CELTA trainer Ali Talbot has some ideas to add a little variety to vocab revision.

During lessons write down new vocabulary that comes up. At the end of the lesson students together decide which 5 - 8 words they think are the most useful and one student writes them on cards (one word per card) to be kept for use later (aka. How to get through the last 5 mins of your lesson). This makes a useful resource for revising vocab.

However, after you've played "taboo" ten times (i.e. students describe words to each other for other students to guess - fun, but slightly annoying for students after the 10th time!), you'll want to intriduce a bit of variety, so here are some more ideas for activities to revise vocab using word cards.

1. Categories:
Give students the whole pile of cards (max 40). Tell students to put words into groups - whatever groups they like. ie words to describe people/ verbs/ words to do with work etc. Great for revising words and peer teaching. Feedback as a class: students read out the words in a category and the others guess what the category was.

2. Tic-Tac-Toe
Lay out word cards in a 4 x 3 grid or write them on the board in a grid. In two teams, students take it in turns to choose a word, say what it means and make a correct sentence with it. If it's correct, they turn over the card and draw a nought or cross on it for their team (or write X or O in square on board). For every 3 or 4 in a row the student gets 1 point.

3. Sentences from students
Pick 8-10 words from vocab box and write them in a column down one side of the board. In teams as a race, or with one student as a scribe, students write a sentence next to the word on the board containing the word. e.g:

redundant (adj) He was made redundant because the company went bankrupt.

attend (v) I have to attend a meeting every Monday morning.

Encourage students to work alone as a class and only correct students' errors as a class when all sentences have been written.

4. Longest sentence
In teams, give students some words from the vocab box and see if they can make a story, or the longest sentence that makes sense.

5. Memory
After any of the games, students form teams or pairs and try to remember as many of the words as possible.

6. Class mingle
Demonstrate this activity with a vocab card. Explain the word on your card and when a student guesses it give the word to the student. Students do the same in pairs: each student has two vocab cards and must stand up and test their partner. When their partner guesses the word they give it to them. If they can't guess they help them and still give them the card. Then they change partners - so they have 2 new words to describe. When students have mingled and talked to a number of people they sit down and, in pairs or teams, try to remember as many of the words as possible.

7. Pictionary
Students play in teams and try to draw the words from vocab cards. You can do this on the board (which is more fun for students) or on paper. Alternative: you can combine this with taboo and miming. e.g. use a dice: when students roll a 1 or 2 they mime the word, 3 or 4 they draw it and 5 or 6 they describe it.

8. Board rush
Stick some word cards randomly on the board. The teacher reads out the definition of a word and students race to the board to grab the word. Alternative: lay some of word cards on the desk and students can grab the cards from the desk.

9. Make a noise!
In pairs or teams, students are given 5 - 10 word cards and have to make sentences containing each word. e.g. if their word is redundant: 'He was made redundant because the company went bankrupt.'
Once they have written their sentences, they read out their sentences but instead of saying the vocab card word they make a noise (buzz, whistle etc) and other teams guess what the word is. e.g: He was made buzz because the company went bankrupt.

10. What's my word?
Give each student a word which none of the other students can see. They have to talk to their partner for 5 mins and try to say their word without the other person guessing what it is. After 5 mins, stop the conversation and see if they can guess their partner's word. If they can guess they get a point. Swap pairs, hand out new vocab cards - and repeat.