that card is theirs and represents a point. The game progresses until all the cards have been taken, the student with the most being the overall winner.


This is an effective game because it allows the teacher to direct more difficult questions to more proficient learners, and to constantly change the flow of information being asked for.

 ~ Jason