Today I’m going to be sharing an activity which I have designed this week. Right now I’m up to some private classes with Elementary students and their English leaves much to be desired (bearing in mind the language barrier that does exist and a real shyness which prevents from breaking the ice). My collaboration with one of my students have just started and all she knows is limited to verb to be and simple constructions of Present Tenses. That’s why in order to provide her with more communicative activities, I’ve designed this activity. Here’s its description.
Aim: during this activity students talk about people they know (acquaintances, friends, neighbours, etc.) This is achieved by using a range of words and expressions, forms of Present Simple and verb to be.
Time: around 1o minutes (it’s my firm conviction, this activity is the best to have in the beginning of the lesson as a warmer).
Level: Elementary. Can be adapted to stronger levels.
Outline: Handout small slips of paper where there’s a table with 6 squares, see below. Students write names of people (you might need to preteach ‘acquaintance’, ‘neighbour’ or ‘classmate’. Then they speak about one of them they like, or they might roll a dice to find out who to talk about. My student Darya who’s from Italy agreed to present her own table with names.
|It’s my acquaintance
|It’s my friend
|It’s my neighbour
|It’s my classmate
|It’s my boyfriend
|It’s my ex
It’s an activity which can be held perfectly at one-to-one classes when you don’t ask only about a friend (to drill verbs and form of the third person). As a result, students have more opportunities to talk about different people and drill grammar. If it is a class with more than one person, students can ask follow-up questions and have more natural conversation.
It’s all up to now.
Thanks for stopping by!