Creating language games for your Learning Circle

Many people enjoy doing puzzles in their own language. Perhaps your local newspaper has puzzles and quizzes which you do regularly? One way of making language learning fun is to adapt puzzles so you can practise English.There is an endless supply of games which you can play in this way. For example, if you all enjoy sport, you could ask each group member to write 5 questions about sport in English, with each question on a different piece of paper and the answer on the back. Using these questions, you could then have a team quiz.Try to think of all the puzzles and games which you play in your own language – then, in your Learning Circle, play them in English.

Individual members of the group can also be encouraged to make puzzles which you can pass to
other members. Here is how to make a Wordsquare in 5 easy steps.

THE ENGLISH LEARNER’S TOOLKIT

What kind of things do you need to learn English well? Try to find 13 people or things in this square which can help you to study English!

Answers

MAKE YOUR OWN WORDSQUARE

The puzzle above is called a Wordsquare. Making your own wordsquare is a good way to practise your own vocabulary – and to test your other members of the Learning Circle! They are very simple to make.

1. Choose a topic.This can be simple – for example, sports, hobbies, countries – or related to your work or study.
2. Think of about 10 words related to this topic which you want to include in your wordsquare. Before you fill in the wordsquare, think about the number of squares you need. If your wordsquare only has 10 boxes in each line, this means that 11-letter words won’t fit!
3. Write your words in the square. Remember to write some in horizontally ø, some vertically
   and try to put some in diagonally ù.
   You should do this in pencil first to make sure you can fit all your words in.
4. Fill the other empty boxes with letters, like the example above and, for more practice, write a clue for each word.
5. Give your finished wordsquare to other members of your Learning Circle.Tell them the topic and see if they can find the words.