Speaking Activities and Games for ESL Students

Check out one of my other sites for some  ESL speaking activities that you can incorporate into your classes easily.


And also check out one of my favorite books for Speaking Activities: Speaking Activities that Don't Suck.

Delta Module 3

The 5000 word paper has been sent off through cyberspace to its final resting place.  Thankfully.  I'll hold off on the advice giving until I see my score.  But, let's just hope it's the all-important "pass" or better! I'm quite confident based on the feedback that I was given from my tutor, so I'm relaxing now!

And...which book did I find extremely helpful for doing the Delta?  An A-Z of ELT.

Test-Teach-Test

The test-teach-test (TTT) methodology is not my usual style of teaching, and most days, I lean more towards PPP (presentation/practice/production) or task based teaching.

However, for simple grammar concepts or vocab that students have probably studied before, TTT could work very well, so I decided to give it a try with "Be" in the past and other regular/irregular past tense verbs, since my students should already have a decent grasp of the basics.  The unit in my book that I was covering was 4 Corners 2, Unit 9.  And here is the "test" that I prepared, with some vocab/names of people thrown in from the previous unit:  The Past Tense Test.  In addition, I pointed out the pages in the book that they could refer to if necessary.  I gave the students about 10 minutes to work on it and then we checked answers together (teach phase).  I went quickly over the easy ones, and pointed out some of the tricky stuff (ie: negatives/questions actually use the present tense verb).  

Then, for the final "test" phase, I made a Past Tense Board Game, which the students played in small groups (again recycling vocab from Unit 8 in the book).  And, of course, I walked around the class checking for accuracy.

Overall: it went well!  ALL the students, even the ones who don't actively participate in class seemed to enjoy the board game and they put in a good effort on the test and were referring to the relevant pages in their books, etc. Success!  I'll definitely be doing it again for easy things that the students probably already know, but just need a bit of review on.

Check out Jeremy Harmer's "The Practice of English Language Teaching" for more details on methodologies.

Life in Cities Intro Activity

This is the perfect way to introduce the "Life in Cities" unit that you find in most conversation or 4 skills textbooks (Four Corners Level 2, Unit 8 for me).  I hand out the questions (see link below) and put the students in groups or 2 or 3.  I give them about a minute to read the questions before watching the video.  Then, they watch the video and take some notes.  The video has a wee bit of the cheeze factor going for it, but it's graded appropriately for Korean University students.  At the end, I give them 3-4 minutes to compile their answers in their group and make one "good" paper to hand to another team to check.  The teams with the highest number of correct questions get a stamp in my class (my reward system, which equals grades), or you could give a prize of some sort.  It takes around 20-25 minutes total for a big class (30 students).

Life in London Questions

Introducing can/should

There's always that unit in the book with "Can/ Can't" for possibility/impossibility and "should/shouldn't" for advice.  Here is my fabulously fun way to introduce it, such that even the lowest of the low classes, quietest of the quietest classes will participate.

Tell them you want to go on vacation somewhere in Korea and need their advice.

"Where should I go?"

Collect some answers.  I usually choose Jeju Island, for reasons you'll see later.

"Should I go in summer?"  Yes, no, etc.

"So what can I do there?"  Blah, blah.

"How can I get there?"  Airplane?  "Can I swim?"  Hahaha!  Crazy teacher.  No, you can't.

Elicit some answers and have a bit of fun with it.  Write up on the board/PPT:

Where should I go?/ Should I.....?
What can I do there?  Can I....?

and you're good to go!