Communicative teaching ideas

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A collection of materials-light speaking activities for pre-intermediate to upper-
intermediate students (B1-B2).

Extra terrestrials

Language points: defining relative clauses; giving definitions of words; describing things.

Materials: board and paper.

Time: approximately one hour.


1. Ask students to match the beginnings and endings of sentences like these:
A cooks a person who cooks.
A kitchens a place where you cook.
A cookers a thing (that) you cook on.

2. Display a list of words related to everyday life (e.g. baker, mug, hamster, bank, aeroplane, traffic
warden). Put students into pairs. They take it in turns to pretend to be parent and child, with
the child asking what people/things/places mean:

e.g. Child: Whats a baker, mummy?
Parent: A bakers a person who makes bread and cakes then sells them to other people.

3. Monitor and feed back on any errors with defining relative clauses.

4. Now ask students to imagine that they have never seen a cooker / a bank / a traffic warden,
etc., and to think what other information they would need to be able to understand and
picture this thing/place/person. In pairs, they should make a note of the information, then
share it with another pair and then another group of four, until they have a really clear and
complete definition/description.

5. Explain that you are an extra terrestrial and that you are calling from your planet. You are
preparing a report for the creatures on your planet and want to know the following
information:
what shape the earth is and what it is made of
what life forms there are
what human beings look like
how they survive.

6. Students work in small groups to plan their answers. Depending on the time available and the
level(s) of the students, you could have them all prepare answers to all the questions or
allocate one question to each group. They should try to make sure that each person in the
group has something to say.

7. When theyre ready, interview each group in turn.

8. For homework, students could write a piece entitled Describe your planet to an extra
terrestrial.
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I cant remember!

Language points: giving instructions.

Materials: paper, mobile phones (with email) and an iPod.

Time: approximately 45 minutes.


1. Explain to students that youve lost your memory and cant remember how to do simple
everyday tasks. You need your students help!

2. Put them into groups of three and ask them to make notes on a loose piece of paper on how
to send a text.

3. Students rotate their pieces of paper to the next group. They should add any missing steps
and correct any vocabulary, spelling, or grammar mistakes. They can rotate once more (for
further corrections) and then pass the paper back to the original group.

4. When theyve finished, ask one group for their instructions. Follow the instructions as they
speak and ask other groups to clarify if necessary.

5. Students could now do the same for the following tasks:
sending an email
downloading music onto an iPod.

6. For homework, students could write instructions for How to make buttered toastor for an
everyday task of their choice.


My favourite topic

Language points: forming questions; giving a talk/speech.

Materials: paper.

Time: at least one and a half hours.


1. Ask each student to take a sheet of paper and at the top put their name followed by the thing
they like talking about most (e.g. Maria: basketball).

2. Students sit in a circle and pass their sheet of paper clockwise to the next student. That
student should write a question they want to ask about the topic directly under the heading,
e.g.


Maria: basketball
Do you play basketball yourself?


3. Students continue to pass round the sheets of paper until eventually the sheets come back to
the first student. They can ask whatever questions they like but should not repeat any which
are already on the list.
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4. The first student now plans a talk on their topic, using the questions as a basis for their plan.
They should group similar questions and make sure the talk has an introduction, a middle and
a conclusion.

5. Allow students to rehearse their talks in pairs or small groups and make any improvements.
Go round and monitor at this stage, correcting errors which affect understanding and feeding
in any necessary language.

6. Students can then take it in turns to present their talks to the whole class if they wish to. As
the others listen, they should take notes.

7. For homework, they can then write up their notes on another students talk and give it to
that student for correction (factual and linguistic!) the following lesson.


Party talk

Language points: asking questions; making small talk.

Materials: paper, sticky tape.

Time: 30-40 minutes.


Task 1

1. Each student should take a piece of paper and write their name in large letters in the middle
and I really like in each corner.

2. In the top left-hand corner they then write a type of food they like, in the top right-hand
corner an author, in the bottom left-hand corner a town, in the bottom right-hand corner a
singer or music group, e.g.


3. Then they should stick the paper on their front!

4. Put students into pairs. They should look at the other students sheet of paper and ask
questions about that information.

5. They can move on to another student when want to, just as if they were at a party. They
should keep going until theyve spoken to each student.

6. As plenary feedback, ask each student to tell the whole class the most interesting new thing
they found out at the party.

I really like pizza. I really like Paul Auster.
CHRISTINA
I really like Sydney. I really like Van Morrison.

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Quick on the draw

Language points: describing houses, rooms and furniture; prepositions of place.

Materials: paper.

Time: approximately 30 minutes.


1. Ask students to draw a bird's-eye view of their home (if they live in a house, just the ground
floor; if they live in a flat, the whole flat; if they live in one room, they should include the
furniture).

2. Lower level students can also draw an outline with the doors and windows marked to give to
their partner; higher level students should describe the shape of the outline and the positions
of the doors and windows.

3. Put students into pairs. They mustnt look at their partners drawing!

4. One student from each pair should describe his/her home and the other student should draw
what he/she has heard. The 'drawers' should ask for clarification if they're not sure about
something.

5. When theyve finished, students compare drawings and then swap roles.

I beg your pardon?

Language points: reported/indirect speech; asking someone to repeat.

Materials: none.

Time: 20-30 minutes.


1. Tell your students that they have got difficulty hearing today. When you say something, they
should say, Sorry?, Pardon? or I beg your pardon?. Practise with several different present simple
sentences.

e.g. Teacher: My name's .
Student: Pardon?
Teacher: I said my name was .

2. Sit in a circle to play a version of Chinese whispers:

One student should say I'm hungry to the first student on his/her right. That student should
say to the next student on the right: X told me he/she was hungry. The message gets passed to
the next student on the right: X told Y that he/she was hungry and so on until it gets back to the
first student: You told Y that you were hungry.

3. Play again with a new sentence, but with the following variations:

Each student should write (secretly) on a piece of paper a declarative sentence using the
present simple. This time students should whisper the message to the next student
clockwise, again using indirect speech. At the end, check whether the messages got round
OK.

4. You could use the same procedure with confirmation questions (yes/no questions), e.g. Are
you OK? and information questions (wh- questions), e.g. How are you feeling?.