Convince me (The past continuous game) is a fun and challenging game which will help improve students’ speaking abilities by practicing the use of past continuous tense. Students need to ask and answer questions about what they did the previous day at certain times using the past continuous tense. Activity time: 20 minutes Materials required: picture cards and time cards Skills practiced: use of past continuous tense, fluency. Level: All

Method

1. Organize students into 2 to 4 groups depending on the size of your class (with at most 5 players in each group)
2. Give each group a set of time cards and a set of picture cards.
3. Ask the students to deal the picture cards among themselves and pile the time cards facing down.
4. The first player picks a time card, and asks another player what they were doing at that time of the previous day, example: what were you doing at 8 pm? The other player will then select one of their picture cards showing the card to the other players.
5. He/she will give an answer that matches the selected card, example: “I was reading my book.” If the answer is convincing and appropriate for that time of the day, the player will discard the picture card, but if the answer is not convincing, example “I was a riding a bicycle.” The other players will ask him/her to give a reasonable explanation to why he/she was doing that particular activity at that time of the day.
6. If the player is able to offer a reasonable and convincing explanation, he/she will discard the picture card, but if he/she is unable to do so, the player must keep the card.
7. The next player picks a time card and the game continues.
8. The first player to completely get rid of all their picture cards is the winner of the game.