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Speaking Activities for Teaching English

Teaching English can be a challenging task, since it is a complicated language to learn. One crucial part of this process is having students actually speak to you and to one another, to stimulate and develop their language skills. They cannot learn the language just by hearing someone else speak it; they must be an active part of the process.
  1. Unbelievable Stories

    • Have one student act as a passenger and another act as a driver. The passenger gets into the car and tells the driver how he just saw two celebrities being chased by photographers, while the driver expresses disbelief at the story. The two students must engage in a conversation that shows the driver's unwillingness to believe his friend and the passenger's insistence that these events actually did just occur.

    Find Someone Who ...

    • Give students a list of different statements, such as those relating to summer vacation. For example, you could write "(blank for person's name) visited a foreign country during summer break" and "(blank for person's name) went to a water park over the summer." Leave three lines blank for students to write their own statements. Students have to go around the classroom and interview one another to find a person who completed each of the activities on the sheet.

    Oral Exams

    • Students should engage in oral exams, so that you can assess their speaking skills. Have students converse in groups of three or four while you take notes. The conversations should last for around three minutes or so. Grade them on their grammar and vocabulary, intonation/clarity/pronunciation and fluency/discourse. Allow students to know the topic beforehand and to plan out their conversations to a degree. However, they may not write out a script or have notes during the exam.

    Slang

    • Distribute a handout to students with images of people saying phrases such as "Whatever!" "I'm outta here!" and "Been there, done that." You can ask the students two different types of questions. First, you should ask what these phrases mean. Once the meaning has been established, ask the students for situations where it might be appropriate to use one or more of these casual phrases.

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