BBC British Council Teaching English - Literature - Storytelling - Benefits and Tips

BBC | British Council teaching English - Literature - Storytelling - benefits and tips
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Home > Think > Literature > Storytelling - benefits and tips
Storytelling - benefits and tips Literature contents
Adapted from a workshop by Paula Stoyle, British Council, Jordan Creating a class play
Using drama texts in class
We often give stories to our students to read, but how often do we tell them a story? Storytelling
This article looks at the benefits of storytelling and gives advice on performance skills Motivating pupils to read 2
Motivating pupils to read 1
● What can storytelling offer? Children's literature
● Storytelling and intercultural understanding
Think Other features
● Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom
Methodology
● Commonalities of cultures around the world
Pronunciation ● Performance techniques
Literature
Questions
● A last word
Resources
Speaking Activities
What can storytelling offer?
Listening Children have an innate love of stories. Stories create magic and a sense of wonder at
Reading the world. Stories teach us about life, about ourselves and about others. Storytelling is a
Quizzes
Vocabulary unique way for students to develop an understanding, respect and appreciation for
other cultures, and can promote a positive attitude to people from different lands, races
Writing and religions.
Other sites
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Send us an email
Storytelling and intercultural understanding
There are a number a number of ways in which storytelling can enhance intercultural
understanding and communication. Stories can…
● allow children to explore their own cultural roots

● allow children to experience diverse cultures
● enable children to empathise with unfamiliar people/places/situations
● offer insights into different traditions and values
● help children understand how wisdom is common to all peoples/all cultures
● offer insights into universal life experiences
● help children consider new ideas
● reveal differences and commonalties of cultures around the world
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Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom.

Stories…
● Promote a feeling of well being and relaxation

● Increase children's willingness to communicate thoughts and feelings
● Encourage active participation
● Increase verbal proficiency
● Encourage use of imagination and creativity
● Encourage cooperation between students
● Enhance listening skills
Commonalities of cultures around the world

Stories reveal universal truths about the world. Through stories we see how very
different people share the same life experiences and how human nature can transcend
culture.
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Performance techniques
Telling a story can captivate an audience…that is, with the right techniques and a little
practice:
Remembering and retelling the plot:
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BBC | British Council teaching English - Literature - Storytelling - benefits and tips
● map the plot as a memory technique

● use story skeletons to help you remember the key events
● think of the plot as a film or a series of connected images
● tell yourself the story in your own words
● create your own version of the story (adapt and improvise)
● retell it numerous times until it feels like a story
Performance skills.
Remember to...
● vary the volume, pitch and tempo of your voice (enunciate clearly and
exaggerate expression)
● use your face, body and gestures (let your body speak)
● make your body and face respond to the tale
● have a clear focus and maintain concentration
● maintain engaging eye contact with the audience/ individual listeners
● create a charismatic presence (make the audience believe in you)
● use different, exaggerated character voices
● use your space/ be dynamic
● remember to pace yourself
● always remember to regain your style as a narrator
● use silence and pauses to add dramatic effect
A last word…
Young Learners share a remarkable variety of personal experiences, values and ways
of understanding .The language they learn in the classroom is the tool they use to
shape their thoughts and feelings. It is more than a way of exchanging information and
extending ideas it is their means of reaching out and connecting with other people.
Stories can link not only between the world of classroom and home but also between
the classroom and beyond. Stories provide a common thread that can help unite
cultures and provide a bridge across the cultural gap:
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© BBC World Service, Bush House, Strand, London WC2B 4PH, UK © British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN, UK
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BBC | British Council teaching English - Talk - Questions and answers
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BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Classroom Activites
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Activities Poems for the future Other
Tips Carolyne Ardron, British Council, Portugal
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Here are some suggestions to help get your students writing poems based around
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The Secret Code game
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Same, opposite or different dictation Vocabulary box

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BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Pronunciation
Home > Try > Activities > Pronunciation
Pronunciation activities Activities contents
Practical activities to help students with English pronunciation. Speaking
Vocabulary
● Rhyming pair game Writing
● The tongue twister game Pronunciation
● Homophones dictation Revision
❍ Homophone game Listening
● Remembering the phonemes Resources
Try
● Young learners and the phonemic chart - activities Reading
Activities Other
❍ Phonemic beep dictation
Tips ❍ Using songs
Other features
Lesson Plans ● Introducing the phonemic alphabet
● Shadow reading
● Broken Telephone Articles
● C for consonant, V for vowel
● Same sound, different sound
● The silent sounds game Questions
● Sound pictures
Quizzes
Rhyming pair game

Other sites
Kate Joyce, British Council
This activity is a pronunciation and memory game. It works best if you split the class into Send us an email
small groups. You will need to produce a set of cards for each group with one word on
each card. The sets of cards should be made up of lots of rhyming pairs of words. For
example:
❍ house, mouse
❍ die, cry
❍ cook, book
❍ wheat, sheet
Download example cards >> 39k pdf
Procedure
● Ask each group to place all of their cards face down on the table.
● Students must take it in turns to turn over two cards. They must say the two words
out loud to see if they rhyme. If the two cards rhyme, they can keep them.
● When there are no cards left on the table, each student counts how many cards
they have to see who is the winner.
● For this activity students need to recognise that some words have a similar
pronunciation even though the spelling is very different. For higher levels, include
lots of difficult pairs of words. For example:
❍ town, noun
❍ turn, earn
❍ though, low
❍ square, air
❍ paw, store
❍ some, thumb
❍ lake, break
● You can also play this game with homophone pairs instead of rhyming pairs.
Begin by explaining what a homophone is. You can give examples in the students'
own language and in English, emphasising that the words have the same sound,
but not the same spelling or meaning. For example:
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❍ some, sum
❍ threw, through
❍ so, sew
❍ pair, pear
❍ right, write
❍ hare, hair
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The tongue twister game

All levels and ages enjoy tongue twisters. They work well as a warm-up to get students
speaking, and they help students to practise pronouncing difficult sounds in English.
Procedure
Write some English tongue twisters on the board or on pieces of paper to distribute to
students. Ask them to read the tongue twisters aloud. Then faster. Then three times in a
row. Here are some examples:
❍ She sells sea shells on the sea shore

❍ A proper copper coffee pot
❍ Around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran
❍ Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry
❍ A big black bug bit a big black bear
❍ Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of
pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
● Ask the students if they have any tongue twisters in their L1. Have a go at saying
them yourself. This usually causes a good laugh, and makes the activity more two-
way and interactive.
● Now ask the students to have a go at creating their own tongue twisters. This
activity is a variation of the famous 'Consequences' game. Write the following
questions on the board:
1. Write your first name

2. What did she/he do?
3. Where?
4. When?
5. Why? Because…
● Now give students the following instructions:

❍ Get into teams of about 5 people
❍ On a piece of blank paper write your answer to question 1.
❍ Pass the paper to the person on your right. Write an answer to question 2
on the paper you have just received. Your answer must begin with the first
sound in the person's name (e.g. Bob - bought a bike)
❍ Pass the paper on again and write an answer to question 3 again using the
sound at the beginning of the name.

❍ Continue until all the questions have been answered.
❍ Pass the paper back to the person who started with it. Read all of the
tongue twisters aloud.

● It might help if you give the students some examples before they begin the
exercise:
❍ Bob bought a bike in Bali on his birthday because he was bored
❍ Susan sang a song at the seaside on the 6th of September because
she saw some sunshine

❍ Laura laughed in the laundrette at lunchtime because she lost her
laundry
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Homophones dictation
Shaun Dowling, Teacher trainer, Cultura Inglesa, Brasilia
Homophones can be one of the reasons students spell or hear something incorrectly. By
raising learners' awareness of these types of words in an open and fun manner, teachers
can help learners understand why they have difficulty with a particular listening activity or
even with spelling a word wrongly. This materials light activity needs little preparation and
allows students to notice these problems.
Procedure
● Choose from 8 to 10 homophones to dictate.

● Tell your students you are going to say about 10 words and for them to write them
down.
● Ask students to stay silent while you dictate and not to check with a partner.
● Dictate each word clearly and allow students time to write
Here are the 10 I usually choose with their homophone in brackets
band (banned) I´ll (aisle, isle)
nose (knows) right (write)
there (their, they're) sun (son)
past (passed) cell (sell)
flu (flew) knot (not)
● In pairs, have students check what they have written down. As students check the
write the words (not in brackets) up on the board.
● After the pairs have finished they may see a difference in their lists. Ask the whole
group if they have written down the same as the list on the board. Note that many
students may feel they have written down the wrong words if their own words are
different from the list on the board.
● Now as you write the second similar sounding word (these are the homophones in
brackets), ask students if their list was similar to these other words. Some
discussion may take place here as students laugh and smile about what they have
written, so ask students if they can ask you what is the difference between the two
words. They should say the spelling and also the meaning.
● Now elicit from students the similarities of the words. If they disagree that the
sounds are not the same then it is a good idea to drill the words for students to
hear and ask them if the homophones sound different.
● Now elicit again what differences there are between the words. You can write
these differences and similarities on the board for clarity.
● Now introduce the word 'homophone' and see if students know of any other
English homophones.
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Homophone game
This game is a natural follow on from the Homophone dictation and can be used to help
the students practise and remember homophones.
Procedure
● Ask 3 volunteers to sit in a chair facing the board ( about 2 to 3 meters away is
fine). Each should have a piece of chalk or marker.
● Then tell learners they are going to run up to the board and write two versions of
the homophone from the word you read out. The one who is the slowest stays
seated and the other two can sit back in their original places.
● Read out any homophone you feel will be easy for the first 3 participants, for
example 'one / won'.
● The students should run up and write 'one' and 'won'. The slowest sits back down
and the quickest go back to their places. Now 2 other people should come up and
the game is repeated.
Note: The game is a competition and should be played in a light-hearted spirit. You don't

really want one person losing all of the time so I like to cheat and show the student who is
always losing the word so they have a chance of winning.
This game also helps to highlight some sounds which may be particularly difficult for
students to hear and write, for example my learners have difficulty when I say the
homophone 'heel/heal' / hi:l/ and tend to write 'hill' /hil/ or I may say 'there' and they write
'dare'
Apart from the homophones mentioned in the dictation activity. Here is a further list of
homophones I have found particularly useful with my intermediate students.
read / red steel / steal tour / tore rose / rows

weather / whether mist / missed hi / high cereal / serial
scent / cent / sent which / witch dye / die Board / bored
not / knot site / sight/ higher / hire mind / mined
sawed / sword would / wood break / brake tire / tyre
heard / herd some / sum air / heir groan / grown
piece / peace none / nun allowed / aloud road / rowed
be / B / bee root / route/ whale / wail so / sew / sow
he'll / heal / heel flower / flour toes / tows soul / sole
which / witch bear / bare deer / dear bite / byte
here / hear bread / bred
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Remembering the phonemes

Paul Kaye, British Council, Syria
Learning and remembering the phonemic symbols can be quite a challenge. Here are
some ideas and activities which can help even lower levels with this.
Symbols
This activity focuses on some of the easier symbols and works towards the more difficult
vowel sounds. It then helps students to record and remember them.
● Cut up the words and symbols in worksheet A

Download worksheet A >> 10k pdf
● Ask learners to match the individual sounds in the first column to the words in the
second column.
● Next ask them to match the words to the complete phonemic script of each word
in the third column.
● Give learners worksheet B, their record sheets, and explain that this is a record of
the symbols they learn in class.
Download worksheet B >> 7k pdf
● Discuss the first example given, and emphasise how important it is to underline
the correct letters in the words.
Word Vowel
Van
● Ask them to find at least three more from the exercise.
Hangman
This is a fun, non-threatening way to finish the class. It relies on you to produce the
symbols and the learners to produce the sounds. It helps learners understand that
phonetic script is made up of sounds, not letters. It also gives them instant transcription of
sounds into symbols.

● Think of a word and the phonetic script for it, for example fish
● Like normal Hangman, write up on the board a series of spaces, but each one
representing a sound, i.e. for fish: ____ ____ ____
● Ask learners to give you sounds that they think may be in the word. As they say
them, write up the corresponding symbol on the board so they can see it.
● When they give you a sound that is already on the board, point to the
corresponding symbol as you correct them.
● Learners continue until they guess the word.
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Young learners and the phonemic chart - activities

Nicola Meldrum
These activities are linked to the Think article - Young learners and the phonemic chart
Phonemic beep dictation

This is a version of beep dictation. In this activity there are some missing words which are
replaced by a beeping sound. The key to this activty is that the sound indicates a
particular phoneme.
● Write some symbols and words from the dictation you are going to do under the
symbols.
/i/............................................................ /I/................................................... /aI/

leave..................................................... live.................................................arrive
sleep..................................................... sit ..................................................find
read
● Then read the dictation saying the appropriate sound for each gap. Students must
select the correct word from that sound to fill the gap.
"I...........the house at eight o'clock. I............at work at about nine. Then I ..........at
my desk and .............my emails..."
Using songs
● Choose a song that has lots of rhyming words in it at the ends of its lines.
● Take the rhyming words out of the song and put them on a worksheet or on the
board.
● Ask the students to match them to the symbols they include.
● Give them a hint of how many words for each symbol.
● Then talk about how songs often have rhyming words at the ends of lines.
● The students listen and attempt to put the words back into the song.
● This can be attempted before they listen with more advance learners.
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Introducing the Phonemic Alphabet

Anne Willicombe-Dow, Italy
I start with the seven vowel phonemes that the letters of the alphabet can be divided into.
I encourage students to try and guess the sounds first (some of them are similar to
sounds in Italian so these ones are fairly easy for my students).
I elicit a word that has the sound in it and write this above each phoneme to help students
remember the sound.
Then I get the students to work out which sounds are short and which are long. For the

long sounds I ask them what the symbols have in common (to teach them as early as
possible that symbols/sounds with two dots and two symbols/sounds together -
diphthongs - are long sounds).
We start putting the letters of the alphabet in columns underneath the phonemes as a
class and then students work alone or in pairs to complete. Check together by reading
down each column (also helps you to spot which letters of the alphabet cause your
students problems).
A B F I O Q R
H C L Y U
J D M W
K E N
G S
P X
T Z
V
The following lesson I often revise the seven phonemes by preparing a song gap-fill; the
gaps are words that have the same sounds. We quickly revise the phonemes, writing an
example word for each. Then I dictate the words needed to complete the song and
students individually write them under the corresponding sound. They check together and
we go over any problem words. Then we listen to the song and they complete the
worksheet. For Pre-Intermediate/Intermediate students I've used Stand By Me (Ben E.
King) and for Intermediate/Upper Intermediate students New York (U2) and I'm With You
(Avril Lavigne).
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Shadow reading
Lucy Baylis, UK
This activity uses a text from the course book, and involves listening and pronunciation
practice. This task is challenging and motivating and can be used at any level.
Procedure:
1. Teacher reads the text aloud and students follow, marking the text for stress
2. Teacher reads the text a second time and the students mark for linking
3. Individual chunks that show good examples of linking or problematic
pronunciation can then be drilled
4. Students practice these aspects of pronunciation by reading the text to
themselves before the teacher reads the text aloud again and they listen
5. Then the students read the text with the teacher and they have to start and
finish at the same time as the teacher, who reads the text at normal speed
This works well after some exposure to the rules of pronunciation - connected speech,
stress and intonation.
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Broken Telephone
Daphne Tan, Singapore
This is a little game I have used to help students with their listening practice and it
develops pronunciation awareness. The name of this game is 'broken telephone'.
● First the class is divided into a few groups, with about 10 in each group. I hand
one person in the group a sentence, which he or she must then memorise and
pass on to the next person, by whispering.

● The next person will pass the sentence down the line to the next and so on until it
finally gets to the last person in the group. That person in the group will then have
to stand up and say what the sentence is.
I find this exercise fun and a break from the normal learning routine. Teachers can
construct sentences with words that may sound similar to others, like working (walking),
lazy (lady), grass (glass) and so on. It's really funny hearing the sentence at the end
because it is often a mad distortion of the original. The students often have a good time
laughing at how ludicrous it all became in the end, and more importantly, realise the value
of proper pronunciation.
Top of page
C for consonant, V for vowel

Alan Stanton, teacher trainer and materials writer
This is an activity to be carried out before introducing phonemic symbols. It is designed to

teach students:
● The difference between sounds and letters

● The difference between vowel sounds and consonant sounds
● The difference between one sound and two sounds
Procedure:
1. Choose ten words that students already know. It is important that they are familiar
words.
2. Choose four or five other familiar words as examples.
3. Demonstrate on the board that the word 'cat', for example, can be written CVC,
Consonant sound, Vowel sound, Consonant sound. This is a very easy example
but there are more difficult ones. 'Caught' is CVC, 'through' is CCV, 'breakfast' is
CCVCCVCC, 'brother' is CCVCV, 'hour' is VV, 'carrot' is CVCVC.
4. Ask students to do the same with the ten words you have chosen. You can ask
them to do this by looking and writing, by looking, listening (to you) and writing, by
listening, saying (to each other) and writing - whichever combination seems
valuable and necessary.
5. If you are not sure about a word, check the phonemic symbols in a dictionary.
6. Check students' answers and explain any difficulties.
This activity will clarify many points for students. For example, that 'br' is two sounds but
'th' is one, final 'er' is one and 'rr' is one. It will show that 'h' is sometimes silent and
sometimes not and that final 'r' is silent. Note that diphthongs count as one vowel sound.
This activity is good preparation for learning phonemes because it focuses on sounds and
not letters.
Top of page
Same sound, different sound

Alan Stanton, teacher trainer and materials writer
This is an activity for more advanced students. It is diagnostic because it reveals the
mental picture of English sounds that students have. When you do this, you will feel as if
you are looking inside students' brains. You will gain valuable information about their
knowledge.
Procedure:
1. Begin by explaining what a homophone is. You can give examples in the students'
own language and in English, emphasising that the words have the same sound,
but not the same spelling or meaning. Obviously, homophones are written with

exactly the same phonemic symbols.

2. Show students a list of pairs of words, some homophones, some not and ask them
to identify the homophones. Choose the words according to the level of the
students. 'See' and 'sea' are a lot easier that 'sword' and 'soared'. If students think
that 'caught' and 'court' are not homophones (they are) or that 'pull' and 'pool' are
homophones (they are not), this will give you valuable information about how
students are thinking about English phonology.
3. This activity is best done in pairs and groups because students do not necessarily
agree and the discussion can be useful.
4. When you check the answers, you can practise minimal pairs with the words that
are not homophones. Write up the phonemic symbols to show that they really are
different. If the words are in columns headed 1 and 2, you can ask students to say
'One' or Two' when you say each word. If they make mistakes, you need to repeat
until they improve.
5. If students are doing well, you can reverse the minimal pair exercise and ask
individual students to say one word of the pair that you then identify as 1 or 2. Do
not proceed to this stage unless students are performing well.
6. An extension to this activity is to ask students, in pairs or groups, to produce pairs
of homophones of their own. Ask them to say the pairs. They will also need to
spell them or show what they have written (they can write in large letters on
cards). If they have produced genuine homophones, write them up in one colour. If
they are not homophones write them up in another colour - these are the sounds
they need to practise. This activity will give you valuable insights into students'
pronunciation problem areas.
Top of page
The Silent Sounds Game

Liz Oldham
This game is a good way to practice the vowel and diphthong sounds, and it is particularly
enjoyed by young learners.
In 'Silent Sounds' you mouth a sound silently and the children guess the sound from the
shape of your mouth. Use the game to contrast sounds that are often confused such as /
ae/ and /e/ - found in words like 'mat' and 'met'.
Before you start, divide the board into two halves - left and right. On one side write the
phonemic symbol for one of the two sounds - for example /ae/, or a word containing the
sound - such as cat. On the other side of the board, write the other sound - so for
example /e/ or the word 'bed'. Now mouth one of the two sounds, the children should
watch your mouth closely and then identify the sound by shouting the correct sound, or -
with a small class, by jumping left or right! You can then get the children to work in pairs
and test each other in the same way.
Top of page
Sound pictures
Liz Oldham
Sound Pictures exploit young learners' love of drawing, associating pictures with sounds
and spelling. This also helps students who have a visual learning style.
With sounds which are more difficult for your class - for example , ask the children to
make a sound picture. The children draw an object that has this sound such as 'chair'.
Inside the picture of the chair they can write other words with the same sound such as
hair, wear, scared.
This can be an ongoing activity with posters on the walls which they can add to. It's a
useful way of familiarising children with some of the sound / spelling rules.

Related
Article - Teaching with phonemic symbols

Tips - Pronunciation teaching tips
Download - A4 size phonemic symbol posters
Send us an activity
If you would like to send us an activity to share on this site, then contact us.
Top of page

BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Lesson plans
Home > Try > Lesson plans
Lesson plans Lesson plans contents
On this page you can find links to lesson plans for use with your class. Young people and television
Happiness is a snip away
The lesson plans and worksheets are downloadable and in pdf format. Where indicated, Cooking in Britain
there is also audio available to be downloaded. Audio is supplied in mp3 format. If you Hamlet's soliloquy
have difficulty downloading the materials see the download section of the About page. What are you good at?
Cuisenaire rods for storytelling
Copyright - please read Mobile phones
Try
All the materials on these pages are free for you to download and copy for educational Image conscious
Activities use only. You may not redistribute, sell or place these materials on any other web site
Science and cloning
Tips without written permission from the BBC and British Council. If you have any questions Carnival crime
about the use of these materials please Contact us. Miko the monkey
Lesson Plans
How new words are created
Lesson plan topics Branding and brand names
A night out in Newcastle
● Young people and television A quiz for Christmas
● Happiness is a snip away The Inca: A lost society
● Cooking in Britain Telling a story
● Hamlet's soliloquy Writing a news report
● What are you good at? A car that runs on air
● Cuisenaire rods for storytelling Film festival season
● Mobile phones New superheroes
● Image conscious Countryside protest
● Science and cloning Car ban
● Story telling: Carnival crime Tram network
● Using a story: Miko the monkey Carnival
● How new words are created Other features
● Branding and brand names
● A night out in Newcastle
● A quiz for Christmas Articles
● The Inca: A lost society
● Telling a story
● Writing a news report Questions
● Alternative power: A car that runs on air
● Film festival season
● New superheroes Quizzes
● Countryside protest
● Car ban goes ahead
Other sites
● Tram network to carry 50 million
● Carnival safety success
Send us an email
Latest plan
Young people and television

Katherine Bilsborough
Level - Pre -Intermediate and above
In this lesson the students will look at the television viewing habits of young people in the
UK and compare them to the habits of young people in their own country. They will begin
by making television posters, then they will do a split reading activity in pairs. The text is
about television habits in the UK. They will complete a questionnaire about their own
viewing habits and discuss how their habits are different from those of young people in the
UK. There is an optional role playing activity where students have to agree on what to
watch on television.
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BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Lesson plans
● Lesson Plan: - guide for teacher on procedure including answers to tasks.

● Worksheets: - exercises which can be printed out for use in class.
Go to this plan >>
Top of page
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Home > Downloads
Downloads Other features

In this section you can find a range of resources which you can download to print off
and use in your class or for your own benefit. Downloads is divided into several
areas:- Articles
● Quizzes - multiple choice quizzes on a range of subjects and language areas

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and notes ● Pronunciation - a range of aids for teaching pronunciation
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● Radio - BBC World Service radio programmes to listen to and/or download
The files are in Portable Document Format (pdf). If you have difficulty downloading
them see the download section of the About page.
Latest from Quizzes
October 31, 2005

Takeaway food- six questions for intermediate students - 9k
Latest from BritLit
Liverpool
Levi Tafari
For the first time, materials for the BritLit project have been produced outside of
Portugal, where the project began. Teachers working on BritLit in Hungary have been
busily devising a new approach, and they have chosen to focus on four British cities,
examining them through the eyes of their native poets. The first of these looks at the
city of Liverpool and uses the words of Levi Tafari.
Go to these resources >>
Latest from Pronunciation
Other consonants - file size 8k. Click on an image to download the poster.
Latest from Books and notes
Language Assistant manual

by Clare Lavery
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The Language Assistant manual was written as a guide and

handbook for novice English language teachers taking their first
steps into the classroom. It is packed with tips and useful ideas.
There is also a Language Assistant website to accompany the
book .
Download the Language Assistant manual. 700k
Latest from Radio
Innovations in teaching
A six part radio series from the BBC World Service
What is meant by innovation in teaching? Are there some genuinely new ways of
teaching language? Are there new technologies - eg: the interactive white board - that
have revolutionised how we learn and the way we teach? What innovative
methodologies are of interest to the classroom teacher or educationalist working
around the world?
Innovations in Teaching comes up with the answers as we look at challenges and

changes in the world of ELT and find ideas for teachers to take away.
Each programme in this series is available to be downloaded.
Go to this series >>
Top of page
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BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Speaking
Home > Try > Activities > Speaking
Speaking activities Activities contents
On these pages you will find ideas for classroom activities which involve speaking Speaking
Vocabulary
Send us an activity
Writing
Pronunciation
Revision
● The secret code game Listening
● Staged role-play Resources
Try The cooking test
●
Reading
Activities ● Story in a bag Other
Tips ● True / False stories
Lesson Plans ● Why didn't you come to the party?
● Picture dictation
● The holiday maze
● Shop service role-play
● Dating game
● Story telling grid
● Getting teenagers talking 2
● Discussion wheels
● The crime scene
❍ Technology free crime scene
● Chain story telling

● Task based speaking
● Family tree
● Getting the whole class talking
● Improving discussion lessons
● Getting teenagers to talk
● Improvisations
● Find the murderer
● Bingo mingle
● Short projects to get them talking - Lists
● Superlative questions
● Summer destinations
● Interview the experts
● Discussion bingo
● Mini-talks
● Erase the dialogue
● Fun discussion of controversial topics
● Motivating speaking activities
● Third conditional guessing game
● Preposition basketball
● Running dictation
● Simple picture activity
● ARM exercises
● Doctors and patients
● Nursery rhyme role-play
Top of page
The Secret Code game

Ana Maria Mari, Argentina
This is an ice-breaker / warmer for the first time a class meets. It is suitable for all ages
and levels. It should take 15 - 25 minutes.
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Preparation
You will need lollipops, sweets with wrappers or slips of paper. Prior to the lesson write a
secret message ( the code is described below) on the wrappers or lollipops or another
type of sweet. You may also write out the secret messages on slips of paper that are
folded into various shapes.
Procedure
● Greet and welcome students to their first lesson.

● Tell them you'll play game called "Hidden message". You can also tell them, if they
are young learners, that you will be playing a game called "Spies".
● Then, if the class is lower level, elicit the alphabet and write it
on the board.
● Give out the sweets or lollipops wrapped with the slips of paper. This paper will
have a hidden message which will have to be worked out by students if they want
to eat their sweets or lollipops. Tell students that each letter used represents the
previous letter in the alphabet ( Note: Z comes before A). You can demonstrate by
writing IJ on the board and you should have spelled out " HI".
● Once students understand, allow them two minutes to work out their messages
individually. The first one to find out the hidden message, should read it out to the
rest of the class and carry out the instructions on it. See example below:
TBZ ZPVS OBNF UBML BCPVU ZPVS IPMJEBZT

(Decoded: "Say your name. Talk about your holidays")
● Continue around the class until everyone has deciphered their

messages. Give help as needed.
Why it works
This game helps students learn each other's names and builds a sense of community at
the beginning of the school year. It also helps students develop their fluency and truly
"breaks the ice "if students have just come back from a break or are just starting their
studies.
This creative classroom aid is usable in multi-level, large classes with limited resources as
well as adaptable for elementary classrooms too.
Variations
Higher level students can be given hidden messages which review functions such as
complaints, apologies, etc. Teachers may include any topics they want students to talk
about such as hobbies, family, animals and so on.
Follow-up
Once they have finished getting to know each other, they may write a short paragraph
about what they learnt about their pals as a homework task..
(This activity was previously published by ETA magazine (The English Teacher Assistant
- US) May 2000, Herald Educational Newspaper - July 2004 (Argentina). It appeared at
English Club Net web site (2000), Parlo web site and China Education Exchange site.)
Top of page
Staged role-play
Jeff Fowler, Teacher, Trainer, British Council Naples
This is a series of engaging role-plays based on the concept of the gap year / a round the
world trip. The activities motivate the students to persuade and argue in a light-hearted
manner. There are a series of five small role-plays and this activity works best with
intermediate students.
Preparation

Download and make copies of the role-play cards. You'll need one set for each group of
three students. You might like to pre-teach some structures for expressing and asking for
opinions.
Download role-play cards >> 53 k
Procedure
● Elicit or explain the concept of a gap year (between university and school) and ask
students what they'd like to do if they had a free year.
● Elicit travelling and hang up a large map of the world.
● Tell the students they have a round the world air ticket valid for a year and they
are going to go on an imaginary tour around the world with two friends.
● Put the students into groups of three.
● Hang world map on the board (or a globe) and ask each group to discuss where
they'd like to go.
● Get the students in their groups to think about any problems that might occur with
such a trip. For example; language, arguments over accommodation, where to go
etc.
● Tell the students they are now in the country they chose and they have to act out
their roles as described in the cue cards.
● Give your students a minute to read their cue cards and then take them in. The
students then carry out role-play 1. Listen and make notes of any vocabulary or
pronunciation problems.
● Do plenary feedback with each group to see if they stayed in an expensive or
cheap hotel etc.
● Do the other role-plays with quick feedback from each group and a little work on
any language problems they have had each time.
Top of page
The cooking test

Richard Frost, British Council, Turkey
This is a writing and speaking activity that is a lot of fun for students. It helps them to
practise food and cooking related vocabulary as well as how to give instructions.
Preparation
Your students will need to know vocabulary associated with food and cooking. It is a good
idea to teach them words for cooking utensils too (e.g. saucepan, knife) and verbs
connected with cooking (e.g. fry, chop). You might also like to teach some language you
find in recipes (e.g. imperatives, sequencers, quantifiers).
You also need to photocopy and cut up or make your own ingredients cards.
Download ingredient cards >> 36 k

Download strange ingredient cards >> 38 k
Procedure
● Tell the students that you are going to have a cooking competition to decide who
the best chefs in the class are.
● Put the students into pairs and give them a random selection of ingredients cards.
Seven or eight in total is usually enough.
● Ask the students to talk together and invent a new dish using all of the ingredients
on their cards. When they have thought of one, give them a blank piece of paper
and ask them to draw a picture of the meal and write the recipe below.
● Ask the students to decide who is going to explain the recipe and who is going to
listen to other people's recipes. Put the students into new pairs with a different
partner and ask the speakers to present their recipes to the new partner.
● Re- pair / group the students a number of times so that they have the chance to
hear and tell about a number of recipes.
● The students who have listened to all the recipes have to report back to their

partner on what they have heard.
Variations
● Instead student to student work the pairs could come to the front of the class and
present their recipes.
● Instead of using only food as ingredients, you can also use strange ingredients
such as 'a sock' or 'grass'. Young learners in particular love inventing horrible new
meals.
Follow up
● You could put the recipes up around the room and get students to vote for the best
one.
● Use the recipes to create a class cook book.
Top of page
Story in a bag
Maria Spelleri, Manatee Community College, Florida, USA
This oral story creating and relating activity works best with intermediate level and above
learners. (I don't recall the origins of this activity. I picked it up from some book or
workshop at least ten years ago!)
Preparation
Before class, the teacher fills paper bags with 5-6 random objects. You'll need one bag
per group of four students. To make this activity interesting, the objects should be diverse
and unrelated to each other. Go for a combination of the unusual and the mundane.
● An example of a diverse content bag from my class is:

❍ a postcard from Singapore
❍ a can-opener
❍ a candle
❍ a surgical mask
❍ a theatre playbill (program)a teddy bear.
Procedure
● At a signal, each group of students opens its bag, removes its objects and invents
an oral story incorporating all the objects found in the bag. The stories become
very complex and creative in order to make each object a step in the plot.
Here's an example based on the bag items described above.
"One morning Shelley received a postcard from her old college friend,
Louise. The card was from Singapore, and in it, Louise had invited
Shelley to come for a visit. Shelley flew to Singapore and met Louise.
The first night she was there, they went to a play at a local theatre. It
was a murder mystery and the ladies were feeling a bit nervous
walking back to Louise's home after the show. When they got home
Louise tried to turn on the light, but there was no electricity. She lit a
candle and ……etc."
● It's important that the story be oral and not written and then read. This allows
spontaneous changes, and for group members to jump in and correct each other
or add details in the final telling.
● When the groups have finished, each group shares its story with the whole class.
Each student in the group should tell one part and hold up the related object when
it is mentioned in the story.

● Some group members may tell two parts, or tell one part that uses two objects- it
doesn't matter. Most of the talking is done in the creation of the story within the
group.
Watch out for those clever souls who would say "Shelley packed her suitcase for
Singapore. In it she put a candle, a can opener, a teddy bear…etc."
Variation
● The teacher makes up a crime that has been committed, for example; 'Professor
Whatsit found dead under a picnic table, Lady Wigglebiggle's diamonds stolen
from her bedroom drawer'.
● The groups are then told that the items in their bags are clues to the crime
collected by a detective. The story that the groups come up with then are the
details of the crime. Here is an example.
"The teddy bear had been ripped open, to reveal a hiding place. It was
now empty. The detective realised it was the place where Professor
Whatsit kept the key to his secret laboratory. Buy how had the killer
made it past the guard dogs? The can opener left on the kitchen
counter was analysed and found to contain traces of dog food.
Clearly, the killer fed the dogs, maybe even drugged them to keep
them calm etc."
Top of page
True / False stories

This speaking activity is very effective for practising the telling of stories and for learning
fascinating things about the students in the class.
Preparation
You don't need any materials for this, just an invented story that you are ready to tell.
Procedure
● Tell the students an interesting story about yourself and describe in detail what
happened. At the end of the story, give them an opportunity to ask you questions
about the story. Finally, ask them to decide if they think the story is true or false.
(This must be the first point at which you indicate it may not be true). Of course the
story was untrue and now it's the students' turn to make up stories.
● Put the students into groups of two or three and tell them to prepare two stories for
the class. Each student must have one story to tell, in a pair one story must be
true and one must be false. In a group of three you can have one true and two
false, or two true and one false. The important thing is that the false stories must
be realistic and the true stories must be unusual.
● Make yourself available to help the students with language for the stories and
make notes for problem areas to work on during the final feedback session. Also,
give the students the opportunity to practise telling their stories to each other
before they do them in front of the whole class. You may even let them make
notes to use while telling the story, but try to avoid letting the write down the whole
of the story.
● Ask each group in turn to come to the front and tell the rest of the class their
stories. After each story is told, the class can ask some questions. When all in the
group have told their stories, ask the students to decide which are true and which
are false. Finally, reveal to the class the truth about the stories.
● When all the groups have finished their stories, conduct a feedback session and
highlight the effective language that was used as well as the language that needs

to be worked on.
Variations
It can be very intimidating and time-consuming talking in front of a large class so if you
feel it is appropriate, it would be a good idea to match groups (e.g. three groups together)
to tell each other their stories.
Top of page
Why didn't you come to the party?

Said Ali, Teacher, Uzbekistan
This speaking activity for higher level beginners up to upper intermediate involves
students working in pairs to make up excuses.
Procedure
● Ask students if they've ever had parties. If they have, tell them to share
experiences with the class. If they didn't explain to them what a party is.
● Tell students to remember the last party they had. Some guests were invited but
some didn't come.
● Divide class into two parts. A students who attended the party and B students who
didn't attend.
● Tell the B students who didn't attend party to prepare their excuses for when they
are asked for them.
● Tell A students who attended the party to ask B questions to find the reasons of
not attending.
● Tell them to give a range of excuses in different ways. Otherwise they repeat one
excuse every time.
● Be careful to keep the students changing partners. The A students could also tell
the B student about the party.
Notes
● If you use this activity when you've just introduced a new structure that is
appropriate here for example 'had to' or 'was/were', you will hopefully notice that
students will use it without you having to prompt them.
● You can do some variations, such as excuses for not doing things on time or
excuses for not keeping your word etc.
Top of page
Picture dictation
Fiona Lawtie, Teacher, Freelance materials writer
This is a low preparation fun activity that works well with large classes, especially with
young learners and teens. All your students need is a blank piece of paper and all the
teacher needs is a little bit of imagination.
Procedure
● First of all explain to the students that they are going to do a picture dictation, that
you are going to describe a picture to them and that all they have to do is simply
listen and draw what they hear you describe.
● You then describe a simple and easy to draw picture to them and they draw it. To
help you with your first picture dictation you can use the picture on the
accompanying worksheet and the description below it as a guide. It is a very
simple picture for a low-level beginner's class but this kind of activity can be

adapted to any level of student. Simply change the content of the picture
accordingly.
Download picture and description >> 69k pdf
● When you are describing the picture it is best to describe one object at a time
slowly and to repeat each description two or three times.
● Make sure you give students enough time to finish drawing one object before you
move onto the next object and it is a good idea to walk around and look at the
student's drawings as they are drawing them so that you can see how well they
are understanding your descriptions and then you can adjust them accordingly
and give them any support they need.
Tips for making the activity work well
● Before starting the activity you may want to draw a square or rectangle to
represent a piece of paper on the board and elicit vocabulary from the students
that they will need to know for the activity, such as in the middle of the piece of
paper, in the top/bottom/right/left hand corner of the piece of paper, in front of,
behind, on top of etc.
● For lower-levels, you may even want to draw pictures of the things, the house, the
hill, clouds, birds and children skipping etc. that will appear in the picture on the
board before starting the activity to review vocabulary. How much pre-teaching of
vocabulary and language you do will depend on the level of your students.
Variations
● Get students to colour the pictures in afterwards like a colour dictation, for
example, colour the roof of the house green, colour the door of the house red, or
get students to label different objects by writing the name of the object underneath
it, such as house, bird etc.
● You can also get students to write a description of the picture afterwards.
● Another good variation is to give students a list of objects and get them to draw
their own pictures with all those object in them.
❍ The students then work in pairs. One student describes their picture to
their partner and their partner draws what they hear.

❍ They then swap roles and afterwards they compare the pictures they drew
with their original drawings pointing out the differences and usually having
a giggle.
Top of page
The holiday maze

Emma Pathare
This is a reading and speaking activity. Students make decisions in pairs or groups with
the aim of going on a successful holiday. It is based on a 'maze' principle, which gives
students different options and a variety of different holiday outcomes. There isn't one
'correct' answer - different groups find themselves going on different holidays - so you can
use the activity several times with the same class.
It is an excellent, fun way to practice the 'functional' language of agreement and

disagreement, suggestion and negotiation, as well as specific language relating to
holidays, in a genuinely 'communicative' activity.
It can be used with any level from pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate and beyond.
Download maze activity >> 54k pdf
Procedure
● Set the context for your students . The students are going on holiday together and
want to have the best time possible. You can set the context by describing the

situation, telling an anecdote, showing a picture or posing some discussion

questions. I find that students love to talk about their experiences - ask them about
times they have been on holidays with friends. Get them to talk about problems
they had and things they enjoyed.
● When the context has been established, put the students in groups of 2 to 5
students. The activity can be run as a whole class activity with you using one set
of cards. The students ask you for the card they have chosen after each
discussion. You can also run the activity as independent group work, with a set of
cards for each group. The important thing is to encourage as much discussion as
possible.
● Students listen to or read what is written on the first card. They must then discuss
the different options and come to an agreement about what to do. They then read
the next card until they reach a conclusion and find out if they had a successful
holiday or not. It is absolutely vital that the students really discuss each option and
its possible implications; if they don't, they will finish very quickly and will not have
had the speaking practice that the activity is intended to provide.
● Your role: walk around and listen to the groups. If groups are not really discussing
much, ask questions about their reasons for their decisions and prompt them to
discuss more. Before you start the activity, think carefully about how to group the
students. How can you best encourage speaking?
Especially at lower levels, it can be a good idea to pre-teach vocabulary which you know
the students will need for the activity. Read through the cards and make a list of words or
phrases that you think your students may not know, especially 'topic' vocabulary (i.e.
holidays). Before the activity starts, pre-teach these words.
It can really help the flow of conversation if students are confident in using functional
language. In this activity, students will be discussing, negotiating and making decisions.
They may also be arguing, disagreeing and changing their minds.
These expressions may be useful
● "I think we should . . ."

● "That's a good idea but . . ."
● "What about . . ."
● "Let's . . ."
● "I don't agree with . . . "
● "I've changed my mind."
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Shop service role-play

Emma Pathare
A role-play in which your students practice making complaints and dealing with people in
a shop.
Description
This is a lively role-play in which one student is a customer returning goods to a shop and
the other student is a shop assistant. Each student has a role card with the information
they need to give or find out from their partner, and the answers that they will give their
partner. There are two versions of the customer role card so that the role-play can be
repeated using different information.
The customer has two items to return (one broken and the other the wrong size or colour).
The receipt on their role card provides the information they will need to give to the shop
assistant. The customer wants his or her money back . . . but the shop assistant knows
their manager doesn't like returning money! The students need to resolve the situation.
Procedure
● Set the context for the role-play. You can do this in many ways; for example, by
describing the situation, by telling an anecdote, by showing a picture or by posing
some discussion questions.

● Once you have established the context, you could ask your students talk about the
times they have taken things back to a shop, the reasons why they did and what
happened.
Variation
In small groups or as a whole class, I ask the students to
brainstorm the language that we would use in these situations, for
example:
"Can I help you?"
"I would like to return this . . ."
"There is a problem with this . . ."
"It is a very nice shirt/T-shirt but the colour/size is not quite right."
"I'm very sorry but . . ."
"I'm afraid that . . ."
Don't forget to get your students thinking about 'register' - the
degree of politeness they use in the role-play; for example, which
of the following do you think would get a better response?
"This shirt is the wrong colour. Give me money back."
"I would like to return this shirt because . . . "
I extend this section by getting students to work on pronunciation,
focusing on sentence stress and intonation.
● Put the students in pairs. Explain the role cards. Do a quick demonstration with
one or two stronger students. Give out the cards.
● Set a time limit. As the students do the role-play, walk around and listen. If I want
to do some specific language work, I note down some of the problems they have
with language and use these for a correction slot afterwards.
● When most of the students have finished end the activity. Give the customers a
copy of the 'Customer Satisfaction Survey' and ask them to complete it
individually. When they have finished, they can work in small groups to compare
their experiences. Ask the 'shop assistants' to get into small groups to discuss a
good policy for returned goods. One person in each group can complete the policy
form.
● If there is time, ask your students to swap roles (and partners, for more variety).
The 'shop assistant' role card from the first role-play can be used again. Give the
new customers the 'customer role card, version 2'. When the role-play is finished,
group the students as you did after the first role-play. To finish, you could ask each
group of shop assistants to describe their returned goods policy to the whole
class. Invite the other students, as customers, to comment.
Download materials>> 88k pdf
● Role-play cards:
❍ Shop assistant
❍ Customer, version 1 and 2
● Customer satisfaction survey

● Returned goods policy form (optional - the shop assistants could use their own
paper)
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Dating game
This is a great activity for getting students talking. I have used it successfully with many
different levels and age groups and have found that it is very effective at motivating
teenagers to talk. It is particularly useful for practising describing appearance, character
and interests.
Preparation
You will need a selection of flashcards of people, a mixture of ages and types.
Procedure

● Put a picture of a person on the board and ask the students to tell you his/her
name, age and job. Write whatever they tell you on the board. (Note: at first they
may be a bit confused and think that they should know the person, they will soon
get the idea).
❍ Then ask them to describe him/her physically (again write what they tell
you on the board). Repeat this procedure for his/her character and
hobbies. You should end up with a paragraph profile of the person.
❍ Read the description of the person and elicit from the students that he/she
is not happy because they are single and would like to meet a man/
woman.
❍ Then follow the same procedure above to elicit a description of the person
that they would like to meet. At the end of all this you should have two
descriptions.
❍ Tell the students that you see these kinds of descriptions in lonely hearts
pages in magazines and newspapers.(You could even bring some in to

show them)
● Give the students a picture each and tell them not to show it to anyone. You may
have to stress this, as it is a temptation to show the pictures to friends in the class.
The students then have to write a description of the person in the picture and the
person they would like to meet. Point out that they can use the model on the board
as a guide. Monitor and feed in language as they need it.
● Tell the students to leave their pictures face down on the table and to mingle. The
aim is for them to try and find a partner for the person in their picture. At lower
levels they can take the description with them as they mingle. They need to talk to
everybody and not just settle for the first person who comes along asking
questions to ensure they find the right person. It is also a good idea to play some
romantic music in the background as they are mingling (Marvin Gaye or Stevie
Wonder).
● After you have given them enough time to find partners, stop the activity (if they
are being very choosy give them a time limit and tell them they must compromise
and find a partner). Conduct a feedback session and ask the students to tell the
class about their invented character and the partner that they have found. The
class can then see the pictures for the first time and decide if they think it will be a
successful relationship.
Follow up ideas
● Students can write the story of the relationship or can write letters to the new
partners.
Variations
● You can change the context and replace the pictures of the people with pictures of
houses/flats and ask the students to be either estate agents or buyers looking for
a place to live. Again they can write descriptions of places they want to sell (of
varying standards) and places they would like to buy, mingle and try to find their
dream homes.
● You can adapt the basic idea to suit many different topics.
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Story telling grid

Fiona Lawtie, Teacher, Freelance materials writer
This is a low preparation but high output activity which I have used successfully with teens
and adults. The aim of the activity is to get students to orally create a short story in small
groups or pairs.
● First of all draw a grid on the board and then put one word in each box. You can
make your story grid any size you want but the bigger the grid is the more

complicated the activity will become.

❍ You can recycle vocabulary that students are currently working on in class
in the story grid, but to ensure that students can create a good story you
should include a mixture of words, such as people and place names,
verbs, nouns, adjectives etc., and it is usually good to throw in words that
might give the story a bit more spice, such as crime, love, hate murder,
theft, robbery, broken hearted, treasure, accident, etc.
● Explain to the students that the aim of the activity is to create a story using all the
words in the story grid. Students can use any vocabulary or grammar they want to
but they have to include all the words in the story grid.
● The first time you do this activity you can use the example story grid and model
the story telling part of the activity for the students and then give the students
another example story grid from the worksheet to use, or you can easily create
your own story grid.
Download example story and grid >> 55k pdf
● Another variation is to get students to create story grids for each other to use. Next
get the students to create their own stories in pairs or small groups and once the
students have created their stories, they can retell their story to you, the rest of the
class or to other groups.
Follow up activities and variations
● At the end of the activity the class could vote on the best stories in different
categories, for example the most creative story, the most interesting story, the
funniest story, the best told story etc. This activity can also be easily developed
into a creative writing activity, either individually as homework or as pair or group
writing practice.
● Another interesting spin-off is to get students to rewrite their stories as a radio
drama. If you have recording facilities the students can perform and record their
radio drama on a cassette to listen to in class. If you do not have recording
facilities you can get students to write their story as a short play and try to find
them an audience who they can perform to such as another English teacher or
another English class.
Feedback on language use
I find it is best to give students individual or group feedback on their language use in a
storytelling activity after the students have finished telling the story for the first time.
● I usually make notes of anything I would like to go over with students while they
are telling the story.
● I find interrupting students to correct their language use while they are telling the
story dampens their creative mood and restricts their language use.
● If the students are going to record their story or perform it live, I get them to
perform it to me again so I can help them with their language before they record it
or perform it to an audience outside of the class.
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Getting teenagers talking 2

Catherine Sheehy Skeffington, British Council, Barcelona
Here are five useful ways that I have used to try to encourage my teenage learners to use
more English in class.
● Bribery
The oldest trick in the book - and not one to be over-used. The idea is simple, take
in small prizes to give to students whenever they have spoken enough English.
What is 'enough' depends on you and the class - one word may be all you want
from a particularly quiet student.
Possible prizes could be:
❍ Small fruits can be surprisingly popular (but messy)
❍ Sweets and biscuits are a favourite (but bad for teeth)

❍ Pencils and rubbers can work (but are expensive)

❍ Points, awarded to the class as a whole, with which they can 'win' watching
10 minutes of video, listening to an English song or playing a game of their
choice.
● Hangman
This is another way of using points to bribe the students to speak English. One
hangman can be used to refer to a particular offender, a group or the class as a
whole. This way round the class is promised a treat for the end of the class (e.g.
video, song or game) but they can lose lives by offending - i.e. not speaking
English when you require them to.
❍ Each time they offend, one life is lost - indicated by a limb being added to
the hangman.
❍ If the hangman is completed, they have lost all their lives and forfeited their
treat.
❍ Use this technique thoughtfully - bear in mind the consequences of the
hangman always or never dying (it may be seen either as an impossible

task or an empty threat).
● Time Out
This time the bargaining material is minutes. At the beginning of the class, tell the
students you'll give them five minutes to speak in their own language at some
point in the class. However, if they use up the minutes before the designated time,
they lose them for good.
❍ How far you want to extend this is up to you - if it's relevant they can lose
minutes for the following class, but this can be demotivating.

❍ Another way to use this technique is to give them potential minutes, which
they make real by speaking English.

❍ Remember to mark these on the board to avoid disputes and remind them
of their progress (five circles that become happy faces, for example).
● The UnTrophy
This is a trophy that is awarded to a person who is speaking the wrong language.
The student to receive it can then pass it on to the next person they hear speaking
the wrong language. The person holding it at the end of class has a forfeit - extra
homework, staying late or simply being the last to leave. The trophy can be a real
or virtual object:
❍ If virtual, the teacher needs to keep track of where it is & indicate this on
the board.
❍ If real, the students can write their own forfeits & stick them onto the trophy.
● The last word

Once again, this involves the students having some control over the penalty for
not speaking English.
❍ 15 minutes before the end of class, they brainstorm topics that are hard to
speak about in English. The topics are written on slips of paper or on the
board.
❍ The students vote for the person who spoke the least English - or this is
decided by the teacher or some other method.

❍ The offender chooses a topic, by choosing one of the slips of paper or
throwing a ball at the board. He/she then has to speak about that topic for
a certain amount of time (30 seconds or 1 minute) - silence can be
penalised by doubling the amount of time they have to speak or with some
other forfeit.
❍ Obviously this needs to be used sensitively, taking into account the
reasons why a student has spoken very little English in the class.
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Discussion wheels
Nik Peachey, teacher, trainer, materials writer, British Council
Discussion wheels are a good way of giving students time to think and formulate opinions

before they do discussion work. They work particularly well with areas of discussion which
can have ranges of agreement or disagreement.
● Preparation
❍ To create a discussion wheel you simply need 8 or 10 contentious
sentences based around a theme which you would like the students to
discuss.
❍ Draw a circle on a piece of paper and draw lines through the circle (one
line for each sentence) so that the circle is divided into segments.
❍ At the end of each line, write one of the sentences, then make sure to copy
enough so that each students has one.
Download a discussion wheel template 49.9 KB >>
● Procedure
❍ Give each student out their own discussion wheel and get them to look at
the sentences and put a cross on the line next to the sentence according
to how much they agree or disagree with it. A cross near the centre of the
circle indicates strong disagreement and one near the edge of the circle
can indicate strong agreement. A cross half way along the line can mean
they are undecided.
❍ Once your students have had time to put crosses on each of the lines they
can then start to discuss. This can be done in a number of ways. The
easiest in terms of classroom management is for you to give them a
partner to discuss with (the person next to them or on the table in front of
them).
❍ If you have the space though, you can ask the students to connect all the
crosses so that they form a shape and then stand up and mingle round the
class to find the person in the class who has a similar shape to their own.
(This has no real pedagogical value, but can be a nice way to get students
up and moving and get them to talk to other people in their class.)
❍ Once they have a partner to talk to, get them to discuss and explain their
opinions and see if they can convince their partner to change the position
of the crosses.
This approach gives the students more of a supportive framework and a goal for their
discussion. If you have time and the students are doing well they can discuss with a
number of partners, or you can show them your own discussion wheel with your crosses
and see if they can convince you to move your crosses.
This is an idea that I first saw in a book called 'Short stories for Creative Language
Classrooms' by Joanne Collie and Stephen Slater (P 52).
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The crime scene

Nik Peachey, teacher, trainer, materials writer, British Council
This is an activity that I've used with students of all levels to practice their ability to
describe people and events and to produce questions. It's also good for getting students
to really listen to each other and to take notes or just for some fun.
● Preparation
❍ The activity is based around a short video clip of a crime. Any crime scene
will do. The video doesn't even have to be in English as you can do it with
the sound off.
● Procedure
❍ You should split the class into two groups and tell one half that they are
going to be the police and they are going to interview the witness to a
crime. Their task is to work together with the other police and prepare

questions that they will ask the witness.

❍ Tell the other half of the class that they are going to witness a crime. You'll
need to have the classroom set up so that only the 'witnesses' can see the
TV screen. If you trust your students enough you could actually send 'the
police' out of the class or to another classroom, to work on their questions
while the witnesses watch the crime.
❍ When the crime scene video clip has been played, put the students into
pairs so that each of the police is with a witness. The police should then
interview the witness and get as much information as possible about the
crime.
❍ Make sure that the police take notes as they listen. If you have artistic
students you could also get them to work together on a picture of the
criminal or a diagram of the crime scene reconstruction.
❍ To add an element of motivation you could also give a prize to the most
accurate notes.
If you have a video that is in English you can play it with the sound on and, for higher
levels, even extend the focus to reported speech: 'He told everyone to put up their hands.'
Technology free crime scene
● Preparation
❍ If you don't have access to a video / TV you can do a 'low-tech' version of
this activity by cutting pictures out of a magazine. Be sure to cut out

enough for half the class to each have a picture and have a few extras to
spare.
● Procedure
❍ Put the students into pairs, one policeman and one witness, and have the
witness from each pair come to the front of the class.

❍ Give each one a picture of a person to look at. Tell them that the person in
the picture is a criminal. They shouldn't let anyone else see the picture.
❍ Once they've had a couple of minutes to look at the picture, take all the
pictures back and then send the witnesses back to their seats.
❍ Their partner, the policemen, then has to ask questions and make notes so
that they build up some idea of what the person in the picture looks like.
❍ Once they have their description, put all the pictures on the floor at the
front of the class and get the policemen to come to the front of the class
and see if they can find the picture that the witness described.
❍ You should make sure that the witnesses remain silent until all the
policemen have 'arrested' the picture of their choice.

❍ You can then try this again reversing the roles this time. This gives the
students a chance to learn from any mistakes they may have made the
first time round.
You can make the activity more difficult by selecting pictures of people who look more
similar (same age / sex etc.) or easier by having a greater range of people.
This activity can also be a very useful lead into discussions or vocabulary work on crime
or description.
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Chain story telling activity

Arizio Moreira, Hamilton, New Zealand
In this speaking activity the students tell personal stories which are prompted by pictures.
The activity is performed as a mingle.

● Cut up cards of different objects, activities, animals, etc. selected randomly.

● Place the cards scattered on the floor in the middle of the classroom.
● Tell the students to pick up a card from the floor which they think makes them
remember one of the following:
(a) a memorable event in their lives
(b) a positive or negative past or recent experience or
(c) a story about a friend/family member/acquaintance/etc that they would like to
share with others.
● Tell the students that they must find another in the class and tell them what the
picture makes them remember and listen to the other person’s story too.
● Each students must tell their story for about one to two minutes only.
● Students then must exchange pictures and find another student to talk to.
● Emphasise that they must ask the name of the person they were talking to before
they move on to talk to another one.
● Students must then talk to another student and tell him/her the story of the person
they last talked to.
● Students swap pictures again and move on to talk to someone reporting the story
they’ve just listened to.
● Round the activity off by asking individual students to report to the class the
interesting things they’ve learned about other people in class.
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Task based speaking

This is a speaking lesson on the theme of planning a night out that uses a listening
exercise to provide language input.
● Preparation and materials

You will need to record two people planning a night out on the town
● Pre-task (15-20min)
Aim: To introduce the topic of nights out and to give the class exposure to
language related to it. To highlight words and phrases.
❍ Show sts pictures of a night out in a restaurant / bar and ask them where
they go to have a good night out.
❍ Brainstorm words/phrases onto the board related to the topic; people /
verbs / feelings etc.
❍ Introduce the listening of two people planning a night out. Write up different
alternatives on the board to give them a reason for listening e.g. (a)
restaurant / bar (b) meet at the train station / in the square. Play it a few
times, first time to select from the alternatives, second time to note down
some language.
❍ Tell them that they are going to plan a class night out and give them a few
minutes to think it over.
● Task (10min)
❍ Students do the task in twos and plan the night. Match them with another
pair to discuss their ideas and any similarities and differences.
● Planning (10min)
❍ Each pair rehearses presenting their night out. Teacher walks around,
helps them if they need it and notes down any language points to be
highlighted later.
● Report (15 min)

❍ Class listen to the plans, their task is to choose one of them. They can ask
questions after the presentation.

❍ Teacher gives feedback on the content and quickly reviews what was
suggested. Students vote and choose one of the nights out.
● Language Focus (20min)

❍ Write on the board fives good phrases used by the students during the

task and five incorrect phrases/sentences from the task without the word
that caused the problem. Students discuss the meaning and how to
complete the sentences.
❍ Hand out the tapescript from the listening and ask the students to
underline the useful words and phrases.
❍ Highlight any language you wish to draw attention to e.g. language for
making suggestions, collocations etc.
❍ Students write down any other language they wish to remember.
Note: You can go on the planned night out with your students. This can make it even
more motivating for them.
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Family tree
Daphne, China
It's amazing how students can't stop telling their friends about themselves. I introduced
my class of second language learners to the family tree and the different relationships
between people in the family - in-laws, step-family, cousins, paternal and maternal sides
etc. even terms like widow, widower and divorcee.
Then, I got them to draw their own family tree and share it with their friends, giving 10
minutes each to tell and ask about a particular member in their family, e.g. grandparents,
aunts, cousins, siblings etc.
They could hardly stop talking! I'm glad to say that this is one lesson which saw students
continuing their discussion even after the bell rang.
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Getting the whole class talking

Clare Lavery, British Council
The following activities are designed to get everyone talking. They can be used with all
levels because the language required to communicate is determined by the students.
Remember to set up and demonstrate these activities carefully before letting the class go
ahead.
Jigsaw puzzle challenge

● Take 3-4 large pictures/photos and stick them on card. Pictures can come from
Sunday supplements, travel brochures, calendars, magazine adverts etc. Pictures
specific to students’ interests will motivate them e.g. film stills, cartoons, news
stories, famous paintings, famous people.
● Draw puzzle shapes on the back of each picture (4-5 shapes) and cut out the
picture pieces.
● Give each student in the class a jigsaw piece. They must not show their piece to
anyone.
● Students then mingle and question each other about what is on their puzzle piece
to try and find people with pieces of the same jigsaw.
● The object of the game is to find all pieces and put together the jigsaw. The first
complete picture puzzle wins.
Something in common or 'give me five'

● Explain that we can all find something in common with those around us. The
object of this game is to discover as many things you have in common with fellow
students. You can limit this to 5 things in common.
● Brainstorm examples with the whole class, noting suggestions, e.g.
❍ We both have long-haired cats
❍ they both went to see Robbie Williams in concert

❍ We all like Harry Potter

❍
We both have a younger sister called Georgia

● Our favourite colour is green
● Our families go to the same supermarket, church, club, holiday place
● We both believe in love at first sight, ghosts, god.
● Give students a time limit to mingle and find out as many things they have in
common. The one who finds the most is the winner.
● Alternatively ask them to find five things and the first person to shout 'five' is the
winner.
Create a biography
● Take a biography of a famous person and write each detail on strips of paper.
● Keep the identity secret so they have to guess, if appropriate.
● Draw a table on the board for students to copy and make notes e.g. place of birth, early
years, famous for..

● Give out the strips (split the class in two if large and give out 2 sets)
● Students mingle and ask each other questions until they have as many details as
possible about the person.

● Take away the strips and put students in pairs or small groups to use their table of
notes to write the biography. These activity ideas originally appeared on the British
Council Language Assistant website
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Improving discussion lessons

Have you ever felt you were asking all the questions about students’ opinions? Do you
find you are doing more talking in a discussion than your class? Here are some tips to
● shift the task focus from you talking to them (they have to talk to each other)
● give them control of their own discussion
● give them practice in formulating their opinions within a controlled framework.
Discussion envelopes
● Make a list of issues or topics which your students might find interesting. Think of
seven or eight statements on each issue which represent typical and widely
opposing comments on the topic. For example:
❍ Topic: Are boys and girls the same?
■ Girls naturally want to play with dolls
■ Boys are usually better at Science subjects than girls.
● Photocopy each list of statements on different topics and put them in 3-4
envelopes.
● Divide the class into small groups. Tell them the title of each topic.
● Each group selects an envelope. They work through the topic in their group, taking
turns to read aloud the statements found in the envelope and inviting comment
and opinions.
● You can ask each group to record their reactions to the issues for feedback at the
end of the session.
● Re-use the envelopes in another lesson. Each group chooses a new topic and
envelope.
Listen and react
● Put students in small groups of 3 all facing each other.

● Act as conductor by reading aloud a statement on a list, one at a time.
● After each statement students have one minute to react in their group to what they
have heard, disagree, agree, comment etc.
● Stop them talking after a minute (with gong, whistle, clap) and read the next
statement on your list.
● Students hear you but must look at each other and tell each other what they think!
Read and modify

● Give a list of statements on a set topic to each group in the class

● Students must work through the statements and modify them to reflect their views
as a group. This involves discussion on how they will re word the sentence or add
a further clause to justify their position. For example:
❍ Topic: The school year
■ Statement: School holidays are too long
■ Students’ modified sentence: We think school holidays are not long
enough
● Use the feedback session at the end of the lesson to hear some of the “new”
statements that each group has created.
These activity ideas originally appeared on the British Council Language Assistant
website
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Getting teenagers to talk

Here are some tips and three discussion ideas, all aimed at getting teenagers to speak.
● Keep the conversation peer centred: plenty of pair or small group collaboration.
● Avoid asking discussion questions around the class: this puts them in the spotlight
and causes potential embarrassment in front of friends. You also risk dominating
the talk.
● Give them a concrete list of statements or opinions: help them to choose their own
ideas. Don’t expect them to have fully formed opinions on all things teenage!
● Keep to fairly short discussion activities (15 minutes): until you know what they like
and they feel relaxed enough with you to talk freely.
● Feedback on errors after speaking should be general: try to avoid drawing
attention to individual students’ errors or they will be reluctant to speak next time.
Discussion activities
Here are some stimulating discussion topics which have worked well with
teenagers. The main features of these topics are that they
a) draw on students’ personal experience
b) ask students to reflect on their own culture and attitudes
c) give students a concrete decision to make with their peers.
Teenage time capsule

Each group of students is going to bury a box in the ground for future generations
to find. This box will contain 5 photos (or objects) which will tell young people in
the future about life at the start of the third millennium in their country and/or
school.
Students must choose their objects/photos together and each member of the
group describes it to the rest of the class or another group. Explain why it is
important and what it tells of life today.
Let the punishment fit the crime

Prepare a short description on cards (or board) of all the possible punishments in
a UK school e.g. writing lines, detention, exclusion and ask students in pairs or
groups to add anymore that are used in their own country.
Then give each group a list of wrong doings (5 or 6) and ask them to order each
act according to how bad they think it is e.g. swearing at a teacher, not completing
homework for 3 weeks running, fighting in the corridor, smoking in the toilet. Now
each group can also discuss which type of punishment might suit the crime!
This generates lots of discussion on what exactly constitutes unacceptable

behaviour but also what the students and their schools think is acceptable
punishment.

The 10 day trip

A group of English teenagers are coming to stay in the country or region. They
have only got 10 days to find out about your students’ culture and see what is on
offer.
Each group of students must plan an itinerary. It does not have to include all the
tourist sights, they could go to a concert to hear local music or have a meal with a
family or visit a school. Each must agree on the best introduction to their country
and region, bearing in mind the age of the visitors.
Stress that students do not have to plan anything they would find boring.
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Improvisations
● How do improvisations work?

❍ Role play involves giving students role cards, instructions and time to
prepare. Improvisations are more spontaneous. The teacher does not give
details or language phrases to use.
❍ Improvisations work best if students are given roles and situations and
asked to react immediately.

❍ Improvisations can be introduced very briefly with a ‘warm up’.
❍ Improvisations encourage students to
■ use whatever language they have available to:communicate;
■ develop “thinking on your feet” skills and gain confidence in coping
with the unexpected;

■ get practice in instigating communication from nothing;
■ focus on getting the message across rather than on repeating
dialogues parrot fashion;

■ use their imagination;
■ imagine themselves using the language in real life situations;
■ be creative with language.
● Classroom management
❍ In a whole class, put students in a circle with an inner circle of students
facing them.
❍ After each spontaneous dialogue/situation students sitting in the outer
circle move one place to find a new partner.

❍ Then call out new roles or situations and say ”action”.
❍ Keep to a non-judgemental director role and do not intervene to correct
language or discuss content.

❍ Hold feedback at the end. Allow students to feel free during the
improvisation phase.
● Ways to introduce improvisations

❍ Use a song (just listened to, covered recently in class or very familiar to
students). For example: She’s leaving home – The Beatles. Give pairs
roles (the girl, the mother/father, the boyfriend) and give situations to try
out (the night before she left, the parents talking on finding her leaving
note, the boyfriend asking her to run away, the telephone call home after a
week away).
❍ Use a picture and photos of people speaking to each other: vary scenes
and pass the pictures around. Focus on a theme, such as all pictures of
people in different parts of an airport or social situations. Assign roles so
students form a ‘tableau’ if there are a variety of interactions going on in
the photo/picture.
❍ Use a cartoon with no written dialogue. Students are the different
characters and mimic the behaviour and imagine the conversation taking
place.
❍ Use a video with sound off. Select scenes from a favourite show or film e.

g. Friends Students are assigned roles and act out what they think is
taking place.
❍ Use a piece of realia: a real object to spark conversation e.g.. A train
timetable, a bit of English currency and a list of exchange rates, a hat or
outfit, a musical instrument, a mobile phone, a menu (students must
incorporate these object as part of their invented dialogue).
❍ Use a prop (good with younger learners): a pair of finger puppets, a mask
to wear or anything that makes them assume a new personality.
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Find the murderer

Jacqueline Francois, France
Speaking and listening activity

Level: Intermediate or advanced
Target language: Past continuous
● 1. Write on board: Mrs. McDonald was found dead in her house on Tuesday at
eight in the morning, you have to find who killed her and why
● 2. Explain to students they are going to prepare a play and perform it (split them in
2 or 3 groups) while one group performs the other watches them. The audience
has to guess who the murderer is. (Here you have 2 options, depending on the
level, although it works well with pre-intermediate students too)
● 3. Preparation: give students enough time to prepare this and help them at this
stage, if necessary, especially using the past continuous e.g. - what were you
doing yesterday at 7 o'clock etc. (don't give them any help during the performance)
❍ Option (a) Tell the students they are free to invent a story why she is dead,
and how, they can choose their own personalities and alibis, and decide
who will be the inspector as he or she has to prepare a few questions to
ask the suspects. They work in groups and they decide who the murderer
is amongst themselves. If you have a class of say, 8 or 10, divide them in
two groups so that they don't know what the other group is planning. This
is important when they are going to perform, as the other group who's
watching them has to guess who the murderer is just before the end. They
can also ask additional questions and clarification to the performers.
❍ (b) or you can give them a few suggestions saying she was very rich, or
famous, or whatever comes to your mind. Write on board a few relatives or
friends e.g. her niece, her brother-in-law, her sister, husband, neighbour
etc. Write on board some useful questions e.g."what were you doing at ....
where were you staying? etc. They prepare the play, but still let them
decide who's who.
● 4. When they are ready, the students perform while the other group or groups
watch and listen carefully to decide who the murderer is.
● 5. Just before the end of the play the performing group stops and ask their
audience who they think the murderer is, inviting them to ask any additional
questions or for clarification. (At the end I always start clapping for the others to do
the same and thank them for their performance)
● 6. If the audience guesses right, give them points or a round of applause.
● 7. Change performers and repeat from point 3.
● 8. Of course, teachers can use their own imagination or better still get the learners
to invent the characters and alibis.
My personal comment: I always ask for feedback, up to now they have always really

enjoyed it. I'm always amazed at their imagination, I think the best one was when one
group had decided it was suicide! Enjoy and good luck!
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Bingo mingle
Leonardo de Waal, Colombia
In the event you have students who are stressed out or just plain bored by the dull
approach to teaching grammar, there's a game you can play that will lure students into a
communication approach to what is being taught. I used this for teaching Present Perfect
tense. It is just like bingo, but involves the students mingling and asking questions.
● In a 4 or 5 by 5 grid write statements like 'Has never been to Colombia’, or ‘Has

been to the cinema twice this month’ in each cell and so on until your grid is filled.
● You might want to have different Bingo cards to create more variety.
● Students will then mingle as a whole class and ask each other questions to try to
fill the grid up.
● Standard Bingo rules apply about winning the game. (Creating a row or column
etc. with answered questions)
You can of course adapt this for many different language points. It a a good way to
introduce a game element in to the typical mingle or 'find someone who' activities. Good
luck!
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Short projects to get them talking - Lists

Clare Lavery, Teacher trainer and materials writer, British Council
There’s nothing like a group project to get students talking and they work well if:
● the topic is centred on the learners’ interests;

● there is not any real need for extensive or time-consuming research;
● students can present their work orally to the rest of the class.
One particularly successful format is based on our love of lists. Students in small groups
work towards compiling a top five. Examples of top five topics are...
● Our top five favourite English records/music videos (including a final presentation
with their number one song or video or lyrics).
● Our top five authors/books/poets (not just English speaking) – students can be
encouraged to say why they like the author, give a description of the type of book
or read an extract from a poem.
● Our top five adverts (magazine or TV) with a final round up showing the ads and
describing why they are effective. This works well with students studying business.
● Our top five TV programmes (restrict to English/American ones if appropriate).
● Our top five designers/painters /paintings/buildings– including an oral description

of, for example, one painting.
● Our top five discoveries/scientists/areas worthy of research – including discussion

of the contributions made to the scientific field and to mankind.
● Our top five teenage fashions/teenage status symbols (e.g. mobile phone, moped).
● Our top five websites – for students who use the Internet a lot. This can include a
description of the site, its users and the reasons why it is so good.

A short project can be presented in one lesson, prepared and researched and completed
in the next lesson.
The main advantages are
● It gives students controlled opportunities to provide their own content in language

lessons.
● It can be tailored to their school’s curriculum or their own specialisations.
● The oral presentation of each group’s findings can take as much time as is
appropriate, depending on the enthusiasm and language level of the class.
● The final oral presentation stage gives excellent practice in extended speaking
which is useful for higher levels. It can also be appropriate to the oral component
of students’ exams and gives them extra practice in talking about topics close to
their hearts.
Students often tell you about people and things related to their own culture which can be
very informative and is a genuine information gap exercise. The project can be a good
round up of a term or a school year.
This activity originally appeared on the British Council Language Assistant website site.
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Superlative questions
Gareth Rees, Teacher and materials writer, London Metropolitan University
This activity practises the superlatives in questions, and generates a great deal of student
speaking. It is a highly personalised activity, asking the students to talk about their own
experiences and opinions.
● Prepare individual questions on slips of paper. The questions should all use the
superlative form. For example,
❍ What's the most interesting country you have been to?
❍ What subject are/were you worst at at school?
❍ What is the tallest building you have been in?
❍ Who is the strangest person you have met?
❍ What is the greatest problem in the world today?
● You can design the questions so that they suit your class well.
● Give each student two or three questions
● Put the students in pairs.
● They interview each other - encourage them to talk extensively in response to the
questions
● After five to ten minutes minutes (depending upon the amount of conversation),
call out 'STOP'
● Now, swap the partners round
● The students interview their new partner.
● After a while, stop and swap
● Depending on the size and energy of the class, keep stopping and swapping.
● Once you think you have stopped and swapped enough, ask the students to return
to their original seats.
● To round off, they should tell their neighbour about some of the answers they
received.
Recently, I did this activity with a class of 16 intermediate adult students. They swapped
partners five times, and in total the activity lasted one hour - one hour of nearly non-stop
student talking time.
I think the activity worked because although the students asked the same questions to
each partner, they of course heard differing answers because the questions were so
personalised. The variety in the question topics also generated interest. Every time you
went to a new partner, you had no idea what you would be asked. So, all you need to do
is think of enough questions for the students!

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Summer destinations
These are activities that encourage students to talk about their plans for the Summer
Practise descriptions of places using photos from travel brochures. Give each group a
selection of 5-6 places. Ask them to take turns in describing the place in their picture: the
climate, the location, the activities you can do there. Make sure you have a good contrast
in climates/urban and rural/developed or very deserted places. Then either:
a. Ask each group to select their favourite destination from the pictures you
have given them. Go round the class and ask them to say why they would
like to visit the place in the picture.
b. Or ask them to use their pictures to pick a holiday for a honeymoon

couple, a group of teenagers and a retired couple. Each group presents
their choice to the class explaining why they have chosen this holiday, why
it is suitable.
Focus on plans for the Summer (not just a holiday) and use them to preview the language
needed to talk about plans. Ask students to note down key words while you are speaking:
This July I’m planning to work in my Uncle’s shop and I’m going to do some reading for
my university course next year. I would like to play a bit of tennis and spend some time
with my friends. Ask students to do the same exercise in pairs. The note taking will help
them listen carefully. Go round the class asking students to tell you about their partner’s
plans.
Use a holiday song to introduce the topic e.g. Cliff Richard’s Summer holiday or
Madonna’s Holiday.
This activity originally appeared on the British Council Language Assistant website site.
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Interview the Experts

Ken Wilson
Three students sit in a line at the front of the class. They are the experts, but they don't
know what the are experts about. The rest of the class choose the area of expertise - e.g.
cooking, car maintenance, trees. Ignore students who shout out 'sex' or 'kissing' or other
unworkable topics.
The other students then ask the experts questions and the experts answer them. Each
expert uses only one word at a time.
Example:
They are experts about fashion.
Question: What colour will be fashionable next year.,
Expert 1: I
Expert 2: think
Expert 3: that
Expert 1: blue
Expert 2: will
Expert 3: not (Expert 3 trying to hi-jack the answer - this is good!)
Expert 1: be
Expert: 2: unfashionable (Expert 2 trying to hi-jack the answer back)
A very simple and effective speaking activity which the rest of the class enjoys listening to.
An important consideration.

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Discussion Bingo
Peter Weston, Norway
I have an activity which I use with my intermediate / advanced students. It's called
'discussion bingo' and I use it to get students using set phrases.
● Construct a 10 x 4 grid and in each square place a phrase often used in

discussion ( Can you explain? Really!, Where was I?, Is that clear?, Can I ask a
question? etc.).You'll have to tailor the phrases to your group but I usually set a
limit to how many have to be used.
● The object is to get the students talking and using the phrases.
● They have to listen as well - each time a phrase is used they tick it off. The first to
tick them all (a pre-set number) shouts Bingo!
● Modifying the rules so that they can only tick off the phrase if they use it
themselves means that all have to speak.
It works at the end of a week, or when they need to be livened up a bit. Of course, you
have to change the phrases frequently - but I've also modified it to accept any particular
point I'm teaching - great for vocabulary of course, but also grammar.
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Mini-talks
Lucy Baylis, English teacher, PACE, Goldsmiths College, UK
This (diagnostic) activity is designed to give students freer speaking practice in the form of
mini-talks. The teacher then focuses on accuracy in the next day follow-up activity and
feedback sheet. It follows a Test-Teach-Test logic.
Procedure:
1. Day 1: Student A chooses a topic and talks for 3 to 4 minutes - students B, C and D
then ask questions about the content, the teacher notes down problematic language
2. Day 2: The teacher inputs all the lexical items and phrases problematic for the students
and feeds in any new items that would improve the task.
3. Students re-tell their improved version to a new group and are at the end given an
individual feedback sheet which focuses both on problematic as well as good use of
language and pronunciation.
This activity is suitable for any type of class and any age - students like it and it is a
chance for freer speaking practice that is also developmental.
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Erase the dialogue

Sadie, UK
If you have students that aren't very confident or happy about speaking this is a good idea
that always works for me.
Make up a dialogue of say about six or eight lines, say, for example, a dialogue on making
arrangements. So the dialogue would go something like this -
A 'What are you doing this evening?

B 'Nothing much, why?'
A 'Would you like to come and drink a cup of tea with me in the cafe?'
B 'Yes, I'd love to. What time?'

A 'Hmm, shall we say 6 o'clock?'

B 'That'll be great. See you then
A 'OK. See you later. Goodbye'
B 'See you later'
This is relatively simple English but the aim is to make it as lively and realistic and as
natural as possible.
So, the first thing I would do is to write this dialogue on the blackboard and then I would
drill it. I get the whole class to repeat each line after me a number of times until they
sound very natural.
Then once we've been through this dialogue a few times I would begin to erase a few of
the words from each line. For example, in the first line - 'What are you doing this evening?'
- I would perhaps erase the words 'are' and 'doing' to focus on the grammar point.
Then we would go through the dialogue again, this time with the class trying to remember
the complete lines without me prompting them and then we would drill it again without
those words.
Then I will erase some more words, so this time the first line might be 'What ..',
Of course they're not allowed to write anything down during this - they're not allowed to
cheat and it becomes a bit of a game.
Finally, you end up with more and more of it being rubbed off until you have the dialogue
with just perhaps one or two words in each line as prompts. Then all the students try to
say it all together and it's become fun and they're now concentrating on remembering and
they're losing their inhibitions about speaking. The final practice could be done in pairs
and the students should then write the dialogue down.
You can use any dialogue you want, for any situation. It could also be the beginning of a
conversation, which the students practise in this way, and then have to continue from their
imagination.
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Fun discussion of controversial topics - the 'Tap-In Debate'

Paul Southan, New Zealand
The 'Tap-In Debate' is a fun way for students to discuss controversial topics. It is excellent
for speaking and listening practice.
Basically, you need a controversial topic to start. Once you have established a
controversial topic, divide your students into two groups; those who agree with the
statement and those who disagree. They now prepare their arguments. Once you have
done this, arrange your chairs so that there are two hot seats facing each other and then
place chairs behind each of the two hot seats (enough for all of your students).
The idea is that two students start the topic of conversation, trying to defend their group's
point of view. Once started, you then tap any two students on their shoulders during the
conversation (Always one who is in a hot seat and one who isn't) Once they have been
tapped on the shoulder they MUST stop the conversation and two new students must
resume it exactly where the other two left it, even if this is in mid sentence (they change
places with the person in the hot seat). They must make it coherent and follow the
previous opinions and statements! They must continue the sentence of the previous
speaker exactly where the previous student in the hot seat left it!
I like this activity especially because it involves all the students and they can't afford to
sleep on the back seats because they know they will wreck the lesson if they do!
One other point: pre-teach some useful vocabulary they can use prior to doing it. For
example, the vocabulary associated with the topic or which people use in debates e.g. I

disagree, I think you are right, In my opinion, to be honest etc.
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Motivating speaking activities

Sheryl Carvalho, Portugal
The students must be motivated to speak, or need to speak in order to complete the
activity. For the last couple of years, I've specialised in teaching children aged 6-10
(mainly at beginner level), but I don't see why some of these basic principles can't be
applied to learners of any age. At this age, the learners aren't motivated by new language,
they're motivated by an activity. It can be very difficult to get them to speak if they really
don't see the point. You can approach this by focussing on the following.
1. The function of the language and use an authentic or near authentic task (e.g. get them
to sit back-to-back to practise speaking on the telephone).
2. A motivating task, which uses the language you want them to practise (e.g. students
write questions on small squares of paper using the target language, then form the papers
into a board game to be played using dice and counters. )
Here are some possible examples, which apply to one or a combination of the above.
A popular, well-known type of activity is the information gap. In this type of

the activity, one group has half of the information required to complete the
task and the other group has the other half (or pairs of students). The two
groups need to exchange information to complete the task. Possible
examples of tasks are:
● Making an arrangement: each group has a diary, with appointments already filled
in. They need to exchange information in order to agree when they can meet.
● Giving/receiving directions: 2 sets of maps, each with information missing. 2 sets

of directions for these missing places. The students again need to exchange
information in order to complete their maps.
● Crosswords: each group has some of the answers. They need to make up
appropriate questions and then exchange, or ask appropriate questions.
Hopefully, the students will be more concerned about completing the crossword,
rather than worrying about speaking.
● For a listening text, in which the students would normally listen to a tape in order
to fill in the gaps. Why not give each group half of the answers? They are then
given the opportunity to exchange information. They can listen to the tape
afterwards as a final check.
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Here are some examples of other activities I use with my younger learners.
● Secretly put an object in a paper bag (or hide it behind me, or write the word, or
draw a picture). I then get the students to guess what's in the bag, by asking an
appropriate question. The student who guesses correctly takes over from me. Do
this a couple of times, and then let the students take over. Group vs group, or in
pairs.
● Find your partner. Information is written on slips of paper, which can be matched
in some way. Each student receives a paper, then the class mingle and exchange
information in order to find their partner. E.g.. for a group of 10 students, to
practise colours. Colour in 5 slips of paper and write the words for these colours
on the other slips. Students ask each other "What colour have you got?" in order
to find their partner. (The point of this activity from the students perspective is
finding their partner, not necessarily the practice of the language.)
● The following example may be appropriate for more advanced students. I call this
activity 'Find someone who'. Each student writes the end of the sentence on their
own piece of paper. The students then mingle and hopefully conversations are

started. (The students can also use questions for this activity e.g. When was the
last time you….?)
I hope that the suggestions and examples given are useful and practical for your situation,
or inspire you to invent others.
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Third conditional guessing game

Nancy Osmand
This is a simple game for spoken practice of the third conditional.
Ask a student, a volunteer hopefully, to leave the room. While that person is out of the
room you and the rest of the class decide on something very unusual that could have
happened while they were out of the room. A good example is two students get married,
the OHP explodes, basically whatever the students can suggest.
Then, the person who has left the room comes back in and asks each student in turn only
one question and the full question is 'What would you have done if this had happened?'
And each student in turn answers in a full sentence for example, 'If this had happened, I
would have bought some flowers'
Now, they mustn't mention the names of anyone involved because at the end the student
who is guessing has to work out what happened to whom and, if they can't, you can go
round again with new answers.
[As this is for speaking practice, the students should use the contracted form for the
conditional grammar - 'If this'd happened, I'd 've bought some flowers.']
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Preposition basketball
Elvin, Italy
This is a lively activity to practise prepositions of place: "Let's play basketball!"
Choose a spot in the classroom (a corner, the teacher's desk...) and place there several
different objects (pens, rubbers, books etc) at random and a small box or a bag that
represents the basket. Decide with your students how many points you will score if they
send the ball (you can make a very simple ball with a piece of paper) into the basket (you
could give 3 or 5 points, depending on how difficult it is).
What is fun is that each student, even if he doesn't succeed in throwing the ball into the
basket, will score one point for every correct description of the final location of the ball that
he/she can say: "The ball is behind the red pen", "It is under the teacher's desk", etc. In
such a way, it often happens that a student scores more points when the ball doesn't go
into the basket, depending on the student's ability to use the correct prepositions.
You can choose if you prefer to divide the class into teams or make an individual
competition. Students have a lot of fun in practising this activity that is suitable for children
and teenagers as well.
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Running Dictation
Nancy
This is a lively activity that practises, speaking, listening, writing, walking and
remembering!
Choose a short passage or dialogue and make several copies. Put the copies up around
the walls of the classroom (or even the school building).

Put the students in pairs or small groups. The aim is for one of the students in each pair to
walk (or run!) to read the passage on the wall. They remember some of the passage and
walk (or run!) back to their partner. They quietly dictate what they remembered to their
partner, who writes it down. They then swap roles. Over several turns they will build the
whole passage. This means they really do have to run back and forth because students
will only remember three or four words at a time.
The winning pair is the team that finishes first - although you need to check for mistakes.
If there are mistakes, they must keep walking to check!
A good idea is to teach them punctuation vocabulary beforehand if you want them to use
the correct punctuation in English. It's a good way to check spelling and fabulous for
pronunciation - and great memory training!
Some feedback from a teacher who tried this activity

Elaine, Perth Australia
I used this running dictation idea of yours with my lovely class of ESL adult beginners of
all ages and nationalities. It worked a treat! The whole room was humming and the
mission was accomplished with a deal of fun. It revealed quite a lot about the students,
the generous souls, the class cheats and the people who'd really prefer to work alone, but
for the greater good they co-operated with others of differing literacy levels. The main
problem was stopping the slower pairs after 40 minutes! Thanks so much for the
inspiration.
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Simple picture activity

Richard Kearney, Germany
● Divide the class into pairs

● Give one learner a simple picture
● Ask his or her partner to try and find out with questions what's on their picture
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ARM exercises - speaking activity to wake up a sleepy class

Gillie Cunningham, Teacher/Teacher Trainer
This is a great way to start a lesson with a free speaking activity.

I call it ‘ARM exercises’ which is simply short for Accept, Reject or Modify statements.
Choose a controversial statement. For example:-
● ‘Women are the best drivers’

● ‘Mobile phones should be banned from public spaces’
● ‘Homework should be optional’
● ‘Burgers are better than pizzas’
Either dictate or write the statement on the board. Students decide if they accept, reject or
modify this statement, according to their personal opinion. When they have made their
decision, you would then say ‘OK go round the room and try to find somebody who has
the opposite opinion to you’ or ‘OK go round the room and find someone who has a
similar opinion’. Alternatively, they could mingle in the class to find the range of opinions,
like a small survey – how many students accepted, rejected, or modified the statement.
This activity can really stimulate discussion and the focus is very much on the students
rather than the teacher.
To round of the activity, finish with a short whole class feedback stage.

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Doctors and patients - speaking activity

Gillie Cunningham, Teacher/Teacher Trainer
This lesson can take anything from half an hour to an hour and a half.
Divide your class in half, half are doctors, half are patients.
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 or the one who’s
putting on a lot of weight or the one who’s losing weight - you can have any kind of
ailment you want and the idea is that every patient should visit every doctor and get
advice from that doctor.
Be careful to set a time limit for each consultation with the doctors. Once 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! Meanwhile, the doctors all get together, because they are at a medical
conference, and they have to compare the advice they’d given – and perhaps decide who
was the craziest patient!
This activity can be used for both vocabulary and structures - you can use it for reported
speech ‘he said ... he told me…’, you can use it for practising modals like ‘should’ or
‘must’, or for practising verb patterns such as ‘he suggested I should ....’ or ‘he insisted on
my doing ..’, ‘he told me to do ..’
It’s usually a great fun lesson, students love it because there’s lots of speaking and
listening practice and they can use their imaginations and senses of humour.
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Nursery rhyme role-play - advanced speaking activity

Bruce Neill, Florida, USA
Pick any children's nursery rhyme, dictate it to the class (comprehension) and ask them to
read it back (reading, pronunciation, spelling). Then help with the weird words that they
had to guess at. (perception of similar sounds and referral to their data base of known
words and sounds) Finally help with comprehension, if necessary.
The exciting part comes next. Ask students, in turn, to role play the characters and
interact with each other. Example:
Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet,

Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider,
Sat down beside her,
And chased Miss Muffet away.
You may think that only two roles are available. But, the mini theatre can develop in an
infinite number of ways. Miss Muffet and the friendly spider/deadly spider. The absent
mother. The psychologist treating the trauma. The farmer who had tried to spray the field
and exterminate the spiders. Green Peace, the press, etc.
Try Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Hey Diddle Diddle, etc. Great fun, lots of laughs, and
very educational!
Send us an activity

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Home > Try > Activities > Reading
Reading activities Activities contents
Practical activities to help students with reading. Speaking
Vocabulary
● Newspaper reading activities Writing
● Text quickies Pronunciation
● Reading aloud Revision
● The spending maze Listening
● Lexical approach classroom activities Resources
Try
❍ Lexical classroom activity 1 Reading
Activities Other
❍ Lexical classroom activity 2
Tips WWW reading task - Holidays on the web
●
Other features
Lesson Plans ● Teaching poetry using DARTs
● Jigsaw reading
● Working with classroom readers Articles
Questions
Newspaper reading activities
Newspapers are a useful tool in the ELT classroom for improving reading skills and Quizzes
enhancing students' knowledge of current affairs. There is a danger of putting students off
reading newspapers if articles are used in the same way as course books, with tedious
comprehension activities. If used in a more inspiring way, newspapers can help students Other sites
to develop not only reading skills but also writing, grammar, vocabulary and speaking
skills. Below are some tips and activities which I believe can help.
Send us an email
Tips
● Encourage students to read newspapers outside the classroom, explaining that

ongoing reading can help them to articulate/discuss ideas more fluently, as well as
read and understand a whole variety of texts.
● Use different newspapers to suit your students' tastes. If you are teaching in an
area where English language newspapers are produced for the local community,
these may include articles and topics of particular interest and relevance to your
students.
● You don't need to have a great supply of newspapers in the classroom. Most
newspapers have an online version, where you can print off articles, e.g. http://
www.guardian.co.uk/ or http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/
● Talk to your students about reading and comprehension of English texts. It might
be helpful to share strategies for reading. For example; How often do they use a
dictionary? Do they take notes, or jot down new vocabulary? Do they skim read to
get a general idea of a text?
Top of page
Activities
● Guess the headline

Cut out a number of headlines and from each one remove an interesting word (e.
g. Missing Painting Found In ________ ). Stick the incomplete headlines on a
piece of paper, photocopy and distribute to teams of 3-4 students. Ask each team
to come up with two possible answers for each headline: the most likely word and
the funniest word. Collect all the responses and give each team a point for any
correct answer, and for the funniest answers. Get everyone involved by holding a
vote for the funniest / most original answer for each headline.
● Guess the article
Select an interesting newspaper article, preferably one which involves an exciting /
unusual story. Choose eight key words from the article and write them on the
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/readtry/read_activites.shtml (1 of 10)08/11/2005 12.49.07

board. Ask students to work in teams of 3-4 to come up with a story including
these words. When they have finished, read out / tell them about the original
article. Get students to read aloud their own versions - this can create a lot of
laughs!
● Newspaper lies
Ask students to select a short item of news and to summarise it to a partner /
team, changing some of the details. Partners need to try and guess which of the
facts are true and which have been changed.
● Wall quiz
Write a list of questions based on a selection of newspaper articles, and distribute
the quiz to teams of 2-3 students. Pin up the articles around the room and ask
students to walk around the room trying to find the answers. The winning team is
the first to find all the answers. This can be quite a lively activity!
● Presentations
To encourage students to read newspapers in English on a more regular basis,
organise short presentations at the beginning of each class. Ask a different
student at the end of each class to find an interesting newspaper article and to
summarise it to the other students during the next class, explaining why they
chose it. This can lead to interesting discussions about current issues.
● Newspaper treasure hunt
For this activity you will need a pile of old newspapers, enough to distribute
amongst teams of 4-5 students. Write a list of articles / words / pictures which the
students need to find, and give teams a copy of the list. Tell them to cut out their
'treasures' and glue them next to the appropriate word in the list (or make a note of
the page number). Possible list:
❍ A job advert
❍ Some good news
❍ Some bad news
❍ Reference to a famous political figure
❍ News about a star
❍ Weather forecast
❍ News about a sport
❍ Name of a country
❍ Favourite news item
● Gossip
This is an easy activity for helping students to summarise articles. For this activity
it is best to use tabloid newspapers or articles involving a bit of scandal, perhaps
about famous people. Teach students useful phrases for chatting or gossiping, e.
g. 'Have you heard about…?', 'Did you know that…?', 'Guess what?' etc. Use
appropriate gestures and intonation. Ask students to choose an article of their
choice, underline or jot down important parts of the article and report it to a friend,
as though having an informal chat. They could then go round the class, chatting
with different people about their news article. You could also teach students some
useful phrases for responding, e.g. 'Really? I don't believe it!', 'Are you joking?',
'How / when did it happen?'
● News programmes
This is a great team activity for both reading and speaking practise. Put students
into small teams and give them one or two recent newspapers. Tell them that they
are going to work together to produce a news programme, including the headlines,
special reports, interviews, perhaps some footage from a story (if students like
acting!), perhaps the weather forecast. Their programme should be based on
news items from the papers, and everyone must be involved in some way. If you
have the equipment, you might like to film the programmes, or if not, each team
could act out their programme to the rest of the class.
Related
BBC World Service - Learning English - News in English
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Text quickies
Lindsay Clandfield, Teacher trainer and materials writer, Spain

Here are two text quickies that I like to use with my learners to prepare them for reading
or to follow up on a text they have read. They can easily be used with any text and take
no longer than five minutes each.
Pair text predictions. This is a before-reading activity.
Procedure
● Find a picture that can go with your text. If there isn't a picture already with it (from
a newspaper for example) use an internet image search to find something suitable.
● Show the students the picture and tell them it is related to the text they are going
to read. Then put it on the board.
● Tell students to work in pairs, A and B. Write two key words from the text up on
the board next to the picture. Ask the As to tell the Bs what they think the text will
be about, based on the picture and the two words. Give a couple of minutes, then
stop them.
● Write two more key words, and ask the Bs to do the same, explaining to A what
they think the text is about and including the key words. After two minutes, stop
them as well.
● Repeat steps 3 and 4, adding more words each time.
● When you've done a dozen or so words, distribute the text for the students to read
to themselves. Whose predictions were closer as to what was in the text?
Text recap This is an after-reading activity.
Procedure
● Tell students to hide the text (close their books, or turn the page over if the text is
on a handout).
● Choose a paragraph or two from the text (if it's a short text you can do this with the
whole thing). Explain that you are going to read the paragraph(s) aloud and that,
when you pause, the students should supply the missing word.
● Read the text and pause at different areas. Pause before words that should be
easily guessed. This could be to highlight grammatical features (pausing before a
certain preposition, or verb form) or lexical features (pausing before a collocation,
or new word that the students learnt during the lesson).
● When you pause, raise your eyes and wait for students to call out the missing
word. When they call it out the correct word, continue reading.
● Do this until you finish the whole paragraph(s) you chose.
Top of page
Reading Aloud
Anthony Sloan, British Council, Warsaw
These activities describe different ways you and your students can read text aloud in
order to develop your students' feeling for the music of the language.
● Not only individual sounds, but the way words connect, intonation and rhythm are
all important in coming across as an effective, natural-sounding speaker of
English. It can be helpful for students to have practice in stretching speech, in
playing with it, in exaggerating to help them overcome shyness. You can help in
this regard by playing with the language yourself, by making fun of it, by putting on
different accents, etc, and by encouraging your students to do the same.
● Having a small piece of text which students are familiar with gives them a secure
footing from which to jump in different directions.
Activities you can try

Begin with any text that you have already been looking at for some other purpose.
Choose any of the following ways to play with it:

Students read the text out in turns, each person reading just 2 words, or 1 word, at
a time. The idea is to try to get the passage to flow smoothly and with proper
intonation.
●
One person reads aloud, and another acts as conductor. Arms up means loud,
arms down means soft. Or arms left means slow, arms right means fast. Or, the
conductor can conduct a choral reading of the passage.
●
You mime an action from the text. Students respond with the corresponding
sentence.
●
Students sing the text to a well-known melody. They have to try to fit the words to
the music.
●
You write on the board or clap out the stress pattern of a phrase from the text.
Students try to read out the appropriate phrase, or any phrase which fits. For
example: Ba BA ba-da BA = 'a phrase from the text'.
●
Students compete to see who can read a passage the fastest - without any
mistakes.
●
For comprehension, one students reads, another translates into the mother tongue.
●
Students read according to an adverb, which other students can suggest, such as
'nervously', 'sadly', 'angrily' etc.
Top of page
The spending maze

By Emma Pathare
This is an integrated reading and speaking activity for intermediate (or higher) level
students. They make decisions in pairs or groups with the aim of spending one million
euros. It is based on a 'maze' principle, which gives students different options and a
variety of different financial outcomes. There isn't one 'correct' answer, so different groups
find themselves spending the money different ways - so you can use the activity several
times with the same class. It is an excellent, fun way to practice the 'functional' language
of agreement and disagreement, suggestion and negotiation in a genuinely
'communicative' activity.
Materials
Download maze activity cards >> 95k pdf
Procedure
Set the context for your students:

The students have won one million euros and want to spend it in the best
possible way. You can set the context by describing the situation, telling an
anecdote, showing a picture or posing some discussion questions. I find that
students love to talk about their experiences and ambitions - ask them if they have
ever won anything and ask them what they would do if they won lots of money.
●
When the context has been established, put the students in groups of 2 to 5. The
activity can be run as a whole class activity with you using one set of cards. The
students ask you for the card they have chosen after each discussion. This works
best if there aren't too many groups, maybe three or four maximum. You can also
run the activity as independent group work, with a set of cards for each group.
With both these ways, make sure the cards are put back in the pack once the
group has moved to the next card.
●
Explain the activity. Students listen to or read what is written on the first card. They
must then discuss the different options and come to an agreement about what to

do. They then read the next card until they reach a conclusion and find out if they
spent the money wisely or not. It is absolutely vital that the students really discuss
each option and its possible implications; if they don't, they will finish very quickly
and will not have had the speaking practice that the activity is intended to provide.
●
Your role: Walk around and listen to the groups. You may have to help lower
levels with the reading. (One of the great things about this activity is that students
have a powerful reason to want to understand.) If groups are not really discussing
much, ask questions about their reasons for their decisions and prompt them to
discuss more. Before you start the activity, think carefully about how to group the
students. How can you best encourage speaking?
Vocabulary pre-teaching
Especially at lower levels, it can be a good idea to pre-teach vocabulary which you know
the students will need for the activity. The maze gives them the chance to learn the words
by using them!
Here is a list of words related to business and finance used in the maze. You could focus
on some or all of these.
business interest to invest

bank in competition full-time/part-time
to employ colleagues to run a business
to resign insurance property business
company salary expand a business
manager boss making money
to retire to sue transaction
court bills to gamble
lawyer risk
Functional language pre-teaching

I it can really help the flow of conversation if students are confident in using functional
language. In this activity, students will be discussing, negotiating and making decisions.
They may also be arguing, disagreeing and changing their minds! Think of the different
expressions and structures we use when we do these things; for example:
"I think we should . . ."

●
"That's a good idea but . . ."

●
"What about . . ."

●
"Let's . . ."
●
"I don't agree with . . . "

●
"I've changed my mind."
Top of page
Lexical Approach Classroom Activities

Carlos Islam, The University of Maine
Ivor Timmis, Leeds Metropolitan University
These activities are only available as a download because they are fairly long and provide
full reading texts. They are related to the THINK article - Lexical Approach 1 - - What
does the lexical approach look like?

We recommend you look at these classroom activities after you have read this THINK
article and before you read the other THINK article - Lexical Approach 2(coming soon).
These classroom activities are based on reading texts and provide classroom materials
that are informed by the lexical approach. There are also questions for you, the teacher,
to answer that will help you reflect further on your understanding of the lexical approach.
Lexical Approach Activity 1
This download contains two reading texts with classroom materials.

Both reading texts relate to the topic of School Days.
The materials are suitable for classes of intermediate level and above.
There is also a description of the aims or goals of the teaching materials and there are
questions for you to reflect upon as a teacher.
Download Activity 1 worksheets 18k pdf >>
Lexical Approach Activity 2
This download contains a single text which describes a memorable occasion.
There are 14 ideas for how to exploit this, or any similar, text and how to draw students'
attention to the lexical items in the text. These activity types are provided with comments
to explain their purpose.
The materials are suitable for classes of intermediate level and above.
Download Activity 2 worksheets 15k pdf >>
Related
Think - Lexical Approach 1
Top of page
WWW reading task - Holidays on the web

Sam Shepherd, Eastbourne School of English
Simple search tasks are incredibly easy to set students using the web as a language
learning tool. They don't have to be particularly complicated, or even well-researched,
although this helps! A simple task I have used with students is to set your students the
task of finding out about holiday information (although the same process could be used for
just about any type of information, for example buying a car or presents for your family)
Firstly, prepare a worksheet something like this:
"The 14th of next month is my girlfriend's birthday. I would like to take her to Rome the
weekend afterwards (18th - 20th). Can you find out how much it would cost for two return
air fares from London Gatwick? When we get there we need a place to stay, but I don't
want to spend more than 100 Euros a night. Can you find a hotel near the city centre? I
would also like to find out what plays are on at the theatre…"
You could alter this. For example to review sports vocabulary, you could ask them to find
out what sports are popular in your chosen destination.
This can work quite well on its own, but to make it more communicative, get your learners
to work in pairs or small groups of three with each group finding out about a different city

with a set budget. The class then decide which city would be best - perhaps based on
information about your personal tastes and interests, so they have to decide which city
break would be best for you.
If you only have one or two PCs available for your class, set different students the task
over the course of a week before conducting a discussion at the end.
You can control the answers more, and speed up the task by suggesting sites for your
students to use, but this may remove a degree of authenticity from the task - most of us,
faced with this kind of task would either use a selection of known names, or go to a
directory.
Related
Think - Designing a WWW reading task

Think - Using the Internet 1
Think - Using the Internet 2
Top of page
Teaching poetry using DARTs

Cheron Verster, teacher trainer and materials writer, South Africa
Directed activities related to texts (DARTs) are activities which get students to interact
with texts. Their aim is to improve students' reading comprehension and to make them
critical readers. Here are some examples of DARTs that are based on the poem "When I
heard the learned astronomer" by Walt Whitman.
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure
them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much
applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
Reconstruction activities
● Prediction activity
Here are the first four lines of Walt Whitman's poem,' When I heard the learned
astronomer'. Read them and then discuss what you think Walt Whitman did when
he heard the astronomer.
When I heard the learn'd astronomer,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide and
measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much
applause in the lecture-room,
I…
● Sequencing activity
Here are the first two lines of Walt Whitman's poem, 'When I heard the learned
astronomer.'
When I heard the learned astronomer,


The remaining lines of the poem are below, but they are in the wrong order.
Decide what order the lines should be in, and say why.
a. Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself,

b. Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.
c. How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
d. When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
e. In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time,
f. When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and
measure them,
Top of page
● Table completion
Use the information in the poem to complete the following table.
Lines 1 - 4 Lines 5 - 8
Venue
Number of people present
Whitman's position
What could be heard
What could be seen
Analysis activities
● Text segmenting activity

❍ This poem seems to divide into two halves. Find the halves. Then give
each half a label.
● Questioning activity
❍ Teacher's questions
■ As you read the poem, look for answers to the following questions::
What word is used to describe the astronomer?

How did most people react to the astronomer?
How did Whitman react to the astronomer?
Why do you think he reacted in this way?
Why do you think Whitman used the word "gliding" instead of
"walking" in line 6?
What contrasts can you find in the poem? For example, Whitman is
with many people at the beginning of the poem but he is on his own
at the end of the poem.
Why do you think Whitman uses these contrasts in the poem?
❍ Students' questions
■ Write 3 - 5 questions on this poem. Swap them with a partner.
Answer your partner's questions.
■ What would you ask an astronomer if you met one?

If you had had a chance to meet Walt Whitman, what would you
have asked him about this poem?
Related
Article - Interacting with texts
Top of page

Jigsaw reading
Gareth Rees, teacher and materials writer, London Metropolitan University
This is an approach to reading that involves the students in speaking and summarising
skills. It is very useful when working with short authentic texts such as newspaper articles.
Jigsaw reading can be done in two ways
● Two separate stories

❍ If you have two news stories that share a theme - for example two
separate stories on crime - prepare comprehension questions for each

story. Give one half of the class (Group A) one story, and the other half
(Group B) the other. The students read their article, answer the questions
and check understanding. Students then pair up with someone from the
other group and tell them about their story, and listen to the other one. To
help students remember their story you may get them to take notes.
Alternatively, the students can keep the article with them to refer to. Be
careful though, as lazier (or ingenious) students will either read the article
aloud, or simply give it to their partner to read!!
● One story split in two

❍ Some stories can be clearly divided in two. Follow the same procedure as
above, but giving each group only one half of the story. When the students
are recounting their half of the article, make sure that the student with the
opening half goes first.
Once the students have orally exchanged stories, they should then read the other
person's article.
As a refinement, you can give student B questions to quiz student A about their article.
Jigsaw reading is a great way to introduce speaking into a reading lesson. It provides a
real opportunity for genuine communication. In real life, we may tell people about a news
article we have read, so this is a classroom activity that is fairly authentic.
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Working with classroom readers

Monica Castiglioni
There are many ways you can work with classroom readers that are more inspiring and
engaging than standard approaches, which can have negative effects on learning.
Answering questions may become simply a repetition of what is written in the story. The
simple retelling of a paragraph may become an instrument to "drill and kill" students' use
of language. Comprehension questions may turn into a dissection of the text, while the
pleasure of reading is left aside.
We can help children experience the story from the inside out, not from the outside
looking in. The key word is "engagement". Helping learners become better readers (and
writers) implies dealing with the organization of ideas: the know-how to distinguish a main
idea from a secondary one, and it means that students must be aware that there are
connections between ideas at paragraph and text level. Activities designed for readers
must not be artificial but opportunities to engage the students' minds, interests and
feelings.
Some activities to do with texts
Pre-reading activities
● Predicting from...
❍ first or last lines
❍ visuals
❍ a key word
❍ the title
● Matching titles of books with extracts

● Ordering pictures from the story and predicting the order in which they will appear
● Asking about pictures
● Brainstorming related vocabulary
Post-reading activities
● Matching pictures and quotations from the text

● Casting film stars to act the different characters
● Interviewing the characters
● Creating a time line of the story
● Dramatizing a part of the story
● Questioning the author of the book
● Creating a new character
● Writing the diary of one of the characters
● Writing a review for a specialized magazine
● Designing a poster to advertise the book
● Changing the end of the story
● Comprehension activities:
❍ Reordering sequences from the story
❍ Writing questions on the text
❍ Taking notes
❍ Inventing another title
❍ Un-jumbling texts
❍ Correcting a summary
Related
Think - Using news articles

Think - Creative writing as language practice
Send us an activity
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BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Activities - Vocabulary
Home > Try > Activities > Vocabulary
Vocabulary activities Activities contents
Practical activities to help students with vocabulary learning. Speaking
Vocabulary
● Adopt a word Writing
● Lexical threads Pronunciation
● The memory game Revision
● Making it up - Phrasal verb stories Listening
● Word grid Resources
Try
● Poetic introductions / Picture game Reading
Activities Other
● Snake-word
Tips The fly swatter game
●
Other features
Lesson Plans ● Definitions - Get rid of it
● Word guessing games 1
● 'Wall dictionary' Articles
● Same, opposite or different dictation
● Vocabulary box
● Hot seat Questions
● Vocabulary phonemic revision activity
● Vocabulary self-study activities
Quizzes
● Washing line - teaching clothes vocabulary
Other sites
Adopt a word
Sameena Rizavi, Pakistan
Send us an email
At the start of the school year I ask my students to 'Adopt a word' and share it with the
class.
Procedure
● I give my students templates with headings:
Word Meaning Part of speech Example of usage
● The students choose a word that they would like to adopt and do some research
on it using the template above.
● Each student then gives a short presentation on his or her adopted word until all
the class has had a chance.
● The words are then stuck to a large paper chart on the wall.
● This activity carries on the entire year with students sharing more and more
words.
● In between we have quizzes about the new words. The students greatly enjoy
contributing words, researching and presenting.
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Lexical threads
These are two of the lexical threads that I use when dealing with the vast amounts of
words that come up within my own classroom teaching.
The main beauty of lexical threads is that they become familiar to the learners, they are
easy to plan and aid memory. After doing these activities once the students don't need
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/vocabtry/vocab_activities.shtml (1 of 11)08/11/2005 12.49.21

any further explanation of what to do when they are repeated. This leaves the teacher
important time to listen to the students without worrying about how to manage the activity.
Thread 1 The verb dome

This is a favourite of activity of my learners that originally started out as a warmer. One of
my students gave it its name and it just stuck. This is not linked to any themes or part of
the course but it enables students to see how much they know in a fun way.
Preparation
You only need the board and a pen and most importantly your students.
Procedure
● First split the students up into two groups. Have one student give you a letter from
the alphabet (make sure they don't say Z or X though).
● Then have each group call out a verb, in its infinitive form that begins with the
letter chosen. Each group calls out a new word and you record it on the board.
The group who can't think of anymore loses.
With this activity you will find you can write a lot of language on the board. It is highly
motivating when learners see how much they know. For this activity language emerges
from the knowledge of the students and Teaching is kept to a minimum. I find that if
someone shouts out a word the others don't know, instead of having to teach the word,
the students usually tell each other what the word means as the games goes on. It helps
them recall words they may have only seen once or twice and aids memory.
Follow up
After a few classes you can choose another letter and do this again or ask for them to do
this for collocations of phrasal verbs. This time the students call out the verb and must
complete it with another word that collocates naturally with the other. For phrasal verbs
have the learners call out the phrasal verb with following noun or phrase that helps them
show they understand its meaning.
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Thread 2 Pre-teaching slips

This activity is useful when I come across a new unit of language in the course book or
start a new theme or topic we are about to discuss.
Preparation
First preview the new language that you think will be useful or which your learners may
need to complete the task. As the heading says, this activity consists of slips of paper with
L2 collocations or idioms on one side and their translation or definition on the other. You'll
need to prepare these before class.
Procedure
● With the learners seated show one phrase to the first student, have them
pronounce the phrase correctly. When they have done this give them the phrase.
Next do the same with the next student with a new phrase and do this with the rest
of the group until all of the phrases have been given out.
● Have the students stand up and 'teach' their information to the others. They must
make sure each person pronounces their information correctly before showing it to
the next one.
● When all of the learners have seen all of the phrases collect the slips and have
learners sit down.
● Now mix up the slips and approach each student individually and show the first
slip of paper and have them explain the definition or say the translation. If they get
it right, show the slip to everyone and put it away for the next phase.
● Go to the next learner and do the same. If one should get it wrong move round to
the next student until you receive the correct answer. Again put the slip away.
● When all this exercise has been successfully completed do it all over again, this
time with the translation or definition side being shown so the learners have to say
the word.

● Pronunciation is an important requirement at this stage. When all of the slips have
been said correctly put them away.
● Now have the students write them all down in their notebooks (for teens I give
them a prize if they can note down correctly all of the vocabulary covered in the
exercise)
Even if you do about 30 phrases, it is amazing how many students can remember even in
the next class and by writing them down they have something to look back to should they
forget.
Since this is a pre-teaching task students will see these again and again through the next
few weeks of your teaching. This will give them a chance to notice their use in context and
more importantly have opportunities to use them.
This activity is an adaptation of an activity I once saw at a Braz-Tesol workshop. It helps

students to see, hear and feel the words and allows intonation and connected speech to
be emphasised. In the original you had the English word on one side of the paper and the
translation on the other. This way it either uses translation or with higher levels write a
short definition instead of the learners L1. I recommend that each side should be written in
different colours so you don't get mixed up as to which side is which, and also this should
stimulate visual learners.
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The memory game

This is an adaptation of the popular game we all played as children when we had to pick
up matching pictures, but in this activity we use the two parts of collocations.
Preparation
During regular classes, note down the word combinations that come up. Then put each
part or the collocation on 2 separates pieces of paper. Here is an example I had when we
were taking about the environment. The word combination were
ozone layer
oil spils
environmentally friendly
cut down trees
greenhouse effect
animal poaching
endangered species
melting polar ice-caps
recycle waste
The first part of each phrase should be written on one coloured sheet of paper, or if you
haven't got coloured paper in a different coloured pen. Then with a different coloured pen ,
or paper, write the second part of the phrase, for example, 'ozone' on the first and 'layer'
on the second.
● Procedure
Put the all of the first parts of each phrase together, face down on the floor. Then
mix up the second group of words / phrases face down , in a separate group to the
first.
● In groups students work together to pick up one piece of paper from each group
so as to make a phrase from the previous class.
● As the students match them up incorrectly students start to recall the correct
collocation or phrase.
● The activity is fun which also aids efficient memorising of the target language. The
more opportunities we allow out students to see the words the more likely they are
to actually have them 'stuck in their heads' for easy access at a later stage.

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Making it up - Phrasal verb stories

Jackie McAvoy, Teacher and materials writer, British Council, Tunisia
A persistent problem area for students is phrasal verbs. This story activity presents the
verbs in a context helping the students to work out the meaning. It is also memorable so
it's easier for students to remember them too.
● Preparation
Have each of the phrasal verbs from the story written on a piece of card, large
enough for all the students to read. Have the verbs in their infinitive form e.g. to go
out with / to turn up / to break down etc. Also make sure the pronoun is in the
correct place depending on whether the verb can be separated from the particle or
not e.g. to get on with something / to ask somebody in etc.
Download sample story >> 45k
Procedure
● Read out the story to the class slowly using gestures and miming to help meaning.
Place a phrasal verb on the board each time you say one.
● After each paragraph invite students, with your help, to repeat the story with you.
● Once all the story has been presented put students in pairs and, using the cards
on the board as prompts, get students to tell each other the story. Monitor and
after they have all tried to say the story get them to tell you it themselves without
you saying a word.
● Keeping the students in pairs hand out the cards (have copies ready if you have a
large class) so that each pair gets about 5 or 6 each. Working together the
students have to make up a very short story using the verbs. Use the same verbs
from the story. They can write the story down if they want.
● When they have finished students have a few minutes to remember their story so
that they can tell it to somebody without looking.
● When the students have finished swap partners and get them to take it in turns to
tell their story. The students should not be looking at their stories just
remembering them. The listener can listen out for which phrasal verbs are being
used.
● For consolidation/revision you can make a matching verb and definition exercise
with the more difficult verbs:
to call (somebody) out to have no more

to run out (of) to leave suddenly, quickly, unexpectedly
to pop out to telephone somebody in order to get help
You can also provide a speaking activity that personalises the verbs:
● How long should you go out with somebody before getting married?
● Does you teacher sometimes pop out of the class? Why?
Related
Download - Quizzes - Vocabulary and phrasal verbs
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Word grid
Nik Peachey, teacher, trainer and materials writer, British Council
I've commonly found that although students are able to remember words and what they
mean, they still have problems when they actually try to use the words in a sentence. This
is an activity which I found useful to highlight the problem and to move students'
knowledge of the word on to beyond what the word means.

Preparation
● Collect together a list of words your students have learnt recently and some quick
definitions of the word. Draw a large grid on the board. The size will depend on the
number of students you have, but limit to a maximum of twenty as beyond this,
their concentration is likely to lapse.
Procedure
● Read out one of the definitions and see if the students can remember the word. As
students guess the words write them up on the board in one of the spaces on the
grid. You can make this stage more competitive by putting students into groups
and awarding point.
● Keep reading out definitions and getting the students to guess the words until the
grid is completely full of words.
● Then put the students into pairs or small groups and get each group to choose two
of the words from the grid. Try to make sure that each group has different words
and that as many of the words as possible from the grid are chosen.
● Once the groups have chosen their words, tell them that they must write a single
sentence that uses both words and that you will award points for the most
interesting sentences. At this point it's better to focus them on the creativity rather
than accuracy of the sentences.
● Once all the groups have written their sentences you could either get a volunteer
to write each sentence on the board, or read the sentences out. At this point you
should award points for the sentences for their creativity and good use of the
words.
● Try to involve the class in voting for the sentences that they like the most and
awarding points. You could even make this more fun by having number cards for
you or the students to hold up giving marks out of ten.
Follow up
● Once this is done you can then look at the sentences again to see how
grammatically accurate they are and how appropriately the students have used
the words. Particular things to look for are correct collocations and the appropriate
degree of formality etc.
● Try to get the students to check each other's work and see if they can correct any
errors. You may like to award extra points if they can find and correct errors in
their peers' work.
Another approach to correction that I've tried is taking the sentences in and looking at
them closely myself. Instead of correcting them though, I write up a list of collocations or
grammar 'rules' that have been broken and then give them back the sentences along with
the rules so that the students can find the errors and try to apply the rules themselves.
This is a variation on an activity that I first saw in a book called 'A way with words' By
Stuart Redman and Robert Ellis.
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Poetic introductions / A picture game

Martha Valenzuela, Honduras
One way to introduce vocabulary could be having your students write poems.
● It sounds difficult, but you can make one yourself, such as "I am a teacher, I work
hard, I love my students, and they love me too."
● Tell them that you want to be the first to have the poem they write before it is
published.
● Give them the words you want them to use

● Perhaps elicit some rhyming words for this vocabulary set

● Students may work in pairs or individually
● You can display the poems around the wall for the students to walk around - in
pairs - and give some kind of mark or comment of appreciation
Another way is to use the words in a picture game.
● Have each student write a card with the written word and one with a drawing or a
magazine (or similar) cut-out.
● Put 20 of them in line face down (one line for words and one for pictures).
● Each student lifts one picture and a word. If they match, he gets one point.
● If not, s/he puts them back.
● The others probably will take notice where the answer is.
● You have to have a place where they will not disturb other classes, because it gets
noisy.
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Snake-word
Bernard Ouedraog, Burkina Faso
To check how rich my students' vocabulary is, I have them play the snake-word game.
Each row or team sends a representative to the blackboard. He/she chooses a coloured
piece of chalk and they stand in a line. I write a letter and the first student must write a
word beginning with that letter; the following student writes a word beginning with the last
letter of the previous word:
For example: D Data Amount Tomato On Narrow What........
They should write the words so that they make a snake…
Datamountomatonarrowhat….
Time is limited, depending on the level of the class. After the time devoted has passed,
and you haven't written a word, you pass your turn. If you pass your turn 3 times, you are
replaced by another pupil in your row/team. Only two replacements are allowed. After
that, the row/team is eliminated.
I teach English as a second language. We have an English club where students improve
their skills after classes. They have debates, film shows, writing activities… Visit us at
englishclub
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The fly swatter game

Carol Haring, USA
Here is a lively and distinctive activity to practise vocabulary.
When we have a new list of 15 or 20 words from a chapter, I play the fly swatter game. I
write the words (without the article for nouns) in large print in rows across the board. Then
I divide the class into two teams. The first time around with the fly swatters, I explain how
the game works. After that, it's not necessary.
(A fly swatter is an instrument used to kill flies. It consists of a small square piece of
material or mesh which is on the end of a short flexible stick. it makes a great thwacking
noise when hit onto a wall or similar surface)
For those not familiar with the fly swatter game, one student from each team comes to the
front of the room facing the class, with their back to the board. Each has a fly swatter.
When I say a word, they have to turn around, look over the words on the board and touch

the word I've said with the fly swatter. The first one to touch the word gets a point for their
team. There are some other basic rules: 1) You may not hit another student with the fly
swatter. 2) You may not throw the fly swatter at anyone. 3) You may not "block" another
player with your arm or your body to prevent them from getting at a word.
For the first round, I tell the class we're going to start with something easy. I say the word
in English and the two at the front have to find it. The one who touches it first with the fly
swatter gets the point. I do this until every person on each team has been at the board
once.
Then we do round two, with the same words on the board. I pair the students up
differently so that they are competing against a different person from the opposite team.
This time I say the word in the studetns native language and they have to find the English.
(Obviously, this round is for monolingual classes)
For the third round, I give clues such as:
Find something you can sit on (chair, couch, bed, carpet when we did items in a room, for
instance). If they touch a word that's plausible, they get the point.
Find something that you can wear on your feet (when we did clothing)
Find a male family member (when we did family words)
Find something you usually do indoors (when we had activity verbs - play cards, go
hiking, play the piano, go horse riding).
For each round, I make sure every student has a chance at the board. I find this repetition
helps, plus we have lots of laughs as we do it and I think that aids retention, too.
Happy swatting!
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Definitions - Get rid of it

This game can be adapted for matching definitions to words or matching opposites.
You need two sets of cards. White cards for the words and another colour (yellow?) for
the questions. Put all questions in a bag or hat at the start of the game.
Give each student at least three word cards, placed in front of them on their desks.
Choose one card from the hat and read the question. Students study their word cards.
Whoever has the corresponding word can get rid of it. The winner gets rid of all his cards
first.
Example questions on cards:
What type of animal has kittens?

What’s the opposite of the verb ‘to borrow’?
What do you call a person who cuts hair?
Where can you buy medicine?
This activity first appeared on the British Council Language Assistant web site
Go to this site >>
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Word guessing games 1

The following games can be played throughout the school year but are also very useful as
a round up at the end of term. You can play them a few times. First play with the whole

class and then try in groups (good for mixed ability groups).
Guess the word (can be used for abstract nouns)

Choose five words relating to recent conversational themes. Write sets of clues to
help students guess the words. Play with whole class or teams. Use one word per
lesson over five lessons or use all words in one session as a longer game.
Example clues:
I am a noun but I am very important.

I begin with the letter ‘f’.
People in prison have lost it and want it back.
People demand it when it is taken away by dictators.
It is related to speech.
(Puzzle word = Freedom)
Coffee Pot game (a very popular game in EFL)

This game is good for practising and reviewing action verbs and adverbs.
Ask one student to leave the room then the rest of the class choose a verb e.g.
type, ski, fly.
The student returns to the room and asks questions to guess the verb. The
missing verb can be substituted with coffeepot
Example questions:
Why do you coffee pot?

Where do you coffee pot?
Do you coffee pot by yourself?
Do you need any special equipment for coffee potting?
These activities first appeared on the British Council Language Assistant web site Go to
this site >>
Top of page
'Wall dictionary'
Nonia Gao, China
This is a good way to help kids learn and review their vocabulary. It really helps them with
the alphabet and spelling.
Procedure:
1) Prepare a colourful piece of paper which can be used as a background for the wall
dictionary.
2) Sew 26 pockets on it (or use glue/sticky tape) and label each pocket with a letter of the
alphabet
3) Ask the children to prepare sets of letter cards by writing the 26 letters on some small
pieces of paper. They put their letters into the pockets as soon as they can.
We can use this wall dictionary at any time to practise spelling.
For example, divide the class into three or four groups. They listen to words and then
choose letters from the pockets to spell the words.
Of course, you can make several wall dictionaries so that students can play at the same
time without fighting.
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Same, opposite or different dictation

Ana Paola Reginatto, Italy
This is an activity for advanced or, at least, upper intermediate students.
Dictate to the students pairs of words (e.g. hold/embrace, high/tall) and ask them to
classify the pairs as Same, Opposite or Different. Once you have finished dictating the
pairs of words, the students should compare their choices with their partner and explain
their reasons, especially the pairs classified as different (why are they different?) or same
(are they always synonyms? Are there slight differences in meaning and connotation? Are
there differences in collocation). If you wanted, students could use dictionaries to check
ideas.
After the students have discussed the words, elicit the pairs to the board and deal with
spelling, pronunciation and meaning.
This activity can be done to introduce vocabulary that will be found in a text, listening
activity or song lyrics, but also for reviews. So, you find words in the text, and think of
partners for them for the S.O.D. dictation.
The activity is demanding but it is an excellent way to explore vocabulary and shades of
meaning.
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Vocabulary Box
Gillie Cunningham
A small box, such as a shoe box, is a very useful tool in the classroom - it can become a
vocabulary box. You also need some small blank cards or pieces of paper.
At the end of each vocabulary lesson - for example 'Houses and Homes' - either you or
the students should write words from the lesson on different cards. So, you may end up
with ten words on ten cards - bedroom, kitchen, roof, window…- and these cards are then
placed in the vocabulary box. If you have time, and with better classes, you, or the
students, may write a definition of the word on the reverse of each card.
This vocabulary box can then be used at any time to review the vocabulary studied over
the weeks.
You could simply pick words from the box at random, give the definition and ask for the
word. This can be done as a simple team game.
Or you may try something more active. For example, when you've had this vocabulary box
for a month or two months and there are quite a lot of cards in there, you might say to the
students 'OK, collectively I want all these cards divided into nouns, adjectives and verbs
… Go! You have three minutes'. Or, you might say 'OK I want all these cards divided into
lexical sets … Go!'. Or, you might say 'Each corner of the room is a different lexical set -
that one's furniture, that one's medicine, that one is food and that one is sport. Put the
cards in the right corner, you have one minute to do this…Go!'. Then they're all running
around trying to get their words in the right corner. This could also be done in teams,
giving each team a handful of words to sort.
This box just becomes so flexible in how you can use it. It could be at the end of the
lesson. For example 'You can't leave the classroom until you've defined two words that
are in the box'. Vocabulary boxes are fantastic and they take so little time but provide so
many activities.
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Hot seat
Callum Robertson
This is a good activity for getting your students going in the morning. It is also excellent for
revising vocabulary.

● First, split your class into different teams (two is best, but if you have a large class,
any number could be used).
● Sit the students facing the board.
● Then take an empty chair - one for each team - and put it at the front of the class,
facing the team members. These chairs are the 'hot seats'
● Then get one member from each team to come up and sit in that chair, so they are
facing their team-mates and have their back to the board.
● As the teacher, have a list of vocabulary items that you want to use in this game.
● Take the first word from that list and write it clearly on the board.
● The aim of the game is for the students in the teams to describe that word, using
synonyms, antonyms, definitions etc. to their team mate who is in the hot seat -
that person can't see the word!
● The student in the hot seat listens to their team mates and tries to guess the word.
● The first hot seat student to say the word wins a point for their team.
● Then change the students over, with a new member of each team taking their
place in their team's hot seat.
● Then write the next word…
This is a very lively activity and can be adapted to different class sizes. If you have many
teams, perhaps some teams wait to play. Or if the team sizes are large, you can restrict
how many team members do the describing. Have fun!
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Vocabulary phonemic revision activity

Elisabeth Boeck
I am a great believer in teaching phonetic script with new words, alongside their spelling,
stress patterns and L1 equivalents. Being able to work out the correct pronunciation of a
word from the dictionary all on their own helps the learner to become autonomous and
independent of any 'helpers' in real life situations.
So one of my revision exercises goes like this:
I draw up a list of the new words recently encountered in class, but I do so exclusively in
phonetic script.
The class is divided into groups A and B. I hand out one list to each group. In their groups,
students work out the 'real' form of their words. The teacher goes round checking for
correctness.
Then group A gets a separate copy of group B's word list (phonetic). Group B students
take turns dictating their words to group A, making up sentences with each respective
word. Group A write down the words next to the already provided phonemic script.
The same procedure is used by group A testing their words on group B.
We then make transparency copies of both lists, put them on the OHP, and in plenum
check for correct spelling. Also in plenum, words are translated into their L1 equivalents.
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Vocabulary self-study activities

Elisabeth Boeck
Here are some tips you can give your students to help them with their vocabulary
acquisition and self study.
● Make your own word box

❍ Use one card per word, with the English on one side and a translation on
the other.
❍ Test yourself with the cards, sort them into categories, play games with
them.

● Find a good basic vocabulary word list, say of about 1 - 2000 words which are
sorted according to subject areas.
❍ Revise 8 words per day regularly.In your mind, try to lock the particular
word onto the image of an object (e.g. 'influenza' - think of a person

sneezing.
❍ To practise, randomly pick a number of words and make up a simple, but
probably crazy, story using the words. You can do the same with the words
in your vocabulary box.
● Have a good general attitude towards words

❍ Note down all new words.
❍ 'Fish for language' by going through life with an open eye and attentive ear.
❍ 'Soliloquize', i.e. translate along in your mind silently
■ as you are doing things (as if you were speaking to an imaginary
friend by your side)

■ as you are listening to the news
■ as you watch people doing something
■ as you see any object around
● Read aloud to yourself from printed text.

❍ Increase your exposure to words
❍ Television
❍ BBC Radio (shortwave world receiver)
❍ Books
❍ Magazines Newspapers (from UK/USA)
❍ English-language films on video
❍ Pop songs (wonderful for vocabulary and grammar!)
❍ Correspondence with an English native speaker pen-friend
Top of page
'The Washing Line' - teaching clothes vocabulary
Ece Sevil, Turkey
This is a good vocabulary activity to use with younger learners
To teach the names of clothes, I have my students cut a page of a newspaper in the
shape of a hat, gloves, trousers, etc. Then, using a washing line and clothes pegs, I ask
my students to hang their projects on the washing line. My students repeat the names of
the clothes after me. After teaching the vocabulary of clothes, I ask them to close their
eyes while I hide some of the clothes. A few seconds later I ask them to open their eyes
and name the missing clothes and then to find them.
This activity is both very useful and enjoyable for my students.
Related
Articles - Vocabulary and autonomy

Questions and answers - Vocabulary for beginners
Send us an activity
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BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Activities - Resources
Home > Try > Activities > Resources
Resource activities Activities contents
Practical activities and advice for developing resources Speaking
Vocabulary
● Using magazines Writing
● Story telling Pronunciation
● Activities for using comic strips Revision
● Using flash cards Listening
● Video lesson 1 - Animated stories Resources
Try
● Video lesson 2 - Documentary Reading
Activities Other
● Video lesson 3 - TV advertisements
Tips Guide to setting up an English Learning Circle
●
Other features
Lesson Plans ● Learning Circle ideas checklist
Articles
Using magazines
Jo Bertrand, Teacher, Materials writer, British Council, Paris
Questions
Magazines are a great source of ideas and materials for teaching and can keep your
students interested and talking for hours on a whole range of subjects.
Quizzes
A simple way to get students talking and sharing ideas, predicting the content of your
lesson and so arousing their interest is the following: Other sites
● Cut or copy magazine titles from a range of magazines - football, fishing,

computer, teenage, business, mother and baby, housekeeping etc. and put them Send us an email
randomly onto the floor or board.
● In pairs the students have to count how many different types of magazine titles
they see and try and work out what each magazine is about.
● After comparing answers with other pairs and feeding back as a whole class you
can get them to say which ones they're more interested in and why. You can then
lead onto their reading habits.
❍ How often do they buy magazines?
❍ Do they buy particular magazines because of the subjects featured on the
front page or because they always buy the same magazine?

❍ How do they read the magazine - from cover to cover or do they go
straight to the featured articles or horoscopes?

❍ Most importantly, why do they do what they do?
Problem pages are great to use with teenagers as they can relate to the issues being
addressed. As a language focus they are also very useful for practising 'giving advice'
modals such as: should, could and must, and agreeing or disagreeing.
● Start by brainstorming the kinds of problems you find on a problem page.

● Give pairs a cut up copy of either a problem or the advice given. Give them time to
read and understand the gist.
● They could write a one sentence summary and then walk around the room reading
their sentence to other pairs until they find the corresponding problem or advice.
Then in their new groups of four they can decide whether they agree or disagree
with the advice given.
Teenage magazines generally have a few articles based on thought provoking subjects
which can really stimulate a class of teenagers.
● With a set of different teenage magazines let the students flick through them until
they find an article which interests them.
● Make sure they are careful with the magazines so you can use them again with
another class. Also for this part give them a limited amount of time to find an
article.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/resourcetry/resource_activities.shtml (1 of 10)08/11/2005 12.49.34

● They should read the titles, look at the pictures and skim the texts to get a general
idea of what the article is about rather than read the whole magazine.
● Once they've chosen their article give them time to read it in full. Remind them
though that they don't need to understand every word.
● If you have a large class then in groups of four they can take it in turns to tell the
others about their article. If your class is relatively small you can feedback in two
groups or as a whole class.
● Each time someone tells the others about their article pre-designate a couple of
people to ask questions at the end. This way they feel more involved and are more
likely to listen.
Horoscopes interest a lot of people, young or old, even if they don't always like to admit
it! In your English class you can use them to find out about your students' personalities
while having fun with the future.
● Give your class a list of adjectives from which they choose five that correspond to
their personality. If they know each other well they could choose the adjectives for
their friends.
● Briefly discuss the zodiac signs and the typical traits of each. Then from their
choices either you or the class could try and guess what zodiac sign they are most
likely to correspond to. If they do know each other very well then this is something
they may already know which is why you ask first and then guess yourself if that is
the case. You can go on to discuss whether they think they correspond to their
zodiac sign or not.
● Have a look at a magazine first to be sure you have an idea of the typical traits of
each sign. In any case they should know for their own sign.
● Find out about their reading habits and whether they read the horoscopes and to
what extent it can determine how they plan their day or week. This could then lead
on to a reading of the horoscopes for that week from the teenage magazine.
● Each person could read their own, as they might do in their own language, and
feedback to the class on what they've read. Ask them what tense is most used
(the future) and using this tense and the personality traits seen earlier they could
create their own horoscopes for someone in the class. If they do this in pairs they'll
have another opportunity to speak in English.
● To decide who they write it for put everyone's names into a hat and they pick them
randomly so each pair writes for two people. The final feedback could consist of
reading out loud their horoscopes.
Top of page
Story telling
Fiona Lawtie
Story telling activities are a great way to allow students to express themselves freely and
creatively in an authentic and real way.
Stories can be a very versatile and powerful teaching tool
● Stories are fun and motivational

● Stories allow students to be creative and imaginative
● Stories give students a sense of achievement
● Story telling gives students a chance to practice oral fluency and extended
discourse
● Stories introduce language in a comprehensible and meaningful way
● Stories are authentic
● Listening to stories can develop important skills such as prediction, guessing,
hypothesising, and message decoding
● Story telling can provide valuable cultural input
● If the students know the story in their L1 they can use this knowledge to help them
understand or tell the story in their L2
● There are lots of different fun activities that spin off from stories
Possible Sources of Stories

● You and your life

● Student's Lives
● Books, Magazines, Comics, Readers Digest, Newspapers,
● Pictures
● Internet
● Folk stories, Fairy stories, Disney etc.
● Local stories and legends
● Urban Legends
● Creating your own stories using words or pictures etc.
Choosing and preparing

● You need to find stories that are interesting to you and your students
● The stories should have values that are acceptable to you and your students
● You will need to decide which key words may need to be pre-taught
Activities that you can do

● Sharing personal life stories. Get students to divide a sheet of paper into four
boxes and then get them to draw pictures about one of the following or similar
topics:
❍ My life Story,
❍ My family story,
❍ What I did on my last holiday etc.
The students then tell each other their story based on the pictures they
have drawn. This works well if you model this on the board by drawing
your pictures and telling your story first.
● Tell a short funny story, joke or anecdote at the beginning of class as a warm up
and ask the students if they have any funny stories or jokes that they would like to
tell you.
● Stories and pictures. Get students to bring in cut out magazine pictures of their
favourite stars. Then write different words on the board such as love, jealousy,
fame, travel, murder, marriage, luxury hotel, boat, fast car, money, big dark house,
family, friends, accident, disappearance, theft, adventure, suspicious, secretive,
treasure, jewels, fortune, etc. Then tell the students they have 10-15 minutes to
make up an interesting story about their favourite stars. Tell the students they can
use any vocabulary or grammar that they want to but that they must use at least
five words from the board. Students then make up their stories and tell the rest of
the class or other groups their stories.
● Tell the students a simple urban legend or a ghost story and then get them to
tell you an urban legend or ghost story. Using pictures to help you tell a story is
always a good idea even if it is just stick figures drawn on the board as you are
telling the story.
● Give students a picture of someone or a picture of a face from a magazine
and write various questions on the board for students to discuss in pairs or groups.
Afterwards students can introduce and present their character to another pair or
group.
■ What does this person look like?
■ What do you think his/her name is?
■ Do you think he/she is happy? Sad? Why?
■ What do you think he/she is doing now? Why?
■ What kind of house do you think he/she lives in?
■ What kind of lifestyle do you think he/she leads?
■ What do you think his/her family is like?
■ What do you think his/her job is?
■ Do you think he/she likes their job?
■ What does he/she do in their free time?
■ Does he/she have any secrets?
■ Tell us about a typical day in your characters day
● Story Dominoes. Students work in small groups. Write the words in the boxes
below on to a set of cards, one word per card and give each group a set of cards
and tell them to divide the cards evenly amongst the group. The aim of the activity
is to tell a story in domino fashion.
❍ Student A puts down a card and starts the story then student B puts down
one of their cards and continues the story etc. until all the students have
used all their cards and the story is complete.
❍ Students then re-tell their story to another group and listen to other groups'
stories. You can easily make up your own story dominoes on other topics
such as Sci-Fi, Urban Life, Football, Harry Potter etc. or if you are artistic
you can even draw pictures on your dominoes instead of words.

One variation is to stick the words or pictures onto playing cards and the
students play story cards instead of story dominoes.
Words for Fantasy Story Dominoes

Ring Witch White Horse Dragon
Knight Wolf Storm

Broom
Dark Forest Princess Castle Sword
Wizard Queen Treasure Mountain
Envelope Magic Carpet Cave Bear
Sea Boat Giant Army
● Modern Children's Tales. Write the names of popular children's stories on the
board such as 'Goldilocks and the three bears', 'Peter Pan', 'Red Riding Hood',
'Jack and the Bean Stalk' etc. and ask if the students know these stories and can
tell them to you.
❍ Once the students have told you the rough outline of the stories put them
into pairs or small groups. Now tell the students that they have 10-15
minutes to re-create one of these stories in a different genre, for example
as a horror story, a detective story, a love story, an adventure story etc.
❍ Tell the students they are free to add in new characters or events if they
want to and that at the end of the activity they will vote on the most original
and creative story.
Top of page
Activities for using comic strips

Clare Lavery, freelance materials writer
Comic strips can be used from beginner level to advanced level for a variety of language
and discussion activities.
They are powerful teaching tools and can;
● Tell a complex story in a few images

● Provide comment and provoke thought on events and issues in the news
● Give an example of vocabulary related to current trends and fads
● Provide easily identifiable characters to form the basis for sketches
● Show culture in action with the ways that men or women are behaving and are
expected to behave
Tell the story
● Cut up the pictures and get students to re order the story. Make this more difficult
and challenging linguistically by giving separate frames to each student in a group
and ask them to not show the pictures until they have arrived at an order through
describing the pictures.
● Remove the last picture of a cartoon and ask students to think of an ending.
Artistic students may like to draw the last frame. Vote for the best ending.
● Remove the sentences under each frame and either ask lower levels to match
them to each frame or ask them to write the sentences that tell the story. Lower
levels might need vocabulary prompts on the board.
Make the comic strip
● Give students a comic strip with a short paragraph for each frame. Ask students to
reduce each paragraph to one sentence for each frame. Compare their efforts to
the original. With higher levels you can discuss techniques of summarising your
message.
● Give students a story. Groups confer to guess what might be missing. Give them
the comic strip version. They must fill in the blanks in their written story by using

the comic strip pictures. Then ask them to think of speech bubbles for the comic
strip. This might also include thought bubbles for characters.
● Remove speech bubbles from a comic strip. Cut them up and give out. Ask them
to order them and to imagine what the story or situation is. Groups can act out
their version for the class. Then give them the comic strip and ask them to see if
their speech bubbles fit the story there.
● When you use a short story with younger learners ask them to make the story into
a series of 4 pictures. This can be a group effort or a whole class task with each
group drawing one part. If you use a black and white comic strip allow time for
younger learners to colour their versions.
● Make an information gap using a photocopied comic strip. Blank out details or
change what characters are saying. Make sets which are coloured differently. Set
up spot the difference activities using the comic strip and then lead in to story
telling and acting out the comic strip.
Top of page
Exploit characters
Make a comic strip character
● Look at different comic strip heroes. Get suggestions from the class of names:
Superman, Bart Simpson, Asterix, Tin Tin or others. Describe popular characters
for their age range in the UK today. Encourage the students to tell you about local
comic book characters. Ask them to describe one character in pairs.
❍ What makes this character special?
❍ What can they do? Have they got special powers?
❍ What are their weaknesses?
❍ What do they look like?
❍ What are their special interests or ambitions?
❍ Then ask each group or pair to choose a favourite character and make a
simple situational dialogue which is typical for them.

● Ask students to work in pairs or groups to invent their own character. If appropriate
students can draw the character. Give the character special powers, a name and a
special mission.
● The final stage is to tell an every day story involving the character.
Exploit short sequences for sketches and improvisations.
● Choose a key situation which would involve language students might need to
practice, such as agreeing with opinions, asking permission or saying you are
sorry.
● Use a sequence from a cartoon with the sound off so students describe what is
happening, imagine what is being said and can then use the sequence to
improvise a sketch. Listen to the real sketch at the end.
These ideas were originally published on the British Council Language Assistant site
where you will find more suggestions for using cartoons and comic strips.
Top of page
Using flash cards

Joanna Budden, British Council, Spain
These activities relate to the Think article - Using flash cards with young learners. In
the article there are more activity examples.
● Memory Activities
❍ Memory Tester
■ Place a selection of flash cards on the floor in a circle.
■ Students have one minute to memorise the cards.
■ In groups, they have two minutes to write as many of the names as

they can remember.
● Drilling Activities
❍ A What?
■ Students sit in a circle.
■ You show a flash card to Student 1 and say "This is a hamster."
■ Student 1 looks at the flash card and asks you "a what?"
■ The teacher replies "a hamster" and passes the flash card on.
■ Student 1 passes the flash card on to Student 2 and says "this is a
hamster".
■ Student 2 asks Student 1 "a what?" and Student 1 asks the teacher
"a what?" the teacher replies to Student 1 "a hamster" and Student
1 replies to Student 2 "a hamster" and so it goes on until the flash
card travels full circle.
■ When the group has mastered it, 2 flash cards can go around the
circle in opposite directions. They will cross over mid circle.

■ When students know the game, choose one of them to do the
teacher's role.
● Identification Activities
❍ Fast Finger
■ Stick flash cards on the board or on the wall (for very little people
who won't reach the board!) in a line.

■ Give a clue to indicate which flash card you are thinking of. When
presenting a new lexical set for the first time, give the whole word,
e.g."Say stop when the fast finger is above the cat". When revising,
or with higher levels, you can just give a clue, e.g. "It's an animal
that can't fly, but it can climb trees."
■ Ask students to shout STOP when your finger is above the required
flash card.
■ Then bounce your finger along in a random fashion to a silly tune
until they shout STOP at the right time.

■ When they get the idea, ask a student to be the Fast Finger.
■ You can also use the word cards instead of a finger. When the
word is above the corresponding pictorial flash card students shout

STOP!
● TPR activities
❍ Ladders
■ Students sit in 2 lines facing each other with legs out and feet
touching.
■ Each facing pair is shown a flash card that they must remember.
When you call out their card they stand up and run over the legs of
the others, the ladder, around the back and back to their places.
■ The first one back wins a point for their line. If the students are very
lively you can do it standing up to avoid trampled legs!
Related
Think articles - Resources - Using flash cards with young learners

Top of page
Video lesson 1
Topic: Animated stories
Aims
Global understanding of video
Presentation of language
To give learners an opportunity to use language from video in a creative context
Age: 5 - 10 year olds
Level: Elementary
Introduction

There are lots of animated videos for native speakers of English. Many will have an
educational aspect as well as providing entertainment and will often aim to 'teach' children
something. Common topics are; family, school, friends etc. These can be easily adapted
for teaching language to non-native speakers.
Materials
Video - any animated story video: Spot, Spider, (I used the Eric Carle story The Very
Hungry Caterpillar
5/6 Flashcards of story illustrating main points
Procedure
● Pre-viewing
❍ Tell learners they're going to watch a story.
❍ Show flashcards, invite children to use existing vocabulary to describe
them.
❍ Put them on board mixed up. Ask learners to predict the order and put
them on board in that order. (There are no wrong answers at this stage.)
● While-viewing
❍ First viewing: Global understanding - Learners watch video and after it's
finished check order of flashcards on board. Change if necessary.

❍ Second viewing: Presentation of language - Identify a language point
(probably vocabulary) from the story. Teacher stops video at relevant point
and asks questions OR Tells learners to listen for words connected to topic
and say STOP when they hear one.
● Post-viewing
❍ Learners make a story book based on video
❍ Learners act out the story
❍ Craft work -make something connected to story - picture, puppet etc.
❍ Learners do further work on language point presented.
Top of page
Video lesson 2
Topic: Documentary programme
Aims
To provide information relevant to interests of students for use in post -video work
To present/reinforce language
To give learners an opportunity to use language from video
Age: 11 - 14 year olds
Level: Intermediate
Introduction
This is the age when children are very interested in finding out about topics such as
space, ancient history and dinosaurs.
Materials: Video - Any short factual programme or extract from one. There are lots on
CBBC - Take a look at What's on? (I used the very beginning of the TV series Walking
with Dinosaurs.)
Procedure
● Pre-viewing
❍ Learners do True/ False quiz on topic
❍ Learners have 3 minutes to write down words they know in English on
topic.
● While-viewing
❍ Learners watch video and check answers to quiz.
❍ Identify a language point from the video: - numbers, past tenses,
comparatives. Ask learners to note down any they hear.

● Post-viewing

❍ Learners make posters on topic.

❍ Learners do project work on topic using magazines/internet
❍ Learners do further work on language point introduced.
Top of page
Video lesson 3
Topic: TV Adverts
Aims
Listening for global comprehension
Speaking , language of description
Presentation of language
Age: 14 upwards
Level: Intermediate upwards
Introduction
Jigsaw viewing
This is based on the idea that student partners are only given half the complete
information i.e. one learner only watches the video and the partner only listens to it. In
order to recreate the complete advert, they will need to share their information
Materials: Video - Any TV advert
Procedure
● Pre-viewing
❍ Discussion about advertising. Are there too many adverts on TV. Would
you rather pay than watch adverts? What do you do when the adverts
come on? Have you ever wanted anything because you saw it on a an
advert. Any favourite adverts on TV at the moment?
● While-viewing
❍ Divide class into 2 groups. 1 group will watch the video with the sound off
and then the second group will listen to the advert with the picture
covered. . Ideally the group that is not watching or listening should be sent
out of the room. Where this is not possible however, students not watching
or listening should turn their chairs round and face the back of the
classroom.
■ Group 1.
Watch the video with no sound. Note down ideas what the advert is
for. Compare answers in pairs.
■ Group 2
Listen to the advert with picture covered. Note down any

information about the video .i.e. what's being advertised. Compare
answers in pairs. (If Group 1 are still in the room they should at this
stage be comparing answers and therefore not paying attention to
the sound.)
■ Group 1
Watch video for a second time trying to imagine what's being said.
In pairs after the video has finished give learners 10 minutes to try
and write a dialogue for the advert.
■ Group 2
Listen to the advert for a second time. Try to visualise the images.
In pairs, after the video has finished give learners 10 minutes to
note down any images they think would fit what they heard either
writing or drawing.
❍ The learners now work in different pairs - 1 from group 1 and 1 from group
2. They explain what they visualised or the imagined dialogue. Their

partner tells them if the ideas were similar to the advert.
❍ Both groups watch advert with sound and pictures.
❍ Identify language point from video - adjectives, superlatives.
Learners note down any they hear.

● Post-viewing

❍ Learners make storyboard for an advert.

❍ Do further work on language point e.g. make posters of positive /negative
adjectives.
Top of page
Guide to setting up an English Learning Circle

Karen Adams, Professional Development Manager
If you would like to set up an out-of-class English Learning Circle with your students, here
are 8 things you need to consider:
● Be realistic about your time

It's very easy to be enthusiastic about a project at the beginning, and feel you can
devote a lot of time to it. However, if you have too many meetings, some students
might begin to feel they cannot attend. On the other hand, if meetings are too far
apart, it is difficult to create the comfortable club atmosphere. Decide together on
the best possible meeting times for the Learning Circle.
● Find a place to meet

The meeting place needs to be convenient and comfortable for all the members of
your Learning Circle. If you have the opportunity to use a room in your school, this
is ideal - everyone can share responsibility for making sure that the meeting room
is tidy and comfortable.
● Decide how large you want the Learning Circle to be

A Learning Circle which draws together students who don't usually study together
can provide a different - and better - environment for participants. Remember,
however, that if the group is too large, it becomes more difficult to include
everyone in discussions and activities. If the group has more members than your
average class, think about creating 2 different groups. Perhaps some of your
colleagues would be interested in helping out with this.
● Think about regulations and routines

Like normal classroom lessons, Learning Circles need to have some rules and
routines to help them to be successful. However, the most successful clubs are
those in which the members feel they have some say in setting these rules and
routines. By asking the club members to discuss and decide what they feel the
club rules should be, you make sure that everyone has responsibility for ensuring
the success of the Learning Circle.
● Provide guidance for decisions

Your students will need guidance on how to choose the best and most interesting
types of tasks for the Learning Circle, and on how to approach them. In the initial
meetings, it's a good idea to ask the participants to try out some activities to
decide which they like and which they don't. If you are setting up larger projects,
take time to ensure that the Learning Circle members all recognise and
understand the stages which they need to go through to ensure that the project is
successful.
● Share responsibilities
The most successful Learning Circles are the ones in which all members feel they
are valuable to the group. Sharing responsibilities for the group's activities is a
good way of ensuring everyone feels included. Try to make sure that each
member of the group has to take some responsibility for one group activity at each
meeting.
● Find out about English events in your town

In many towns and cities, there are opportunities to become involved in English-
language events such as talks and concerts. Encourage your students to make
their Learning Circle a centre for English language information by identifying as
many suitable English-language events as possible in their area. Your role could
then be to help your students access these events.

● Stop and think!

How successful is your students' Learning Circle? What do the members enjoy
most? What would they like more of? Has their English improved? Try to
encourage them to include regular reviews of their Learning Circle activities -
perhaps at the end of each month - so that you and they can keep the Learning
Circle fresh and the members motivated to learn English.
Related
Think article - Resources - English Learning Circles - a path to learner independence

Top of page
Learning Circle ideas checklist

Karen Adams, Professional Development Manager
It's possible to adapt many classroom activities to make them suitable for a Learning
Circle. Here are a few ideas:
● Vocabulary quizzes
Word search and crossword activities can be fun. Club members, in pairs or small
groups, can devise quizzes for each other. Put the moist successful quizzes and
puzzles on a poster.
● Mini presentations
Members of the group take turns to make a short presentation to the group. It
could be on any topic - a hobby or interest, a BBC World Service programme they
have heard, their favourite singer or actor - or even a point of English grammar!
The only rules are that the presentation is kept short (around 5 minutes) and that
there is an opportunity for other group members to ask questions.
● Song groups
Learning Circle members make a list of some of their favourite songs in English.
Each song then becomes the responsibility of a member or pair of members. Their
task is to find and learn the words - e.g. by listening to the song or looking on the
Internet - and to teach the words to the other members of the group.
● Story competitions
Composition writing is a favourite classroom activity. However, the focus is often
on producing grammatically-correct English rather than on interesting stories. In
the Learning Circle, why not ask members to tell their stories, all linked to a theme.
For example, they could tell the scariest story they know (in English, of course) -
and vote on which story was most frightening.
● Video pals
Writing to penpals has traditionally been a solitary activity. However, technology
now allows us to communicate in many different ways. Video letters - where
participants talk to their correspondent on film - is a fun and unusual way of
helping students to communicate in English. If you have a friend or colleague
teaching in another region or country, why not encourage him or her to set up a
Learning Circle? Your groups could then correspond on video, telling the others
about their lives, their interest, their town - and their Learning Circle.
Related
Think article - Resources - English Learning Circles - a path to learner independence
Send us an activity
Top of page

BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Writing
Home > Try > Activities > Writing
Writing activities Activities contents
On these pages you will find ideas for classroom activities which involve writing. Speaking
Vocabulary
● Poems for the future Writing
● Writing through 'reverse reading' Pronunciation
● Postcards Revision
● Role-play writing Listening
● Creating a framework for writing Resources
Try
● A Perfect story Reading
Activities Other
● Note writing
Tips A creative writing activity
●
Other features
Lesson Plans ● Eliciting vocabulary before writing narratives
● Improving paragraph writing
● Songs and storytelling Articles
● Freeze the writing
● Helping students organise argument essays
Questions
Poems for the future Quizzes

Carolyne Ardron, British Council, Portugal
Here are some suggestions to help get your students writing poems based around the Other sites
theme of the future.
● Firstly, you could begin by brainstorming topics related to the future through Send us an email
acrostic poems or pictures. Ask your students to imagine they're living in the year
2100. What's life like? What can they see around them? How far has space and
technology advanced?
Example poem:
F lying saucers
J U piter
T ime machines
Astrona U ts
Ma R tians
Genetic E ngineering
● You could use either of the poems below as a model for your students:
When I look into the future

When I look into the future There's a memory stick in my
There are robots head
There are aliens There's a tracking device under
There are saucers in the sky my feet
But there aren't any birds. There's a monitor behind my eyes
But there isn't a computer.
Example structure:
When I look into the future

There 's/are…
There 's/are…
There 's/are…
But there isn't/aren't any …
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/writetry/writing_activites.shtml (1 of 11)08/11/2005 12.49.55

● On a more personal note, the future could be explored through the senses. You
could use this example as a model to elicit ideas from your students. Play some
relaxing background music and ask them to close their eyes and imagine the
sensations as they think of different words.
Example:
My / The future is… (yellow)

It tastes like… (pasta)
It smells like… (a lemon)
It sounds like… (a mandolin)
It feels like… (a cat)
It looks like… (the sunrise)
● Ask your child/students to complete the sentences below to generate ideas for a
poem about their own future dreams. Here are two possible structures for their
poems:
In my future life
I might …
I could…
I may…..
But I'll definitely…
In my future life
I'd like to be …
I'd like to...
And…
Then…
Please…
Here's a poem on a lighter note as an example of what they could produce.
In my future life
I'd like to be a cat,
I'd like to sleep for 12 hours
Then dance around my flat.
I'd like to play by moonlight
And sunbathe in the sun,
I'd like to climb a palm tree
And catch my tail for fun.
I'd like to dine on fresh fish
Then drink a sea of milk,
I'd like to live-that's my last wish
Please ban all dogs from Earth!
You can also get your students to join a poetry competition for Younger learners at
British Council LearnEnglish Kids
Related
Think - Article - Using poems to develop receptive skills

Think - Article - Using poems to develop productive skills
Download -Book - Creative ways
Top of page
Writing through 'reverse reading'

Jackie McAvoy, Teacher and Materials writer, British Council, Tunisia

Students often get muddled when writing a narrative because they concentrate too much
on the plot of the story. As a result tenses and syntax suffer. This activity helps students
both with a story line and with the tenses.
Preparation
Make copies of these questions for each pair / group of students
1. What was Mr Jones's job?

2. What was he going to do?
3. Why?
4. What was the weather like?
5. What did he decide to do after that?
6. What didn't he want to do?
7. Why?
8. What was the surprising end?
NB: You can choose which tense you want to focus on depending on the class (for
example you could ask What did Mr Jones used to do? or What would he like to do next?
What has he done that no-one else knows about? etc.) You can also ask about different
vocabulary too instead of the weather e.g. What was he wearing at the time?
Procedure
● Tell students that you had a text for them to read but, unfortunately you left it at
home! However, you still have the comprehension questions.
● Give out the questions to each pair of students and ask them to
❍ read all the questions and then
❍ write the answers to them.
● The answers should have some connection with each other and should be in note
form only.
● Now, using their answers, they have to construct a story about Mr Jones. Either
now or previously the students need to have appropriate linking words (however,
all of a sudden, so... etc).
● When the students have finished writing swap the stories with another pair. They
should read the text and see if they can answer the comprehension questions.
● Put the stories up around the classroom for everyone to read and get them to
decide which one is the best / funniest / most unusual?
Top of page
Postcards
Nik Peachey, Teacher, Trainer, Materials writer, British Council
Using postcards in class can be a motivating writing task and add a level of stimulation for
students. My students have always been very fond of this activity as they don't have to
write too much and it involves a level of communication and imagination.
Preparation
You'll need a stack of postcards (1 or 2 for each student). If you don't have any, you could
just provide a piece of paper and get the students to draw their own picture on it.
Alternatively, if your students have Internet access and email addresses they can write e-
cards.
You can find free e-cards on the BBC Learning English or the British Council
LearnEnglish websites.
● BBC Learning English e-cards

● British Council LearnEnglish e-cards
Procedure

● Give out the postcards (1 for each student or pair of students if you prefer) or get
the students to choose an e-card from one of the above sites.
● Ask the students to look at the picture on the postcard and imagine that this is
something they saw whilst on holiday. (If your students are drawing their own
pictures, get them to draw something from their last holiday)
● Now ask them to write the postcard to a friend telling them about their imaginary
holiday and how the picture relates to it.
● Once they have written the cards ask them to exchange them with someone else
( if you've used e-cards, they can email them to someone else in the class)
● Ask the students to read the postcards they have received and then write a
response to it.
● During the activity it is best to concentrate on communication rather than
accuracy, but at the end of the activity you can collect up the cards and see what
errors were made and prepare a correction slot for the next class.
Top of page
Role-play writing
Writing can be much more motivating if you give the writer a chance to play a role. In this
activity the students will have the chance to write to an imaginary romantic partner.
Preparation
Photocopy the role cards for the students
Download role cards >> 58 k
Procedure
● Draw three pictures on the board of three people (two women and one man) Sue,
Jane and Paul at a party.
● Read the situation from the role play to your students to explain how they all met.
● Divide the class into four groups and tell them that it is now two weeks after the
party and that the people have started to write letters to each other.
● Give out role cards to each group for them to read, or ask each group to leave the
classroom one by one and show them a role card. Explain to them that they have
to write a letter (they can do this alone, in pairs or in groups). Make sure that the
different groups don't talk to each other.
● Give the students time to write the letter but be sure to give them a firm time limit.
Remind them that they must finish the letter with the last line provided.
● When they have finished the letters you can either ask them to read the letters
aloud or you can re-group them (if they have written letters alone) into groups of
four. The important thing is that they must read the letters in the correct order to
tell the story.
● When the letters have been read you can take them in to mark or you can follow
this up by getting a different partner to respond to the letter so that the students
keep exchanging the letters.
Variations
● You can change the role to suit your learners by perhaps having two men and one
woman at the party or if you follow the same format, you can set the role-play in a
variety of situations (e.g. two people applying for a job).
Top of page
Creating a framework for writing

Jeff Fowler, Teacher, Trainer, British Council, Naples

This is a creative writing exercise in which the teacher moulds the story but allows plenty
of scope for the students' creative expression.
Procedure
● The students work in pairs or groups of three. The teacher dictates a part of a
story and then gives instructions on how the students should continue the next
part of the story in their pairs. (This usually involves adding description or
dialogue).
● Once the students have added a part to the story, the teacher once again dictates
the next part and asks them once again to add more.
● This process can continue for 5 or 6 paragraphs or until the students lose
concentration.
Download sample story dictation >> 48k
You can use this procedure with any short story, but it works best when you dictate the
movement of events and your students add description or dialogue. Students do generally
like to decide on the end of the story themselves, so if you sense they are getting tired,
just tell them to finish the story.
Follow up activities
● If you have access to computers, get the students to transfer their stories onto
disks. This can also be set for homework. The teacher can then edit the stories
and correct the mistakes.
● In a subsequent class all the stories are read by all the students. Each group will
also receive their original story to compare their version with the teacher's version.
All the stories should be displayed on a classroom poster.
● The students record their stories onto audio cassettes. Allow the students time to
practise their parts and to use sound effects. The students then all listen to all the
stories. To focus your students' attention during the listening activity you can ask
your them to write a few comprehension check questions for their stories.
Top of page
A Perfect story
Jackie McAvoy, Teacher and materials writer, British Council, Tunisia
The present perfect is a tense that many students have problems with. Most course books
provide only controlled grammar sentences where students choose the correct tense. This
activity leads students into writing a short story using the past simple, present perfect
simple and continuous, but in a more creative way.
Procedure
● Tell the students they are going to write a short story.

● Get the students to read the following questions and decide, with a partner, what
the missing words are, but not answer the questions now.
● Monitor well to check they understand the activity. There are no 'correct' answers,
they should use their imagination.
1. What is his / her name?

2. What is __________ about them? (e.g. strange / unusual / nice...)
3. What was their --problem last year?
4. What happened?
5. Why have they become so __________ ?
6. How many __________ have they -__________ ?
7. Who have they been __________ recently?
8. What have they been __________ for the last five years?
Download sample questions >> 40k

● Now the students, working in pairs still, have to answer the questions. The

answers should link the questions together to form the basis of a story.
● Next ask students to draw their characters. This is fun and brings the character to
life. Students can laugh at each others drawings.
● Using the notes above, students put the story together. They can add more
information if they wish but they should not make it complicated.
● Students then swap their story with another pair to edit. They read the story and
underline any errors they notice, or question any word or phrase they don't
understand.
● The stories are returned to their owners who make changes as necessary
depending on the comments that were made by the editing pair.
By slowly guiding them through the stages the end result is their own and usually
grammatically correct. Don't forget to ask students to read each others stories, they are
sure to be amusing.
Top of page
Note writing
This is an activity which is really useful for helping learners to write more fluently and can
also help you to diagnose problems with your students' written work and ability to
formulate questions. You can use it at the beginning or end of a class as a fun filler, or as
an integral part of your lesson.
● Give out a sheet of A4 paper (219mm x 297mm) to each student and ask them to
watch and follow your instructions.
● Hold up your paper and fold it in half. Then fold it in half again and then again.
Press hard on the paper and then open it out. The folds should have divided the
paper into eight rectangles. Use the fold lines to tear the page into eight
rectangular pieces of paper.
If you prefer, you can already have this prepared before class, but I have found that
students really enjoy doing this themselves and it does engage their interest and curiosity.
● Once they all have their eight pieces of paper, ask the students to write their
names in the bottom right-hand corner of each piece.
● Next ask the to think of another person in the class and to think of a question they
would like to ask them.
● Tell them to write the name of the person on the top left-hand corner and then to
write the question on the piece of paper.
● Once they have done this, tell them to pass the paper to the person the question
was intended for.
● Students then read any questions they got and start to write replies. Students who
didn't get a question can start writing another question for someone else.
● Get the students to keep writing and answering questions until all their pieces of
paper are used up.
You may in the early stages need to prompt the students to keep writing and also to make
sure they are using English, but try not to interrupt ones who are busy writing or to correct
anything at this stage. You may actually like to get involved yourself and start writing a
few notes to your students.
This is also a good way of diagnosing problems with your students writing. You can collect
up all the pieces of paper at the end and look through them for common mistakes to focus
on next lesson. It is important however to respect your students privacy and anonymity as
some of the communications between them could be quite personal.
This activity is one of the few that I have found that has kept my students writing silently
for up to 25 minutes after which they still haven't wanted to stop. It has a similar
fascination to SMS text messaging and online chat and you could find that, with students
who are familiar with those mediums, that some of the more common abbreviations creep
in.

Top of page
A creative writing activity: A dark and stormy night

This is an idea I learned when I first started teaching and still use to this day. The main
focus of the activity is on developing writing skills, but it's also good for developing
listening and reading skills and also for practising past tenses and descriptive vocabulary.
The activity should work at most levels above elementary, as long as your students have
some knowledge of past tenses, but it works best when they also know past continuous /
progressive too. All you need to get things started is a sheet of plain paper for each pair of
students.
The listening part comes first:
● Ask the students to draw the face of a person in the top right-hand corner of the
page.
● Once they've done this ask them to give the person a name.
● Then on the top left of the page ask them to write five adjectives to describe the
person's appearance.
● Next ask them to write five more adjectives to describe the person's character.
● After they've done this ask the students to write three things that the person likes
doing.
● Then ask them to write who the person lives with.
In this way they build up a character profile for the person they are going to write about.
The writing part:
● Now dictate the following sentence to your students: 'It was a dark and stormy
night and'. Stop at this point and ask them to write in the name of the person they
have drawn and followed by the word 'was'.
● Then ask the students to complete the sentence from their imagination and add
one more sentence.
● Once all the students have added a sentence to their stories, get them to stop and
pass the paper to the pair on their right (this means that every pair of students now
has a new character).
● The students then read through the information and the beginning of the story and
then add one more sentence to it.
● Once they've done this you ask them once more to pass the paper to the next pair
on their right. Continue to do this with each pair of students adding a sentence to
each story, gradually building up each story as the papers are passed around the
class.
● Continue with this until you decide that the students are starting to lose interest or
have written enough and then tell them to finish the story.
Follow up:
● Once all the stories are complete there are a number of follow up options you can
try.
● Put the stories up around the class and get the students to read them all and
decide which is best.
● Give each pair of students a story and get them to try to find and correct errors.
● Get the students to write the stories up on a computer and the ask them to add
more description and detail to the stories.
This activity is fun and creative and has always worked well for me both with adults and
younger students.
Related

Think - Article - Creative writing as language practice

Download -Book - Creative ways
Top of page
Eliciting vocabulary before writing narratives

Brian Fowlis, Spain
This is an idea to help students with their writing of narratives. It gives all the students
some essential (and some superfluous) vocabulary.
Before giving the students the title (or first line) of the story, play a game of word
association.
● The teacher gives one word and the student on the left must say the first word s/
he can think of which is associated with it.
● Then the student on her/his left says the first word which s/he can think of which is
associated with the previous word.
● This can be repeated around the class a few times.
● The teacher writes all the words on the board as they appear.
● Eventually you should have 20 or 30 words on the board, the latter ones bearing
no relation to the original.
● Here is a typical collection: tree, forest, countryside, city, buildings, offices, work,
leisure, holidays, beach, sun, moon, night, dark, black, reggae, music, piano, jazz,
etc.
● The teacher then gives the students the first line of the story using some of the
vocabulary on the board (e.g., I'll never forget the night I went to my first reggae
club while I was on holiday in a strange city.
● The students (individually or in pairs) continue the story, drawing on the
vocabulary on the board for ideas.
Top of page
Improving paragraph writing

Baokham, Viet Nam
This activity can be used with students of English and also trainee teachers. It is a way to
make your opinion or discursive essay writing lessons more interesting and learner-
centred. The activity focuses on mistakes made at paragraph level in a text. I have tried
this with my university students and they have found it useful.
First, ask your students to provide sample paragraphs (introduction, body paragraphs, or
conclusion), or choose paragraphs from their last essay that they wrote for the class.
Second, study these samples carefully and try to give comments on two or three problems
within one paragraph.
Next, design a handout in which there is a copy of the paragraph with a table including
two columns, comments and examples. Leave the "examples" column blank. Put your
comments for the chosen paragraphs in the comments column. For example, 'Wrong
word - register' or 'use a conjunction here' or 'spelling' or 'poor topic sentence'…
In class give out the handouts and ask students to work in pairs to find examples to
support the comments made by the teacher.
This activity aims to help students and trainee teachers to recognise their own problems
with paragraph construction and to identify errors, which improves their own re-drafting
skills.
It also helps them to practise the (teacher's) skill of giving comments and examples.
Top of page

Songs and storytelling

Sueli, Brazil
I like using songs in the classroom as I know the students enjoy it a lot! This activity is
really good and involves group work and the four main language skills. The students
respond to music and write a story.
● First, choose different types of songs (rock, pop,country music..etc).
● Divide the the class in groups (of 4,for example) and give each group a blank
piece of paper.
● Ask them to make a cross on it dividing the paper into four equal parts. Tell them
to number the parts from 1 to 4 (in this case).
● Explain that each student in the group will use one part of the paper.
● Play the CD/tape with the first song and ask student number 1 to draw something
on it according either to what he/she feels or something related to the lyrics.
● Change the song and follow the same procedure with the others.
● After they finish drawing, say that they are supposed to make up a story following
the sequence of their drawings. Give them time to prepare it then ask everybody
to present their story to the class. Explain that each student is going to tell his/her
part of the story.
This activity can be used at all levels. The skills used are writing, speaking and reading.
The grammar aim can be the present tense, present continuous or simple past. Try it! It
will be great!
Top of page
Freeze the writing - A way to make writing tasks a group activity

Gillie Cunningham. Teacher and Teacher Trainer
This activity would follow input work on writing in a particular style - for example, an
informal letter inviting a friend to visit your home town for a holiday.
Set up the context for the letter, you might do a letter layout on the board to make sure
that everyone knows how to lay out an informal letter.
Put the students in pairs or threes.
Give them a large piece of paper and say, 'Right, everyone I want you to write your
address, write the opening greeting and then stop. And you do it immediately and you do
it straight onto the paper.' And they do that. Then you say, 'OK now you're going to write
the letter. But as you write it, at some point you'll hear me say 'Freeze!' and when I say
'Freeze!', I mean 'Freeze', even if you're in the middle of a word - you stop writing. If you're
in the middle of a sentence you stop writing.'
The students begin to write. I check that everyone has written something before I say
freeze for the first time. I try to hurry the ones along that are lagging behind a little.
When I say 'Freeze!', I transfer each paper to the next group so that everyone's working
with another piece of paper with a letter on it. I give the following instruction which is to
read, correct, improve and continue. So, they work on the letter that they've received and
then they continue that letter.
A bit later I say 'Freeze!' and off we go again. Transfer letters, read, correct, improve and
continue.

It's always good to get the paper back to the original group just before the ending and
again the same instruction - read, correct and improve and this time you say 'close'. So
they bring it to a finale.
Top of page
Helping students organise argument essays

Cheron Verster, teacher trainer and materials developer, South Africa
Rosh Pillay is a South African teacher. She used action research to help her students
organise their argument essays and so improve their writing. You might like to try the
same solutions she used.
Once Rosh had decided on the problem of her students' poor performance when writing
argument essays, she investigated this problem by analysing her students' writing. This
analysis made her think that a possible cause of the problem was that students did not
know how to organise argument essays or paragraphs in such essays. She decided to try
the following solutions:
● Explain the overall organisation of an argument essay to students.

● Explain paragraph organisation.
● Give students a list of connectives which they could use in their essays. Make
sure that they understand the relationships that are implied by these connectives.
● Give students a model argument essay. Once they have read it, ask them to draw
a spider-diagram of the essay in the following way:
❍ Firstly, identify the thesis. Write it in a circle in the middle of a blank piece
of paper.
❍ Next, identify the claims or statements that are made to support this thesis.
Write these around the thesis.

❍ Then identify and list the details and examples which are given to support
each claim/statement.
❍ Finally, write relevant connectors between the thesis and the claims/
statements and between the claims/statements themselves.

● Give students a topic. Once they have completed pre-writing activities, like
discussing the topic or reading about it, ask them to write a statement of their point
of view of the topic. Then ask them to develop a spider-diagram around this
statement.
● Ask students to use this spider diagram to write their essay.
Rosh used the essays which the students wrote as evidence of whether her solutions had
worked or not. She observed that while both the overall structure, including paragraphing,
and the use of connectives indicating ordering had improved, the use of connectors
indicating reason had not. This will be her problem for her next action research cycle.
Here is a summary of the main stages of action research. Can you apply this approach to
your teaching?
● Identify the problem area.

● Narrow it down so that it is manageable.
● Investigate the problem.
● Think about a solution and how to implement it.
● Think about what evidence you will collect to decide whether your action is
successful or not. How will you collect it? How will you analyse it?
● Teach / act, observe and reflect
Related
Think - Article - Action research
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BBC British Council Teaching English - Literature - Storytelling - Benefits and Tips

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BBC British Council Teaching English - Literature - Storytelling - Benefits and Tips

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BBC | British Council teaching English - Literature - Storytelling - benefits and tips

● allow children to explore their own cultural roots

Other benefits of using storytelling in the classroom.

● Promote a feeling of well being and relaxation

Commonalities of cultures around the world

Remembering and retelling the plot:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/literature/storytelling.shtml (1 of 2)7/4/2004 3:16:22 PM

● map the plot as a memory technique

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/literature/storytelling.shtml (2 of 2)7/4/2004 3:16:22 PM

Teaching articles Sentence structure

Slow down! Intonation and pitch

Correcting written work Teaching natural English

METHODOLOGY & APPROACHES

Humanistic approach Communicative primary

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/questions.shtml (1 of 2)08/11/2005 12.46.19

MOTIVATION & CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Encouraging students to use English Visually & hearing impaired

RESOURCES, TOOLS & ACTIVITIES

Ice-breakers & warmers Money and shopping

Vocabulary self-study Vocabulary for beginners

Long term planning Nervous teachers

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/talk/questions.shtml (2 of 2)08/11/2005 12.46.19

Topics - Takeaway food - 9k

Pronunciation 1 - 11k Pronunciation 2 - 10k

Verb and prepositions - 8k

Confusing Words 2 - 10k Adjective - noun collocations - 9k

Prepositional phrases - 8k Make, let and allow - 9k

Financial words - 9k Adverbs - 11k

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/quizzes.shtml (1 of 3)08/11/2005 12.46.30

Discourse markers - 10k Abstract nouns - 11k

Confusing words - 10k Phrasal verb particles - 11k

Time - 9k Old age - 9k

Survival English - 8k 'Get' expressions - 7k

Contrast conjunctions - 7k Suffixes - able/ible - 7k

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Sounds - 7k A loaf, a bottle, a box ... - 7k

Confusing verbs - 7k Someone ... somewhere ... - 6k

Odd one out - 7k pdf Phrasal verbs with 'take' - 6k

Idioms 1 - 17k Idioms 2 - 7k

Idioms 5 - 7k Phrasal verbs 1 - 16k

Phrasal verbs 2 - 7k Objects and things 1 - 8k

Objects and things 2 - 8k Collocation 1 - 8k

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Festivals - 10k Tennis - 11k

Fears and phobias - 7k Entertainment - 19k

Travel and transport - 7k Work - 7k

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/quizzes.shtml (2 of 3)08/11/2005 12.46.30

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/quizzes.shtml (3 of 3)08/11/2005 12.46.30

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http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/TRY/activities.shtml (1 of 3)08/11/2005 12.46.44

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