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B USINESS E NGLISH professional                                 

Business games
Bonnie Tsa suggests some entertaining activities
for business learners.

he following games are intended

for learners who have already
reached an advanced level in
English, but wish to improve their ability
to use the language in professional
situations requiring a high degree of
precision and fluency. These games can be
used as accessories to lectures, authentic
documents, or other material such as
coursebooks which you are using. They
provide learners with a realistic context
in which to respond or share information
that may be new to other members of the
class. Alternatively, they can act as a means
of feedback. They are easy to use because
they need a minimum of preparation.
One example of how the first game
can be used is to explore learners
opinions about using games in their
lessons. Games can be controversial in a
business or special purposes context, so it
is a useful and interesting way to find out
everyones point of view and at the same
time stimulate learners desire to have
games included as a part of the course.

1 The opinion game

Rationale
This game is very good for finding out
everyones experience or understanding
of a subject or theme. It helps learners to
analyse a concept and explore areas of
controversy, and it demonstrates and
encourages diversity in cultural values.
You can also use it as an evaluation tool
to find out what the learners have learned,
and it is useful for encouraging teamwork.
Procedure
 Give four blank index cards to each
learner.
 Choose a subject and ask the learners
to write down one opinion or belief
about it on each of their cards.
 Collect the cards and shuffle them.
 Hand out three cards to each learner.
Ask them to put the cards in their order
of preference.
 Lay out the extra cards on a table (you
may want to add some ideas of your own).
 Learners mingle and exchange cards
with each other until they have three

they can agree with. The only rule is that

they should always have three cards in
their hand. They can also exchange cards
with those on the table.
 Ask learners to form small groups. They
use the information on their cards to
prepare a short presentation. The
presentation can be given in any form:
sketch, song, poem, story and so on.

2 Interactive lectures
Rationale
In spite of a trend against a lecture
approach to teaching, many learners enjoy
and even expect lectures to be a part of
their course. They can be considered as both
efficient and appropriate to large classes.
Procedure
 Someone in the class agrees to give a
lecture. The length of time can be
anywhere from two to ten minutes.
 After they have heard the lecture, divide
the listeners into teams of three or four
and ask each team to prepare four
questions. One question should be factual
or based on recall of what has been said in
the lecture, one should be open-ended,
one about an opinion or point of view, and
the last can be any question the answer
to which can be found in the lecture.
 Teams ask other teams their questions.
Allow a few seconds for each team to
formulate their answer. Give three points
for a correct answer and five points for
correctly challenging an incorrect answer
given by another team.

3 Teaching pairs
Rationale
This game works especially well when
there is an imbalance of knowledge in
the class. It can be used to teach
specialised vocabulary or information
such as instructions or procedures.
It answers three important questions
about learning:
What is something you understand really
well?
What did you do to understand it?
How do you know you understand
something?

People generally know they have

understood something when they can
explain it to someone else.
Procedure
 Divide the class into pairs. One learner
in each pair is the speaker and the
other is the listener.
 The speaker teaches the listener
something that he or she knows about. The
speaker can ask the teacher for help with
the information, eg how to say something
in English or the correct pronunciation of
a word. Depending on the level of the
learners, this stage generally lasts around
five minutes. The activity is particularly
effective when the learners work in
different departments of the same
company or in totally different sectors.
 The listener in each pair then becomes
a speaker and finds another person in
the class to transmit the information to.

4 Touch the card

Rationale
This very simple game can be used to
illustrate a winwin negotiation.
Procedure
 Ask the learners to work in pairs.
 Place one ordinary playing card
between each pair at an equal distance
from each learner.
 Tell them the object of the game is to
convince the other person to take the
card. The rule is: you win if you convince
the other person first. You lose if you
touch the card first. It usually takes some
time for learners to work out that the best
solution so that both people can win is for
both to agree to touch the card at the
same time. Of course, this means that both
parties have to trust each other: there is
always the risk that one person will pull
away at the last moment. However,
winning this way represents only a shortterm gain as trust has obviously been lost.
 Discussion follows as to how to have a
successful win-win negotiation. E T

Bonnie Tsa is a freelance

teacher and trainer, whose
work takes her around the
world running teacher training
courses. She is a Master
Practitioner in Neuro-linguistic
Programming and gives
workshops regularly on its
application in the classroom.
She works extensively with
students of all ages with
learning difficulties, often
arising from lack of motivation
and low self-esteem.
bonnietsai@minitel.net

www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 28 July 2003

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