I Went to Market
I went to market is a quick game which can be used in the ESL classroom to practice Semantic Fields. It is useful at the end of the class for a five minute exercise to practice vocabulary learnt earlier.
Firstly write on the board:
Explain to the class that you the first person will make an utterance with this phrase and an item of vocabulary. The next person will repeat exactly what you say and add another item to the end. The third person will repeat exactly what was said before and add another item etc.
For example, suppose the semantic field is fruit:
S1: I went to market and bought a peach.
S2: I went to market and bought a peach and a banana.
S3: I went to market and bought a peach and a banana and an orange.
S4: I went to market and bought a peach and a banana and an orange and a grapefruit.
S5: I went to market and bought a peach and a banana and an orange and...
The teacher can prompt here to see if another student can remember what came next.
Once the class is familiar with the game you can begin to introduce variations to suit the class makeup and ability.
I went to the toolbox and collected a spanner...
Keith visited his mother and took her some flowers...
I went to London and saw Big Ben...
