Lying

Lying

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Have the students form pairs. (If this activity is done at the beginning of the course as suggested, you may wish to assign the pairs yourself, since the students may not know one another and may feel bashful about pairing off.)

Tell the students they are to talk to their partners about themselves. One partner will talk while the other takes notes. Then they reverse roles. Tell them that they can reveal as much or as little about themselves as they like, but that about three-quarters of what they say should be lies. Have the students repeat this process two or three times with different partners. Each time they meet a new partner, they give different information. However, the information should be about the same areas. In other words, they talk about the same subjects with each partner but tell different lies about these subjects to each partner. Now have the students report back to the whole group about what they heard from each of their partners, using the notes they took in each interview as a guide. As each student reports, all those who met the same person listen carefully and then point out the discrepancies between the stories that person told.

 

The fun comes in trying to decide what the truth really is, with everyone speculating about everyone else. Each person finally tells the truth, leaving everybody knowing something about him or her.