English B - Speaking Activities by Oscar Ortega

Stimulus – to – interaction variation

vagrantoscar — 2024-05-27 19:40:03 UTC

I always use this activity to practice vocabulary. After giving them a list of vocabulary words as the stimulus, I will pick two random students to have a short conversation (1+ minute) using at least 4 different words (each) from the list. The catch is that they can’t use the same words twice. I’ve found it’s quite useful to help students acquire vocabulary.

Role - Play variation

vagrantoscar — 2024-05-27 19:41:39 UTC

A really fun variation I’ve tried is just giving the general situation and allowing the different groups to prepare the roles giving them full creative license, as long as they don’t include anything inappropriate of course. I’ve come across some zombie friendship problems as well as Gojo Satoru talking to Tanjiro Kamado (characters of anime, I’ve been told). It’s a blast and students get really motivated.

Discussion variation

jjwcho0898 — 2024-05-28 11:13:31 UTC

I prefer to use a number of group sizes when I prepare for the discussion activities. First students start to organizing their thought and opinion with simple note-taking papers, and then they start discussion in pairs. and gather students into more larger groups with, say, 4-6 students, and finally start the whole-class conversations. This way I saw relatively incompetent students could make a speech in front of the class with other students' help as facilitators. As this way of discussion could comes as repetitive and boring to students, I sometimes add some competitive aspect or mandatory speech