This is a partner-pair speaking activity for English learners that provides fun, repeated practice of more complex sentences and specialized vocabulary.
It is ideal for students who already have a good foundation in basic communication and need more complex communication challenges to help them transition towards a CEFR B1 speaking level.
The two partners in each partner-pair work together, taking turns being 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 the provided Survey Info Table until only one option remains.
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 collect information in English:
1a. “Do you like traveling by _______________?”
2a. Are you _______________??”
2. Gaining mastery in using the following sentence patterns to answer questions accurately:
1b. “Yes, I like traveling by _______________ for fun/locally/for longer distances/intercontinentally.”
i.e. “Yes, I like traveling by airplane for longer distances and intercontinentally.”
i.e. “Yes, I like traveling by bike locally and for fun.”
1c. “No, I don’t.”
2b. “Yes, I am.”
2c. “No, I’m not.”
3. Be able to pronounce and differentiate the 18 different CVC phonics words for the 18 characters’ names featured in this activity.
On-Going Self-Assessment:
During each round of play, Participant 2 attempts to determine which character on the Survey Info Table matches the character 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 you _______________?” (with the character’s name spoken in the blank).
Participant 1 can then show the Secret Card and the 2 partners can check if their verbal communication was successful. If Participant 2 failed to correctly determine which character is on the Secret Card, the two partners 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: Transportation Mode Preference Cards
Each of these cards feature a different combination of detailed transportation mode preferences for 18 characters. There is a single set of 18 cards, which are labelled Set A.
For this partner-pair activity, these cards serve as Secret Cards.
Each partner-pair participating in this activity will need only 1 Secret Card at time, to be held by Participant 1.
One set of these cards is suitable for a group of up to 36 activity participants. If there are more than 36 participants (18 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 Survey Info Table to just one.
2: Transportation Mode Preferences Survey Info Tables
The Survey Info Table provides detailed data about a list of characters’ transportation mode preferences. For this activity, all of the included 18 characters’ likes and dislikes of 11 different transportation modes (each for up to 4 types of travel) can be displayed on one side of a single sheet of A4 or US Letter paper.
If laminated, the character rows on the Survey Info Table 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 their own Transportation Modes Preferences Survey Info Table, for use by Participant 2.
Page 1/2 of the Transportation Mode Preference Cards
Page 2/2 of the Transportation Mode Preference Cards
Transportation Mode Preferences Survey Info Table
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 transportation mode preferences 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 answering questions about one transportation mode at a time, participants must practice composing more sentences 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.
Standard Sentences & Sentence Patterns |
1a. Do you like traveling by _______________? |
1b. Yes, I like traveling by _______________ for fun/locally/for longer distances/intercontinentally. |
“Yes, I like traveling by airplane for longer distances and intercontinentally.” |
“Yes, I like traveling by bike locally and for fun.” |
1c. No, I don’t. |
2a. Are you _______________??” Yes |
2b. Yes, I am. Yes |
2c. No, I’m not. Yes |
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 | airplane, bike/bicycle, bus, car, helicopter, hot air balloon, horse, motorbike, ship, taxi, train |
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 | am, are, by, distances, do, don’t, for, fun, I, intercontinentally, I’m, like, locally, longer, no, not, traveling, yes, you |
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.
One of the 18 Character Preference Cards that serve as Secret Cards for this activity.
One of the 18 Character Preference Cards that serve as Secret Cards for this activity.
One of the 18 Character Preference Cards that serve as Secret Cards for this activity.
