Playing Letter Shift helps ESL students recognize and distinguish between common English words

October 28, 7:28 PMSF Education Games ExaminerJoanna Szeto

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Would you be able to change a cow to a pig?

Letter Shift is a simple game that helps ESL students identify the differences between common English words. Students will quickly pick up the slight differences that create different words.

The, then, they, and them will no longer be mispronounced. Students will not mistaken you for your. They will pay attention to how changing a single letter can create a new word.

The game begins with everyone writing down four or five three letter words onto slips of paper. The papers are folded up and placed into a box or bag. For every round, two slips of paper are randomly picked.

The first word opened is written down on everyone’s paper. The second word opened is the finish line. The object of the game is to get from the first word to the second word with as few words as possible.
In order to get from the first word to the last word, players can change one letter of the word. Players can also change the order of the letters in the word to create another word. Players can add or delete a letter from the word, as long as a new word is created.

Players may not create the same word twice. Players cannot use names or abbreviations. All words must be found in a dictionary. The first player to find a solution calls the time. Everyone else has one minute to find a solution. Players get one point for a correct solution. Players who correctly read all words on their list get three points. The player with the shortest list gets five points.

Let’s say the first word was pig and the second word was dog. Here would be a winning game: pig, peg, leg, log, dog. There is also a winning solution using only three words.

After getting a solution, students need to correctly read each word created. Four letter words can also be used, but the game would be more difficult. Another way to create a challenge is to roll two dice. The number rolled determines the number of words needed for the winning solution. The player with the closest number of words wins five points.