Information Gap Activity ideas for ESL classes by Citizens of Hope

Information Gap Activity

rclavagnier — 2020-08-09 04:39:56 UTC

Job Interview

Practice: Talking about experiences, professions and characteristics.

Procedure: Divide students into groups of two. One student is the interviewer, the other is the interviewee.

The interviewer asks typical interview questions. You can either pre-teach these types of questions to the whole class or provide a list of sample questions to each pair.

Provide the interviewee with a profession and short backstory. The information you provide the interviewee can be as detailed or as minimal as you choose and should correlate with the students’ English level.

Example:

Student A: Where did you study?
Student B: I studied at ABC University.

Student A: What did you study?
Student B: I studied medicine.

Student A: What are your strengths?
Student B: I’m hardworking and passionate.

Information Gap Activity

joybielenberg — 2020-08-16 22:04:31 UTC

Preparing to cook a German specialty
Introduction: Talk about how many countries measure ingredients for recipes by weight, but in the U.S. we primarily use volume. Show examples of measuring devices.
Procedure: Divide students into groups of 4. Two students (group a) have the ingredients and the measuring instruments. Two students (group b) have the recipe and the cooking instruments.
The students are invited to learn how to make a German homemade noodle called spaetzle. In addition to cups, Tablespoons, and teaspoons, they will be introduced to the specialized cutter for the noodles, a slotted spoon and cutter board.
Possible exchanges:
Group a: What are we making?
Group b: Spaetzle.
Group a: What is that?
Group b: A homemade German noodle. Here is a picture.
Group a: We have flour, salt, eggs, milk and butter. How much do we need?
Group b: We need 2 cups of flour.

Information Gap Activity

lindsaymlaidlaw — 2020-08-21 00:13:36 UTC

CHART ACTIVITY

This can be effective in encouraging students to analyze and clearly present information, and these charts can be based on just about anything.

For example, a nice way to practice family relationships is the family tree chart.

Divide students into groups of two. Provide each student with a family tree. Student A’s chart has part of the information and Student B’s chart has the rest.

Then the students must work together to make one, complete family tree.

Example:

Student A: Who is married to Grandpa John?
Student B: Grandma Elizabeth.

Student A: How do I spell “Elizabeth?”
Student B: E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H. What year was their first child born?

Student A: Rebecca was born in 1940.

Activity from:

Draw a picture

tomwrowland — 2020-08-21 17:09:18 UTC

Divide students into pairs. Give an image or picture to the first student in each pair without showing it to the second student.

The first student describes the picture to the second student. The second student then draws the image based on this description. The second student is allowed to ask questions to help them understand what the picture or image is.

This activity can be adapted for any level. Select pictures that will incorporate language the students have been studying and are familiar with. For instance, in the following example there’s a focus on colors.

Example:

Student A: The background is light blue.
Student B: Okay.

Student A: There is a woman in the middle of the picture.
Student B: What color is her hair?

Student A: Her hair is brown.

Tip: You can turn this activity into a “competition” with the winner being the pair that best replicates the image. If you want to expand the activity, have the students switch roles and provide a second image.

Spot the difference with pictures

santosabel2 — 2020-08-27 04:04:30 UTC

Material needed: 1 set of similar pictures with some different details to each pair of students. Give student A picture 1 and student B picture 2.

Activity: Students can't show each other the picture they have. Ask them to talk and find out the differences between their pictures.

Variation: A great way to add an extra step to this activity is having students report back to the teacher how different their classmate's picture is.

Information Gap Activity

ashlynvice — 2020-09-04 13:21:05 UTC

Sentence/Story Building

Beginner-
Divide a funny sentence into parts (e.g. Last night// my cousin//ate// too much//cheesecake//because// he lacks// self control) and write each part on a separate sheet of paper. Distribute the sheets amongst the students randomly. Now all the students must collaborate to put the sentence in the correct order by laying the papers out on the table, so the sentence makes sense. Nominate one student to read the sentence aloud and another to explain the scenario. Try and use interesting sentences that involve different grammatical rules. Here, rather than explaining the grammar via textbook, you are making them interact to discover these grammatical rules.

-Use "gatecrasher" words XD : After students have succeeded in the first round, throw in some extra words and get them to troubleshoot! (e.g. last night// at the restaurant// my greedy cousin// ate far too much// chocolate cheesecake... etc).
-To aid comprehension, you could project a picture on the screen or draw a picture on the whiteboard which gives a general idea of the scenario (e.g. picture of a person eating lots of cake).

More fun- Make this a competition! Divide the class into two teams and see which team can get through the most sentences in X minutes.

Advanced-
You could take this same idea, but instead of dividing a sentence, divide a story into separate parts- for students to learn the sequence of a narrative and encourage reading/comprehension in the process.

Inspired by a board game I saw in my mum's classroom XD

Speed Description Team Game

graemephenderson — 2020-09-08 17:33:17 UTC

Great for classrooms with a competitive spirit, and that have at least a decent grasp of English already.

So you get everyone to put a small piece of paper with an english noun on it into a hat, you sit everyone in a circle, and divide the room so the students have no teamates next to them (sitting A B A B A B etc.). Then you start a timer, and one by one someone takes a piece of paper out of the hat and has to describe the word in English without saying the word. When someone on THEIR team guesses it right, they pass the hat to the person on their right.

If the timer expires with your team holding the hat, the other team gets a point! Super fun and fast paced game. Just make sure the words are basic and people have a reasonable grasp of English already so that people can pass it at a reasonable speed!

Information Gap Activity

kamihallquist — 2020-09-11 02:29:54 UTC

Mad Libs Partner Activity. (Story Building)

Mad Libs are stories with gaps in the place of important information. For example, there would be blanks with the required parts of speech written below the blank. * See attachment for example* So Person A would approach Person B and ask for a noun or an adjective or whatever part of speech was needed. Person B usually picks something random and outrageous and the result is a strange but often humorous story.

This could be a fun activity especially if the students had been learning more vocabulary and growing in their ability to use synonyms and diverse action words/parts of speech. This activity would work best in a mid-high level ESL classroom.

The students could be given a pre-made Mad Lib template or could be given an example and asked to write their own story omitting certain parts of speech. They would then need to find a partner and give them information to fill in the gaps.

Typically, Mad Libs are ridiculous and funny because they often don't make literal sense. I feel this could be very confusing for an ESL student and wouldn't be helpful in an ESL classroom setting. Therefore, I would encourage the students to give context clues so that the ending story would make as much sense as possible. So instead of having a goal of the funniest story, the goal would be to have the most accurate or comprehensible story.

This would require Person A to be clear in the type of word they require for the blank they need to fill and share about the context without giving away the story.

All in All . . . I wouldn't call the activity A Mad Lib as the focus is on creating a comprehensible story not a "mad(Crazy)" story. I would call the activity Story Building or something like that.

This activity includes the following characteristics of a Communicative Activity...
- Real communication
- Students have a reason/desire to communicate (building a story)
- Includes pair work
- Integrates reading & listening with writing and speaking

*This example is in the form of a play or dialogue, but you could prompt the students to form a short story. . .or really whatever you like depending on their level.

Which food am I?

awisse25 — 2020-09-17 09:29:57 UTC

Teacher devides children in pairs and gives them this paper. One student starts describing the other student what kind of food he/she is. once the other student gets it right, it's his/her turn.

Question words

awisse25 — 2020-09-18 08:43:13 UTC

In this gapactivity, students need to coplete the sentence by filling in the correct word, choosing between why, when, where and who.

Words search

isophorn123 — 2020-11-06 03:24:20 UTC

Teacher gives the sheet to students and asks them to find the ward from the grid to the left, and circle them, and whoever has finished it first they have to say bingo.

Giving directions

isophorn123 — 2020-11-06 03:29:55 UTC

Teacher device student in pairs, and give them the sheet A and B to the students, what they need to do, to fill in the name of the buildings that belong in the blanks.

Example:

Do you know where I can find a good Chinese food restaurant?
Yeas. Why don’t you try Ming’s Dynasty? It’s on 3rd Avenue across from the high school.

Information gap

heidiramos — 2020-11-28 10:16:59 UTC

information gap activity-
Real life – getting your car/moto/bike fixed
Teacher divides student into pairs. One students will role play as the Mechanic and the other will be the customer.
The student who of is the Mechanic must communicate with the customer what is wrong with the vehicle and communicate the cost for his labor. The student who is the customer then communicate what the issue is with his vehicle. If students do not know the proper vocab they can act out or use the vocab they do know to communicate clearly.
When I first moved to Cambodia, I had to get my bike fixed and it was an interesting experience. Luckily, I had a gracious mechanic who bared with my bad Khmer and helped me.

Complete the Text Practice: Parts of speech. Complete the text.

fernandomolinas90 — 2020-12-01 05:34:27 UTC

Procedure: Create two versions of a story. Remove different information from each story.
For example, one version of the story might be missing character names and locations (proper nouns) while the other version omits adjectives and adverbs.
Divide the students into pairs and distribute a different version to each student.
Students must work together to complete the story they’ve been given based on the different information each student provides. To do this, students must ask questions to discover the missing information that their teammate has. Ask the students to write in the missing information.
This activity can be adapted for different levels and ages, depending on the story you use and what missing information you choose to focus on.
Example:
Student A: What is the name of the first character?
Student B: Her name is Lisa. What adjective is used to describe the “tree” in the second sentence?
Tip: You can either write your own stories or use some ready-made stories from the internet.

Gathering Info About Famous Works

PriLandim — 2020-12-13 12:12:33 UTC

Normal: Student A has information about famous works of art, music or literature that Student B does not have. Student B asks questions about each work, and Student A answers the questions while Student B fills in the information.

Uses: Practicing passive and active voice - "Who painted Starry Night?" "It was painted by Vincent van Gogh" - and asking "wh-" questions

Fun: Have students research famous works online and create their own info sheets. Give them a few key types of information to find (creator, type of work, when it was made, materials used, etc.), and let them loose on the Internet. Alternatively, you could include class presentations, let the class ask the presenter more questions about the work, and have them take notes.

Building Sentences - 1

elizandrah — 2021-01-12 08:45:32 UTC

Normally I do this activity with my students and I didn't think this as an information gap activity.

I write down sentences on a piece of paper/print them out. I normally use vocabs and verb tenses they are currently learning. I cut all the words and mix them up. After that, I hand 1/2 of the words to one team/one student, and half of the others to the other team/student. They need to put together the sentences, and without the words of their friends they just can't complete the sentence. I normally give them sticky tack so they can build the sentences on the board for everyone to see! See below a video with my students playing the game. And also and example of activity ready to be print out - in the following post.

Building Sentences - 2

elizandrah — 2021-01-12 08:55:02 UTC

What's in your room/purse/car?

johannakennedy — 2021-01-12 20:00:01 UTC

Two students paired together would take turns asking each other the question. The one asking the question would ask additional questions throughout the process for more detail.

Person A: What's in your living room?
Person B: We have a couch, a chair, a desk in our living room.
Person A: What does your couch look like? Feel like?

family introduction

awisse25 — 2021-02-03 04:00:35 UTC

Sit in a circle, introduce today's topic and tell Ss how many brothers and sisters you have and write your name/title and the number of brothers/sisters you have behind your name/title. To make it more visual, draw stickfigures for each brother/sister. Next, tell the first S in the circle: I have .. brothers and .. sisters, how many brothers and sisters do you have? S answers the question, draws their stickfigure brothers and sisters behind their name and repeats to next S: "I have... brothers and sisters, how many brothers and sisters do you have?
Once all Ss have answered the question and written down the answers, count how many brothers and how many sisters the class has in total and ask S 'how many brothers and sister do their neighbour have?

Luis Molinas (trip around Japan, train timetable)

2021-02-05 11:30:59 UTC

2 Sheets, one for student A and another for student B...

They have answers that the other student doesn't... They both have to ask the questions to each other and write in the blank spaces...

Simple and easy exercise.

Luis Molinas

2021-02-05 11:38:41 UTC

(trip around Japan, train timetable)

Information Gap Activity

cjkennedy4626 — 2021-05-21 03:12:12 UTC

Family Tree

Students can pair up and ask fill in a family tree for each other asking each other questions about their family.

20 Questions

rclavagnier — 2021-05-26 04:10:24 UTC

This is more of a fun English game, but students love it and it’s a great way to practice asking questions and learning new information.

You can do this activity as a whole class, in small groups, or in groups of two.

One student thinks of an item or object. The other students must ask questions in order to figure out what item the student is thinking of. The questions should be “yes” or “no” questions. If the students can’t guess the item within 20 questions, the student who’s thinking of the item wins the game.

Student A: Okay. Go!
Student B: Is it alive?

Student A: No.
Student C: Is it bigger than my desk?

Student A: Yes.
Student D: Is it…?

9-1-1 phone call information gap activity

maryred — 2021-06-29 16:11:17 UTC

In this role play situation, one student will be given a medical emergency scenario and pretend to call 9-1-1 to report the situation and request help.
Another student will be the dispatcher for 9-1-1 who is answering the call for help and asking informational questions from the caller.

Here are some examples of 9-1-1 phone conversation questions and answers:
Dispatch : 9-1-1. What's your emergency?
Caller: My child may have a broken leg.
Dispatch: Where are you located / what is the address you are at?
Caller: At my house. In the yard. The address is 5510 Tulip Street in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

INFORMATION GAP ACTIVITY: SURVEY

barbarapinkley — 2021-07-09 21:52:35 UTC

“THINGS I CAN DO”

This Information Gap Activity can help students in the use of CAN before a verb. The questions in the exercise could be modified by replacing "can" with an ad
verb like "frequently" or "rarely", to study adverbs.

This Information Gap Activity can ALSO be used as an icebreaker for the class to get to know one another better and share some mutual experiences while they learn.

DIRECTIONS: Two students paired together would take turns asking each other these 10 questions.

Answer YES or NO about the following questions about yourself.

1. I can cook a meal.

2. I can change a tire on a car.

3. I can play a musical instrument.

4. I can play soccer.

5. I can write easily with my Left hand.

6. I can ride a bicycle.

7. I can milk a cow.

8. I can swim.

9. I can drive a car.

10. I can write emails.

Information Gap Activity

jkajperson — 2021-07-22 21:50:55 UTC

Matching Audio with Video
Use video clips like TV
Show introductions or clips, Movie Trailers, and even Music Videos. Sort class into Group A and Group B. One group will listen to the audio(without seeing it) and then switch groups mute audio, and let other group see video(without being able to hear audio). Then bring them back together and ask them to figure out what happened in the video or clip. Group A and B need to collaborate in order to fit the video and audio together. Deciding what is happening. It provides lively discussion and helps to spark the imagination of the students. End by showing the clip with audio and video together.

A good site to find short clips of movies is wingclips.com. It sorts by Themes, Categories, Movie Title, or Scriptures. It is free with limited access but can be paid for monthly or yearly.It can be accessed on facebook for a clip a day. Here is an example of a Movie Trailer which can also be used from a web search.

Guess Who?

miarottier9 — 2021-07-27 00:52:48 UTC

This is a game where both Student A and B pick a character that the other student then has to try to guess. This is done by asking questions about physical traits of the character until they think they can guess correctly which character the other student has. There is many board game versions of this or you can create your own.
I played this in French class in high school and it was lots of fun!

Tara: Information Gap Activity: Barrier Game

PetrovaFossil — 2021-08-02 17:24:12 UTC

A barrier game is a game in which two people each have an identical background on a piece of cardstock or paper. It is ideal if they have a way to “prop” this up between them, such as by using a double-sided tabletop whiteboard, with magnets. Attached is an image of one that sells on Amazon for about $13.00 USD.

The background could be a farm, for example, or other landscape. Ideally, it should have some landmarks, to make this game more fun. In addition, the players should have some people, animals, or other similar paper items to place on their own board, using magnets. One idea is to print these items, and attach magnetic sticky tape to them, to make it easier to place the items.

Each person takes turns selecting an item. The person describes the item, without showing it. The person talking would describe where on the board he or she is placing the item. For example, “I am placing the boy wearing green pants next to the hay wagon.” It is great if the emphasis is on prepositions, such as “in, on, under, on top, etc.” The player listening to this would then attempt to match the location on his or her own board. If the person is not certain where to place the item, questions can be asked, depending upon the language levels. However, the board or actual item would not be shown. You can use little cards with a single preposition word such as “in, on, [or] under” on them, if you want to encourage their use.

The players take turns describing what they are doing, as well as attempting to match their partner’s board, to the best of his or her ability, without seeing it. At the end of the game, when the figures have all been placed, the boards would be compared, to see if they match. This can be a good way to talk about what is different. “Oh, you placed your figure under the wagon, not on the wagon.”

Information Gap Activity

zulywmusic — 2021-08-24 13:40:42 UTC

Storytelling!

It is a group activity (4 or 5 people).

- The ones that are not part of the group have to give the group 3 to 5 topics (it can be a situation they are in or others things) that they have to include in their story telling.

- Let say the classroom gave the topics: “Police officer in the supermarket”, “chop wood” and “Joy’s birthday party in the tree house”.

- The group of four or five people in front have to stay in line and have to tell us the story, but everyone can just say one word at the time. The teacher or student from the classroom has to write done the words that are told.

Example:

Jan: It
Marc: was
Pia: Joy’s
Mary: Birthday.
Jan: She
Marc: had
Pia: …

You go on until the time is over that was given to them (3 to 5 minutes). Sometimes they will not finish with the topics that was given to them, but it is ok.

- Afterword the teacher or student read aloud what the story was. The outcome in general is always fun!

Draw This

annaostland — 2021-08-30 18:15:51 UTC

Materials:
Markers, pencils, pens (any writing utensil)
pictures (from maybe a magazine, book, or even printed... basically anything works)

The activity starts off with the teacher dividing the class into pairs, and giving one individual from each pair a simple picture. They then have to describe the picture to their partner, and their partner will start to draw what they think it is. They are allowed to ask questions about the picture, but not look at it.

For example:
Student #1: The background is dark green, and there is a woman in the middle of the picture.
Student #2: what is the color of her hair?
Student #2: What is she wearing?

This activity creates good dialogue, and it helps the students to start answering questions, and figuring out adjectives and descriptions.

Famous Person Project

maryred — 2021-08-31 17:29:01 UTC

Teacher uses accurate resources, such as a history book, to create pages on famous people with some details missing. The teacher may want to choose people who are famous in the culture where they are teaching so the famous person is easily recognized by students.
Students have some information on a famous person in worksheet form but each student has various details about the person missing (one is missing dates lives, one is missing facts about the person's life, etc).
Students ask each other questions and/or research together to fill in the missing information and create a complete project on the famous person.

INFORMATION GAP: Dates Exercise

barbarapinkley — 2021-09-12 02:54:51 UTC

This INFORMATION GAP Activity (adapted from a lesson from Peace Corps TEFL, 1989) is a good revision exercise for using vocabulary and ordinal numbers learned in previous lessons. Also, this is a good exercise to review the /th/ problem of pronunciation, focusing on the /th/ sound in "Thursday," "month," and "three."

MATERIALS: Make enough copies of the above calendar, date information and questions for each pair of students; On Whiteboard write the example of the question and answer for students to refer to when answering the questions.

STUDENT A: CALENDAR (above) & DATE INFORMATION (below)

2 – 1^st English test

3 – Dentist appointment

9 – History homework

13 – Meeting with librarian

16 – Gardening club meeting

18 – Football match

30 – Dentist appointment

STUDENT B -- Questions to ask Student A

1. When is the first English test?

2. How many days are there in this month?

3. What is the date of the first Friday of this month?

4. Is the 10^th a Friday or a Saturday?

5. When is the Football match?

6. When does the gardening club meet?

7. What’s the date of the second Monday?

8. When are you meeting with the librarian?

9. When is your history homework due?

10. What two dates do you go to the dentist?

DIRECTIONS for teachers: Teacher divide class into pairs. Give each Student A a copy of calendar & date information. Give each Student B a list of questions to ask Student A.

Directions for STUDENTS: Student B will ask Student A a Question.
Then Student A will look at BOTH the calendar AND the date information to find the answer and then will tell answer to Student B.

Teacher will refer to the WHITEBOARD information (below) and give the following EXAMPLE: Student B will ask "When is the first English test?" Student A will answer: "The 1^st English test is on Thursday, the 2nd of August.

On WHITEBOARD:

Question: When is the first English test?

Answer: The 1^st ENGLISH TEST is on THURSDAY the 2nd of August: The _____________is on _________ the ____ of August.

This exercise gives students a chance to use their vocabulary and ordinal numbers and also practice /th/ pronunciation. NOTE: If more advanced students finish the information gap quickly, they can reverse roles and do it again.

Information Gap Activity: "Movie Characters"

zulywmusic — 2021-10-18 19:03:19 UTC

Find your partner:

- The teacher prepares many different pairs of movie characters. Examples: Mickey-Mouse and Minnie-Mouse, Elena de la Vega and Zorro, Donald duck and Daisy duck, etc.

- The teacher tape one of the movie characters on every students back.

- Students do not know which character is on their back. They have to find out who is the movie character on their back by asking question to the other students.

- Owns everyone knows their movie character, they have to find out who is their partner.

"Heads Up!"

emhunderman — 2021-10-22 16:27:02 UTC

Each student writes down a few celebrities or well known characters on small pieces of paper. Then, the teacher will put all of the papers into a jar/bowl and students will each pick one out. Tell students not to look at their paper but to hold it up to their head so that other students can see. Students will then walk around the room and ask each other yes/no questions to guess which character/celeb they have. (this is also super fun outside of a classroom for team bonding :)

One word Character

mirjamvanwijk — 2021-11-05 14:13:53 UTC

This activity is very adaptable to whatever group you are teaching. The idea is that you write down different characters on pieces of paper and paper and put them in a bowl. You can do for example movie characters, cartoon characters and if your group is christian you can do biblical characters.

Student A takes a piece of paper from the bowl with a character written on it and student A can only use ONE WORD to describe the character. Only after student B makes a guess, student A can give another word to slowly "reveal" more about the character.

This activity helps students to find the specific words they need to describe something. Instead of using a lot of words that don't make a lot of sense, use 1 word that gets closer to what you actually want to say. through this activity students can have fun a train their vocabulary.

I also like this activity because you can change it up however you want. With children, use cartoon characters, with christians, use biblical characters. You can basically use anything that comes to mind or even let your students write down some characters. Just have fun with it!

Conversations Using Maps

ChristieAwesome — 2021-11-21 23:23:08 UTC

Overview: Although electronic apps have taken over mapping communication in many ways, this activity is still relevant for anyone who plans to travel of visit some place new as inevitably, one needs to ask for directions. It is also beneficial to know how to give directions in English.

Practice: Location names & directional words

Procedure:
- Discuss some of the various ways that different cultures or communities speak about direction (N,W,E,S or mile markers, city blocks, traffic lights - called robots in South Africa)

- Teach or review some key vocabulary such as “turn right” or “turn left”

- Assign students into partners

- Student A receives a map (real or made up by you) which is clearly labeled with some common locations

- Student B asks for directions to a location (grocery store, church, hospital, beach, shopping mall)

- Using the map, student A offers clear directions on how to get to the desired locations. Student B can ask clarifying questions and write down the directions or repeat back the directions they hear

- Students should take turns in this activity

Example:

Student A: Can I help you?
Student B: Yes. Where is the grocery store?

Student A: It’s on Main Street.
Student B: How do I get there?

Student A: Walk north 2 blocks and turn left on Henry Street, then the store is on your right

Student B: writes or repeats the instructions

Variations of this activity include:

- having students make their own maps in a previous class that can be used themselves or switched to have their partner use a new map (learning activities could be using new vocabulary words such as library, museum, police station, grocery store, my apartment, etc)

- have students make an “instruction list” with a starting and ending place (ie. “Starting at my apartment please give directions to me to go to the grocery store, then the library, then to the church and finally to the beach)

All things Weather-related

emailamandapoil — 2021-12-03 00:01:41 UTC

Weather app activity
This activity practices the days of the week and dates, time, numbers seen in temperature and percentage and highs/low, types of weather, and various other vocabulary and common phrases (forecast, observations, periods of rain/scattered showers, overcast, feels like, humidity, wind gusts, rain/fire warning, sunrise & sunset, pollen, tides, etc...)

Split learners into pairs:

Student A: has a weather app (OR printed weather forecast paper with all the pertinent information OR weather website projected onto whiteboard for the class)

Student B: has a list of questions and fills in the answers.
Example Questions:
1. What is the forecast for tomorrow?
2. What is the temperature today?
3. What will the high be on Tuesday?
4. When will the sunrise on Friday?
5. What is the chance of rain tomorrow?
6. What time did the sunset yesterday?
7. How much rainfall have we had in the last 24 hours? (mm)
8. What is the average windspeed today? (km/h)
9. What is the pollen forecast level today?
10. When is high tide and low tide today?

Extension activity:
After Student B writes the answers to the questions together the students fill in a weekly calendar with the information they discovered

(Tailor the initial questions)
Fill in a 7 day calendar for each day write:
-sun rise and sun sent times (time)
-high and low temperature (degree)
-chance of precipitation and rainfall (percentage/mm)
-tide times (time)
-wind speed (km/hr)
-UV levels
-clothing suggestions (layers/ sunscreen)

Information Gap: Giving directions (Amanda Poil)

2021-12-08 01:05:00 UTC

Students and in pairs. Student A asks how to get from X on the map to various locations listed at the top of their map. Student B directs them to the location and student A can then fill in the blank space with the name of that location.
Student B will then take a turn asking and listening to student A give directions.
Practicing imperatives: turn left on, turn right on, walk down/up, go along,
And direction vocab: across from, on the corner of, beside, behind,

gracenicole725 — 2021-12-16 04:30:20 UTC

Mock job interview
Have two students role play as a potential employer and interviewee. The potential employer will be given some ideas for questions to ask and the interviewee will do the best they can to provide the desired information.

*Another variation to make it interesting could be switching out roles for similar pairs like an investigator talking to a witness, and letting them be creative with the vocabulary they have thus far.

Information Gap: Present Tense (Juanita Kajkowski)

jkajperson — 2022-01-27 18:29:02 UTC

Make enough copies of worksheet for each pair of students to have one sheet. Divide class into student pairs. Cut paper in half. Student A tells what is happening in picture 1 and Student B draws a simple picture in their space 1. Student B tells what is happening is picture 2. Student A draws a simple picture in their space. Continue this way until all empty spaces have been filled. Students can vote on their favorite activity and or vote on their favorite picture. Each team of two could role play one of their pictures and lead the class in saying what HE/SHE is doing.
Practicing simple present tense continuous statements.

Filling out immigration forms (Angela Rose)

angelashieldsrose — 2022-02-23 18:36:37 UTC

Give students an actual form and have them work in groups practicing asking for the forms, asking questions on the form, asking questions common in immigration etc. They can practice filling out the form as well since filling out forms is DEFINATELY something they will be doing.

Another activity is giving them a menu and having them order food from the menu and asking questions about the menu (is this pork free for Muslims, Beef free for Hindus etc). Giving them expressions that they would use that will help them.

Make a Grocery List

jaelclaybaugh — 2022-02-24 22:07:46 UTC

Ask every student to find a partner. Student A will play the role of the ‘Chef,’ and Student B will play the role of the ‘Shopper.’ For a beginning ESL class, the student playing the Chef role will be given a recipe with simple food words and measurements. For more advanced students, ask the Chef to think of his/her favorite recipe.

Next, the Shopper will create a shopping list based off of the Chef’s answers to the questions they ask. The Shopper’s job is to figure out what foods and how much of each thing they need to buy.

For example:

Shopper: What do you want me to make?

Chef: a fruit salad

Shopper: What kinds of fruit do you want?

Chef: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries

Shopper: How many strawberries?

Chef: ten

Once the shopping list is complete, have the student switch roles with a new recipe.

Daily Schedule

christopheramoreland — 2022-02-25 20:21:34 UTC

Have student A ask student b questions about there daily schedule. When did you wake up? or What did you do after you woke up? In what order do you shave, brush your hair, brush your teeth, get dressed, etc.

This will help the students remember learn their daily routine in English, which can also be learned by using TPR the day before. And then used in the classroom the next day.

The teacher can go around and facilitate, answering any questions about what tasks are unknown to the student. A picture of tasks can also be handed to student b, while the questions can be handed to student a.

Information Gap Activity (Communication 101)

gracenicole725 — 2022-02-28 04:29:39 UTC

I think a simple role play would be good with something involving scheduling. It could be between friends getting coffee or a mom and daughter (father/daughter etc.) discussing when and where she will be picked up from school. In both scenarios, the two have to come to an agreement about the information they both need in order to follow through on the plans.

Information Gap Activity---- Draw This

ywamangelboston — 2022-04-10 23:51:53 UTC

Divide students into pairs. Give an image or a picture to the student A in each pair without showing it to the student B.

First, student A describes the picture to the student B. Then student B tries to draw the image based on this description of student A. Now student B is allowed to ask questions to help them understand what the picture or image is and finish the drawing by communicating with the partner.

Who is the burglar?

jessycafeiteira1 — 2022-04-11 15:34:49 UTC

Students should be split in groups of "witnesses" and "investigators". The students should be given tips and pieces of information (I would do cards with 2-3 pieces of information) so they can act out their characters. After some minutes of interviewing the witnesses, the investigators must decide who is the burglar. The goal is for the investigators to find out who was the burglar in a crime scene. The investigators can defend their ideas and the witnesses will try to prove their inocence.

20 Questions

jinnysings — 2022-04-12 00:13:32 UTC

Divide students onto pairs or small groups of 3-4 students. Pick a topic on which you will base your questions, like animals, food, famous people from history, etc.
Write these on paper slips and close them. One student picks a slip of paper and keeps it a secret. The other students ask a maximum of 20 "yes" or "no" questions until they guess what the secret paper slip holds.

Let´s use the Map

jauritat — 2022-04-12 01:47:33 UTC

Practice: Location names and directional words.

Procedure: This is a fun and relevant activity. Anyone who plans to travel or visit someplace new will need to know how to ask for directions. It’s also useful to know how to give directions in English. You’ll need to pre-teach some key vocabulary terms, such as “turn right” and “turn left.”

Assign students into groups of two. Provide one student with a map of a city or town, either from a real location or one of your own design. Make sure the map is clearly labeled with some of the more common locations.

One student asks for directions to a location: library, theater, hospital, police station, grocery store, etc. Using the map, the other student gives explicit directions. Students should ask clarifying questions and either write down or outline the directions they hear.

Students should take turns in this activity.

Example:

Student A: Can I help you?
Student B: Yes. Where is the library?

Student A: It’s on 5th Street.
Student B: What’s the best way to get there?

Student A: Take Apple Avenue and turn right.
Student B: Apple Avenue and turn right?

Student A: Yes. Then walk two blocks and turn left at the hospital.

Tip: If you’re really ambitious and have the time, ask each student to create their own map to be used in this activity.

Ordering pizza over the phone

marliemichal — 2022-04-13 16:02:48 UTC

The students will be put into groups of two to complete the activity.

Students will take turns being Student A and Student B.
Students will practice ordering a pizza over the phone.

Activity:

Student A will be the pizza maker and Student B will be the customer. Student B will call Student A and order a pizza. Student A will ask Student B questions to figure out what pizza to make for the customer. Student B will provide answers to the questions.

The teacher will provide "create your own" pizza menus to give the students options. Student A will ask questions from the menu to determine what pizza Student B would like. Student B will respond with answers to the questions.
Student A will fill out the pizza form as Student B answers the questions.

Example:

Student A: "Thank you for calling "insert pizza name" how may I help you?"

Student B: "I would like to order one pizza please."
Student A: "What size pizza?"
Student B: "A large Pizza."
Student A: "What crust would you like?"
Student B: "I would like hand-tossed."
Student A: "What sauce and how much cheese?"
Student B: "Barbeque sauce and normal cheese."
Student A: "What toppings do you want on your pizza?"
Student B: "I would like pepperonis, pineapple, and bacon."
Student A: "Would you like anything else with your pizza?"
Student B: "No thank you."

This is a quick and simple activity, but could be broadened by adding in where to send the pizza, how much the pizza will cost, how the customer will pay for the pizza, etc.

Dream house activity

heatherfehr13 — 2022-05-17 18:01:57 UTC

Divide the students into pairs. Give each student a piece of paper. Each student will draw their dream home on their paper. Then partner A will describe their home to partner B (Partner B isn't allowed to see Partner A's picture). While partner A is describing their home, partner B will be drawing what partner A is describing. If partner B doesn't understand something partner A says they may ask questions to clarify. After the pair finishes the partners will switch roles with the drawing student now describing his/her picture to their partner. Once both students have had a chance to draw, they will compare the new drawings to the original drawings. They will need to describe the similarities and differences they see between the new and original drawings.

Family Tree

psantosvicente — 2022-06-22 10:58:06 UTC

The idea is that the students need to be split into pairs. One student (A) has different names into different papers. And a Family Tree template to be filled out.
The student B has a Familly tree already completed. The student A has to make questions to student B to be able to complete the family tree correctly.

Questions like:
Is Phillip, Anna's son?
Does Phillip have a brother?
...

Information gap Idea

ronniebyrley — 2022-06-29 23:40:51 UTC

I think having students practice a job interview would be a perfect Information gap activity. I know many people who wanted to learn english simply to get a better job. Job Interviews are very practical/likely for many students. Students could practice in pairs. Have them ask/answer questions about their work history, schooling, their knowledge of a specific field, where have they traveled, their living situation etc. In job interviews you can get asked some pretty personal questions so a lot of different questions could be incorporated. You could have several different roles/jobs activities so each pair is interviewing each other but each job is different and so a different set of questions and words. This way each pair can switch scenarios after a bit and get practice with a different set of phrases and words. Scenarios like firefighter, Supermarket, Construction jobs, sales, car salesman, etc.

I feel like I'm cheating!

lauramariegrenfell — 2022-09-16 03:50:01 UTC

I am currently in Indonesia serving as a missionary, and though I have been studying Bahasa Indonesian for four months, I have along way to go. Daily I deal with information gaps and will just pull from my recent experiences to complete this activity. I will call this activity explaining my faith.

As I am certain my classroom will include many different faiths or perhaps just different versions of one faith, my activity would be to partner up with someone you do not know and learn about their faith. What do you have in common? Where do your faiths differ? What are the origins of your faith? Do you have Holy scripture? What do you believe happens when you die? Not only is this a good language skills activity it can also be a bridge and build relationships with others who are different then yourself. I've included a picture of the home church I was invited to last night where these kind of communication gaps existed. I came to the conclusion we all loved Jesus and for now that was good enough!

Information Gap-Health

2022-10-19 22:38:55 UTC

In this information gap activity the students will practice a wide range of vocabulary related to health, body, and feelings. The example below is an intermediate conversation, however, it can me used with beginners describing different feelings/emotions, i.e, tired, stomach ache, headache, etc.

Student A will practice being the doctor and Student B will be the patient; then switch. Student A will try to ask Student B as many questions as they can about how they are feeling and what ailment they are experiencing. Student B will try to explain their current health situation and ask the doctor any pertinent questions.

Example:
Student A: What brought you in today?
Student B: I have had some pain in my knee.
Student A: Can you describe what type of pain and where exactly on your knee?
Student B: Sharp pain, mostly on the right side of my knee cap.
Student A: How long have you been experiencing this pain?
Student B: On and off for about two weeks.
Student A: Was there any activity you did that contributed to the pain? What were you doing when the pain started?
Student B: I noticed it began after a long hiking trip.
Student A: Have you had any previous injuries to this knee?
Student B: Yes, I had knee surgery 10 years ago.
Student A: Ok, have you been taking any pain medication?
Student B: Just tylenol so far. The pain is the worst at night time.
Student A: Ok, I recommend that we do an x-ray and in the meantime, I'm going to prescribe you a stronger pain medication.
Student B: Great, thank you.

I think this activity can be fun and silly, while still practicing vocabulary, but it is also important for real life situations.

Making a meal...

SGorrill — 2022-11-14 16:15:29 UTC

I know this idea is not original but it is something that we use with our children at home to develop decision-making skills and a real world experience. I put our daughter in charge of making a meal each week. It can be a meal of her choosing that she knows how to make or something that she found online that looks good. (She often asks her siblings for recommendations) She needs to create a shopping list for her intended meal. She needs to look through the kitchen to see what ingredients are available and which need to be bought. She also needs to be aware of what is readily available especially considering that we live on an island in the Caribbean and not all groceries are readily available. She will provide us a list of those items that need to be purchased in order to cook the desired meal that week. We as parents know that she will be cooking a meal on Sunday but wait for her to share the shopping list with us before leaving on Saturday morning. While I recognize this activity does not precisely align with students in a classroom, it could easily be modified for the needs of English Language Learners.

Spaceteam English version

jessicaisliving — 2023-01-11 11:58:18 UTC

I assume everyone at some point has played Spaceteam. The chaotic word game that you can download on your phone, but everyone needs to work together in order to stop your spaceship from crashing?

The only things you would need for this activity would be lots of flashcards to write out words and draw.

Everyone would be in space crew of at least 4.

Each crew member would have a specific set of cards. The cards would have different sentences on them. You might have a card saying "Walk the dog," or "shovel the snow".

There would be a main deck of red (Or any colour) cards. Each person would have a small set of the red cards. They are not allowed to look through the red cards.

The red deck of cards has pictures on them. The pictures would match the set of cards each player has. So you'd get a picture of someone walking their dog, or shoveling the snow, etc."

One the game begins, each person would show the top card in their red deck. It would reveal a picture.

Each player must work together and try to find the matching sentence cards to the pictures. Each person will have a match somewhere in their set of cards.

If Person A flips their first red card over showing a picture of a man walking his dog, each person needs to look through their personal set of cards to find the sentence matching the picture.

However, everyone else has also flipped over their red card. You need to have good communication as people will start talking over each other explaining what match they need.

Once you get a match, you put the red card in the middle.

The space crew needs to work together and find the matching cards. They need to complete 6 red cards in order to stop their spaceship from crashing. There will be a time limit set.

You could include fun action cards in the main red deck such as "Meteor shower! Jump up and down too dodge." Or "Alien abduction! Spin in a circle to scare them away."

You have a lot of creative freedom and can really do whatever fits your class best.

So many others have already left wonderful suggestions that are practical and handy for students in every day life. With that in mind, I decided to create a more unorthodox Information Gap Activity, that is hectic and fun.

If you're confused, watch the video above.

Restaurant - decisions, directions, food, drinks, paying the bill

jpatnott — 2023-03-06 05:50:35 UTC

This information gap activity could be modified depending on the class/students language level. It could also be split into parts, so only some of the activity is completed at one time.

Student A: This student could have a map that shows their current location (maybe at work or school). The map could also show the locations of a few different types of restaurants.

Student B (and maybe student C): This student (or these students) feel(s) hungry and wants to go out to eat with student A, who knows the area. (Student A has the map)

Student A could ask the others students what type of food they want to eat and offer them restaurant suggestions from the map. Student A could share about which restaurant options are close or far away. They can also give direction when the restaurant choice is made.

At the restaurant Student D could be the waiter/waitress and give menus to the other students to read and then order their meals, drinks, and desserts. The students could talk about the prices and the different food on the menu. Maybe Students A, B and C ask Student D questions about the menu. Student D writes down the order of the other students.

Students A, B, and C can talk about the meal and at the end they can talk about the bill and whether they are paying together or separate and also who is paying.

Student D can bring them the bill and help them pay for their meal.

Information Gap Activity (European) Train Trip

elisakimberly7 — 2023-03-09 08:55:33 UTC

Let's give this padlet a little greeting from Europe shall we?

I believe this information gap activity can be benificial for your students no matter where you are.
As a teacher all you are going to need are real public transport timetables, which most of them you can get online.

The goal of the activity is to create a travel itinerary by bus/train/public transport from one place to the other.
For this activity Student A is going to have all relevant information regarding where and when the pair should travel. Student B is having the timetables and public transport information.

As a teacher you can make this activity as real or dreamy as you want to. No matter if your students are taking the train between countries (e.g. from Berlin to Paris), from the city they are in to another city they want to visit (e.g. Cologne to Hamburg), or smaller within the same city (Buckingham Palace to Leicster Square) or from your classroom to downtown.
This activity will benefit your students orientation in their new environment and help them to be able to organize themselves better in your city. (If you have public transport)
Either way it creates a fun purpose for communication, even if you are planning a imaginary trip.

Target nations

psantosvicente — 2023-03-21 09:13:16 UTC

This activity will require the students to be curious and open minded. We will talk about different nations, and your differences in culture, food, behavior, languages.

This activity is in groups of 4, we will have 4 different informations that need to be connected.
1-Country
2-Food
3-Curiosity
4-Languages
Each student will have the four informations, but he/she will need to find other 4 people with the other information. In the end the student will have these 4 informations about 4 different countries.

Example:

Country 2. 3. 4
1. Food. 3. 4
1. 2. Curiosity. 4
1. 2. 3. Languages

That’s how will look like each student card.

This activity is to provide a more friendly environment when in a group with so many different nationalities and also to open the students’ mind about the other parts of the world.

Giving directions/places in town

maditdavis01 — 2023-03-28 04:30:16 UTC

I had this idea after researching a few ideas like this: it could work for kids classes :) We could pair students up, they each get a map thats labeled in detail, a map with no labelling, and a toy car. The student with the detailed map gives directions to the student with the blank map and the toy car. A conversation can go something like this:
Student 1: Where would you like to go?
Student 2: I would like to go to the supermarket.

Student 1: Turn right at 5th street.
Student 2: Where next?

Student 1: After you pass three streets, turn left at 9th street. The supermarket will be on your right.
Student 2 follows directions and checks with student 1.

They can swap roles or repeat.

This could help with students, younger and older, to help give directions to family, friends, or even themselves understand when asking for help with directions :)

Rebecca dos Santos Information Gap activity

rebeccagc7 — 2023-04-02 17:40:07 UTC

I actualy thought about the treasure hunt game we play on our camps. We take homeless people for a 5 day retreat. 5 days without drugs and alcohol. Just devotionals, games, encouragements and preaching the Word of God. On the last day we play the Treasure hunt game. We give them just one of the ten clues which are bible verses. In every verse there is a clue where to find the next clue. the other nine pieces of paper with the verses, we hide. I was thinking to adjust this game and find the clues by speaking or describing or maybe drawing. Well I guess to play this game in the prison is not possible. I went searching the internet and found this:

Draw This

Practice: Adjectives and descriptions.

Procedure: Divide students into pairs. Give an image or picture to the first student in each pair without showing it to the second student.

The first student describes the picture to the second student. The second student then draws the image based on this description. The second student is allowed to ask questions to help them understand what the picture or image is.

This activity can be adapted for any level. Select pictures that will incorporate language the students have been studying and are familiar with. For instance, in the following example there’s a focus on colors.

Example:

Student A: The background is light blue.
Student B: Okay.

Student A: There is a woman in the middle of the picture.
Student B: What color is her hair?

Student A: Her hair is brown.

Tip: You can turn this activity into a “competition” with the winner being the pair that best replicates the image. If you want to expand the activity, have the students switch roles and provide a second image.

I loved this example because of the easiness to adjust the level on which the students are.

Descriptive Dream House

jpatnott — 2023-04-14 01:32:41 UTC

I found this activity on teachingexerptise.com and it seemed like an easy, sweet activity to do with young children.

Each student draws their dream house. Then the students get into pairs and they have to describe to their partner how to draw their dream house and their partner needs to try to replicate it.

This activity could be modified to use different vocabulary and instead be a descriptive dream breakfast, lunch or dinner, or dream job/career, etc.

Making a Grocery List

ajiabrey — 2023-04-14 20:19:40 UTC

Split students into pairs. One student is the chef and the other is the shopper.

The chef can either come up with their own recipe for a meal (if advanced) or the teacher can provide a pre-made recipe (for beginners).

The shopper has to go to the store and buy the ingredients needed to make the chefs dish. The shopper can ask questions to find out what they will need and how much to buy of each ingredient.

ex.)
S: What are you making?
C: A ceasar salad.

S: What will you need?
C: lettuce, dressing, chicken, etc.

S: how much chicken do you need?
C: 2 Pounds.

Planning A Trip

matthewsgarmon — 2023-04-15 19:14:47 UTC

In this Activity you can divide students into two different groups. Group A will plan the trip. They will pick a location and a few activities to do at the location. While group B will be in charge of packing not knowing the destination or activities they will have to ask questions to find out what needs to be packed.

Examples:
B to A- Will it Be hot or cold weather?
A to B- It will be hot most of the trip.

B to A- Will we need a swimsuit?
A to B- Yes, we will be near water.

So on and so forth, you could take this a step further and have group B not only try to pack but also try to figure out the destination.

16 Clues Exercise and Sports

gwpurtee — 2023-04-16 02:12:12 UTC

Aim: Vocabulary and Spelling Practice.
Level: Intermediate

I found this activity on allthingstopics.com and searched exercise and sports. I thought this would be a fun activity for our Venezuelan English students since they seem to all love sports.

We could have them break up into pairs. One would have the first page with the clues, and the other could have the second page with the answers or vocabulary words. The one with the clues would try to fill in the blanks by guessing the missing letters. The one with the answer page would say if the letter was in the word or not. If the letter was correct, they would fill it in. If it was incorrect, they could put the letter at the bottom of the page so they wouldn't guess it again.

I'm not sure if it is too advanced for them. We could modify it for the beginner levels.

https://www.allthingstopics.com/uploads/2/3/2/9/23290220/16-clues-exerciseandsports.pdf

Complete the conversation

diegoeliasmusic — 2023-04-28 21:06:56 UTC

This is an example of this activity. I think it's very useful when you practice these conversation in pairs, they have to think about the correct word missing in the space but at the same time they are practicing an actual conversation.

Gap Activity

matthewsgarmon — 2023-05-05 20:35:54 UTC

Lets use the map

Provide one student with a map of a city or town, either from a real location or one of your own design. Make sure the map is clearly labeled with some of the more common locations.
One student asks for directions to a location: library, theater, hospital, police station, grocery store, etc. Using the map, the other student gives explicit directions. Students should ask clarifying questions and either write down or outline the directions they hear.
Students should take turns in this activity.
Example:
Student A: Where are you going
 Student B: To the bookstore, do you know where it is.
Student A: It’s on 7th Street. 
Student B: What’s the best way to get there?
Student A: Take 2nd Avenue and turn right. 
Student B: 2nd Avenue and turn right?
Student A: Yes. Then walk two blocks and turn left at the Market

Information Gap Activity

loraw4lker — 2023-05-13 23:00:05 UTC

Where Am I?
This activity could be between 2 people or in small groups. One person is given a picture of a landscape such as a desert, jungle, snowy mountain, under the sea, etc.
The others ask questions until they are able to guess the type of location.
The group could then continue to discuss what would be needed to live/survive in this place.
Advanced-
In some classes, it might be appropriate that the place to be guessed actually is a real and well-known location. (Sahara Desert, Amazon River, etc) Don't forget the maps!

Who am I?- Pair edition

elisakimberly7 — 2023-05-19 22:33:22 UTC

Students are in pairs of two. Each student draws a paper slip from a bowl. On each slip you can find a famous person or fictional character. (Watch out for cultural differences, with this one and make sure your students really know these) (Would also be GREAT with Bible characters).

They then take turns to find out which person "they are" aka which name is stuck to their head, by asking their partner questions like: "Do I play Basketball?"

Gap Activities Based on Popular Games...

46ruths — 2023-07-28 18:38:35 UTC

The first activity that came to mind would be to have students play "Guess Who?" (or a similar game) in the language they are acquiring. In this game, each student would have a character that they are playing as, and the objective is to figure out, from options provided, which character your opponent is before they identify who you are...students would have to ask questions such as "does your person wear glasses?", "is your person wearing blue?", etc.
Another possibility, perhaps for learners who have mastered Guess Who, would be to play Telestrations in the second language. In this game, players are all given a phrase or word. Each player draws a picture representing their phrase and passes their paper to the person next to them. That player looks at their picture and writes what they think the word is before passing the paper on again. The third person then looks at the written guess and draws a picture to represent it, etc. Play passes until it reaches the starting person and they look to see whether the phrase was passed along accurately. This game would challenge students to know a variety of phrases and words in their second language, and would allow them to practice looking at unfamiliar words/phrases and transferring them to a new format.

Fill inthe Gap- Timeline of your Life

SGorrill — 2023-08-30 18:15:39 UTC

Student A has a writing utensil and a pre-printed sheet with a time line on it. Student a marks specific times(Dates) on the timeline according to important events in his/her life. Should include at least 6 dates but more is suggested.

Student B then receives the time line and asks questions about each date on the timeline. While Student A talks about the importance of each date, Student B writes notes about each. After some time, Student B will present his/her findings to the group as a way to introduce Student A to the class in a way that shows the important days in his/her life.

Once all Student B’s have presented, roles will be reversed so that Student B creates the dates on the timeline and Student A asks about them. Once again, Student A will present the findings to the class.

Information Gap Activities - more / less structure

konawetfeet — 2023-09-29 02:45:08 UTC

The two information gap activities that have come to my mind both require pair work and/or team work.

A. Puzzle Creation - the first information gap activity I have would be more of an intermediate or upper intermediate student activity. Using a puzzle with no more than 10 or 20 pieces I will have each piece with a letter on the back. There will be two of every letter and each letter will have a question to go with it... such as: what is your favorite color? Who is your hero? Ect? In order to put the pieces on the table the students must first ask and answer the questions they have with their pair.
Point of the activity: Just like the puzzle tells a story with its image, each of us have a story to tell. Then each student will share one word they believe helps to tell their story.

B. Places we go - in this information gap activity each student will be given half a dialogue or a question, centered around a specific location, ei the doctor's office, the vet, a grocery store, the car shop, a hair cut salon. Then students will be given the opportunity to find their pair. Once students have come together they will then make a list of at least five terms that could be used in this setting.
Point of the activity: to learn basic vocabulary for going to everyday locations and to practice speaking, as one would when they are at a clinic!

Information Gap Activities

muruguluz — 2023-10-02 05:46:02 UTC

I found this one information gap activity on fluentu.com.
It's called "Draw this" and essentially the goal is for one student to draw the picture the other student is describing. The student drawing is allowed to ask clarifying questions. Here is the example from the website:

Student A: The background is light blue.
Student B: Okay.

Student A: There is a woman in the middle of the picture.
Student B: What color is her hair?

Student A: Her hair is brown.

Another gap activity I can think of is to have a bunch of different short stories cut up into several paragraphs, mixed and distributed among the students. The students must now go around the room, share their parts of the stories and figure out which parts of the stories go together. This activity can be adapted to various language levels by changing the amount or the difficulty/length of the stories.

Debate

gottasophia — 2023-10-03 12:41:33 UTC

As a class, come up with some topics of discussion that often has differing opinions. Be sure to only have two students assigned to a topic and they must also be on differing sides of the arguments being made. You can choose any category you'd like but I would encourage you to keep in mind the type of classroom you wish to curate. For instance, if you are using topics that are politically charged or sensitive like voter fraud in an election verses a topic more fun and silly like "which is better when eating ice cream cake? A fork or a spoon?" you can get the same result (language/communication skills) but can be left with negative or positive feelings in your classroom.
Next, have your students pair up with their opponent and work together to build their separate arguments. Say you have 10 pairs of students. If they were to all work independently, they would probably all be usual different words and when they go up to debate it might be harder for the class to follow because they would have to track all the different usages of words as well as follow the topic and point the presenter is trying to make. By allowing your pairs to work together, they can come up with words or phrases they both will use to make a more coherent argument. It will also encourage communication skills while working on their speeches.
Then, after they are done, they will have a debate style argument in front of the class and the class will have to weigh in at the end of the discussion.

Information Gap Activities - Text Messaging

bellahopsontesol — 2023-10-12 18:04:36 UTC

With the rise of online communication, I thought it would be a fun activity to have a collection of different text messages that the students could "respond" to. In the past I have worked with students that will just use google translate to text, but I think that it would be fun and challenging to have them try and respond on their own.

I could include texts from a wide range of different people and different situations and we could even throw in a few voicemails as well!

Information Gap Activity-Interview Exchange

heidi589 — 2023-12-01 18:47:47 UTC

The interview exchange activity is a fun activity that gets students practicing speaking English while learning about each other.

Students will get together in pairs and take turns interviewing each other by asking them a set number of questions.

Before students break into pairs I will give each student a list of questions that they can ask their partner. We will go over the questions as a class and then I will have each student pick a few from the list. They will also be encouraged to add their own question if they want to know something that is not on the list.

When students pair up they should have some similar questions and some different. The questions difficulty or simplicity will depend on their language fluency.

Example:

Student A: "Where are you from?"

Student B: "I am from Cyprus"

Student A: "What do you enjoy doing?"

Student B: "I enjoy sewing"

I like this information gap activity because students get to know each other better and have to first think about what kind of questions they should ask based on what they would like to learn about someone.

Information Gap Activity - Draw This

kjgunther22_ — 2023-12-15 17:40:30 UTC

Divide your students into pairs and give an image or picture to the first student in each pair without showing it to the second. The first student describes the picture to the second student and the second student then draws an image based the the description. The second student is allowed to ask questions to understand what the picture is.

Example:

Student A: "The background is light blue."

Student B: "Okay."

Student A: "There is a man in the middle of the picture."

Student B: "What color is his hair?"

Student A: "His hair is brown."

This activity focuses on adjectives and descriptions and could easily be turned into a competition with the winner being the pair that best replicates the image.

Information Gap Activity: Guess Who?

Kirsten_Duke — 2023-12-15 19:27:03 UTC

If you've never played Guess Who it's a two player game. Each player has a board with the same 24 faces as the the player opposite (although the pictures aren't always in the same order) Each player picks a "mystery person" that the other player will try to guess by asking yes or no questions. Then you take turns asking questions until one player thinks they know who the other player chose.

For example, if I'm the red player and "Herman" is my mystery person, the blue player will ask questions that narrow down their options. Like "Is your person wearing a hat?" I would say no, and everyone on the board who is wearing a hat would be disqualified (flip their tile face down). You can also ask if the person is a man (yes) if they have facial hair (no), and if their hair is red (yes). Congratulations you've found out who my person is! He is a clean-shaven, redheaded man who is not wearing a hat, so it must be Herman.

Having materials for all the pairs can get tricky, but you do not need the plastic holder to play. You can usually find a free printable, and then just cut out the tiles and lay them flat on a table.

Another option is "real-life" guess who with the students themselves. Have all the students circle around talking to each other and coloring a quick sketch of each other (and themself). Include basic facial features, but make sure to get hair color, accessories like glasses, earrings, and hats, and anything else distinctive to ask questions about. Then cut apart the pictures and pair up, playing like you normally would.

Here's a website that talks about a simplified way to do this idea: https://www.teachit.co.uk/resources/all-subjects/guess-who-icebreaker-template

Extra: Catchphrase/Taboo

Kirsten_Duke — 2023-12-15 19:38:32 UTC

I had another activity but it seems to have disappeared. So here's a second option in case that one doesn't resurface.

Pretty much any icebreaker activity would work great as a information gap activity. This TESOL resource has a lot of good ideas if you haven't looked at it yet.

A personal favorite of mine is catchphrase, also called taboo. Basically you're trying to get your teammates to guess a word you've been given -let's say "potato"- without actually saying that word. So I could say "starchy root vegetable" or "boil'em, mash'em, stick'em in a stew" but I couldn't say "it's similar to a sweet potato..." or just say the word in another language like "pomme de terre."

You can split into two teams if you like competition or stay as one group if you want something more cooperative. If you have a vocabulary list you can use that to pick words from.

Information Gap Activity - Job Interview

emmabmiller02 — 2024-02-06 21:55:38 UTC

For a job interview activity I would have the activity broken into two parts.

First, I would have each student write their resume. Then I would have them share with their partner about their resume and answer questions like what their favorite or least favorite job was.

For the second part I would give one of the students common interview questions and have the other student respond. Once the student answered all of the questions they could switch roles.

This activity causes both students to speak and listen, which grows their communication skills.

I think that this information gap activity would be useful because it is a practical life skill, that most my students will use. Job interviews, especially in a second language can be intimidating, so this exercise in a classroom environment can help to calm fears and grow confidence.

Draw your Life/Family!

maria_hopper — 2024-05-16 18:27:48 UTC

This is one activity I really appreciated in my Spanish classes that helped me learn.

One student will be the drawer (given paper and color pencils) and the other will be the speaker. Eventually the students will switch roles after the first round.

The student that is the speaker will begin to describe their family members in as much detail as possible. The student who is the drawer should aim to create a specific picture of the person's family. Specific details can be listed on the board for younger audiences to stay on track such as hair color, eye color, height, male/female, name, occupation, etc. This can also be changed to things drawing and describing things that are important to the person if family is a hard topic. At the end, the drawer will present the picture to a small group of other classmates, or the whole class, teaching the class about what the person described.

In order for both students to practice this episode, students will switch roles after the first person has finished the drawing and there will be a second drawing that will be presented as well!

This can help students grow in confidence orally presenting what they have learned about their partner but also get to know other people in their class!

Information Gap Activity-Grocery List

shoafgrace — 2024-05-16 20:01:01 UTC

I found a fun activity online, I'll include the link! In this activity, I would have the students pair up. One student will be a chef while the other student will be a shopper. I will provide easy and simple recipes and hand them to the chefs. The goal of this activity is for the chef to communicate what ingredients the shopper needs to get at the grocery store. The shopper will ask questions like, "What are you making? "What foods do I need to get at the store?" "How many items do I need?" etc. As the two students communicate, the shopper will create a list of ingredients to get at the grocery store for the chef's recipe. This activity is role-play, so they can switch roles once they finish!

Information Gap Activity - Guess The Word

20hippl — 2024-05-21 16:00:39 UTC

For this activity, the students will be divided into partners. Each group will get a list of words. Student A will have the list of words and think of other words to describe the chosen word without saying it. During this time, student B will attempt at guessing the word with the clues that student A has given. This activity will continue until all of the words have been guessed. After each group completes the list, student B will then receive a different list and they will then do it once more but with the roles reversed.

Information Gap Activity- Making the Cut vocabulary about grilling steak

hernandezhiromi — 2024-05-27 21:03:12 UTC

Grilling for Memorial Day outdoor barbecue

Students will simulate studying to become chefs and learn to grill steak, an American favorite for picnics.

They will learn vocabulary of steak cuts: rib-eye; New York strip, porterhouse, top sirloin, t-bone steaks.
They will learn how long to cook each cut for varying degrees of doneness: rare, medium, well done.
Each category of doneness has a degree of heat attached. Ex., medium rare is
145 degrees F or 63 degrees C).
They will complete a cooking chart under each category: beef cut/ total cooking time/ degrees of heat for each
In pairs, one student will be the customer, and will communicate the cut of steak and the preference of doneness to the chef. The chef will complete the chart with the degree of heat needed for the request and the total cooking time.

Information Gap Activity - Draw This

2024-05-31 01:28:43 UTC

This is from Fluentu.com

Practice: Adjectives and descriptions

Procedure: Divide students into pairs. Give an image or picture to the first student in each pair without showing it to the second student.

This activity can be adapted for any level. Select pictures that will incorporate language the students have been studying and are familiar with.

In the following YouTube video, starting at about 4:50, the students are given a simple picture of a cat and fishbowl on a table. A prize is given for the best drawing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lif5quVL2w0

Information Gap Activity - Draw This (by Elise Stark)

kesnew3 — 2024-05-31 01:32:10 UTC

This is from Fluentu.com

Practice: Adjectives and descriptions

Procedure: Divide students into pairs. Give an image or picture to the first student in each pair without showing it to the second student.

This activity can be adapted for any level. Select pictures that will incorporate language the students have been studying and are familiar with.

In the following YouTube video, starting at about 4:50, the students are given a simple picture of a cat and fishbowl on a table. A prize is given for the best drawing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lif5quVL2w0

Information Gap Activity (Celebrities)

parsafathi50 — 2024-07-28 14:10:36 UTC

If you have students from different parts of the world, you can do a quick search on the internet and find some useful pieces of information about their celebrities and then you can jot down their names and some of their movies, songs, the genre of their movies, the plot etc. and then bring these pieces of information to the class to your students and give the names of each of these celebrities to the students that don't know them, for example, if you have Taylor Swift on your list who is an American singer you can give it to a student from another country so that you are sure that they don't have much information about her and then you do the same for the other student. You can give your students some sample questions like who is this singer, how old is he/she, when did she/he start singing and so on to ask each other, but it's better to let them do all the thinking and let them make the questions themselves to maintain the spontaneity of the conversation.

Information Gap Acitivity

cameronadams2 — 2024-10-10 22:07:41 UTC

Draw what I tell you!

Multiple students can do this. And only need paper and a pencil and a photo.

Let's use two students.

Student A has a photo and has to describe the photo in as muche detail as they can.

Student B has to draw what they are told.

Student B can ask questions for clarification.

Then after they finish they would swap over and do the same vis versa.

The aim is to work as a team to copy the image over as accurately as possible using good communication and filling in the gaps for eachother.

Information Gap Activity: What Am I?

faithyrobison — 2024-10-10 22:18:18 UTC

This is such a silly and fun activity to play with anyone of any age!

First, students will pair up in twos.

You will have index cards you have premade with an animal or object written on it. Example: dog, spoon, tiger, shoe, etc.

Each student will have one index card and put it on their forehead facing their partner. Make sure they don't peek at what is written on their card!

Students will then go back and forth with their partner asking questions to try and guess what is on their card. Some examples of questions: Am I an animal? Am I red? Am I used for cooking?

You can make it more competitive by giving a small prize to the pair that guesses both of theirs first!

Information Gap Activity: Countries

2024-10-10 22:53:52 UTC

In this information gap activity you would give your students world map print outs. Each map would have different countries that are labeled while leaving other countries blank. Students have to ask and answer questions to find out and write the countries that are missing on their maps. This activity would probably work better if you pick countries that are not as well known just in case if you have some geography experts in your class who wouldn't need to ask their fellow students for help. The way I envision doing this activity is that every student has a different map and they have to go around to everyone in the class to solve their own map, but this could also be done in pairs of two.

Group Think

lesliedrury — 2024-10-10 22:56:44 UTC

In my teaching, I often use information gap activities to "round out" the lesson and to actively engage learners. For example in the high school literature class I'm currently teaching, I have students summarize chapters in pairs by listing 4 important details they found in each chapter assigned. Then as a group we come back together and read our points aloud (with me adding to the discussion any other details that might be important). Together we "fill in the gaps" for each other to make a coherent chapter summary.

In an English class I might do something similar by giving students a task in pairs - such as list all of the animal names that we've learned (and some that you know) under three categories:

Pets
Wild animals
Both (such as rabbits).

Then I would bring the class back together as a whole and have each paired group share their lists (maybe on the white board) for others to see and copy into their lists. This way we fill in the learning gaps in a way that is communicative and also utilizes an activity that actively engages the learners.

Information Gap Activity: Making a plan for friends to tour my hometown

gb36classic — 2024-10-12 04:25:04 UTC

In this activity, the class is formed into several teams. Each team has two parties: the host (A) and the visitor (B). The task for each team is to come up with an itinerary, transportation modes, cost, and a route map for the upcoming hometown tour.

The visitor (B) provides information about the date and duration, budget, places/things of interest, and food preference etc. The host (A) takes notes, provides suggestions to the visitor (B), and writes a tour plan according to their discussion and information gathered.

Both parties can ask a few more questions or provide recommendations to come up with a plan that can make the tour more fun, efficient and memorable.

If class time permits, the two parties switch roles and go through the process and produce another plan.

Once their plans are ready, each team briefly shares with the class a few highlights and map drawing of its tour plans.

In this activity, ESL students proactively practice speaking, listening, and writing skills. Also, the students get to learn more about their classmates' hometowns.

The role of teacher in this activity is a facilitator who encourages the conversation, keeps the discussion focused, and provides guidance.

Spot the difference

smithbrown1 — 2024-10-16 16:28:41 UTC

Split the students into groups of two. Create two similar images with some differences, and give the each student in the pair one of them. Then, challenge them to find as many differences as they can without showing each other their pictures, only by describing them, "I see a man on a blue bike," "The guy on mine has a red bike!"

The difficulty can easily be adjusted based on the students proficiency level, and and you can incorporate an image with vocabulary you have been teaching recently.

Find Your Buddy!

clairebassett14 — 2025-02-12 15:59:00 UTC

In this activity, each student would be given a card with a color on it where one other student will have a matching color with them. They cannot show anyone what their color is, but they need to ask around in English about others' colors, either saying "Do you have the color blue?" or "What is your color?" This way, the students can respond in full sentences and help each other find their matches.

I can imagine this relating to real life if you were to show up somewhere for a meeting with someone you have never met. You may need to ask around to see if others have seen this person.

Information Gap Activity

alliejs15 — 2025-03-12 19:21:11 UTC

My activity would be headband where one person has a headband holding a card on their forehead. They ask questions about the word that the other students answer, and they have to guess what the word is.

Information Gap Activity: Bake Challenge

aizeleayrs — 2025-06-02 10:07:37 UTC

One of my favorite shows is The Great British Baking Off. A challenge in the show, called "The Technical", is to give the contestants a recipe that has limited instructions. The rest of the information, like the logistics or particular steps, is missing. This is to test the baker's knowledge and understanding of technicals in baking.

To apply this in an information gap activity, I would of course simplify it. It would probably be a more advanced English activity, but it's interactive and has a reward at the end.

1) It would start with students pairing off into twos.

2) Each would have a sheet of paper with different information. One sheet will have half of the information for a recipe, while the other sheet would have the other half.

3) While not looking at each other’s sheets and only sharing verbally in English, the pair must write out the recipe in correct order with the information provided on the two sheets of paper.

This will practice vocabulary used in the kitchen, such as: measurements, ingredients, utensils, numbers, and verbs. And practice comparing information.

Once they have finished writing out the recipe, the teacher can provide a baked treat! Brownie points if the treat is the same baked good from the recipe the students wrote out.