Task-based speaking

Aim

To expose learners to useful language needed to plan a night out with friends and to provide a context that allows them to use the language in a real-life task.

Preparation and materials

You will need to record two people planning a night out in their town or city.

Pre-task (10 mins)

Ask learners where they like to go to have a good night out with friends.
Brainstorm words/phrases related to the topic, e.g. people, places, actions, feelings, etc, and write them on the board.
Tell learners that they are going to listen to two people planning a night out. Write up different alternatives on the board to give them a reason for listening, e.g. (a) restaurant/bar (b) meet at the train station/in the square. Play the recording twice; the first time to select from the alternatives, the second time to note down some language.

Planning (20 mins)

Put learners into pairs and tell them that they are going to plan a class night out. Give them a few minutes to brainstorm some ideas, e.g. place, time, transport, activity, food and drink, music, etc.
Learners plan their night in more detail and then discuss their ideas with another pair to see if there are any similarities or differences.
Each pair rehearses presenting their night out to the rest of the class. The teacher monitors and helps them with any language gaps if they need it and notes down any language points to be highlighted later.

Presenting (15 mins)

Each pair presents their plan to the class and invites the class to ask questions at the end if they would like more information.
The teacher gives feedback on the content and quickly reviews what was suggested. When each pair has presented their plan, the class can vote on which night out they think is the best.

Note: To make this a more motivating, real-life task, the most popular plan could be used for a real night out with the class at the end of the term/course.

Language Focus (15 mins)

Write on the board five good phrases used by the learners during the task and five incorrect phrases/sentences from the task without the word that caused the error. Learners try to complete those sentences correctly and discuss the meaning of the good phrases.
Hand out the transcript from the listening task and ask learners to underline any words and phrases they think are useful to remember. Conduct feedback to see which phrases they selected.
Highlight any other language you wish to draw attention to, e.g. language for making suggestions, sequencing linkers, collocations, etc.
Encourage learners to write down all useful language in their vocabulary notebooks.

Thanks...I think I shall find this very useful.

Bless you, Richard

Good stuff! clear and concise!

Great!
Thanks very much

Very to the point, yet detailed and inspiring. Thank you, Richard. GBU

Thanks, this idea is great and I think it's applicable.

This helps me to plan a speaking activity. Thank you

Thanks very much for your detailed planning.

Very informative

Thank you for your efforts.

Thank you very much for this well planned and fun activities. I'm sure my beginner learners will benefit so much from it.

Hi Amal

Thanks for the feedback - we hope your learners enjoy the activities too!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Thank you so much for this very detailed planning.

Thanks for the topic. Speaking tasks become interesting only when the students relate to the topics. Well-planned activity. Thank you very much.

Thank you
I found this very useful .

Thanks

Thank you for this!
It was a success, I also made some slight changes.

Please share with us how you changed this for your class?

I is very useful for me

this is very useful

Thanks for this

Thanks for sharing this job!
Best

Thank you very useful information

It's really very creative idea of role playing by which learners can learn use of phrases and correctly use them in conversation .
Practical view of grammar learning indeed.
I love it.

Thank you for sharing your lesson plan.

As for me, the best part of this lesson plan is that sts can improve their listening skills by doing listen and choose for the first time listening then the second time listen and write down some key information. But, the skill how to foster sts write down some notes while listening is a part of the teaching lesson.

I agree, this lesson plan is very flexible and teachers can focus on the skills and strengths and needs of different classes, so using one lesson plan twice with the same class or with two different classes can be really different, depending on what you focus on in feedback and reflection with your learners.

I love this kind of activity. This helps my students more active in the class time

A: Hey, are you free tonight? Let’s plan a night out in town!
B: Sure! What do you have in mind?

A: I was thinking we could start with dinner. Do you know any good restaurants?
B: Yes, there’s that new Italian place on Main Street. Everyone says the pasta is amazing.
A: Sounds perfect! Let’s book a table for 7 PM.

B: After dinner, what should we do?
A: How about heading to the rooftop bar near the square? It has a great view of the city at night.
B: That’s a great idea. I’ve been meaning to check it out!

A: Then maybe we can take a walk through the park or grab some dessert from that bakery that stays open late.
B: Oh, I love that idea! Their chocolate cake is the best.

A: Perfect! I’ll handle the restaurant reservation. Do you want to check the opening hours of the bar?
B: Sure, I’ll do that. What time should we meet?
A: Let’s meet at 6:30 PM, so we have some extra time to get to the restaurant.
B: Sounds good! I’m looking forward to it.

A: Me too! It’s going to be a fun night. See you later!
B: See you

it is a good activity

This topic is useful. I really like it.

Thanks for this lesson outline.
Where can I find the audio / the listening activity?

Hi Alex,

You need to record two people talking about a night out. Making this with friends or colleagues, means that you can discuss popular places and attractions relevant to your location.

Kirsteen