Speaking is a 'huge' activity that describes so much of what we do in the classroom, from oral drills, to quick discussions, role play, problem slving and even board games. These ativities may have different aims: from very controlled practice on grmmar, vocabulary, functional language or pronunciation, to freer practice and the development of other skills such as critical thinking. Speaking activities are one of the biggest challenges. Here you'll find a selection of activities I collected from the web which worked in my varied classrooms
In this game, one player has a card containing four words:
a. The first word is the secret word, which has to be guessed. The aim of the game is to get the other players to say this word so the student with the card needs to describe this word until another student discovers what the secret word is.
b. The other three words are the “taboo” words that can’t be used to describe the secret word since they are the most obvious options.
You can play this game can be played in two teams or in small groups. You can create your own sets of words based on the content your students have been studying, or you can find sets in your textbook and on the Internet.
Variations
1. Create a PowerPoint presentation with a noun on each slide, and the “taboo words”. Have one student come to the front of the room and sit giving his/her back to the PowerPoint. The rest of the students take turns describing the word on the slides, and the student at the front has to guess it.
2. Separate the students into groups of four or five. Place a pile of cards with content words in the centre of each group. Students take turns describing a noun for their group members to guess. The group member who guesses correctly keeps the card. The winner is the student who keeps most of the cards!
3. Separate the class into two teams. Students are given a word to describe to their partners, and a list of “Taboo” words they cannot use in their description. Each student should have two to three minutes to see how many words their teammates can guess
Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/esl-speaking-activities-for-adults/
Descriptive drawing activity
Pair up the students and give each student a picture, placing it face down so partners cannot see each other’s cards. They must describe the picture for their partner to draw.
Comic strip descriptions
Give each student a portion of a comic strip. Without showing their pictures to one another, the students should attempt to describe their image, and put the comic strip into the correct order. After about 10 minutes, the students can guess the order, show one another their portion, and see if they were correct.
Find a friend bingo
This activity is a variation of Find someone who.
It can be adapted easily to different levels
Prepare a handout with a 3 x 3 grid of squares. In each square, write a phrase that is likely to apply to at least one of the students, e.g. has a birthday in March, went on vacation to the beach, loves the “Star Wars” movies.
Give a copy of the handout to each student. Tell them to ask questions and find a friend who answers yes to one square in the grid, crossing out the square when they find someone. They should then move on to a different friend.
The winner is the first person to cross out all the squares.
Tip: For higher levels, make the grid larger. Alternatively, ask students to write their own ideas in the grid. For lower levels, use pictures instead of words and stick to Do you like …? questions.
Retrieved from https://www.english.com/blog/speaking-activities-for-your-new-primary-class/
Are we the same or different?
Students do this speaking and writing activity in pairs. They ask each other questions to find out what they have in common and what is different about them.
Before the lesson, prepare a handout with a large Venn diagram for each pair of students. Alternatively, you could have students draw their own diagrams in their notebooks.
Retrieved from https://www.english.com/blog/speaking-activities-for-your-new-primary-class/
Other ideas:
https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/12-fun-speaking-games-language-learners
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/motivating-speaking-activities-lower-levels
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teaching-speaking-unit-6-activities
