When I was a child, two of my favorite games were Spill and Spell and Perquackey, simply constructed language games whose contemporary spinoff is Boggle. Years later, I remembered those games when I was developing a multipart activity to teach parts of speech and sentence patterns.

Although the instructions for Spill and Spell vary a bit from those of Perquackey and Boggle, the premise behind each game is similar: Manipulate dice with a letter on each surface to form as many words as possible in three minutes. Each game comes with a plastic cup, lettered dice, a three-minute timer, instructions and scorecards.

Players put the dice in the cup, shake well, pour out the dice, and form as many words as they can in the time allotted using only the letters facing up. For my purposes, I chose to disregard the scorecards and adapt the games, but educators can use the games as is. Likewise, the games are easily modified to your needs.

There is significant research on the efficacy of using games to teach ESL/EFL. Yolageldili and Arikan are among those who encourage game use: "Games have a special role in any foreign language teaching program because they facilitate foreign language learning especially for young learners." Gaudart concurs: "Using simulations and games are two of the most effective techniques for a teacher when he or she wants to allow second or foreign language learner practice in the target language."

In addition to being a fun learning activity, the games nurture five of the eight multiple intelligences Gardner identifies — linguistic, kinesthetic, inter- and intrapersonal, and logical intelligences — while encouraging problem solving.

Following are the details of the activity. You'll notice I offer "delicious" candy prizes. I freely distribute chocolates and candies to my students for any number of reasons, such as asking a thoughtful question, offering an answer, making a suggestion, making me laugh, being the first to put one's muted phone on my desk, asking about my companion animals — pretty much anything to encourage their respectful participation.

A Puzzling Word Game

This exercise is divided in to four parts. I've been successful dividing the lesson over the course of a couple or few class periods, depending on the length of each period.

The instructor will need enough games of Spill and Spell, Perquackey or Boggle for each group of three students to have one game. Included in the game are an egg timer, a cup or plastic box and lettered dice.

The students will need:

• A notebook
• A pencil
• An ESL dictionary
• A thesaurus
• A writer's handbook (ideal but optional) or a resource illustrating parts of speech and sentence patterns

Before you begin, put students in groups of three (or no more than four).

Part 1

1. Team members assign each team member a task: One player is the timekeeper; another is the writer (recorder); the last is the word maker.

2. The word maker puts the dice in the cup or box, shakes the cup or box, and dumps the dice on the desk (if you're using Boggle, do not put the dice in the plastic grid). You must use the letters that are facing up; you may not turn the dice.

3. The word maker forms words as quickly as possible. As she forms the words, she must spell them and say them aloud.

4. The writer writes down the spelled words on a master list. If you're not sure if the word is correct or is really a word, write it down anyway. You'll have a chance later to consult your dictionary. Do not worry if your list has repeat words. At this stage, your focus is to just get words on the list.

5. The timekeeper alerts the players when the time runs out.

6. Repeat the process until every player has a chance to perform all tasks twice. The larger the vocabulary corpus, the better.

Part 2

1. Once each team member has performed all tasks twice, take another piece of paper and make categories for the following:

• Nouns
• Pronouns
• Verbs
• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Prepositions
• Articles
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions

2. Examine your master list, find words that fit into the categories, and write them in the correct category. Some words may appear in more than one category. If you're not sure what category the word belongs to, consult your dictionary or writer's handbook. If you're not sure if the word is really a word if or it's correctly spelled, consult your dictionary.

3. When you finish categorizing all the words from the master list, see if you're missing words from any category.

4. If you are missing words from any category, consult your dictionary or your writer's handbook for words that fit the category and write four or five in the category. You can also look at your adjective and adverb list and easily create one from the other (e.g., soft/softly).

Part 3

1. Using the words on the list, create one each of the following sentences:

• Simple
• Compound
• Complex
• Compound-complex
• Complex-compound

I've found it can be better to have students initially create sentences without regard to sentence patterns. Once the groups have sentences, I've had students put their sentences on the board, and we analyze them to ensure they meet the exercise requirements. At this point, I ask students to identify the sentence pattern of each sentence, and we use the existing sentences to examine the various patterns. For example, if there is no complex sentence, I prompt by asking, "How can we make this a complex sentence?"

2. To win the delicious chocolate prize, your master list must:

• Correctly categorize the words
• Make sure that words that can be in multiple categories are in all appropriate categories

And your sentences must:

• Be grammatically correct
• Use the words correctly
• Make sense (of course, they can be creative)

3. To win more than one delicious prize, follow the instructions to make two or more of each sentence.

Categorizing examples:

Book=verb: Rosalyn waits patiently while Bridget books the restaurant for the party.

Book=noun: Books are made of ink, paper and glue.

Sentence examples:

• Simple: The popular band played energetically for three hours.
• Compound: The popular band played energetically for three hours, and the audience wildly danced and sang.
• Complex: The popular band played energetically for three hours while the audience wildly danced and sang.
• Compound-complex: The popular band played energetically for three hours, and the audience wildly danced and sang because they were enjoying themselves.
• Complex-compound: Because the audience wildly danced and sang, the popular band played energetically for three hours, and everyone enjoyed the evening.

Part 4

1. Group members take turns putting sentences on the board. Begin with simple sentences, and move through each pattern.

2. The class examines each sentence to determine if the sentence meets the requirements.

3. If sentences do not meet the requirements, the class at large or individual groups can work on correcting them and putting the correction on the board.