The rules of Chinese Whispers:
1. Students to form a line
2. I give a sentence to the first person, who then whispers it to the next person player.
3. That person should make as much effort as possible to hear that phrase, and whisper it as accurately as possible to the next person.
4. The last player runs back to me, and whispers it into my ear, for me to adjudicate whether or not it is correct.
Learning through play
On Friday, I reduced the number of students in each group (maximum 8, preferably 6), and implemented a competitive element to it. I wrote up a table on the board for each team, and said,
"The rules of this game are:
- Each team who manages to whisper the most accurate answer by the end will win a point.
- After this, each team can then discuss what it means in English, before returning to me with the answer. Make sure every person in your team knows."
To increase accountability and ensure that all students were participating, I randomly chose any member from each team to share the original sentence in target, and then from the other team, the English meaning before awarding points.
To further challenge students when they mastered basic sentences, I would move onto longer sentences, or change the rules; the first group to whisper the correct sentence will receive the point.
I felt that Chinese Whispers was a very inclusive activity, because in order for it to work, it needed to involve all students. I noticed how the lower ability students were actively participating, smiling and interested. This was very important to me, because most of the students in my classes were very competitive by nature, and often dominated in other games. This has caused many students who were less confident to withdraw from group activities, because they feel they have little chance of success.
On a language learning level, this worked as a great way to drill pronunciation, different sentence structures and vocabulary all in one go, while reducing anxiety for students to speak out loud in front of others because they are focused on the activity and the outcome rather than the process (speaking) itself (Darnell, 2006).
References
Darnell, M. (September, 2006). Why is Writing So Hard for Some Kids?. Twice Exceptional Newsletter, 18, 20-23.