Basic substitution is the easiest way to introduce direct speech to students. The teacher will begin the lesson by demonstrating how to turn a simple sentence I walked to school into a direct statement; She said "I walked to school." The teacher will pass out a list of simple sentences and the students will turn each sentence into a sentence that uses direct speech. This activity can lead to more advanced activities, such as creating paragraphs or stories that use direct speech.
A hands-on activity that students can do to practice using direct speech is to complete a cut and paste activity. The teacher will create a worksheet that puts words and punctuation from a paragraph that uses direct speech out of order. The students will then cut out the different elements of the paragraph and glue them on to a new sheet in order. Once the students have completed the cut and paste activity, they can create their own paragraphs that use direct speech.
An engaging activity for students to practice direct speech is to participate in the What They Told You activity. The teacher and students work together to create a list of people the students have met such as policemen, librarians, doctors and so on. Then, the students work to create phrases that each of the people on the list may say and correctly write using quotation marks on index cards. The groups then exchange cards and guess who might have said each statement. This activity is a fun way to help students practice direct speech activities
The Direct Speech Card game is an easy way to practice using direct speech. The teacher will create a list of questions that correspond with numbers 1 to 10. An example of a question the teacher can use is have you ever been out of the country? The student will choose a card from a deck of cards and answer the corresponding question using direct speech. If the student chooses a face card, they can choose any question they'd like and the ace card will act as the number 1 card.