Introduction:

This is a great speaking activity from my acting class. It allows students of lower intermediate + level to share anecdotes from their lives and get to know each other better, as well as practise a variety of tenses.

Objectives:

1. To use a variety of tenses.
2. To increase speaking fluency by sharing an anecdote from your life with your classmates.
3. To retell another classmate’s anecdote as if it was your own.
4. To identify which anecdotes belong to which students.

Procedure:

1. Depending on the number of students, divide your class into a minimum of 2 groups, with a minimum number of 3 in each group.
2. Move the groups so they are as far away as possible from each other.
3. In turns, students in each group give a short anecdote from their life, for example, the last time they felt scared, lost something, received a letter, laughed, etc. The other members of the group make notes, as necessary.
4. Allocate a time for this; monitor and correct.
5. When the students in each group have shared their anecdotes, they must decide which person in their group will repeat their story in first person, and who will go first.
6. Nominate one group to start; the whole group stands or comes to the front of the class, and all the students tell another’s anecdote in the first person.
7. The other group(s) must decide together which students they think the anecdote belongs to.
8. It is then the turn of the next group, who must stand or come to the front of the classroom.
9. Continue until all the stories have been told.