SPEAKING

SPEAKING THROUGH GAMES

 

'just a minute'

Teacher writes 4 to 8 topics that the class has already talked about,eg 'tea' or 'my village',on small pieces of paper which are then folded up.One person or the team is chosen to pick one topic,and must talk about it for a set time e.g., 15 od 30 seconds,without hesitating or repeating anything.Points can be awarded for each 5 seconds of speech.Students or teams are out if they hesitate for over 3 seconds,or repeat the same thing.Mistakes in English need not matter,since the object of the game is to encourage fluency.

 

don't answer 'yes' or 'no'

One team asks members of the other team questions to try to make them answer 'yes' or 'no'.The answering team can use other responses,e.g. 'Of course not' or 'I think so' ,etc.The teacher times how long it is before a 'yes' or 'no' is said.The team with the longest time wins.

 

'twenty questions'

One person or team thinks of an object or animal etc.The others can ask up to 20 questions with 'yes or no' answers in order to guess what the object is.If they guess in less than 20,they have won.questions like 'Is it alive?' , 'Is it made of wood?' , 'Does it have 4 legs?' ,'Is it bigger than a catr ?' Is possible.

 

'conversation gambits'

The teachwer sets a situation e.g. ' in a restaurant' ,or 'meeting a friend in the street' ,or ' visiting a friend in hospital' ,or gives the first line of a conversation like 'I went to party last night'. The aim of each team is to keep the conversation going by thinking of appropirate questions to ask every time there is a silence.If there is a silence of more than a set time e.g. 5 or 10 seconds, the team is out.A gain the teacher needs to time each team's performances.

 

'glug'

Similar to Twenty Questions,except that 'glug' stands for an action,e.g. dance.Questions like ' Do you like glugging?' , 'Have you glugged today?' , ' Do you glug in the kitchen?',etc. can be asked.

 

 

ROLE PLAY OPPORTUNITIES

 

Look through yopur coursebooks to see what opportunities there are to adapt existing dialogues for role play,or to use parts of stories or reading passages for students to dramatise.

Choose one possible situation and work out how to explain it to a class.Practise giving out roles to your friends,explaining what they each have to do.Write brief details of characters and the roles they play on cue cards for future use.

Finally,get your friends to perfprm the role play activity,whiile you watch,and diagnose areas of language your students might need extra help before being asked to perform the activity.