{"id":2332,"date":"2015-10-23T09:01:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T16:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2332"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:44:59","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T21:44:59","slug":"listening-and-speaking-practice-on-late-night-with-jimmy-fallon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/listening-and-speaking-practice-on-late-night-with-jimmy-fallon\/","title":{"rendered":"English Listening and Speaking Practice on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2009, Saturday Night Live<\/em> comedian Jimmy Fallon became the new host of the popular American talk show Late Night<\/em>. Since then, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon<\/em> has become famous for the fun games that Jimmy plays with the show\u2019s celebrity guests. The games are always enjoyable to watch, and a lot of them are educational too. Jimmy loves wordplay games that encourage players to use English creatively. Because of this, Late Night<\/em> has become one of the best shows on TV for learning English.<\/p>\n

In my last post about Jimmy Fallon\u2019s games<\/a>, I looked at ways that Late Night <\/em>can help you learn new English vocabulary and help you master your use of English words. But there\u2019s a lot more to Fallon\u2019s games for learning\u2014the games are not just<\/em> good for vocabulary.<\/p>\n

In this post, I\u2019ll take a look at some Late Night<\/em> games that can help you build your English skills in listening and speaking. Before you dive in, you might want to check out our top TOEFL Listening tips<\/a> to see how you can apply these activities to a higher score on test day!<\/p>\n

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Box of Lies<\/h2>\n

This is a really interesting game. Jimmy and his opponent\u2014always a famous person such as a singer, athlete, or film star\u2014will each be given a \u201cmystery box.\u201d The box will always contain some bizarre random item, such as a miniature bathtub full of tiny bottles of whiskey or a DVD of the movie Frozen<\/em>, encased in a real block of ice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jimmy and the celebrity he plays against can see each other through a small window. They can\u2019t see the contents of each others\u2019 boxes, but you (and the audience) can. Then each player will say what\u2019s in their box— but they may be telling the truth or they may be lying. The object of the game is to successfully guess whether or not your opponent is lying, based both on their words and their face expressions.<\/p>\n

This is a great game for listening in detail<\/em>\u2014sometimes a player lies about just one aspect of the thing in their box. It\u2019s also a great game for learning the paralanguage <\/em>of English\u2014the body language and face expressions that go with English speech.<\/p>\n

In the video below, you can watch Hunger Games<\/em> star actress Jennifer Lawrence play against Fallon in a delightfully weird round of Box of Lies. (And here is the non-YouTube link<\/a>.)<\/p>\n