This is a simple activity to practice reading a pair dialogue. There are 2 teams with different goals in this activity. The zombie team and the human team. The zombies want to make everyone zombies, and the humans want to stay human!
I believe that this can be adjusted to any dialogue pair practice you want, this is just how I used it for what I needed. Thank you to both kairutoimasu and nickteacher for your assassin and zombie games respectively. To replicate this for other dialogues, it's not necessary to have the materials I have below, as long as you have 2 parts for a dialogue.
Materials I used:
- simple map including train lines
- timer
- dialogue script
How to Play:
1. Students put their heads down and one hand out. The JTE/ALT then taps the hand of those who are to be the zombies. Since I will have them rotate partners in columns, I will tap 1 student per every 2 columns.
2. Students are given a dialogue. Since my chosen grammar is saying directions, this is the example I will use.
Example:
1 - Could you tell me the way to ____?
2 - Take the ____ line and get off at _____ station.
1 - How long will it take to get to __?
2 - It will take _minutes.
3. Students play rock scissors paper with their partner and decide roles. The winner will take role 1, and the loser will take role 2. The ALT/JTE will then start a timer for the students to complete their dialogue in a set amount of time.
4. If role 1 is a zombie, they will wink or blink really fast at their partner at the end of the conversation. Their partner becomes a zombie and must try to convert other people.
5. If role 1 is not a zombie and does not wink, then nothing happens. Partners will rotate in a circle after everyone finishes the dialogue.
6. After switching for x number of times, the JTE/ALT will ask the zombies to reveal themselves. The students can then see who the secret zombies were and who is left over.
Additional information:
- If a zombie hits another zombie, nothing happens
- In order to allow everyone to practice, I have them rotate in a kaitenzushi manner, or rotate partners around 2 columns. Sometimes when I see free roaming activities, some students aren't inclined to participate, so I make them get a partner in this manner.
- At the end of every round, I had them answer as a class to check their understanding of the dialogue.
I have included a powerpoint of what I used for my class. The map included is very specific to the area around my school, so I left it blank if anyone wanted to change the surrounding stations or landmarks of your city.
Please let me know what you think!
Thanks for this activity! I had the same problem of kids not participating during free-roaming mingling activities, so I really like the idea of changing it to kaitenzushi!