Games To Improve Communication Skills

Hi
I am a lecturer in a b school, I would like to improve the communication skills of the students both verbally and non verbally through games. I would much appreciate if anybody could post few games in this regard.
thanx
Mary

Hi

I am sure a lot of quality communication related text books would have exercises and games incorporated to reinforce the learning. You can use them or adapt them to suit your requirements. However, to get you going here are a couple of games that you can play

1. What's the Good Word ( this used to be a popular game on DD in the good old days and used to be hosted by Ms. Sabira Merchant) Form teams of 2 or 3 or more and one member is given a word. He /she will ideally give one word clues to the word and the team members have to guess it. This is a good way to reinforce learning of synonyms. By tweaking the same game it can be used to learn antonyms too. eg. EGG - the clues could be yolk, hen, omelette, etc.

2. Forming sentences one word at a time by each subsequent participant in a row. Here teams of 5- 10 can be formed. A couple of word eg. knife, hot, shape etc can be given to a person nominated as the Joker in the team. The first person starts with a word and the the next person is to tell another word such that there is continuity and with each person contributing a sentence can be made. The joker does not utilize his word till a suitable situation arises where his/ her word fits in.( Pay attention to construction of the sentence and not to the logic or factual accuracy of the sentence formed. Useful to get beginners in the English language to get initiated into sentence formation)

I trust these games will trigger more ideas for you to adapt, adopt or innovate upon and make the learning interesting, exciting and emphatic.

You may also find the the contents of the following Inspirational and Motivational blogs useful to help improve vocabulary while also injecting a dose of optimism and self belief.

www.actspot.wordpress.com - Over 71,000 views and 515 followers
www.poweract.blogspot.com - Over 19,000 views and 149 followers

Best Wishes

Great value addition!
I am relatively new to this site but are highly impressed with the suggestions/ideas people are sharing with each other. Making communications more creative and innovative subject.
Best,
Soonam

Hi
You can play games like "Taboo" or "Pictionary" they are fast and exciting. You can get this games in the market.

thanq so much for the valuable ideas and i would appreciate if any more tricks are mentioned to improve my verbal skills

Hi Maheevarayuri....first of all there are no TRICKS to improve verbal skills. However there are methods and techniques. Some of them require expert guidance but a large part of it can be the result of hard work and persistance.

For anything you do in life, a clear goal /vision, adequate motivation / enthusiasm, hard work / discipline and the ability to take risks/ challenges are critical attributes. Your are very lucky that you have identified your problem and you are proactively seeking a solution to it.

What you also require are the key attributes called 'discipline' and 'enthusiasm' with which you can achieve anything you want.

Your enthusiasm is the reason you wrote in at Citehr. The next test is to be disciplined and follow the suggestions given here.

1. My first suggestion is to read as much as possible in English ALOUD. A standard daily English Newspaper and the Readers Digest have very good reading material. If possible record your voice and listen to it to know the areas the sounds, words and alphabets that give you trouble and on which you need to work.

2. The mother tongue influence is a problem for many considering that very few of us are native English speakers. To reduce that make more English speaking friends and make a determined effort to speak only in English, even if you keep forgetting words, or tend to stammer or your friends tend to laugh at you. This will require a lot of will power but believe me you will soon improve. If someone corrects your pronunciation don’t take offence, instead be grateful that he/ she is helping you correct yourself.

3. I would also suggest you try to learn at least 3 -5 new words and look up the meaning in a dictionary. then try and use these words in your daily work and in your communication to improve your vocabulary. Find synonyms for words that give you trouble and use the synonym.

4. If you still feel that professional help is needed then you will have to attend English speaking classes

5. Finally, if you can, do visit my blogs listed below regularly and try to learn the new words in it and also be inspired by it. Try to read the blog content alound.You can click on the links below for instant access.

www.actspot.wordpress.com - Over 71,000 views and 515 followers
www.poweract.blogspot.com - Over 19,000 views and 149 followers

Best Wishes

Hi
I would also suggest that you can look up some of the daily newspapers and attempt the simple crosswords, wordbuilding games, word formation games, give part of a proverb and ask participants to fill in the blanks etc.
Just let your imagination run riot and I can guarantee you that you will be brimming with ideas.
Best Wishes

Hi Mary,
As always - Jacob has given very fine ideas.
I would like to add some more because I have been working with B Schools of all categories.
Few Ground rules for improving Comn Skills::
1. Always Appreciate ( it builds confidence)
2. Have patience (no miracles happen)
3. Give clear specific individual feedback for improvement. ( it helps)
4. Let it be fun oriented so that they absorb quickly.
Now for the suggested activities ::
1. Thread a story ( start a sentence like " A man was walking on the road....")
and each person has to add one more line to continue the story
2. Extempore speeches. on random topics or current affairs.
3. Group discussions. - do -
4. Short Debates.
5. Short Playlets/ skits
6. Short Presentations ( non ppt)
7. Short Group presentations
8. Sellling items like pens or any stuff in the class
9 Motivational Poems - like 'Think you Can'
10. Throw a word at them. Let them make sentences at high speed.
HOPE IT HELPS
ALL THE BEST

Hi
Thanks Riyaz for your appreciation and also for adding to the ideas list. I am sure all those keen to make learning fun cannot say they do not have a list of ideas on how to enthuse and inspire the participants.
Regards

Dear Mary,

One communication game click on my mind, which is as under:

In a group of students, select two persons.
One (1st person) will draw a drawing on the board as per the instructions of other person (2nd person).
2nd person will have one drawing consisting of trangle, circle, square, etc mixed.
Both the persons will stay atleast 15 feet far. 2nd person, by seeing the drawing, tells 1st person to draw the drawing as per the sheet he is having. However strict warning to both is that they will not look each other. 2nd person will only tell verbally to 1st person and on the basis of 2nd person's instruction, 1st person (u can add the audience also) draw the drawing on board.
After completing you can see the difference between actual drawing and drawing drawn on the board by 1st person.
This is a good example and exercise of communication, how we communicate with others and others how take it (with their own perception)
I think I've communicated in right manner.
If you have any doubt you can call me on 09011017601
Thanks,

Jayant Singarwadi