INTRODUCTION
Activate: Games for Learning American English is a collection of games for the language classroom. The games in Activate offer practice with vocabulary,grammatical patterns, and interaction skills in a learner-centered, low-stress environment. The games provide opportunities to talk informally and to think creatively.

Although games are used mostly for entertainment, the use of games in ed- ucation has a very long history, beginning with the creation of the first board games around 2200 B.C. Games can engage the learner  and make practicing English enjoyable.

Games offer students many benefits, including opportunities to develop social skills, to learn coping strategies (It can be hard to lose!), and to keep their minds active. Activate is designed to provide these benefits  while helping students to develop their English language abilities.
There are some basic guidelines to keep in mind when using the games from Activate or any games in your English class. It is important to ensure that the level of the game is appropriate for your students, that all  players understand the procedure for playing the game, and that everyone can experience some level of success. To do the latter, it is important that students see that the purpose of the game is to practice using  language in an engaging way.
Activate contains four chapters. Each chapter explains how to use a different type of game: Board  Games, Picture This, Guess What?, and Word Bricks. Each chapter contains four sections. In the About section,  you will find a general description of the game along with tips to help you and your students get the most out of the game. In the Let’s Get Started section, you will find step-by-step instructions for how to use the  games in your classroom, with a sample game to use as a model. In the Ready for More? section, you will find a number of additional games or variations for the game, including step-by-step instructions and  examples of language that students might produce while playing these games.
Each chapter in this book is accompanied by a set of materials to allow you to immediately use the games presented in this book:
Board Games: 11 ready-to-use game boards.
Picture This Cards: 24 Picture This cards, each containing six thematically related pictures on one side and six corresponding questions for discussion on the opposite side.
Guess What? Cards: 24 Guess What? cards, each side containing a topic followed by six related words. Each card contains topics at two levels: basic (+) and advanced (++).
Word Bricks: 140 Word Bricks, a collection of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and articles.

In addition to the collection of games included in Activate, you can also create your own materials to build your collection. In the final section of each chapter,the DIY! (Do-It-Yourself) section, you will find a short  introduction to making your own games, followed by a description of the materials that you will need to do so. In addition, you will find step-by-step instructions for how to involve your students in the creation of an  expanded collection of games.