Step 1: Students are seated in circles of up to 10 students each, counting off 1 to 10.
Step 2: Even-numbered students each receive a piece of paper with a different English sentence written across the top. Odd-numbered students each receive a piece of paper with an unrelated sentence written in mother tongue across the top.
Step 3: Each person reads his/her sentence, translates it directly below, folds the top of the paper over so only his/her translation shows, and passes his/her paper to the student to his/her right.
Step 4: The process continues with translations on the same page going back and forth between English and mother tongue 6 or 7 times.
Step 5: Finally, each student unravels the page they’re left holding and reads it out loud, from the top down, to the class.
Step 1: Prepare about 15 cards, each with a short everyday phrase, e.g. “Could you spare a moment, please?”
Step 2: Ask 7 students to stand in a line at the front of the class.
Step 3: Take the first card and give it to the student at one end of the line who looks at the card and then whispers — once only — the message to student two. No one else should hear the sentence.
Step 4: Student two now passes the message on in translation to student three， who must whisper it on to the next student in English. The message goes from language to language down the line.
Step 5: When the message reaches the end of the line, the first and last student say their messages out loud. It may also be useful to let every student tell others what they have heard and said.
Step 6: Play the game again with the next card and so on. Make new lines to give more students a chance to take part.
* Translation role-plays
Step 1: Prepare a pack of cards with everyday situations on them, e.g. “buying a ticket at the train station”“asking what time the film starts”“booking into a hotel”.
Step 2: In groups of three, one student is a foreign tourist who doesn’t speak English. The second one is the person the foreigner is talking to (e.g. a ticket seller who only speaks English) and the third one is the foreigner’s friend who speaks both languages.
Step 3: Each group picks one situation card from the pack. They read it together and decide exactly what the role-play will be.
Step 4: Then they do it. The friend translates in both directions to help the tourist and the native speaker communicate.
* Diplomatic affairs
Step 1: Students stand in groups of four: two “ambassadors” and two “interpreters”.
Step 2: One “ambassador” only speaks English; the other only speaks his/her mother tongue. The “interpreters” (one working for each ambassador) understand both languages.
Step 3: The ambassadors now meet at a “party” and must have a conversation with each other.
Step 4: The ambassadors whisper to their interpreters. Each interpreter must then communicate aloud (in translation) what his/her ambassador said to the other ambassador. (If you have a group of three, then only have one interpreter who does all the mediation.)
* 低声传话
第一步:准备15张卡片，每张卡片上写一句日常用语，如:“Could you spare a moment, please?”。
