I’ve used this activity with both FCE and CAE classes to add another element to speaking practice. It includes a bit of listening and a spot of lying. My students enjoyed the challenge of being a convincing liar and also guessing other students’ lies.
Start with the trusty old two truths and a lie. When they’ve finished, ask them if anyone guessed the lie correctly, and if they did, how they knew.
If they haven’t already come up in the previous feedback, elicit/teach make up (as in invent), rub (as in hands), tap (as in fingers), and lean forward.
Now give them the multiple choice hand-out on spotting a liar. (I think I must have got this from somewhere but I’m afraid I can’t remember where.) Students read the questions and predict the answers.
Then the students watch the clip of this FBI man being interviewed by an American news programme and check their predictions.
Next is a speaking task. Prepare some cards that say either TRUTH or LIE on them. The students prepare some interview/FCE Part 1 style questions, or you could use some from a textbook. In groups of two or three, one student takes a TRUTH/LIE card and answers questions posed by one of the other students. Each student listening notes down whether they think the speaker is lying or not and the speaker notes down what the card said. Each speaker answers 5 questions and then they reveal whether they were lying or not. Students swap roles.
You could follow this activity up with a discussion about lying. There are lots of questions on the subject here: http://iteslj.org/questions/honesty.html
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