Help please - good game for young teen English learner

[azazela]

Hi! I have a 13 year old cousin who lives in Germany. My parents are going in a few weeks to visit the family and when they asked what to bring, the suggested gift idea was a board game that would be fun to play with her girlfriends and would help her practice English. From what I remember her English is pretty good after learning it in school for several years now and her father can always help her if there is a word she doesn't know. Any recommendations? I'm told that the German version of Clue is a favorite right now.

Thanks in advance!

[tiapam]

Boggle might be good. I think there are different versions. Not really a board game but definitely a word game. It can get very competitive.

[zag95]

Here are some fun games that also are great ways to build vocabulary-

Taboo
Scattergories!

Both are pretty fun- and make you think about vocab words- pictionary or similar might also be fun, as might Apples to Apples.

[azazela]

Great ideas, thanks! How did I not think of those? :boogie:

[fedoragirl]

I go to Germany every year, and we have played Taboo with our German friends but it's quite high level, and not everyone knew 50% of the word choices on it.
The old fashioned choice would be Scrabble. An easy version would be Pictionary.

[azazela]

Thanks for that perspective, I was thinking scattergories might be better than taboo in that sense. Then she can do it with words she knows and can always supplement German words if need be :)

[writermama]

I don't know what her language level is, but the ESL teacher where I volunteer uses the Guess Who game. It helps kids practice questions and descriptive terms. I have seen it used with a fairly basic level learner, but I think it could work with an intermediate student as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-4800-Guess-Board-Game/dp/B00000IWDR/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1258930807&sr=1-2

Clue also would be a good one. Bingo is a language learning standard for vocabulary building, search for "word bingo" and you'll find lots of examples like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Sight-Word-Bingo/dp/B0009K8PUS/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1258931070&sr=1-6

Another idea would be something like Scrabble ... Bananagrams ... I haven't played it, but my mom has played it with friends and with my DD, so it seems like a good, fun all-ages word game.

http://www.amazon.com/Bananagrams-BAN001/dp/1932188126/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1258931179&sr=1-1

[Tondi G]

Monopoly?

LIFE?