Artificial World

Before the meeting, set up an artificial world in which only the target language can be spoken. For example, students need to buy a ticket to get in the room, and each one needs to give you something as payment. You explain to each person in the target language what they need to give you (e.g. ID card, a piece of paper, a pen). You might also choose to incorporate parts of the culture (e.g. have them answer cultural questions in order to get a drink) or numbers (e.g. bring monopoly money and require that they have exact change). This is a good activity for a day when you have “guests” (e.g. members of the campus community or the surrounding neighborhood that speak the language natively) and they can be part of the artificial world you create, each with a task. And then, you might ask them to explain the cultural significance of their part, talk about their lives, answer questions, etc.