Chapter 13: Setting Their Tongues Wagging: Speaking and Discussion 187
- Set a time limit of about three minutes, get them started and monitor
quietly.
Try not to step in unless a pair is hopelessly lost or silent. Just make a
note of any errors to discuss afterwards.
- Stop the activity when the time is up and have a feedback session.
You can use this very simple activity in various ways. For example, if you
delete the names of the dishes instead, you can practise ‘What costs.. .?’.
You can also omit some of the words (such as apple, curry, chicken) and prac-
tise ‘What kind of... is it?’.Lots of opportunities for communicative activities present themselves in the
classroom. Even when students are doing a written exercise by themselves,
they can compare their answers and opinions in pairs afterwards and explain
their reasons for anything that differs from their partner’s work. By the time
you engage in whole class feedback, the students have had an opportunity to
speak and an idea of which answers are likely to present a problem.How About You? Extending Conversations
Once your students are talking to each other in English, there’s no reason to
cut them off. In fact, if you can get them to extend their conversations in a
more natural way, so much the better.Communicative activities are rather controlled and often involve repeating
the same grammar over and over again, so you need to work your students
into more conversational dialogues.Helping students depart from the script
One of the easiest ways to extend conversations is by teaching students to
use phrases that encourage speaking. Try these:✓ How about you?
✓ Tell me more.
✓ What was it like?
✓ Can you describe it?