World Kids Flash Cards are an ideal way to teach English students about the
correct English nomenclature for countries, nationalities and languages.
Naming the three categories and differentiating between them has always
been a major problem for children and even adult EFL learners. The cards can
be used for all levels, from elementary school and junior high to high
school, university and adults.
There are 24 colorfully illustrated cards in total. Every letter of the
alphabet is represented except for X and W (since there are no countries
beginning with those letters). One capital and one small letter are on the front
of each card, along with the name of the country beginning with that letter
and a delightful illustration of a character or a couple from that country.
All the illustrations have been done by Tim Ernst, Japan's number one
foreign illustrator.
The back of the cards are really student-friendly, because they list seven
questions about the country along with the answers.
For the sake of simplicity, I will introduce the "Aa-Australia" card. On the
front is an illustration of a man in a cowboy hat holding a koala bear. On
the back of the card are the following questions/answers:
- What country is he from?
(He's from Australia.)
- What nationality is he?
(He's Australian,)
- What do Australians speak?
(Australians speak English.)
- What is the capital of Australia?
(The capital of Australia is Canberra.)
- What currency do Australians use?
(Australians use dollars.)
- Have you ever been to Australia?
- Do you know where Australia is?
The bottom portion of the back of the card has a world map with Australia in
red so the students can easily understand where it is.
How to play the game:
Method #1
Divide the class into two or four teams depending on group size.
One student is the scorekeeper, and the teacher is the quiz master who shows
the picture side of the flash card to the groups and asks the questions
from the back of the card. The first team to answer correctly scores one
point (per question). The first to reach 25 points wins!
Method #2
Divide the class into pairs. Give each student one card. One
student asks his/her partner all the questions on the cards. The other
student answers. The student asking the question KNOWS all the answers
because they are listed on the back of the card. Then the other student
does the same thing with his/her card. Then have all the pairs of students
pass their cards forward to the the next pair and repeat the procedure.
Elementary school students can practice and master the first two questions
and answers. Junior high and high school can work with the first four. High
school, university and adults can ask and answer all the questions on the
cards.
These cards help students master the English names of countries,
nationalities and languages in an interactive, experiential, meaningful way.
Helene Jarmol Uchida
Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum
development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan.
She is the director of the Fukuoka-based
Little America English Schools
and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year
in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book',
an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.
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