The World Trade Game

The world trade game is an activity based on world economics - link here

I have recently adapted it for use as a language game with a group of young German students. The game was played at the end of a 15 hour communication course based losely on business English. The students had been working on making contacts and gathering information. The world trade game then put them in a situation where they needed to do exactly that.
There is of course language and vocabulary that can be put in depending on the group but here is how the game worked with my group of 24 German speaking students.

The Groups

The group will be split into 6 countries
 The USA and Japan each with three students
Brazil and India with 4 students each
Mozambique and Tanzania with 5 students in each group.

The resources

Plain paper - at least 30 sheets
Coloured paper - a few pages
4 pairs of scissors
6 rulers
2 tubes of glue
2 rolls of sticky tape - a big one and a little one
30 '$100' bank notes

You will need to make sure the students have put all their belongings away so they can't cheat. 

The People
You will need one person - a student or another teacher if available to act as the Bank
The teacher will act as the UN moderator who will need to moderate disputes but without offering help. You and/or the bank can also alter prices, add 'raw material' or change the products depending on the situation. You will also need to be monitoring for language. Any non-English will be an immediate deduction of money from the countries bank (this really did work as a deterrent - one student spoke in German, money was lost and then no more German was used - at least not in my earshot)

 The Product



 I used the above shapes - the sizes of the circular products corresponding to the inside of the roles of tape (this information should not be given to the students). I had one copy of this on paper to be used to measure the quality of the products and drew a set on the white board with measurements and prices (prices may change throughout the game).

 The distribution of wealth

 The USA and Japan are each given 2 pairs of scissors, 2 rulers, 1 piece of paper and $600
Brazil and India are each given 10 sheets of paper, a stick of glue, $200 and a sheet of coloured paper Mozambique and Tanzania are each given 4 sheets of paper and a roll of tape

The game

The game is simple, the teams must manufacture the products. The products must be cut with scissors Only English must be spoken Complete products are take to the bank where they will be checked and money will be credited to the countries account. As monitor you can change prices, add in extra 'natural resources' think of uses for the coloured paper as time allows.

 The discussion
 After the game or in a following lesson there are a number of discussion topics that could be derived and a wide range of vocabulary which you could draw from it. Fair Trade Distribution of Wealth Trade agreements