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Other ways of categorising oral activities

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Other ways of categorising oral activities

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Highly Supervised (formal debate)... Free Working (informal chat, task work)

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Also activities that require a lot of correction e.g. formal debate, where students should speak very properly, and performances/presentations. I think it is always a good idea to prep vocabulary/checks scripts first so as not to interrupt the oral activity. Once students are speaking, feedback should be saved for the end.

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Other speaking activities I enjoy are mini debates - students stand according to their beliefs, one one side or the other, to denote extreme agree and disagree, with the middle ground also an option. They should then be ready to debate.

I also love dialogues/plays that they write themselves. It’s a chance for them to get their oral output perfect before they begin and to express their creative side. The interactive aspect comes in when they get feedback from their peers, perhaps in the form of an X-Factor style judging panel.

I have also been thinking of rap, improv, which allow more interactive, in-the-moment speaking practice along with creativity.

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Hi  everyone!

I classified the activities suggested  - that  were not included before (Prepared interactions and Stimulus-to-interaction and discussion (group formats/systems))- like this:

1.Rule-light:

Spontaneous:Video + listening comprehension + discussion,

whole class, pair or group discussions

Prepared:Student presentation + questions + discussion

2.Rule-heavy:

Spontaneous: Panel discussion, Harkness discussion

Prepared: Panel of experts, Spiderwebs discussion, Socratic Seminar

Generally, prepared interactions will rely on the rule-heavy side of the activity because they require dedicated research time to be fully ready for either of said interactions. On the other hand, stimulus-to-interaction activities could be classified as rule-light because they don’t require as much preparation. In the video activity case, students can discuss what they are learning on the spot, while carrying out checking for understanding exercises; nevertheless, their presentations could require research and longer preparation time. However, the follow-up questions will not necessarily call for student preparation for the discussion part beforehand. Discussions can be either rule-light or rule-heavy depending on how the teacher projects them for his/her classes. Some may require more previous research than others.

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Other activities that can promote effective interactive language use - Amira

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Other activities that can promote effective interactive language use - Amira

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Though I have not yet taught the Language B program, my experience working with high schoolers has taught me that while presentations help them develop research skills and refine their vocabulary, their language usage is more natural when they have little to no preparation to speak about any given topic. Thus, I include impromptu speech-related exercises frequently in my classes.

It is worth mentioning that before my students ever receive an improvisation task (1 or 2-minute non-stop speeches usually), we have already covered text structure, body language, public speaking, and impromptu speech, and then we give it a go. These activities are usually connected to formative assessment and are followed by a peer-feedback session.

Impromptu Speech - Individual long turn: Students receive a topic or a question, they are given one minute to prepare their answer, and then the same amount of time to present it to the class. This exercise has enabled them to become better communicators.

Stimulus-to-interaction improvisation - Group Task: Students receive a random photograph (it can be anything from social gatherings to landscapes) and a slip of paper with a social situation they have to act out (meeting his/her parents, asking for a promotion, etc.) and words or phrases they must include. Sometimes the connections between the three elements are not easily seen and they have to be a lot more creative. They are given from 5 to 15 minutes to write a sketch and then act it out.

I am not a huge fan of asking students to perform presentations on given topics; I usually prefer to challenge their ideas and change the purpose of their spoken interactions, tone, register, etc. One of the activities that allows them to do that is creating Newscasts.

Newscasts - Group Task: Students are divided into groups of 4 to create a school-related newscast that includes at least 1 segment of the country’s current affairs. Students are instructed to define the roles (an anchor, a reporter, a producer, etc.), the segments of their newscast, carry out research, write a script, and record the newscast to be presented to the whole class.

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Reacting to visual stimuli (rule-light) - By asking students to describe what they see in a picture, the teacher creates a space for students to freely practice (allowing for the production of genuine language). Furthermore, students will also think creatively as they are encouraged to predict what events led to the picture being taken. This may be done either as a whole class, in groups or pairs depending on what the teacher's aim is.

Playing "mafia" (AKA "Werewolf") (rule-heavy)- This game is very popular in post-soviet countries and can work well in the context of ESL as it requires certain students to orally recount events. It would work especially well in a unit concerning psychology/sociology as it was originally created as a PhD project to exemplify mass hysteria.