Speaaking Games

Speaking Games

Activity Title: Hot Seat

Level: Any

Skill Focus: Speaking/Vocabulary

Materials: chairs (enough for all but on student)

Procedures:

1.      All students sit in chair sin a circle, with one student standing in the middle of the circle. There should be one less chair than the total number of students.

2.      The student in the middle states one thing that is true about them and is related to the topic being studied. Example: I have brown hair. I like basketball. I don’t like carrots.

3.      Every student for whom the sentence is also true must get up and find a new seat.

4.      Whoever is left without a seat is now in the middle and must say the next sentence.

Activity Title: Hot Potato Variation

Level: Any

Skill Focus: Speaking/Vocabulary (can be modified for Grammar/Reading)

Materials: box or tin with lid, paper, music

Procedures:

1.      Place pieces of paper with different questions into the tin.

2.      Students will pass around the box or tin while the music is playing.

3.      When the music stops, the student who is holding the box/tin will take out a slip of paper and answer the question.

Activity Title: Scavenger Hunt with Stations

Level: Any

Skill Focus: Speaking/ Vocabulary

Materials:

Procedures:

1.      This activity can be used with a variety of vocabulary. Example: clothing and colors.

2.      Two or three stations will have a list of vocabulary flash cards, one item per card. Example: Station 1: Black shirt, blue socks, pink sweater Station 2: Red shirt, brown pants, black shoes Station 3: Green socks, purple skirt, yellow hat

3.      The teacher will assign students to be in charge of each station.

4.      Remaining students will be responsible for going to each station and retrieving the items on their list. Teacher can provide a short dialogue or list of questions to guide the students’ conversations. Example: I am looking for ________? Do you have _________?

Activity Title:  Last Letter Game

Level: All

Procedure: Ask Ss to choose a category (example: animals). T says the name of an animal and the first St must give the name of another animal that begins with the last letter of the T’s city. For example: T says Snake, St says Elephant. Go around the class. It helps to write the words on the board, ask Ss to spell them as they go!

Guess the Password
Level: Secondary
Procedure: Divide Ss into two teams. T sends two sts out of the room, one st from each team. Have the class decide on a word that they want the sts to guess, e.g. ‘ice cream’
After the word is chosen, bring the 2 sts back into the room. Each student takes a turn giving a clue to their teammates until one of the sts guesses the correct word.

T1: Cold
T2: Sweet
T1: Chocolate

Example:
St1 Guess: Winter

St2 Guess: Jell-O

St1 Guess: Ice Cream
In this case, Team 1 gets a point

Activity Title: Situational Role Plays
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: T divides sts into small groups and gives each group the same situation (either orally or on cards). Sts write dialogues for that situation and then performs them for the class.

Variation #1 : T gives each group a different situation, perhaps based on the same theme or vocabulary set.
Variation #2: T gives each group a list of vocabulary, on a specific topic. The sts must use the vocabulary in their role-play.

Activity Title: 2 Truths and a Lie
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: Each st thinks of three things to say about themselves, 2 of which are true and 1 is false. Depending on the level of the sts, these facts can be simple or complex. They tell their three things to a small group and the others try to guess which is not true. This can be used for many different tenses.

Variation: T writes some on the board about themselves and students vote for which one they think is a lie. (This way is quicker and better for warm-ups)

Activity Title: Directed Drawings

Level: Secondary

Procedure: One st comes to the board as the drawer. The other sts give instructions of what to draw and where to draw it. The sts then make up a story to go with the picture (What is happening?). T can give them specific vocabulary to use or a topic to cover.

Activity Title: Back-to-Back Instructions

Level: All

Materials: Pictures and blank pieces of paper
Procedure: T divides sts into pairs, they sit back to back. On st in the pair has a picture. S/he must describe the picture and the other must draw. Then they compare the pictures to see if the description was successful.
Variation: One st has a picture of a room and the other has the room and the furniture that belong in it. The first st must describe where the furniture belongs in the room.

Activity Title: Hot Seat
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: Good idea for vocabulary review. One student sits facing away from the board. Teacher writes a word on the board. The student’s teammates must describe the word until the student says it. Saying the word in Mongolian is not allowed!

Activity Title: CHAIN 1: Question Chain

Level: All

Procedure: Teacher writes a question on the board (something about student’s lives like “what did you eat last night?” Or “What will you do after school today?). Teacher asks one student. Student answers. This student asks another student, who answers. Continue this chain until all students have answered.

Activity Title: CHAIN 2: Memory Chain
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: Teacher gives category (Example: Food) One student says “I have an Apple.” Next student thinks of a B food word and repeats previous student’s word. “I have an Apple and a Banana.” Next student says “I have an Apple, a Banana, and a Carrot.” Continue until alphabet is finished or all students have gone. This can be used for many different sentence structures.

Activity Title: CHAIN 3: Sentence Chain
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: Good for practicing conditionals and cause/effect statements. First student makes a statement: “If I spoke perfect English, I would live in America.” Then the second student uses the end of the first sentence to start their sentence. “If I lived in America, I would eat hamburgers.” “If I ate hamburgers, I would be fat.” Etc.

Activity Title: Line up according to....

Level: All

Procedure: Students must stand in a line according to an idea the teacher gives (oldest to youngest, earliest birthday to latest birthday, name by alphabetical order, etc). Students must ask a question to find out what order to stand in (How old are you? When is your birthday? What is your name?). Use a question that they have already learned. Teacher checks by asking each student the question.

Activity Title: Who am I?
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: You can use this with any subject. Write the names of famous people (or kinds of animals, or places you can go.. any noun from any category) on small pieces of paper. Tape a paper on the forehead of each student. Don’t let them see what their paper days. Then students can pair up (or mix with each other in a “cocktail party” setting) and ask yes or no questions to determine who they are. This game can be adapted for many different vocabulary sets.

Activity Title: War

Materials: Deck of cards
Procedure: Put S’s into pairs. Give S’s 9 cards each. S’s put down one card each. Whoever has
the higher card must ask the other student a question. If S’s are younger write questions on the board as reference. If the player answers the question incorrectly, player 1 gets the card. If player 2 answers the question correctly then he asks player 1 a question. If the S answers incorrectly he loses the card. If both players answer correctly it’s a draw. Repeat the process. The player with the most cards wins.

Activity Title: Improv Story

Materials: Paper, pens, printer/computer (if typing it up)
Procedure: Each S will write a story. The number of sentences depends on skill level and age. In each sentence leave at least one word out, and replaced by a blank space. Everyone must pass their story to another S. Let them read and think about appropriate words to fill in the blanks. Can be lesson specific vocabulary. Once finished, each S should stand up and read their stories out loud. S’s with the most creative words in their stories wins a prize.

Variation: T’s could write a story prior to class, and allow S’s to fill in the blanks.

Activity Title: Theatre
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Materials: Paper
Procedure: T breaks S’s into groups after presenting a short story/fable. T chooses one narrator in the Group, and the narrators must read the story out loud. While narrator recites the story, other S’s must act it out.

Variation 1: For younger S’s or shy S’s, make puppets as a proxy to act out the story. Or, allow shy S’s to be inanimate objects, as they will still benefit from the activity (i.e. tree).
Variation 2: For advanced S’s, have them write their own skit based on the story. (Writing Comprehension)

Activity Title: The Hot Seat

Materials: Blackboard, Chalk
Procedure: One S sits in the ‘Hot Seat’ facing the class. The T (or, if an advanced class, a S) stands behind the Hot Seat, at the board. S’s ask the Hot Seat S questions, and the Hot Seat S answers. T writes the questions on the board, correcting if necessary. Once S’s are finished asking Q’s, the written list can be used for a ‘line dialogue’: S’s line up, facing each other, and ask/answer Q’s, rotating partners every few minutes.

Activity Title: Cocktail Party

Materials: Paper
Procedure: On the first day of class, have S’s get out a piece of paper. S’s should write their names, big, in the middle, and then write A’s to Q’s in the four corners. T decides Q’s beforehand (i.e. What kind of music do you like?). Write the Q’s on the board. Have S’s hold papers in front of them and circulate, having a ‘cocktail party’. Also consider using these as nametags and/or taking a picture of each S to learn their names.

Activity Title: Miracle Workers & Superheroes
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: Each S receives a handout with 15 Miracle Workers and Superheroes. S’s must divide
them into 3 groups of 5: 1. The most desirable qualities for her/himself; 2. The most interesting; 3. The least desirable. Have S’s discuss their choices in small groups, and try to discover patterns. Have S’s explain their most desirable quality or defend their other choices. Have S’s debate over the most desirable qualities.

Activity Title: Swap Shop
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Material: Cards
Procedure: Each S is given a role card (i.e. They collect model trains or They collect old records). S’s are also given a prop or description of an object they are willing to swap. S’s walk around the room discussing their interests, and what they are willing to swap until they find a partner. Partners discuss whether or not they are willing to swap their items and why. Probably work better with smaller groups. S’s can model transaction in front of the class.

Activity Title: What are you doing?
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: 2 S’s come to the front of the room. S1 asks “What are you doing?” S2 answers in the present continuous, “I am ...”. S1 mimes what S2 said. S2 asks “What are you doing?”, and S1 answers with something different (not what they are doing or anything said previously). Keep going until one S pauses too long in answering or does the wrong thing. That S sits, and another S comes up.

Variation 1: Divide the class into 2 teams. 2 S’s at a time, and both sit when one messes up. That person is eliminated. One team wins when the other team is fully eliminated.
Variation 2: Teams, no elimination. A point is scored instead.

Activity Title: Stand Up Review
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: T divides class into 2 or 3 teams. T asks 1st team a review Q. If S thinks they know the answer or if they want to bluff, they stand up. T can call on anyone standing to answer. If that person answers correctly they get 1 point for everyone standing. If they answer incorrectly, they get -1 point for everyone standing. Ex: 6 people standing. If right, +6 points. If wrong, -6 points. Can also play where someone from the other team chooses who to call on instead of the T.

Activity Title: Bizz-Buzz Counting Game
Level: Secondary, Post-Secondary
Procedure: S’s stand up. T picks a number (i.e. 3). S’s are not allowed to say 3, multiple of 3, or a number with a 3 in it (i.e. 13) when counting. First S starts counting 1, next S 2, next S has to say “bizz” or “buzz” because T picked the number 3. If S says correctly, keep counting. If S says “three” instead of “bizz/buzz” S sits down, and the next person starts at 1. Continue until only 1 person is standing.

Activity Title: Hot Potato

Level: Secondary

Material: Stuffed Animal
Procedure: S’s must keep speaking in only English. If they speak Mongolian they get the stuffed animal.

   

S’s may pass off the animal to another S when/if they hear English. The S that has the stuffed animal must speak 2 minutes in English at the beginning of the next class. (Not coherent paragraphs necessarily, but random vocabulary will be fine too.)

Activity Title: Sparkle

Material: None
Procedure: Ss stand in circle. T says a vocabulary word, the first S says the first letter, the second S says the second letter and so on. Once the word is spelled out, the next S says, SPARKLE! Then choose the next word.