Who is this activity for?
The gobbledygook activity is suitable for all intermediate (B1) level learners who want to gain more of a grasp of intonation in a fun interactive way. It's great for classrooms of all sizes as learners work in pairs.
What does 'gobbledygook' mean?
Gobbledygook refers to language that is meaningless or hard to understand because it is full of jargon, technical terms, or convoluted expressions. It often implies overly complicated or obscure language that can be confusing rather than clear to the listener.
Activity instructions
Put learners in pairs and give them a scene to act out. They are going to have a conversation using an invented language. Explain to your learners that gobbledygook is a made-up language that is total nonsense. The pair should act out the scene using the correct intonation as if they were really talking to one another. The rest of the class can watch and guess what the situation is. After, you could write out the real dialogue in English for one of the scenes.
(Thanks to James Stewart from the British Council in Barcelona for demonstrating this in a workshop.)