LEVEL: Intermediate (B1) TYPE OF ACTIVITY: Pair /group work SKILLS: Speaking

AIM

• To speculate about the present/future. • To revise house, travel, physical description

and newspaper vocabulary. LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL AREA

• Second conditional & general vocabulary. TASK

• Playing the Chinese Checkers board game in pairs/groups. PREPARATION AND MATERIALS

• Make a copy of the board game per pair/group (2, 3, 4 or 6 players). • Make a copy of one set of grammar cards and one set of vocabulary cards per group and

place them on the corresponding squares face down. • You also need 3 counters (or any other playing pieces) per player.

TIMING + 30 minutes. OBJECT OF THE GAME

• To move all your counters into the point of the star directly opposite your home point. The player that does this first is the winner.

• When two players play, they set up in points opposite each other. When three play, one empty point is left between each player. When four play, each player must be directly opposite an opponent.

PROCEDURE

• Divide the class into groups of 3, 4 or 6. • Tell students that they are going to play Chinese Checkers. • Hand out a copy of the board game, a copy of the two sets of cards (grammar and

vocabulary) and three counters per player. • Players decide among themselves who will start. They take turns, clockwise. • The player may move one counter to any adjacent space. Counters may be moved in any

direction. • If a player falls on a ‘G’ square they should pick a ‘G’ card and answer the question. If a player

falls on a ‘V’ square they should answer the vocabulary question. • If the player fails to answer the question, they miss a turn. • During the game, the teacher moves around the class monitoring the students’ answers and

helping students to resolve any disputes.

ANSWERS (VOCABULARY QUESTIONS)

1. quality/broadsheet 9. muscular 17. ten-pound note 2. a journalist 10. overweight 18. taxi-rank 3. a tabloid 11. long wavy ginger hair 19. a campsite 4. left-wing/right-wing 12. getting on 20. terraced 5. the headline 13. got off 21. detached 6. fasten your seatbelt 14. a double-decker 22. bungalows 7. bald 15. at the bus-stop 23. a houseboat 8. tanned 16. a tram 24. a lighthouse

25. getting into 26. missed 27. block 28. in the suburbs/outskirts 29. bed & breakfast 30. youth hostel 31. pack 32. brochure