What Can ' Congklak' Do in Class?

Well, the thing I want to share this time is actually an old technique that has been ignored for so long. Besides, frankly, this activity is not really effective in a big class. However, I applied it anyway last Tuesday (February, 9, 2010) in my class.

Level: Intermediate 3

Lesson 6—Review Adverbial clause

Preparation: a congklak/ dakon (traditional game for children), seeds

Procedure:

After we do review of adverbial clause using because, because of, and while, divide the class into groups of two or four, depending on how many students attend the class. Two groups will need one dakon and two seeds in each hole. The groups will take turn to play. The first group takes one seed and brings it pass from one hole to others and (if possible) stops in their barn. The students must construct a sentence using one adverbial clause. They have to construct the sentence in such a way so that they can put the seed in their barn (the biggest hole). The object of the game is the group that has most seed in his/ her barn will win the game.

As variation and to make it more challenging, limit the time to think for each group. I noticed that one group sometimes needs a lot of time to think. Limit the time for about one or two minutes and the group should play spontaneously. The rules can be modified by the teacher or groups.

The pluses of the activity is the students can construct the sentences either spontaneously or non spontaneously. It is also more fun than the students have to write the sentences. Moreover, the skill in the lesson is speaking. Therefore, the activity supports the students’ competence in speaking

The negative side of the activity is the group that has more than three members is not really effective since the active student in the group will dominate the game. It’s better to teachers to select students in the group so that the activity will run as expected.