Conductor of the orchestra

This is great if you want the pupils to remember certain facts or in MFL's case, vocab.  (I think this would probably work well in maths too, or science - what do I know!!??).
You have a list of things on the board, facts etc, and you send someone out of the room.  Between you and the rest of the class, decide on someone, who is going to do a secret sign, like a head scratch or shuffling books etc.  When the pupil comes back into the room, the whole class starts to repeat the things from your list, starting from the top, over and over again.  Only when the secret sign has been done can you move onto the next one on the list.  Keep going until the pupil who was sent out, figures out who was doing the secret sign.  Who said parrot fashion was out of fashion!?