Chinese Whisper Challenge

Hello teachers! Here you have a listening and speaking activity to work in the classroom in a fun way.

To work on pronunciation and listening, we can use the dynamics of the Chinese whisper, a game in which a message is transmitted, in a whisper, by each of the people, so that the final version of the message often radically changes from the original. 

The activity consists of putting the students in line and giving a word or phrase to the first of them. Then, he will have to say the phrase to the one behind, and to the other without reading the phrase, only with what he has heard, he has to say it to the next, and so on until the message reaches the last, who will have to pronounce the message and say its meaning in Spanish.

Instead of the last person translating the message, teachers can place a flashcard by the wall or on the table for the last student to touch the correct flashcard. 

The rest of the children waiting for the message will listen to music with headphones so that they do not hear the message until their turn. This way, they don't have to whisper and the teacher can check each student's pronunciation. The words or phrases used in the game are chosen by the teacher based on the vocabulary that is being worked on. 

 At first, the explanation of the activity can be confusing. For this reason, it is important to do several test rounds since playing is the best way to learn the dynamics of the game. The results will depend on several factors such as the children's embarrassment or their ability to reproduce the message. It may happen that one of the peers receives the "tainted message" from the previous child. Therefore, it is important that they make sure to control the pronunciation (no matter how many times they have to repeat it) before passing the message.