A great way to round off a topic based unit of work with your learners is to get them to create their own board games which other students in the group can then play. For example, if your class have been learning about the environment, they can pool all the information and language they have learned to create an exciting board game on that topic.

There are a number of reasons why making board games works well as an activity with teenagers:

• The design of the game itself draws on many different skills and intelligences: some students need to think logically to work out the rules and explain them clearly, others need to display their knowledge of the topic, others need to work on making the board visually attractive
• The students practise all four language skills; for example, they need to read instructions and question cards, they speak as they are planning the questions and playing the game, they need to listen to each other's ideas and they need to write their own rules and questions
• The learners get plenty of practise in using specific language patterns (for example question forms, process language for playing the game, language of instructions) and lexical items and chunks related to the topic
• Students enjoy playing games and the end product here is something they can actually use and have fun in the process
• The students are responsible for their own work throughout - reading the rules, playing the game, designing their own game, playing the other student' games - so the activity encourages a large degree of student autonomy.

The idea described below is something I carried out with two groups of intermediate level young teenagers in a one and a half hour lesson .

Materials
A ready made board game and written rules
Dice and counters
Coloured card
Scissors
Coloured pencils and crayons

Procedure
Tell the students they are going to play a board game which will be used as a model for them to design and produce their own game on a different topic

Give the students a written copy of the rules for the board game you have chosen. This could be a snakes and ladders game or similar. (See for example Bowler, B. and Parminter, S. Network book 1 (OUP) Unit 2.4, pages T24, T156, T157.) The students study the rules and work out how to play the game

The students play the game

In groups, they discuss what they will need to think about in designing their own game eg the board, the rules, the questions

As a whole class, brainstorm ideas on the following:

• possible shapes for the board related to the topic: in this case, for example, trees or endangered animals
• the rules for the game eg. throw a six to start, you must finish the game with the exact number, if you throw a six have another go, take it in turns to throw the dice and move the counter, have another turn, miss a go
• possible question types
  - Which is the most polluted city in the world?
  - Name 3 endangered animals.
  - What effect do melting ice-caps have on the environment?
  

The students divide into groups again and design and make their own board game.

They play the game themselves to find out if there are any problems to iron out.

Finally the students swap games and play the games that their classmates have made, again giving any appropriate feedback.

Anne Egan