Getting students to T A L K ! !

[Hypiereon]

Here are some - rather practical and useful - ideas you might not have thought of trying for getting students interested in the lesson, motivating them to learn, and getting them to start talking.

Look Who’s Talking!!

“New and Improved!” Have students give an advertisement for their favorite product. They can do this individually, in pairs, or in groups. They can do an official advertisement like they see on T.V. (even copy one from T.V. if they want) or make one up on their own. So long as it is all done in English, it doesn’t really matter.

“Extra! Extra!” Try to get an article published in the local English newspaper. Write about some issue or topic that is current or newsworthy and send it off to the “Letters to the Editor” section of your local or national newspaper. Give a reward for whoever gets published. (proof is in the paper – they give you a copy of the story before they send it off – if any part of it appears in the paper with their name under it, they get the prize.)

“You are Cordially Invited.” Send an invitation to someone famous (who also speaks English) to come and give a lecture at your school or class. Have the class write individual invitations to different people, and then have them read their invitation out loud. Have the class vote on one person to invite, and then have the class work together on a well-worded invitation. Agree that you will send the invitation off, and then you must try to get the invitation to the person. No harm no foul – if the person the selected doesn’t come or doesn’t respond it doesn’t take away from the class at all.

“Go on a date with ME!” Have the boys in class write up a short essay with the beginning “You should go on a date with me because . . .” and should include some activities on a date – their name goes on the bottom. You read the different date descriptions (excluding the name) and the girls will pick the one description of a date they like the best. While the boys are writing, the girls write “You should take me on a date because . . . “ and they talk about all the reasons why they would make the best date for the boy. The boys then choose the description of the girl they would most want to go out with based on the essay alone (again – no names). After the choices are made, the reveal comes as the names of the winning essays are announced.

“Interview with a Vampire.” Ask students to list some questions they might get during a job interview or university / college interview. This can be done in groups or in pairs. Then, have one group choose a candidate from another group to “interview.” The questions, as asked, should be written on the board – (make no corrections at the moment, but later for teaching purposes.) Answers can be corrected as the student speaks. You might open a discussion about how a person should dress, what they should wear, how they should act during an interview.

“Crossfire Survivor.” A GAME (For a more advanced English Class.) Students are broken into teams. (I say a minimum of four persons per group to make it interesting, but you can have more people in a group, or more than two groups – up to you.)
First, they have to write a speech and select a person to deliver the speech. (An alternative is to have a famous speech for them to read already prepared, but then they have to read it over and become familiar with it.)
Next, (after the speeches are written.) They must come up with questions (4, 5, 10, whatever you think they can handle) about the speech to ask to the audience (the other teams.)
Last, each team reads their speech in succession. Other teams may take whatever notes they want during the speech.
You prepare the game by listing each person in each group on the board. Each team chooses someone from an opposing team to answer. The other teams can all gang up on one team if they wish, but the same player cannot be selected from a team twice in a row. The asking team is alternated for the next Q & A. Literally, there are several speeches swimming around in their heads, and they must try to recall, using only their notes, information to answer the questions from any one of the speeches based on which team is doing the asking.

Some rules:

• 1. If someone cannot answer a question himself (he cannot appeal to his team-mates for help at this point), he is “eliminated” meaning the opposing team gets a point, but that player can no longer be asked a question for the rest of the game – he can, however, participate in the group discussion. His name, on the board, will be crossed out to signify he is “eliminated.” (go to rule 3)
• 2. If he can answer the question, then he is not eliminated, and his group gets two points. Play continues through to the next group.
• 3. If a player is “eliminated” – the question goes to his team as a whole. If the whole team cannot answer the question, then they must elect someone else to be “eliminated” from their team – and the opposing team (the one that asked the question) gets another point. (go to rule 5)
• 4. If the team can answer the question correctly – no points are exchanged and there is no penalty. Play passes to the next team to ask a question to any other team they choose.
• 5. At this point, if one of the other teams feel they can answer the question correctly and does so, and they have a member who has been eliminated, they can “heal” him and bring him back into the game – once “healed” he can be picked again for questions. OR They may simply choose to accept a point. (Alternative: A team may not wish to “heal” the weaker players of their own team because it allows other teams simply to score more easy points again, so teams may choose to “heal” a weaker player from another team so they can score easy points again for themselves. This might be a tactic if one strong player from another team proves unshakable.)
• 5b.If that other team guesses wrong, the asking team gets an additional two points, and the answering team loses one point. The question is then considered “dead.”
• 6. Once every member of your team is eliminated, your team is out of the game.
• 7. The game ends when all opposing teams are eliminated, time runs out, or all the questions have been asked. If more than one team is around at the end, then whoever has the most points will win. If it is a tie, the teacher begins to alternate between teams asking random questions from the different speeches until the tie is broken – (or you can simply let the tie stand.)

[gfell]

Some good ideas there Hypiereon. Works well with large classes of youngsters and would even work with company classes.

The idea is for the English teacher to think creatively. The last thing a student wants is the same old routine as previous lessons.

Much easier teaching children though as they seem always motivated to want to learn. Always full of energy. Well that's been my experience so far.