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Pros and Cons

Pros and cons of having an amazing sister: Pros: Countless. Cons: Can’t think of any 🙂

Introduction:

This is a board game activity to talk about pros and cons. It is a great way to help students practise speaking about considering different options and making decisions.

Don’t forget to feed students new vocabulary throughout the activity, correct and/ or find opportunities to help them express themselves more precisely and accurately. 

Level: B1+

Objectives:

  1. To practise speaking about pros and cons
  2. To introduce pros and cons expressions
  3. To increase fluency and confidence

Materials:

pros-and-consDownload
pros-and-cons-expressionsDownload

A die (or an online dice roller) 

Procedure:

  1. Brainstorm pros and cons expressions (I have included a pdf to get you started. Give students examples of the expressions in context to make sure they know how to use them in the discussion later on).
  2. Give students a copy of the board game or display it on the screen.
  3. Put students in pairs or small groups.
  4. One of the students throws the dice twice – the first throw indicates which column they should use, and the second throw indicates which row, to obtain the topic.
  5. The player (s) discuss the advantages and/or disadvantages of a topic they have landed on. You could turn it into a competition and ask students to write down the advantages or disadvantages down and see who can come up with more. Also, the crazier the better as long as they are expressed correctly 😉
  6. Encourage students to ask additional questions and ask for clarification and details. Whilst the students are speaking you could ask others to note down expressions used by the speaker that I have included in the pdf (Materials).
  7. At the end, ask students to choose one topic that has not been discussed and using the expressions from the pdf write 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages of a given issue.

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Quite a conversation piece

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Name three

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Yay or Nay

The art of conversation…

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on by karolasenglishblog · 2 Comments

BFF

With my BFF 🙂
Image property of Karolina Wyrzykowska

Introduction:

This is a board game activity to talk about friends and friendships. It is a great way to help students practise speaking and develop fluency, and prepare for speaking exams.

Don’t forget to feed students new vocabulary throughout the activity, correct and/ or find opportunities to help them express themselves more precisely and accurately. Ask students to research the topic before the class and then teach others the vocabulary they have prepared.

As always encourage students to comment on each other’s responses and elaborate as much as possible.

Level: B1+

Objectives:

  1. To practise speaking about friends and friendships.
  2. To increase fluency and confidence.

Materials (Click on the worksheet below to download the PDF file):

bffDownload

A die (use an online dice roller) 

Procedure:

  1. Brainstorm relationship vocabulary. 
  2. Give students a copy of the board game or display it on the screen.
  3. The teacher (or one of the students) throws the dice twice – the first throw indicates which column they should use, and the second throw indicates which row, to obtain the question.
  4. The player must then answer the question and provide their classmates with as much detail as possible. Encourage students to ask additional questions and ask for clarification and details. Whilst the student is speaking you could ask others to note down specific vocabulary related to friends and relationships in general that he/she used and that were mentioned in the brainstorming session at the beginning of the activity.
  5. At the end, ask students to give you three unexpected things they have learnt about their classmates.

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How well do you know your folks?

Single and ready to mingle

Posted on by karolasenglishblog

Quite a conversation piece


Reaching for the light
(All images are property of Karolina Wyrzykowska)

Introduction:

This is a board game activity to talk about the weather. It is a great way to help students practise speaking and develop fluency, prepare for the FCE /CAE speaking exams and a great excuse to chat about, surely, everyone’s favourite topic.

Don’t forget to feed students new vocabulary throughout the activity and obviously draw their attention to any mistakes they might be making or find opportunities to help them express themselves more effectively and precisely. You could always prepare a thematic vocabulary list and send it to the students before the class or even ask them to research the topic themselves and then teach others the vocabulary they have prepared.

As always encourage students to comment on each other’s responses. 

Level: B1+

Objectives:

  1. To practise speaking about the weather.
  2. To increase fluency and confidence.

Materials (Click on the worksheet below to download the PDF file):

quite-a-conversation-pieceDownload

A die (use an online dice roller) 

Procedure:

  1. Brainstorm weather vocabulary. 
  2. Give students a copy of the board game or display it on the screen.
  3. The teacher (or one of the students) throws the dice twice – the first throw indicates which column they should use, and the second throw indicates which row, to obtain the question.
  4. The player must then answer the question and provide their classmates with as much detail as possible. Encourage students to ask additional questions and ask for clarification and details. Whilst the student is speaking you could ask others to note down specific vocabulary related to the weather that he/she used and that were mentioned in the brainstorming session at the beginning of the activity.
  5. At the end, ask students to give you three unexpected things they have learnt about their classmates.

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Triple Treat

Triple treat makes a comeback

BIG3

Posted on by karolasenglishblog

Click!Click!Click!

Introduction:

This is a fun activity you can do with students to practise describing photographs using speculative language. The activity could be used simply as general speaking practice or to help students prepare for Cambridge speaking exams. Students look at a photo and answer questions using language of speculation. All the photos are of me (Please don’t laugh) but feel free to replace them with your own photos to make it more personal.

I have also included a written task sample courtesy of one of my younger learners to show you how they handled the task and a recording of a description of Image 1, courtesy of my lovely friend Adam. Feel free to use it to model the task to your students or turn it into a listening task 😉

Level: A2+

Time: 35 minutes

Objectives:

  1. To describe a photo using the questions provided 
  2. To make predictions about the photo
  3. To practise using speculative and deductive language  

Materials:

image-1Download
image-2Download
image-3Download
image-4Download
image-5Download
click-task-sampleDownload
A description of Image 1 (by Adam). Thank you 😉

Procedure:

  1. Before you start the activity ask students to give you some examples of language of speculation e.g I suppose…, I expect…, It is possible…, It is probable that…, I can’t see… etc. 
  2. Display one of the images on the screen ( I have prepared 5 photos of myself that you are free to use but you could use your own photos too) if you are teaching online.
  3. Put students in pairs or small groups and ask them to describe the photos to each other using the questions provided (ask students to answer ALL the questions AND in order) using speculative language displayed next to the photos. Monitor and offer help whenever necessary.
  4. Next, still in the same groups, ask students to try and agree on the answers especially when the more speculative questions are concerned. Once they have come up with one version per group/per pair, ask them to choose a spokesperson who is going to present their answers to the rest of the class.
  5. When all the groups or pairs have finished presenting their versions, you can give them the REAL story behind the image. BOOM. Of course you can skip this stage if you are using my photos. This is actually the most enjoyable part of the activity as students get to see if their predictions about the snippets from my/your/their life are accurate or not. So often we ask students to describe random images that are completely irrelevant to their lives instead of using our own images which makes it so much more exciting. 
  6. The group with the highest number of correct answers wins. I deliberately choose photos with interesting background stories.
  7. You can continue the activity with my photos or ask students to use their own images. Make sure students are still using speculative language throughout the activity.
  8. Enjoy 😉

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