Here’s a handy little language game you could use as a starter, filler or part of a lesson on negation. Hand out or display a list of present tense statements in the target language. They could be related to your current topic or just be random sentences using known vocabulary. The statements should be clearly wrong for best effect, I think. You could come up with absurd, amusing statements. Here are some examples: Madrid is the capital of France. Harry Kane plays tennis. Dogs speak French. Cats eat spaghetti. The sun rises in the west. Ariana Grande sings in Chinese. Mr Smith eats snails every morning. The moon is bigger than the sun. That sort of thing. Adapt the vocab to your class’s prior knowledge. Pupils work in pairs. Partner A makes the statement, then Partner B replies “That’s not true!” Then gives a corrected version, including a negative. For example, “Ariana Grande doesn’t sing in Chinese. She sings in English!” Partners take turns to make the initial statement. Fast classe...
This is an old favourite. In case you don’t know of it, it’s called the Yes/No game. Students play in pairs. Each partner asks questions which normally require a yes or no answer. The responder has to answer without saying yes or no. This usually means answering by repeating the wording of the question, using negatives, changing pronouns, verbs or possessive adjectives as needed. The temptation to say yes or no is strong, so it takes care and concentration. Advanced students can play it off the cuff, but for level A2 (GCSE), for example, I’d advise giving each partner a set of questions to ask. You could give them in gapped form to add challenge. You can also have a theme for each set of questions if the aim is to practise conversation on a syllabus topic. You can make it more competitive by having students keep score of the number of times a partner says yes or no. Below I’ve listed a set of questions in French, then the same ones in Spanish. The topic is healthy lifestyle. Think...