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Find Someone Who...
Find Someone Who is a simple activity which can be used as a getting to know you game, a lead-in into a lesson or a controlled practice activity. As a GKTY activity, find someone who is often referred to as human bingo.
- Focus: Getting to know you, lead in, grammar, speaking, online
- Level: Any
- Age: Teens/Adult
- Target Language: Any
- Time: 10 minutes - 15 minutes
- Preparation: Prepare list of "find someone who" statements
Procedure:
PRE: Decide on the statements that you want to use in your lesson. Around 12 statements is ample. You may use less for a shorter task.
1: Provide students with a table like the example further down on this page. The first column should be headed “Find someone who…” The other boxes in the first column should finish this sentence, for example “…likes action movies.” The second column should be headed “Name”, and the third column headed “Extra information.”
2: Tell students that they should find someone for each statement by asking questions. They should ask each person one question and then they must find a new partner. Once they have spoken to a different person, they may speak to someone who they spoke to previously.
3: Tell students they should write the name of the person who agrees with the statement, but should not write anything if the other student does not agree. The extra information column also allows students to ask follow up questions and record some extra detail.
4: With a lower level group, it may be useful to elicit how to change the statements into questions.
5. Give students the signal to start. When one student has found a person for each statement, declare them the winner.
Example:
S1: Do you like to read e-books?
S2: No, I don’t.
S1: Do you like to read e-books?
S3: Yes, I do.
S1: Are you reading a good e-book at the moment?
Variations:
Online: Share the questions in a shared document so that all participants can see them. Put the students in breakout rooms and move students regularly, or allow them to move around.
1: If using this as a getting to know you activity, it can be fun to use things that you already know about the participants. This variant is often referred to as human bingo.
2: For a lead-in, use statements relating to one topic. For example, a lead in on health and medicine might include statements such as (find someone who…) “has never stayed in hospital overnight”, “suffered a serious injury playing sport”, or “has been in an ambulance.”
3: For a controlled practice activity, the statements will need to use the target language, or imply the need for it in questions. For example, to practice “used to”, statements might include (find someone who…) “used to smoke”, “believed in Santa as a child” or “was scared of the dark.”
Follow on:
Students could conduct a class survey by writing their own question using the target structures/lexis that they have learnt.
Example Table:
| Find someone who… | Name | Extra information |
|---|---|---|
| …speaks 3 or more languages | ||
| …has never seen Game of Thrones | ||
| …has visited at least 5 countries | ||
| …thinks cats are better than dogs | ||
| …goes to the gym regularly | ||
| …likes playing computer games | ||
| …is reading a good book at the moment |
Don’t Miss A Thing!
Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels
