CONVERSATION ACTIVITIES AND STTRATEGIES

1. Asking questions : Remember to help your students understand the question by providing very
simple examples, acting, drawing or asking the more advanced student first so the rest of the
class can hear his/her answer and get a clue of what you are asking
2. Provide instructions in English: Give the first point of the game (whatever game is it that you
are playing) to the team or person who understands or can translate the instructions you gave
correctly.
3. WH flashcards: This might be a very good alternative to just asking since students can hold
something I their hands and it makes it a little less abstract
4. Two sided flashcards: with a different word /question on each side so that students can
formulate their own questions or create their own sentences
5. Pictures to be described: download and print pictures so that students can describe them. VERY
IMPORTANT to provide images which depict actions taking place, not only people or things or
animals to be described. This technique provides a context for students to create a dialogue
6. Using videos: use videos to provide context for a conversation, you can use them to do both
listening and conversation. Remember it is important to provide context, whenever possible.
7. Role plays and or dialogues: try to create these based on the vocabulary, reading , video etc you
have previously gone over with the students so that they have a reference to draw ideas from.
IT IS IMPORTANT to be constantly checking the students’ work so that they don’t take too long;
if you do not check their progress they will take the entire class and by the end of it they will
have written 4 or 5 sentences.
8. Charades: google the game of charades (also known as hot seat), if you require further
explanation you can approach me or Yuly. It is important to make this game more about
describing verbally than acting the words out
9. Conversations about relevant entertainment topics: we have to know what teens are talking
about, listening and watching so that we can create conversations about toppics that are
relevant to them and they interested in. This is an area in which Yuly might be able to help us, I
am clueless about this.
10. Provide a word or sentence at the beginning of the class: and ask everybody questions using
this word or sentence. Example: “ the verb want” “what do you want for Christmas” ; IT IS
IMPORTANT questions or sentences that relate to THEIR real life as much as possible. ALSO try
to elicit the meaning of the words by providing examples and nor giving the meaning of the
word in Spanish when possible.
11. Show and tell: Put objects in a bag, then have students grab one of the objects from the bag
and describe it. Establish parameters before starting the game, for example define what is it
that they have to say about the object. The typical questions I give them are: what is the name
of the object? What is it made of( or what is the material)? Where can I buy it? Who much does
it cost? What is its purpose? Where do I put it? At the beginning of the activity you must do one
object so they can see and understand what is the game about, they may not get it with just the
instructions. You can choose funny objects and keep in mind the level of the students when
choosing the objects you would put in the bag.
12. Create a product: Create an imaginary product and promote it. I have done this too with real
products but they can assign unrealistic characteristic or features to them. This activity might be
better suited for intermediate to advanced students but if you can pull it off with basic ones,
great.
13. Chicken game: pass the chicken around (or any other object) while playing a silly music, when
the music stops the person who has the chicken has to talk about a specific topic that you
provide.
14. The bomb: give the students a topic, set a timer and have the students come up with words
related to that topic or talk about the topic (no entendi bien esta parte, Nazly can explain
further) if they don’t do it before the timer goes off they “die”.
15. Fast and furious writing: write as many words as possible within a given period of time, give
them certain parameters, such as: use certain connectors and conjunctions, talk about a certain
topics, etc.
OTHER GAMES AND ACTIVITIES
1. Stop: you can ask students to create sentences and not only provide the words
2. Broken telephone: this is a good class energizer but it gets old after 5 minutes. Set rules before
starting the game, tell students they cannot go back once they have passed the words or
sentence on. You have to be on top of them so that they don’t take forever passing the words
3. Acting it out: Provide a word or sentence and have students act it out so that their teams try to
guess it.
4. Pictionary: similar to the previous game but in this case students have to draw on the board
instead of acting
5. Concentrese: do it to review vocabulary you have gone over before or to learn new one, I use it
to teach verbs that students do not encounter during a tipycal class. For example Forget, Find,
Keep, etc. In cases like this I provide the list of words in English and have the students look fppr
the meanings. You can play this game on the board using tape or on a table, like in the cafeteria.
6. Lip reading with headphones: This game seems really fun, have students work in pairs or
groups; write sentences and then have one of the students put a pair of headphones on with
music playing on them. The students of the group read the sentence and the one wearing the
headphones tries to repeat it.
7. Answer questions with photos: ask students a question such as “ where do you wash your
hands” and then have them answer it with a picture, iin this case they should go a take a picture
of the sink.
8. What’s app group: create a whatsapp group for your class and then ask questions verbally or in
written form, the students must submit the answers in the group also in written forms, as a
voice not or even a video. This seems like an excellent activity, just make sure all students are
working and not just a few actually submit the answers. I would suggest focusing on voice notes
and videos to develop their speaking skills
9. Board games: you can find board games for different grammar and vocabulary topics. Just
google the name of the topic and the word board game, for example: “do does board game”.
This game can be used to promote speaking, at least for short sentences.
10. Who is the character: have a student write the name of a famous person on a piece of paper,
then have the other students ask him/her yes/no questions about the character so that they try
to guess who the character is. VARIATIONS: I play this game with open ended questions instead
of yes/no ones, that would depend on the level of the students, I also play it with not only
famous people but also famous places, and an object found at home or school.
11. Games that involve taking pictures: provide students verbs (funny ones would be better) , have
them act it out and then have their partners take a picture of him/her. You also do this with
vocabulary, like occupations.
12. Betting on sentence: write sentences on the board, some of them correct and others incorrect.
Assign students a number of pints and then have them bet on the sentences the amount they
wish. At the end of the game the student or group with more money (points) wins the game.
Once you they have bet they have to explain their answer. It occurred to me you could take
points away if they cannot explain the reason for their answer, so that they don’t but just to say
any answer but that they actually analyze the sentence and have a reason behind why they bet
 one way or the other.
13. Translating competition: this is a classic one, you can do it in teams and apply different
variations of it. I like to do it in a ways in which they have to run and/or move. I’ve found that
movement usually energizes the class and it appeals to kinesthetic learners, but it is up to each
teacher’s personal preferences and style
14. Put days /months/ in other word with limited time
15. Write as many as you can: similar to the previous game, you do it against the clock and have
students write as many words or sentences as they can related to a specific.
16. Snake: have students in teams write words on the board which begin with the last letter of the
previous word, I personally have them write the meaning in Spanish so that they don’t just write
any word but they know
17. TingoTango: self explanatory
18. Running dictation: print sentences or a short text, and place them on the board or outside the
classroom. Have students work in pairs or small groups. One student runs to the bard, reads one
of the sentences and then comes back to his/her partner and dictates. The first team to finish
the dictation wins.
19. Word slap: write words on the board, say the words in Spanish and students must run to the
board and slap the words with a fly swatter (preferably) or they can simple tap them with a
marker.
20. Put words in bag: tell students words related to real life objects in their proximity, they must
them put them in a bag (socks, stapler, etc).
21. Logical pairs: I named it that but I don’t really know what the name of the activity is, I think it is
good, it wasn’t mentioned at the meeting but Andres had mentioned it to me before and I have
seen similar things on proficiency exams. You create two lists of words organized in two
columns and students must match the ones that would make sense together.
22. Kahoot
23. Killer