One of my favorite activities to do with students early in a unit are Gap Speaking Activities. There are a lot of ways to do Gap exercises - exercises where students are missing a piece of information and have to communicate with a partner to fill in those gaps - but I like to throw in some visuals when we do these. This gives students the information they need to help their partner without giving them the specific language/words - instead of blindly reading out what their paper says, potentially without knowing what it means, they have to process the information in the TL first before they can convey it. I always have the listener completing a task as well, so there's accountability and a specific goal to focus on as they work.
Set-Up:
- Divide students into pairs. One partner faces the front of the room where the board is, the other faces the back of the room. The student facing the front of the room will be answering questions based on what they see on the board; the student facing the back will ask questions and complete their worksheet based on what their partner says.
- Once students are set up, display the information on the board and let students work through the activity. Walk around to assist with vocab/language structures and to monitor how much time students need. Don't wait until all groups are done, wait until most have finished.
- Let students turn around to view the material on the board. Groups that didn't finish can quickly get the material they need. Groups that did finish can discuss other ways to express the information on the board.
- Students switch seats. Students now complete the same activity but with different information on the board, letting them practice both roles.
It can take a little time to explain the setup to students the first time, but as they do more of these throughout the year, they fall into the rhythm easily. These activities are quick ways to work in some speaking/listening practice on a variety of topics, and depending on how structured your worksheets for students are, it's a good scaffolding technique to build practice with basic sentence structure.
Example Topics/Activities:
- Verbs/Hobbies: There are pictures of different hobbies on the board. Students ask what each person is doing and their partner answers based on what they see. Students record the information by writing in complete sentences, practicing basic word order.
- Faces/Physical Descriptions: There are pictures of faces on the board that students describe to their partner (eye color, hair color/length, big/small nose, scars, tattoos, etc). Their partners draw the faces based on the descriptions.
- Clothes: There are pictures of different outfits on the board. Students ask what each person is wearing and draw the outfit based on the description (which articles of clothing, colors and patterns).
- Cities/Giving Directions: Both students have a copy of a map. The student facing the board can see a path leading to a specific spot in town, and they give directions to their partner to help them reach that spot. The partner who's listening can trace the path along their copy of the map.
