8.2 Games, Songs, Rhymes, Drama & Graded Readers

Why games, songs, drama, and readers appear as supplementary choices

Part 2 of TKT Module 2 does not award marks for being fun. It tests whether you can choose a supplementary activity type for a teaching function and give a reason that connects to the aim. Pedagogical language games, songs, chants, and rhymes, drama (including role-play cards and simulations), graded readers, comic strips, and graphic organisers are all objects that can sit beside the coursebook. Each one has a typical job, a Module 2-style reason to pick it, and a selection or adaptation caution.

OpenExamPrep independent study uses original classroom scenarios. They are not copied from official sample papers or trainer worksheets. Learn the function, then the type, then the caution. A candidate who only remembers games are motivating will stall when the stem wants justification, retrieval, or an information need.

Pedagogical language games

A pedagogical language game is a game designed so language is needed to play. The fun is the frame; the aim is still a lexical set, a structure, a function, or a skill. If the game can be won by pointing, running, or guessing with no English, it is not yet a language game.

Memory (pelmanism). Learners turn cards to find pairs: phrase and function, picture and word, question and answer. Typical teaching function: repeated retrieval of a closed set. Module 2-style reason to choose it: the book presented hotel-complaint chunks (I'd like to report…, The air conditioning will not…) and the class still cannot recall them under a little pressure. You want recycling, not another gap-fill that copies the book. Selection / adaptation caution: noise and movement if you use a running version in a thin-walled room; card sets that are too large for the minutes you have; pairs that do not actually match the target (random pictures with no language). Omit half the pairs if you only have six minutes. Change interaction from a noisy class race to quiet pair tables if the room is shared.

Classroom scenario: Sinead cuts twelve cards for a B1 hotel unit: six complaint stems and six problem nouns. Pairs play memory for eight minutes, then reuse the chunks in a 90-second complaint. She chose the game for recycling a closed functional set, not because Friday needed a game. She omitted a running-dictation wrapper that would have been too loud for the classroom next door.

Ranking. Learners put items in order and must justify the order. Typical teaching function: forced comparison and justification with a target structure or function (should, comparatives, I'd rather). Reason to choose it: the coursebook advice dialogue was read aloud; nobody had to defend a choice. Caution: lists that are culturally loaded or too long for the slot; ranking that can be done by pointing with no language if you forget to require a sentence frame. Personalise a teenage-bedroom list for adults. Omit two items so justification still fits the leftover.

Classroom scenario: Elena gives an adult class eight workplace rules (You should reply to emails the same day). They rank most important for our office and must use should / shouldn't in the justification. She omitted two school-locker items from the photocopiable and added a frame on the board so silence could not win the game.

Information-gap. Each learner has information the other needs. Typical teaching function: a real information need that makes questions and answers necessary. Reason to choose it: the unit's speaking was a scripted dialogue with no gap, so nobody had a reason to listen. Caution: gaps that can be solved by showing the paper; language on the card that is far above level; pairings that leave one student with nothing to say. Simplify the card language. Change interaction if one card is a monologue.

Classroom scenario: Jonas writes two lost-luggage forms with different missing fields. Partners must ask for flight number, colour, and last seen location using Could you tell me…? He chose an information-gap for more speaking of a function the book only modelled. He simplified the airline jargon on the cards and forbade showing the paper — otherwise the gap dies.

Board games. Learners move a token and perform a language task on the square (answer a question, make a sentence, correct an error). Typical teaching function: replay of a mixed set in a repeatable frame. Reason to choose it: irregular pasts were listed once; the class needs spaced retrieval without another gap-fill that copies the book. Caution: rules that take ten minutes to explain; squares with no language target; noise if several boards run at once. Omit decorative squares. Simplify the rules to three lines. Change a shouting whole-class board into two quiet tables.

Classroom scenario: Anika draws a twelve-square path recycling irregular pasts from Unit 4. Landing on a square means saying yesterday's sentence with that verb. She chose a board game for retrieval, not for fun as a substitute aim. She cut a dice-race rule that would have eaten the set-up time.

Songs, chants, and rhymes

Songs, chants, and rhymes put language on a rhythm and melody. They can target lexis, grammar (a repeated structure), phonology (sounds, stress, weak forms), and motivation.

Typical teaching function: a memorable frame for a pattern or a sound; a change of pace that still has a language outcome. Reason to choose one: the coursebook pronunciation box on weak to was read silently; a short original chant lets the class feel the weak form. Or a lexical set (travel problems) will stick better with a verse they can tap. Motivation is allowed when the verse still carries the target. Caution: lyrics that are too hard (dense idiom, slang, fast weak forms the class cannot hear in this slot); copyright on commercial tracks and printed lyrics; a song chosen only because it is popular, with no teachable line. Do not photocopy a chart hit you cannot licence. Do not build a 40-minute song lesson when you have twelve minutes. Omit verses that bury the pattern. Simplify to a four-line chant you wrote yourself if the commercial lyric is unteachable.

Classroom scenario (original — not a sample-paper song sequence): Theo writes a four-line ferry-delay chant for his B1 group: The ferry is late, the ferry is late, we have to wait, we have to wait. The target is have to plus travel lexis from the unit. He does not photocopy a chart hit. He claps the rhythm, they notice have to, then they substitute the bus / the train. Selection caution he named in his plan: a radio song about the same topic had verses full of idioms his B1 group could not unpack in twelve minutes, and he had no licence to print the lyrics. He also refused a listen-and-gap-the-whole-chorus sequence that would have turned the slot into an ungraded authentic listening with no grammar outcome.

Classroom scenario: Fatima uses a rhyme she wrote to contrast /ɪ/ and /iː/ (The ship is big. The sheep is cheap.). The reason is phonology, not a listening-for-gist exam paper and not a motivation-only singalong. Caution: if she had picked a pop song whose chorus hid the vowel contrast under a guitar wall, the phonology aim would disappear. She kept the rhyme to two couplets so time still allowed choral practice and a minimal-pair check.

A chant is often a better pick than a commercial song when the aim is a tight grammatical frame or a sound. A song can still be right when the reason is motivation plus a short, teachable chorus you are allowed to use. The module tests the reason and the caution, not whether you can name a chart artist.

Drama, role-play cards, and simulations

Drama here means language in a role and a situation, not a school play with costumes.

Role-play cards give each student a role, a goal, and sometimes secret information. Simulations are longer and closer to a real event (a meeting, a lost-property desk, a delayed check-in). Typical teaching function: practice of functions (complain, negotiate, apologise) and turn-taking in a safer frame than real life. Reason to choose it: the book had one model dialogue; the class never had to invent a next turn. You want spoken functions, not another reading of the model. Caution: face-threatening situations (criticising a named local shop in a small town); roles that need lexis the class does not have; simulations that swallow the whole lesson when you only had fifteen minutes; cards written in language denser than the target. Simplify the cards. Personalise the shop to a type, not a named neighbour. Omit a full supermarket-management simulation if the slot is a leftover.

Classroom scenario: Nabil prepares a corner-shop late-delivery role-play. Student A is the shopkeeper with a broken freezer; Student B is a customer whose milk is warm. Target: polite complaint and offer (I'm afraid…, I can give you…). He chose drama for spoken functions. He simplified the cards (no legal small-print) and personalised the shop to their neighbourhood type without naming a real owner. Caution he avoided: a 40-minute supermarket-management simulation that would have needed C1 lexis and would have wrecked the timing filter from 8.1.

Keep role-play cards for a short functional burst and simulations for a longer, more realistic run when time, level, and face risk all pass the filter. Do not call a scripted coursebook dialogue a simulation just because learners stand up.

Graded readers and extensive reading

A graded reader is a book written or simplified for language learners at a named level. Extensive reading means reading quantity for meaning and fluency, not hunting every unknown word.

Typical teaching function: longer connected text, recycling of known grammar, building reading fluency and, often, motivation to read outside the extracts the coursebook prints. Reason to choose it: the coursebook readings are all 250-word extracts; the class never reads a chapter-length narrative. Or you want a calm homework strand that is not another grammar worksheet. Caution: a reader that is too long for the slot (an 80-page book in a 15-minute lesson); a level that is too hard, so extensive reading becomes a dictionary fight; treating a reader as a full intensive language lesson with twenty comprehension questions, which kills the fluency reason. Adapt by using one short chapter, setting two gist questions, and saving detail work for a different lesson. Do not photocopy an entire published reader.

Classroom scenario: Priya has fifteen minutes at the end of a B1 week. She does not open the 80-page mystery the library owns as if it were a warmer. She uses a short graded chapter (about 800 words) on a missing bicycle: two gist questions (Who lost what? Where was it last seen?), then a prediction for homework. The reason is extensive-style reading and motivation. The caution she respected: length versus time. She refused a twenty-question intensive pack that would have turned the chapter into another coursebook extract.

If the stem wants exam-style scanning, a skills practice paper (8.1) is often a better match than a graded reader. If the stem wants fluent longer reading, the reader wins — provided it fits the slot.

Comic strips and graphic organisers as supplementary texts

A comic strip is a visual sequence of frames. A graphic organiser (table, flowchart, mind map, Venn diagram) is a visual arrangement of ideas. Both can be supplementary texts or task frames when the coursebook page is a wall of paragraphs or a discuss-with-a-partner instruction with no support.

Comic strip — typical teaching function: narrative sequence, functional language in speech bubbles, a support for lower-level readers who need pictures to hold the story. Reason to choose it: the unit's reading was a dense email; you want the same complaint function in a four-frame argument at a ticket office. Caution: tiny print, culture-specific humour that this group will miss, copyright on published comics; speech bubbles denser than the aim. Write your own four panels if you cannot licence a published strip. Omit a punchline that depends on a local celebrity.

Classroom scenario: Wei draws a four-panel ticket-office comic (queue, sold-out window, polite complaint, solution). Learners order the panels, then speak the bubbles using I'd like a return to…. He chose a comic as a supplementary text for a missing speaking sequence. He wrote the bubbles himself to avoid copyright on a published strip and simplified two frames so the function stayed visible.

Graphic organiser — typical teaching function: sorting, comparing, planning writing, making a listening or reading visible. Reason to choose it: the book asked for a discussion of two cities with no note-taking frame; a Venn diagram forces same / different language. Caution: an organiser with no language aim (colouring boxes); an organiser that is more complex than the text it is supposed to support. Omit extra boxes. Simplify a twelve-node flowchart to a three-column table.

Classroom scenario: Marisol gives a blank compare/contrast table after a short website text on two hostels. The organiser is the supplement: the coursebook had only discuss with a partner. The aim is organising ideas for a short recommendation. Caution: she did not hand out a twelve-box flowchart that would have taken the rest of the lesson to understand.

Choose by aim, then apply the caution

The diagram below is a matching key. Start from the aim, not from the activity you happen to like or the song that is already on your phone. After you land on a type, run the caution that belongs to that type: noise and set-up for games, lyrics and copyright for songs, face and time for drama, length for readers, copyright and density for comics, complexity for organisers.

Traps

Choosing a game because it is noisy and energetic with no retrieval target. Choosing a song because learners like the artist, then discovering the lyrics are unteachable and not licensed. Choosing a graded reader as if it were a five-minute warmer. Choosing a comic for decoration with no language in the bubbles. Choosing a graphic organiser that is harder than the text. TKT Module 2 matching items punish activity type without function.

Exam-style thinking

If the stem wants repeated retrieval of a closed set, prefer a memory game. If it wants justification, prefer ranking. If it wants a real need to speak, prefer an information-gap. If it wants replay of a mixed set, prefer a board game with language on the squares. If it wants phonology or a memorable pattern, prefer a chant or a short original song. If it wants functions in a situation, prefer role-play cards (short) or a simulation (longer, if time allows). If it wants fluent longer reading, prefer a graded reader that fits the time. If it wants sequence or organised ideas, prefer a comic or a graphic organiser.

OpenExamPrep publishes this as independent teacher-training study for TKT Module 2. The scenarios are original study examples. They are not Cambridge sample-paper stages and they do not replace the official handbook.

Reading the choose-by-aim diagram against the cautions

Start at Lesson aim, not at the cupboard. If the aim is retrieval of complaint chunks, the arrow goes to a memory game, even if a song is already open in a browser tab. If the aim is justification with should, the arrow goes to ranking, even if a board game would be noisier. If the aim is phonology, the arrow goes to a chant or rhyme you can actually teach, not to a commercial track whose lyrics are too hard and whose copyright you cannot clear. If the aim is fluent reading, the arrow goes to a graded reader that fits the slot, not to an 80-page book in a 15-minute leftover. If the aim is spoken functions, the arrow goes to role-play cards or a short simulation, not to a graphic organiser with no talk. The diagram is a matching key. The cautions are what you apply after the arrow lands.