Buch Details

"Excellent - especially for summer school courses. Both book were extensively used again this year." Harrow School, UK "Like Get Going with Grammar by the same author, Versatile Vocabulary again provides teachers and students with a wide variety of photocopiable games, this time for 'enhancing vocabulary'. The layout is the same as Get Going with Grammar: clear teacher's notes describe the game and its objective and suggest variations. The following pages give the templates of the basic game for example, cards with the vocabulary to be practised as well as empty templates for adapted versions. The various games encourage students to use vocabulary in a variety of ways: defining, spelling, acting out, changing word forms and generating new words. The vocabulary contained in this book is mainly aimed at higher level students and so the games may give FCE and CAE students a challenging way to practise word formation and spelling or can help them further activate some of their vocabulary. Besides unusual ideas, like verbal baseball or the vocabulary vortex, this book also contains some well-known games, but with a slightly different twist, e.g., a word search with some empty spaces which students can fill with additional letters in order to create words or a 'one of a kind' table with challenging sections (e.g., transportation, feeling, entertainment). So as with their first book, Get Going with Grammar, the authors have again managed to offer teaches a wealth of material - Versatile Vocabulary will get you going and maybe even train the teacher's brain in versatility." Elsbeth M "Versatile Vocabulary' is similar in content and format to a number of other resources that contain photocopiable activities and games. However, there is one significant difference. Whilst many photocopiable activities target specific lexical items and can only be used with that vocabulary, this resource contains a number of activities that can be used multiple times with different vocabulary sets, hence the title 'Versatile Vocabulary'. The book contains twenty-one different activities or games plus a word list. The games are designed to encourage students to use the vocabulary in a number of ways. This includes productive recall of vocabulary items, spelling, giving definitions, using words in sentences, acting out words, changing word forms and using prefixes and suffixes. The teacher sheet contains detailed instructions on playing the games and suggests variations. 'Cue Cubes' for example, provides a template for a large cube. Students throw the cube and depending on how it lands, have to spell the word, draw, act or give an example, give the definition, use the words in a sentence, give a synonym or give another form of the word. In a number of other games the focus can be changed without any additional teacher preparation so that instead of giving a definition of the word students have to use the word in a sentence. The games provide opportunities to use vocabulary in a variety of ways that will enhance learning by providing multiple opportunities to use the target vocabulary. Creative teachers would also find ways to further adapt these games. 'Cue Cubes' could be played in teams with different team members being allocated tasks, for example, the weakest students might be the team member who spells the word, whilst a stronger learner might use the word in a sentence. The ability to change the focus of the activity would also facilitate multi-levelling and allow fast finishers to proceed to a different or more challenging focus. Teachers, and perhaps students will quickly notice that a number of the games are essentially different formats for practicing the same tasks. The word list also contains some quite low frequency vocabulary, for example, 'bribe' and 'decisively' and teachers would be wise to use the resource with their own vocabulary sets rather than rely exclusively on the vocabulary provided in the lists. This resource shares a drawback common to other similar books in that teacher time is required for both reproducing the games and teaching the games to students. However, as many of these games are designed to be used with multiple sets of words, the time involved results in resources that can be used many times with the same class, rather than once, with a specific vocabulary set. Furthermore less class time would be required to familiarise students with game formats as the same game could be used on subsequent occasions to practise new groups of words. Most teachers regularly provide vocabulary practice for their students and any resource that provides practice with a variety of well thought out games that potentially reduce teacher preparation time is a welcome addition to the teachers' armoury." Breda Matthews "When I played the games with my classes, it quickly became apparent that they were enjoyable and engaging. Advanced students could support intermediate students while still feeling challenged. Beginner students struggled, but a few games could be adapted for them. My students were pleasantly both by how much they knew and how much they could learn in a short time. They were motivated by the chance to use prior knowledge to compete while learning something new about each word. Preparation was required, but as Meldrum and Reimer point out, the game materials can be used repeatedly." Jane Rycroft for IATEFL Voices, Issue 230, January / February 2013