Using Quizlet Live to Improve Students' Circumlocution Skills
Quizlet Live is a great new tool from the Quizlet team that allows teachers to create a cooperative learning game out of quizlet sets. I have been using quizlet to help my students study vocabulary for some time now. This new feature of Quizlet gives a new use for the quizlet sets we already have.
What is Quizlet Live?
Students work together in groups made randomly to find the match for the flashcards from the quizlet set. Groups work at their own pace and the teacher has a leader board to present to the class to make the competition that much more competitive. Students love the fast pace and working together to help each other out! They beg me to play quizlet live!
Typically my quizlets have the Spanish word on one side of the flashcard and the english translation with an image on the other side. This works great for students to learn vocabulary quickly with tools from quizlet such as speller, learn, flashcards and matching. With quizlet live, however, students are very quick to select the english translation from the Spanish. Especially working in groups.
How to use Quizlet Live to set up Catch Phrase Game
So I have changed up the quizlet sets to be used with quizlet live. Instead of the English translation on the back of the flashcard I have written synonyms in Spanish, simple definitions in Spanish or sentences with a blank (to be filled by the Spanish word on the front of the card). This makes the students discuss what the word should be and takes a bit more thinking, than just looking for a translation. It also keeps the discussion in the target language.
After a couple of rounds of quizlet live with the definitions and sentences, the students are starting to learn the words and catch on to their synonyms and descriptions as well. This is a great trainer for circumlocution. After quizlet live we play catch phrase. Students select a Spanish word from the list and must describe that word. They have been primed for this because they have been reading the descriptions and definitions for these words during the quizlet live session.
How is this useful?
I have played catch phrase with students before and it has failed miserably. Students seem to freeze up and feel that they can't describe the word. For example, to describe the word "apple" in Spanish students could simply say "a red fruit". They are capable of this at the novice level, but they don't feel prepared. Playing catch phrase after quizlet live gives students the confidence to describe the words, makes them faster at guessing and the game is much more successful.
This is training for circumlocution. Now, when students are trying to discuss fruit in a speaking, they can describe an apple if they can't remember the word! And if nothing else, they are practicing the vocabulary in the target language and having fun while doing it!
