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Taboo By: Madison and Jolene - Coggle Diagram
Taboo
By: Madison and Jolene
Clue Receiver
Barriers
The clue giver and receiver would have different past experiences. When receiving the word explanation the giver may make a reference that the receiver does not understand. This would cause a large barrier. For example, if our group had not watched 101 Dalmations we would not have understood the Cruella Deville reference.
The clue giver's pronunciation (prosody) would affect the clue receiver's understanding. For example, the clue-giver could pronounce a word differently than the clue receiver.
The receiver faces the barrier of being unable to read the word and only having the knowledge that the clue giver is sharing. If the clue receiver has weak receptive language they would really struggle with this game.
Learning Language
Taboo could help students become strong auditory learners. The clue receiver cannot see the word they are relying strictly on sound to guess the word.
The competition of the game would encourage the clue receivers receptive language to work hard. The receiver must remember what is heard and act upon it. The receiver must remember the clues that were given at the beginning of the round to correctly guess the word.
Required Language
In Taboo to be the clue receiver you must have strong receptive language because you need to be able to decipher what the clue giver is saying.
As the receiver, communication in general must be strong because the clue giver may have different personal connections than the reciever.
For example, while our group was playing the game one of the words was Dalmatian. The card had 4 words that were not allowed to be said in the explanation. The clue giver said "Cruella Deville" and as the clue receivers we immediately made the connection to Dalmatians.
Semantics (CONTENT) would need to be utilized as the clue receiver. When listening to the clues being given the receiver needs to recognize that the giver may use synonyms in their explanation to fit the restrictions of the game.
Surprises
As we were playing it was surprising that the clue receivers were able to pick up on the clue givers cues and references. For example, everyone in our group was able to pick up on the Cruella Deville reference.
As the clue receiver we found it quite surprising how difficult it was to guess some of the words. Everyone has different interpretations because every word has so many meanings and contexts.
Clue Giver
Learning Language
Being the clue giver works on enhancing the ability to be creative through words. Due to the restrictions of the game, we had to be creative with our descriptions. Having these restrictions made us really focus on synonyms and wording our description in a creative way while still maintaining our reason for communicating (USE) and the meaning (CONTENT) of what we were describing.
Playing as the clue giver helps improve both expressive and receptive language. When saying the description our expressive language was improving because we had to use different ways of explaining. Our receptive language was also improving because we had to read the card and quickly orchestrate a description.
Visual learners would have an advantage because they are able to see and sound out the words (phonetics/ sight words).
Surprises
While playing it was quite surprising that we were all able to quite easily use synonyms and explanations while trying to get the group to guess the word.
A surprise that we had was that it was often difficult to get past the words we could not use. We often found it difficult to develop a creative description without using the common connection words.
Barriers
Something else that created barriers when giving the clues is that words have multiple meanings. For words that have multiple meanings, the clue giver had to be strategic and choose to explain the context that they thought was most commonly known. For example, the clue-giver chose to use the word carriage in the context of a baby carriage because that was familiar to her. While a person who does not have kids may have taken the route of Cinderella's carriage.
The hardest barrier that we ran into was the word use restriction. We had to be quick thinking and use synonyms (CONTENT) to replace the words we were not allowed to use.
Another barrier is that if the clue giver were to have a weak vocabulary (CONTENT) then they likely would not know what all the words on the cards mean and would have a difficult time using creative ways of explaining.
Required Language
Throughout the game we had to be very careful with our semantics. If we did not use the correct meaning or context within our description, the clue receivers would have had a very difficult time guessing the word.
When being the clue giver it was very important to maintain the topic (USE). If we were to stray away from the word, or the context of the word it got very confusing within our group. It was very important to stick to one context of the word.
As the clue giver, we had to have strong expressive vocabulary to try and explain the word that was on the card. Having a strong expressive vocabulary allowed us to explain in a way that made sense to our group. After thinking about all that we could and could not say based on the restrictions of the game we had to express our explanations.
While playing, a member of our group was the clue giver and they picked up a card that had the word 'Carriage' they were not allowed to use the words 'baby, sleep'. As the clue giver, they choose to describe carriage in the context of a baby carriage. After we were done that round it was brought to our attention that carriage may have been used in the context of Cinderella's carriage. It is quite interesting that words can have so many contexts and where people's minds go first can greatly vary.
Some words can have many different meanings (CONTENT). As the clue giver it was very important to choose one context and stick to it or make it very clear that it has many meanings. Switching between meanings and contexts of a word can cause our receptive language to go down a spiral of all the different answer options.
Learning language for both
Playing this game encourages the ability to improve our social language. Our social language can be improved through our interactions with each other. Social language is something that takes practice and experience and this game is a good way to add experience. Using non-verbal language turned out to be a big part of the game. As the clue receiver if we did not understand something we often gave a puzzled expression and this informed the clue giver that we did not understand. As the clue giver when the clue receivers guessing were getting closer to the correct answer an exciting expression took over our faces. Something that was very interesting was the use of code-switching. As the clue givers we said our part as statements and put emphasis on the important parts of our descriptions. As the clue receivers when we were guessing what the word was we often said it in a questioning tone.
How is this relevant? As a student and future teacher
Using games such as Taboo would allow students to become more fluent with their vocabulary. Using games that include sight words and develop such things as word relationships would directly impact a positive communication pattern and expand conversation (strategic).
As a teacher a game such as Taboo could be used in the classroom. It would an educational tool that encourages students to practice and learn language skills in a fun interactive way.