This is a partner-pair speaking activity for English beginners that provides fun, repeated practice of common animal vocabulary. It is ideal for learners who are still learning to confidently form basic sentences.
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 the Set A Materials after memorizing:
Full Prerequisites: Students can participate fully in this Deduction Challenge with all of the activity’s available materials after memorizing/learning:
Materials Available: Currently, the following materials are ready for use:
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:
“Do you have a _______________?”
“Are these your animals?”
2. Gaining basic mastery in using the following phrases to answer questions accurately:
“Yes, I do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, they are.”
“No, they aren’t.”
3. (Optional, Materials Set B Only) Learning to use singular/plural verb conjugation forms correctly (is/are) for the verb ‘to be.’
On-Going Self-Assessment:
During each round of play, Participant 2 attempts to determine which group of animals on a Deduction Panel matches the group of animals 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 “Are these your animals?” while pointing to a single set of animals on their Deduction Panel.
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: Animal Deduction Cards
Each of these cards feature a different combination of different animals. For this partner-pair activity, these cards serve as Secret Cards.
There are 3 different sets of 9 cards, which are labelled Set A, Set B, and Set C.
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 18 activity participants. If there are more than 18 participants, 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: Animal Deduction Panels
Deduction Panels feature all of the images from all of the cards in a set on a single “panel.” 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.
The following Deduction Panels are available:
Each partner-pair participating in this activity will need their own Deduction Panel, for use by Participant 2.
Set A of the Animal Deduction Cards
Set B of the Animal Deduction Cards
Animal Deduction Panel for Card Sets A-C
The Sentences & Sentence Patterns Used in this activity include everything needed to successfully complete this Deduction Challenge. While sentences can indeed be composed that would allow for the activity to be completed more efficiently, the provided sentences & sentence patterns below are specifically chosen to maximize learners’ use of the activity’s Core Vocabulary Words.
If the answerer was permitted to simply verbally list the animals 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 answers, Participant 2 must compose more questions than would otherwise be necessary.
Standard Sentences & Sentence Patterns |
Do you have a _________________? |
Yes, I do. / No, I don’t. |
Are these your animals? |
Yes, they are. / No, they aren’t. Yes |
The Core Vocabulary Words listed below are all words that students should learn BEFORE attempting the Deduction Challenge described on this page. Students will only need to learn the words listed for a specific set of materials to play to complete the Deduction Challenge with those materials.
For example, to attempt the Deduction Challenge with the Set B materials, the students will only need to know the 6 words listed for Materials Set B.
Core Vocabulary Words To Pre-Learn | |
Materials Set A (9 Cards) | alligator, ant, bear, bird, cat, dog, duck, elephant, fish |
Materials Set B (9 Cards) | kangaroo, octopus, monkey, mouse, rabbit, turtle |
Materials Set C (9 Cards) | alligator, ant, bird, cat, dog, duck, fish, horse, lion, octopus |
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 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, animal/animals, are/aren’t, do, have, is, isn’t, it, no, these, this, yes, you, your |
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).
1. Singular / Plural Verb Conjugation • Set B Only
In Set B, 3 of the animal combinations (on the set’s Secret Cards and Deduction Panel) only have a single animal shown. If using Set B, learners playing the role of Participant 1 can (and should) be taught to use a different sentence when pointing to the final option remaining on their Deduction Panel:
“Are these your animals?”
“Is this your animal?”
In response, the learners playing the role of Participant 2 will need to reply will one of the following sentences.
“Yes, they are.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, they aren’t.”
“No, it isn’t.”
If an instructor believes their students are not yet ready to learn this Grammar Point, then only the Set A and Set C materials should be used for this activity.
This card from Set A shows an ‘alligator,’ an ‘bird,’ and a ‘cat.’ If this card was the secret card, the answerer would need to answer “yes, I do” if asked if they ‘have’ these animals.
This card from Set A shows an ‘alligator,’ an ‘bird,’ and a ‘cat.’ If this card was the secret card, the answerer would need to answer “yes, I do” if asked if they ‘have’ these animals.
This card from Set A shows an ‘alligator,’ an ‘bird,’ and a ‘cat.’ If this card was the secret card, the answerer would need to answer “yes, I do” if asked if they ‘have’ these animals.