A Game For Conditionals: Conditional Chain Stories

Join a global community of over 200,000 TEFL teachers working throughout the world! Enrol me!

Ask a native English-speaker what a conditional is and you will no doubt get a very blank look in response.

In the TEFL classroom, however, conditionals are a very important part of our courses. Conditionals are a common feature of the English language.

This means that it is very important that our students learn to recognise and use conditionals in their English.

A game for conditionals

Here is a fun game which can be used to practise any of the conditionals, depending on the learning stage of your learners.

  • Give each student a piece of paper.
  • Decide which conditional structure will be used.
  • Each student writes a sentence in that structure at the top of the paper.
  • They pass it to the student on their left.
  • Each student writes a second conditional sentence which follows from the previous one. In other words, they would use the second part of the previous sentence as the first part of the next one.
  • After each sentence is written, the student folds over the piece of paper so that only one sentence is showing ie the student is only able to see the previous sentence.
  • This continues being passed around until the papers return back to their original student.
  • Students unfold their papers and read out their conditional chain stories.

For example, once you have explained the meaning and structure of the second conditional, the following chain story might be written:

If I won the lottery, I’d buy a Ferrari.

If I bought a Ferrari, I’d drive to Italy.

If I drove to Italy, I’d eat a lot of pasta.

If I ate a lot of pasta, I’d get fat.

If I got fat, I wouldn’t fit into my clothes.

What you should find is that your students end up creating very humorous stories while at the same time they have practised the conditional structure.

Though conditional structures can be difficult to remember and use accurately and appropriately, doing activities like this will create opportunities for your students to utilise them and so become more comfortable with using them.

A visual representation of a game for conditionals: the chain game

Comments:

Thanks – useful activity. What CEFR level would this be appropriate for and how long would you allow for the activity for a class size of 12?

hannah, 21st August 2020

Get Social

Follow us on social networks, join our newsletter - get the latest news and early discounts

Sign up to our newsletter

Follow us on social networks, sign up to our e-newsletters – get the latest news and early discounts

Accreditation Partners

The TEFL Academy was the world’s first TEFL course provider to receive official recognition from government regulated awarding bodies in both the USA and UK. This means when you graduate you’ll hold a globally recognised Level 3 (120hr) Certificate or Level 5 (168hr) Diploma, meaning you can find work anywhere and apply for jobs immediately.

Product added to your cart

You have added to your cart:

Request call back

    Please leave your details below and one of our TEFL experts will get back to you ASAP:

    captchaType characters on the left:

    Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

    Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

    Thank you! Your message has been sent!

    Download the TEFL World Factbook

      Please enter your details in order to download the latest TEFL World Factbook.

      Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

      Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

      Thank you for downloading the TEFL World Factbook!

      If the TEFL World Factbook did not download
      > Click Here To Download <

      Download the Online Teaching Guide

        Please enter your details in order to download our Online Teaching Guide.

        Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

        Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

        Thank you for downloading our Online Teaching Guide!

        If the Online Teaching Guide did not download
        > Click Here To Download <

        Download Prospectus

          Please enter your details in order to download our latest prospectus.

          Would you like us to update you on TEFL opportunities, jobs and related products & services?

          Yes, keep me updatedNo, but thanks anyway!

          Thank you for downloading our prospectus!

          We hope you enjoy reading our prospectus, we have tried to make it as useful as possible! Please get in touch if you have any questions.

          If the prospectus did not download automatically
          > Click Here To Download <

          $
          $