Use of English Games for ZNO

10 Use of English Games for ZNO, FCE, CAE, CPE

Without a doubt, one of the most difficult things to prepare students for on ZNO and Cambridge exams like FCE, CAE, and CPE is the Use of English section. In a Use of English task, students may be given a passage or sentence and must choose the correct answer from four alternatives, write in the word themselves from memory, or transform a prompted word using appropriate affixes based on the context.

Here are a few ideas that might help ease your lesson planning and help maintain your students’ motivation throughout the academic year or semester. Most of these are easy and take only a few minutes to set up and can be prolonged indefinitely so your students can keep learning and practising without even realising it.

Categorization

This is probably one of the oldest activities for practising Use of English, but also useful for review. My recommendation is to do this before moving on to any other games.

The student is given several different lexical items according to his/her level along with different prefixes and suffixes (best if split into two parts). Students then place the words in different categories with a prefix or suffix at its head. For example, “happy” could go under two categories: “-ness” and “un-“.

Go Fish

This is played in pairs and works best with a large pool of words that can have different suffixes and prefixes. Each student receives 5 cards with the base form of a word (no affixes). One of the pair looks at his/her cards and creates some alternatives. If one of the words could be created using “-ness,” the student can ask for all words in the other student’s hand that match with “-ness.” Once the student has 4 words that end with that same suffix, they are discarded and that suffix can no longer be asked for.

The number of suffixes, prefixes, and root words is up to you. You can even cycle new words in and out depending on the familiarity of the words. For example, if students become too familiar with one of the words, you can remove it and add one that is less known or challenging for students.

Word Formation Table

Draw a 2×3 on the board. Then write a root in each box. Each box corresponds to a number from 1-6. Split them into teams (or have them work individually for smaller classes). One person rolls the die and whichever number the die has, the word with the number of that box should be used for the round. Students must write down as many forms of the word as possible using all possible prefixes and suffixes. Each team (or person) gets 1 point for each written correct variant of the word. The team (or person) with the most points wins the game.

Stop the Bus!

Write different suffixes at the top of different columns. The number of columns is up to you. Then each student (or group) should write down a word with the same suffix as fast as possible. The first person (or group) to complete all the columns shouts “Stop the bus!” and everyone else stops. For every original word, the person (or group) gets 2 points. For every answer shared by other people (or groups), they both receive only 1 point.

This game can be easily adapted for Young Learners too. Instead of suffixes for columns, you can use categories like “Family and Friends,” “Food and Drink,” or “Health.”

Stop! the Difference

This is a great activity for a (reading or listening) text that students are already familiar with. Either they have read it once before or listened to it once.

The way this works is the students change something in the text. For example, they change a word using a synonym or the word’s definition instead of the word itself. Then students take turns reading the passage aloud to their partner and the listener says, “Stop!” when they think a word or phrase has been changed.

Telephone

Another fun little game similar to Spot the Difference is Telephone. If you are familiar with the spoken version, then this will be fairly easy to understand what is going to happen here.

Each student is given a different text. They read it noting any other possible ways to convey the same message using different words. Then pass it to the person on their right. That student finds 1-3 words or phrases to change and then passes it to the next person on their right. The same is done at least 5 times. Then before it goes back to the original person, the last person reads the text with the changes. The student who read the text at first has to try to identify as many of the changes that were made as possible. They get a point for every correct change they identify. The person who has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Spelling-mania

Give students a script or a text that they are already familiar with (they have read or listened to the text at least once and understand it’s main message). Then show the students around 6-10 (depending on the length) important key words from the text on the board. The students should go through the text and underline/circle/highlight. Make sure to spell around half of them incorrectly. This will bring the students’ attention to the correct way of spelling. These can even be taken from previous tests where students have misspelled the word. The first student or group to finish shouts “Spelling-mania” and wins the game.

Climb the Ladder

Place 5-10 cards with different words in a vertical line on their desk or on the board. Students must name 3 possible forms of one word. Once they do so successfully, they move to the next word. If they get one wrong, they move back down to the bottom. When they start again, they should write 3 forms again, but can only use 1 of the same forms from the previous time. The student can fail as many times, but as long as s/he can create 3 forms of the word where only 1 was used in the previous answer, his/her new answer is valid.

For example,
First try: unhappy, happiness, unhappiness
Second try: happiness, happily, happier
Third try: happily, happiest, unhappy

For spelling mistakes, students must write a sentence longer than 5 words using the word misspelled in the correct context or they must go back to the bottom of the ladder. To add more of a challenge, the number of forms required can be increased with each time the team or person goes back down the ladder or moves up the ladder.

This is a useful game because it forces students to create additional forms of the same root word while adding some repetition as they continue to write and see the same forms as before. It also gets them thinking about prefixes and suffixes in English which will come in handy when they come to the Use of English task with the prompted word that they need to change.

Sneak the Word

Give each student or group a list of 4-10 words. Then give your class one sample topic that they might find on a writing test on ZNO, FCE, CAE, or CPE. Then students write a text on that topic while trying to hide their words in the text. After finishing writing, students pass their papers to another student or group. Each student or group reads the text they have been given and must decide what the 4-10 words are. For every correct guess, that student or group gets a point. The student or group with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Pelmanism

This is a good game to play in groups of 2 or 3 students or one-on-one with a teacher. It can also be good to play this game with words that students may not know yet since it can teach them the corresponding affixes as well.

Place 12-20 cards in a square formation on the desks of students with the root words facing up and affixes facing down. Then as each student turns a card over, they must choose one of the root words that matches the affix they have turned over. If they are correct and can correctly form of the new word, they take the cards and are counted as points at the end. If not, then they turn the card back over and the next student takes his/her turn.

To make it more challenging and to practise their spelling, you can have the student write the newly formed word. If it’s correct, the student keeps the cards. If not, then the student must turn the affix card back over and wait until it’s their turn again.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these will help make your exam preparation classes a bit more fun and energetic as the academic year progresses. Just remember to keep your classrooms friendly and respectful, and don’t let the competitiveness get too out of hand.

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