Alibi

Here is an activity that I like to do with my students after they've had a chance to get to know each other -- maybe right after midterms -- just to throw a little mystery and intrigue into the mix. It also gives them a good chance to work on their Q and A and Inferencing skills in a fun scenario:

A crime has been committed in this class. There are five suspects. The rest of the students are the investigators in charge of determining who committed the crime.

Suspects must leave the class to construct their alibis. They can use each other for their alibis if they wish.

Meanwhile, investigators (in groups of 3-4) must come up with a list of questions they want to ask the suspects about their whereabouts and activities on the day in question (10-15 min).

The teacher should provide some information about the crime to both suspects and investigators, but withhold some information from both. For example, tell the suspects who actually committed the crime. Tell the investigators about a key piece of evidence found at the crime scene.

Suspects return to the classroom and are assigned individually to a group of investigators for interrogation. After 5 minutes, suspects rotate to a different group for further questioning. Once all of the groups have interrogated each suspect (approx. 25 min), suspects line-up in front of the classroom while investigators confer. Each group of investigators then reveals who they believe has committed the crime and why. Finally, the teacher reveals who actually committed the crime.

Although I've only used this in an ESL/EFL context, I think it could be easily adapted to almost any foreign language classroom. Enjoy!