Teaching "Speaking" Part 5

Sentences in a hat

By: Susan Kay

ACTIVITY: Whole class: writing, speaking

AIM: To write sentences describing routine activities. To pick sentences out of a hat and find out who wrote them by asking questions.

GRAMMAR AND FUNCTIONS:

Revision of Student's Book Lessons 1 to 5 Present simple to talk about habits and routines Present simple questions without a question word Adverbs of frequency

VOCABULARY: 

Habits and routine activities Time expressions

PREPARATION: 

Make one copy of the worksheet for each group of three or four students in the class and cut it up into twelve pieces as indicated. You will need a hat or a box for this activity (or two containers if there are 20 or more students in the class).

TIME: 20 minutes

PROCEDURE:

1. Choose one of the unfinished sentences from the worksheet and write it on the board. Elicit possible ways of completing the sentence.

2. Ask the students to work in groups of three or four for the first part of this activity. Give one set of unfinished sentences to each group.

3. Ask the students to spread out the pieces of paper, face down and to take three each.

4. Ask them to complete their three sentences with information about themselves. They should not write their names or let the students next to them see what they are writing.

5. The students now all work together as a class. Put the hat (or box) in the middle of the room. If there are 20 or more students in the class, divide them into two groups and put one hat in the middle of each group. Ask the students to fold up their completed sentences and put them in the hat.

6. Mix up the folded sentences in the hat and then tell the students that, in a moment, they are all going to stand up, take one sentence each and find out who wrote it. Demonstrate this by taking a piece of paper from the hat and reading the sentence out. For example: In the evening I usually go out with friends Elicit the question they will need to ask in order to find out who wrote the sentence: In the evening, do you usually go out with friends? Ask several students the question until you find the person who wrote the sentence. Make it clear that even though students may answer yes to the question, you are looking for the person who wrote it.

7. Now ask the students to stand up and take one piece of paper each from the hat. If they choose their own sentence, they should put it back and take another one.

8. They are now ready to go round the class or group asking questions. All the students in the class do this simultaneously. When they find the person who wrote the sentence, they should write the person's name on the piece of paper, keep it, and take another one from the hat.

9. The students repeat the activity until there are no sentences left in the hat.

10. Ask the students to return to their places and count the number of completed sentences they have collected. The student with the most sentences is the winner.

11. Ask the students to take it in turns to report back to the class or group on what they found out during the activity.

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Teaching "Speaking" Part 4

But what are they doing now?

ACTIVITY: 

Whole class: speaking Mill drill

AIM To: 

speak to as many partners as possible, asking and answering questions about jobs and leisure activities.

GRAMMAR AND FUNCTIONS: 

Present simple for permanent states Present continuous for temporary actions

VOCABULARY: Jobs and leisure activities

PREPARATION:   

Make one copy of the worksheet for each group of up to ten students. Cut the worksheet up into cards, being careful to cut and fold as indicated. Each card has two pictures, and should be folded so that it has 'job' on one side and 'now' on the other. You will need to keep one card for yourself to demonstrate the activity.

TIME:  15 minutes

PROCEDURE:

1. Divide them into groups. Give one folded picture card to each student in the class. Keep one for yourself.

2. Make sure each student knows how to say the job and the activity shown in the pictures on their card.

3. Tell the students that they are going to ask and answer questions about the people on their cards, using the pictures as prompts. Write an example dialogue on the board, indicating the language the students should use.

4. Demonstrate the activity with individual students using the card you kept for yourself.

5. Now ask the students to go round the class or group and ask and answer questions with as many different partners as possible, using their picture cards as prompts. In this part of the activity, the students ask and answer the same 'job' question, but give a different 'now' answer each time they change partner.

6. When the students have finished, ask them to exchange cards and to go round the class or group again, this time holding their cards the other way round so that the picture marked 'now' is facing them, and the picture marked 'job' is facing their partner. The students take it in turns to ask questions using the pictures on their cards as prompts. In this part of the activity, the students talk about k a different job each time they change partner.

7. The students continue asking and answering in this way until they have spoken to as many different partners as possible.

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Teaching "Speaking" Part 3

Likes and dislike

(Susan Kay)

ACTIVITY      : 

Whole class: speaking Mill drill (For detailed instructions and advice on using mill drills, see the notes for teachers at the beginning of the Resource Pack.)

AIM                 : 

To speak to as many partners as possible, agreeing and disagreeing with likes and dislikes.

GRAMMAR AND FUNCTIONS: 

Talking about likes and dislikes Agreeing and disagreeing

VOCABULARY: 

Routine and leisure activities

PREPARATION: 

Make a copy of the worksheet and cut the pictures out so that the students have one picture card each. You will also need to keep one picture card for yourself to demonstrate the activity.

TIME: 15 minutes

PROCEDURE:

1. Give one picture card to each student in the class. Keep one for yourself.

2. Make sure each student knows how to say the activity on their card.

3. Tell the students that they are going to ask and answer questions about the activities on their cards, using the pictures as prompts.

4. Demonstrate the activity with individual students. Tell the students to hold their cards so that no one can see them. Ask several pairs of students to demonstrate the activity to the whole class, using their pictures as prompts.

5. Now ask the students to go round the class and ask and answer questions with as many different partners as possible, using their picture cards as prompts.

6. When the students have finished, ask them to exchange cards and to go round the class again, this time holding their cards the other way round so the picture is facing their partner. The students take it in turns to ask questions using the pictures on their partners' cards as prompts. In this part of the activity, the students ask a different question each time they change partner.

7. The students continue asking and answering in this way until they have spoken to as many different partners as possible.

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Teaching "Speaking" Part 2

Talk about routines 

(by.Susan Kay)

ACTIVITY     : 

Group work: speaking

AIM                : 

To play a board game by asking and answering questions about routines.

GRAMMAR AND FUNCTIONS: 

Present simple for routines Present simple questions with question words: what, where, how Adverbs of frequency

VOCABULARY:  

Routine activities

PREPARATION: 

Make one copy of Worksheet 2a (game board) for each group of four to five students. Enlarge this to A3 size, if possible. Make one copy of Worksheet 2b (question cards) for each group of students and cut out all the cards. Provide dice and counters for each group.

TIME: 30 to 40 minutes

PROCEDURE:

1. Ask the students to work in groups of four or five.

2. Give one game board and one set of cards, counters and dice to each group.

3. Before the students start playing the game, explain how to play using the instructions on the back of Worksheet 2b. lf you wish, you can photocopy these instructions and distribute a copy to each group, or display a copy on an overhead projector.

4. Elicit some examples of how to form correct questions using the prompts on the question cards and encourage the students to add appropriate adverbs of frequency.

5. Nominate one student in each group to keep score.

6. When the first student reaches the end of the game, ask all the groups to stop playing, even if they have not finished. In each group, the student with the most points is the winner.

7. Compare scores as a class.

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