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This section has some suggestions for speaking activities for English teachers and learners.
§ find someone who: make a worksheet with a set of 8 to 10 things for your learners to find out from their classmates. For example: find someone who can play a musical instrument / who has ridden a horse (etc). The students circulate around the classroom and speak to as many other students as they can. After some minutes, run a whole-class feedback stage during which students say what they found out.
§ three things in common: make groups of 3 or 4. Each group tries to find out three things they have in common - but not obvious ones such as we're all learning English! After some minutes, run a whole-class feedback stage during which students say what they have in common. No materials needed!
§ three questions for our teacher: make groups of 3 or 4. Each group decides on three questions that they would like to ask their teacher - but not very personal ones such as how old are you! After some minutes, run a whole-class stage during which students ask their questions. No materials needed!
§ three-day visit: make a worksheet with a set of 16 places in the area. Some should be "special" and worth seeing and/or typical of the area, some less so. Make groups of 3 or 4 and tell them that a party of foreign visitors is visiting for three days. You can specify what kind of visitors (eg general tourists / school teachers / business people etc) if you wish.
The groups have to design a three-day programme based on the places listed in the worksheet, with no more than three places per day. After some minutes, run a whole-class stage during which students present their programmes (with their reasons for their choices) and then decide whichg programme is most interesting or representative.
§ what our town/city needs most: make a worksheet with 10 suggestions for ways of improving the students' home town/city. For example: a car-free centre / better roads / more litter collections etc. Make groups of 3 or 4: they decide which are the two most important and the two least important suggestions from the list. After some minutes, run a whole-class stage during which students present their choices.
§ picture pairs: put students into pairs, and show them two pictures (ideally projected onto the board/screen). The pictures should be connected in some way, but not in every respect (eg two pictures of people eating - one at home, the other in a restaurant). The students compare and contrast the two pictures, saying what they have in common but also how they differ. After some minutes, run a whole-class stage during which students report back on their discussions.
§ find someone who: make a worksheet with a set of 8 to 10 things for your learners to find out from their classmates. For example: find someone who can play a musical instrument / who has ridden a horse (etc). The students circulate around the classroom and speak to as many other students as they can. After some minutes, run a whole-class feedback stage during which students say what they found out.
§ three things in common: make groups of 3 or 4. Each group tries to find out three things they have in common - but not obvious ones such as we're all learning English! After some minutes, run a whole-class feedback stage during which students say what they have in common. No materials needed!
§ three questions for our teacher: make groups of 3 or 4. Each group decides on three questions that they would like to ask their teacher - but not very personal ones such as how old are you! After some minutes, run a whole-class stage during which students ask their questions. No materials needed!
§ three-day visit: make a worksheet with a set of 16 places in the area. Some should be "special" and worth seeing and/or typical of the area, some less so. Make groups of 3 or 4 and tell them that a party of foreign visitors is visiting for three days. You can specify what kind of visitors (eg general tourists / school teachers / business people etc) if you wish.
The groups have to design a three-day programme based on the places listed in the worksheet, with no more than three places per day. After some minutes, run a whole-class stage during which students present their programmes (with their reasons for their choices) and then decide whichg programme is most interesting or representative.
§ what our town/city needs most: make a worksheet with 10 suggestions for ways of improving the students' home town/city. For example: a car-free centre / better roads / more litter collections etc. Make groups of 3 or 4: they decide which are the two most important and the two least important suggestions from the list. After some minutes, run a whole-class stage during which students present their choices.
§ picture pairs: put students into pairs, and show them two pictures (ideally projected onto the board/screen). The pictures should be connected in some way, but not in every respect (eg two pictures of people eating - one at home, the other in a restaurant). The students compare and contrast the two pictures, saying what they have in common but also how they differ. After some minutes, run a whole-class stage during which students report back on their discussions.
