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This is an informal speaking exercise that helps students quickly prepare talking points and talk at length about a random topic. Students are given 2 minutes to prepare and 2 minutes to speak. When it is a student's turn, the teacher generates two random conversation topics for the student to choose from the "conversationstarters.com" website. The student picks one of the conversation topics and prepares talking points for two minutes. While preparing, the student is encouraged to go off on tangents, use personal examples, embellish their stories, and use their imagination to fill up at least 2 minutes of talking time.

When the current student is presenting, they will speak nonstop until they receive a visual cue for the 2 minute mark, at which point they can choose how to end their speech. When the current student is finished, the next student chooses their random conversation topic and starts preparing while the class gives feedback to the student who just presented. We continue this cycle of presenting->feedback/preparation->presenting until all students have given their speeches.

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Random Questions - Conversation Topic Generator

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Find tons of great conversation topics with our random conversation topic generator.

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Students pick a character from a text that they've read. With a partner or a small group, rewrite a favorite scene involving that character. The group writes a skit adapting that scene to a modern time/situation (classroom, at the mall, at a cafe, etc.). Students perform the skit while demonstrating the character’s traits and feelings.

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Create chart papers with different statements, such as:
- 'When I grow up, I want to be...'
- 'My favorite dish is...'
- 'I wonder about...'
- 'I feel scared when...'
- 'I am excited...'
- ' I feel annoyed when...'
Divide students into groups and provide them with colored markers.
Ask students to continue the statements then discuss what they have written when they finish.
As the year progresses, I would repeat the activity with statements that could be more advanced or would be related to the theme being covered.

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Students are put in groups randomly. They need to find/ identify three strange things they have in common with each other. What the teacher could do here to make it a bit more challenging is to put prompts on the board. Students report back and vote on which group has the strangest three things in common. I honestly haven't tried this yet, but I know many teachers who have. Let me know if you have tried this with your students.

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I have used this activity a number of times with my students. I used it as an ice-breaking activity at the beginning of the year.
I tell my students to imagine a situation where they have won a million dollars. I ask them to think about what they would do with the money individually for 3 minutes. After that, I ask the people to in the same groups to discuss what they chose to do with the money and put them into different categories. Each group would then provide us with different that are placed on the wall in order to discuss and see (for those who are visual leaners like myself).
This is actually very much fun and enjoyable for students. They have the chance to interact and imagine they are super rich.
Different categories might include charity, self-care, leisure, etc.

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Taboo is another great game to get students to practice describing things in English.

It is a typical "guess the word" game where one student draws a card with a word on the top and their goal is to get their partner to say that word.

The challenge is that Taboo cards also include several taboo words that the describer is not allowed to use.

These words have been carefully chosen to ensure that the describer has to be creative to help the guesser figure out what word is at the top of the card.

Students have to think on their feet, and they want to communicate effectively in order to defeat the other players and teams.

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Red noun cards and green adjective cards

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I have used Apples to Apples (a popular card and board game) to get students to practice making choices and justifying these choices with explanations. The game includes two sets of cards red cards and green ones. There are many cards in both decks. The green cards include adjectives, and the red cards include nouns such a famous places, historical figures, objects, things in various rooms, foods, etc...

In this game, one student (the judge) draws a green card with an adjective.

The other students who are sitting in groups have to choose one card from their deck of red cards that they feel best represents or is described by the word on the card. The students have to explain their choices and justify them to the judge.

The judge will award the green adjective card to the group he/she feels gave the best answer. Play continues until one group has collected four green cards.

This is a natural way to get students explaining themselves with evidence to support their answer. The answers and discussion also tend to be very humorous, which in my experience means students are more engaged.

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This is an activity to practice questions. I really like this game because it can be played at all levels, with subtle variation and it is quite good for whole class interaction, small groups or pair work. A student is given a card with a picture of a person somewhere (supermarket, park, restaurant, plane, prison, etc.). The rest of the students have to ask questions to find out where that person is. Students with very low level can ask simple things, like “are you happy?” “Are you alone?” Are you using money?” … The student with the card can answer yes / no or give some explanation.

I have tried this game without the picture cards, and for some reason, it has not been that popular. The cards give students a context to base their answers.

The way I have explained it is probably too simple and easy for IB students but it can always be made more complex. For example, the student holding the card can explain a situation which explains why he is in that particular place, and the rest have to guess where he is.

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LIER, LIER
A student tells us about his/her life, and he includes two lies. The rest of them have to find out the two inconsistencies. For instance, he may say at the beginning of his speech that the previous year he had been to NY on a family trip, and later on, say that he would like to go to America, because he has never been.

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DESERT ISLAND
This is a well-known game, where groups of students (made of 5 people, for instance) are given a list of essential /non-essential items, and they have to discuss which ones to take to a desert island. Of course they can only choose a few, say three, and there is no right answer. Eg. Bottle of water / torch / phone / fishing cane / matches etc. They have to explain and justify their choices.

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Odd one out (informal chat in small groups)

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Odd one out (informal chat in small groups)

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This is another favorite for the beginning of the year or to be used as a filler.

Students really need to reason their choices and they also need to discuss, negotiate, and reach and agreement in their groups as to which one they think is the odd one out in each category.

Groups will then communicate their choices to the whole class providing their supporting statements to their answer choice.

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Talking cards (informal chat in small groups) 

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Talking cards (informal chat in small groups) 

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I usually use this activity at the beginning of the school year to help students loosen up and interact with each other.
Instead of telling students to award points, I tell them that they need to provide responses that are at least 30 seconds long. This is at times challenging as they need to describe something (a pencil). I also request them to provide supporting statements and include details in their responses.

It also lets me get a feel of students' level as I cruise around the classroom while students do the activity helping out with vocabulary issues that might arise as well as correcting grammar.

I write the different vocabulary that pops up on the board for other students to make use of and I also write up the grammar mistakes I have taken note of in order to go through them with the whole class.

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You bring the news (Stimulus-to-interaction: std presentation + questions+ discussion)

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You bring the news (Stimulus-to-interaction: std presentation + questions+ discussion)

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This is an activity that usually spreads out through out the year as news presentations take place every week or every two weeks and depending on the class dynamics I might group three news presentations in a single class or might space presentations out (one per week).

In this activity, students choose a news story they find interesting and have to find three further articles on the story. This usually implies them having to read the article from three different sources of information (different newspapers with often different political views).

Students then summarize the story and present the different added pieces of information to the rest of the class.

As a whole class we discuss the news presented, ask follow-up questions on the article, and talk about what we think will happen in the following days (talk about the past, present, and future).

Students are often surprised to discover discrepancies between the different sources which is also one of the purposes of the activity. One year, one of the students was shocked to discover that the death toll count varied depending on the newspaper.

Every student gets to do the activity twice through out the year.

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I use several role-play-roles games in the classroom after covering certain topics (e.g. tourism, shopping and consumerism, the environment and transport). As I usually deal with large class sizes I make several copies of the different roles and distribute them in groups.

Students need to read their roles and the situation card (e.g. the Island of Arabella is an unknown tourist destination that has just been discovered by a hotel chain that wants to build on this idyllic island; Supersaver Debate: a new supermarket is going to be built on the town's only green area; The Congestion Charge: pollution levels are high and the town hall is considering implementing a congestion charge). Each student represents an interested party and they need to find others who share similar views with them in order to create interest groups and they need to debate and reach an agreement (e.g. if they are going to agree on the construction of a hotel on the island/supermarket in the town and where they are going to locate it; what kind of congestion charge is going to be implemented, prices, schedules, etc.).

As there are several groups in the class, they usually come to different solutions so the different groups present their outcomes and we then lead a whole group discussion on the solutions and ideas.