Row or Column

This is an great game I use as a warm-up for all my low-motivation classes.

Activity Type

 * Class activity (20 - 40 students)
 * Time: about 1 - 1.5 minute per word

Mechanics
The mechanics of Row or Column is easy.
 * All students stand (see the page on Incentives). (Sitting players do not have to answer questions.)
 * You say "dog".


 * A student, say B2, puts up his or her hand and says, "いぬ".
 * You ask the student, "Do you want your row or your column to sit?"
 * If the student says, "Row", then A2, B2, C2 and D2 can sit.
 * If the student says, "Column", then B1, B2, B3 and B4 can sit.

Advantages

 * Students are given opportunity to review vocabulary they may need for the rest of the class.
 * Choosing between friend on your row and friends on your column creates tension (i.e. facilitative anxiety: see Affective Factors) and makes the game seem fun to the students.
 * If practiced regularly, students get lots of practicing using L and R, two of the most difficult sounds for Japanese students to pronounce: Row, CoLumn
 * If played as a warm up: Students are encouraged to partipate early in the lesson.

Disadvantages

 * Strong players leave the game first. So make sure you ask for the easy words last, otherwise you'll have tweedle-dee and tweedle dum trying to find the meaning of hippopotamus.
 * Somewhat time consuming.

Following up
Consider
 * using 1/2 rows or 1/2 columns
 * Using incentives to encourage people to participate (they are already incentivised by standing, but futher incentives may help too).


 * Using a class-level pronunciation drill after the game to give the students a chance to practice using words before having to pronounce it in front of their friends.
 * Switching from English to Japanese half way through the drill to get them to recall the English from the Japanese.
 * Rewarding students that try to answer, rather than only those that get the answer right.

Resources

 * None