I want to share with you a nice activity which stimulates spontaneous speaking of your students.
Preparation: I prepare groups of cards. Each group has two cards with roles A and B, which your students will have to act. The roles describe some situation and they should be contrary. For example, A: "You have been in love with B for 2 years. Finally, you feel brave enough to invite her/him for the first date" and B: "You don't like B, you are in love with other boy/girl. But B is really a nice person and you don't want to hurt his/her feelings". OR. A: "You are invited for a party today and you do not have time to do your homework. Ask B to do it instead of you" and B: "You think A is too lazy. He/she is always asking you to do his/her homework. You are fed up with it. But he/she is your close friend" and many other situation.
Number of students: any, I choose two of them, then the next pair etc.
Activity: The first two students come in front of the rest of the group, they take cards blindly, then I give them 1-2 min to think a plan out and we start. The aim for each of them is to fulfill his/her own task and thus to win. It is a very funny activity, because students are so much creative with their arguments, you can never expect what direction they will follow.
After they finish (smb wins), other members of the group disscuss how they would act if they were on the place of one of the students.
Teacher's role: I write down all the mistakes while students are acting and then ask them to correct or explain.
Enjoy!
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Comments
Thank you for sharing this. It reminded me of similar improvisations I used to do in class with my upper-int students. I am sure your students enjoy it immensely and you all have a good laugh in process. Can you please share all the situations that you include in the cards?
Good luck with the blogathon!
LEO
Hi Leo
I'll suggest you some interesting language skills games. One of them is sentence assembly based on grammar. Sentence by sentence, copy a brief fairy tale or fable onto oaktag strips. Cut each sentence between the subject and the verb. Distribute a subject or verb segmant to each student. Have a student volunteer stand and read his or her strip. Another student with the appropriate missing sentence part should read this part. Continue until all sentences have been assembled. Then have students reassemble the sentences in form. Hope your students will enjoy it.
Another interesting activity is discussion of homophones. First begin with a classroom discussion of homophones. Spend a few minutes generating homophone pairs. Write this list on the chalkboard.Then, encourage each student to keep an individual list for one week. Students may get homophones from any source, but must be able to spell both words correctly. The students should write each word in the pair and use both words correctly in sentences. Allow class time to compare and discuss the lists. (Hear, here...........)
Thank you for sharing this simple but useful and not so time-consuming activity:-)
I think this activity will be more effective if it was related to certain topic of the curriculum. For example, "Be yourself" is about youth problems, and speaking patterns there are Giving advice - Getting respond, or something like that. And these patterns should be written and explained for Ss.
MaryLu, thank you for your remark! Yes, I do agree with you, this game can be used also related to some specific topic. I think it can be of some use when we talk about food/restaurants, travelling etc. I've not thought about it like that, it is a very valuable comment/
If you have a chance to look through studentstbooks Spotlight (Prosveshcheniye and Express Publishing) there you will see a section in each module "Vocabulary and Speaking" with patterns needed. And I think you may take them from dialogues in your coursebook.
It may be useful to give Ss a task like this- "Use no less than 4 patterns from the list in your own dialogue".
Thank you for the post! I gives me food for thought)
Thank you for sharing your activity. It is great to watch students be creative, it makes you proud of them.
Thank you for your interest. Here is the list of some situations I usually use with my groups. I always choose those of them which are appropriate for age of students I work with=))
1. A: "You borrowed a book from B, but lost it somewhere. Offer B to buy some other book instead"
B: "It is an irreplaceable book. Your grandmother bought it for you when you were born"
2. A: "Ask B to have a date with your cousin"
B: "You cannot stand A's cousin and do not want any date with him/her. But A is your best friend, you do not want to hurt him/her"
3. A: "B is your close friend. He/she organizes party this weekend, but you cannot come, because you have other plans"
B: "You have to make A to come, because this party is the surprise party for his/her birthday"
4. A: "Offer B to try a cigarette"
B: "You do not smoke and do not want to start, but also you do not want to look as a weakling"
5. A: "You're married with A. You've lost your wedding ring"
B: "You suspect you spouse is unfaithful to you"
6. A: "Call you boss and say you are ill today and will stay at home"
B: "You think A is bluffing"
7. A: "You need to improve your English for a new job. B is very good in English, ask him/her to have some lessons with you. The lessons should be free of charge, of course, you are friends!"
B: "You do not have time for lessons, especially if they are free of charge"
8. A: "B is your therapist. Tell him/her about the problems you currently have with your health"
B: "A is always complaining! You have already made all the possible examinations, but he/she just cannot calm down. He/she wastes your time"
And many others! If you try it with your students, write me about the effect;)
These are great. May I please have your permission to use them in my classes?
Yes! Sure! My pleasure. I'll be curious to know the result:)