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DebMer

My students just loooooove their grammar books, but I still have many who are very shy about applying their knowledge verbally. Well, their English knowledge. They're quite proficient in using their L1 in class. Shocked

I need more ideas for games, activities and conversation starters.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 1:44 pm Post subject:

I have had good results with this over the years:

http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Tired-Teachers-Well-Seasoned-Activities/dp/0201065096

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

I find the Zero Prep: Ready-to-Go Activities books quite useful (sold by Amazon).

cloud_pleaser · Joined: 29 Aug 2012 Posts: 83

Here's a great one for immediately turning some new vocab into a conversation activity:
Get them into pairs
Each person writes down 5 or so words
Each partner has to have a conversation using their 5 words, and must guess which words the other partner chose

Good warmer, especially if the class is on a Monday:
Students draw a picture of something they did on the weekend
Students then show the picture to a partner, but doesn't tell them anything about it.
The partner needs to find out everything they can about the picture by asking them questions "Where are you?".. etc.

I'll post more as I think of them

DebMer · Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:34 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the ideas and resources! Keep 'em coming!

cloud_pleaser · Joined: 29 Aug 2012 Posts: 83

One for present perfect:

Give each student a slip of paper, which should say something like "You have never_________ before" (e.g you have never driven a car before, seen a woman before, used a mobile phone before, swum before etc.)

Each Student should have a different action, and should not show their slips of paper to other students

Students can either mill or rotate in pairs, and must mime the action to each other, the guessing student who asks "Is this the first time you've (ridden a bike)?" the other Student should reply "Yeah, I've never (ridden a bike) before"

Students change partners, wash rinse repeat... there's a good 10 minutes of class gone. 15 with feedback (Students tell each other who has never done what before)

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 5:32 am Post subject:

Grrrrr!

http://conjugation.com/verb/swim

cloud_pleaser · Joined: 29 Aug 2012 Posts: 83

oh dear

Embarrassing grammatical error aside, the activity is a good one.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 2:54 pm Post subject:

All is forgiven. Activity seems like a winner : )