Let’s Talk Crime (review)

November – a grim month perfect for perilous adventures, and what’s more perilous than a crime? Imagine a set of cards that can make your class use English, think, collaborate, discuss and argue while solving crimes and having fun! It’s pretty much like Cluedo but requires no prep, no extra explanation… just a set of cards!

And that’s a new baby by EIRU, Let’s Talk and Solve Crimes, a set of 48 cards that will make sure your students will not only investigate 4 seasonal criminal cases but also practise their English, work on grammar and vocabulary, and develop their soft skills – analysis, interpretation, negotiation etc. Sounds interesting? Well, it gets even better!

Let’s Talk conversation cards

I already wrote about another set of Let’s Talk cards, namely What the Heck Happened, a cute pink tube with a set of 48 conversation starters that describe various situations, but invariably end up with the phrase What the heck happened? And since it was created by one of my favourite authors in the whole edusphere, Ewa Torebko, I knew I had to get it and have a lot of fun (which I did).

Since then Ewa and Ania have created more interesting sets, but the one they revealed a few weeks ago definitely takes the idea of conversation cards to the next level. Why? First of all, the purpose of the game/conversation is to solve a crime – you don’t talk in order to explicitly practise speaking, you talk to find the culprit, to compromise, to justify your viewpoint, in other words: you use English just like you use your mother tongue. That makes students focused on the outcome of the conversation rather than grammar/vocab correctness, so it’s a great way to show them how fluent they already are.

What’s more, these cards will make your students use the future skills, starting with social empathy and understanding social cues followed by analysis and critical thinking, and finishing with lateral thinking and communication skills.

Four seasons of crimes

So what’s in the box?

There are four crimes – The Pumpkin Spice Thief, The Skull And The Snowman (I’m voicing one of the characters here!), Breaking & Gardening and The Sea Of Flames. Each set starts with the general outline of the crime plus introduction of the dramatis personae – some of them must be the culprit!

Next cards include clues and questions:

Only when all the clues are heard/read, and all the possible interpretations given with the final solution accepted by all the detectives can the final police report be studied – and that is followed by yet another conversation card making students sum up the whole activity.

The set includes the rules and the transcripts of the witnesses’ testimonies.

How do we play?

The rules are simple – students receive the set of cards and spread them with their numbered up – and basically they follow the instructions on each card. That’s it!

Of course you will find all the details in the set, but as you can see you don’t need anything else than these cards!

Ideas for extra activities

Naturally, I have some little ideas to use the stories even after they’ve been fully explained… or have they?

• A new witness appears! students create one more witness and their statement that completely changes the whole chain of events! Who’s the real culprit then?
• Life after the crime – what happens with the characters involved in the story? Do they change? Ask your students to write a short composition in an cinematic after-credits style.
• The culprit’s explanation prepared by students in a form of diary, vlog or podcast. What was the real motivation? Was the crime unavoidable? So many questions…

Recommendations

The set is recommended for levels B1 and above, but I believe it should be used first by you – the teacher. Enjoy the game (you can play it on your own, you don’t need a group of people), you can also easily use it as a party game.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post, I did not receive this product for review.

Conversation Cards – LET’S TALK AND SOLVE CRIMES

EIRU, 2022

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