English Idioms ). The choice of these expressions was determined by

students' requests to learn colloquial expressions to describe people's

moods, behavior, etc. Moreover, in one of the exercises the authors of the

textbook called for examples of expressions which contain parts of the

body. For the purpose of the lesson I adapted Gear and Gear's "Vocabulary

Picture-Puzzle" from the English Teaching Forum (1988). Students were to

work out the meanings of sixteen idiomatic expressions. All of them have

Polish equivalents, which made it easier for students to remember them.

Description of vocabulary picture-puzzle

To prepare the puzzle, I cut two equal-sized pieces of cardboard paper into

rectangles. The selected idioms were written onto the rectangles in the

puzzle-pieces board and their definitions on the game board. On the reverse

side of the puzzle-pieces board, I glued colorful photographs of landscapes

and then cut the puzzle-pieces board into individual pieces, each with an

idiom on it. The important thing was the distribution of the idioms and

their definitions on the boards. The definitions were placed in the same

horizontal row opposite to the idioms so that when put together face to

face each idiom faced its definition.

Puzzle Pieces Board

The idioms and their definitions were the following (all taken from The

Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms p.77):

1. to be soft in the head: foolish, not very intelligent;

2. to have one's hair stand on end: to be terrified;

3. to be two-faced: to agree with a person to his face but disagree with

him behind his back;

4. to make a face: to make a grimace which may express disgust, anger;

5. to be all eyes: to be very attentive;

6. to be an eye-opener: to be a revelation;

7. to be nosy: to be inquisitive, to ask too many questions;

8. to be led by the nose: to be completely dominated by, totally

influenced by;

9. long ears: an inquisitive person who is always asking too many

questions;

10. to be all ears: to listen very attentively;

11. to be wet behind the ears: to be naive, inexperienced;

12. a loose mouth: an indiscrete person;

13. one's lips are sealed: to be obliged to keep a secret;

14. to have a sweet tooth: to have a liking for sweet food, sugar, honey,

ice cream, etc.;

15. to grind one's teeth: to express one's fury;

16. to hold one's tongue: to say nothing, to be discrete;

The task for students. Work out the puzzle by matching the idioms and

their definitions. First, put puzzle-pieces on the desk with the word

facing up. Take one and match the idiom to the definition. Having done

that, place the puzzle-piece, word-side-up, in the chosen rectangle. When

you have used up all the pieces, turn them over. If they form a picture of

a landscape, the choices are correct. If not, rearrange the picture and

check the idiom-definition correspondences.

The game objectives. To work out the puzzle, students had to match

idioms with their definitions. The objective of the game was for each pair

to cooperate in completing the activity successfully in order to expand

their vocabulary with, in this case, colloquial expressions.

All students were active and enjoyed the activity. Some of their

comments were as follows: "Very interesting and motivating" "Learning can

be a lot of fun" etc.

Students also had to find the appropriate matches in the shortest time

possible to beat other participating groups. The element of competition

among the groups made them concentrate and think intensively.

Translation activity. The other group of students had to work out the

meanings of the idioms by means of translation. Unlike the previously

described group, they did not know the definitions. The expressions were

listed on the board, and students tried to guess their proper meanings

giving different options. My role was to direct them to those that were

appropriate. Students translated the idioms into Polish and endeavored to

find similar or corresponding expressions in their mother tongue. Unlike

the game used for the purpose of idiom introduction, this activity did not

require the preparation of any aids. Fewer learners participated actively

or enthusiastically in this lesson and most did not show great interest in

the activity.

Administering the test. In order to find out which group acquired new

vocabulary better, I designed a short test, for both groups containing a

translation into English and a game. This allowed learners to activate

their memory with the type of activity they had been exposed to in the

presentation.

The test checking the acquisition of newly-introduced reading vocabulary

I. Match the definitions of the idioms with the pictures and write

which idiom is depicted and described:

1. to be inexperienced

2. to listen very attentively

3. to be terrified

4. to be dominated by someone

5. to be attentive

6. to be insincere, dishonest

The proper answers are the following:

1. d ., to be wet behind the ears

2. a ., to be all ears

3. e ., to have one's hair stand on end

4. f ., to be led by the nose

5. b ., to be all eyes

6. c ., to be two-faced.

II. Translate into English (the translated sentences should be the

following):

1. He is soft in the head.

2. She is two-faced, always criticizes me behind my back.

3. Mark has a sweet tooth, so he is not too slim.

4. Will you hold your tongue if I tell you something?

5. Why are you such a loose mouth?

6. Don't be nosy! This is none of your business.

Analysis of the results. Group I received an average mark of 3.9 as

compared to 3.4 obtained by group II. In other words, the group which had

learned vocabulary through games performed significantly better. However,

it is especially interesting and surprising that group II also received

high scores for the game. Even though learners in group I had the material

presented by means of translation, most students got better marks for the

game.

Summing up. Even though the results of one activity can hardly lead to

informative conclusions, I believe that the results suggest that the use of

games for presentation of new vocabulary is very effective and enjoyable

for students. Despite the fact that the preparation of a game may be time-

consuming and suitable material may be hard to find, teachers should try to

use them to add diversion to presentational techniques.

Revising vocabulary

Many sources referred to in this article emphasise the importance of

vocabulary revision. This process aims at helping students acquire active,

productive vocabularies. Students need to practise regularly what they have

learnt; otherwise, the material will fade away. Teachers can resort to many

techniques for vocabulary consolidation and revision. To begin with, a

choice of graphs and grids can be used. Students may give a definition of a

given item to be found by other students. Multiple choice and gap filling

exercises will activate the vocabulary while students select the

appropriate response. Teachers can use lists of synonyms or antonyms to be

matched, sentences to be paraphrased, or just some words or expressions in

context to be substituted by synonymous expressions. Doing cloze tests will

show students' understanding of a passage, its organisation, and determine

the choice of lexical items. Visual aids can be of great help with

revision. Pictures, photographs, or drawings can facilitate the

consolidation of both individual words as well as idioms, phrases and

structures. There is also a large variety of word games that are "useful

for practising and revising vocabulary after it has been introduced"

(Haycraft). Numerous puzzles, word squares, crosswords, etc., are useful

especially for pair or group work.

I shall now present the games I have used for vocabulary revision.

Description of the group. I gave teachers a questionnaire to determine

their view of using games for vocabulary teaching. In response to the

questionnaire, many teachers said they often used games for vocabulary

revision. Some claimed they were successful and usually more effective than

other methods. To see if this is really true, I decided to use a crossword

puzzle with a group of first year students.

The crossword puzzle. After completing a unit about Van Gogh, students

wanted to expand their vocabulary with words connected with art. The

students compiled lists of words, which they had learnt. In order to revise

the vocabulary, one of the groups had to work out the crossword puzzle.

Students worked in pairs. One person in each pair was provided with part A

of the crossword puzzle and the other with part B. The students' task was

to fill in their part of the puzzle with the missing words known to their

partner. To complete the activity, learners had to ask each other for the

explanations, definitions, or examples to arrive at the appropriate

answers. Only after getting the answer right could they put it down in the

suitable place of their part of the crossword. Having completed the puzzle,

students were supposed to find out what word was formed from the letters

found in the shaded squares.

Students enjoyed the activity very much and did not resort to

translation at any point. They used various strategies to successfully

convey the meanings of the words in question-e.g., definitions, association

techniques, and examples. When everyone was ready, the answers were checked

and students were asked to give examples of definitions, explanations,

etc., they had used to get the missing words.

The other group performed a similar task. Students were to define as

follows:

I. Define the following words: shade, icon, marker, fresco, perspective,

hue, daub, sculptor, still life, watercolor, palette, background.

II. Find the words these definitions describe:

1. a public show of objects

2. a variety of a colour

3. a wooden frame to hold a picture while it is being painted

4. a pale or a delicate shade of a colour

5. a picture of a wide view of country scenery

6. an instrument for painting made of sticks, stiff hair, nylon

7. a painting, drawing, or a photograph of a real person

8. a piece of work, especially art which is the best of its type or the

best a person has made

9. painting, music, sculpture, and others chiefly concerned with

producing beautiful rather than useful things

10. a line showing the shape (of something)

11. a person who is painted, drawn, photographed by an artist

12. a picture made with a pen, pencil, etc.

Analysis of results. The results show that the crossword puzzle, though

seemingly more difficult since it required the knowledge of words and their

definitions and not mere recognition and matching, was easier for 27.4% of

the learners and granted them more points for this part of the test. For

the majority of the students (nearly 60%) both activities proved equally

easy and out of the group of thirteen, eleven students had the highest

possible score.

Summing up

These numbers suggest that games are effective activities as a technique

for vocabulary revision. Students also prefer games and puzzles to other

activities. Games motivate and entertain students but also help them learn

in a way which aids the retention and retrieval of the material (This is

what the learners stated themselves).

However, the numbers also show that not everyone feels comfortable with

games and puzzles and not everyone obtains better results.

Although one cannot overgeneralise from one game, student feedback

indicates that many students may benefit from games in revision of

vocabulary.

Conclusions

Recently, using games has become a popular technique exercised by many

educators in the classrooms and recommended by methodologists. Many

sources, including the ones quoted in this work, list the advantages of the

use of games in foreign language classrooms. Yet, nowhere have I found any

empirical evidence for their usefulness in vocabulary presentation and

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