Speaking Activities for the Classroom - NoblePath

Chapter One : Warm-up Activities
This first chapter starts with some lower intermediate classroom activities that
can help the teacher and the students to get to know one-another, in an easy
and relaxed atmosphere.
There are two types of tasks proceeding in series. on alternate pages :
The first type is based on having the students interviewing one-another and
asking questions, so that there is an independent dialogue between class
members, with a minimum of interruption and supervision by the teacher.
The second type is based on easy games and speaking tasks that should not be
seen as threatening to the students and that should help to ease them into
talking in programmed, student-centered exercises.
In the first type of task, after some initial introductions, all the students will be
asked to stand up and walk around the room, in an open, empty space, pushing
their chairs to the side, where necessary, and speaking and getting information
from as many different people in the room as possible. They may also ask the
teacher to answer any of the questions that they find on their handout sheets.
The main strategy of these interview tasks is to have the students find answers
to the various questions, using the various verb tenses, without consciously
realizing that they are also practicing grammar. The teacher should, however,
not just give them the sheets and let stand up and start talking, because they
would certainly use the wrong grammar and verb forms. Therefore, in the first
stage of this exercise, the students should be asked to formulate and jot down
each one of their questions, so they can read them out to the teacher who can
check to see if the verb forms are correct. In other words, only after they have
got the questions straight, is it time to have them stand up and walk and talk.
The second type of task consists of a series of tried, true and tested fun
activities, playing easy games that will almost certainly work for both the
teacher and the students on this level. There is enough variety so that the
teacher can pick and choose which sheets he/she thinks are most appropriate
for the group, depending on interest, skills and ability. The teacher may find
that this chapter is too easy and search further into the book to find more
appropriate materials. In general, the tasks gradually become more difficult, the
text proceeds, chapter by chapter, from lower intermediate to intermediate and
then to upper intermediate and, finally to advanced levels that will really help to
improve students’ comprehension and pronunciation skills.
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