Cahoot is a kind of card game that people cooperates together to achieve the goal. The rules are as follows. Complete the mission card by placing one of the four cards in order which matches the color or number. Players must work with the team to complete the mission card without telling them which cards are in their hands.
The game itself was. However, it is bit unclear to say that students you could practice speaking through this activity. The material seems to provide the least speaking time. During the first turn, everyone barely spoke to each other, while the second turn everyone wanted to complete the mission cards and spoke more. At first turn, students had only said, "I can do this," "I can complete this mission card," "What is this (mission card) mean?" and "Just put any cards. Please don't touch this card." It was a very quiet time. From the second turn, we started to speak more such as, "If you have a 4 green card or a 2 pink card, I can finish this mission." and "If both the orange card and the purple card are removed, the sum is equal to zero, right?" And so on.
The reason students cannot practice speaking enough is that I guess the lack of instruction. At first instructor said it was a game to play together, but everyone should not share what card they have. So the students closed their mouths. The students would have been able to speak more from the first turn if they had been given an example; to some extent they can speak about their cards.
To some point of view, instructor seems she didn't take a closer look at the game. For example, after dropping a card, the instructor should have told the students to pick up a new card. However, there was some confusion because she misused the expressions "You can-" and "You have to". Then she explained to us how to finish the game and what condition the player wins after the student asked her. Also, one of the mission cards was "A straight of three in a row." The instructor asked students what this meant. I can learn how important it is to conduct the preliminary investigation and performance of the instructor in the activity.
Role playing on the card
In this task, students make a pair, and find a solution in a given situation and role. We had a similar activity before, but this time it was a phone call situation. Because the conversation between face-to-face and phone conversations was bit different, students were able to practice various speaking style.
My pair assigned to the situation which two office workers did not want to go to the company and who want to watch the Netflix drama at home. Prior to the activity, the instructor said that we had to take a turn playing a part in the same situation both person A and B. So we thought we should have two solutions. However, the other pair came up with only one conclusion, so I'm not sure about whether we did not understand well or they did not have enough time.
We concluded that person A and B would work together at home, eat pizza, watch the drama or each of them work for half the working-hours. The other pair was assigned to the situation which the hotel staff has to answer to the over-demand of the newlyweds. They solved the problem by presenting other romantic packages. It was impressive that they really exchanged phone numbers and did activities.
But I cannot quite recall the solution of the other. Instead, it was not instructor's purpose but, we all had time to comment on the solution. We speak most in that time. If we have a chance to revise this activity, the instructor may add time to students to share opinion about the other team's solution.
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Anonymous
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RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 13 Reflections for Super
Cahoot is originally a board game that is supposed to make the players to cooperate to win. Each player has several cards in its hand. Those cards are green, pink, purple or orange from 1 to 9. Another deck is disposed on the table with mission cards and the players must match them. To do so they must exchange to make up strategies. The game has different levels, but the difficulty evolves only around the number of missions that the students must accomplish, and not around making strategies together.
The game is indeed a board game but even as one I would probably not choose it to just have fun. I am not sure how this game is supposed to make the students talk. Despite of the explanation of the host being very clear and very closed to the one given directly by the game instructions, the speaking part is reduce to the minimal amount with very repetitive sentences: I can do that mission, Do you have that card/that colour/that number?, If you have that, I can do that. The grammatical use of it is pretty much restrained. Since the speaking is limited so is the listening. Even though I would say that maybe the listening part of that activity might be a bit more interesting because from listening to very precise information the students/players have to make strategies in their mind to fit in their deck and the missions on the table. So, listening in a group is practised because they have to process the information given in a row by different student and in disorder.
In the best context I think it can be used for beginner level after studying the grammatical forms of obligation and possibility such as Can/cant/cannot, if. Since the speaking part is only focused on those type of sentences.
As a future teacher I dont think I would use this specific game because the speaking training is very specific and has not really used in the real world.
Role playing on the phone
This activity is a pair activity. Once the pair formed, the students are given a situation and a role that they have to act on the phone.
This activity on paper sounds very interesting because it implies that students get to practise a different form of oral speaking and listening. The phone situation requires a different type of use of expressions such as Hello, Who is it? and so on, from introducing lines to concluding lines. The phone also had some difficulties because the sound over the phone is very particular and the voice is different. And a phone call might as well have some disturbances and may need the speaker or listener to ask for repeat.
On that matter, I thought it would have been better if the host made all the students use actually their phone on WIFI calls so they dont have to use their credit but at least they enter the real world of a phone call. Instead when our pair for doing it on real phone call, which means over the phone, without seeing the other mouth moving, facial expressions, and with distance and even some background sounds that disturb the understanding, the host refused at first to finally let us do what we wanted. I thought it was too bad to use fully the idea of the phone call. All the differences listed before are important to experienced and to take in account because they change the strategy that student will and can use. Indeed, from what we just mentioned the context is harder to understand so the listener must focus way more on the meaning of the words and sentences.
The activity is based on real-world situation and some were very interesting because related either to everyday life or to travel so very useful for the students to be exposed to. Once the situation was done once, the pair had to work over it again changing the roles. I understand why it might be interesting so they both get to make up some different sentences: in our case it was being asked questions and answering and asking questions, so the switch is interesting. But over the small interest of the switch, the downside might be too strong. Once the situation has been played by the students, I am afraid they might just repeat the same thing during the second time even though they exchanged their role. Maybe the second time of the activity can be about another situation for the role play or changing partner.
Overall the activity was very interesting and fun. And as a student, even if they might not like the idea of doing an activity and having to speak, they would understand the goal and interest of it.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 13 Reflections for Super
CAHOOTS was a fun card game of logical thinking and creativity. Our group had a great time playing it, but I dont think it was the best activity for improving students speaking skills. The basic rule of the game is this: there are cards of four colors and numbers 1 through 7 in each color, which four are randomly handed out to each player. Players arent supposed to show their stack to others. Theres also a stack of mission cards with tasks written on them. Four of the mission cards are placed so that everyone could see it. Players take turns putting down a card on top of one of the already prepared four stacks of cards. You can put down a card on the stack of which the card at the top has the same color or number as your card. The point is to discuss with other players and figure out which card to place where in order to complete the tasks on the mission cards as a team. Tasks written on the mission cards include things like all purple, the sum of orange is 9, adjacent cards are pink, and non-adjacent cards are green. The difficulty of the missions differ depending on the level you choose (beginner, normal, expert, insane).
For the first round, our group played the expert mode, but failed to complete the missions. Then, we played the normal mode which was much easier than the expert mode and we succeeded on completing it. Although it was a fun game and I see how it couldve been a very talkative game, that wasnt the case for our group. The instructor explained to us not to say straight out which cards you have to the group, but give hints. For example, tell someone not to put down a card on a certain stack because you have a card that could complete a task if you put it down. However, only a few students were active in the game. Those who were active asked others if they have cards that could complete a task or told others not to do something, but others didnt say much and just did what others told them to do. Since this is a card game sold as a product, the instructor cant do much on the material itself to improve it, but she could make sure everyone speaks and maybe give a list of useful expressions that could be used during the game.
PhoneCallRole-Play
The Phone Call Role-Play was not much different from other role-play activities we did throughout the semester in that it requires students to act as a particular role and practice speaking in the context of the real-world. One difference was the fact that a more specific situation was given, a phone call. Also, the instructor prepared four different situations from which students put in pairs could choose from. The situations required students to figure out a solution to a certain problem. After each pair does the role-play, our group gathered and shared with each other how each pair solved their problems. My partner and I chose a situation where one was a newly-wed couple (a picky one) trying to book a room in one of the most expensive hotels in France for the honeymoon and the other was an employee of the hotel who is just starting to work. After one round, we had to switch roles. The problem was the picky customer asking for so many unreasonable requests such as asking for a cellist to come up to the suite to play music for a romantic event just for her husband, wondering if the walls of the room are sound-proof, and complaining about the number of pillows on the bed. For each one, the person playing the role of the employee had to give a satisfying answer that could be completely made up.
To make the situation more realistic, my partner and I actually called each other on the phone. By doing so, we were able to actually get the sense of being on the phone. We couldnt see each others facial expressions and any other nonverbal communication was excluded. This made us rely just on the tone or rate of speech of the person on the other side of the phone. I think doing the activity in this way would be more helpful in achieving the purpose the instructor had in mind. From this activity, I realized how different and more difficult it is to talk to someone when you cant see them in person from when you are talking in person.
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Anonymous
Date:
RE: Teaching Listening and Speaking (Spring 2019) - Week 13 Reflections for Super
Cahoot was a fun and cooperative game. We played cards to one of four piles by matching color or number. It is planned to work together as a team to complete a series of goals without whats in my hand. At first, we didnt share about the goals and contents of the cards in the expert mode. In the normal mode we speak with the goals and even whats in my hand. The goals was like Can you make all piles purple or green?, Every card lower than four?, All cards add up to ten?.
It requires us a logical thinking, so we had to speak and share with our team members. However, at the first of this game, we didnt know that we can share our cards contents and our strategy, we just said I can do this or What is this mean? because the host said that we should not give straight information to our group members, so we speak with each other almost not at all. By starting share our thinking straightly, we started to speak actively and cooperate with our group members. If there is a clear instruction or any useful expressions on the paper, it can be developed.
Role playing on the phone
This is a pair activity. We choose the situation that Person A and Person B who are colleague of same company and both dont want to go company because they want to watch Neflix. Person A call to Person B and ask her to replace her at work today and Person A had to invent an excuse. Person B also wanted to ask Person A to replace her at work today. At first, Person A and Bs demand was same, so the conversation didnt end. So, we determined to figure out the a compromise plan. Person A suggested that our company offer us an at-home job twice a month, so submit the at-home application to the company and meet at Person As house and work, watch Netfix together. Also, the other solution Person B suggested was that Person A works in the morning and Person B works in the afternoon. So, both can have a half-time vacation. In the conversation, I couldnt feel that it is different comparing with the hosts prior activity because we had to share the process by which we were able to solve the problem with our team members, we are focused on the making solution, not on the situation of the on the phone. Rather than sharing the process of the role play, we can share our feelings or thinking related to the means of phone call.
It was planned to help students who need to talk in English on the phone to practice like real world, but there are some problems. Firstly, there are phone greetings expressions on the paper but it is so simple and all we know information. In addition, the instructor didnt mentioned that we had to make a real phone call. So, the form of this role play was the phone call, but actually we did was a normal pair role play activity just we did. Other pair did this activity with their real phone, so they told that they tried to hear their partners tone and rate of speech very carefully due to they couldnt figure out the person on the other side of the phones facial expressions and body language. So, add an instruction that "play with your real phone will be good for develop this activity.
