Week 4 Reflection: Guess by the description, Secret Word Game
S#1715125, Minju Oh
1. Guess by the description
In week 4, there was an activity Guess by the description by Terra. The only physical materials were 2 bags of picture cards per each group. The process is here. When one person gives descriptions of a selected subject and predicate without the words on the cards, then the other person guesses the answer and say it in one completed sentence.
Since we were using common words for describing the daily things, I think this is real-world speaking-focused developing materials Also, it includes listening development area through the communication process. For the instruction she gave us, the written one was not that clear because some parts were confusing. For the simple example, in the instruction paper, there was a sentence that The person should explain the sentence but never speak out the certain word but just describe it. I think she should make this a lot easier to read and understandable. I was a little confused with the certain word before she explained directly with her voice.
In the procedure, I was not satisfied with my performing because my works didnt reach my expectation which is to speak more concisely and clearly without pausing. Even though the task in the materials was making a story so there should be inevitably a little pausing, I could recognize whether it was because of coming up with sources of a story or because of a lack of skillfulness. I knew I was in the latter case. I will overcome my weakness in the next speaking activity. Furthermore, this speaking practice helped me to describe much more critically in each sentence because there was a limitation of the number of sentences. However, the problem was here, which was the length of each had no limitation. Thus, I hopefully expect her to fix it in her next host.
After all, the activity was very fun, and I was very surprised at the creative thinking of my classmates. It was because (The number of my group members was three) despite the same explanation, my guess, and the other classmates guess were sometimes totally different. Also, some parts of this can become the source and motivation of my next advanced version of the host. I think giving the points to the winner at each stage had a good effect to encourage us.
2. Secret Word Game
The next 30 minutes were filled with Yeong-ins materials, Secret Word Game. Her activity was also kind of word cards game. Each student should make a story about a given random topic but only with given random words unrelated to the topic above. Next, the student had to make a story which let the others not to guess what the secret words were and, of course, the others duty is to guess them.
Both of her written and uttered explanation are very well-understandable for me. Her activity was meaningful as a side of interest. It was because the selected words were quite easy and how-to-do was clear while the process of it was difficult. Though the feature of this practice is to make a story freely but in a certain time limit, the level of difficulty between the selected and random cards bunch was different from each student. I think this results in the gap of quality in each students story. If there were a little more time to compose the story, the gap would be more closed than before. During the activity, when one person told a story, then the others should give lots of opinions about secret words. However, the confusion of this process caused the difficulty and failure of achieving one agreement. Thus, I think, if there were certain rules for making an agreement, it would be a lot more helpful for communication practices.
The practice was effective to help me improve brainstorming skill and speak clearly out what Id thought. At least, we could make a story twice so, for the first time, I hesitated or had a lot of pausing. However, next time, I could make a story more naturally and understandably than the first and the making process was easier as well.
After all, the goal of this material was a real-world conversation. When we want to tell someone what we dreamed yesterday or what I want to do tomorrow, we must describe it as concretely as we can. I think this practice can achieve the training goal successfully.
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strawberry
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 4 Reflections for Amazing
Just like the previous class, two members from our group had to prepare for today's class. As for our group, we did two main activities: guessing by the descriptions and secret word game. Guessing by the descriptions was the first activity hosted by one of my group members. Our group of six members, except for the host, were divided into three and two people each as group A and group B. We first had to pick one from each of the subject packet and predicate packet. Next, the one who gave quiz used three sentences each for describing the subject and predicate, respectively. The other player or players had to then guess both the subject and predicate, thereby making a full sentence out of those two words.
Similar to our second task, we had to create sentences to describe the given subjects. While this seemed to be falling more into the category of accomplishing pedagogical goals, I came to be thinking useful for attaining both pedagogical and real-life goals. We had to keep an eye on the different tone and speed of the other player's voice. For instance, one of the players would describe a mouse or a ladybug using small, tiny voice while a description for gorilla entailed a louder and powerful voice. In other words, not only did this activity helped us accomplish the in-class task of practicing the relationship between subject and predicate, it could also be strongly connected with how we communicate with others in real-life situations.
It was clear that our host had tried her best to incorporate grammar into listening and speaking activity. As in the same aspect, I would include slightly more grammatical factor if I had to make the game more challenging. For instance, I might tell the players to use at least one adjective for each of the three sentences for describing subject(s) and predicate(s).
Secret Word Game
Our second activity was secret word game. Each player, except for the host, was given a card with a random topic and three secret words written. We had to tell what the topic is, create a story using the three secret words we picked from the pile of word packet while trying our best not to let the others notice that the three words were the secret words. The story had to be related to the given topic. If the other players figured out the three words, they won; if they failed doing so, the one who gave quiz won instead. Each person took turns being the one giving out quiz; all five people, except for the host, worked together as one group.
One thing I want to mention first was that our host allowed us to take notes while the one who gave out the quiz came up with her stories. I highly appreciate this task since we were able to do "focused listening"; both listening and dictation which we would be learning in our upcoming chapter were naturally possible through this process. Basically, everyone had to focus on each and every word she heard and write it down. This is why I personally believe this task fulfilled more of a "pedagogical goal". Though we had the freedom to come up with creative stories, we were required to use the specific, given words and to focus on each of the words; usually in real life situations, we tend to focus more on the tone, pitch, and the overall story rather than the smaller parts with more limitations.
Lastly, I think it would have been a bit better if our host had also made us describe the topic word by using three secret words and let the other players match what exactly the topic was. Though some of us were confused about the instructions at the first moment, our host made a clear point about the directions, and I had an enjoyable time.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 4 Reflections for Amazing
Minhyeong introduced a funny speaking game which is Guess by the description. She gave us detailed instruction about the procedure of this activity. We randomly selected the team by drawing lots. There were two bags of word cards, which are one was Subjects, and the other was Predicates. We needed to describe the words which we picked from each bag of the word cards, and then made a sentence using these words. Minhyeong cautioned us not to mention the word directly and explain it by gesture.
Through this game, students could learn how to make a sentence by using subject and predicate, and how to describe words well. Especially, when I describe the word which I picked, I felt that I could improve my speaking skills by using various expressions. Also, if the target students are young children who have not yet studied English grammar, this activity can teach the students what subject and predicate means, and gives examples of them.
However, there are some points to improve. First, I would like to clarify the time limit or descriptive sentence limit, and how to count the score more clearly. I felt that this activity was active speaking game, so if rules were more clearly observed, students would be more interested or absorbed in this activity. Next, I wished the words on the paper were easier. As a person who explains, it was not difficult to explain the words on the paper, but rather, I had to find a dictionary to find out what the meaning of the words on the paper was. Likewise, as a person who answers, I understood the explanation of the word, but I had to find a dictionary because I didnt know how to express the word in English.
Even though there were some points to improve, Minhyeong explained the instructions in detail, and it was easy to understand because she gave us the example of the description. Also, the goal of this activity fulfilled both a real-world goal and a pedagogical goal because we made real-world sentences by using words on the cards, and learn what subject and predicate was.
Secret Word Game Produced by Yeongin
Yeongin introduced a meaningful speaking activity with instruction paper and mission paper. Students selected randomly the mission paper with the topic of the story and the Secret words. We needed to make a story about the topic by using unrelated three secret words, but the listeners should not notice. If listeners guess the secret words, they get one point, but if not, the speaker gets a point. The rules of activity were very novel and interesting. Also, Yeongin explained the instructions well because she gave us the example of this game.
Through this game, students could try to create a long story about topic using various and different words. In my case, I picked a topic about shopping and secret words were airport, restaurant, and translation. I was embarrassed to see these words at first, but I found a link and made a story for a given time. Also, I thought that this activity was more appropriate for mediate or advanced level students than for beginners because we needed to make over five sentences to make a perfect story.
However, there are some points to improve. First, one minute is too short to prepare making a perfect story. In fact, there were students who needed more time, so I think it would be greater if she gives us a little longer time to prepare. Next, I would like to revise the rules related to the score. It was not easy to find out all three secret words, so it would be nice if she reduces the number of secret words or gives each one a point.
Even though there were some little points to improve, Youngin hosted a perfect speaking game. It was fun for me to listen a variety of creative story from other people and have a time with others to guess secret words. In detail, we needed to listen carefully to other peoples long story in order to find out the secret words. Especially, her activity was special because students could improve both speaking skills and listening skills. Moreover, the goal of this activity was real-world goal, rather than pedagogical goal because the topic and words of speech were everyday material and I had to talk like my daily story.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 4 Reflections for Amazing
This activity was doing a guess about a sentence and 5 of the participants except the host were separated into 2 groups of 2 or 3 people. Ive done many guess games but it was mostly about guessing the word itself like particular animals or things. However, this activity was special in that we had to guess the whole sentence including the subject and the predicate. It required extra efforts compared to the activities that I used to know. For example, though it is common to have an easy activity of guessing the subject which is mostly a noun, this activity we had to explain a predicate. It was a bit difficult to explain a verb with another verb but I thought it was meaningful in that it gave me a chance to think of similar words or synonyms to express the words. Not only it was helpful when thinking about the words meaning itself but also, it was a good activity in that I had to explain the sentence only by speaking not involving any kinds of body languages.
Since all of the participants had to interact fully in order to get correct answer, the time was adequately used to do the activities.
I thought this activity would have been better if it gave participants a point whenever they get a right answer. Also, this kind of activities which highly depends on who is gonna get the answer first would be more exciting if there are many people involved as possible.
<Secret Word Game>
This activity is called Secret word game. The host give out the paper where topic and 3 secret words are written. Each person have to take turn making sentences about a particular topic by using 3 secret words. Each participant has to make sentence as natural as possible so that others cannot find hidden secret words.
While doing the activity, few seconds were given so that we could prepare for complete sentences. I thought this activity would help participants practice creativity, ability to adapt to new words real quick and ingenuity. In addition, it would also be thankful practicing coherence since we had to make coherent group of sentences which is related to the topic. I wondered this might be more appropriate for practicing writing ability to generate ideas and organize it in a short time.
The part which I thought needs improvement was that there were too many words that could be regarded as a secret word. Since every word has a possibility to be a secret word, it was almost impossible to get all three words. I thought it would be better if the word was limited to particular word class like noun or verb.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 4 Reflections for Amazing
The first activity we had was guess by the description. This game was literally guessing the sentence consisted of subject and predicate by describing the features of the words or using synonyms. I was the one who hosted the game. My purpose for this activity was to develop the real-world speaking skills. I set all the words to high frequency lexical items, for better description and to enhance the fluency since all the words were familiar and daily used words. My tendency was to associate the written words with speaking by describing the words using synonyms. In the previous activity (guess what I am), I found it really difficult to guess the object because the category was so wide, and for the better connectivity between subject and predicate, I limited the subjects to animals. I thought it would be better to narrow down the category for the level of difficulty level, but the participants were so good at describing the animals. The problem was for predicate. I should have had taken more care of the connectivity between subject and predicate. For example, the participant got confused by expressing the whole sentence with the subject starfish and the predicate pat the head because basically, starfish dont have hand. Next time, I would improve the quality of subjects and predicates yet keep the high frequency of lexical items and would take more care to improve the problem of awkwardness for making a sentence.
2.Secret word game
The second activity was secret word game. To be honest, I couldnt understand the instruction at first so it took a time to explain how to do the game. After I understood the rule and actually proceed the game, I thought that it was a perfect game for improving listening and speaking skills. Since the person make and tell the story just once, we should pay attention to find out the unrelated word from the topic. Additionally, since we had to listen to every single word in the story and find out the certain words, we had no choice but dictate the story. Dictation make language learners receive some spoke input and hold the memory for a short time, so I thought it helped me focusing on the language form of phrase and clause level construction. Also, I thought it was really helpful to create and tell the story to others in limited time and actually build the skill in language learning. The words and the topic written in the card were daily used and familiar such as school, English, and travel. The tellers task was to make one concise and coherent story, so it was quiet challenging yet useful. I had a chance to tell 2 stories and I felt that second story improved more.
However, I felt that the topic and some secret words were too unrelated, so it was hard for me to create one entire story relevant with all those secret words in the limited time. Due to the pressure to tell the story in my turn, I had a hard time listening to first person who started to share herstory since I had a lack of time. But then I realized that I should not miss any words in the story so I paid attention to the story from then on.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 4 Reflections for Amazing
The first activity was prepared by Minhyeong. Five of us were divided into two groups and choose one card of each subject and predicate words simultaneously. We shouldnt mention the words on the card and describe what they are by describing the meaning of them. For instance, when the subject was Jellyfish and predicate was Wake up, this is the way I described: This is a tiny animal living under the sea, which has a glowy skin which sometimes gives an electric shock for whom touches it. The predicate I choose means a behavior you do when you just get out from your sleep and detach your back from the bed. After my description, my partner could get into an answer of Jellyfish wakes up. The subject words were comparatively quite easy for describing, however, I had some difficulties explaining the meanings of predicates. Since most of the adjective and verbs are having an abstract feature compared to subject words, it required much longer and descriptive explanation to get my partner into an answer. Therefore, I tried to explain the meaning of the word by allude it into our daily life. For instance, when the predicate was stand up, the explanation I did was : this is a behavior that students mostly do after the class ends or they need to speak out in public during the class.
The overall activity was really systemized and interesting. It was creative that the host prepared both of the subject and predicate words, and let the teammates to describe both of one. However, to give some feedback, I think it would be better if the participants could use the link between the subject and predicate words. Even though the section was divided into two, most of the participants just described the words independently without making a sentence using two words. Moreover, the activity wasnt that much difficult for TESLers to do, but I thought that the normal ESL learners would struggle on describing the letters as well as understanding the meaning of them. Therefore, I hope that you can give some hints or definitions of the words written on the card.
Secret Word game
This activity was hosted by me, Yeongin. Students are given a random topic and a random word that is unrelated to the topic. The students must hide the word in a speech about the topic theyre trying to make sure the other students cant guess the secret word. The other students listen carefully to the speech and attempt to guess the secret word. For instance, if the Topic is spring and Secret words are potatochip / sookmyung / laptop, then I can make sentence like this:
Its getting warmer and warmer thesedays and it seems like there comes spring in sookmyung. I often see students doing laptop under the trees of cherry blossom. Todays weather is so nice that Im planning to go Han-gang and see beautiful flowers. Oh, and I wont forget to drink beer and potatochips with my friends.
The reason I decided to host the game is, first, I wanted to make both of the explainer and respondent to listen carefully to others description. Secondly, there shouldnt be no one to left behind. I wanted to make all of the students fully engaged in the activity. Third, the activity requires advanced level of description in that the participants need to understand what the topic is and relate all of the unrelated words into the topic.
First, I wanted to encourage both of the explainer and respondent to listen carefully to others description. As I have participated in the activity the host prepared since 2 weeks ago, the most problematic thing I found is only one person(explainer) was engaged in the activity and we cannot guarantee that others were concentrating on what she says. Therefore, I tried to create an environment that all of the participants have no choice but to extremely concentrate on what others are saying. While explainer was speaking out her sentence, other members had to find what the awkward unrelated word is by listen to the stream of her sentence.
Nextly, there shouldnt be no one to left behind. According to a thesis from Park and Sung(2004), it is important for an educator to give equal opportunity for each students in order to prevent timid students from not speaking at all. The thing that the writer emphasized was a rule of taking turn. Taking one by one, all of the students were able to fully engaged in the activity and I tried to give more minutes for students who were not prepared yet.
Lastly, the activity requires advanced level of description in that the participants need to understand what the topic is and relate all of the unrelated words into the topic. We cannot say that a student fully understood the meaning of the word by just only letting them to describe it. However, by having a process of relating the words into another, students will be able to understand and apply the use of word into their description and their language insight will improve.
References
Charn Kwon Park, Kee Hoon Sung. (2004). An Analysis of Student Participation Styles in Elementary School Game Lessons. Korean Journal of Sport Pedagogy, 11(1), 125-137.
