Countries and Nationalities

TOPIC AREA
countries and nationalities

VOCABULARY FOCUS
America, American; Australia, Australian; China, Chinese; Britain, British; France, French; Greece, Greek; Holland, Dutch; India, Indian; Italy, Italian; Mexico, Mexican; Russia, Russian; Spain, Spanish ( if you want to teach other countries, you can make additional cards on the models given)

STRUCTURES
He’s/ She’s / I’m … What’s your name? Where are you from? I’m from …
plus: I’ve been to…, I want to go to … (for recognition only; can be explained at the time)


MATERIALS AND PREPARATION

Country cards 1 | Country cards 2 | People cards 1 | People cards 2 | Teacher's notes

Game 1 Copy and cut up the country cards and the people cards. Don’t forget to copy the country cards on both sides. You will need one set for each pair of students.

Game 2 No materials. (You might like to write up 'I’VE BEEN TO' and 'I WANT TO GO TO' as two column headings on the board.)

Game 3 Copy the country cards sheet (picture side only), but do not cut it up. Make one copy for every student. Copy enough people cards for every students to have one each (of the appropriate sex if possible).

Note: If you don’t want your class to learn all the countries and nationalities on the cards, simply select those you feel appropriate. If you want additional countries and nationalities, make extra cards yourself on the same model.


HOW TO USE THE GAMES

Game 1 Memorizing - pairwork matching

1

1. Divide the class into pairs.
2. Give each pair a set of (cut up) country cards and a set of (cut up) people cards.
3. They should use the country cards first.
4. They should spread the cards out, picture-side up, so that they can see all of them.
5. They should then take turns to pick a card up and name the country. They can check their answer by looking on the back. If they are right, they can keep the card. If not, they must put it back.
6. The object of this part of the game is to collect cards by naming the countries correctly.
7. The player who has collected most cards at the end is the winner.

2

1. Then, the country cards should be spread out again, and the people cards should be placed in a pile face down.
2. They should take it in turns to turn up a card from the people pile and match it with the corresponding country card, saying 'He's Australian' or 'She's Italian' etc.
3. They can check by turning the country card over and reading the back. If they are right, they can keep the card. If not, they should put it at the bottom of the pile.
4. The object of this part of the game is to collect cards by naming the nationality correctly.
5. The player with most cards at the end is the winner

Game 2 Personalising - pairwork discussion

1. Put up headings for two lists on the board: 'I'VE BEEN TO' and 'I WANT TO GO TO'. Explain briefly what these mean.
2. Ask the students to write lists of countries under these two headings. When they have finished, join them up with a partner and ask them to tell each other about their lists.

Game 3 Communicating - whole class search game (missing person)

1. Give every student in the class a copy of the page of country cards (not cut up) and one of the people cards.
2. Ask them to imagine they are the person on the card they have been given. They should write their name on the country sheet by the country they come from.
3. The object of the game is to find out who everyone in the class is, and where they are from, and to fill in the country sheet with the names.
4. To do this, students will need to move around the class, asking 'What's your name?' and 'Where are you from?' and filling in names in the appropriate countries. [source: Elementary Vocabulary Games by Jill Hadfield]

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