Part 3: Developing speaking skills

3.1 Teaching speaking to young learners

Children want to be able to speak - they want something they can take away to perform to
friends and family, and to assure themselves they have learned something concrete.
Children have a high level of initial motivation, and if this is to be maintained they need to
see immediate results from their efforts.

At the early stages, speaking will not equate to conversation. Pupils need usable English to
give the impression of quick learning.

Suitable language items include:

Colours
Numbers
Simple greetings
Rhymes and songs
Days of the week
Months of the year
The alphabet
Everyday nouns
Food
Clothes
Useful classroom language
Commands
When dealing with language such as greetings or requests, it is important that teachers do
not expect children to understand every word - it is the gist of the complete phrase or
question that is vital to comprehension.

As the pupils language ability increases, the demands of comprehension and

communication should become greater in structured activities with clear objectives to test
these skills. Teachers need to be equipped with a variety of speaking activities to optimise
pupils patterns of interaction and to practise a variety of language.

3.2 Speaking activities

Search for speaking activities ideal for children:

1) the purpose of some of these activities in terms of skills practised and learning outcomes
2) the materials required by the activity.

The activities could include:

Look, listen and repeat: Using pictures or realia as stimulus for vocabulary.
Listen and join in: In storytelling or using rhymes, key words or phrases are
repeated or given by the pupils.
Reading aloud: Either from texts or single words in games like bingo or snap
Memory games: 'I went to the shop to buy a.'
Chinese whispers: One person whispers a message to another, which is passed
to a line of people until the last person announces what she heard - the last
person normally says a different message from the original one.
Role-plays or acting: A story or situation can be acted out, using prompts,
scripted lines or context as a starting point.
Rhymes, songs, chants and tongue twisters: Chunks of language are learned.
Using flash cards: Teachers can ask pupils questions based on what they are
seeing, and pupils can quiz each other.
Guessing games: Pupils describe or draw something whilst others guess what
it is.
Information gaps: One partner has some information the other needs, so
questions must be asked in order to complete the information.
Questionnaires and surveys: Pupils interview classmates about a certain topic.

Remember: The value and satisfaction of speaking comes from the pupils ability to
communicate about something they find interesting, so make sure the subject matter is
relevant to the learners. In an EFL teaching context you should plan for lots of structured
activities designed for young learners. Very young learners will not have the skills to speak
spontaneously - you must keep this in mind when planning.
Below you will find lots of speaking activities to use in your lesson plans. These activities
can be adapted to different age groups and levels.

Ask a pupil to demonstrate a dance explaining the steps in English.

Alter the pacing of your class. If you rush through your class at full speed, slow
things down and take time to ask your pupils personal questions based on the
materials you are using. If you tend to proceed at a snail's pace, prepare some
additional activities and push yourself to accomplish more than you usually do.
Ask pupils to name as many objects in the classroom as they can while you write
them on the board.
Ask pupils to present to the class a gesture that is unique to their own culture.
Ask pupils to write one question they would feel comfortable answering (without
writing their name) on an index card. Collect all of the index cards, put them in a
bag, have pupils draw cards, and then ask another pupil the question on that card.
Ask your pupils if there are any songs running through their heads today. If anyone
says yes, encourage the pupil to sing or hum a little bit, and ask the others if they
can identify it.
Assign pupils to take a conversation from their coursebook that they are familiar
with and reduce each line to only one word.
At the end of class, erase the board and challenge pupils to recall everything you
wrote on the board during the class period. Write the expressions on the board
once again as your pupils call them out.
Begin by telling your pupils about an internal struggle between two sides of your
personality (bold side vs. timid side or hardworking side vs. lazy side), providing a
brief example of what each side says to you. After a few minutes of preparation in
pairs, have pupils present their struggles to the class.
Bring a mobile phone (real or toy) to class, and pretend to receive calls throughout
the class. As the pupils can only hear one side of the conversation, they must
guess who is calling you and why. Make the initial conversation very brief, and
gradually add clues with each conversation. The pupil who guesses correctly wins
a prize.

Bring a fork, knife, spoon, bowl, plate and chopsticks (if you have them) to class
and mime eating some different dishes letting pupils guess what they are. Then let
your pupils take a turn.
Bring an artefact from the pupil's culture to class, and ask them questions about it.
Bring in some snacks that you think your pupils may not have tried before, and
invite the pupils to sample them and give their comments.
Call on a pupil to draw his or her country's flag on the board, then teach him or her
how to describe the flag to the class (eg It has three stripes...).
Choose one topic (food, sport) and elicit a list of examples (food - chicken, pudding,
rice). Then have your pupil come up with the most unusual combinations of items
from that list (e.g. chocolate-beef or wrestling-golf).
Collaborate with your pupils on a list of famous people, such as film stars,
politicians, athletes and artists. Have every pupil choose a famous person, and put
them in pairs to interview each other.
 Come to class dressed differently than usual and have pupils comment on what's
different.
Copy a page from a comic book, white out the dialogue, make copies for your
class, and have them supply utterances for the characters.
Copy pages from various ESL textbooks (at an appropriate level for your pupils),
put them on the walls, and have pupils wander around the classroom and learn a
new phrase, then have them teach each other what they learned.
Copy some interesting pictures of people from magazine adverts. Give a picture
to each pupil, have the pupil fold up the bottom of the picture about a centimetre,
and write something the person might be thinking or saying. Put all the pictures up
on the board, and let everyone come up and take a look.

While looking down, describe something observable in the classroom, and tell
pupils to look in the direction of the thing that you described.
Draw a map of your country or another country that your pupils know well. By
drawing lines, show pupils where you went on a trip, and tell them about it. Then
call on several pupils to do the same. The trips can be truthful or fictional.
Draw a pancake-shape on the board, and announce that the school will soon be
moving to a desert island. Invite pupils one by one to go to the board and draw one
thing they would like to have on the island.
Draw a party scene on the board, and invite pupils to come up and draw someone
they would like to have at the party.
Empty a bag of coupons onto a table, and ask pupils to find a coupon for a product
that they have no need for.
Experiment with how you write on the board, altering your writing style, the size of
the letters, the direction you write, and the colour of the chalk or pens.
Explain to your pupils what it means to call someone a certain animal (dog, pig,
fox) in English, and then ask them what these mean in their languages.
Fill the board with vocabulary your pupils have encountered in previous classes
(make sure to include all parts of speech), and get them to make some sentences
out of the words.
Find out what famous people your pupils admire, and work together with the class
to write a letter to one of them.
Find out what your pupils are interested in early on in the semester. Go to the
internet from time to time to collect articles on these subjects for pupils to read
during the class period.

First, instruct your pupils to write on a slip of paper the name of one book, CD, or
film that changed them in some way. Collect the papers, call out the titles, and ask
the class if they can guess who wrote it. Finally, let the writer identify him or herself,
explaining his or her choice.
Give each pupil a piece of chalk or a pen and tell them to fill the board with pop
song lyrics. Then put the pupils in pairs, and get them to use the words on the
board to create a new dialogue.
Give pupils a reward (such as a sweet or a sticker) each time they take the artificial
language in your textbook and turn it into an authentic question or comment about
 someone in the class.
Hand a pupil a ball of yellow yarn. Ask him or her toss it to another pupil, while
saying something positive about that pupil and holding onto the end of the yarn.
Continue in this manner until there is a web between all the pupils.
Hand each pupil an index card, and tell them to write down a sentence that
includes an error they have made this week, along with the correct version of the
sentence. Next, tape all of the index cards on the board for pupils to look over.
Hang up four different posters (e.g. a world map, a famous singer, a flower, and
Einstein) in the four corners of your room. Tell pupils to choose one corner to stand
in, and talk about why they chose that poster.
Ask each pupil to make a list of the five most useful phrases for tourists visiting an
English speaking country.
Ask pupils come to the board one by one, to draw a poster for an English language
film (without the title) they think the other pupils have seen, and let the other pupils
guess which film it is.
Hire a musician to play for a few minutes of your class.

In small groups, have your pupils design an advert for something other than a
product (wisdom, humility, friendship, etc.).
Inquire to see if your pupils have any unusual talents (e.g. they can wiggle their
ears, or bark like a dog), and encourage them to demonstrate.
Instead of saying 'Very good!' all the time, vary the ways you praise and correct
pupils as much as possible.
Instruct your pupils to find something in their wallets/purses/pencil boxes, and tell
the story behind it.
Invite your pupils to stand up and explore the classroom from new angles (look in
drawers, under desks, behind posters, on top of cabinets). Then ask pupils to
report their findings.
Just a few minutes before the bell rings, call on your pupils to choose the ten most
useful words they came in contact with during the class, then have them narrow it
down to the three most useful words.
Pass around some magazines, and ask each pupil choose an advert that he or
she likes. Give pupils an opportunity to explain their choices.
Play a listening activity from your book an additional time with the lights turned off.
Play a recording of instrumental music and ask pupils to draw on the board what
the music makes them think of.

Play five very different sounds from a sound effects tape or CD, and assign pupils
in pairs to create a story based on three of the sounds.
Play music that enhances certain activities (e.g. quiet music for a reading activity,
dance music for an energetic TPR activity). Ask your pupils for their reactions.
Prepare coloured letters of the alphabet on cardboard squares and put them in a
bag. Pupils must take a letter from the bag, and work together to create a sentence
on the board. Each pupil must raise his or her hand to make a contribution, but the
word the pupil calls out must begin with the letter he or she chose. Put the
expanding sentence on the board, adding words only when they the grammar is
 correct.
Prepare several paper bags, each with a different smell inside (perfume,
cinnamon, cheese), pass the bags around the class, and let pupils describe what
they smell.
Print phrases such as in the library, at an elegant dinner with the Royal Family,
in a noisy bar or in a dangerous neighbourhood on separate strips of paper, put
them in envelopes, and tape them to the underside of a few pupils' desks before
they arrive. Write on the board a useful expression like Excuse me, could I borrow
a pound?' When pupils arrive, tell them to look for an envelope under the desks.
The ones who find envelopes must say the sentence on the board as if in the
context written on the page. Other pupils must guess the context from the pupil's
tone of voice and body language.
Produce a list of commonly used sentence-modifying adverbs on the board, such
as suddenly, actually, unfortunately, and happily. Then launch into a story,
which each pupil must contribute to, with the rule that everyone must begin the first
sentence of his or her contribution with a sentence-modifying adverb.
Provide each pupil with a list of the current top ten pop songs. Play excerpts from
some or all of the songs, and ask your pupils questions, such as did you like the
song?, have you heard this song before?, how did the song make you feel? or
what instruments did you hear?

Buy a postcard for each member of your class, and writing his or her name
in the name and address space. Turn the postcards picture side up on a table,
have each pupil choose one (without looking at the name), then he or she will write
a message to the person whose name is on the other side. If a pupil chooses the
postcard that has his or her own name on it, the pupil must choose again.
Put pupils in pairs and ask them to guess three items that could be in their partner's
wallet, purse or pencil case.
Put pupils in pairs. Tell them to converse, but to deliberately make one grammatical
error over and over, stopping only when the other pupil spots the other's intentional
error.
Put pupils into small groups to create an application form for new pupils to the
school.
Put the pupils in small groups, and ask each group to plan a holiday for you. They
must plan where you will go, what you will do, who you will go with, and what you
will buy. When they are finished, ask each group to present their plans.
Review a phrase or sentence that you want pupils to remember by holding a
competition to see who can say it the loudest/quietest/quickest/slowest/deepest/
highest voice.
Set up a board in your classroom where pupils can buy and sell used items from
each other by writing notes in English.
Supply each pupil with a copy of the entertainment section of the local newspaper,
and tell them to choose somewhere to go next weekend.
Take a particularly uninteresting page from your coursebook, and put pupils in
groups to redesign it.
Teach on a different side of the room than you usually do.
 Tell each pupil to report the latest news in their country or city to the class.
Tell your pupils to practise a conversation from their coursebook that they are
familiar with, but this time they can only use gestures, no words.
When they are practicing a dialogue, ask pupils to play around with the volume,
intonation, pitch, or speed of their voices.
Write the sentence tell me something I don't know on the board, then ask pupils
questions about things they know about and you do not, such as their lives, cultural
background, interests, and work.
Write a common adjacency pair (eg Thank you/you're welcome or I'm sorry/that's
alright) on the board. Ask pupils if they know of any expressions that could replace
one of the ones you just wrote. Write any acceptable answers on the board.
Write a number of adjectives, such as mysterious, happy, peaceful, sad,
angry, and frustrated on the board. Call out a colour, and ask your pupils to tell
you which adjective they associate with that colour.
Question - question improvisation. Pupils seat in pairs and have a conversation
totally composed of questions. For example,

a: how are you?

b: what did you say?
a: are you deaf?
b: do I look ill?
a: why do you ask?
b: can we stop this?

The pupil that stops or answers without a question, loses a point.

Write an idiomatic expression such as 'it beats me' or 'I'm fed up' in big letters on the
board. Call on a few pupils to guess what it means before you tell them.
Write down the names of about five very different people on the board (for example,
a small baby, a rude waiter in a restaurant, a fashion model, a stranger in a crowd,
and a grandfather). Give pupils a common expression, such as 'Good morning!' or
'Sorry!', and ask pupils how they might say it differently when talking to a different
person.