This is a partner-pair speaking activity for English beginners that provides fun practice of common technology vocabulary. It is ideal for providing some engaging fun to lower level learners in a social format, where an entire class plays the game together as a group.
This activity can be repeated several times, but is not ideal for more than 3-5 rounds of play or for differentiated learning.
To play this game, an instructor must prepare a deck of cards, with 2 copies of each card. If there is an odd number of participants, an instructor should participate to make the number of participants even (such as 10 or 12 or 14 or 16, or 18, etc).
All participants (ideally 10 or more) are randomly given 1 card each. All participants must then go around asking each other questions, until they find the other person with the same matching card, without showing anyone their card.
Depending on the instructor’s preferencee, the activity can either continue until 1 match is found – or until all participants have found their match.
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 patterns to successfully exchange information in English:
“Is your _______________ connected to your _______________?”
“Is your _______________ connected to your _______________ by a _______________ wire?”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Oh, we are different.”
“Oh, we are the same!”
“Are you _______________ (name)?”
2. Be able to pronounce and differentiate the a variety of different CVC phonics words for the 20 characters’ names featured on the cards for this activity.
On-Going Self-Assessment:
During each round of play, the participants get to see whether their verbal communication has been accurately understood when they check what they believe to be a card-match with another activity participant.
Graduation:
This activity is not recommended as an assessment activity, because as a large group activity, it requires that many learners do the same thing at the same time, even if some of them have already sufficiently learned the content and are ready to move on.
Rather, we would recommend using it to introduce new Vocabulary Words and Sentence Patterns or as a one-time change of pace for students currently practicing similar content with an activity better suited to be an assessment activity.
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 play the game until one or more matches are found. The game can be repeated if student engagement is high.
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.
1: Transportation Mode Cards
Each of these 20 cards feature 12 tech devices, some of which are connected to each other with colored wires.
Two copies of Set A (you’ll need 2 copies of each card) is suitable to do this activity with a group of up to 40 activity participants. You won’t need to print more cards than you have participants. For example, if you have 16 participants, you can just prepare 2 copies Page 1 and Page 2 of Set A. This will give you 2 copies of 8 cards, for a total of 16 cards, 1 for each of your 16 activity participants.
Page 2/5 of Set A
Page 3/5 of Set A
Page 5/5 of Set A
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 connections 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.
As a result, the learners can get enough repeated practice of the sentence patterns to ensure that they become retained in their long-term memory.
Sentences & Sentence Patterns |
Is your _______________ connected to your _______________? |
Yes, it is. |
No, it isn’t. |
Is your _______________ connected to your _______________ by a _______________ wire? |
Yes, it is. Yes |
No, it isn’t. Yes |
Oh, we are different. |
Oh, we are the same! |
Are you _______________ (name)? |
Yes, I am. |
No, I’m not. |
The Core Vocabulary Words listed below are all words that students should learn BEFORE attempting the Deduction Challenge group activity described on this page.
Core Vocabulary Words To Pre-Learn | |
Materials Set A (20 Cards) | blue, camera, controller, desktop, green, headphones, laptop, microphone, mouse, phone, printer, red, router, scanner, tablet, wire |
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. 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, are, by, connected, different, is, isn’t, it, no, oh, same, the, to, we, yes, you, your |
Most of the words included on this list are hard (or virtually impossible) to depict visually on a flashcard. The optimal strategy for helping learners understand these words is to demonstrate their context/function.
This can be achieved best by using them while introducing this Deduction Challenge and then having learners use them while participating in the activity.
The laptop is connected to the printer by a red wire. The laptop is also connected to the phone by a green wire. The camera is connected to the microphone by a green wire and the mouse is connected to the desktop by another blue wire.
The laptop is connected to the printer by a red wire. The camera is connected to the scanner by a green wire. The desktop is connected to the printer by another green wire and the tablet is connected to the router by a blue wire.
The laptop is connected to the controller by a red wire. The tablet is connected to the router by a blue wire. The headphones are connected to the desktop by another red wire and the mouse is connected to the desktop by a green wire.
The laptop is connected to the printer by a red wire. The camera is connected to the microphone by a blue wire. The desktop is connected to the scanner by another blue wire and to the mouse by a green wire.