Video transcript
One of the problems you can face in running speaking activities is that people run out of things to say. Now, the idea of giving a conversation a structure by making it into a game isn’t new but it’s always nice to have the materials provided for you.
I’m Jo Gakonga from ELT-Training.com and I’m going to show you a resource from Twinkl ESL that will keep your learners at different levels talking and help them to develop oral fluency.
This resource is a basic Snakes and Ladders game. Learners can be in groups of two or three (too many more than this and you reduce the output for each learner) with a board and a dice (this could be virtually if you are online – there are lots of free apps that will do this). You can see that if you land on a square with a ladder, you go up, with a snake, you go down and with a question mark, you have to answer a question. The questions are provided at three different levels and they’ve all got a suggested time to try to speak for. The others can ask follow up questions to help if the person answering is getting stuck for something to say. If you are working online, you could cut and paste the questions onto Quizlet cards and send them the link to generate a random question. You can download the materials on the link below this video – they’re free!
This kind of open ended speaking is great as a needs analysis. As the teacher, you have lots of opportunity to monitor and note mistakes that you can look at with the learners at the end of the lesson, or use to give you an idea of the kind of language you need to focus on in the next lesson.
