Activities to Promote Speaking
Discussions
After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons. The students may aim to
arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups. Before the
discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher. In this way, the
discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with
each other about irrelevant things. For example, students can become involved in agree/disagree
discussions. In this type of discussions, the teacher can form groups of students, preferably 4 or 5 in
each group, and provide controversial sentences like “people learn best when they read vs. people learn
best when they travel”. Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their
opinions to the class. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members.
At the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way. This activity
fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify
themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others. For efficient group discussions, it is always
better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups. The
group members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it by themselves,
but groups should be rearranged in every discussion activity so that students can work with various
people and learn to be open to different ideas. Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is,
the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check
for clarification, and so on.
Role Play
One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they are in various social
contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the
learners such as who they are and what they think or feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that
"You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and…" (Harmer, 1984)
Simulations
Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role plays is that
they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic
environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on.
Role plays and simulations have many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the
students. Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students,
because in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have to speak for
themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility.
Information Gap
In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs. One student will have the information that
other partner does not have and the partners will share their information. Information gap activities
serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information. Also, each partner plays an
important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the
others need. These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in
the target language.
Brainstorming
On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time. Depending on the context, either
individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely. The good
characteristics of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be
open to sharing new ideas.
Storytelling
Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may
create their own stories to tell their classmates. Story telling fosters creative thinking. It also helps
students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters
and setting a story has to have. Students also can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning
of each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening. In
this way, not only will the teacher address students’ speaking ability, but also get the attention of the
class.
Interviews
Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good idea that the
teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what
path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions. Conducting interviews with
people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and
helps them becoming socialized. After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class.
Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class.
Story Completion
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sit in a circle. For this
activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating. Then, each
student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to
add from four to ten sentences. Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.
Reporting
Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to
their friends what they find as the most interesting news. Students can also talk about whether they
have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class.
Playing Cards
In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a topic. For instance:
Diamonds: Earning money
Hearts: Love and relationships
Spades: An unforgettable memory
Clubs: Best teacher
Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student will write 4-5 questions about that topic
to ask the other people in the group. For example:
If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possible questions:
Is money important in your life? Why?
What is the easiest way of earning money?
What do you think about lottery? Etc.
However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that students are not allowed to
prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or no students get little practice in spoken language
production. Rather, students ask open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete
sentences.
Picture Narrating
This activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell the story taking place in
the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric. Rubrics
can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating.
Picture Describing
Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one picture and having
them describe what it is in the picture. For this activity students can form groups and each group is given
a different picture. Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group
describes the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the
learners as well as their public speaking skills.
Find the Difference
For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example,
picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis. Students in pairs discuss the
similarities and/or differences in the pictures.
