Introduction

The aim of this activity is to show students in a playful way, that they must not panic if they want to say something in English and suddenly forget the word.

They will learn two easy solutions, to act out a word and how to describe it.

Target group and Time

The time of this activity can be easily adapted for different purposes ranging from a 10min warm-up to a 45min class by adding new words or letting the students write their own.

Learning objectives

Self-confidence in language use.

Instructions to set up the activity

I started with a story: "I have a cousin in the U.S. who doesn't speak German. When I was talking to her, I suddenly forgot the translation for a word, what can I do in such a situation?" Students will come up with various ideas, two of them being: explain/ describe a word or "just do it" meaning act it out.

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Examples: eating ice-cream,  dancing ballet, playing football, umbrella 

Letting it run

This game can be adapted in various ways for different stages of English learners: more advanced learners could get more complicated words to describe or make up their own words; whereas when working with beginners the focus could shift to only acting out the words.

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