In the article a short description of the history of Polish palindromes is presented. The presentation is illustrated by palindromes from books by Julian Tuwim, Stanislaw Baranczak, Jozef Godzic, Edmund John and some from publications about charades. The palindromes by Tadeusz Morawski, co-author of the paper are also presented. T. Morawski is currently the leading inventor and propagator of Polish palindromes. He published six books in the years 2005-2008 and administers his own web-site .
The paper describes a surprising way of analysing a verbal text. Initially, some parts were deleted from the original text. Then, students were asked to interpret the fabricated text and later complete the gaps in such a way as to create a coherent text. However, the students did not recognize the overall aim of the activity. They were unknowing competitors in 'playing with a text' but liked the convention very much (filling in the odd lines). The students were often extremely surprised at the climax of the meeting on hearing the final message. In the end, active teaching and learning made it possible to achieve the main goal, that of helping students understand the metatext function of the title.
The article encourages foreign language teachers to present grammar rules in an unconventional way. It describes a creative approach by the teacher. The author presents the process of creating 'Teaching Games', aided by examples of a student-friendly introduction to the present tense in the Spanish language. In the article an original story as well as an adaptation of the game 'Jungle Speed' were used. They make the preparation of the teaching exercises possible and help stimulate the students' motivation.
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