Tag Archives: speaking
Developing answers
Do you find your students sometimes struggle to develop their responses to prompts for Speaking exams? I used the “My Place In The World” idea to help students to broaden their thinking. (This could also be used to develop ideas for essays.) First I asked them to consider this question: Why is education important? and […]
Speaking challenge: focus on accuracy
My IGCSE students have been preparing for their mock Speaking exams recently – and the real thing is just after the holidays. We’ve spend time focusing on developing answers, on using a range of structures and on using vocabulary to show “shades of meaning” but the students needed to work on their grammatical accuracy. This […]
Forum Theatre for building confidence and fluency
You’re a 13-year-old school student. You’re away from your home and your family. How do you tell your host family that you don’t like the food? Perhaps your teacher can help you work it out with this Forum Theatre style activity. I had intended to have written about this and more by now, but I threw […]
Star register – make your register work for you
How do you do the register with your kids’ classes? Do you use the time to revise new language? Do you get the students to take turns to do it? I want to share with you something I did last year with my classes of 5 to 6-year-olds which worked really well. It took a […]
Power Pose (How to pretend to be a confident speaker)
I’ve had a bit of a holiday from writing blog posts, but I’ve still got lots of ideas to share and I’m aiming to post something every week for the rest of the summer. Here’s the first: Before their FCE exams in June, my intelligent but quiet Spanish teenage students (all girls) all expressed that they were […]
Wooden Spoon Speculations
I found this game on a party games website sometime a couple of years ago. It’s a guessing game that works well in a class of students who are fairly comfortable with each other and have a good sense of humour. Students can use it to practise speculative language. Equipment needed: 2 wooden spoons; one […]
Ghostwriter
This speaking and writing activity can be used for any topic and almost any level. The activity requires students to put themselves in their partner’s shoes and therefore they really have to listen to each other. At the end, they get to read about themselves, and who doesn’t love that! The bonus result is that […]
Bucket
You don’t actually need a bucket for this activity. You could use a basket, a box, an envelope, a mug, etc. It’s a game taken from one of my major sources of inspiration – improvencyclopedia – and is a great way to practice vocabulary with higher levels. Students win points for using new vocab (with […]
Me too!
This is a great speaking activity that can be used as a warmer or as a short speaking activity to practise a grammar point or some vocabulary or anything. I got it from colleague in a sharing session after the ACEIA conference, where it was one of the activities presented by Teresa Bestwick (see her […]
New Year’s resolutions + needs analysis
Happy new year! I hope you’ve had a good break. I know I have! Have you made any new year’s resolutions? I’ve vaguely made some, one of which is to spend a bit less time attached to my laptop, so I will be aiming to post weekly rather than daily from now on! Having said […]
A Hive of Activities 