What makes for a good speaking activity

05/28/08 • -1 min

Podcasts – ESL Teacher Talk – ESL Podcasts for Teachers

This week Chris Cotter from Heads Up English.com is with us again. Heads Up English.com has some new lower intermediate exercises: speaking activities, listening activities, grammar worksheets and vocabulary exercises free for download! Please check out Heads Up English.com!

Mark starts the conversation off and offers quite a few ideas about what makes for good speaking activities:

less about the language and more about the language goal
lower levels – very repetitive
higher levels – the language is functional and real
make sure the activity is student centered
...

and Mark goes on with more tips for creating a successful speaking activity.

Chris adds to Mark’s list with some other tips:

high talk time
expanding on the activities
variability in the activity structure
decide whether the activity is for fluency, accuracy, or one then the other.
...

Ron batting number 3 in the discussion added his tips:

creating student interest in the activity
tips to decrease student anxiety
don’t overextend a short activity – killing it and your audience

Part 2 goes into how to actually accomplish some of these ideas to make speaking activities and language practice more effective. We give some examples of what we think are good examples of these ideas, some examples of what we think aren’t good examples and how those can easily be changed to more effective speaking task.

Ideas for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.

Some of the games and ideas discussed in the show can be found in previous games of the week or in the following links: the Paper Game MES Games Get Four

Discuss this podcast and what you think makes for a great speaking activity on the ESL Teacher Talk Forums! We’re listening.

Listen to the show.

Mark starts the conversation off and offers quite a few ideas about what makes for good speaking activities:

less about the language and more about the language goal
lower levels – very repetitive
higher levels – the language is functional and real
make sure the activity is student centered
...

and Mark goes on with more tips for creating a successful speaking activity.

Chris adds to Mark’s list with some other tips:

high talk time
expanding on the activities
variability in the activity structure
decide whether the activity is for fluency, accuracy, or one then the other.
...

Ron batting number 3 in the discussion added his tips:

creating student interest in the activity
tips to decrease student anxiety
don’t overextend a short activity – killing it and your audience

Ideas for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.

Some of the games and ideas discussed in the show can be found in previous games of the week or in the following links: the Paper Game MES Games Get Four

Discuss this podcast and what you think makes for a great speaking activity on the ESL Teacher Talk Forums! We’re listening.

Previous Episode

The Silent Way in Language Teaching

Listen to the show.

We have a big show this week, so we get right into it.

Mark and Ron cover these points concerning the Silent Way methodology:

what is the Silent Way Method
key aspects of the Silent Method
how does the Silent Method work in class
using cuisenaire rods, colored blocks and instilling learner autonomy
criticism of the Silent Method and what we can do with it in class

The Silent Way is a very intriguing method and if you have any questions or anything to add about the silent method post your comments or questions over on the ESL Teacher Talk Forums.Â We’re listening!

Game of the Week: the Paper Game

This is a pretty big game of the week.Â It is Mark’s favorite game and the seed that started several games at MES-English which in turn started MES-English.Â It’s the game that started it all!

It’s a communcative game that has students assume personalities.Â The students interact and try to guess who the other student is.Â It can be played with groups of 4 to 400.Â It’s adaptable to all levels and goes over well with children and adults.Â You can use the template to create your own board and there are game board makers that allow you to make boards using the same images from the MES-English flashcards.Â Enjoy!

Next Episode

Using Board Games

Listen to the show.

This week’s show is on using board games off the shelf.Â Â Ron and Mark offer some suggestions forÂ how you can use board games in ESL classes and as communicative activities.

We cover:

games that are ready to go right of the shelf, like Scrabble, Pictionary, ...
games you need to tweak a little, like UNO, Jenga, ...
games you can use with a bit of imagination, like Monopoly, ...

There are about 10+ game ideas you can use in your language classes.

If you have some ideas for using board games, let us know.Â We’d definitely like to hearÂ about a few more ideas.Â Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show.

Thanks for listening!
Game of the Week: Simon Sheep

A fun group game to get students up and moving.Â It’s great for practicing body parts, numbers, and it can be used to quickly get large classes into groups.Â A quick fun game!

some downloadable games mentioned in the show: English Tycoon and UnScramble It!