Social English Responses- Card Games

Social English responses card games

 

Instructions for teachers

Photocopy one copy per student to take away, plus one copy per group of two to four students to be cut up into playing cards.

Cut up one pack of cards per group, with the bold ones on the left-hand side divided from the ones of the right and the cards on the right of cards shuffled up.

Give out just the left-hand cards (prompts such as questions) first of all, and ask students to brainstorm possible responses. Then give out the other cards (responses) and ask them to match them to the prompts. If they get stuck, tell them that there should be three responses for each prompt.

Give out copies of the worksheet for them to check their answers with, and answer any questions.

To practise the language, play a selection of these games:

• One student reads out a question, and the others try to make as many different responses as they can (not necessarily the ones in the pack)
• One student reads responses and the other students try to make a prompt that could produce all of those responses (not necessarily the one on the worksheet)
• One student reads out a prompt, and their partner responds. They then continue the conversation until they can reach a natural end.
• Students deal out the response cards and try to use as many as they can during roleplay speaking
• Students deal out the prompt cards and try to say as many of those things as they can while the roleplaying speaking to each other
• Students deal out the whole pack of cards and try to say as many of those things as they can while having a reasonably natural conversation.

 

Playing cards/ Suggested answers

Could I possibly have a cup of tea?	Sure. Here you are.	Yes, of course. Please help yourself.	I’m afraid we don’t have any. Would coffee be okay?
Excuse me.	Yes, how can I help you?	Yes. Have you lost your way?	Yes, do you need some help?
I didn’t get the job.	That’s a pity./ That’s a shame.	I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure you’ll get something soon.	That’s too bad. Better luck next time.
I got the job!	Congratulations!	Well done!	That’s great news. I’m so happy for you.
It was really nice to talk, but I have a meeting in 5 mins.	It was a pleasure to speak to you too.	Oh, I’ll let you get on then.	No problem. I’ll walk you to the lift, then.
Can you mail it to Steve Hfgthtuzx at hotmeg dot com?	Sorry, I didn’t catch your family name.	Sorry, can you spell the part just before “at”?	Sorry, could you say the whole thing again more slowly?
Sorry for missing the meeting on Friday.	That’s no problem. You weren’t the only one!	Don’t worry about it.	It (really) doesn’t matter.
Thanks so much for your help with the project.	Not at all. Please ask me again anytime.	You’re very welcome.	It was really no problem (at all).
This is my line manager, George Martin.	Very pleased to meet you.	We’ve emailed a few times, but it’s so nice to finally meet.	Actually, we’ve already met. How have you been?
Would you like a cup of tea?	Yes, please.	Thanks for the offer, but I had one just before coming here.	That’s very kind but I’m afraid I’m allergic to caffeine.
Would you like to come out for a drink on Friday?	Would’ve loved to, but it’s my son’s birthday. Next week?	I’d love to. Where shall we meet?	That sounds great but I’m flying to Paris on that day.

Brainstorming stage

Without looking above, write general language (e.g. sentence stems like “Can I…?”) for each of the functions below (things you can remember from above or your own ideas)

Requests

 

 

 

Negative responses to requests

 

 

 

Positive responses to requests

 

 

 

Getting people’s attention

 

 

 

Responding to people’s bad news/ Commiserating/ Sympathising

 

 

Responding to people’s good news

 

 

 

Ending conversations

 

 

 

Checking what someone said

 

 

 

Apologising

 

 

 

Responding to apologies

 

 

 

Thanking

 

 

 

 

Responding to thanks

 

 

 

Introducing people

 

 

 

Meeting people for the first time

 

 

 

Offering

 

 

 

Positive responses to offers

 

 

 

Negative responses to offers

 

 

 

Inviting/ Invitations

 

 

 

Positive responses to invitations

 

 

 

Negative responses to invitations

 

 

 

Look at the previous worksheets, add any language that you haven’t put so far, and use that to help you come up with more ideas.

Compare as a class.

What functions and language above are most useful to you?