Use these cards to help scaffold academic language in a fun and competitive way. I recommend that you copy several sets of these onto different colors of paper. This way, students can easily count their points. I'm sure you can figure out many unique ways to use these cards in your class. Here are a couple of my ideas:

Group Discussion:

Put students into small groups of 4-5. Give each student a set (or a partial set) of cards. Each student should have their own color. Give students a list of discussion or debate topics. Tell them you'll time several rounds. Each round they'll talk about the topic. Students can use up to two cards for each time they hold the floor. Each time a student uses a card, that student should place the card face up on the table. At the end of the round, students count their points and write them down. The cards that are used during each round can't be used in the next round. This will encourage students to practice other phrases.

Whole Class Discussion:

Divide your class up into several teams. Team members don't need to sit together. For each team, take a set of cards printed on a unique color and divide it equally between team members. So, each team should have their own color. Then, have a whole class discussion on a topic or reading you've been working. As students from different teams participate in the discussion and use cards, they'll be adding points for their team. At the end, you can count up the cards that were used to see which team got the most points.