Introductions and ice breakers

Spot the false information

Aim of the activity

To introduce yourself to a new class.

Preparation

Write three pieces of information about yourself on the board, only one of which is true.

Procedure

Tell the students that they should ask you questions in order to find out which informationis true.When they have asked some questions, ask them to say which one they think is the truepiece of information and then tell them whether they were right.

Names and numbers

Aim of the activity

To introduce yourself to a new class. To encourage the exchange of personal informationin English.

Procedure

Write in random order on the board a selection of names and numbers which meansomething to you personally. For example, the number of your house, the name of yourdog, the number of children you've got, the number of times you've been married etc. Ask the students to guess the significance of the names and numbers you have written.Confirm their guesses or correct them.Now ask them to work in pairs and to write names and numbers for their partner to look at and guess their significance. Alternatively, ask students to write three numbers, or three names on a post-it and tostick in on their front. They should then circulate and ask and answer questions with asmany partners as possible about the numbers or names on their post-its.

Answers to questions

Aim of the activity

To introduce yourself to a new class.

Procedure

Think of the sort of questions you need to ask to find out personal information and writeonly the answers to these questions on the board. Make the answers as obvious or asambiguous as you like depending on the level of the class.For example,Mary (

What's your name?)

I'm a teacher (

What do you do?)

Interior designer (

What would you like to be if you weren't a teacher?) etc

Once you have written up the answers to the questions, elicit the questions from thestudents.

True or false?

Aim of activity

Getting to know each other. Practising a range of tense forms.

Procedure

Ask students to write some statements about themselves. Some of them should be false. Ask students to work in pairs and guess which of their partners’ statements are true andwhich are false. Alternatively, make a worksheet with sentence beginnings for the students to complete.This will ensure that the students practise a range of tenses.(See Inside Out Intermediate Resource Pack 8A)

The hot seat

Aim of the activity

Getting to know one another. To ask and answer questions.

Preparation

Prepare a list of questions appropriate to the students' level and leave a space for thestudents to write a name next to each question.

Procedure

Give each student a copy of the list of questions. Ask them to read the questions and to think about how they would answer them withoutwriting anything yet.Now ask them to decide who they would like to ask each question and to write the nameof one of the other students in the class next to each question in the space provided.

They should try to put a different name next to each question.Now ask them to go round the class, finding the students whose names they have written,asking and answering questions.

Alternative

Fold a piece of paper into three columns. The first column has the beginning of aquestion, the middle column has a space for names and the third column has the end of each question. Fold the piece of paper so that only the column with the blanks for namesis visible. Ask the students to write the names of the students in the class in the spaces inrandom order, repeating some names if necessary.When they have done that, ask them to unfold their pieces of paper to reveal a list of questions with the names of the students in the class in them.

For example What’s Alek’s favourite possession? When did Maria last have a haircut? How often does Saro speak English outside class?

Students go round asking and answering the questions. If you like, you can ask students to guess the answers first.

Questions round the group

Aim of the activity

To write a question for each student in the group and to ask and answer the questions.

Preparation

Give each student in the class a blank piece of paper and ask them to write their name atthe top.If you want to make the activity more controlled, write prompts in the form of thebeginnings of a list of 12 questions (see Reward Intermediate Resource Pack,1a “Spotlight on You”).

Procedure

If there are more than 12 students in the class, divide them into groups. Give a blank sheet or one copy of the unfinished questions to each student in the class and ask them towrite their own name at the top. Now ask them to give their worksheet to the person whois sitting on their left. Tell the students that they are going to think of a question theywould like to ask the person whose name is at the top of the worksheet they havereceived. They should write their question on the worksheet or complete one of theunfinished questions. When they have written a question, they give the worksheet to theperson on their left. Repeat the activity until the students receive the worksheet with theirown name at the top again. Now ask the students to go round the class, find each of thestudents who wrote a question for them and answer it. It is probably a good idea to makesure the students know a polite way of refusing to answer questions, for example, "I'drather not answer that", and to tell them that they have the right to remain silent!