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15 Speaking Projects And Activities For

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ESL Students

I don’t think I am sticking my neck out too much by saying that most ESL students
enjoy speaking activities more than typical reading, writing and listening activities.
Tending to be more dynamic, true to life and fun, a good speaking activity can really
enhance an ESL student’s fluency and confidence.

Hi there, I'm, Tim. A couple of

Here, I am going to offer you a series of ESL speaking projects that you can adapt
decades ago I started teaching
and use for your ESL students. Let’s go: English, in Cambodia of all places.
Since then I have worked mainly

Infomercial Activities in the UK, Thailand and Japan as

an ESL/TEFL teacher.
This is one of my favorite speaking projects by far. Show students some typical
adverts from a shopping channel; I like to show some of the funnier products just
for giggles and to encourage students minds to wander, take a look at this
L E G A L I N F O R M AT I O N
compilation to see what I mean.

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How To Create and Verify Upw…

Next, I ask students usually in pairs to come up with their own completely original
product to sell on an infomercial. If students struggle to come up with a completely
new product you can suggest they add a new twist to arnold product, or make a
new product based on a combination of two or more others.

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Ya llegó y te está espera

Sin anualidad y con meses sin intereses en
Mercado Libre
Mercado Pago

MÁS INFORMACIÓN

For example, in the past I have had: microwave televisions, hair dryers that double
as vacuum cleaners and laptops that double as portable stoves.

I tend to also do a language lesson based around the language of selling and
persuasion so that when students make their infomercial they will send realistic
and they often like to know some of the sales phrases, tactics and strategies that
are used in real life.

Just for fun, you can tell students that they have a certain amount of money to
spend and after they have seen all the infomercials they get to spend it. Sales can
be recorded and you can see which idea/pair has made the most money and are the
winner!

Presentations
Give students a presentation of a topic of your choosing, perhaps your own hobby
and model the format and language that you want the students to use.

I tend to share slides with the student with the title of each slide already inserted.
Students then have to fill the space with suitable information for that slide.

So, for example, if I wanted my students to present their own hobbies then I would
probably have six slides titled with questions:

What is my favorite hobby? Why did I start this hobby? What have I achieved doing
this hobby? Who do I do this hobby with? What will I do next in this hobby? Other
interesting info about my hobby.

K1 Speed Garden Santa Fe

Karts eléctricos divertidos
Go Karts eléctricos, velocidad, adrenalina y diversión

Store info Directions

Students then fill the slides full of pictures that relate to the question and then they
talk about these to the group and answer questions.

Some students always want to write out a script for a presentation which I let them
do on the understanding that they can’t actually read it when they present. I allow
them to write it out just so they can build up some confidence in what they are
going to say and check the language accuracy of it.

I do usually place sentence starters and linking words on posters behind the
audience so that the presenter always has some support if needs be.

Of course, this could also be done as a recorded video task. I sometimes ask
students to record a voice over on top of the slides. This can then be converted into
a video format for sharing later.

A few other simple presentation topic titles for ESL students that could be used
are: My Best Friend, Who Am I?, My Pets, My Future Career, My Family, The Last
Celebration I want to, Why I am a fan of __________ (insert name of whatever they
are a fan of).

At this point you might also want to read one of my popular article about how to
make your students speak English, here

Hot Seatii n g
Become an expert – As it sounds. Students spent a certain amount of time
researching a topic that either they choose or that is given to them. They are then
to become that character and the rest of the group has to ask them questions to
find out as much as they can about them in a set amount of time.

You can award points for correct questions being asked and for grammatically
correct sentences in response. Personally I like to do this at the beginning of a new
topic and direct students to research different famous people.

For example, if we are going to be covering the topic of Travel as in the IGCSE ESL
then I have students research characters, such as: Dr Livingstone, Joe Simpson,
Ernest Shackleton, Amelia Earhart, Ranulf Fiennes, and so on.

I often have students create a mini glossary for their characters as well which other
students can refer to as they are quizzing the character.

This activity is best for intermediate level and above students and even then you
may need to provide texts at a suitable level for students to be able to access,
otherwise students end up on Wikipedia reading very difficult text.

You can have the group make notes and write summaries of each character for
homework if you also wish to work on summary writing skills.

Recommended reading: 15 Research Projects For ESL Students

The Detective Game

For this activity you make up a crime that occurred in a given location, the more
gruesome the better and if you can personalise it to your location and environment
more the better.

Divide the group into smaller groups of three or four people and then ask them to
create their alibis for the morning, afternoon, or evening in question. These people
are the suspects.

One group, however, is assigned as being the investigators and they individually
quiz different suspects one to one to try and find inconsistencies in their group’s
stories. This forces each group to consider exactly what they were doing, where
and with whom very carefully and in great detail.

After interviewing as many members of each group and making notes about
inconsistencies between group members the investigators then confer with each
other to decide upon which group’ alibi is the most inconsistent. This group are
then sent to jail.

Whilst the investigators are discussing this, the suspects discuss which
investigator was the best at questioning them and finding out the inconsistencies.
The suspects will then announce who this person is, and they earn a promotion.
Finally, the investigators announce the losing group which will go to prison.

This ‘game’ has got real legs and could go in so many different directions, so don’t
be afraid to improvise and have fun with this one.

Drama Activities
Acting out a chapter of a book. Pretty much as it sounds. Read through a chapter of
a book with students or have them read it for homework before letting groups act
out the chapter, or a scene from it.

This works well even if they all act out the same scene as each group will learn from
the last and the acting/performance and language should get increasingly better
throughout. Alternatively arrange it so that each group acts out the following scene
to the last group and so the full story is told.

Storyboard and act out the student’s own story. Rather than act out a book, you
could have students plan out a story, or at least part of a story on a storyboard. This
can give a greater sense of ownership, achievement and ‘buy in’ from the students.

What happened next. Read the opening of a book and as a ‘cliffhanger is reached’
pause and have students work together to act out the ending of the story or the
next scene at least.

This also works well with videos from YouTube, crime videos work well as do Walt
Disney cartoons – even with adult learners for some reason!

You might also be interested in reading my helpful article on how to get your
students speaking fluently, here.

Mind Mappp i n g
Vocabulary relationships. Engage students in a subject which contains lots of
relationships of cause and effect. Basically, you need to pick a topic and analyse
what the different factors were that affected the main decision or characters
involved.

In the centre of your mind map place the decision or a character that was made and
then arrange influencing factors around this.

The larger the circle each factor is in and the closer it is to the centre of the paper
the stronger the influence is. Students then need to explain their mind map and the
relationships to the group. Others can question and agree/ disagree with them.

Topics can range from serious issues from history through to celebrity scandals, or
even plots in a movie, such as, why did celebrity couple X and Y get divorced, or
why did actor x decide to y in the movie xyz. Obviously, you can let the students self
select these issues for greater interest.

Backs To The Board

A timeless classic not so much a speaking project but this can be developed into a
full lesson’s worth of speaking and it works for groups of all sizes. It is excellent for
reviewing vocabulary at the end of a project or to see what students know at the
beginning of a topic.

Simply split the group into teams of no more than five and have one member of the
group come to the front and sit with their back to the board.

The other members of the group form a ‘u’ shape around the person, or, rather than
being sat literally against the board groups can be sat at tables with just one
student having their back to the board.

All you then need to do is to write a word on the board and the students facing the
board have to get the person not facing the board to say the word without literally
telling them the word. They should be encouraged to use definitions, synonyms
and examples of the word where possible.

Depending on numbers, students can just shout out when they think they have the
answer, or with large groups I make the students raise their hand if they think they
have the answer.

Debates
The danger with debates is that to the teacher they may seem boring, or at least
they do to me but have to remind myself that just because I have done the debates
dozens of times, they haven’t and even the most overdone/boring sounding
debates may go down like fireworks with some groups.

With that in mind here are a few of the more traditional/boring debates for your
students to get their teeth into:

Which is better, country life or city life?

Should animal testing be allowed?

Should school uniforms be gotten rid of

Are cats better than dogs?

Should women be paid as much as men?

Online learning is better than classroom learning

Does money equal success in life?

I also like to see if there is something going on in the students view of the world
that is worth debating. For example, in Thailand the debate over whether Korean
pop music is better than Thai pop music is a popular one.

I have had colleagues dive into debates about serious political topics with higher
level students which have worked really well.

However, some topics are just too hot to handle and you don’t know who you are
upsetting so be careful what topics you do debate, you never know who is listening,
or who is going to offense at any of your personal views that you may let slip!

Here is a good resource for more ESL debate ideas.

Book And Movie Reviewss

This is pretty much as it sounds. I like to set a reading task for students over a
holiday break and when they return they have to submit a video review of the book
or movie they watched/read.

I usually show them a good movie review for ideas and ask them to follow the same
format. Something like this review of Kung Fu Panda. This goes along the lines of:
background information, main characters, plot explanation, favorite moments, final
recommendation.

I’ve also done this with higher level groups for documentaries but with enough
support and speaking frames pre intermediate students can engage well with this
activity.

Conversation Questionss
Don’t underestimate the value of pure lists of conversation questions. Students are
often happy to just ‘have a chat’ and use the English that they do know.

It is great for their confidence and fluency, as well as requiring zero lesson prep,
which is always a nice thing. Just be sure to rotate speaking partners to avoid
students getting bored with the same partners and used to different accents.

···

Sometimes, depending on ability and interest levels I will teach three or four idioms
at the beginning of the lesson and set the task of trying to naturally drop them into
conversation later on.

There are lot of good sources of conversation questions, here are a couple:
eslconversationquestions.com and esldiscussions.com.

ESL Exam Preparation Material

Some students are hugely motivated by doing well in exams such as the IELTS test,
and IGCSE ESL speaking tests. Exam boards for tests such as these produce a
plethora of practise material that is often available for free online and ready to be
use.

··· ···

My students particularly enjoy the IELTS speaking part 2 task where they are
required to speak about a given topic and are given three bullet points to talk
about. They are given one minute to prepare their ideas before they have to speak
on their own for two minutes.

If you think your students might enjoy this then here are some good sources of free