Instructions

1. Hand out a copy of the crossword to each trainee. Although most trainees will need little guidance to understand the task, it's worth eliciting down and across, and the word clue which does not appear on the sheet.

2. Have trainees work individually or in pairs to solve the crossword. Monitor and prompt where necessary.

3. Conduct feedback orally or by pinning up a completed copy of the crossword for trainees to check.

4. Discuss how crossword puzzles might be useful for recycling lexis from class. Talk about trainees’ experiences with crosswords and other types of word puzzles. Remind trainees that they can create their own word games on www.puzzlemaker.com and other available educational software.

Variation

To make this into a communicative pair-work activity, photocopy the A and B versions of the crossword (see 2.2B). Have half the class research and work together to write the clues for puzzle A, while the other half do the same for puzzle B. Then pair up one trainee from group A with a partner from group B. Have them read out their clues for their partner to guess. For example, B asks ‘What's 17 down?’, A says ‘the number of minutes needed for each step of the lesson’, and B guesses ‘hmmm … Timing?’