Habits

Level: Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced.

Skills: speaking.

Topic: warmer.

Materials: none.

Time: 5 to 10 minutes.

For this activity students need to know each other quite well, so it's advisable to play this game in a classroom where students have been studying together for quite a while. Divide the class into groups of five or six.   Every student writes a question, for example: "how old are you?" or "What does your father do?" Choose one person in each group to be the Questioner. Everyone in the group gives their questions to the Questioner. All the Questioners leave the classroom. 

Without the Questioners in the room, tell the whole class that they will be asked questions by the Questioners. However, they must answer each question as if they were the person sitting to the right of them. If they can't answer for the person sitting to the right of them, they must say "I don't know". 

Call the Questioners back into the room and get them to return to their groups. Tell the Questioners that they must discover the rule of the game.

Questioners now begin to ask the questions – they must ask one student a question, and then move on to another student. Tell Questioners that when they think they know the rule, they should put their hand up.

 

Alternatives for future lessons:

Students will probably love playing this game. So here are some alternatives for future lessons: 

• The first person who is asked a question says "I don't know". Then everyone else answers the previous question (i.e. Student 1 says "I don't know"; Student 2 then answers as if he/she were Student 1). 
• Students answer the questions as if they were the Questioner.
• Students answer the questions as if they were the Teacher.
• Students answer the questions as if they were another person in the class who is not in their group.