This is a partner-pair speaking activity for English beginners that provides fun, repeated practice of descriptive and direction-giving vocabulary, as well as practice pronouncing the names of countries and regions. It is ideal for learners who are already able to confidently form basic sentences and need a task that is more challenging and open-ended.
The two partners in each partner-pair work together, taking turns being the Participant 1 and Participant 2. For each round, Participant 1 begins by drawing 1 card from the Secret Card Deck.
Then, Participant 2 asks questions (using the provided Core Vocabulary Words and Sentences / Sentence Patterns) and systematically crosses off possibilities on a Deduction Panel until only one option remains.
Minimum Prerequisites: Students can participate fully in this Deduction Challenge with Materials Set A after memorizing/learning:
Full Prerequisites: Students can participate fully in this Deduction Challenge with all of the activity’s available materials after memorizing/learning:
Materials Available:
Deduction Challenges are an excellent example of information-gap activities, which serve as communication practice exercises in both Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). These challenges provide language learners with repeated practice of important sentence patterns and topic-specific vocabulary.
Additionally, since successful completion of the Deduction Challenge task described below relies on accurately communicating information, the activity offers students an excellent opportunity to self-assess their communication accuracy and initiate error-correction themselves.
This is far more efficient and effective than students only knowing that they are making an error if an instructor points it out. It also empowers learners to seek out solutions to mistakes themselves, rather than primarily being passive receivers of teaching and error-correction.
1. Gaining basic mastery in using the following sentence pattern and sentence to successfully collect information in English:
“Does the flag have (a) _______________?”
“Does the flag have the colors _______________, _______________, and _______________?”
2. Understanding and being able to use various phrases to described flag layouts:
“…3 rectangles beside each other from left to right?”
“…2 / 3 rectangles stacked from top to bottom.”
“…on top of…”
“…in the middle…”
“…1 rectangle background?”
“…a thin rectangle, in the middle, that goes from left to right?”
“…a thin rectangle, a little to the left, that goes from top to bottom?”
“…a circle, in the middle, a little to the left?”
“…a thin rectangle, in the middle, on top of a slightly thicker rectangle, that both go from left to right?”
“…a thin rectangle, a little to the left, on top of a slightly thicker rectangle, that both go from top to bottom?”
“…a triangle, that goes from the flag’s two corners on the left side to one point in the middle?”
“…a rectangle/square in the top left corner that is half the height of the flag?”
“…a moon shape?”
“…a star with 12 points?”
“…5 stars in a (half) circle?”
3. Being able to accurately read and pronounce the names of 81 countries/regions.
“Is it the flag of _______________?”
4. Gaining basic mastery in using the following phrases to answer questions accurately:
“Yes, it does.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Yes, it is!”
“No, it isn’t.”
On-Going Self-Assessment:
During each round of play, Participant 2 attempts to determine which flag on a Deduction Panel matches the flag on Participant 1’s Secret Card, based only on Participant 1’s answers.
The 2 members of a partner-pair will be able to self-assess their own performance after Participant 2 asks “Is it the flag of _____________?” while saying the name of the country/region. (They’ll need their own copy of the activity’s Deduction Panels to do this).
Participant 1 can then show the Secret Card and the 2 partners can check if their verbal communication was successful. If they failed to successful communicate, they can figure out which mistake they made and then reattempt the Deduction Challenge with a new Secret Card.
Graduation:
Learners will have achieved the Learning Goals listed above when they can consistently complete the Deduction Challenge correctly with any randomly selected Secret Card, while using the target Sentences / Sentence Patterns and Core Vocabulary Words confidently and without hesitation.
1. Introduce the Core Vocabulary Words and encourage the students to learn them.
2. Demonstrate the Deduction Challenge activity, including correct use of the Core Vocabulary Words and Sentence Patterns.
3. Allow the students to practice the Deduction Challenge repeatedly.
4. The instructor’s role is to monitor the students’ practice to ensure correct use of the activity’s Sentence Patterns.
5. When students fully achieve the activity’s Learning Goals, the instructor can then graduate the student(s) to a new learning opportunity/activity that further builds on the newly achieved learning.
Notes:
If Cheat Sheets are not utilized, students should be required to demonstrate sufficient memorization of the Core Vocabulary Words before they are approved to participate in the Deduction Challenge activity.
For classes with only 1 student, the instructor will also need to be the student’s practice partner.
1: Flag Cards A to D
Each of these cards feature a different flag layout. For this partner-pair activity, these cards serve as Secret Cards.
For this activity, there is 4 sets of 18 to 27 cards, which are labelled Set A to Set D in order of difficulty. Set A features the easiest to describe flag layouts and Set D has the most difficult.
Each partner-pair participating in this activity will need 1 Secret Card at time, to be held by Participant 1.
One set of these cards is suitable for a group of up to 54 activity participants. If there are more than 54 participants (27 partner-pairs), then additional cards will need to be added to the secret card deck.
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For each round of this Deduction Challenge, Participant 1 holds onto a single Secret Card and does not show it to Participant 2 until Participant 2 has narrowed down the choices on their Deduction Panel to just one.
2: Flag Deduction Panels A/B and C/D
To reduce prep time, each panel is a match for two sets of cards. One panel has all the flags from the cards in Set A and Set B and the other panel shows all the flags in Set C and Set D. If printed back to back, all of the flags from all of the cards can be displayed on a single double-sided sheet of A4 or US Letter. The flags are all divided into separate zones marked A, B, C, and D.
If laminated, the images on Deduction Panels can be systematically crossed off with an erasable whiteboard marker. After completing a round of the Deduction Challenge, participants can simple wipe the marker marks off of the laminated surface and immediately be ready to repeat the activity.
Each partner-pair participating in this activity will need 2 sets of Deduction Panels, one for use by Participant 2 and one for use by Participant 1 to read the country/region name when asking the question “Is it the flag of ___________?”
Flag Cards Set A Page 1/3
Flag Cards Set A Page 2/3
Flags Deduction Panel A/B
Flag Cards Set B Page 2/2
Flag Cards Set C Page 2/2
Flags Deduction Panel C/D
The Sentences & Sentence Patterns Used in this activity include everything needed to successfully complete this Deduction Challenge. For this activity, Participant 2 should be given a great deal of flexibility about what language they use to ask questions.
However, Participant 2 should be limited to yes/no type answers.
If Participant 1 (the answerer) was permitted to simply verbally describe the flag shown on their Secret Card, this Deduction Challenge could be completed with a single question and answer. However, by limiting Participant 1’s responses to yes/no type answers, Participant 2 must compose more questions than would otherwise be necessary, and therefore will get more valuable speaking practice.
Sentences & Sentence Patterns & Phrases |
Does the flag have the colors _______________, _______________, and _______________? |
Does the flag have (a) _______________? |
…3 rectangles beside each other from left to right? |
…2 / 3 rectangles stacked from top to bottom. Yes |
…on top of… |
…in the middle… |
…1 rectangle background? |
…a thin rectangle, in the middle, that goes from left to right? |
…a thin rectangle, a little to the left, that goes from top to bottom? |
…a circle, in the middle, a little to the left? |
…a thin rectangle, in the middle, on top of a slightly thicker rectangle, that both go from left to right? |
…a thin rectangle, a little to the left, on top of a slightly thicker rectangle, that both go from top to bottom? |
…a triangle, that goes from the flag’s two corners on the left side to one point in the middle? |
…a rectangle/square in the top left corner that is half the height of the flag? |
…a moon shape? |
…a star with 12 points? |
…5 stars in a (half) circle? |
Yes, it does. |
No, it doesn’t. |
Is it the flag of _______________? |
Yes, it is! |
No, it isn’t. |
The Core Vocabulary Words listed below are all words that students should learn BEFORE attempting the Deduction Challenge described on this page.
Core Vocabulary Words To Pre-Learn | |
Materials Set A (27 Cards) | numbers 1-3, background, black, (cornflower) blue, (navy) blue, bottom, flag, green, left, orange, rectangle, red, right (side), top, white, yellow |
Materials Set B (18 Cards) | numbers 1-5, aqua, background, big, black, (cornflower) blue, (navy) blue, bottom, circle, corner, flag, green, half, left, medium-sized, orange, point, rectangle, red, right (side), side, small, star, top, triangle, white, wider, yellow |
Materials Set C (18 Cards) | numbers 1-5, aqua, background, big, black, (cornflower) blue, (navy) blue, bottom, circle, corner, cross, flag, green, half, left, medium-sized, orange, point(s), rectangle, red, right (side), side, small, square, star, top, triangle, white, wider, yellow |
Materials Set D (18 Cards) | numbers 1-10, aqua, background, big, black, (cornflower) blue, (navy) blue, bottom, circle, corner, cross, flag, green, half, left, medium-sized, orange, point(s), rectangle, red, right (side), side, slightly, small, square, star, thicker, thin, top, triangle, white, wider, yellow |
Notes:
*There is also the option to provide learners with a Cheat Sheet listing all of the Core Vocabulary Words next to their images. This will allow them practice using all of the vocabulary words without needing to first memorize them. The process of learning the words can be scaffolded by first allowing students to use the Cheat Sheet, and then (once they have some familiarity) encouraging them to flip the Cheat Sheet face-down and only use it after first attempting to recall a needed vocabulary word from memory.
The Vocabulary Words listed below are all words that students should be able to read and pronounce with adequate pronunciation BEFORE attempting the Deduction Challenge described on this page. Students will only need to learn to read/pronounce the country/region names listed for a specific set of materials to play to complete the Deduction Challenge with that set of materials.
Words to be Able to Read | |
Materials Set A (27 Cards) | Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cote d’Ivoire, Estonia, France, Gabon, Guinea, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mali, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Sierra Leone, Ukraine, Yemen |
Materials Set B (18 Cards) | Bahamas, Burkina Faso, Cameron, Cuba, Czech Republic, Djibouti, East Timor, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Japan, Madagascar, Niger, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam |
Materials Set C (18 Cards) | Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, England, Finland, Jordan, Laos, Latvia, Mauritius, Palau, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Togo, Tonga |
Materials Set D (18 Cards) | Botswana, Central African Republic, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Liberia, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Naura, North Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Singapore, Tunisia, Turkey, Venezuala |
The following words will be used to the play this game (with every available set of cards). However, these words don’t need to be pre-taught. These words can and should be learned WHILE playing the game. The instructor’s demonstration of how to play the game will provide an opportunity to show how all of these words are used as part of useful communication sentences.
Vocabulary Best Learned in Context | |
Used With All Material Sets | a, an, and, beside, both, but, colors, does, doesn’t, each, from, go, goes, have, height, in, is, isn’t, it, little, no, of, on, other, shape, stacked, that, the, to, with, yes |
Most of the words included on this list are hard (or virtually impossible) to depict visually on a flashcard. Demonstrating them while introducing this Deduction Challenge and then having learners use them while participating in the activity is an optimal strategy for helping learners understand the words’ meaning (based on context/function).
This flag has 3 rectangles, stacked on top of each other. The rectangles are red, white, and cornflower blue.
This flag has a triangle that goes from the flag’s 2 corners on the left, to 1 point in the middle of the flag, but a little to the left.
This flag has 2 green stars in the middle, 1 a little to the left and 1 a little to the right.
This flag has a white star with 8 points in the bottom left corner and a thin yellow rectangle in the middle, from left to right.