Learning Engagement 1: Teaching Oral Interaction Discussion Forum by Macarena Castillo

Group 3: Learning Engagement 1

macarenacastillo93 — 2025-08-27 09:42:43 UTC

Speed-talking.

macarenacastillo93 — 2025-08-27 12:19:01 UTC

The class will be organised in pairs or groups of three and they will have one minute to discuss the question that has been given in that moment. It is quite funny to see and they really love to participate in this kind of dynamics as they are doing something diferent

Guess who...

macarenacastillo93 — 2025-08-27 12:24:04 UTC

This activity will be carried out at the beginning of the academic year, when they still do not know each other. Some students will be selected and the rest of the class will have a paper, they will write synonyms that will fit that student according to the appearances. They can only use POLITE adjectives and everything will be in a controlled and polite environment or else, it will be immediately stopped and no more kind of these activities will be proposed. Will they guess the personality of their classmates??

Two truths and a lie

flaviencollet — 2025-08-27 14:03:51 UTC

At the beginning of the academic year, students are prompted to share a few highlights of their respective summers, while sharing a piece of information that is not true. Depending how many students are in your class, this could be done in pairs, triads, or with the whole group. Each student share their statements and others try to guess which one is false. It is usually very engaging for students, it supports team building, and teachers can implicitly restate sentences, words, or phrases that were not correct. Alternatively, students can also take the role of peer-reviewer and provide some feedback on language more explicitly.

Passion project

flaviencollet — 2025-08-27 14:09:08 UTC

I usually like to start the academic year with a passion project. Students either choose a topic in which they consider themselves 'expert' or a topic of interest so they have an opportunity to become the 'expert.' I usually provide some scaffolding about how to conduct research, how to identify a topic, how to illustrate, how to organize thoughts etc. Eventually, each student gets to present their topic as the 'expert' in the class, and other students prepare questions while listening. It has always been a great way to get to know each other, assess the students' skills from the start, and empower students with the freedom to choose something they are passionate about.

Describe and Draw

darmawanyu — 2025-08-28 02:33:28 UTC

How the activity works:

The activity requires two participants, often sitting back-to-back, so one cannot see the other's drawing.
One participant (the "speaker") is given a picture or image to describe to their partner.
The other participant (the "listener") draws the image based solely on the speaker's verbal description.
The speaker uses descriptive language, including positional words (e.g., above, below, to the left) and details about shapes, objects, and their characteristics.
After the drawing is complete, the two participants compare the original image with the drawn version to see how well the description was understood and executed.
The roles are often switched so both participants have a chance to be the speaker and the listener.

The benefit of this activity is that the speaker practices articulating their thoughts and describing things clearly and fluently while the listener develops the ability to understand and interpret detailed verbal instructions.

Talk for a Minute

darmawanyu — 2025-08-28 02:59:36 UTC

Students can do this activity in pairs, small groups, or in front of the class. This activity would be perfect to use in the classroom, as it encourages children to talk for a minute about a specific kind of topic. It helps students become more comfortable with continuous speaking and build confidence in public speaking.

Tiny Victories

2025-08-29 04:08:00 UTC

Prompt: How can we make practicing past tenses more engaging? Many students find it repetitive.
Activity Suggestion: Use this Tiny Victories activity. Students read a card about a small, daily victory (e.g., "I found a parking spot downtown") and retell it as a life-changing success, exaggerating with strong adjectives and intensifiers.
Variations/Improvements:
- Have students act out their stories for added fun.
- Record the stories and have students provide peer feedback on the effectiveness of their exaggerations.
- Adapt it to other grammar points, like turning a small problem into a catastrophic disaster using conditional sentences.
  Link: https://enghub.pro/tiny-victories

Would You Rather

2025-08-29 04:09:06 UTC

Prompt: How do you encourage students to express and support their opinions in a structured way, especially when they are hesitant to disagree with others?
Activity Suggestion: Start with a "Would You Rather" activity. Present students with choices (e.g., "Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?") and have them state their opinion and support their argument.
Variations/Improvements:
- Assign students to debate teams with assigned viewpoints, even if they disagree personally. This encourages them to consider different perspectives and strengthens their argumentation skills.
- Introduce opinion phrases ("In my opinion...", "I believe that...").
- Incorporate a "devil's advocate" role, where one student challenges the prevailing opinion to stimulate deeper discussion.
  Link: https://jimmyesl.com/easy-esl-speaking-activities-practice/

Secret Word

2025-08-29 04:10:18 UTC

Link: https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/12-fun-speaking-games-language-learners

Prompt: How can we help students think on their feet and speak fluently, even when they feel unprepared?
Activity Suggestion: Adapt the "Secret Word" activity. Give students a random topic and a secret word unrelated to the topic. They must give a short speech on the topic, hiding the secret word within their speech so the other students can't guess it.
Variations/Improvements:
- Increase the difficulty by requiring students to use specific grammar structures or vocabulary while incorporating the secret word.
- Have students record themselves and analyze their performance, focusing on fluency, coherence, and naturalness.
- Combine with "Impromptu Speaking" where students respond to a statement without preparation for 45 seconds. The other team listens for errors and gets a point for each one they find.

I’d like to propose a new activity to help improve oral interaction skills.

chabin7 — 2025-09-02 12:27:19 UTC

"Speed-Dating Discussion"

Method: In this activity, group members pair up and talk about a specific topic for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes, they switch partners and start a new conversation on a different topic.

Goal: This activity helps students quickly organize their main ideas and communicate them clearly within a limited time. It also improves their impromptu speaking skills by engaging in conversations with different people on various topics.