Low-level activities

Starter level

Word tennis: Vocabulary

This is a good activity to review key vocabulary for a variety of starter-level word groups.

• Put students into pairs and tell them to turn their chairs to face each other.
• Choose a word group (e.g. colours or furniture) and write it on the board.
• Explain that students should take turns to say one word they can think of that belongs to the word group.
• They should continue, like a game of tennis, with the ‘rally’ lasting as long as either of them can think of an appropriate word.
• The winner is therefore the last student to say a word!
• You may wish to follow this up by telling students to write down all the words they thought of.
• Tell the pair with the longest list to write it on the board, and then review spelling and pronunciation.

Dialogue build: writing and reading

• Put students into pairs and give each pair six strips of blank paper.
• Tell them to write a short dialogue to practise any English they know.
• Explain that they should write each line of dialogue on a separate strip of paper.
• Give students time to think of a dialogue and write the six lines of their dialogue on their strips of paper.
• Monitor and check for accuracy. When students have finished, tell them to mix their strips of paper and exchange them with another pair of students.
• Explain they should read the strips of paper and try to put the dialogue in the correct order.
• When students have completed the reordering activity, tell them to practice the dialogue with their partner.
• Tell students to continue to exchange their strips of paper with their classmates until each pair has reordered and practiced each of the dialogues.

Elementary level

Category game: vocabulary This is one way you might wish to revise key vocabulary:

• List the following categories in a column on the board: country, sport, meat, vegetable, fruit, animal, job, colour.
• Divide the class into groups, and write one letter at the top of the board, for example S. Tell each group to think as quickly as they can of a word for each category that begins with that letter (e.g. spain, swimming, sausages, etc.)
• The first group to finish should shout ‘Stop!’
• Tell them to call out their list of words and write them on the board next to the appropriate category.
• You may wish to ask groups to spell any difficult words. If all words are correct, award the group five points. If they make a mistake, deduct five points from their total.
• Then begin the game again by writing a different letter on the board.

One minute, please!: speaking

This is a good exercise to try top develop confidence and fluency with students at lower levels.

• Begin by writing a list of topics on the board, such as football, boys, school, parents, food, holidays, etc.
• Then divide the class into two teams and ask for a volunteer from one team to come to the front to sit in a chair facing the rest of the class.
• Explain that students from the opposing team should choose a topic from the board, and that the student must try to talk about that topic for no less than one minute.
• Add that while some pauses are allowed for thinking time, no pause should be longer than five seconds.
• If the student manages to talk for a full one minute, award five points. Give proportionally fewer points for less than one minute of talking time.
• Continue the game with students from each team taking turns to come to the ‘hot seat’ and talk about a topic for one minute.
• The team with the most number of points at the end of the game is the winner.
• You many wish to note any grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation errors and review these in a later lesson.
  

  High-level activities

  Intermediate level
  

  Yes/no: speaking

  This is a popular, fast-paced question and answer game.

  • Have a volunteer come to the front of the class and sit in a chair facing the rest of the students.
  • Explain that the class must ask as many questions as possible in a time limit of one minute.
  • The volunteer must answer each question truthfully, but avoid saying the words Yes or No. If they say Yes or No in reply to a question, they lose and are replaced by another volunteer.
  • You may wish to demonstrate the activity first by asking for a volunteer and questioning them yourself. Try to ask questions that naturally expect a Yes or No answer. Question tags are good for this: You’re Spanish, aren’t you?
  • Also, repeating back their answer with rising intonation as if asking for clarification is a good trick:

  A: What nationality are you?
  B: Spanish
  A: Spanish?
  B: Yes…Ah!

  This can be great fun and but remember to keep the pace as fast as possible. It’s a good revision activity for various tenses (simple present/ simple past, etc.), question tags, and practicing intonation.

  ---

  Whisper, whisper: speaking/grammar

  This simple activity is a nice way to review reported speech.

  • Put students into groups of three and tell student A to whisper a sentence to student B. Student B must then tell the student C what student A said, using the reported speech.
  • Student C then whispers a new sentence to Student A and so the game continues.

  ---

  We’ve got so much in common!: speakingThis is a handy ‘getting-to-know-each other’ activity you might wish to use with a new class.

  • Put students into pairs and tell them to ask and answer questions to find three things that they have in common with each other. You might wish to write a few ideas on the board, such as What’s your star sign? What’s your favourite food?, etc.
  • When each pair of students has found three things they have in common, tell them to stand up and tell the class what those three things are.
  • You can then mix the class again by telling students to find a new partner who they have something in common with.

  ---

  Party time: speaking/vocabulary

  • Brainstorm adjectives of character (shy, generous, etc) and write as many as students can think of on the board.
  • Then tell each student to choose one of the adjectives of character from the board. Explain to students that they are all at a party, and that they must mingle and chat to each other in the role of their character adjective.
  • Explain that they must pretend to have that character, but that they must never say what the adjective is.
  • Have students write the name of each student in the class on a piece of paper. Tell them to start mingling, and explain that they should try to speak to everyone and identify the character adjective they are representing.
  • When they think they know what adjective the person they are speaking to is trying to express, they should write it next to their name and move on to speak to someone else.
  • At the end of the game, tell students to sit down and then call out the name of each person in the class and ask students to say the adjective they thought that person was trying to represent.

  ---

  Upper Intermediate level

  If….writing/speaking

  • Give students two or three strips of paper each and tell them to write the beginning part of a second conditional sentence on each strip.
  • Write a few examples on the board to give them some ideas, such as ‘If I was a bird…’, ‘If I went to Rome…’
  • Make sure students only write the beginning part of the sentence. When they have finished collect all the strips of paper and mix them.
  • Put students into small groups and divide the strips of paper between each group.
  • Place the strips of paper face down on the desk in front of the students.
  • Tell students to take turns choosing a strip of paper, turning it over and reading what it says.
  • Explain they must finish the sentence. Demonstrate this activity by using the examples on the board: ‘If I was a bird… I’d fly around the world’ ‘If I went to Rome I’d visit the Vatican Museum.’
  • When students have finished tell groups to swap their strips of paper and continue the activity.
  • You may wish to monitor and make notes of any errors students make. At the end, read out the incorrect sentences and have the class listen and correct any mistakes they hear.

  ---

  Soap opera drama: speaking

  • Choose a famous soap opera that all your students know.
  • Tell them to list six of the most famous characters, and have them explain to you the personality and profile of each one.
  • Then divide the class into groups of six and tell each student to choose a different character.
  • Explain they must prepare a scene from the next episode of the soap opera!
  • Tell them that the scene should include all the characters, and give them time to prepare their ideas.
  • When students are ready, have each group come to the front of the class and perform their role play.
  • For each role play award up to five points for each of the following categories: level of interest, level of acting, accuracy of language, pronunciation.
  • The winner is the group with the most points.

  ---

  Mini presentations: speaking

  • Tell students to individually make a list of three things they are interested in (e.g. a hobby or sport they have, etc.).
  • Give them time to make their list, then put them into groups to exchange their ideas.
  • Tell students to choose one of the three topics on their list and prepare a one minute presentation.
  • When they are ready, have student come to the front of the class to give their presentation.
  • Give each student up to five points for each of the following categories: level of interest, eye contact, fluency, grammatical accuracy, range of vocabulary, pronunciation.
  • Finally, give your feedback to each student on their performance before announcing the winner.

  ---

  Chain story: listening/speaking/writing

  • Tell students to sit in a large circle.
  • Explain they have to tell a story, each taking turns to add a sentence as the story goes around the class in a circle.
  • Begin the story yourself, with something like ‘It was a dark, stormy night when suddenly Jennifer heard a noise at the door.’
  • The student on your left should then continue the story, adding the next sentence.
  • The student on their left should then add the next sentence, and so on until the story has gone around the whole class.
  • When the last student has concluded the story, say your first sentence again and have students each repeat their part of the story as it goes around the class once more to help them remember.
  • Finally, put students into pairs and tell them to write the story. Monitor and help with grammar and spelling.

  Source : www.onestopenglish.com

Minimal resources: Role-plays and discussion

Here are a few materials-light ideas for role plays and discussions:

1. Choose a holiday

The idea is to set up a situation whereby students in pairs shop around for a package holiday, visiting different “travel agencies” (also pairs of students) in turn, and then making their decision. Divide the class into two – one half will be “shoppers”, the other half “agents”. Divide these groups again, into pairs. The agent pairs should be distributed around the room, and separated as much as possible from the shoppers. Tell the agents each to put together an attractive ten-day holiday package, including destination, itinerary, excursions, accommodation, and so on. (It is important, by the way, that all the holidays cost the same – fix a price in advance – so that the agents don’t simply undercut one another). Meanwhile, the pairs of shoppers decide what it is that they, personally, want out of their holiday, e.g. relaxation, adventure sports, shopping opportunities, etc. The shoppers then “visit” each agency in turn – seating should be arranged so that the shoppers can sit down when visiting the agencies. After sufficient time has elapsed for the an exchange of information, the shoppers all move round one, and the process starts again, until all the shoppers have visited all the agencies. Each pair of shoppers can then decide which holiday they will choose.

The format for this role play works for a number of different situations that involve shopping around. I have used it successively for a “choosing a school” scenario: each “school” puts together a policy on such things as discipline, homework, uniform, compulsory subjects, extra-curricular activities, even a school motto! Meanwhile, each pair of “parents” decide what kind of school they are looking for, for their “special needs” child. They then interview – and are interviewed by – the school’s representatives.

Other situations that lend themselves to this idea are: choosing a flatmate, choosing a wedding function, choosing a retirement village, and so on.

The beauty of this role play format – apart from the lack of materials – is that there is in-built repetition, as each pair of shoppers repeats its interaction with a new agent. Task repetition is an important factor in the development of fluency.

2. Alibis

This is an old favourite which, like the previous activity, is inherently repetitive. It also has an added game element, in that the participants have to try and outwit each other. The basic format starts with two students being “accused” of having committed some crime, such as a robbery in the institution where the class takes place, in a fixed period, say, between the hours of 10 and 11 in the morning on the preceding day. The two “accused” then have to establish an alibi, and they go out of the room to do this. The alibi needs to account for their actions only during the time period in question (anything before or after is irrelevant), and it is important to establish that they were together for all that time. While the accused contrive their alibi, the rest of the class can prepare generic questions, with the teacher prompting, if necessary, of the type: What were you doing…What did you do next? Did you meet anyone? What did you say? How much did it cost? Who paid? etc. The accused are then led in, one at a time, and have to answer the questions put to them. (It helps to establish the rule that they are not allowed to claim that they don’t remember). Any significant discrepancy in their answers means that they are, of course, guilty.

With large classes, Alibis can be played in groups, each group playing their own version of the game. Alternatively, (and so long as they are out of earshot) the two accused can be interviewed simultaneously by two different groups, and then exchange places.

A variant is Green Card, in which immigration officers interview, separately, two candidates who claim to be members of the same family (in which case, they have to answer questions about the other members of their immediate family – their names, age, and appearance), or who claim to be partners (in which case, they have to answer questions about their daily routine). Another variant of Alibis is UFO, in which two people are interviewed separately by The Institute of Paranormal Research about an encounter with aliens that they claim to have experienced.

3. Pyramid (or consensus) debate

The principle of this format is that at first individuals work in pairs to achieve consensus on an issue, and then these pairs try to convince other pairs, before forming groups of four, and so on, until the whole class comes to an agreement. For example, the teacher might set the class the task of devising some “class rules” with regard to such things as classroom etiquette, discipline, duties, homework, etc. First individuals draft a list of a maximum of, say, eight rules. They then compare in pairs, and draft a new list of eight rules, but one that they are both agreed on. This will normally involve some discussion and negotiation. Once they have their list they join forces with another pair, and the process begins again. Finally, the two halves of the class come together to agree on the definitive version.

Other ideas that work well in this format are ranking tasks – e.g. the five most important people in history; the ten best pop songs of all time; the eight things I would take to a desert island; the six school subjects that should be compulsory, and so on. Or students take a bare statement and qualify it in such a way as to make it acceptable. For example:

– Children should be beaten.
– Smoking should be banned.
– Anyone should be allowed to adopt children.

Minimal resources: Coursebooks

Throwing or bouncing balls to drill language

The simplest use of a ball is for students to throw and catch it while drilling something like months of the year or pairs of infinitive and irregular past forms of verbs. This can be done with all three of the ways mentioned in the introduction above – one student on their own, two or more students cooperating, or a more competitive version with more challenging throws or things said to catch the other people out. You could also have one or two people throwing and catching while everyone else chants, perhaps as teams. Other sequences which students can drill include Days of the week, Numbers, Times and Dates, Adjectives and adverbs, I me my mine, you you your yours, etc.

Going beyond drilling with throwing and bouncing balls

Another obvious activity that could be considered one step above drilling is brainstorming as a ball goes back and forth, e.g. “banana”, “apple”, “grape” etc if the topic is fruit. The same thing can be done for grammar by brainstorming things like past participles (“been”, “seen”, “watched” etc) and uncountable nouns. You can also do the same thing for pronunciation, brainstorming words with “iz” ending (“passes”, “churches” etc), words with long vowel sounds (“arch” etc), single syllable words (“fan”, “bar” etc), words stressed on the first syllable (“power”, “waterfall”, etc), and so on.

Target practice games for practicing English

Target practice in the classroom can be played with students aiming balls at the places that the teacher or a student says or writes up on the whiteboard. If you don’t have enough balls for one per student or don’t want lots of things flying around the classroom at the same time, students can use paper (screwed up into balls or made into paper aeroplanes) or one person from each team can throw, with their teammates helping them work out where to do so. To add extra language, you can let students try again if they can describe where their ball actually ended up (“It’s in front of the box” “That’s right. Try to throw it behind the box again then.”). You can also play the opposite game of one person throwing and the other students competing to be first to correctly shout out where the ball has ended up.

Ball actions

As well as listening for where the ball has gone, students can listen for what someone is doing with the ball, e.g. “You are bouncing it on the door” and “You are kicking it”. Students can also race to do the action that is shouted out or written up (“Balance the ball on your shoulder”, “Hold the ball between your knees”, etc), challenge each other to do tricky things (“Can you head it four times?” etc), or think of and do actions that no one else has (“We are holding it with our little fingers”). One person or group can also do a whole sequence of actions that the other people must try to remember, as practice of Past Simple and/ or sequencing language (“after that” etc).

TEFL dodge ball

This is kind of the opposite of the throw and catch games at the start of this article. People try to avoid the thrown ball, and if it hits them they have to answer the question, come up with the next word, guess the next missing letter, etc. If they are wrong, they lose a point or are out of the game. If they are right, they can throw the ball next, perhaps also setting the next challenge. If you and the students can stand the chaos, this works best with everyone running around freely, rather than gathered at opposite walls as in the normal rules of dodge ball.

Article written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com
Read more