edited by Julie Vorholt

The following activities are from New Ways in Teaching Speaking, Second Edition, edited by Julie Vorholt.

Say Something Interesting
Contributed by Cameron Romney

Levels: All
Aims: Develop ability to engage in more interesting and effective small talk
Class Time: 10–15 minutes
Preparation Time: None
Resources: Tokens (e.g., poker chips, bottle caps, small pieces of colored paper)

Small talk, a kind of phatic communication, is a necessary communication skill for forming interpersonal relationships (Thornbury, 2006). Many teachers and textbooks cover basic advice, like asking questions and being a good listener; however, having something interesting to say is also an important part of small talk (Fine, 2005). One way to make small talk interesting is to include extra information. For example, if asked, “Where are you from?” the answer, “Tokyo,” is fine, but not very interesting. A more interesting answer would be, “Tokyo, but to tell the truth, I don’t like it very much.” Another example is in answer to the question, “How long have you lived in San Francisco?” a factual answer of six years is not as interesting as, “Six years, and they’ve been the most exciting of my life.” The more interesting the answer, the easier it is for the questioner to respond to it and for the conversation to continue (Garner, 1997).

PROCEDURE

1. Write several typical small talk questions on the board. These can be easy things like, “Where are you from?” or “What do you do?” or “How long have you lived here?” Give the students a few minutes to think about how they would answer the questions and specifically about how they can make their answers more interesting by including extra information.

2. Model giving factual answers versus more interesting answers with extra information. Discuss with the students which kind of response makes it easier for the conversation to continue.

3. Give the students a few tokens. Have the students stand up and move around and ask and answer the small talk questions. As each student answers, their partner should evaluate the level of interest they have in the answer and give their interlocutor one or more of their tokens.

4. The activity is over when the students have either given away all of their tokens or they have spoken to every student. The student with the most tokens at the end is the winner.

CAVEATS AND OPTIONS

1. Some students may realize that one way to win the game is to not give away any of their tokens, so you may want to give each student a unique color or number the tokens so that you can easily differentiate between the tokens that the students started with and the tokens they received.

2. Many students may feel obligated to give their speaking partner a token whether they found their response to the question interesting or not, and everyone will end the game with the same number of tokens. To avoid this, encourage the students to give more than one token for responses that they found interesting. Also, you as the teacher can participate but only give tokens for truly interesting responses.

Download this activity
and the references (PDF)

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Vocabulary and Pronunciation Slap
Contributed by Steven G. B. MacWhinnie 

Levels: All
Aims: Develop word recognition ability; practice pronunciation 
Class Time: 5–15 minutes
Preparation Time: 5–10 minutes
Resources: Flash cards (teacher created) 

This is a common activity used to teach vocabulary listening skills to younger learners. Any type of vocabulary can be used, from simple words to full sentences for older learners. In this variation, pronunciation is also focused on as students must correctly identify the card and then read it back to the teacher before being awarded a point.

This activity is suitable for busy teachers who need a warm-up or ending activity to review vocabulary without much preparation. Once students know how to play this game, it can be set up quickly, allowing for maximum game time. As students must listen carefully to identify the correct card, their attention remains focused.

PROCEDURE

1. Before class, prepare a set of flash cards. Depending on how large you would like the word to be written, use an index card or a sheet of paper for each word.

2. Begin by teaching the target vocabulary using the flash cards.

3. Place the flash cards face up on a large table or the floor and have the students gather around. (You may wish to divide the class into groups if there are too many students to easily make a circle. Have several identical sets of flash cards for each group.)

4. Call out a word from the cards, and the student who can slap the card quickest gets a point.

5. The student should pick up the card and say the target vocabulary word. If the word is correctly selected and correctly pronounced, the student earns a point and keeps the card to indicate they received that point.

6. Continue to call out words until all of the flash cards are gone.

7. Total the number of cards collected to determine a winner.

CAVEATS AND OPTIONS

1. For young learners who have energy to spare, the cards may be placed across the room, and the students must run to get the target card. This is good for high-energy classes when you want to let the students release some energy.

2. This activity can be made easier or harder depending on the vocabulary words. If you wish to teach listening skills, the word might be used in a sentence, and students have to react when they hear that word in context. Additionally, you can require that after identifying the card, students use that word to create their own original sentence.

3. Call the first word, then have the student who identified that card call the next, and so on. This allows the students a chance to better engage with the activity. More advanced students may enjoy the chance to make rather unusual and strange sentences that incorporate the chosen word.

4. Include a fluency component by asking a follow-up question. For example, the student may correctly guess and pronounce the target word “rain” to earn 1 point. Next, ask a question, such as, “How would you describe the rain that we had yesterday?” If the student correctly answers, they may earn another point.

Download this activity (PDF)

 

Purchase New Ways in Teaching Speaking, Second Edition, at the TESOL Bookstore

These activities may be reproduced for educational purposes only.
© TESOL International Association.

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