How to Teach a Handicapped Adult to Read
Every language teacher knows that speaking is a cadre skill to teach and practice, but sometimes it can exist challenging coming up with creative or engaging ESL speaking activities and games. You lot can employ them to improve the community feeling inside the classroom, likewise.
Let'southward dive into nine quick, easy and fun ESL speaking activities for teenagers and adults you can integrate into your lessons.
They are designed to be high-quality and enjoyable – and more often than not suitable for online lessons, too.
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They don't demand much preparation, simply will get your students talking and assistance them to strop their conversational skills without even thinking virtually it.
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- one. Interview Pop
- 2. Word Racing
- 3. Guess Who or What I Am
- 4. Would yous rather…
- v. How-to Presentation
- half-dozen. Living Memory
- 7. Video Talk
- 8. Talk About Your Weekend
- nine. Timed Discussion
- 10. Debating Society
- eleven. Taboo Words
1. Interview Pop
Educatee level: Pre-Intermediate to Avant-garde
Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
This is a bang-up 1 for students to have fun and exist creative. Put students in pairs, or you could too conduct this ane out in a ane-one lesson.
Students choose one person they want to interview. It tin can exist anybody of their choice, and the person doesn't necessarily take to be live still.
I tell students to choose someone they know a lot about or who they admire because then they'll accept more material to talk about when the speaking part of the activity comes around.
Requite each student a list of 10 to fifteen verbs. (Tin can exist the same list or unlike) Run into the example:
- Decide
- Hate
- Love
- Offering
- Prefer
- Motion
- Win
- Proceed
- Buy
- Wait
- Consider
- Change
Each student has to choose 5 verbs from their list.
They make a dissimilar question using one of their v verbs in each question; these questions are made for the person they want to interview.
Each question volition have a different verb.
For example, let's say a pupil chooses Barack Obama. They have to make five interview questions for Barack Obama, each question using a dissimilar verb from their list.
Here are some examples:
- How did you decide you lot want to go president?
- Did you desire to continue existence president after your term finished?
- What did y'all love about existence the president?
- What would yous alter about the USA?
- What do you consider to be your greatest achievement every bit president?
While I commonly simply come up upward with the verbs myself, you lot can too find some verb lists online, forth with a listing of people for your students to cull from.
While the students are making their questions, go through the class and help students fix the grammatical mistakes.
This is a great action if y'all are practicing question formation every bit a grammer topic with your students.
The students then give their partner the questions that they wrote and so assume the office of the person they wanted to interview, while their partner asks them the questions they only made.
Then this ways that each student answers the questions from the perspective of the person they wanted to interview, as their partner asks them the questions.
Go around and listen for mistakes.
You could likewise so have students report to the class the person their partner chose and how they responded to the questions.
2. Discussion Racing
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of Lesson: Group
A very interactive and high-free energy ESL speaking activity. Many students go so into it and excited that they won't fifty-fifty notice they are speaking in a foreign language and won't even have fourth dimension to recollect well-nigh making mistakes.
All yous need to prepare for the game is to write downward 15-20 vocabulary terms you desire to practice with your students, each term is written on a different small slip of paper. Requite a stack of these slips to each grouping.
You can also let the students write down the vocabulary (for example on the concluding topic they've learned) but then some words might be double and they also might not remember of the words you lot want them to practice.
Divide your students into groups of three or four and explain the rules of the game.
One actor from the kickoff group starts. This student then has one minute to explain or define every bit many words written on their slips to their own group as they can, without maxim the discussion they have on the carte du jour.
They want their group to guess as many words as possible in one minute.
Each time the members of the group guess a word, they put the card down, which gets them a betoken, and then they take a new carte du jour and repeat the same affair.
Once the infinitesimal is over, the next group takes their turn.
After the minute is up, each group counts their points and the group with the most points wins that circular.
If y'all accept time to play more than rounds, after all, words are guessed, put them back in the basket and let them play over again, although this fourth dimension they tin can only utilise ane word to explicate the word on the card, for instance, a synonym or a word they acquaintance with the give-and-take on the menu.
An example might be that if the word on the card is 'handcuff' then they say the word 'police' and the other students accept to estimate the word 'handcuff'.
Students just get one guess. Once a pupil guesses, the educatee must move on to the next card, whether the discussion was guessed correctly or not.
In the final circular, they human action out or pantomime the words on their cards.
Here's a list with even more fun ESL vocabulary games for adults and kids.
While there are many other adept vocabulary-charades type games that tin can be done with both younger and older students, this one has been my favorite.
3. Guess Who or What I Am
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate
Type of Lesson: Group
This is a very simple but effective activity with no preparation needed and can be played in two versions.
Information technology's usually more suitable for lower-level students but can also be used in intermediate or upper-intermediate students, especially for the other variation of the activity described beneath.
In version i, one pupil thinks of a person – it could be someone in the class or a famous person, someone that anybody is likely to know – and the rest of the class asks them yes or no questions about the person until they can guess who it is.
The student who guesses the person with the least amount of questions wins.
In version ii, one student goes in forepart of the door, while the rest of the form decides on a person. Then the educatee comes back in and has to inquire the class yes or no questions until they tin can guess who the person is.
Another variation of this game is to put students in groups and describe themselves from the perspective of an object, and the other students must guess what that object is in the quickest fourth dimension possible.
Each student in the grouping writes downward an object and then speaks from the perspective of that object every bit if they were actually that object.
For example, if one student chooses 'handcuffs' they would say something like:
- "The constabulary put me around somebody's wrists when they break the police force."
- "I accept two round rings with chains continued them."
- "I am on a person on their way to prison."
Students shouldn't practice whatever gesturing or acting on this one because that volition give it away. The educatee who is able to guess the most objects correctly wins.
The reason I like this 1 more is that the students accept to get a little chip more creative well-nigh expressing their ideas and they also tend to have more fun with this one.
4. Would you rather…
Student level: Intermediate to Advanced
Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
This is a great fashion to exercise 'would' in the provisional grade.
There's a lot of different means yous can organize this ane. One of the easiest ways is to only come up with some of your own ideas (5-10 should be plenty), type them out, and cut them upward into cards.
Get around the grade and have a student draw a card, read information technology aloud, and and so telephone call on another student to reply it.
The goal is to make the "Would you rather" questions funny, crazy, interesting, or controversial. Think well-nigh what kind of questions you think would be fun to discuss if you lot were learning a foreign language.
Bookmark our list of 110 "would you rather" questions, and you will never run out of great questions to discuss.
Here are a few examples:
- Would y'all rather give up your mobile telephone or your pet?
- Would you lot rather have $50,000 that is legal or $150,000 that is illegal?
- Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the most intelligent?
- Would you lot rather accept your first child when you are nineteen years old or when you are 45?
As stated before, y'all can make up your own. If you are doing a specific topic for your lesson, then you can try to make them every bit closely related to the topic every bit possible.
For case, if the topic for your lesson is Meet the World's Oldest Ice Hockey Player, then yous might want to prepare some 'would y'all rather' questions about age or most hockey:
- Would you rather cease aging at 17 or 35?
- Would y'all rather appointment someone ten years older or x younger?
- Would you lot rather be a famous football role player or a famous hockey player?
Give each group or pair of students the same card and take each of them country their opinion about the topic on the bill of fare.
Yous tin can requite them a few minutes to take notes on their stance and what they want to say before starting. And then students get around and say their opinion and support their argument.
This is one is sure to bring some good conversations and even laughs in your course.
Yous can also teach phrases on how to express opinions, such as:
- "In my opinion…"
- "I believe that…"
- "In my eyes…"
- "From my indicate of view…"
In addition to this, y'all could also assign students to make their own "Would yous rather…" topics for the class or other groups. Make sure they keep them appropriate!
Help facilitate the conversations and ask follow-upwardly questions while students are speaking.
v. How-to Presentation
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Avant-garde
Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
This action is great for a number of reasons: it's uncomplicated to assign and explain, constructive for students to develop speaking, and fun because it's on a topic they're interested in.
Information technology'southward also practical because they're teaching the class how to practice something or how something works.
Basically, all yous demand to practice for ESL speaking activities like this 1 is accept students choose some topic. Information technology tin be whatsoever appropriate topic according to their wishes.
Then they give a five-infinitesimal presentation on that How-to topic.
In order to become students cooperating together, y'all could also put them in pairs and have them decide on and organize the speech together.
Here are some of the ones my students have washed before and they turned out to be groovy:
- How to cook [a food]
- How to play [a sport]
- How to travel inexpensive
- How to practice a magic play a joke on
- How to live healthily
There are some nifty tips you tin can share with your students on giving a presentation in a strange language.
Take students prepare the speech communication at abode or during the lesson, and then have them present their topic during the next lesson.
You could take notes on their speaking or pronunciation mistakes while they present and get over them after the presentation.
half-dozen. Living Memory
Student level:Pre-Intermediate
Type of Lesson:Group
This is a game based on the archetype board game "memory" designed for lower-level students.
Two students go out of the room (Student A and Student B). The remainder of the class gets together in pairs.
If you have an uneven number of students, ane group tin be in three.
Each pair chooses a give-and-take according to the learning objective.
For example, if your students are learning about food, then in pairs they will mutually agree on a meal or a food they both similar. Then the two students come back into the classroom and these two students play against each other to gain points.
To gain points, Student A starts off and asks any student in the course "What do you similar eating?" and that educatee answers "I like eating…", and then Pupil A asks another student what they like to eat.
If the second student likes the same matter, and so Student A gets one point. Then Student B goes and tries to match the pairs based on the food they mutually chose together.
This is a fun game to exercise vocabulary and elementary phrases.
You can make the game more interactive if students make gestures and movement demonstrating the blazon of food. For example, they gesture peeling a banana if the food they chose is 'banana'.
Other adept questions are:
- What is your favorite subject?
- What do you like doing in your free time?
- What time is information technology?
vii. Video Talk
Student level:Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Blazon of Lesson:Grouping or Individual
Find a YouTube video topic that you recollect would be interesting for your students. I would cull a relatively short video (two to five minutes), or something like a TedTalk.
Make some preview discussion questions virtually the topic presented in the video, get through them with students earlier watching, and then lookout the video together.
Y'all tin and so have some questions prepared based on the video content and some mail-give-and-take activities while going through some of the important vocabulary terms from the video.
Students tend to honey working with videos and there are so many good ones out in that location present.
Using video is effective because it brings the outside world to your students, and they tin generate some great discussions in class, inspiring students to speak their mind and share their opinions and ideas.
Scan our full archive of ESL resources and printables.
eight. Talk Virtually Your Weekend
Educatee level:Beginner to Intermediate
Type of Lesson:Group
This activity is a meliorate pick if your students are happy talking but possibly are a fleck nervous speaking in front of a class:
Carve up the class into pairs.
Students need to talk over their weekend with their partner.
Use only English!
You need to be observant with this type of activity. Keep an eye on each student'south talk time.
If you are finding some students are much more talkative than their partners, maybe prepare a time limit for how long each student can talk for before switching. This ensures that everyone gets a off-white chance to practice.
Information gap activities are great to practice chat; get more ideas hither.
nine. Timed Discussion
Educatee level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of Lesson: Grouping or Individual
This is another simple even so swell activity for building confidence in speaking!
Requite the pupil a topic bill of fare, for example, "Talk about your favorite place." or "What's your favorite band or creative person?"
The pupil has a certain corporeality of time to set some ideas for what they will say.
The student then has to talk about that topic for a chosen amount of time.
When starting out with this activity, make sure to give more time for training and less fourth dimension for the presentation. v minutes of preparation time and 1 minute of the presentation should exist plenty.
With time, you can reduce the preparation time or increase the presentation time.
10. Debating Lodge
Educatee level: Intermediate to Advanced
Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
Prepare a listing of controversial topics, and two opposing views about each topic.
Split your students into pairs or small groups (each with an even number of students). Split each groups into two parties. Assign a topic to each group: each party has to hold an contrary view.
Give them some fourth dimension to prepare arguments for their standpoint. v to x Minutes should be enough.
Then let each grouping debate their topic in front end of the form. One party starts voicing their first argument, then the other answers.
Each statement shouldn't exceed 30 seconds – use a stopwatch with a countdown, so students know when they have to finish.
The argue is over later a set up time – for example 5 minutes – or when the parties stated all their arguments.
Afterward each debate, the whole class votes which party was more disarming and won the debate.
If it's an individual lesson, you and the student play the opposite parties – no concluding vote so.
Make sure to prepare topics co-ordinate to the fluency level of your students. The topics can be rather serious and controversial, or fun and weird.
Here are a couple of examples:
Current and serious topics:
- Classroom instruction vs. Homeschooling
- Self-driving cars: smart or dangerous
- Buy local vs. buy online
- Death sentence: yes or no
- iOS vs. Android
Fun and weird topics:
- Vanilla vs. chocolate ice-cream
- Get upward early vs. go to bed late
- Have no kids vs. have 5 kids
- Travel to Mars vs. to the earth's core
- Sommer vs. Winter
11. Taboo Words
Pupil level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of Lesson: Group
Finally, and absolute classic activity. Split your students into groups, each with at least iii iii students.
Prepare a list of words. For each word, remember nigh 3-5 words which can exist used to describe the original discussion. These tin be synonyms, adjectives or whatsoever kind of related terms.
Example:
- Weather – rain, cloud, sun, forecast, outside
- hungry – food, stomach, eat, restaurant, thirsty
- to run – fast, quick, walk, race, legs
Write the words on cards.
Now, one student has to take one card and explain the word to the other in their group. Here's the grab: He must non utilise one of the words on the card (also, no parts or variations of the words.). He must not employ gestures, facial expressions or voices. He has to circumscribe the word using other verbal expressions.
The rest of the grouping have to guess the give-and-take. Set a fourth dimension for each circular, similar 1 minute. I grouping has to guess as many words as possible inside that fourth dimension; each guess is one point.
When the explaining educatee uses one of the taboo words (or other taboo means), he has to skip the electric current word and proceed with the next bill of fare.
Count the points after each circular. Then, the adjacent group has its plough. The game is over, when each student in each group had their turn to explain words. Sum up the points; the group with the nigh wins.
Other possible game modes: Permit the groups guess one word alternate, and fix a thirty seconds time limit for each guess. Or let a educatee explicate a word to the whole grade, and who guesses it first, gets a point.
Source: https://jimmyesl.com/easy-esl-speaking-activities-practice/
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