Activity

Show me your Passport... or else!

Students will play the roles of the customs officer and tourist in a guessing activity.

Archived from Englipedia.
Originally submitted by Brenton Gettmann on June 16, 2011.

DETAILED EXPLANATION

  • After passing out the worksheets, have students repeat and translate the sentences.
  • Have them choose one item from each question/section: (passport / ID), (Puma bag / Nike bag / Louis Vuitton bag), ticket (to Japan / to America / to Canada). Make sure to tell them that it's a secret.
  • Do a demo with your JTE.
  • Janken.

  • Winner is the customs officer. Loser is the tourist.

  • Customs officer starts the dialogue starting with, "What's your name?"

  • They then move onto the next sentence, "Show me your (passport / ID)." If the customs officer says "Show me your passport," and the tourist has "ID" circled, they say, "Sorry, I can't," and they are swiftly deported. In other words, the customs officer, does not receive a point, cannot say the next sentence, and the students switch roles. (If a customs officer receives an answer of "Sorry, I can't," at any point, they cannot advance to the next sentence.)

  • However, if the tourist has "passport" circled, they say, "Sure. Here you are." The officer then gets one point and can move onto the next sentence of, "Show me your (Puma/Nike/Louis Vuitton) bag."

  • For every answer of "Sure. Here you are," the customs officer receives one point and can go to the next sentence. If they can say all 3 "Show me..." sentences, and get all "Sure. Here you are," answers, they get the full 3 points and switch roles with their partner.

  • After each pair has done both roles, they can find a new partner in the class and continue the same process.

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS:

  • Even though it may seem strange that students don't have a chance to ask another question if they guess incorrectly, they think it is funny and they still have said the target grammar at least one time. So in reality, their reward for guessing correctly is the ability to say the target grammar again. I've played this game many times before and have never had a student get all frustrated about not getting a point after a few rounds. They almost always are motivated to try again and again. They also receive satisfaction from their partners occasionally guessing incorrectly on the first try as well.
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Submitted by Englipedia Archive March 12, 2019 Estimated time: 20 min
  1. UonumaRobert March 12, 2019

    Love this activity. I’ve used it as a model for so many pair activities.

  2. aggro crag June 12, 2023

    works well for Blue Sky 2 page 76

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