Some more speaking activities

March 31, 2008 in Activities, skills, speaking | No comments

Do you teach speaking with few or no materials? Here are some speaking activities that you can try with your classes.

Picture Dictation

materials: Ls notebooks or scrap paper and pictures to be dictated.

Aims: fluency, prepositions of place, vocabulary, process language.

Level: Pre-int upwards

Procedure: Ls draw 2 square boxes, you tell them to draw a ‘photo’ of their family in box 1 and not to let anybody see it (give them no more than 1 minute for this), then Sts dictate their photo to their partner (you need to stress that they should reproduce the photo as accurately as possible.

Variations:

  • Ls draw a monster & describe it to their partner (revises ‘has got’ as well as parts of the body).
  • Ls dictate to the teacher who draws on the board. This is especially helpful if Ls have difficulty doing pair work independently. I have found that this variation is very effective.

One Minute Talks

Materials: Cue cards

Aims: fluency.

Level: Pre-int upwards

Procedure: there are lots of possible variations to this one. Essentially this activity involves having sets of cards with different subjects written on. Put these cards face down, with perhaps numbers uppermost. Ls take turns choosing a card. This card has the topic about which they must speak, without wstopping, for a minute.

Guessing Game

Materials: None (or flashcards for variation 1).

Aim: Question Practice

Level: Any

Procedure: In pairs or small groups, one person (secretly) writes down an animal, country, food and/or sport for example, then partner or group guess by asking questions. (Teacher first to demonstrate)

Variations:

  • Guess the animal (use animal flashcards) - put animal flashcard on WB so students can’t see it, write “2 can, 2 food, 2 body”, sts ask 2 can questions etc then guess animal ( then let student be teacher).
  • Guess the famous person (with photo) - as above but give a maximum of 20 questions say

Question Forming

Materials: Cue-cards

Aim: Question practice

Level: Elementary upwards.

Procedure: Ls Model skeleton sentence on board and elicit complete question (e.g. Where/live?). Then demonstrate paper exchange. Ls each given piece of paper and mingle asking and exchanging questions.

Examples:

  • How/long/learn/Engish?
  • Where/like/visit?
  • If/win/lottery/what/you/do?

Comparing Things

Materials: Cue-cards

Aim: Comparatives, fluency

Level: Late Elementary upwards

Procedure: Half group thinks of reasons why X is better than Y, other half why Y is better than X (e.g. Lucena v Córdoba, Coffee v Tea) then try to convince one another which is better.

Examples: Pencils & pens; mobile phones & lands lines; going to the cinema & watching a DVD; dogs & cats; cars & motorbikes etc.

Famous Role-cards

Materials: Role-cards (e.g. Name: Vladimir Putin, Age: 52, Telephone Number: 45894616 etc) & a grid to complete.

Aim: Basic Question Practice

Level: Beginner

Procedure: Learners fill in blank role-cards with famous people details & complete grid by asking questions to other people in the group (ideally about 5 different people).

Variation: Other headings on role-card to elicit, for example ‘have got’ or ‘can’ questions.

  • Surname
  • Nationality
  • Job
  • Address
  • Surname:
  • Nationality
  • Job:
  • Address:
  • Phone Number:
  • Age:
  • Married:

Info Gap Type Activities

Materials: e.g. Crosswords, life stories

Aim: Fluency rather than language aim

Level: Elementary upwards.

Procedure: Pairs get missing info by, for example describing words in their half of crossword for partner to guess, (pre teach “across” & “down” for crosswords).

Define the Item

Materials: Flashcards or cue-cards

Aim: Revise vocab, relative clauses

Level: Pre-Int upwards.

Procedure: Ls given cards, define item to partner (It’s an object which…), partner guesses item, move items around the class and feed in further items as required.

Further Practice: See Communication Games

Connect the Pictures

Materials: 3 pictures (or 3 words from a forthcoming reading) - an object, a place, a person

Aim: Fluency, introducing a theme or a reading text.

Level: Late Elementary upwards.

Procedure: Put the three pictures on the board, give Sts a few minutes to invent stories in groups (encourage them to be imaginative) which must include the three pictures (or words), feedback stories.

Controversial Statements

Materials: Controversial statement cue-cards

Aim: Fluency; giving opinions, agreeing & disagreeing

Level: Pre-Int upwards

Procedure: Give each group (of about 3 or 4 Sts) a different controversial statement to discuss, feed in the different statements to each group as necessary. The statements would normally be based on one theme.

Ideas:

  • Bull-fighting is cruel and should be banned.
  • Military service is a good thing.
  • The death penalty should be introduced in Spain.
  • Learning English depends on the student and not the teacher.
  • Love at first sight is possible.
  • It’s better to be beautiful than intelligent.
  • Money makes you happy.
  • Eating out in Spain is boring! (because there’s no variety).

11. Hesitation Game

Materials: Flashcards of vocab you want to revise.

Aim: Vocab revision.

Level: Children

Procedure: Students form a circle with a flash card placed in front of them. One student stands in the middle of the circle and shouts out the name of the object on a card. They then change places with the student stood behind that card, who immediately goes to the centre and calls out the name of a different flash card item, replacing the student behind it. If there is any hesitation the student is eliminated and a flash card removed. The teacher could feed in new flash cards as required.

Useful Books for Speaking Ideas

For Teenagers & Adults:

  • Keep Talking
  • Communication games - Beginner, Elementary, Intermediate
  • Reward Resource Packs - Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate
  • English File (back of Teachers Book) - 1, 2, Intermediate
  • Teamwork Resource Packs - 1, 2, 3
  • Grammar Games & Activities for Teachers
  • 5 Minute Activities
  • The Standby Book

For Younger Children:

  • Fun & Games in English
  • Heinemann Children’s Games
  • 100 Plus Ideas for Children
  • Young Learners
  • Very Young Learners

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