Read what a teacher says about this activity:
‘Word tennis is a fun way for learners to practise vocabulary. It helps them think of words connected to a topic, or to focus on the spelling of words.’
Stage 1: Prepare
Choose a category of vocabulary you want your learners to practise, e.g. colours, transport, jobs, types of food. Write the category on the board.
Stage 2: Model
Demonstrate the game with one strong learner or the whole class. An example for transport could be:
Teacher: Car
Learners: Plane
Teacher: Bike
Learners: Boat
Teacher: Horse
Learners: [no answer]
Teacher: Yes, I win!
Stage 3: Play
Put the learners in pairs.
Say: ‘Take turns to say a word connected to the category. You have three seconds to think of your word. You can’t repeat a word. The winner is the last player to say a word from the category.’
Play the game. Circulate, monitor and help.
Stage 4: Extend
If you want you can:
- let learners play the same game again, but with a different partner
- let learners stay with the same partner, but the winner can choose a different category
- say: ‘Instead of a category play the game where each word must start with the last letter of the previous word. They don’t have to be in the same category.’
Make sure when your learners play word tennis they don’t always play with the same partner.