Speaking activities

Taboo

In this game, one player has a card listing of words:

The first word is the secret word. The aim of the game is to get another player to say this word. The student with the card will need to describe this word until another student figures out what the secret word is.

 

The other words are the most obvious words that you might use to explain the secret word. They are all “taboo” and cannot be used in the student’s description of the secret word.

 

This game can be played between two teams. It can also be played between partners.

You can create your own sets of words based on what you’ve been studying, or students can create the cards and review even more vocabulary. You can also find sets on the Internet.

Desert Island:

Give each student a piece of paper and tell them to draw an item—any item. Collect the drawings and pass them out again; no student should receive their own drawing.

 

Next, tell the students that they’ve been stranded on a desert island, and only half of the class can survive and continue to inhabit the island. The only thing each student will have on the island is the item depicted in the drawing given to them, and their goal is to convince the class that they should survive based on that item.

Secret Word

Students are given a random topic and a random word that is unrelated to the topic. The students must hide the word in a speech about the topic—they’re trying to make sure the other students can’t guess the secret word. The other students listen carefully to the speech and attempt to guess the secret word.

Debates

Give each student a piece of paper with “agree” written on one side and “disagree” on the other side. Read aloud a controversial statement, and have each student hold up their paper showing the agree or disagree side depending on their opinion. Choose one student from each side to explain their position and participate in a short debate.

Descriptive Drawing

Pair up the students and give each student a picture, placing it face down so partners cannot see each other’s cards. They must describe the picture for their partner to draw.

Grammar

Simple Past Bingo

Many people think of this game as a listening activity, but it can very quickly become a speaking activity. For example, one can practice the pronunciation of the "ed" for regular simple past verbs as a revision activity. Another way to do it is to leave the verb at the infinitive so the caller conjugates the verb (regular or irregular) before saying it out loud. 

 

For the first round, the teacher should “call” the game. The first student to get five markers in a row in any direction shouts out “Bingo!” Then you should have this student read out every item in their winning row.

 

The winner is congratulated and then rewarded by becoming the next Caller. This is a great speaking opportunity. Everyone removes their markers and the game starts again. Every expression that’s called tends to be repeated quietly by everyone in the room, and by the end of a session everyone can say all of the expressions on the card. Moreover, it also gives an occasion for the teacher to correct some pronunciation around the classroom. 

 

Bingo cards can be created with the following website: https://www.eslactivities.com/bingo.php

Was & Were Memory Game

The Was & Were Memory Game can be used for reviewing there is/are/was/were and for introducing some useful vocabulary for common household objects. For this game, you will need a tray, a tea towel and about 15 different, common, household objects (some in multiples).

 

Introduce the verb remember and the noun memory and ask the class if they think they have good memories. How many telephone numbers they can remember, etc. Tell them you are going to test how good they are at remembering with a memory test.

 

Ask students to come and stand around the tray and tell them that they will have one minute to try and remember as many items as they can. Then they must return to their desks and write down as many objects as they can remember. If they don’t know the English word for the object they can write it down in their own language or draw a picture. Then, ask students how many of the objects they can still remember. Elicit the past tense forms of is /are and encourage students to reply using there was and there were.

TIC TAC TOE

Tic Tac Toe is a quick and fun way to review a number of grammar forms. I often use it to practice irregular forms of the past simple.

 

You need two teams of 1-4 to play this game, one team plays as Xs, the other as Os.

 

Draw a Tic Tac Toe grid on the board and write in each square one of the items to be reviewed.

Teams take it in turns to choose a square. After consulting with the team a player makes a sentence using the chosen word in the correct form. If the sentence is correct, place an X or O in the square depending on the team. If the sentence is wrong the square stays in play.

 

The winner is the team which manages to connect three Xs or Os in a row – either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

Simple Past board game

This board game for which you will need a dice and counters, is also good for practising past simple time expressions such as last week, three days ago, when I was on holiday in France, etc.

 

Click here for the board game: https://eslgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/past-simple-board-game.pdf 

Find Someone Who...

This is a good game for students to practice their interrogative form of the Simple Past. Give each student a copy of the Simple Past – Find Someone Who worksheet. Go through each question and elicit what form the past tense question should take. Then they should get up and mingle and complete their sheets. Encourage them to have little conversations if they discover anything interesting.

Assessment

Plickers

Plickers is a free, interactive tech tool that uses printable “paper clickers” instead of clicker devices. Each student is assigned a unique Plickers card that has a black and white image similar to a QR code. ... Plickers is a terrific formative assessment tool, but it can be used for much more than assessment.

Kahoot

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that makes it easy to create, share and play learning games or trivia quizzes in minutes. 

 

With kahoot, there are existing games that are created and that you can use. You can even duplicate them and adapt them for your classroom. When students log in with their phone or tablet, you can even receive a full report of their answers. 

 

Click on the following link for different tutorial: https://kahoot.com/help/