Getting the whole class talking

Talking points

You will need 12 bits of paper and two dice for each group of between three and six learners.

Procedure:

1. Put the learners into groups and give them 12 pieces of paper. Ask each group to write 12 topics in which they are interested on the papers.

2. Tell the learners to put the bits of paper face down on the table and to write the numbers 1 to 12 on the side facing up.
3. Give each group two dice. Learners take turns to throw the dice. They turn over the corresponding bit of paper and the whole group talks for two minutes about that topic.
4. After two minutes call out, ‘Throw again’. If a different number comes up they turn over that paper and change topic; if it’s the same number they keep talking about the same topic for another two minutes. Continue until they have no bits of paper left, or you run out of time! 

Interview the expert

This is a very simple and effective speaking activity that the rest of the class enjoys listening to, so the learners get both speaking and listening practice.

Procedure:

1. Three learners sit in a line at the front of the class. They are the experts, but they don’t know what they are experts about. 
2. The rest of the class choose the area of expertise, e.g. cooking, car maintenance, trees. Make sure the learners choose suitable topics.
3. The other learners then ask the experts questions and the experts answer them. Each expert uses only one word at a time.

For example:

They are experts about fashion.
Question: What colour will be fashionable next year?
Expert one: I
Expert two: think
Expert three: that
Expert one: blue
Expert two: will
Expert three: not (Expert three trying to change the idea – this is good!)
Expert one: be
Expert: two: unfashionable (Expert two trying to change the idea back)
 

Doctors and patients

This is usually a fun lesson. Learners love it because there’s lots of speaking and listening practice and they can use their imaginations and senses of humour.

Procedure:

1. Divide your class in half; half are doctors, half are patients.
2. Put the patients in an area of the class which becomes the waiting room. The patients should either come up with their own symptoms, or you can give them a few ideas – the one who wakes up in the morning feeling sick, the one who can’t sleep, the one who’s putting on a lot of weight or the one who’s losing weight. The patient can have any kind of ailment they want and the idea is that every patient should visit every doctor and get advice from that doctor.
3. Set a time limit for each consultation with the doctors. When the patients have visited each doctor, they may want to make notes of the advice given, they return to the waiting area and decide who was the best doctor, and perhaps who was the craziest!
4. Meanwhile, the doctors all get together, because they are at a medical conference, and they have to compare the advice they’ve given – and perhaps decide who was the craziest patient!