Using a word guessing board game to elicit peer-scaffolds in content and language settings in Germany

In the current chapter, we report first-hand experience of using a word guessing game (analogous to the well-known Charades game1) to elicit peer-scaffolds for basic terms in a training session on Railway Signalling Principles at Braunschweig University of Technology in Germany (TU Braunschweig). We used the oral version of the game. However, numerous versions of it as a board game are available where students can move around the game board and score points (cf. the well-known Taboo). The game session was implemented as a language-supportive methodology within CLIL-instruction focusing on the development of the knowledge of terms in problem-based settings. Problem-based settings create linguistically-adaptive contexts where the meaning of the terms is negotiated using the restrictions imposed by the game mechanics. In small groups of four, the students took turns to explain selected terms communicated to them privately by the course instructor while their peers were making guessing attempts to stimulate linguistic adaptation. The recordings that were manually transcribed for further analysis revealed several adaptation strategies such as the use of word parts or a reference to categories enabling particularly expedient explanations. Yet, while the students generally showed sound knowledge of basic terms, their scaffolds were almost never situated in professional discourse, thus, indicative of the need for the adaptation of the game mechanics to stimulate the use of terms in adequate contexts using adequate linguistic means and ensure their better understanding.