Dakon or Congklak as A Drilling Tool in Classes

by Ms. Lala

Indonesian people, for sure, know exactly what dakon is. In some parts of places, it is called as congklak. Dakon is a traditional game for kids. There are two players who put the dakon in the middle and put some tokens inside. There are two bigger places which are called as ‘barn’. The smaller places can be a kind of rice fields. The players take turns in putting their tokens clockwise. If their last token stops in the barn, the token can be savings for them. if the player cannot put the last token in the barn, that means the other player will take turn. That’s how to play dakon traditionally.

In classes, dakon can be a tool for drilling vocabulary or grammar discussed. The principle of the game is similar but some modifications take place. 

1.  There are two players for one dakon. It can be an individual work or group work for students in class.
2. Check what skills need to drill. For example, a teacher needs the students to memorize vocabulary in a certain lesson, so the students must use at least one vocabulary in their sentence. The player is to create one sentence each time he/ she gets turn. Remember, one sentence, it can be simple sentence, complex or compound sentence, not two sentences.
3. Each hole of the dakon is filled with two tokens. Each time, the player takes one token and brings it along  the smaller holes (rice fields) and go to the barn. One hole, one word. The player should try his best to stop the sentence in the barn, so that they can get another turn. If he can’t, the other player will take turn.
4. The object of the game is to get the tokens as many as possible in their barn.

As a brief example, here, let me give you an example. There are seven holes in dakon. The first player has to take one token from the last hole in his rice field, and brings it along the rice fields. The sentence can be: MALIN-KUNDANG’S-MOTHER-GAVE-HIM-A-TERRIBLE-CURSE. The vocabulary that the students must memorize is Curse. Use other vocabulary taught in that lesson for next sentences. There is a possibility that the token stops in the other player’s rice fields. That’s OK. 

Another thing, please give time for the students to think what sentences they might create. If it’s in high level, limit the time, say, 30 seconds. If the students cannot create sentence in 30 seconds, the other player can take turn. 

Good luck.

 Intermediate 4 students played dakon