The Big Nationalities Quiz

Objective & content

A projected team quiz on countries, nationalities and languages, with real photos, for one game of 40 to 50 minutes. The class plays in 2 to 4 teams through seven rounds: Flags (a photo of a flag and a word bank of countries: the UK, the USA, Canada, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece, Poland), World food ("Sushi is ___ food", with a word bank of nationalities: Italian, French, Spanish, Mexican, British, Japanese, Chinese, Indian), Where in the world? (a famous place to place in its country), Odd one out (nationalities that end in -ish, -ese or -an), True or false? (sentences about the languages people speak), Look and remember (a tray of flags, then one flag goes) and Name three! There are 38 questions and 47 points. Pupils meet about 40 country names, nationality adjectives and languages.

Pedagogical guide

Every question slide is followed by its answer slide, so the class sees the answer at once and the teacher only keeps the score. The quiz tests vocabulary. In the Flags and World food rounds the word bank stays on the screen, so pupils choose the word instead of spelling it from memory. The Flags answer slides pair each country with its people ("People from Italy are Italian."): read the sentence aloud and let pupils notice that the country and the nationality are two different words, and that nationalities start with a capital letter in English. Odd one out is worth 2 points and makes the endings visible: Spanish, English and Polish end in -ish; Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese end in -ese; Canadian, American and Australian end in -an. True or false? corrects a common mistake ("People in Mexico speak Mexican." is false; they speak Spanish) and shows that a language is not always named after the country. Look and remember shows a tray of flags for 20 seconds, then one flag goes and teams write the missing country. Name three! asks for three words, 1 point each, so several answers are right. The quiz stays at A1+ level, with short sentences in the present simple, in British English. Useful language for the teams: "I think it's Spain.", "It's Italian food.", "People in Brazil speak Portuguese."

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Make 2 to 4 teams and draw a score table on the board. Each team has one sheet of paper and one writer.
2. (7 min) Round 1, Flags: show the flag, leave the word bank on the screen and give 20 seconds; teams write the country. Show the answer slide and read the sentence about the people. 1 point for each right answer.
3. (7 min) Round 2, World food: read the sentence with the gap; teams write the nationality from the word bank. 1 point for each right answer.
4. (6 min) Round 3, Where in the world?: show the famous place; teams write the country (no word bank this time). 1 point for each right answer.
5. (4 min) Round 4, Odd one out: read the four nationalities; teams write the number of the odd one. 2 points for each right answer. Read the reason on the answer slide and point out the endings.
6. (6 min) Round 5, True or false?: read the sentence; teams write True or False. 1 point for each right answer. Read the reason on the answer slide.
7. (4 min) Round 6, Look and remember: show the tray of flags for 20 seconds, then the tray with one flag missing; teams write the country that went. 1 point for each right answer.
8. (5 min) Round 7, Name three!: teams write three words. 1 point for each right word (3 points a question). Accept any word on the answer slide and any other sensible one.
9. (2 min) Add up the points on the board and show the last slide, "Who won?".

Adaptations

[S] In rounds 1, 2 and 3, let teams point to the word in the box or say it instead of writing, and do the first question of each round together before the teams write. In round 5, read each sentence twice, slowly.

[A] In round 1, ask teams for the nationality as well as the country ("Italy: Italian."). In round 2, ask for a full sentence ("Pizza is Italian food."). In round 4, ask for the reason ("Spanish, English and Polish end in -ish."). In round 7, ask for more than three words.

Materials & prerequisites

A projector or screen for game.pdf (87 slides in 16:9, one PDF page per slide, turned with the arrow keys), the board for the score table, and a sheet of paper and a pen for each team. Pupils should already know a few country names and the verb be (I am, he is, they are). The quiz works well as a revision game at the end of a unit on countries, nationalities or food from around the world, or as a reward at the end of a lesson.