English Camp Games

Two things that students (and Thai teachers) like the most at English Camps are songs and games. This game is an elimination game (if you can't find a group you must sit down). A "bridge" is formed by two students. A "traffic light" is formed by three students. A "traffic jam" is made with four people. A "flower" is four people forming a ring and one person standing in the middle and an "octopus" is a formation consisting of eight people. When a command (e.g. "traffic jam") is given, the students must abandoned the previous formation and make the new formation, unfortunately abandoning someone who cannot find a group. We eliminated 112 students leaving one group of 8 forming a giant octopus. The 8 students received a candy treat from the teachers. The real purpose of the game is to teach auditory discrimination skills. When Bob announced "traffic light" many students heared "bridge". The consonants and vowels are difficult to discern. For example, when we say "hot" they hear "hard". The Peace Corps volunteers that helped us commented that at the end of the two days, the students were picking up on auditory cues much faster. An activity that took 45 minutes was being reduced to 25 minutes, so they had to improvise. That is the purpose of the English camp ... to expose the students to English for 8 hours a day rather than the usual few minutes a day they get from Thai teachers who enunciate English entirely different.