Games Language People Play

Book excerpt: Learning a new language can be very demanding, but it can also be good fun, and in between the hard work of language acquisition there are opportunities for breaks from the regular classroom routine where what has been learned is put to rewarding and practical use. Games Language People Play provides teachers with a variety of language games to make the teaching and learning of a new language an occasion for enjoyable competitiveness. There are 110 games in all, ranging in level from Beginners to Advanced. Each game carries an indication of the language skill or combination of skills being employed -- reading, writing, listening, speaking -- and the optimal group size, from as few as 10 students to games suitable for classes of unlimited size. The game's instructional objective -- for example, vocabulary expansion -- the materials needed, a full description and additional suggestions are all provided, with all that remains being for you and your class to enjoy the wonderfully creative ideas that Jerry Steinberg has put into book form for you. Originally published more than 20 years ago, Games Language People Play has continued to delight teachers and students of English every year since then.