The Language Teacher
06 - 2001
Blockbusters
Michael Cribb
Kansai Gaidai University
QUICK GUIDE
Key Words: Vocabulary, Games
Learner English Level: All levels
Learner Maturity Level: Junior High to Adult
Preparation Time: Two hours (once only)
Activity Time: One 60-minute lesson (four games)
Blockbusters is a
word game which first appeared on children's television in Britain
several years ago, but which quickly became popular with adults
as well. Whilst it is a fun activity in itself, it can also be
useful for practicing vocabulary that the class has been learning.
The game consists of a board with 20 hexagons in a honeycomb arrangement
(see Fig. 1). Each hexagon contains a letter which represents
a word. The teacher gives a clue and two teams of students try
to guess the word. The team which guesses correctly wins the hexagon
which is then filled with the team's colour. A team wins a game
by making a complete connection of hexagons from one side to another
(green) or from top to bottom (red). Part of the attraction of
the game is that simple, common words are often used and so speed
of lexical retrieval becomes important.
Preparing the game
Draw the blockbuster board on a large piece of white paper (approx. 80 cm x 100 cm). Create about 20 coloured hexagons from thin cardboard (ten red and ten green). Prepare a list of words for each letter that is being used on the blockbuster board, including words the class has been studying. You will probably need about ten words for each letter. When choosing words, select a mix of easy and difficult ones. If you have time, prepare the clues for the words so you do not have to make them up during the game when the pressure is on. A prepared list of words and clues is available at <www. geocities.com/kgu2001/download/questions.txt>.
Playing the game
Attach the blockbuster board to the blackboard at the front of the class. Put scotch tape on the back of the coloured hexagons and rub on a little chalk so that they can be easily removed from the blockbuster board. Divide the class into four teams: A, B, C, D. Team A plays B and team C plays D in the semi-finals, and the winners go through to meet in the final. The losers meet in the play-off. This means four games need to be played, which is about the maximum for a one-hour class.
Start the first game (A vs. B) by selecting a letter at random and giving the clue for the word. For example, if the letter is "A" and the word is "ambulance," you might say, "A vehicle that takes you to hospital after an accident." (Keep the clues simple since speed is part of the game.) Take the first person to raise their hand and elicit an answer. If it is correct, their team wins the hexagon. If incorrect, give the other team one chance to answer. Since this is the first hexagon, the team that answers correctly becomes the red team, which has to connect from top to bottom. The other team becomes the green team, connecting from side to side. Since the red team needs fewer hexagons to make a connection, it is an advantage to win the first hexagon and become the red team.
Attach a red hexagon to the blockbuster board over the letter. Now ask the team which answered correctly to select the next letter. Again, give the clue for the letter and put a coloured hexagon over the letter for the winning team. Play continues like this until one team makes a solid coloured line across the board. Sometimes the game can be brief with one team streaking down or across the board in a straight line without much opposition. Or the game can swing from team to team with one team being one hexagon away from winning only to have the other team "block" the path. The two teams may have to "snake" around the entire board before one can finally win by connecting all the way across.
Once a winner is determined, play the other semi-final, then the final and play-off to determine the winning and losing teams for the whole class. The winning team gets a prize; the losing team has to sing a song!
A few more suggested rules
After a person raises a hand, they have five seconds to answer. Only accept the first answer from a team, even if another member shouts out the correct answer afterwards. When a team answers incorrectly or cannot answer within five seconds, hand the clue over to the other team and give them one chance to answer in five seconds. Students must give the exact word form with good pronunciation to win the hexagon (although I sometimes relax this rule depending on the class). If no team can guess the word, choose a new one. And of course, once a letter has been won by a team and covered with their colour, it cannot be chosen again by the other team.
A computer version of this game can be downloaded from <www.geocities.com/kgu2001/download.htm>.
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