Silly Sentences (For Vocabulary)

(TESOL Ideas--Any Vocabulary Set)

Example: slides, pub

Back in 2018 I posted Silly Sentences as an idea that can be used for any grammar point.  I've recently discovered that it is also useful for reviewing vocabulary sets.

The basic idea behind Silly Sentences, as I wrote back in 2018 is:

The students are given a subject, verb, a number of words, and a selected grammar point (e.g. present perfect, present continuous, past perfect, etc.). In teams, they must write a sentence using those words, the selected grammar point, and the exact number of words. Their sentence must have the number of words EXACTLY to get a point.

However, this game can be easily adopted to vocabulary sets if you input the target vocabulary as the key words, and remove the requirement to use a specific grammar point.

HERE, for example, is the vocabulary set from Reflect Listening & Speaking 5 Listening: The Facts about Fast Fashion p.22-27 put into a silly sentences game.  (Or, as I called it on the slideshow "make sentences" game.  The "silly" element has largely been removed here, but the game element remains).

The students are put into groups.  The target vocabulary is shown.  In teams, students have to make sentences (with correct grammar and collocations) using the nouns and verbs shown, and have exactly the number of words indicated.  I go around checking sentences, offering advice or corrections as needed, and then the first team to get a correct sentence gets 2 points, any other successful team gets 1 point.

This is some somewhat similar to another activity I previously posted: Writing Sentences Using the Target Vocabulary.  But that activity worked better with more motivated classes, who wanted to practice writing sentences.  For less motivated classes, who are inclined to the shortest possible sentence that they can using the target vocabulary (e.g. "It is a brand" for "brand"), it's helpful to add extra requirements to encourage more complex sentences.