English Language Learners need a lot of opportunities to practice their vocabulary in all four language domains. Students need to work on Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. As an ESL teacher, I was always looking for new and exciting ways to practice those language skills. These are 10 activities you can use to practice speaking skills. These activities can be used with any vocabulary list, and do not require a lot of preparation or fancy materials.
Debate
A debate is a great way to practice speaking skills. As opposed to a presentation of a set of facts, a debate encourages students to speak convincingly. You may need to do some modeling of how to use tone and volume to help students with this skill. To set up a debate in your classroom split the group into two teams. Provide a statement that is open for debate such as “Zoos are a good place for animals,” or “Schools should be open all year”. Assign each team a position - either they argue for or against the statement. Then give each team time to discuss their position and come up with talking points. After a set amount of time, have students from each group share their talking points. When you are done with the debate you can poll students on which side of the statement they fall, and which argument they felt was most convincing.
Interviews and Surveys
Asking and answering questions is an important speaking skill for English Language Learners. Conducting interviews and answering surveys is a great way to practice these skills. You can have students do a simple getting to know you survey at the beginning of the year where they ask and answer questions of each other. Or you can do interest surveys with students one-on-one. These activities will not only help practice speaking but they will help build relationships in the classroom. You can also have students write questions and then survey community members. With modern video call technology students might actually be able to interview a zookeeper during your zoo unit, or a local meteorologist during a weather unit.
Poetry
Poetry reading is a great way for English Language Learners to practice speaking. So great in fact, that I have an entire blog post about it - HERE. To practice speaking with poems, search online for a poem that matches your current theme. If you can’t find one you can write one yourself. I find it best to choose a recognizable rhythm from a nursery rhyme and then write lines to match that rhythm. Then present the poem to your class. Our routine was for the students to first listen to me read the poem all the way through, then we would do a call and repeat of each line, then gradually increase the text read until they were able to recite the entire poem. I would do this as a whole-group activity.
See, Think, Wonder
See, Think, Wonder is a great way to get students to notice and talk about details. For this activity, you will need to find a photograph that will interest your students and give them a chance to practice target vocabulary. I recommend checking out a free photo website like Deposit Photos or Unsplash to find quality photos. Once you have a photo ask your students what they see in the photo. Ask them to talk about the big picture as well as small details. “I see a lion roaring” and “I see dirt in the lion’s mane”. Then move on to what students think about the picture. This requires more higher-level thinking, and probably more language production. “I think the lion is angry because he is roaring.” The final step, and the most difficult question, is to ask students what they wonder about the photo - “I wonder how loud the lion’s roar is?”
Show and Tell
Raise your hand if show and tell was always your favorite day in school. *raises hand* Students love show and tell! This is pretty straightforward - students bring an item to class and tell their classmates all about it. If you have a student who isn’t able to bring in an item they’d like to discuss, you can ask them to draw a picture of it, or ask their parents to send in a photo. If you want to keep the show and tell thematic you can present the students with realia related to your theme and ask each student to present one item to the group.
Skits
What kid doesn’t love playing pretend. Come up with a few different scenarios relating to your current unit. Make note of how many ‘actors’ each scenario will need - try to stick to 2 or 3. Break your group up and give each pair or triplet a scenario. Give them time to practice what they would do and say if they were in that situation. As groups practice, you can walk around the room to offer suggestions and observe their speaking skills. If it is appropriate for your students, each group can present their skit to the class. You can really bump this activity up a notch by providing props!
Taboo
The popular game Taboo is all about speaking! To set up play, choose target words and taboo words, and create game cards with those words. Then split the class into groups of three- one person to give the clues, one person to guess, and one person to make sure no taboo words are used. Give each group a set of cards. The students will take turns in each role. The first student will pull a card and try to get the second student to say the target word. If they use a taboo word they lose their turn. You can also play this whole group in a format similar to pictionary or charades.
Telephone
The classic speaking game of telephone is great for English Language Learners, and is actually a great two for one activity since it practices both listening and speaking. In telephone, one student whispers a sentence or phrase to the next student, and that student whispers to the next. It continues until the final student says the sentence out loud to see how much of the original message was preserved. You can either provide the first student in the chain with a sentence, or let them come up with their own. However, I suggest the original sentence is written down somewhere, so that you can compare it to the final sentence in the end.
Two Truths and a Lie
Two truths and a lie is another fun activity for building relationships in your classroom. In this activity each student will come up with three statements about themselves. Two of those statements will be true, and one will be a lie. Then they present those statements to the group without revealing which one is false. The group has a chance to ask questions about each statement, and once everyone has a chance to ask a question, students can make note of which statement they think is the lie. They can write it on a post-it or small whiteboard. Finally, the presenter can reveal which statement was the lie! Students may have additional questions about the truths if they are especially fascinating, so be prepared to give extra time for extra questions.
Would You Rather
This game asks students, not only to state a preference, but to back it up with an explanation. The explanation is the key part in expanding the language production. In a Would You Rather game students are asked a simple would you rather question. You can make these questions whatever you want, or even ask the students to come up with them on their own. Simple questions like “would you rather be a lion or a penguin” can bring up great discussions. You can make them more complex too - “would you rather be a lion living in the arctic, or a penguin living in the desert?” Either way, a Would You Rather game will have students thinking and speaking.
Are there any speaking activities your students love that I missed? Did you try one of these activities? Share them with me by commenting or connecting with me by email, michelle@teachingeternity.com, or find me on Instagram, @TeachingEternity.
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