The describing game

One of the best fluency games, this practices the vital language skills of defining and paraphrase when you don't know a word in English, e.g.
It's a place where...          It's an adjective...          It's a thing you use to...
You find it in the ...           It's an animal...              It's a person who...
You can use it to practice any vocabulary group or for general vocabulary revision.

• Put students into pairs, A and B. Students A turn round so they can't see the board. The Bs see the board.
• Write seven words on the board, e.g.

banana        Madonna        sugar        blue        twelve        a pilot       passport

• B has to describe the first word to A without using the word, and speaking only in English, e.g. It's a fruit. It's long and yellow. It comes from Africa. She's a singer. She's American. She's very rich and famous.
• A listens and guesses the word he/she thinks it is. If the guess is correct, B then defines the second word, B has to try to give a clearer definition.
• If they find it hard at first, teach them to give the first letter as a clue, e.g. It beggings with B.
• When all the pairs have finihed, the students swap roles. Write seven new words on the board and continue.