Jeremy

­Harmer’s 50
Communicative
Activities
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Jeremy
Harmer’s 50
Communicative
Activities

Jeremy Harmer

Consultant and editor: Scott Thornbury

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Contents v
Thanks vii
Acknowledgements vii
Why I wrote this book viii
A: Engaging communication 1
  1 Everybody up 2
  2 Personal interviews 4
  3 Space station speed dating 6
 4 Experts 8
  5 What’s my line? 10
  6 Portrait interviews 12
  7 Musical stories 14
  8 Fishbowl improvisation 16
  9 Wordless conversation 18
10 Drawing happy dreams 20
11 Mystery objects 22
12 Discussion cards 24
13 House rules 26
B: Practising communicatively 28
14 Ask the right question 29
15 Backs to the board 31
16 Tennis match 33
17 Learner-generated drill chains 35
18 Similarities and differences 37
19 Truth and lies 39
20 Four corners 41
21 Constructing stories from pictures 43
22 Islamabad 45
C: Interacting with/from text 47
23 A different point of view 48
24 Reassembling poems 50
25 Jigsaw reading 52
26 Jigsaw prediction 54
27 Press conference 56
28 Situation-based role play 58
29 Suitcase language 60
D: Making decisions 62
30 Choose the best photograph 63
31 It’s not fair 65
32 Stamps 67
33 Time capsule 69
34 T-shirt 71
 35 The party 73
36 What’s the link? 75
37 The last survivor (Balloon debate) 77
E: Presenting and performing things 79
38 I’d rather 80
39 Revision charades 82
40 Playscript 84
41 Poetry enactment 86
42 Poetry learning 88
43 First draft of history 90
F: Activities in sequences 92
44 Film a scene from a movie 93
45 Opinion survey 95
46 Formal debate 97
47 Group presentations 99
48 Two-group interviews 101
49 The front page 103
50 Visitor interview 105
Index 107

i
­
Thanks
This book wouldn’t have happened if Scott Thornbury had not invited
me to become part of such a lovely series. His attention to the material
as it progressed, as with his contribution to our thinking about English
language learning over the years, was as provoking and enjoyable as it
was stimulating. I owe him a lot.

I was fortunate to move from Scott’s interventions to the expert care of

Karen Momber, a wonderful and challenging shepherd. I am grateful for
her questions, her suggestions and above all her encouragement. Alison
Sharpe edited 50 Communicative Activities with wonderful creativity
and cheerfulness. The process was a pleasure.

Thank you Jo Timerick for enabling the whole thing with such grace
and for keeping it all going.

It’s been real fun putting this collection together with such expert
guidance from such a great team. I feel very lucky.

Acknowledgements
The authors and publishers acknowledge the following sources of
copyright material and are grateful for the permissions granted. While
every effort has been made, it has not always been possible to identify
the sources of all the material used, or to trace all copyright holders. If
any omissions are brought to our notice, we will be happy to include the
appropriate acknowledgements on reprinting and in the next update to
the digital edition, as applicable.

Text
Intro: Oxford University Press for the extract taken from Jeremy Harmer,
What is communicative?, Apr 1982, Vol 36, Issue 3, by kind permission
of Oxford University Press; Stephen L. Chew for the quote taken from
‘How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 2 of 5’. Copyright © 2011
Stephen L. Chew. Reproduced with kind permission of Stephen L. Chew.

Typesetting
QBS Learning.

ii
 Why I wrote this book
A long, long time ago I wrote an article in which I suggested that activities could
be described as either communicative or non-communicative (Harmer, 1982).
I wanted to separate activities, per se, from all the other noise surrounding
what was being called ‘The Communicative Approach’ and I suggested that
communicative activities had six characteristics:

The learners have a desire to communicate.

The activities have a communicative purpose.
The emphasis is on content, not language form.
Learners use a variety of language.
There is no teacher intervention (e.g., correction).
There is no materials control.

Describe and draw, where one learner had to tell another learner what to draw,
was an early example of this, and story reconstruction (Harmer, 2015) where
learners work out a story from different pictures they have separately seen,
is another.

The opposite end of the spectrum, in my realisation, was occupied by activities

with no communicative desire or purpose, where the emphasis was principally
on language form, the teacher intervened (with correction, etc.) and the language
was often material-dependent. Thus a Present simple ‘presentation’ with the
sentences, ‘She gets up at six o’clock. She has a shower. She drives to work. She
works in a hospital,’ etc. fits the ‘non-communicative’ moniker pretty well.

This way of looking at activities as either one thing (communicative) or the

other (non-communicative), has permeated much of our thinking about
communicative language teaching. As Beaumont and Chang (2011) argue, it
has created a ‘traditional/communicative dichotomy’ in overall approaches to
classroom procedures.

But not always. Some language teaching suggestions such as Task-based

learning (TBL) or Task-based language teaching (TBLT) (Willis, 1996, Nunan,
2004) incorporated communicative activities/projects in a methodological
approach/procedure. Meddings and Thornbury (2010) argued for learner-
generated dialogic interaction and Zoltan Dörnyei (2015) proposes a ‘principled
communicative approach’– a kind of mix and match philosophy absorbing
activities from both ends of the communication continuum. Even though none
of these suggestions have been widely adopted, we might all accept that ‘the
main common denominator of communicative and task-based approaches in
their various forms is that, even when they use form-focused procedures, they
are always oriented towards communication’ (Littlewood, 2004). However,
I now think that those original six characteristics ignored other qualities
which effective communicative activities can and should exemplify. Good

iii
­
communicative activities, I now suggest, are ‘non-dichotomous’ (see above)
in that they wear both a learning-focus and a communicative face. They are
effective as learning opportunities, even as the communication takes place. They
share some or all of the following characteristics. They should:

involve learners in deep processing;

provoke purposeful repetition;
encourage learners to process language for meaning, not just form;
provoke learners to give attention to, and make connections between, the
language they encounter and the context/discourse where it occurs;
provoke interaction between the learners’ language processing and the texts
and stories they are engaged with; and
provoke communication between learners and promote group cohesion.

From Hyde and Jenkins (1969) and Craik and Lockhart (1972), to Chew
(2011) and Kosslyn (2021), psychologists have argued that deep processing –
where language is processed for meaning, context and, crucially, emotion – is
better for memory retention than shallow processing – where language is
only processed for its properties – how it is spelt or pronounced, for example.
Nattinger (1988) quoted experts who argue, as Curran (1976) did, that people
learn a language best when they have a strong personal stake or ‘investment’ in it.
Chew claims, extravagantly, that with deep processing, people ‘learn whether they
want to or not.’ However plausible this piece of old research strikes you as being,
the underlying principle that we learn best when we are both emotionally and
cognitively engaged is one that seems to me to be crucial to successful learning.

Repetition has always been beneficial for language learning. Claire Kramsch,
for example, has suggested, ‘utterances repeated are also utterances resignified’
(2009). I gloss ‘resignified’ as ‘given new or newly nuanced meaning.’ Meaning-
lite habit-forming drills by themselves may not let this resignification happen
though, because they may fail to ‘allow for the human mind in learning, of
consciousness, thought and unconscious mental processes’ (Hall, 2011). What
a good activity needs, then, is purposeful repetition where the human mind is
involved in learning.

A good activity will get learners to focus on meaning, not just on form. When
they choose the words and phrases they wish to interact with or use, they
should be doing so consciously so that effective learning takes place.

Good communicative activities encourage learners to give attention to the

language they encounter and relate it to the context it occurs in – as well as
allow them to see how it relates to other items of language around it. Thus, if
learners come across a naturally-occurring lexical phrase in a powerful story
they experience, for example, they will get information about when and where
such a phrase can be used – which will help them when they come to use
it themselves.

i
 Finally – and typically – a good communicative activity will provoke
communication between learners and promote group cohesion for, as so many
commentators have argued over the years, ‘success depends less on materials,
techniques and linguistic analyses, and more on what goes on inside and
between the people in the classroom’ (Stevick, 1980).

In many ways effective communicative activities exemplify the characteristics of

what Merrill Swain called ‘the comprehensible output hypothesis’ (e.g., Swain and
Lapkin, 1995) where teachers ‘push’ learners to speak or write in the target language.

Not all the activities in this book necessarily prioritise spoken English with
learner-learner interaction, however. It is my contention that an individual
learner’s own internal intrapersonal engagement and interactions with language
can, and rightly should, be included in what gives an activity both learning and
communication potential as well as the interpersonal face-to-face interactions
which are normally the ones described.

How this book works

Activities are grouped into six categories: Engaging communication, where

the learners’ enthusiastic participation is the main driving principle; Practising
communicatively, that slightly uneasy blend of language practice and free
speaking; Interacting with text, because we communicate ‘about’ something;
Making decisions, because negotiation is a crucial part of communication;
Presenting and performing things, because speaking, in particular, is often a
kind of performance; and Activities in sequence, showing how communicative
activities can fit in with other things. Most of the activities hover around the
A2–B2 level – I will comment where this might be problematic and make
suggestions – or even higher, where the communication inevitably becomes more
extensive. They are for any age, just about, though topic and sophistication will
limit some of them, of course. I detail a procedure for using each activity and
give examples. I then say why it ‘works for me’ as a communicative activity
before suggesting alternatives.

The Coronavirus pandemic – and the extended lockdown quarantines it

necessitated – provoked a renewed interest in, and practice of, online instruction.
Accordingly, where appropriate, suggestions for online adaptation are given.

It is worth reiterating that the activities in this book do not constitute a method.
However, they share an underlying core belief that language is learnt best
through emotional, cognitive and human engagement.

The publications/videos I have referenced are below. They represent a mix of

work that varies in its level of ‘academica’ and as such represent the kind of
range of opinions which influence the practice of English language teaching.
­
References

Beaumont, M. and Chang, K-S. (2011). ‘Challenging the traditional/communicative

dichotomy.’ ELT Journal, 65(3), 291–299.

Chew, S. (2011). ‘How to get the most out of studying Part 2.’ Retrieved from https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O7y7XEC66M&list=PL5JLlM7WjW5X5wbqgmahuhIL7
jT5_psiU&index=3 Accessed 19/11/2019

Craik, F. I. M. and Lockhart, R. S. (1972). ‘Levels of processing: A framework for memory

research.’ Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671–684.

Curran, C. A. (1976). Counseling-learning in second languages. Apple River Press.

Dörnyei, Z. (2015). The Principled Communicative Approach. Helbling Languages.

Hall, G. (2011). Exploring English Language Teaching. Routledge.

Harmer, J. (1982). ‘What is communicative?’ ELT Journal, 36(3), 164–168.

Harmer, J. (2015). The Practice of English Language Teaching: Fifth edition. Harlow,
Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Hyde, T. S. and Jenkins, J. J. (1969). ‘Differential effects of incidental tasks on the

organization of recall of a list of highly associated words.’ Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 82(3), 472–481.

Kosslyn, S. M. (2021). Active Learning Online. Alinea Learning.

Kramsch, C. (2009). The Multilingual Subject. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Littlewood, W. (2004). ‘The Task-based approach: some questions and suggestions.’ ELT
Journal, 58(4), 319–326.

Meddings, L. and Thornbury, S. (2010). Teaching Unplugged. Peaslake:

DELTA Publishing.

Nattinger, J. (1988). ‘Some current trends in vocabulary teaching’ in Carter, R.

and McCarthy, M. Vocabulary and Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Nunan, D. (2004). Task-Based Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Stevick, E. (1980). Teaching Languages, A Way and Ways. Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Swain, M. and Lapkin, S. (1995). ‘Problems in Output and the Cognitive Processes
they generate: A Step Towards Second Language Learning.’ Applied Linguistics, 16(3),
371–391.

Willis, J. (1996). A Framework for Task-Based Learning. Harlow, Essex: Pearson

Education Limited.

i
A: Engaging communication

Activities in this section are designed to

provoke enthusiastic engagement in the
process of communication whilst, at the
same time, ensuring some focus on the
language being used. They are intended
to make learners as comfortable as
possible with the creative use of English.

1 Everybody up
2 Personal interviews
3 Space station speed dating
4 Experts
5 What’s my line?
6 Portrait interviews
7 Musical stories
8 Fishbowl improvisation
9 Wordless conversation
10 Drawing happy dreams
11 Mystery objects
12 Discussion cards
13 House rules

1
 1 Everybody up

Learners stand up and, where possible, move to the centre

of the room. They are organised in small groups of about
five. They discuss topics suggested by the teacher or by
themselves so they can report on their conversations later.

Everybody up is a term I have borrowed from Jane Revell (2015 and

elsewhere). It is, of course, similar to other ‘walkaround’ activities such
as Find someone who and other ‘mingle’ suggestions.

1 Ask all the learners to stand up and move the furniture so that there
is a space in the middle of the room.
2 Separate learners into small groups – from three to seven people. Tell
them that they should complete the following task:

Find out who in the group plays or played a musical instrument.

Find out why they started and if they still play. If so, find out how
often and where they play, how often they practise and how they
learnt. If no one in the group plays a musical instrument, find out
what instrument they would like to play and why.

(Harmer and Revell, 2015)

Tell learners that you will be asking for a report from some of the
group members when the task is over. While they are doing the
activity, move around monitoring them, making sure that they are
on task. Be available to help with words and phrases they need,
if necessary.
3 If possible, make a space so that the next stage of the activity takes
place whilst everyone is standing up – it makes listening more
‘immediate’ and active. Ask a representative to tell the rest of the
class about the musicians – or would-be musicians – in the group.
When this is done, invite everyone in the class to ask the people they
have heard about any more questions.

2
­
4 Get members of each group to tell you what they learnt. Use
what has been said as an opportunity to focus on some of the
language you heard, pointing out where things could have been
said differently or better.

Why it works for me

Because learners move into a different ‘space’ and work in small groups
rather than, say, pairs, the activity modifies the usual pattern of the
lesson and provokes a very life-like communication atmosphere and
experience. This activity is genuinely communicative in a content,
language and very human way.

Alternatives

I chose the topic of music – playing a musical instrument – because

almost anyone can relate to it, musician or not. Nearly all non-
instrumentalists wish they could play music in some form, and most are
more than happy to talk about it. But, of course, there are many other
topics like this – ones with universal human appeal. We could substitute
sport, signature dishes that people cook, hobbies we have, places we
regularly visit, people’s attitudes to the names they were given, etc. The
main thing to have in mind is that we want learners to talk about areas
of universal interest.

Online/virtual variations

Using a ‘hands up’ protocol (previously agreed with the class) where
people indicate when they want to speak/ask a question, learners can
interview each other. But that doesn’t match the advantages of the
face-to-face version. Better, maybe, to put learners in breakout rooms in
groups and have them report back after a set time.

Harmer, J. and Revell, J. (2015). Jetstream Intermediate Student’s Book. Helbling

Languages.

3
 2 Personal interviews

Students interview each other based on questions that are

suggested by an initial learner contribution.

Personal interviews are especially appropriate at the beginning of a

new semester with new learners. At the A1 level they can be as simple
as having learners ask, ‘What is your name?’ ‘Do you have a pet? What
is its name?’ ‘What is your favourite food?’ However, the version I am
going to use is more like a B2 level activity and closely follows one
described by Rachael Roberts (see the reference below) as, ‘one of my
favourite speaking activities because it is flexible and can be used at any
level’. The beauty of it is that after a short stimulus from the teacher, it
is the learners who make all the language and meanings.

1 Think of a few questions (say ten) about yourself which you would
be happy to answer in public.

Where do you live?

Who – if anyone – lives with you?
Do you have any pets and if so, what are they?
What’s your favourite thing in the house/apartment?
Or for a higher level:
What is the scariest thing you have ever done?
Who would you most like to meet and what would you say to them?
What music would you like to hear/did you hear at your wedding?

Then write the answers to your questions on the board (without

telling the learners what the questions were).
2 Learners now work in groups to try and work out what the
questions might be for the answers on the board (see also 12). While
they are doing this, go round the room helping them with language
problems, etc. But again, do not confirm what the questions were.
3 Now learners get into pairs and use the questions they have come up
with in stage 2 to interview each other. They do this in turns.

4
­
4 Learners can now either tell the class about their partner or they
can write a short paragraph about them which might go up on the
classroom wall.

Why it works for me

What do some people like talking about best? Themselves! And as

a genuine piece of communication – especially at the beginning of a
course – this has to be included here. Couple that with attention to
language and its predictable interactions and this classic activity has its
place in any effective teacher’s repertoire.

Alternatives

Klippel (1984) has an activity called Identity cards where learners

have to fill in a form about their partner and then tell the class about
them. She suggests the task can be varied by not using cards and saying
instead, ‘Find out three things about your partner that are important or
interesting,’ or ‘Find out five things about your partner that one could
not find out just by looking.’

We can add a playful element by having learners pretend to be someone

else (a celebrity, a historical figure, etc.) and the interviewer has to find
out who they are.

There is a much more extensive job-based interview sequence in 49.

Online/virtual variations

This activity works perfectly well in an online context with a little bit of
adaptation. We can share the screen to show learners the answers to our
own questions (see stage 1 above) or we could put the answers in the
chat box. We can then discuss with all the learners on the screen what
the questions might be. If we can – and if it is not too organisationally
complicated – we then put the learners in pairs. If that doesn’t seem
plausible then we can have the class interview one learner after another. We
will have to manage the conversations well – who speaks next, etc.

Klippel, F. (1984). Keep Talking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Roberts, R. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/rachael-roberts/rachael-roberts-a-
favourite-speaking-activity. Accessed 02/02/2021

5
 3 Space station speed dating

Learners have to choose who they want to accompany

them for their year in a space station hovering above
the earth.

In the USA in the 19th century, there was a custom where women,
looking for a husband, would invite eligible young bachelors on
1st January for fifteen-minute-maximum visits. Was that the origin
of speed dating in which couples try and see if there might be any
attraction and compatibility between them in structured three-minute
interviews?

ELT classrooms should not be dating environments (!), though Laura

Hayward uses an enjoyable activity of this kind on the video to
accompany Harmer (2007), but the short, structured interview is a
naturally effective communicative activity at almost any level and age.

1 Tell learners that they are going to spend a year in a space station
400 kilometres above the earth. They will take one person with
them. They have to choose who that is.
2 Discuss ideal qualities for a companion in such circumstances. What
kind of character should they have? What would make them easy
to live with and reliable in the event of trouble? What should they
be good at? The language of the questions will obviously depend on
the level of the group. Prompt learners with suggestions to try and
broaden the discussion.
3 Now ask learners to write a maximum of four questions (that’s all
there will be time for) to help them work out who their ideal space
station companion is. This is not a romantic speed dating activity –
it’s more practical than that! They do this individually. While they
are working on their questions, go round the class helping learners
with language suggestions.
4 Tell learners they are about to start the procedure and that they will
have a maximum of two minutes to interview each ‘candidate’.

6
­
5 Learners now form ‘fluency circles’ (Bohike, 2013) where half the
class stand in an inner circle facing outwards and the other half
form an outer circle facing inwards. The outer circle learners must
interview the inner circle learners opposite them. They should have
notebooks with them to record their thoughts.
6 The interviews start. After two minutes (or three, if you think that
is necessary) ask the outer circle learners to move one person to the
left. Now they interview the new learners in front of them.
7 When the circle has been completed, it is now the inner circle’s task
to interview the people opposite them. As before, they have two
(or three) minutes for each interview.
8 When the activity is over, have a discussion with the class. Who would
they choose and why? Which of their questions were the most effective?
How useful have they found the activity, etc? This is the moment where
you can clear up any language issues that may have arisen.

Why it works for me

Learners work together, building inter-group cohesion. They have to

make a choice and this demands deep processing. There is purposeful
repetition, obviously. The activity is dynamic and fast-moving.

Alternatives

Some teachers do actually role play a speed dating session (with no

need for a space station!), but it has to be done in an appropriately
light-hearted way (see also 2 and 48).

Online/virtual variations

It would be difficult to create fluency circles online. However, we can create

an interview panel for a space station team. Groups (the whole group, or
groups in breakout rooms) can design their questions and then interview
members of the other groups one by one (with everyone looking on). With
smaller classes we wouldn’t need to form breakout groups, of course.

Bohike, D. (2013). ‘Fluency-oriented second language teaching’ in Celce-Murcia, M.,

Brinton, D. M. and Snow, M. A. (Eds). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language:
Fouth Edition. Heinle Cengage Learning.

Harmer, J. (2015). The Practice of English Language Teaching: Fifth edition. Harlow,
Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

7
 4 Experts

Learners pretend to be experts in a subject. They have to

answer questions put to them, but only one word at a time.

Many years ago, I saw this activity being demonstrated by Ken Wilson
at a teachers’ conference and was instantly impressed by it. All of
the class are involved in this activity either as the ‘experts’ or as the
‘journalists’. The role of the teacher is to create the setting and then to
keep the pace moving along, because that’s part of the fun.

1 Tell the class that they are extremely lucky to have world experts
with them – in this case people with world expertise on bears (the
animals). They can ask the experts anything they want and they will
know the answer. Learners understand that they are about to play
some kind of a game.
2 Ask the learners to think of questions they would like to ask world
experts about bears: ‘How dangerous are they?’ ‘What makes them
angry?’ ‘What do you do if you meet a bear?’ etc. They can discuss
this in pairs.
3 Ask half the class to stand at the front of the class in a line facing
their classmates. They are the bear experts! Say that when they are
asked a question, they have to answer one word at a time along the
line. When they get to the end of the line they double back. They
have to keep each sentence going for as long as they can!
4 If this is the first time you have used this activity, do a demonstration
round. You can ask the experts your own question – anything will
do! – such as, ‘How tall are bears?’ Start at the beginning of the
line and get learners to say a word – probably ‘bears’. Now indicate
the second person in the line who might say ‘are’; then the third
learner could say ‘sometimes’; the next learner might say ‘very’;
then the next learner ‘tall’; the next learner might say ‘but’; the next
learner might say ‘some’ etc. so that the sentence goes something
like this: ‘Bears are sometimes very tall but some bears are shorter

8
­
 than that and some are fat but some are thin ...’ It may not be very
enlightening, but it is good fun, and best of all it makes learners
think of what words are both grammatically and semantically
possible.
5 Now ask one of the journalists to ask a question and once again get
the experts to answer one word at a time. As before, your role is to
push the sentence along giving encouragement where learners are
having trouble thinking of a word – offer them suggestions when
they get stuck.
6 After two or three rounds, swap the journalists and the experts
around and now the new journalists ask the new experts their
questions.

Why this works for me

By making speaking aloud into a game – where participants are not

judged for their attempts at fluency – reluctant speakers will feel more
comfortable, we hope. This is vital if we want to encourage them to
attempt fluent conversation later. They have to process deeply to make
the right grammatical/lexical choices in a hurry.

Alternatives

Any activity/game in which learners have to speak one word at a time in

sequence will work well. For example, learners might have to construct
a letter one word at a time (in pairs or groups) or make a speech.

Online/virtual variations

Given the latency issues of most online connections, this activity

will have to be slower with deft use of the mute button and learners
numbered in advance! They can be trained for that. The game also
works well as a written game where learners can key their words into
the chat box.

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 5 What’s my line?

In groups, learners prepare to talk about (and mime) what

people in various different jobs do in their working lives.
They are interviewed by other groups who have to guess
what the occupation is.

What’s my line? was a TV show which ran in the USA from

1950–1967 (and in the UK until 1996). This adaptation works well in
language classrooms.

1 Tell learners to imagine that they have a particular job – anything

from being an astronaut or a costume-designer, to an ice-skater, a
nurse or a train driver. Later, others will interview them to try and
guess what their occupation is.
2 Put learners in groups of equal numbers to choose an occupation – as
many groups as is feasible, depending on the size of the class. They
must then discuss what people in that occupation do: exactly what
processes they use, what they do when they start their working day
and what routines are typical. The group lists all these things.
3 Learners in the group now try and describe these things without
being absolutely clear about what they mean! For example, if they
wear a nurse’s uniform they can say ‘special clothes’ instead. If they
use a stethoscope the learners can say, ‘I always carry a special piece
of equipment with me,’ etc. They also dream up some mime activities
(see also 40 and the rest of Section E) they could do to represent
the occupation.
4 When the groups have finished their preparation, a learner from
each group goes to another group. They do their mimes to the
group they have gone to. The group they are miming to discuss for
a maximum of 45 seconds what they think the occupation is before
making a decision and writing it down. The visiting learner does not
say if they are correct.
5 Groups now interview the visiting learner for a maximum of two
minutes. They cannot ask, ‘What is your occupation?’ or ‘Do you

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 drive trains?’ but they can ask less direct questions such as ‘Why do
you do your job?’ or ‘How many hours a day do you work?’ ‘What
time do you start work?’ The visiting learner must answer truthfully
(whilst using their imagination) but try not to give the game away.
6 At the end of two minutes the group votes on what they think the
occupation is. The visiting learner now says if they are correct. The
group gets five points if they choose the correct occupation and an
extra five points if that is the same as their vote after the mime.
7 Visiting learners now go back to their original groups. A different
learner from each group goes to visit a new group (different from
the one their original group visited) and the procedure is repeated
– and again the points are recorded (see stage 6 above). Repeat the
procedure until all the learners have been a visitor to a group.
8 During all the previous stages, monitor the groups, help out
with procedural matters if things get stuck, and keep a record of
particular language problems. When the activity is finished, find
out which group scored the most points, bring successful language
you have heard to everyone’s attention and discuss any language
problems that can be solved there and then or need to be worked
on later.

Why it works for me

Its initial discussion phase, the voting and the questioning give the
whole activity real communicative purpose. It is fun, there is (some)
movement, there is a lot of enjoyable repetition, etc.

Alternatives

Visiting learners can pretend to be a famous person. They can visit a

doctor with an imaginary – ridiculous – ailment (i.e., she thinks she’s a
giraffe!) or go to a job interview (he thinks he’s a secret agent).

Online/virtual variations

This is an ideal game for online teaching. Depending on the size of

the group, the ‘visitor’ can prepare alone (though this loses part of the
activity’s function) and/or we can use breakout rooms, just as in a
face-to-face classroom.

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 6 Portrait interviews

Learners interview/interrogate people in famous paintings

and photographs. The portraits talk to each other!

Teachers are always looking for ways to motivate learners to use

language communicatively, and especially to ask questions and listen
attentively to the answers so they can continue the conversation
accordingly. I first encountered this activity in Cranmer (1996) in which
he used The Arnolfini Marriage (Jan van Eyck, 1434). Learners even
asked the dog in the picture some questions!

1 Ask learners if they know of any famous portraits (such as The

Mona Lisa, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Arnolfini Marriage, Self-
Portrait by Vincent van Gogh, or Picasso’s Portrait of Dora Maar).
You might want to ask them why they think people paint portraits,
and why people have their portraits painted. They can write
sentences about this (which will make them less self-conscious when
they answer).
2 Show learners three different portraits (you can choose your
favourites or put something like “famous portraits” into an online
search engine to find ones that are appropriate for this activity).
Ask them to choose who they would most like to interview. When
they have chosen, ask them to think of questions they could ask
the portrait. Explain that they can ask about anything from (for
example), ‘Where did you get that earring?’ to ‘What do you have
for breakfast?’ or ‘Why do you look unhappy?’ Learners can
create their questions individually or in pairs (or even brainstorm
in groups).
3 Now ask learners to look at the portrait again and try to imagine
how the person there might answer some of the questions that have
been suggested.
4 To demonstrate the activity, choose one of the more confident
learners and ask them to pretend to be the person in the portrait.
Say that they should answer the questions as if they were that
person in whatever way they think is appropriate, thinking carefully

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 about how their portrait would respond. Help the learner along with
suggestions but don’t over correct. Stress to the learners who ask
questions that they should ask a follow-up question based on how
their first question is answered. If a questioning learner can ask more
than one follow-up question, that’s even better!
5 Repeat the activity with one or two other learners. As always, stress
the importance of following up the ‘portrait’s’ first answer with
follow-up questions.
6 Learners can now practise their interviews in pairs while you go
round helping them out and offering suggestions.
7 The interviews present a fantastic opportunity to showcase
successful language or communication that you have heard learners
use. You can ask some pairs to perform their conversations to the
rest of the class. Suggest alternatives to language that hasn’t worked
quite so well.

Why this works for me

This role play activity (see also 27 and 28) works because it is fun;
because it allows learners to be imaginative without putting them on
the spot – so helping them on the way to becoming confident speakers –
because learners are encouraged to process language for meaning and
have to communicate with each other.

Alternatives

I remember a booklet produced for primary teachers who were going

to take their classes to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, many
years ago. There were lots of ideas including my favourite: ‘What do
the gallery portraits say to each other at night when the doors are
closed and the lights go out?’ Alternatively, learners can interview
celebrities, etc.

Online/virtual variations

We could screenshare the portrait in question and then have learners

think up questions in pairs or groups. We could then select which
learners role play which character and interview them on the screen.

Cranmer, D. (1996). Motivating High Level Learners. Harlow, Essex: Longman.

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 7 Musical stories

Learners create stories together using music to guide their

characters and images.

Educators have long recognised the power of music to provoke and

stimulate creativity. Most people have an innate ability to recognise
the difference between sad and happy music, and between threatening
and romantic music, for example. The mood in most movie scenes is
established through music as well as image. Filmmakers can make any
conversation romantic, threatening or ordinary by changing the music that
accompanies it! This activity is built around that fact and is based on a
procedure outlined by Keegan (2012). See also Cranmer and Laroy (1993).

1 Students are in four groups. Each group gets a different piece of

music to respond to (you can use/bring in pre-prepared tracks or
have learners access the music you have chosen on their devices).
The only two characteristics you need to ensure is that (a) it suggests
a strong mood of some kind and (b) it is instrumental (i.e., without
words). Ideally it should last for between one and three minutes only.
2 Ask one group to use the music to conjure up a person. Are they
male or female? Are they kind or unkind, selfish or generous, etc?
(You can seed the activity with characteristics like this to guide
learners’ thinking.) Ask another group (who listens to a different
piece of music) to conjure up their own person in the same way. Ask
the third group to imagine a location based on the different music
they are listening to. Is it inside or outside? What’s the weather like?
How warm is it, etc? And ask the fourth group to say what their
music makes them think of. Does it suggest love or hate, peace or
war, movement or stillness, happiness or sadness, etc?
3 Now make new groups of four with one learner from each of the
original groups. Tell learners to create a film scene between the two
people (who two of the learners have imagined), in a setting that one
learner’s previous group described, about the topic that the fourth
learner brings along.

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4 Now tell learners to write a short dialogue reflecting the scene they
have imagined.
5 Learners now act out their dialogues for the class. Encourage the
other learners to give constructive feedback. You can add your own
suggestions about what they might do differently.

Why this works for me

Like many (but not all) others, I am constantly overwhelmed by

music’s power to evoke response and images. We are opening learners’
communicative brains to non-linguistic stimuli to provoke precisely the
kind of language and content attention that we hope for in inter-group
communication.

Alternatives

A writing activity that I have often described and used (Harmer, 2015)
involves the same kind of use of music to stimulate learner creativity.
Dictate a sentence to the class. (My favourite is, ‘She turned and looked
at him.’) We then play learners some music with a strong ‘mood’
to guide their writing of a short story. We tell them to ‘write what
the music tells you’. The process is repeated with the same opening
sentence, but with a piece of contrasting mood music. Learners swap
their stories with a partner who reads out one of the stories they have in
front of them. The rest of the class have to guess which piece of music it
was written to.

Online/virtual variations

We can do the same activity online using different breakout rooms – or

other ways of regrouping the class. We can refer different learners to
different online music resources and by giving them a time limit we can
try to ensure that they don’t get lost in their musical explorations.

Cranmer, D. and Laroy, C. (1993). Musical Openings: Using Music in the Language
Classroom. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Harmer, J. (2015). The Practice of English Language Teaching: Fifth edition. Harlow,
Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Keegan, P. (2012). ‘Musical storytelling.’ English Teaching Professional, 79.

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 8 Fishbowl improvisation

Learners have to continue conversations with words and

phrases that are suddenly put into those conversations.

Rather in the same way as Experts (4), this activity – which has been
around for a long time – can have a very positive effect on learners’
confidence. I’m going to adapt a procedure used by Philip Harmer
(personal communication) which mixes the original activity with an
end-of-the-week vocabulary review. We can do this with the whole class
or – for more participation and less ‘risk of exposure’ for participants –
learners can be put in small groups.

1 Ask learners, individually, to write three to five words or phrases

they have learnt recently on separate pieces of paper.
2 Collect all the words and put them in a bowl (the ‘fishbowl’ – or a
hat or a box or some other container). Put the fishbowl in a place
which is easy to reach.
3 Introduce topics for discussion which will be easy for learners to
speak about – especially things which have relevance in their lives
and circumstances, and which are appropriate for their age and
level. For example, we can ask whether people should be allowed
to download music for free, if judges should be chosen by political
parties, if people should be allowed to own guns, if exams should be
abolished, if the voting age should be lowered, if primary teachers
should be paid more than university teachers, if men should do
50 percent of the housework, etc. or some very quick fire topics
like ‘Cats or dogs?’ ‘Early morning or late night?’ ‘Formal dress or
informal dress?, ‘High heels or flat shoes?’ etc.
4 Learners start the conversation after a minute or two to collect their
thoughts. And they go round the class/group giving their opinion
which must reference something that a previous speaker has said
(much like Tennis match – 16). At certain points, direct a learner
who is about to speak to reach inside the bowl and pick out a piece
of paper. As immediately as possible, they must incorporate what

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 is on their piece of paper into what they are saying. It has to make
sense! The discussion then continues until the next time a learner is
directed to pick out a piece of paper and the process is repeated.
5 While the activity is taking place, do not intervene unless you
absolutely have to. But when it is over, you can clear up any
language difficulties that may have arisen and make suggestions
about how to say things better.

Why it works for me

Talk about making learners relate language in context! As with 4, the

game-like nature of this communicative activity takes the pressure off
learners. They are supported in their attempt to meet a challenge, not
judged for their lack of fluency. Everyone understands how challenging
this is!

Alternatives
A more game-like activity modifies Fishbowl to be more like the
children’s birthday activity Pass the parcel. The bowl is passed round
the circle, learner by learner. It stops when we give a signal (or when the
music stops). The learner picks out a word/phrase and instantly has to
start speaking about something, using the word or phrase they have.

Fishbowl can be played as a team game. When a member from team A

uses one of their words correctly, they get a point.

We can turn Fishbowl words and phrases into screen prompts. Now
every time we put a new word or phrase up on the screen, learners have
to incorporate it into their conversation.
Online/virtual variations

This works well with the ‘screen prompt’ option (see above). We can
share the screen – obviously – or we can have everyone open the chat
box and put the words there.

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 9 Wordless conversation

Learners try and enact dialogues using only sounds

and gestures.

It may be strange to find this activity in a book about communication –

after all it doesn’t initially involve the use of too many words. Except
of course that it does! I first experienced this activity (and realised its
potential) at a workshop run by Paula Wilson in the UAE some years ago.

1 Tell learners that they are going to make conversations in pairs, but
not in the normal way.
2 Have a discussion with the class to decide what the conversation
should be about, and other details. Have learners give you (a) a
place where the conversation takes place, (b) who the two people
are (i.e., a police officer, a chef, etc.) and (c) what the topic of the
conversation is.
3 Now put the learners in pairs. Tell them to create a short dialogue –
six exchanges maximum. Ideally, they should write down what they
come up with, but the main thing is to plan the conversation and
learn it.
4 Now get the pairs to think of how they will say the dialogue – and
in this case more importantly – how they will use their tone of voice
and gestures, etc. to make the conversation more communicative.
5 Now tell learners that they are going to have the same conversation
again, but this time without using actual words. In order to do this,
they have to use sounds, nonsense words, gestures and expressions
to get their meanings across.
6 Now a pair stands up and performs their conversation for the rest
of the class who have to try and guess what they are actually saying.
They tell the learners what they think is going on and the pair (who
can now use words!) says whether they are right or wrong. If no
one has got anywhere near what they were trying to convey, they try
again. And once again the other learners try to work out, and then
suggest, what happened in the conversation.

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7 Finally, the pair re-does their conversation, only this time they
use actual words. Give (and encourage the other learners to give)
feedback and, maybe, suggest better ways of saying things.
8 The class can choose which they think is the best conversation.
Finally, each pair has to work together using that conversation and
do their own version of it.

Why it works for me

This activity makes learners think about ways we communicate in

speech, quite apart from the words we use. It makes learners process
language in their own heads both as interpreters and performers. But
I like it especially because it challenges learners in an imaginative and
different way.

Alternatives

We could have only one learner in a pair use nonsense words – or

sounds rather than words. Now the class’s task is somewhat easier since
they only have one speaker to ‘decipher’.

A slightly different activity is to give learners a dialogue to act out (or

they construct a dialogue themselves) using real words, but then secretly
hand each participant a piece of paper with something written on it
such as ‘speak angrily’ or ‘speak sadly’. The other learners have to guess
the adverb – which makes them concentrate on what they are listening
to, but also on how it is being said.

Online/virtual variations

This activity is quite difficult to do online in the same way. So much

depends on gesture, expression and voice tone. However, it is do-able
and by using the breakout rooms the same thing can be achieved, but
instead of having the other learners make their suggestions of what they
are hearing out loud, they can write them up in the chat/text box to get
round some of the mute/unmute problems which we often encounter
with online speaking.

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 10 Drawing happy dreams

Learners draw their thoughts and the other learners have

to try and guess what it is they have drawn.

There is a long tradition of asking learners to visualise scenes, silently,

in their heads (especially when teachers want them to focus on the
present continuous or descriptions, etc.). For example, we can ask them
to imagine a beach scene in their heads and write down who they can
see doing what: ‘Two children are playing with a beach ball,’ etc. They
can listen to what we tell them with their eyes closed and then try to
remember what we said. This example, heavily based on Clare and Marsh
(2020), uses the same basic idea to create a reason for communication.

1 You can start by asking learners if they dream often, if they

remember their dreams when they wake up and what they think
dreams do and are for.
2 Give learners a number of sentence prompts and ask them to
complete them about their experiences. Here are three examples:
Dreams are the brain’s way of …
My dreams are most vivid when …
A repeating dream I seem to have is …

3 Learners share their sentences in groups or pairs and expand – if

they want to – on their answers to the questions in stage 1. While
they are doing this, circulate and help out with language suggestions
where that seems appropriate. When they have finished, ask them to
share their discussions with the class.
4 Now ask learners to close their eyes and think of what a happy
dream would be like for them – or a happy dream they remember
having. Where are they? Who is in their dream? What happens?
When they wake up, how does it make them feel?
5 The learners now open their eyes, and individually they draw
anything they can about the dream they have been thinking of.
Their pictures don’t have to be accurate (a lot of people don’t
draw particularly well!). They can just draw basic shapes or details

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 from the dream. Of course, learners may mess around with the
activity and invent things, but provided it is creatively done and not
transgressive, that is OK.
6 Learners now give their drawings to a partner – without saying what
it represents. Their partner tries to make sense of it.
7 Now pairs tell each other what they think their partner’s drawing
represents.
8 Learners now discuss at least two similarities and two differences
between what they think they have seen in each other’s drawing
(see also 18). At this stage they have not told each other what their
drawings really represented.
9 Finally each learner explains what their pictures were actually meant
to show!

Why it works for me

Language is not just for functional interaction; it is also a means of

expressing images and thoughts (and dreams). That’s what this activity
reminds us of. And by sharing these, we help learners to develop the
ability to communicate such images.

Alternatives

We can ask learners to visualise almost any scenario – such as their

favourite sport, leisure activity, food, etc. Anything that they can
properly visualise will work here. We could also turn the whole thing
into a role play – where housemates meet in the kitchen and one starts a
conversation with, ‘I’ve just had the weirdest dream ...’

Online/virtual variations

This activity can easily be done online if learners either have a camera
or can share their screens. One learner can show their pictures and the
others in the group can try to interpret it. We could also put learners
into breakout rooms, although that might be a bit cumbersome to
organise. It would be important to work out clear rules for how and
when learners take turns, etc.

Clare, A. and Marsh, A. (2020). The Creative Teacher’s Compendium. Pavilion Publishers.

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 11 Mystery objects

Learners introduce mystery objects and their classmates

have to try and work out what they are through initiating
information-seeking conversations.

During the pandemic isolation, business companies worried that their

usual welcoming procedures for new employees wouldn’t work in a
virtual environment. No welcoming coffee chat, no physical office tour,
no personal connection. But of course, we can meet online, and one
way to help people introduce themselves has been to partially show
something in their office or their house/flat and either describe it or ask
people to speculate what it might be. Such partial showing is a perfect
springboard to communication.

1 Take something unusual into class and conceal it in a bag or paper

so that its shape is visible, but without the detail for the learners to
know definitively what it is. It can be anything from a ball of wool
to a device for quickly re-stringing a guitar; from a sculpture of a
horse to a child’s pair of shoes.
2 The learners now have to ask you questions to try and work out
what it is. Learners can only ask a yes/no question (‘Is it a …?’)
when they are guessing the object’s identity. Your job is to answer
truthfully, whilst not giving the game away too easily.
3 When learners have found out what the object is (or have got as
close to guessing correctly as they are likely to get), show them the
object and get them to ask you questions about where you got it,
why you like it, what it is used for, etc. Encourage learners to ask
you more questions about it and let them see it close up if they
want to.
4 When it is over, you can discuss the kinds of questions that work
and which don’t work – and you can further get learners to tell
you the loose rules of the activity: 1 the more mysterious the better,
2 the questions they can/cannot ask, 3 answer truthfully but not

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 100 percent transparently (the effectiveness will depend on level
of course), 4 be ready to say more about the object when the activity
finishes.
5 Now that learners have enjoyed the activity, tell them to come back
to the next class with something they wish to show in the same way.
Make sure they know how to say it in English, and if they want, they
can research English ways of describing it online.
6 Learners then share their mystery objects either in pairs, groups
or with the whole class. You can prompt with suggestions and
encouragement, but as with all communicative activities, don’t focus
too rigorously on absolute accuracy.

Why it works for me

You couldn’t ask for a better example of deep processing than this
attempt to work out what someone is showing you (or telling you
about). It creates group cohesion and involves meaning and language
processing.

Alternatives

Just as online companies welcome employees by allowing them to share

partial photographs, so we can have learners bring in photographs
of unfamiliar objects – or ask them to photograph things which are
unusual. The activity then proceeds as before.

A simplified version of this activity is the radio game Twenty questions

where learners can also only ask yes/no questions – a maximum of
twenty. As in that game we can turn our activity into a competition by
setting time limits or limits on the number of questions, etc. That may
possibly make it more motivating but reduces its communicative ‘reach’.

Online/virtual variations

This activity works beautifully online – as the example from the

business world above suggests. Objects, mystery photographs, etc. can
be shown or demonstrated.

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 12 Discussion cards

Learners are given a series of random discussion questions.

Together they explore their opinions and their answers to
those questions.

What creates the best discussion in an ELT classroom? Is it the staged

debate (46), the adversarial Tennis match (16), or something as easy to
organise as this discussion game (included, incidentally, in Thornbury,
2005)? True, we know that it is very difficult to offer instantaneous
opinions in a foreign language unless you possess significant ease with
that language, but with our encouragement, prompting and support,
learners will do their best to give it a go.

1 Tell learners that they are going to have discussions and that they
will have to speak instantaneously when they are asked to.
2 Put learners in groups and give each group one of the following
topics (you can choose different topics depending on your group):

Regulations and laws

Appropriate behaviour and appearance
Places to live
Wealth and poverty
Education and school
Art and artistic expression

3 Tell the group to think of a number of debatable questions for the

topic they have chosen. For example, for the topic ‘regulations and
laws’ it could be anything from, ‘Does punishment actually work?’
‘Is the death penalty ever acceptable?’ ‘Should we punish public
(graffiti) artists, and how?’ to ‘Is it (should it be) a crime to make
jokes about mothers-in-law?’ The linguistic sophistication of the
questions will depend on the level of the learners. You can offer
suggestions and corrections for the questions they are designing.
4 Learners now write their questions on separate pieces of paper and
give them to you. Put them in a hat or bowl or some other container
where they are mixed up (see also 8).

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5 Take the container back to the groups and without looking they choose
five cards. They look at the topics. They can reject up to two cards if
they don’t like the topic and choose two more. They then discuss these.
While they are doing this, go round offering help and suggestions.
6 When sufficient time has elapsed, learners can report back on the
discussions they had. Open up discussion on what appears to have
been interesting topics with the whole class.

Why it works for me

The necessary characteristics for effective communicative activities (deep

processing, group cohesion, processing for meaning as well as form, etc)
which we identified in ‘Why I wrote this book’ on page ix are clearly in
evidence here. On top of that, this activity is also very time-efficient for the
teacher and not dependent on massive preparation or materials. Perfect!

Alternatives

The discussion activity can be done with the whole class, although
group work is probably preferable since learners are less challenged by
having everyone listen to them (with the whole group).

We can have the groups finish by selecting the best one or two questions
from the ones they have been discussing. We now write six of these
questions on the board where the whole class can see them. We can
reformulate the questions to make them less ambiguous – more
transparent. We could spend a bit of time having learners think and talk
about the questions – a kind of ‘topic and lexical warm up’.

In groups, a learner throws a dice, and then, depending on what number

comes up, they discuss the question which they can see on the board for
that same number.

Online/virtual variations

It is possible to replicate all this by putting learners into breakout rooms

online. The activity proceeds as before, but this time all the questions go
in the chat box (or on a shared screen). We can either put them back into
groups or have the whole class discuss – but ensuring that everyone allows
others to take turns, and that everyone has a chance to give opinions. We
can have learners choose the best five questions for discussion.

Thornbury, S. (2005). How to Teach Speaking. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education.

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 13 House rules

Learners discuss different rules for parts and rooms of

their house.

Adapted from Johnson and Rinvolucri (2010), this activity asks learners
to share their own internal house rules. Different cultures and learners
have their own rules!

1 Ask learners to think about their homes and picture them in their
heads, silently. Now ask them to have a think about what rules there
are in their house: are people expected to take their shoes off when
they enter the house/apartment? What else is normal behaviour?
2 Draw a floorplan of the downstairs of a house on the board – one
that shows where the furniture is, windows, doors etc. and ask them
to draw two floorplans of the downstairs of their house.
3 Now have learners think about what happens when they walk into
the house. (Shoes? Where do people put their coats? What happens
next?) They should put a number – on one of the plans – next to any
regular procedure. Putting numbers there is an aide-memoire (just
like the Cuisenaire rods in 22) for future recall.
4 Now get learners to write down any rules they can think of about
what happens in their house/apartment. For example, ‘That chair
is where Dad sits.’ ‘All plates go in the dishwasher.’ ‘Guests must
not do the washing up unless they are asked.’ ‘Don’t touch musical
instruments unless invited,’ etc. When learners have finished, they
should write a number on the plan to remind them of those rules.
5 In pairs, each learner gives their second plan (which they haven’t
written on) to their partner. They tell their partner about their rules
and the partner writes in the numbers as they are told about them
and asks questions to make sure they have it all clear in their heads.
The process is repeated.
6 Learners now combine into groups of four. They share what their
partner told them about their house rules. The groups discuss the

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 similarities and differences between the rules in different houses.
How many rules are shared between all houses? How many only
exist in one house?
7 While this is going on, keep an eye on what is being said – only
intervene if appropriate or necessary.
8 Now the class discusses the activity. What surprised them? How
similar were people’s rules? You can point out successful and less
successful uses of language.

Why it works for me

This activity involves learners in deep processing – the topic demands it!
Everyone understands what it is about and will have something to say.
There will be lots of purposeful repetition and, hopefully, some genuine
(and surprising?) real life information.

Alternatives

Instead of house rules, learners can discuss school rules, or the rules
of societies/groups they belong to or sports they play, for example. If
younger learners are going on an exchange visit, they can contact host
families on this topic, Johnson and Rinvolucri suggest.

Online/virtual variations

Estate agents who want you to buy a property often include virtual
video tours in their online brochures. We can get learners to make their
own videos – if they are comfortable with this – and give a running
commentary as they go around the house.

Johnson, G. and Rinvolucri, M. (2010). Culture in our classrooms: Teaching language

through cultural content. DELTA Publishing.

27
 B: Practising communicatively

Activities in this section feature

language practice – in other words they
incorporate a focus on the language
itself. They are very familiar but are
given a communicative edge – i.e., they
involve deep processing (see ‘Why I wrote
this book’ on page ix) to make learners
more engaged with what they should be
learning.

14 Ask the right question

15 Backs to the board
16 Tennis match
17 Learner-generated drill chains
18 Similarities and differences
19 Truth and lies
20 Four corners
21 Constructing stories from pictures
22 Islamabad

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 Ask the right question 14

Learners have to ask questions which get exactly the answer –

from another learner – that is written on their card.

Asking questions is a vital ingredient in conversation – whether out of

genuine interest, a need to get information or understand, a desire to
discover the truth, or an attempt to know someone better. All questions
provoke a variety of possible answers, but if we ask the ‘right’ question
we can find out exactly what we want! This Ask the right question was
one of the first activities to come out of what was then the brand ‘new’
Communicative Approach.

1 Tell learners that the object of the game is to focus on asking exactly,
and precisely, the right question to get exactly the right answer.
2 Demonstrate the activity to show how it works. For example, write
up the following five words or phrases on the board:

mosquitoes  11 in the morning  violin  zucchini  red

3 Tell learners they have to ask questions and you will reply with
what is written on the board only if they ask exactly the question
you are thinking of for that answer – or which forces you to give
that answer. Questions like, ‘What animals cause disease?’ could
be answered in a number of ways whereas for, ‘What animals kill
the most humans in the world every year?’ the answer must be,
‘Mosquitoes.’
4 Learners start asking the questions, which you answer truthfully
(if you want to!), but only answer if they ask a question to which
your words or phrases are perfect answers. For example, if learners
ask, ‘What green vegetable do many people eat?’ you could well say
‘There are many, including broccoli, peas, peppers, courgettes, etc.’
But it is only if they ask a question like, ‘What is the American name
for courgette and small marrow?’ that they will definitely get the
answer, ‘Zucchini.’
5 Now ask a learner up to the front of the class. Tell them that they
can only answer questions from the class if the answer which

29
 the questions provoke exactly matches the words which are on the
board. Help them and encourage them – and be prepared to explain
why a question that has been asked is not exactly fit for purpose.
6 Now either give learners a list of words or ask them to write their
own words in order to do the same activity. If they work in pairs
or groups, more learners will have a chance to speak and listen
in a more relaxed setting than as the whole class. While they are
doing the activity, you can go round the class helping and offering
suggestions.

Why it works for me

This activity may look like a vocabulary game, but it demands a degree
of language processing which has significant cognitive payoff. Learners
have to pay equal attention to meanings and linguistic precision. They
really have to listen to each other – so it provokes group interaction and
cohesion.

Alternatives

We can model a five-pointed star activity where each star point has a
word or phrase written on it which represents something in a life (e.g.,
Brussels, three, etc.) and the learners have to find the right questions to
get those answers, e.g., ‘Where were you born?’ ‘How many guitars do
you have?’ etc.

Learners read a text and do some comprehension work on it. Give them
some words and phrases from the text. They now have to ask exactly
the right questions to get one of those words or phrases. This makes
learners interact with meaning in the text and context and forces them
to think really carefully about the information they find there.

Online/virtual variations

This activity is relatively easy to do online. Teachers can message

individual learners with their word and that learner then has to answer
the questions the others ask them on screen. As before, they can only
answer if the question exactly provokes the word they have been given
as the answer.

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 Backs to the board 15

Learners have to guess a word or phrase they cannot see

based on what their classmates are telling them.

It may seem odd to have a vocabulary review game included in a

collection of communicative activities, but it is here because its built-in
information gap can only be closed by communication, and learners
have to find creative ways of paraphrasing the vocabulary behind the
learner ‘victim’. At A1 level, the degree of communication will not be
high with this (or any other) game. But with higher levels it becomes
more sophisticated and involves more complex paraphrasing. You can
see the teacher Louise Russell doing this activity on the video which
accompanies Harmer (2007).

Though there is no conversational interaction of a social kind,

nevertheless we should remember that communication comes in many
forms, even games!
1 Divide the class into two teams – or more if it is a big class. Each
team must select one of their members to be the first ‘victim’. Place a
chair for each team facing the class (i.e., with its back to the board).
2 The first ‘victims’ sit in the chairs. Write a word or phrase on the
board (from a previous lesson or lessons) behind the seated learners.
Their teams have to describe the word or phrase. For example, if (at
A1 level) the word was running they might say, ‘When you walk very
fast but not walking.’ The instructions are quite clear: learners may
not use physical gesture or any other acting technique. And it goes
without saying that they can’t say what the word or phrase is or use
any form of the word in their definitions.
3 The first ‘victim’ to answer correctly gets a point for their team.
4 Now each team selects another of their number, and you write
another word or phrase on the board.
5 The game continues with different learners taking turns sitting in
the chairs. Keep it going until just before you sense the fun is about

31
 to go out of it. If you wish, you can go on to have learners use the
words they encountered in the game in some other way.

Why it works for me

As with the previous activity, Backs to the board, although it is a game,

nevertheless demands cognitive and emotional engagement. Added
to that, it is competitive and good fun! Hopefully, one team isn’t
ridiculously better than the other.

Alternatives

We don’t have to use the board; we can hold up cards which the
selected individuals cannot see.

A popular party activity which achieves the same kind of

communicative game playing is the identity guessing game Who am I?
In this game, learners decide on well-known people from contemporary
life or history. They write the names on separate pieces of paper (ideally,
post-its or other slightly sticky notes). These are then affixed to other
learners’ foreheads. Their job is to find out who they are by asking
yes/no questions. Depending on the level and age of the learners,
these can range from the obvious, ‘Am I alive?’ ‘Am I a man?’ to more
complex ones such as, ‘Am I the kind of person you would like to meet?’
(They are not, of course, allowed to ask, ‘Am I a man or a woman?’
since that demands an answer more than ‘yes’ or ‘no’.) How long will it
take them to find out who they are?

Online/virtual variations

We can play this game online by having the selected individuals turn
their backs on the screen and we show the words or phrases that have
been selected to the others so that they can answer that individual’s
questions. Alternatively, they can choose the words and the teacher can
be the one who has to guess.

Harmer, J. (2007). How to Teach English: Second edition. Harlow, Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.

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 Tennis match 16

Learners throw opposing opinions at each other, team to

team – like playing a game of tennis, in a way!

One of the most difficult things for learners in a foreign language is to

have a proper discussion where they can offer disagreement. Part of the
reason for this is that they need time to think about what they want to
say – automaticity (a key component of fluency) takes time, repeated
exposure and practice. This activity, then, gives learners that crucial
thinking time. Years ago, Luke Prodromou (1995) suggested a similar
batting of opinions backwards and forwards to make exam practice
more agreeable.

1 Tell the learners that you are going to ask them to come up with
arguments both in favour of a proposition and against that same
proposition. Offer them a choice between a number of topics
such as, ‘Air travel should be discouraged,’ ‘Tourism is good for
communities,’ ‘Social media is good for society,’ ‘Vegetarianism
should be made obligatory’.
2 When learners have chosen the topic, divide the class into two
groups. One group should come up with as many arguments in
favour of the proposition as possible. The other group does the
opposite, of course, and thinks of reasons why the proposition is a
bad idea. While they are doing this, you can go round the groups
offering suggestions and language help. Group members can ask you
for words and phrases which would be useful.
3 Now explain that when someone from one of the groups (say,
Group A) gives an opinion, someone from Group B should counter
that opinion, like a game of tennis, where people exchange shots
over the net. Now someone else from team A counters that ‘shot’
with their own ‘volley’. Keep the pace going. If learners in a team
cannot decide who should take the shot, nominate one of them to
speak next. It should be stressed that you do not want to encourage

33
 learners to read out sentences of statements, but rather to speak
more spontaneously.
4 When the activity has continued for as long as it can while still
being engaging, draw it to an end. This is an ideal moment to
highlight particularly successful interventions from learners. You can
suggest alternative ways of saying things and draw attention to any
especially common problem areas.
5 Now dissolve the teams. Once again, give learners some thinking
time while they work out which of the arguments they found
especially sympathetic to their own feelings on the topic. This
can then lead to a general discussion on the topic they have been
discussing, only this time they have a chance to express what they
themselves really think.

(For an extended, more formal, version of this activity, see 46.)

Why it works for me

This is an enjoyable and relatively easy way of getting learners used

to a ‘for and against’ way of doing discussions. It’s fun and encourages
group ‘togetherness’. There is purposeful repetition of content and
language.

Alternatives

We can ‘seed’ the activity with a few ‘jokers’. These are learners who,
no matter what team they are on, can give their own opinions at
crucial stages of the activity. We can nominate one of the jokers if the
conversation gets bogged down.

Online/virtual variations

Learners could prepare their ‘for and against’ arguments in two

different breakout groups. We then play the game in the same way as
face-to-face, but participants will have to abide by our nomination
protocols, or alternatively, we can nominate which learners should
speak next. This will make the activity less spontaneous, of course, but
it is perhaps the best we can do!

Prodromou, L. (1995). ‘The Backwash effect: From testing to teaching.’ ELT Journal,
49(1), 13–25.

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 Learner-generated drill chains 17

Learners create their own stories during a structure-focused

grammar drill.

This activity, which demands no preparation or materials, has been

around forever, it seems. I had almost forgotten it until, a few years
ago when I was filming short interviews with teachers about successful
lessons they had taught, I met a young woman called Andreea Draghici
in Bucharest, Romania who described how she had used it. Her sense
of satisfaction at the learners’ stories created with drill chains was
infectious.

Instead of having to repeat sentences from a situation which she would

normally introduce – in the usual PPP model (presentation, practice and
production) – or from a coursebook, for example, learners created and
expanded their own story.

In the following example (different from the specific one that Andreea
used) we will focus on the first conditional.

1 Tell learners that there is a woman who is paddling out to sea on a

surfboard.
2 Ask learners to complete the following sentence, ‘If she goes too far
out, she won’t ...’ Maybe one of them will say, ‘She won’t be able to
get back to the beach.’
3 Now ask learners to make the whole sentence, ‘If she goes too far
out, she won’t be able to get back to the beach.’ Then get learners
to say, ‘If she can’t get back to the beach, she will ...’ and maybe a
learner says something like ‘she will try and see a boat’. The learners
gradually understand that the next sentence – using the same
grammatical pattern – must start with the last half of the previous
sentence, e.g., ‘If she sees a boat ...’
4 However serious or silly the story turns out to be, it will be the
learners who create it. Meanwhile, your role is to help them make
well-formed sentences and/or to help them find vocabulary they need.

35
 5 When learners finish one of the stories or simply run out of ideas,
you can either conduct a short language analysis session or offer a
new situation and start the whole process again – though this time
with a different story.

Why it works for me

Why are we discussing what is, after all, a grammar lesson in a book
of communicative activities? Because learner-generated chain drills
provoke meaningful ‘resignified’ repetition as well as meaningful
interaction between members of a group. They demand processing at
the level of language and of meaning. This activity clearly has enough
effective communicative elements to be included here.

Alternatives

The most obvious variations in the activity we have described so far

are content and language; we can create, for example, a situation of
someone missing their train to work in the morning; of a child getting
lost in a city; or a farmer whose crops are failing; of someone whose
car breaks down in the middle of nowhere; of someone who has won
or come into a lot of money – and so on and so on. The possibilities are
endless.

We can change the language focus, too. We could, for example, use this
kind of drill chain activity with past forms (past simple, past perfect).
A woman found herself stranded on a desert island. What did she do?
(1) She made a hut. (2) After she had made a hut, she went for a swim.
(3) After she had gone for a swim, she … etc. Indeed, any language-
focused drill can be used in this way.

Online/virtual variations

We can do this easily enough online. All we have to do is to nominate

individual learners to speak next from the ones who are there on our
screens. Alternatively, we can get them to do the drill in the chatbox
and we can insert our comments there – or use the screensharing
possibilities available for whatever program we are using.

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 Similarities and differences 18

Learners talk to each other, usually in pairs, to identify

the differences and similarities between, for example, two
different paintings or buildings or objects.

An activity that was first described by Dick Allwright (1976) and which
has stood the test of time, is called Find the differences with, also, its
sibling Find the similarities. This activity combines both and provides
learners with a proper reason for communication.

In the example below, I use two paintings by the artist Marc Chagall (At
Night and Bouquet with Flying Lovers).

1 Put learners in pairs or groups (see online variations below). Give

each learner or group a picture and tell them to study it. At this
point they don’t share their picture – or any thoughts about it – with
their partner. Tell learners to think of how to say exactly what is in
the picture, what the colours are (unless you give them black and
white pictures) and where things are. This will be important in order
to find things that are similar and different. For example, in both
of the Chagall paintings there is a couple – but whereabouts in the
pictures, exactly, are they? What is in the sky? And what is on the
ground below? Is it day or night? And so on. (You might want to
prepare for the activity by making sure learners can say things like
‘on the left/right,’ ‘in the top right-hand corner,’ ‘in the middle of the
picture,’ ‘at the bottom of the picture,’ etc.)
2 When learners have had a chance to study their pictures, they start
to discuss them with their partner – without showing their picture
to the person they are working with. Thus, they rely entirely on each
other’s description of what they have been looking at.
3 You can add an extra level of challenge by setting a time limit for the
activity (say three minutes maximum).
4 When the activity is over, ask how many similarities and differences
the learners found and get them to tell the rest of the class. See who
found the most.

37
 5 Now ask learners to show each other their pictures – or project them
so that everyone can see them. Ask them what they think now! This
will be a good opportunity to discuss any language that has come up
or which you wish to suggest.

Why it works for me

I like this activity because it demands observation and concentration

from the learners. It is easy to organise for teachers. The competitive
element – who can find the most similarities/differences – gives it a
slight kick, too!

Alternatives

We don’t have to use paintings, of course. Similar photographs or

cartoons will do just as well. Learners could each read different poems,
interpret their meanings and then do an Everybody up exercise (see 1)
to find things which are the same or different about them. We must
choose poems which are appropriate for the learners and the level they
are at (see 42).

Online/virtual variations

We can do this kind of activity online, although it is more difficult

over the airwaves to provoke spontaneous conversation. There will be
pauses! But that should not stop us – or our learners. We can start by
dividing the class into two groups (A and B). In their different breakout
rooms, we show them their individual pictures and they can discuss
(in their groups) what they see. Now we can either pair learners off
(which is quite complex), or have the group discuss on screen – or in the
chat/text box – what the similarities and differences are.

Allwright, R. (1976). ‘Language learning through communication practice.’ ELT

Documents, 76(3).

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 Truth and lies 19

Learners prepare a number of statements about themselves

at least one of which is false. The other learners have to
guess which the false statement is.

Truth and lies is often used to practise language items that learners
have previously focused on. This example is based on a lesson on video
by Juan Pablo Monfón Jiménez (Pablo) in Mexico (see Harmer, 2015),
though the activity predates that lesson by many years! However, the
really communicative aspect of this mini-sequence comes when learners
try out their own true and false sentences and others discuss which of
the sentences they believe. (For longer communicative sequences see
Section F.)

1 Tell the learners a (hopefully) motivating story. Ask some questions

to check their comprehension and then give them other tasks to
ensure their understanding of what they have heard – in Pablo’s
lesson, learners had to put pictures in order to reflect the sequence of
the story he had just told them.
2 Ask learners to find examples of particular language use. In the case
of Pablo’s lesson, they had to notice examples of get/got to: identify
get + adjective (got lost, got desperate), get + noun (got a sandwich,
got a phone call) and get + adverb (got home, get around), etc.
3 Up to this point the lesson looks like a listening and grammar
activity and not appropriate for a communicative activity book! But
now ask learners to think of five statements about themselves (using
the target structure). Three of them should be true but two of them
should be false so that at stage 4, communication can take place.
4 Learners take turns to tell the rest of the class their statements. The
class decides if they are true or false, giving reasons in the case of the
latter. The author of the statements then reveals the truth.
5 Other learners can question a learner’s truths and lies further to get
more information from them so that conversation opens up.

39
 6 While the activity is going on, give feedback and gentle correction
(where you may intervene, lightly, to help the communication along).

At various stages, Pablo, in common with some other teachers I have

observed, uses the timer on his phone to be exact about the time limit
he sets for some of the stages of this activity – unlike the sometimes
inexact and unrealistic times we suggest and enact!

Why it works for me

As with 17, this activity is very engaging for learners because they create
the content, which is both emotionally and cognitively engaging.

Alternatives

We can ask learners to tell stories with untruths in them. There is a

wonderful TV programme in the UK called Would I lie to you? where
a guest is given a statement they haven’t seen before about themselves
(i.e., ‘I once destroyed by mother’s best dress by burning it on the
cooker.’) and they have to instantly invent a story and withstand
questions from their colleagues before they (the colleagues) decide if it
is true or a lie. Good fun.

Online/virtual variations

Truth and lies is easily adaptable if we are teaching online. We need

to establish how and when learners say their statements and how and
when the others are chosen to comment. We might use in-built program
symbols, or make gestures, to say which statements they think are lies.
We can mix speaking and the chatbox to make things clear.

Harmer, J. (2015). The Practice of English Language Teaching: Fifth edition. Harlow,
Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

40
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 Four corners 20

Learners have to justify their opinions on a controversial

topic by adopting certain ‘positions’ and explaining their
views and why they hold them.

Four corners relies on the jigsaw procedure (see 25, 26) to provoke
mental processing and involves valuable task repetition (see Bygate,
2018). Our example will focus on one of the most popular sports in the
world: football.

1 Tell the learners that they are going to discuss the world of football.
Lead a discussion about some of the issues in football – how
important it is, whether there’s too much money around it (for clubs
and players), how important it is in a nation’s life, whether learners
are at all interested in it, etc.
2 While the discussion is going on, note down any strong arguments
that might be worth investigating and then write four of them
(or ones that you have pre-prepared) on the board. Here are four
possibilities (but you and your learners will probably come up with
much better ones):
Some people say football is more important than life and
death; actually, it’s more important than that. (Often attributed,
somewhat carelessly, to Liverpool manager Bill Shankly.)
Footballers are paid far too much money.
Local clubs should only have local players in their teams.
Too much attention is given to football in the media.
3 Let the class discuss these opinions and try and elicit arguments in
favour of each one. Ask them to vote on the one they like the best.
4 Now write each opinion on a separate piece of paper and put them
at the four corners of the room. Ask learners to go and stand with
the opinion that they most agree with. You need at least two learners
for each opinion. Tell them to discuss (again) the arguments in
favour of the statement.

41
 5 Now one person from each statement moves in a clockwise direction
to the next corner. They ask the people who are there to justify their
opinion and they challenge them with as many questions as they
can. After two or three minutes these same people move again to the
next opinion and the procedure is repeated. When the activity has
finished, ask learners (the ones who moved) if they want to change
their corners. Now the process starts over with a different ‘traveller’.
6 Continue the activity until you sense that the learners’ engagement is
about to fade.
7 While the activity is progressing, circulate and help out with
suggestions when and if things get a bit stuck.

Why it works for me

I love the mixture of ideas, movement, physical space and repeated

language and content. A rich mix indeed, this activity exemplifies
everything we ask for from an effective communicative activity.

Alternatives

The same kind of effect occurs if we create a line with extremes at either
end (i.e., ‘boxing should be banned – boxing is a great sport’). Learners
have to stand on the place in the line which represents their view, and
then have to justify it to their colleagues. Does anyone move as the
discussion progresses?

Online/virtual variations

We can use a quadrant (a horizontal line intersected with a vertical

one) activity. The ends of the horizontal axis say, ‘Football is really
important’ and ‘Football is nothing more than a game’. The ends of
the horizontal axis say, ‘Footballers are paid too much money’ and
‘Footballers should be allowed to earn what they can’. Learners can
draw the diagram and put a cross in the diagram to show where they
‘stand’. They hold their diagrams up to the camera to show them (or
share their screens). The others can question them either orally or write
their questions/comments for the ‘presenter’ to read.

Bygate, M. (2018). Learning Language through Task repetition. John Benjamins

Publishing Company.

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 Constructing stories from pictures 21

Learners use different pictures to make a story using an

information gap technique.

This is one of the most iconic of first-generation communicative tasks.

As with Jigsaw reading, it relies on creating an information gap (see 25).
This activity, however, uses pictures, not words, to create the need for
communication. I have used this technique countless times both in class
and in course materials.

1 Divide the class into four groups (or five or six depending on the
number of pictures you have). Each group has a letter A–D.
2 Each of the four groups gets a separate picture. The pictures I
am going to describe come from one of the first examples of this
technique I ever encountered as a beginning teacher (Holden and
Byrne, 1978). Picture number 1 (in no sequential order) shows two
nurses looking in surprise at an empty (previously occupied) hospital
bed. Picture number 2 shows an elderly man with a walking stick
in a dressing gown standing at a pedestrian crossing pressing the
control for the traffic lights. Picture 3 shows a paramedic helping an
elderly man with a walking stick to get into an ambulance. Picture 4
shows an elderly man in a dressing gown talking energetically to a
young police officer who is making notes in her notebook.
3 Tell the groups to study the picture they have in front of them. They
should try and work out exactly what is going on and think of all
the words and phrases they can use to describe what seems to be
happening.
4 Take the pictures away from the groups. Now make new groups.
Each new group has a learner from the original group A, one from
group B, one from group C and one from group D. Tell learners
to describe their pictures to each other from memory, explaining
exactly what was going on in their pictures.
5 Now tell the learners to try and reconstruct the story which the
pictures tell. While they are doing this, you can go round the groups

43
 listening and helping out. Don’t tell them what (you think) the story
is, but help them with any language difficulties they may be having.
6 Now ask the learners to tell their stories to the rest of the class.
Don’t say what the correct story is (partly because there isn’t one,
and also because that any version that makes sense is entirely OK!).
The class can vote on the best story. When the activity has finished,
you can draw the learners’ attention to things that went well and
maybe suggest (or invite learners to suggest) alternatives to things
that didn’t go so well.

Why it works for me

When learners go to their new groups, they take with them language
they have already rehearsed with the original group and it is their
responsibility to transmit that and the content it describes. Then they
have to communicate with each other. A lovely virtuous circle.

Alternatives

Any picture sequence will do, provided it has the potential to tell a
story. There is nothing to worry about if the sequence is somewhat
ambiguous. That will provoke more discussion.

We can merge this activity with other media. Thus, one group could
see a picture/photograph, another group could look at some newspaper
headlines, another group could listen to some music, etc. They then
combine these sources to try and piece together a story.

Online/virtual variations
We can make this activity work online by sending different learners to
different breakout rooms – or by using the ‘close your eyes’ technique
(see 10). They can then conduct their discussions in the breakout rooms.

Holden, S. and Byrne, D. (1978). Follow it through. Longman.

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 Islamabad 22

Learners use Cuisenaire rods (or pictures, etc.) to describe

where they live and are questioned by other learners to
build a group description.

Described by Earl Stevick (1980) and named after the city where he first
used it, Islamabad uses Cuisenaire rods (small wooden blocks of different
sizes and colours, originally designed for maths teaching – see below).
Islamabad was, for Stevick, a Community Language Learning (CLL) activity.

Bill Harris reminded me about the activity (private communication).

Nick Bilbrough’s account (2011) and his reflections many years later
(Bilbrough, 2014) give a lot more information. The version here
emphasises communication between learners.

1 Learners are told to think about the neighbourhood they live in

and how they would describe it. If more than one learner lives in
exactly the same area, then they should choose their grandparents’
neighbourhood, or somewhere they used to live, or a holiday place,
etc. What happens there? What doesn’t happen there? What does
it look like? Who and what do they see around them? What’s the
atmosphere like? They can visualise this if you ask them to close
their eyes before asking them these questions and any others you can
come up with (see 10).
2 Learners now make quick notes about what they have visualised.
Ask them to think about how they would describe their
neighbourhood so that other people in the class can understand
them. They shouldn’t write down whole sentences, but in the time
you give them (two to four minutes), they should silently try out
what they are going to say in their own heads.
3 Put learners in small groups of, say, five learners (see Alternatives
below for whole-class versions of this activity). One learner now
takes the Cuisenaire rods and uses them, one by one, for each
piece of information about their neighbourhood which they tell
the others. When they have finished, other learners in the group

45
 point to/hold up one of the rods and describe (in their own words)
what it represents and what their group member said.
4 When everyone has ‘remembered’ the original learner’s description,
he or she corrects/amends some of the mis-remembered summaries.
The group now questions the original learner to find out more and
clarify details.
5 Repeat the procedure (stages 3 and 4) with each of the other learners
in the group. While this is going on, go round the groups listening
and offering constructive feedback, only when it seems appropriate.
6 At the end of the activity, learners from one group ask learners from
another group to describe some of the neighbourhoods they have
heard about. They can ask questions about them.

Why it works for me

This exemplifies the idea of deep processing which we discussed in

‘Why I wrote this book’ on page ix. The responsibility of describing
something you care about cannot be overestimated!

Alternatives

Cuisenaire rods are not feasible in larger classes because, obviously,

not enough people would be able to see them. Learners can draw/show
pictures on the board/screen instead.

This procedure can work well with stories, with dreams or meals or
hobbies and skills – just about any subject under the sun!

Online/virtual variations

Bill Harris (see above) suggests using online resources such as Google
Earth rather than Cuisenaire rods. Learners can show pictures to
describe their neighbourhoods or to explain how to get from their
house to the store or mosque/majid or church, etc.

Bilbrough, N. (2011). Memory Activities for Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Bilbrough, N. (2014). ‘Islamabad comes home.’ Humanising Language Teaching. 16(1),

http://old.hltmag.co.uk/feb14/mart01.htm#C7 Accessed 26/02/2021

Stevick, E. (1980). Teaching Languages: A Way and Ways. Heinle & Heinle.

For Cuisenaire rods, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisenaire_rods

46
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C: Interacting with/from text

Communication in language classrooms

does not always have to be interpersonal,
face-to-face speaking as we discussed
in ‘Why I wrote this book’ on page ix.
The individual interaction with text,
piecing out its meanings, engaging with
its context and content is also a form
of intrapersonal communication. The
learner is communicating with themself
in their own head – and with the images
and ideas which the text provokes.
Sharing that communication experience
with others later returns us to the
interpersonal sphere.

23 A different point of view

24 Reassembling poems
25 Jigsaw reading
26 Jigsaw prediction
27 Press conference
28 Situation-based role play
29 Suitcase language

47
 23 A different point of view

In this activity, learners use the content and the language

from a text to reimagine what they have read or heard.

A way of having learners engage fully with the content and the language
of a text and to recreate that is for them to reimagine the scenes/
situations from the points of view of different characters.

1 Tell learners that you are going to tell a story. You may want to use
a typical storyteller’s call-and-response attention-getting technique
(i.e., when you shout, ‘Crick!’ they have to shout back, ‘Crack!’ – a
technique from Santa Lucia that I learnt from the storytelling of Jan
Blake) to ensure their listening participation.
2 Start your story (see below for a list of story sources). A lot will
depend on how you do this. You should try to use your ‘best’
storytelling style by including appropriate (probably exaggerated)
intonation, sentence and phrase stress, appropriate pausing and
changes of voice volume, etc. At various stages of the story you
can use the call-response technique to reawaken their interest and
participation when/if they seem to be ‘flagging’ – and to inject pace
into your telling. You can pause the story and ask the class to predict
what happens next.
3 When you have finished the story, ask learners to say if they enjoyed
it and why. You can ask them to say what the ‘moral’ is or why they
agree or disagree with the characters, for example.
4 If possible, let learners read the story and ask them to choose any
‘suitcase language’ (see 29) they want to take away with them.
5 Learners now think of how they would tell the story from a different
point of view – i.e., if they were one of the other characters in it.
How would the story sound then? Give them time to think about
this and rehearse their telling in their heads.
6 Learners tell the story from the point-of-view of the character
they have chosen without, if possible, giving away their identity
immediately. The other learners have to guess who they are.

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Why it works for me

The way that learners have to engage and re-engage with the content,
context, etc. of a text makes this a lovely mixture of intrapersonal
reflection and purposeful repetition.

Alternatives

We can choose any number of different stories, of course (see the list
below). We need to look for a clear narrative line and where possible,
repeated elements (so that learners hear the same linguistic material
more than once).

Online/virtual variations

We can refer learners to stories that we think are appropriate for their
level/interest and ask them to read them online following the links we
give them. We can give different stories to different learners. Learners
can have time to read these stories and become comfortable telling
them – preferably without repeating the original word-for-word (i.e., ‘in
their own words’) and they can then tell them to the rest of the group.
Alternatively, they can all watch a storytelling video and/or read the
same story from a link we send and then they can retell the story from
the points of view of different characters and the group can say – in the
chatbox – which character they think it is.

Where to find stories

Harmer, J. and Puchta, H. (2018). Story-Based Language

Teaching. Helbling.
Many online newspapers have great real-life stories (see, for
example, the Guardian’s ‘Experience’ section).
Most ELT publishers have graded readers at various levels which
can be used in this way.
Storytelling With Our Students by David Heathfield (1980,
DELTA publishing) has a collection of useable tales.
Most coursebooks are full of stories we can tell and have
learners re-tell.

49
 24 Reassembling poems

Individual learners are given lines from a poem. In groups,

they have to put the lines in the right order without
showing them to anyone else.

This is a simple activity, but it demands real concentration and skill. The
teacher’s participation is crucial as we shall see below.

1 Select a poem you wish to use (see below). The best kind are
between nine or ten lines long and have an end-of-line rhyme scheme
(limericks, which only have five lines, might nevertheless also be
fun). They should be comprehensible for the level you are teaching.
Two poems I have used successfully for this activity are Fire and Ice
by Robert Frost and Unfortunate Coincidence by Dorothy Parker.
There is a list of poetry resources at the end of 41.
2 Copy the poem on to a piece of paper and cut it into strips, one for
each line. You will start with as many copies of the poem as there
will be groups (see 3 below).
3 Now put the class into groups. Each group should have one learner
for each line (i.e., groups of six if the poem has six lines).
4 Give each member of each group one of the lines from the poem at
random. Tell them that they may not show their lines to each other.
They should read their line and practise speaking it in their heads.
5 Ask learners to stand up. Now tell them that they must try and
put the lines in the correct order to make the poem. They can read
their lines out but (again) they must not show them to each other.
Tell them to use only English if they can. It will help if they end up
standing in the correct order, so they can ‘see’ the poem even as they
hear and speak it.
6 The activity starts. As it progresses, go round listening to each group
and evaluating how well they are doing. You may wish to intervene
if they are not making much headway. Sometimes it is necessary to
make sure that learners have the correct first line since that starts to
unlock the whole thing for them.

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7 When a group says they have got the whole poem, listen to check
that they have. While they are waiting for other groups to catch up,
they should practise speaking it – but quietly!
8 When more than one group has completed the task successfully, have
them speak the poem to the rest of the class so that everyone can
compare. Now project the poem so that everyone can see it – or give
learners a piece of paper with the completed poem on it.
9 Finally, you may want to speak the poem yourself to show how it
should sound. Learners can then practise speaking it for themselves
and you can help them with pronunciation, pace, pausing and stress.

Why it works for me

I love poetry of the kind that is appropriate here (clear, reasonably short
and engaging). I love the clear and identifiable task that pushes learners
to think carefully about what lines mean and how they go together –
and this is a communicative group interaction, too.

Alternatives

We can use this activity as a springboard to poetry performance (see 41)

or poetry learning (see 42).

Online/virtual variations

This is perfectly possible to do in an online setting using the ‘close your

eyes’ technique where each learner is given a letter and then all the As,
for example, open their eyes to read (and note down) ‘their’ individual
line. We can also use chat/textbox direct messages for this.

51
 25 Jigsaw reading

Learners read excerpts from a story or article. They then

talk to others who have read different excerpts. They have
to discover the complete content of the original.

Like so many activities in early communicative classrooms, Jigsaw

reading (and listening – see Geddes and Sturtridge, 1979) is designed
around an information gap. Different learners have different
information (pieces, paragraphs) of a text which, when combined,
allow them to complete the ‘jigsaw’. The only way to do this is to
talk about, and share, what they have read. Some of the best kinds of
text for splitting up in this way are stories told from different points
of view, or stories told non-chronologically. Alternatively, texts about
some phenomenon or processes (where different elements go into the
whole text) can be very useful. I have sourced stories and articles from
newspaper sections like the UK Guardian ‘Experience’ in their Lifestyle
section (for example, a story called ‘I caught a falling baby’). See also
the resources listed in 23.
1 Give learners just one paragraph from a complete story they will
assemble later. Ideally, this should either be the opening paragraph,
or something which is not entirely clear – so that learners will want
to know what it is all about. Tell them to read it carefully. The
important thing is for everyone to be primed for what they will
read next.
2 When learners have all read the paragraph, they get into pairs and
discuss what they think happened or what the article is about. Allow
them to speculate and discuss this as a whole class, but don’t say
whether their guesses are correct.
3 Divide learners into, say, four groups (A–D). Each group gets a
paragraph of roughly the same length from the whole text. Tell the
groups to study their paragraphs carefully. Within the group, they all
make sure they understand exactly what is going on and what that
paragraph means.

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4 Now make new groups with one learner each from Group A, B, C
and D. Learners have to share what they have just read so that they
can piece together the sequence of facts and/or events. While they
are doing this, go round and help them with things they might have
difficulty understanding.
5 Get everyone back together and ask for their versions of the story.
Help out with language difficulties and make sure that everyone
agrees on the same timeline for the story.
6 You can follow this activity up with procedures detailed in 27
and 29.

Why it works for me

The way that a complete picture is slowly assembled, and that this can
only be done though purposeful repetition, listening, thought and inter-
group participation, ensures that this early communicative activity has
stayed around and is included here.

Alternatives

The jigsaw concept can be used with listening as well, of course, or

with a mixture of video watching and listening. The main aim is to
find different jigsaw ‘pieces’ which learners have to share to make the
whole story.

Online/virtual variations

In some ways Jigsaw reading is as easy online as it is in face-to-face

encounters. We can send learners the different texts via email or private
messages in the chat/text box or some other communication system.
They can form groups in breakout rooms. They can mix speaking and
chatbox participation.

Geddes, M. and Sturtridge, G. (1979). Listening Links. London: Heinemann Educational

Books.

Geddes, M. and Sturtridge, G. (1982). Reading Links. London: Heineman Educational

Books.

53
 26 Jigsaw prediction

Learners use extracts from something they are going to

read (or listen to) to try and predict what that reading will
be, using the jigsaw technique.

In 25, the jigsaw technique is used to provoke necessary communication

to solve a puzzle. This activity is very similar except that here learners
will use it as a way to stimulate their own imaginations. It also prepares
them for some reading or listening they are about to do.

In this example at the B2/C1 level, learners get the individual words/
phrases below from an extracted text which they are going to read. It is
from the novel The Ghost by Robert Harris. It describes the narrator’s
arrival by ferry, one dark winter’s night, at the terminal in Martha’s
Vineyard, USA, as he is met by a surly deaf taxi driver, who looks at
him in the rear view mirror, and is taken to his out-of-season hotel.
Wampanoags were the native American tribe who welcomed the Pilgrim
fathers and families to America in 1620.

my suitcase  native Wampanoags  oil paintings  

rattle of chains   rear view mirror

1 Divide the class into five groups. Call them A–E. Try to get the
groups (if you can) away from each other so they can deliberate
without interrupting each other.
2 Give each group one of the words or phrases you have chosen from
the text they are going to read. In each group, they should discuss
what the word or phrase means and speculate what kind of a text
it might appear in. Make sure the learners remember their words/
phrases. You may want to go to the groups to make sure they have
understood the correct meaning of what they have been given. They
can look things up on the internet.
3 Make new groups of five with one learner from each of the groups
A–E. Now ask them to share their words. Tell them they all come
from the same text. Their task is to try and work out what the text

54
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 is about. While they are doing this, you can go around the groups
offering language help and suggestions. You may say things like,
‘That’s an interesting idea’, ‘Yes, that’s possible, I suppose,’ or ‘But if
it is that, what about this word/phrase?’ However, don’t tell them if
they are right or wrong at this stage.
4 When learners have had time to make their predictions, get them to
share their ideas with the rest of the class. Don’t tell them who has
got it right, but you can ask the class as a whole to guess who is on
the right track.
5 Now have learners read the text to see which of their predictions
were accurate.
6 Ask them how they feel now, about why they made the predictions
they did and what they got wrong and right.

Why it works for me

I enjoy the fact that a communicative group activity also gives

individual learners help in decoding a text later. It is a very ‘humane’
way of having learners activate their schemata and it ensures they will
be especially alert to the language and meaning they encounter.

Alternatives

There are other ways of having learners discuss their predictions of

course: we can create word clouds using the text (see below). Learners
can look at all the words and phrases and then discuss their predictions
in pairs or groups. We can create the jigsaw effect by using pictures
(see 21).

Online/virtual variations

We can use the ‘close your eyes’ technique (see 10) to give the learners
their individual words and phrases online – or use direct messages in the
text box – before putting them in their four-person groups in breakout
rooms. Of course, we can also use the ‘close your eyes’ technique in
a face-to-face setting too, by projecting the words and phrases on
the screen.

55
 27 Press conference

Learners role play a press conference with characters from

a passage or story which they have read.

Any fairly dramatic story with multiple characters will be appropriate

here (depending on age and level), but as an example we could tell
learners the true account of a US marine, Zachary Mayo, who fell off
an aircraft carrier into the sea many years ago and was presumed lost
until he was found, amazingly, after two days, floating and delirious in
the middle of the ocean by a Pakistani fisherman (Abdul Aziz) in his
little boat.

1 Introduce learners to the story in the way that is most appropriate

for the group. You may want to use prediction tasks to prepare
them and perhaps, after they have experienced the story, ask them
comprehension questions or extract some language from the story to
focus on.
2 Lead a discussion with the class. Ask learners what their reactions
to the story are and talk about that – whether they were fascinated
or bored will not necessarily matter. The main thing is to make sure
they are engaged enough with the story to respond to its content.
3 Talk to the learners about the (real-life) characters in the story,
for example Mayo, his parents, the Marines who went to see the
parents to announce his disappearance twenty-four hours before he
was found, the crew members on the aircraft carrier, including the
captain, and Abdul Aziz. How did it feel from their point of view
(see 23)? What did they do? What happened next?
4 Put learners in pairs or groups to come up with questions they
themselves would like to ask the real-life characters and what they
think their answers might be.
5 Now assign roles to the class. They can be any one of the characters
(see stage 3 above) or media reporters. A lot will depend on the class.

56
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6 Now hold a press conference with the role players at the front –
preferably behind a table as in a real press conference. Ask them to
use their imaginations when they answer!
7 Tell the reporters to make a note of the answers to their questions.
Tell them that they have to ask a follow-up question when the
person they are interviewing gives them an answer and make sure
they do this. You can act the part of the press conference organiser
for this purpose.
8 Conduct the press conference. Reporters can question who they
wish. You may want to guide them if the activity slows down.
9 You can run a feedback session where you talk about the activity
and ask learners for their own evaluation of it. You can add anything
you think is important in terms of content and language.

Why it works for me

As with 23, the press conference makes learners interact with the
text and then with each other. It can be great fun but mimics real
communication in the outside (of class) world. Within those parameters
the six characteristics from ‘Why I wrote this book’ on page ix are
clearly met.

Alternatives

Another story of resourceful survival for this activity – depending on

the class – is the 2008 story of 24-year-old Jessica Bruinsma who used
her wits and her sports bra to get herself rescued when she fell onto a
mountain ledge high up in the Bavarian Alps and was facing probable
death until – but you can use a search engine and find out for yourself!

Online/virtual variations

Since everyone started working and playing so much online, it is not

difficult to replicate this activity using whatever classroom software we
are familiar with/whatever program we are using. This is a role play/
simulation and since many media interviews are conducted online this is
a natural way of doing the activity.

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 28 Situation-based role play

Learners plan a role play based on a story they have read

and on the characters in it.

As with the previous activity (see 27), this role play, described many
years ago by Jane Revell (1979), gets learners to think about what they
will say based on a news story before the role play takes place. We all
too often forget to provide for such pre-activity preparation. Learners
do need to think about what they are going to say and how to say it; it
can become a vital part of the learning process. Any dramatic story with
multiple characters will work with this activity The following example
(based on Harmer, 2004) is pitched at B1 level.

1 Give learners the following words and ask them to put them in a
sequence to make a newspaper headline: bites, dispute, dog, fence,
in, neighbour. Learners do this in pairs.
2 The class discuss the headline – which should be, ‘Neighbour bites
dog in fence dispute’. They then read an article about William
Jesperson (47) who bit a dog (which required 4 stitches) belonging
to his neighbour, Carol Ramsey. She had taken down a fence
between them and despite promises, had not replaced it because (she
claimed) she couldn’t afford to. It was the dog frightening his child
and frightening his pet rabbit which proved too much for Jespersen
and his wife Harmony!
3 Learners read the article (see Harmer, 2004). Then divide the class
into four groups: William Jesperson, Harmony Jesperson, Carol
Ramsey and an investigating police office. In their groups, they
discuss what their characters’ justifications are and what they
will say. The police officer group discusses the kinds of questions
they might ask and what facts they want to establish. While they
are doing this, you can go round the groups helping them with
suggestions and corrective feedback if necessary.
4 Reform the groups so that each one has a police officer, Mr. and
Mrs. Jespersen and Carol Ramsey. It is the police officer’s job to
ascertain the facts and try to give each person a chance to state their

58
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 case. Once again, this is an opportunity to intervene (appropriately)
with suggestions.
5 When the ‘interviews’ have been completed, ask the police officers
to compare notes with/in front of the class. This is a good place to
give useful feedback to the learners about the task and about the
language that was used – and perhaps could have been used!

Why it works for me

I like the fact that this activity can be serious or – as in our example –
somewhat cartoonish, thus allowing learners to have fun. Learners have to
think themselves into character and then find the language to express that.

Alternatives

Instead of group work, we can have learners work in pairs where

one learner is the police officer and the other is one of the other three
characters. Our learner grouping will be different, of course. When the
interviews are over, the police officers can compare their conclusions
and what they have been told with the rest of the class.

Any news story can be used in this way, provided that it has the
potential to engage our learners. We can also invent our own scenarios
or give learners only a newspaper headline and have them invent a story
to go with it and then proceed with the activity from there.

Online/virtual variations

It would be just as easy, online, to use a video news clip – rather than
a written article – as the story for this activity. We can share it or send
learners to an internet link.

If we don’t want to spend too much time organising groups into

breakout rooms, we can use the whole class and the chat/text box
to discuss the original story and what the characters might say. Then
we can put learners in pairs (see Alternatives above). Using any kind
of breakout grouping is helped if we decide before the lesson how to
assign the learners.

Harmer, J. (2004). Just Right Student’s Book Intermediate. Marshall Cavendish.

Revell, J. (1979). Teaching Techniques for Communicative English. Macmillan Publishers,

republished Harper Collins Publishers (2013).

59
 29 Suitcase language

Learners choose the words they would most like to ‘put

in their suitcase’ and then explain why and how they will
use them. In groups, they use these words to create their
own text.

This all started for me when I came up with (or perhaps inadvertently
‘borrowed’) the idea of ‘desert island words’ to have learners try and
engage with words in lists at the end of units in books. Such wordlists
usually just sit there with no one paying them any attention, but if we
ask learners to choose which five words they would take to a desert
island and why, they have to think about the words and talk about them.

My activity bears a strong similarity, I discovered, to an activity which

originates, I believe, from Sheelagh Deller’s concept of ‘Fridge, dustbin,
suitcase,’ where learners decide whether they want to keep new words
for later use, throw them away because they don’t want them, or put
them in their suitcase. I have focused on the third of these. The ‘suitcase’
metaphor encourages learners to make individual choices about the
language they, individually, wish to prioritise in their learning.

1 After learners have read a text, watched a video or listened to an

audio track, ask them to do it again. This time, however, they have to
choose the three words or phrases in the text that they would most
like to ‘put in their suitcase and take home with them’. Emphasise
that they are doing this because it is they, not the materials or the
teacher, who can determine how and what they wish to learn. This
may be somewhat fanciful given the pressures of tests and exams, for
example, but the concept of the suitcase sends a powerful message
to them about autonomy and self-empowerment. Tell learners that
they have to be able to justify their reasons. Why do they like their
choices? Why do they think they might be useful?
2 Learners now take their choices and research them online (they can
use a search engine or access an online dictionary, for example).

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 They should think of examples of how they can use them and come
up with sentences/contexts for that purpose.
3 Now group learners together and ask them to share their choices –
and give examples of how they can use them.
4 The group now decides on the four words or phrases the whole
group most wants to put in their metaphorical group suitcase. They
will have to negotiate with each other.
5 The groups share their words and phrases and give examples. Make
adjustments, if/where necessary.

Why it works for me

This activity provokes intrapersonal interaction between the learners’

language processing and the texts they are engaged with. It also,
crucially, is a potent reminder that they, as learners, are at the top of the
teaching and learning pyramid. By ‘humanising’ words and phrases and
then discussing them with others it expresses what learning is all about.

Alternatives

We could have some fun by assigning individual learners different

numbers, randomly. They then have to choose say, the third, fourth,
seventh, etc. word in each sentence (or in some selected sentences). They
then get into groups as before.

Learners could draw the words or phrases they have chosen, and other
learners have to try to guess what they are (see also 10). They could
say which three words or phrases they would take to a desert island
and why.

Online/virtual variations

There is no reason for not using this activity in an online setting.

Learners can hear a story (we can tell it, or they can watch a video
or listen to an audio) and then read it – this can happen through
screenshare, or we can link them to the text. They then choose their
suitcase language individually before we put them in breakout groups
where they share their words, make their choices, and then explain
them to the whole group.

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 D: Making decisions

Activities in this section ask learners –

in groups – to talk to each other so
that they can decide on what to do, on
what is true, on what is important, etc.
Provoking learners to reach a decision
and arrive at a conclusion is a way
of ensuring communication between
individuals, a communication that is
bound to engender the kind of deep
processing that I talked about in ‘Why
I wrote this book’ on page ix. And where
decisions have to be reiterated, defended
and negotiated, a virtuous circle of
effective classroom communication
is created.

30 Choose the best photograph

31 It’s not fair
32 Stamps
33 Time capsule
34 T-shirt
35 The party
36 What’s the link?
37 The last survivor (Balloon debate)

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 Choose the best photograph 30

Learners decide what criteria they wish to use to judge a

photographic prize. They then use their criteria to choose
the winner from one of, say, four photos. They give
reasons for their choices.

We all consume images all the time, whether on our phones, in the
media or in galleries. But how good are we at interpreting what we are
looking at? This activity works well with teenagers and upwards. In my
experience, the higher the level, the better the conversation.

1 Start by having a discussion with learners about when/if they look

at photographs. This is a good opportunity to elicit key concepts
for the forthcoming activity – black and white photography, digital
photography, selfies, telescopic photography. Decide how detailed
you want to be here depending on the level of the learners. Ask them
if there are any famous photographs they can remember. You could
show them a photograph which you think is especially memorable.
2 Now that learners have started to consider photographs, tell them
that they are going to be judges for an international historical
photograph choice – they will choose a photograph to be included
in a photography exhibition. The category is ‘People in black and
white’. They have to decide on four categories which they will use to
reach their decision. Discuss these categories with the whole group
or put students in groups with an uneven number (so that a majority
decision can be reached).
3 If you have not formed the groups yet, do it now. Give each group
four photographs; I have used (a) Migrant Mother by Dorothea
Lange, (b) Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan by William Counts,
(c) Men on a Rooftop by René Burri and (d) Burst of Joy by Slava
(Sal) Vader (see Harmer and Lethaby, 2005). Of course, any, perhaps
more modern, photos can be used.
4 Tell learners to look at the pictures in silence for a few moments
and to consider which of the four photos they would choose based

63
 on the four categories they decided on in stage 2 (above). Now they
have to discuss which photograph the group will pick as the one that
best answers those four categories.
5 When the groups have made their choices, ask each to share not only
their photograph, but more importantly, the reason for their choice,
based on the four categories in stage 2.
6 If more than one photo is chosen, let learners vote, as individuals,
for which photo they would like to win.

Why it works for me

I like this activity because learners have something real to discuss

(with all the activity benefits discussed in ‘Why I wrote this book’ on
page ix). Everyone can have a valid and thoughtful opinion and the
decision (with classroom limitations) matters.

Alternatives

We can have a class photography competition where all learners take

and then submit a photo on a particular theme and post it online for
everyone to see. We have a quick vote about which photos are the
best (learners can’t vote for their own pictures) and choose the highest
scoring photographs.

There is any number of alternatives to photographs. It could be the best

drawing, painting, sculpture, building or poem, for example. Learners could
themselves write poems, compositions, do drawings, or some other creative
activity. This will give everyone a really personal stake in the outcome!

Online/virtual variations

We can use a judicious mix of the chat/text box, plenary sessions,

breakout/side rooms when doing this activity online. We can ask
learners to discuss their suggestions all together – with suggestions in
the chatbox. We can share our screen so that they see the photos and
give them time to look at what they see, making notes as they do. They
can then get into groups and decide on which photo they will choose
before coming back to the main group.

Harmer, J. and Lethaby, C. (2005). Just Right Student’s Book Upper Intermediate.
Marshall Cavendish.

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 It’s not fair 31

Learners encounter a problem situation which provides

a dilemma about how people should react. They have to
decide how to resolve the dilemma before enacting it for
the rest of the class.

What is the best way out of a difficult situation? Which of many courses
of action are the best? We all face such dilemmas, big and small, in our
daily lives. We can introduce dilemmas into our classrooms, too, so
that learners have to agree on how to resolve them. The example below
(at the B2 level) is one such possibility.

1 The learners listen to the audio of a conversation from the reference

below between a primary headteacher and two boys, Joe and
Malcolm. Once Ms Griffiths (the headteacher) has prised the story
out of them, she sums everything up:
TEACHER So let me get this straight. Malcolm hurt your friend by
pulling the chair out from under him when he was about to sit down
and that made you angry. You stood up for your friend. But then he
provoked you some more and that made you even madder and that’s
when you hit him. Is that right, Joe?
JOE Yes, Ms. Griffiths.
TEACHER Alright then. Well, I’m glad we’ve got that straight. The
question is what are we going to do about it?
2 Now ask what the headteacher should do with the boys. Should
she (a) make the boys decide what to do next, (b) make the boys
shake hands, (c) praise Joe, (d) punish Joe, (e) punish Malcom,
(f) do something else? Learners get together in groups of three, five
or seven to decide what Miss Griffiths should do. The groups now
compare their decisions and, perhaps, the class votes on the best one.
3 Now ask learners to role play the scene (see 27 and 28) using their
own language, and, hopefully, language which they picked up from
the conversation they have heard. They can do this first in groups
and then perform for the rest of the class.

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 Why it works for me

The communicative interaction necessary for choosing the right solution

satisfies the six conditions discussed in ‘Why I wrote this book’ (see
page ix) especially because of the interaction within the group and the
uses to which language is being put – and repeated.

Alternatives

You can present the learners with dilemmas by telling the stories
yourself. Put learners in groups of three and give each member of
the group a role-card. The roles for our example are the headteacher,
Malcolm or Joe. Here is Malcolm’s card – not to be shown to the
others.

You have been sent to see the headteacher because you were in a
fight with another student, Joe, who hit you first. You will say it was
his fault. What you don’t really want to say (you may have to) is that
you hurt Joe’s friend by pulling the chair from under him and then
you taunted Joe about it (you made faces at him and you taunted his
friend).

You can use many other dilemmas: what should you do if you caught
a student cheating, but their home situation was really difficult? What
should someone do if they find a lot of cash; hand it in or keep it? What
should you do if you see a mother smacking a child in the supermarket?

Online/virtual variations

We can share an audio of the conversation online (or direct learners

to a link to the audio) and then put them in breakout/separate rooms
to discuss the situation before everyone gives their opinion. We can
screenshare a dilemma scenario – or tell people about it. Learners can
use the chat/textbox for this too.

Harmer, J. and Revell, J. (2017). Jetstream Upper-intermediate. Helbling.

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 Stamps 32

Learners decide – individually and then in groups – which

national or international figures or activities they will put
on a new issue of stamps.

I first came across this activity some time ago in Peter Moor and Sarah
Cunningham’s coursebook series Cutting Edge (Moor and Cunningham,
1998). Today, even in a world of electronic and digital communication,
currencies and stamps are still issued which commemorate people,
places and events.

1 Have a discussion with the class about whether they ever buy stamps
anymore. Ask learners if they receive letters or parcels with stamps
on them. It is a good idea to have examples on hand which show
what stamps look like and have looked like – especially those which
show a person on them.
2 Tell learners to think about world figures or people from their own
countries or communities, people they admire and think they made
a great contribution through their lives and actions. They should
do this individually. Tell learners to make notes about why they
might be a suitable figure to put on the country’s stamps. This is
an important stage in the activity because it gives learners thinking
time – a vital element if they are to have the confidence to express
themselves in the foreign language. We sometimes forget to give
them such time!
3 Now put learners in pairs or groups. They talk about who they have
chosen and why. They should do this by going round the group one by
one. The learners make a note of the names. When they have all stated
their choice, the group votes on who, as a group, they are going to
choose. If there is a tie, or if some people are still unhappy, they restate
their arguments – using different words to say them – until the group
finally agrees on their choice. While learners are discussing in this way,
circulate, offering help and support with language and prompting
people to speak where the conversations falter.

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 4 Now the groups share their choices with the class.
5 When all the choices have been stated, the class votes on who should
be put on the country’s/world’s stamps! Keep a tally of how many
votes are cast.
6 Now offer people who voted for the least successful person a last
chance to state their case. As with all stages, keep a record (on paper,
on a device or in your head) of what was said.
7 The class votes again. Now you have a consensus.
8 Using what you have noted down, talk about the good arguments
you heard, suggest ways of saying things better and maybe draw
learners’ attention to language problems which have occurred.

Why it works for me

This activity has a CLIL feel (see 38) where, as in the previous two
examples, content really matters. It allows often quite heated (but
safe) debate and thus really focuses learners’ minds on effective
communicative strategies and language use.

Alternatives

Another possibility which may, in fact, provoke more and wider

discussion is choosing who to make a statue of. Statues and memorials
have become a sensitive issue – in terms of historical context,
gender representation, etc. in recent years. Deciding who to install
statues of and where to put them has great potential as an effective
communicative activity. We can also talk about which figures we would
like to see on our country’s printed currency (for however long we
continue to use paper money!), or give a national medal to or nominate
as ‘person of the year’. This topic has caused controversy in many
countries, in particular, the absence of women and other groups.

Online/virtual variations

This activity (and the statues alternative) will work well in an online
environment if we put groups in breakout rooms to make their
decisions before coming to a class consensus.

Moor, P. and Cunningham, S. (1998). Cutting Edge Intermediate. Longman.

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 Time capsule 33

Learners decide what they should put in a time capsule for

the future. They can role play what people say when it is
opened.

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I first came across the idea
of using the concept of a time capsule for decision-making, but it
makes absolute sense! People have wanted to preserve history forever,
of course – documents, paintings, statues, sacred relics, etc. Among
the earliest examples of deliberate planning are from the 18th century
where collections of letters and objects were hidden in statues or the
foundations of buildings. There have been four time capsules sent to
space in case extraterrestrial beings come across them. True, historians
are on the whole sceptical of the idea, seeing the decontextualised
unpacking of objects at some time in the future as being unhelpful for
future investigators. Nevertheless, many people are fascinated by the
concept.

1 Ask learners if they are familiar with the idea of a time capsule.
Explain that people put things/recordings in a container and bury it
in a secret location to be opened, say, 100 years later (see above).
2 Ask learners how they would describe life today. What things
would they show/tell a visitor from another planet to explain what
life is like? Various suggestions might be: photographs, videos,
letters, objects, internet content, toys, speeches, letters/emails/
messages, etc. Learners can discuss this in pairs or small groups –
or as the whole class.
3 Tell learners to select ten objects to put in an indestructible container
no bigger than a document box. They should do this individually
first, and give them a few minutes to think about this. They can write
down their suggestions and consider their reasons.
4 Learners now discuss their choices in pairs. You can prepare these
discussions with useful enabling language such as, ‘I think we
should definitely include X.’ ‘Surely Y is more important?’ ‘The most

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 obvious thing to include is Z.’ Pairs should come to agreement on
about ten items. This will involve negotiation on both sides.
5 Now combine pairs into small groups and the negotiation process
starts again.
6 Depending on the size of the class, you can now combine two
groups, and then four groups, etc.
7 Finally, have the whole class discuss what should go into the time
capsule until you have, hopefully, a class consensus. Comment (with
supportive feedback) on what you have heard and how it was said.

Why it works for me

I like the reflective nature of this activity. Who are we? What represents
our way of living best? That is surely something worth discussing and,
as with content-based teaching of various kinds (CLIL, ESP, etc.), it
takes sometimes very language-focused classrooms out into areas of
motivating general interest.

Alternatives

We can use some similar ranking tasks such as ten things people would
take to survive on a desert island; the relative levels of pay in different
professions in an ideal world (should a primary teacher earn more than
a university teacher, for example?); or the desirable qualities for certain
occupations – president, gardener, nurse, etc. (See 37.)

Online/virtual variations

We can ask learners to research the topic of ‘time capsule’. What has
gone into past time capsules? They share what they find out with the
group either orally, or in the chat box.

After facilitating discussion with the whole online group, the process
can be repeated using breakout rooms. Learners can show items they
want to include.

When a decision has been made, learners can make short videos
explaining their choices and post them to an intranet system or a public
site (though we must keep safeguarding issues in mind).

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 T-shirt 34

Learners design and (if possible) produce a T-shirt

representing their country, club or school, etc.

I watched Mark Andrews teach a demonstration class during a

conference in Poland. To the obvious delight of the learners, he wove
a narrative around the different labelling on beer bottles, from both
English-speaking and non-English-speaking countries. His T-shirt
activity (which I have adapted for inclusion in this collection) is based
on the same kind of idea (see also 30–34).

1 Ask learners to think about the different things that go on T-shirts

which are illustrated in some way (pictures, designs, names, images,
logos, etc.). What are their favourite T-shirts? They should describe
them or bring photographs. Why do they like them? Because of
memories associated with the T-shirt? Because of how they look?
2 After learners show/talk about their T-shirts, tell them that they are
going to plan a T-shirt to reflect their country (or country in which
they are studying). What should go on it? They can choose up to
six images/things to represent, e.g., facts, qualities, foods, national
characteristics or places in their country.
3 Learners now work on their own to think about how to represent
their country. If you see one of them looking blank, you can prompt
with questions about famous buildings and places – or geographical
features or anything else.
4 Now put learners in pairs and ask them to share their ideas and try
to agree on up to six things to go on the T-shirt. You can give them
enabling language such as, ‘We could put/include …’ ‘Perhaps we
could …’ ‘X might look better/make a stronger impact,’ etc.
5 Combine the pairs into groups and have them try and see if between
them they can come up with a T-shirt that is to their satisfaction.
Give them time to discuss this. Point out that they must give
coherent reasons for not agreeing that something should be included.
Learners should be prepared to argue enthusiastically for what

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 they wish to include. While they are doing this, you can go round
the groups offering supportive feedback where appropriate. You
may want to prompt them to say more about why they believe the
opinions which they are expressing. The groups draw their designs.
6 When the activity is finished, the groups present their T-shirts to the
rest of the class. They can use the board to show what they mean.
You can gently intervene to help them clarify things.
7 The class now votes on the best T-shirt design. They can vote for
their own design, but only if they genuinely believe it is the best one.
8 Learners can work on actually creating the winning T-shirt either
through drawing, or digital photoshopping.

Why it works for me

The personal nature of the topic, and the content it deals with, should
ensure cognitive – but also emotional – connection. Very much a group
interaction, T-shirt has all the aspects of an effective communicative
activity.

Alternatives

For individual learners, we can ask them to say what they would like
on the front and back of their own T-shirt words, images, or whatever.
They should explain why they have made their choices. Of course, this
loses some of the effectiveness of a communicative activity. Apart from
countries, learners can talk about their town, their football club, their
school, their language, etc. A lot will depend on the composition of the
class you are teaching.

Online/virtual variations

We can have learners do this as an individual task, maybe before the

lesson starts. We can have the same discussion as in stages 1 and 2 and
then set the task. Next lesson they can show their designs and explain
them using screen share or showing a drawing or a picture. The class
votes using the symbols which the software provides.

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 The party 35

Learners decide on a party – when, where, how, what with,

etc. – to celebrate an event.

Some years ago, together with some other participants in a seminar I

was speaking at, I observed a lesson in Beijing, China. There were nearly
sixty teenagers in the group, studying at an intermediate level B2. They
sat, tightly packed, at round tables in groups of four. After doing some
work on items of language, each table (group of four) had to organise
an imaginary celebratory party. The observers were asked to judge
the best party plan. It was, to this day, one of the best lessons I have
observed: beautifully managed, carefully staged and with the complete
involvement of the teenagers. There could be many reasons for this, but
one of them was the appropriacy, for those groups, of the task itself.

1 Tell learners they are going to be planning a party – a celebration. You

may want to suggest what they will be celebrating. It could be the end
of the year, someone’s birthday, a special date in the calendar, etc. You
can make it as ‘fantastical’ as you wish. It could be a party on a boat,
on a space station(!) or anywhere else you and the learners choose.
Your choice will depend on the age and the level of the students.
2 Ask learners to spend a few minutes, individually, thinking about
what kind of a party it is going to be. They should make notes of
their ideas. They will use these ideas for the next stages.
3 Put learners into groups of four or five (an uneven number is often
better when decisions have to be reached). Tell them to share their
ideas – and give them a time limit for this. Each member of the
group says what they have thought of, and the other members of the
group ask questions about their ideas.
4 Tell learners to use all the ideas to come to a decision on what kind
of party their group wants to have. They should make individual
notes on their decisions. While they are doing this you can go
round the groups prompting and suggesting – and helping out with
language difficulties where necessary.

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 5 When the activity is over, ask each member of the group to have
a separate number from 1–5 (if they are in groups of five). Now
choose a number and point to a group: the learner who has that
number has to describe their party. I borrowed this ‘numbered heads’
ideas from William Littlewood (2004). It was his way of trying to
ensure that all learners would be equally involved because they
didn’t know who was going to be picked.
6 When all the groups have described their plans, they can vote for
the best party – one vote for their own party and one for another
group’s effort.

Why it works for me

This activity works because all learners (people) can relate to it, because
it is simple to explain, and because it has a clear outcome – the party
plan itself. As we discussed in ‘Why I wrote this book’, purposeful
repetition and group interaction are two important characteristics of
effective communicative activities and they are both in evidence here.

Alternatives

Learners could plan for/organise a flashmob (where people turn up

unannounced in a public place unexpectedly and perform a song or a
dance, etc.), a protest activity, a holiday or a trip. Just about any group
activity will do!

Online/virtual variations

Ideally, put learners in groups into breakout rooms and set a time limit
for them to plan a party. While they are doing this you can visit the
rooms to make sure the learners are on task, and to help them with
suggestions, etc. If breakout rooms are not an option for any reason,
you can have the whole group plan a class party and their suggestions
can be made both to camera and also in the chat/textbox.

Littlewood, W. (2004). ‘Structuring classroom interaction for task-based learning.’ Paper

presented at the 38th annual IATEFL conference.

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 What’s the link? 36

Individual learners are given a different picture. In small

groups, they have to share the contents of their picture
without showing it to anyone else. They have to decide
what links the different pictures.

This is similar to our story reconstruction activity (21) and shares the
same underlying ‘information gap’ protocols as activities such as Jigsaw
reading (see 25) and others (see 18). Learners must find a common link
between four apparently unrelated items.

1 Put learners into groups, one for each of the pictures you are going
to show them.
2 Give each group a (different) photograph. In the example from the
reference below, the photographs show (a) The President of the
United States (or any other country!), (b) a surfer riding a large
wave, (c) a nuclear power station, (d) an aircraft carrier, (e) a large
hydroelectric dam. It is important that the pictures do all share a
theme but, depending on the group, you do not want to make it
as obvious as, say, five different forms of transport, because the
resulting conversation would be very short!
3 Each group is told to look at the picture they have been given. They
should discuss what it shows (you can support them with language
such as: ‘It seems to be …’ ‘It’s a big picture of …’ ‘It might suggest
…’) and tell each other anything they know or think about what
they are seeing.
4 Take the pictures back from the groups.
5 Now reform the groups so that the new groups all have one
learner from group A, one learner from Group B, one learner
from group C, etc.
6 Tell the learners to talk to each other about the pictures they saw in
their original group. They can tell the others about the discussions
they had there.

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 7 We now tell the learners that they must discuss what possible
connection there is between the photographs they have each looked
at. What common theme is represented in all of the pictures? Set a
time limit for this (you may want to put the time into your phone
to make the activity more ‘exact’). Tell them that they can come up
with more than one possible connection if they want. While they
are doing this you can go round the class helping out with language
difficulties and making sure that the learners are on task.
8 When the activity has finished, discuss what the groups have decided
with the whole class. Don’t agree or disagree with their suggestions
at this point, but rather ask the class to decide which choice is
the most convincing (the theme that was intended, incidentally, is
‘power’ – which all the pictures represent different aspects of).

Why it works for me

This activity allows some learners to have one of those ‘lightbulb’

moments. In pursuit of that possibility, language becomes enabling
and instinctive. I believe this is part of the processing that leads to
automaticity.

Alternatives

Each student gets a different short poem. They study it and then talk
to each other to find/invent connections. How many poems are about
love? How many are difficult to understand? How many are loved
by their reader? How many criticise war? This is an ideal Everybody
up activity (see 1). See also activities 41 and 42. You could also have
learners write cryptic quiz clues – where the answers to, say, four
different questions when combined give you the answer to the main
question you asked.

Online/virtual variations

What’s the link? is entirely appropriate for use online. We can either
show learners in different breakout rooms different photographs,
objects or words/phrases and then re-combine them into different
groups or we can use the ‘close your eyes’ technique (see activity 10).

Harmer, J., Wilson, K., Lethaby, C. and Acevedo, A. (2009). Just Right Advanced.
Cengage Heinle.

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 The last survivor (Balloon debate) 37

Learners have to decide who, from a number of people,

will be the last survivor of a life-threatening situation
or event.

This game has been around for as long as anyone can remember, and
it goes like this: a group of people argue why they should survive some
cataclysmic event when all others perish. The rest of the class decides
who it will be. The version we are going to describe here is probably the
best-known of all its versions, the Balloon debate.

1 Give learners a list of occupations, for example: airline pilot, artist,

doctor, farmer, medical researcher, musician/composer, plumber,
scientist, software engineer, teacher, truck driver, etc.
2 Put learners in groups. In a set time limit (seven minutes, perhaps) they
have to list what benefits each of these occupations brings to society.
The purpose of this stage is to give learners some thinking time so that
they have something to say – and an idea of how to say it.
3 Explain the ‘last survivor’ scenario. Say that a number of people with
different professions are in the basket of a hot air balloon. The only
problem is that the balloon has a tear and it is losing air. Someone
will have to jump out to lighten the load. Explain that the people
in the basket will each have to say why they should be the one to
survive.
4 Select the learners who will be in the balloon basket and allocate
them a different profession. Depending on how many learners you
have in the class you can limit the number of professions you have in
the basket. Give them some time to marshal their thoughts. They can
make notes about what they are going to say. While they are doing
this, you can take a vote with the others to say who they think –
before hearing the arguments – should survive and why. They can
think of questions they would like to ask each of the people in that
basket!

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 5 Set up the front of the classroom as the ‘balloon basket’. The
occupants of the basket can sit in a semi-circle facing the class.
6 Each participant explains – in a maximum of three minutes per
person – why they should be the one to survive the crisis and
therefore not have to jump.
7 The rest of the class who are listening can now ask questions to
the basket occupants and say what they think about what they
have heard.
8 When everyone ‘in the basket’ has spoken, the class votes on who
should be allowed to survive. Learners may only vote for one person.
Tell them they should base their decision on how well the different
cases were argued.
9 The person who got the smallest number of votes has to leave the
basket. They join the rest of the class.
10 The process is repeated. Each time one person has to leave until
finally there is a winner.

Why it works for me

The last survivor works because it is often great fun! Learners have to
really listen in order to cast their vote. In the preparation stage they
have to focus on the best language to use in their groups. To my mind
it satisfies the six characteristics detailed in ‘Why I wrote this Book’ on
page ix.

Alternatives

If you don’t like doomsday scenarios(!), learners can vote on ‘the most
important occupation’ to include in a government or they can choose a
well-known celebrity and argue why they should win the ‘personality of
the year’ competition – and so on.

Online/virtual variations

Using breakout rooms, we can have learners do their group work as

before. While the chosen speakers are preparing their arguments, we
and the rest of the group can talk about which profession we think
might survive. Learners can use the online platform’s emojis or chat/text
box to vote.

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E: Presenting and performing
things

Activities in this section all ask learners

to do something – to perform something,
tell something, or video something, for
example. They focus learners on the
language they have encountered and/or
will use, whilst at the same time making
the manner of communication a focus.
Some learners, individually, are not keen
on performing in front of others. That is
why these activities are mostly focused
on group presentation, where attention
on the individual is subsumed into the
behaviour of the group as a collective of
collaborating individuals.

38 I’d rather
39 Revision charades
40 Playscript
41 Poetry enactment
42 Poetry learning
43 First draft of history

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 38 I’d rather

Learners research facts about animals in groups in order

to tell their classmates which of a random pair they would
rather be.

In this activity we combine language research with critical thinking on a

topic that learners aged around eight to twelve and at A2 level may find
very agreeable.

Sugata Mitra (2013) is one of many people to suggest that children can
learn without being ‘fed’ facts if we simply ask them the right questions
and give them the tools to research their answers collaboratively (rather
than doing so individually). Mitra’s argument suggested the arrival of
the online world made this possible.

I’d rather fits into the thinking behind CLIL (Content and Language
Integrated Learning) which suggests that language should be at the
service of (and enable learners to talk about) content rather than the
other way round (see, for example, Coyle, Hood and Marsh, 2009).

1 Write the names of animals, birds, insects and fishes on separate pieces
of paper. Fold the pieces of paper so that the names are not visible and
put all the pieces of paper in a hat, bag or bowl (see also 8).
2 Divide the class into groups of five. A representative from each
group comes and chooses two pieces of paper (= two animals, etc.).
3 The groups gather round a tablet or a screen hooked up to the
internet or intranet. If these are not available, learners can access
books in the school library and bring them back to the group.
4 Ask learners, in their groups, to research the two animals they have
chosen, for example, an elephant and a scorpion, a whale and a
mouse, a tiger and a lion. Learners find out at least five things about
each animal – where they live, how long they live, what they do, who
wants to kill them, etc. They discuss their information.
5 The learners assemble the facts they have discovered about both
animals to prepare to say why they would rather be animal A than
animal B. Tell them to plan to present their findings to the class.

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6 Each group presents their findings to the class. They might say, for
example, that they would rather be an ant than an elephant because
people do not usually try to kill them and there is always plenty of
food for them. Elephants don’t have enough food in many places
and people want to kill them for their tusks. Each member of the
group has to contribute and give some of the reasons they have
decided on. You can, at the end of the lesson ask learners to say
which animal, really, they would most like to be and why!

Why it works for me

I like the playful and thought-provoking processes that learners go

through for this deceptively simple activity. The purposeful repetition
and interactions are an added bonus.

Alternatives

There are many different ways of using (and topics for) this research and
presentation activity. With older learners, we could write world cities
on the pieces of paper. The groups then have to research the cities and
present to the group about which of their pairs they would rather live
in and why. At higher levels/ages, learners could concentrate on musical
instruments, extreme sport challenges, climate change solutions, etc.

Online/virtual variations

We can send individual learners an email/message with an animal for

them to research online (each student gets a different animal). You can
then pair up any two learners to share their two animals and then each
can make sentences to the whole group about why they would rather be
‘their’ animal than the other one.

Coyle, D., Hood, P. and Marsh, D. (2009). Content and Language Integrated Learning.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mitra, S. (2013). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3jYVe1RGaU

Accessed: July 29, 2019

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 39 Revision charades

Learners play a popular party game but with a revision

twist. Individuals act out recently learnt or encountered
sentences while members of their team try to guess the
sentence with language-based questions.

Originating (we think) in 18th century France, Charades had evolved by

the mid-19th century into the ‘acted out’ version of today’s party game.
Our version mixes this with language-based revision.

1 Divide the class into two teams. In each team, ask the learners to
come up with sentences (no longer than 10–12 words) from last
week’s classes (grammar sentences, sentences from texts, etc.). They
should write each one on a different strip of paper.
2 Tell learners that they will each be given their own individual
sentence (by the other team) and that after a few seconds thinking
about it (and about its grammar), they will have to act it out and
answer questions about it. The other learners in their team can then
ask them yes/no questions about the sentence’s language and syntax,
e.g., ‘Is the first word a definite article?’ ‘Are there any prepositions
in the sentence?’ ‘Is the third word a verb?’ ‘Is the sentence in the
past?’ or ‘If there are adjectives, are they positive or negative?’ etc.
3 Team A selects one of the sentences they have written down and
hands it over to a player in team B. That player has 20–30 seconds
to think about how they are going to mime it. Now they act it out to
their team (B) who try and guess what is going on. Each learner can
ask a question about the sentence (see 2 above).
4 The team now has a second round of questions – and if necessary, a
third. Keep a record of how many rounds it takes for the sentence to
be guessed correctly.
5 Now team B gives someone from team A one of the sentences they
(team B) have written. Team A now goes through the same sequence
described in stage 3. Again, keep a record of how many rounds it
takes for the sentence to be guessed correctly.

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6 When all the pieces of paper have been used – or earlier if the game
has lost its momentum – the activity finishes. But if you do finish the
activity ‘early’, you must be absolutely sure that each team has had
the same number of ‘turns’. With any game, learners often get highly
incensed if they perceive unfairness, even where the game itself is
fairly light-hearted.
7 Now count up all the scores and the team with the lowest scores
(i.e., who had the least total rounds to get the sentences right) is
the winner. All the sentences can be projected, and you can draw
attention to salient language features.

Why it works for me

This activity is highly motivating, and it is great fun. It involves

processing for meaning and has the learners interact with language and
the context(s) that language occurs in. It promotes group cohesion –
especially among members of the same team. But at the same time, it
acts as a language-focused revision procedure!

Alternatives
Any simple mime activity which involves performing and guessing
works really well. For example, learners can act out something that
happened to them and the other learners have to guess the story.
They can mime any simple activity – climbing a mountain, playing a
violin, cooking a meal, etc. for their classmates. Rather than acting
out a sentence or phrase, we can have learners create and then speak
a monologue or a dialogue which suggests the sentence or phrase they
have been given.

Online/virtual variations

Revision charades, especially, works well online since individual

learners can ask their questions one-by-one – to camera or using the
chat/textbox. The mix of the two (speaking to camera, and chat box
interactions) is remarkably effective. The problem comes with the
camera: how ‘wide-angle’ is it? In other words, can we see the gestures
and movements that this activity demands? If not, we can use the
monologue/dialogue equivalent (see above).

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 40 Playscript

Learners, in pairs or groups, work on a scene from a play

or movie. They rehearse it and then perform it for their
colleagues who comment on the performance.

Some years ago, I went to a superbly well-acted performance of Eugene

O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey into Night in a London theatre. I
was struck by the often-discussed fact that the actors repeated the same
exact lines every evening and yet they sounded freshly spoken and
moving to me that night. And they were probably different each night
depending on their mood and the audience in the hall. This is surely
the ‘resignification’ that Claire Kramsch talks about (see page ix) on
a grand scale. Which is why some teachers have embraced drama as a
perfect language learning/practising activity (see also 44).

1 Give learners a playscript to read. The ideal length of the script will
depend on time available and learners’ language level, age, etc. In
general, ‘small is beautiful’. There are suggestions for resourcing
scripts below.
2 Talk about the script with the class. Is it funny? Serious? Enjoyable?
With younger learners, help them engage with the scene by asking
questions like, ‘Do you like the characters?’ ‘What do they look
like, do you think?’ You can also tell the class something about the
play(script) which might help them imagine the scene visually and
‘hear’ the words in their heads.
3 Clear up any misunderstanding of words and phrases in the scene. Ask
learners how they think lines should be spoken. Loud or soft? High
voices, low voices, fast or slow? Have them mark their scripts to help
them remember this and get them to say the lines that way. Try not
to make it look as if there is a ‘right’ way to say the lines. You want
learners to explore possibilities for themselves, with your guidance.
4 In pairs (or trios or groups, depending on the number of characters
in the scene), learners practise speaking the script to get them
familiar with saying the lines.

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5 Now make groups with the same number as the characters and perhaps
one more person to act as ‘director’. First, ask learners to decide who
will take which parts and who will be the director. Now they start to
rehearse again, and the director leads the discussion and gives guidance.
They discuss how they will perform to the rest of the class.
6 Learners perform their versions to the class. Ask for comments from
the class and offer your own feedback.

Why it works for me

We discussed ‘resignification’ above – and everything that says about

purposeful repetition. Learners also give attention to suprasegmental
pronunciation issues (such as intonation, stress, pausing, etc.), and they
process the script and talk about it, together.

Alternatives

We can get learners to write their own scenes, of course and, after we have
helped them to check their English, the procedure can work as before. In
44, we will discuss how this can lead on to a longer filming sequence.

Online/virtual variations

When using online classroom platforms, we can choose scripts that

would work as radio plays. We can all talk about the scene and different
ways of speaking the lines before learners go into their breakout groups.
They then come back and perform. We will have to help learners to
come to terms with the fact that quick interruptions, etc. (a normal part
of face to face acting) won’t work here; they will have to be aware of
pausing after every speaker and build that into their performances. We
can add an extra element by asking them to include sound effects like
Foley artists do for radio and film.

Where to find playscripts

http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/ has playscript resources for children.
https://www.theatrefolk.com/blog/playwriting-performance-esl-
classroom/ gives advice and playscripts for ESL learners.
Wilson, K. and Case, D. (1979) Off Stage. Macmillan – has a
collection English teaching scripts.
Some teachers have used writers like Samuel Beckett and Harold
Pinter for acting out! Simple words, short speeches, but complex
meanings.

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 41 Poetry enactment

In this activity, groups are given the responsibility

of performing a poem for the class after a period of
preparation – with only very minimal teacher help.

I first encountered this activity, as a participant, in a workshop being

run by Alan Pulverness and Sarah Mount. They, in their turn, had
encountered it in a workshop by Alan Maley. It is probably my personal
favourite of all the activities in this book. I have organised it in many
different locations around the world with learners as well as teachers.
It has never failed. What never ceases to amaze me is the creativity that
people bring to the task, whatever their age.

1 Organise learners into groups of five to seven.

2 Give each learner a copy of a poem. It should not be too long and
it should be appropriately transparent. In other words, the meaning
should not be hidden too much by poetic technique. Ideally, it
should clearly express identifiable situations and emotions. There are
suggestions for resourcing poems below.
3 Tell groups that in 25 minutes they will have to perform the poem
for the rest of the class, any way they want. For example, they can
get one member to speak the poem and the others to interpret, act or
repeat lines; they can do it in chorus; they could do it one word per
participant at a time; they can sing it, dance it, draw it – whatever
comes to mind. The only stipulations are that (a) the poem must be
spoken/sung somehow and (b) every single member of the group
must play an observable part in the performance.
4 Learners work in their groups. Between them they have to
understand the poem using whatever means they have to hand
(each other, dictionaries, you). Where possible, groups can leave the
classroom for their preparation – they can go to the corridor, the
library, the computer room or wherever (provided, obviously that
these rooms are not being used by other people!). While they are
doing this, circulate to make sure they are on task.

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5 When the time is up, the groups perform their poem to the class.
Your role is to be as encouraging and positive as possible and to
make sure that each group is listened to/watched with attention.
6 When each group has performed, clear up any misunderstandings
about language. Ask learners to comment on and/or ask questions
about the poems, the performances and the activity itself.

Why it works for me

By demanding a profound understanding of meaning which a whole

group engages in, it provokes real personal responsibility within a
group. It is both inter- and intrapersonal in aspect. And it lets learners’
imaginations and interpretations fly.

Alternatives

We can organise a running dictation activity. Put one copy of the poem
at the front of the class and groups send representatives up to the front
to take back the poem, line by line, by reading and remembering the
individual lines in sequence. Learners seem to almost co-create the
poem’s meaning and form!

Online/virtual variations

On classroom online platforms you can give the learners the poem in
the chat/text box or share the screen. They are then grouped in different
‘rooms’ to discuss how they can perform it – given the limitations of the
situation, and that only one person can speak at a time. Nevertheless,
different members of a group can act out/mime while someone else is
speaking.

Where to find poems

You can search online for collections of poems for the classroom.
Three of my (UK) favourites are: I am the Seed that Grew the
Tree edited by Fiona Waters and Frann Preston-Gannon (Nosy
Crow Ltd.) for children, Poems to Live Your Life By, chosen and
illustrated by Chris Riddell (Pan Macmillan) and Poems on the
Underground (Penguin UK).

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 42 Poetry learning

Learners learn a poem by heart.

Learning by heart sounds like an unlikely activity to use in a collection

of communicative activities, yet it is a whole-language process in
which learners’ own individual communicative skill is exploited to
its maximum. It has been part of education for as long as anyone can
remember.

1 Read learners a poem. Read it twice, clearly and at an appropriate

speed. (I have frequently used Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon
for this activity at the B2 level or above. See 41 for suggestions
about where to find appropriate poems.) Tell learners that you are
going to give them a copy of the poem. Don’t tell them what they are
going to do with it.
2 Give each learner their own individual copy of the poem. Tell them
that they have ten minutes to learn the poem by heart. (See below
for a discussion about meaning-checking.) They will be momentarily
shocked by this if you have not done anything like it before. Explain
that they can get up and move around if they want. (Some people – I
include myself here! – find it easier to learn by heart while walking
around.) They can say the poem aloud, but not loudly. They can
learn it using their ‘inner voice’ or any other technique they wish.
Should we check learners’ understanding of the poem before they
start learning by heart? I am not in favour of this, provided the
poem is well chosen. Learning a poem by heart under pressure
makes learners process the language in a much more intense and
engaged way (trying to work out how it sounds, rhythm and
possible meanings, etc.) before we get to stage 7. It is worth trying!
3 Set the timer. Try not to distract anyone but keep watching them
all, ready to encourage anyone who doesn’t seem to be on task.
Ten minutes has been enough in the groups of B2/C1 learners I
have worked with using the Sassoon poem (see above). Everything
depends on the level of the learners and the poem.

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4 When the time limit expires, ask for quiet and give everyone a few
seconds to relax.
5 Tell everyone to turn their paper face down. Ask for a volunteer
to try and say the poem by heart. Give them time to try and
remember – get over stumbles and mistakes, etc. If the learner
grinds to a complete halt (it’s easy to do!), ask the others to help
them. Remember to go back to the first learner to give them the
opportunity to complete the poem.
6 Repeat the process with another learner. You can do this as many
times as it continues to engage the class. Each time the poem will be
better memorised.
7 When the activity is finished, learners in groups can discuss how the
activity felt. You can then talk about the poem itself and clear up
and discuss meanings and interpretations. (You can search online for
information.)

Why it works for me

Who would have thought an activity as old as education itself could

have such a communicative payoff! A combination of the intra-
personal, inner voice, interrogation of image and meaning, and learning
under pressure ensures this activity’s inclusion here.

Alternatives

We can mix this activity with a re-ordering task. In this version, learners
are given individual lines to commit to memory and then put in groups
where each line is represented (see 24).

Online/virtual variations

This is one of the activities that are difficult to replicate with the same
immediate ‘feeling’ online. However, we can put the poem up on a
shared screen for ten minutes and ask learners to learn from there. Of
course, we must make sure that everyone is appropriately muted.

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 43 First draft of history

Learners role play TV/online reporters ‘in the field’

speaking to the show’s anchor in the studio. They describe
what is going on around them.

Journalists, it is often said, write the first draft of history, a remark often
attributed to Philip L. Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post,
though the remark almost certainly predates him! This activity uses that
idea to create an imaginative role play.

1 Ask learners to think about the news on TV. Get them to describe
what usually happens: the newsreader speaks directly to the camera;
we watch a video report; people talk about the weather; and – the
point of this activity – the newsreader/anchor talks to journalists
clutching their microphones and standing before a camera as the
newsreader/anchor asks questions. Explain that this is the focus of
the activity they are going to take part in.
2 Have learners focus on the kinds of questions that the newsreader
might ask the reporter. (This will depend on the learners’ level, of
course.) These questions might include:
Where are you? What’s the mood? What is everyone doing?
What’s going to happen? What are people saying?
You may want to make your own list before you use the activity so
that you are ready with your suggestions.
3 Now have learners think about the kinds of things the reporter
might say. These could include:
Behind me/around me there are/I can see …
I talked to someone from the X party/group and she told me ...
It feels very peaceful/dangerous …
Experts are saying that …
4 Tell learners they are witnessing a parade to celebrate carnival (or
some other parade-like activity). Give them a bit of time to note
down what might be going on. Talk about some of the vocabulary
they might use. You can make suggestions here if you want to.

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5 Put learners in pairs and allow them to practise the role play, where
one of them is the studio anchor person (see 2 above) and the other
is the reporter (see 3 above). Go round the pairs listening, helping
and making appropriate suggestions.
6 Now go to the main activity. Learners choose from the various
possibilities such as a ceremony (like the Oscars); the public launch
of a ship, craft, product; a demonstration; a famous battle from
history; etc.
7 Put learners into groups and, with the event they have chosen, they
talk about what might be happening, what words they need, who
might be there.
8 Now learners practise the TV broadcast in pairs. When they have
had a chance to do this, some pairs can perform for the rest of
the class. It might help if you do some physical moving of class
furniture. The news reader/anchor can be seated behind a table and
the reporter can be standing. Finally, you can offer feedback with
commendations and suggestions for how things could be improved.

Why it works for me

I love this ‘real-world-with-a-twist’ activity. Its TV simulation play-

acting is one that all learners can relate to. As learners hear the different
‘broadcasts’, their linguistic processes and, hopefully, enjoyment
becomes more sophisticated.

Alternatives

We can extend this activity so that the ‘on-the-spot’ reporter actually

interviews some people around them. They can ask, ‘How long have
you been here?’ ‘Why did you come today?’

Online/virtual variations

This activity feels like it is tailor-made for the online environment.

If learners are separated by space – whether in different houses or
different countries even – it adds authenticity to the occasion. We can
discuss the language from stages 2 and 3 with the whole group. We
can put learners in breakout pairs to practise, or, if we don’t want to
organise that, we can practise with the whole group before having two
people do the role play while the others watch.

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 F: Activities in sequences

This section shows how activities can

be threaded through longer sequences –
stretching over more than one
lesson, sometimes. In such sequences,
communication activities play their part
(a very important one) in the construction
of a language and topic journey.

44 Film a scene from a movie

45 Opinion survey
46 Formal debate
47 Group presentations
48 Two-group interviews
49 The front page
50 Visitor interview

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 Film a scene from a movie 44

Learners write a movie scene (or series of scenes), rehearse

it and then film it.

I once met a teacher in Colombia (Felipe Rodríguez) who told me, on

camera, about a movie project his teenage learners had put together,
finally filming the whole thing in a wood behind their school. It was,
he said, ‘wicked’ – British slang back then to denote great success.
And in 2018, I visited a primary school in Norwich (UK) with a group
of French primary teachers. We saw a film the children had made
themselves about Black Shuck, the notorious devil from East Anglian
folk stories. The benefits from both projects – and more like them from
different groups of learners and teachers – are many and profound.

The whole sequence gives learners many opportunities in and outside

normal class time to communicate because of their shared goal.

This is an extended and more complex version of 40.

1 In groups, learners discuss (a) their favourite movies/their favourite

movie genres and then (b) decide on the kind of movie they would
like to film. Go round the groups making suggestions and helping
them with the discussions.
2 The groups work out a basic story for the movie they would make
(of which they will do just one scene). They might want to search
online for typical movie plots. They decide on some characters from
their movie – who they are, what they are like, etc. Use this stage to
feed in language related to character and appearance.
3 Ask learners to identify a scene from their story that they think
would be a good one to film. They start by deciding who is there,
where they are, and what their relationships are to one another. They
then move on to think about how the characters are feeling at this
point (referring to their decisions about character in stage 2). Finally,
they decide on what will happen in the scene, create a storyboard
and start to put together the dialogue and the scene directions. They
can role play the scene before they start writing it.

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 4 Encourage learners to do several drafts of their script. For each draft,
ask them to review their writing and look for better ways of saying
things and spot and correct mistakes. While they are doing this,
circulate and offer suggestions.
5 Now ask learners to assign roles. Who will play the characters in the
scene? Who will direct the scene and make decisions about what the
characters do? Who will be the camera operator?
6 The characters rehearse their scene while the director listens, makes
suggestions and leads a discussion about aspects of filming (e.g.,
camera angles, sound effects, etc.).
7 The filming takes place. It may take a few attempts, of course.
8 Groups now show their videos to the rest of the class and people say
what they liked and, maybe, suggest ways to expand the scenes.

Why it works for me

When learners get behind this activity, they give considerable attention
to language, which is pored over and repeated (purposefully). The inter-
group interaction is what communication is all about.

Alternatives

We can have learners create and film their own episodes of a TV series
they are all fond of. They can ‘borrow’ characters from something they
have read or seen. It is useful if we help them to focus their scenes/
episodes on realities they are all likely to be familiar with.

Online/virtual variations

It’s very difficult to film together when you are geographically separate,
of course. However, learners can create their scene and record it. And
like many projects (theatrical and musical) during the Coronavirus
lockdowns, different learners can send in their own filming of a part of
the scene which can then be threaded together into a whole.

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 Opinion survey 45

Learners have communicative interactions in preparation

for a summary of opinions for a survey.

What I like about opinion surveys is that they can be used at any level.
Even at the A1 level, ‘Do you like bananas?’ can lead to, ‘Ten people in
the class like bananas.’ The procedure I am going to describe here (and
which Philip Harmer used in his classes) is appropriate for learners in
groups of ten or more at the B2 or C1 level. This kind of activity is also
appropriate for, e.g., IELTS exam preparation – where the results of the
survey can be written up.

1 Discuss topics that might interest learners – and which have the
potential to engage them. What topic would they like to find out
their classmates’ opinions on?
2 Ask learners, individually, to formulate the questions they would
like to ask. As an example, a learner might select UFOs (unidentified
flying objects) as their topic (or you might use this as an example
topic). Tell them to think of detailed questions which go beyond
simple yes/no questions. On the chosen topics of UFOs, you might
prompt learners to come up with questions like, ‘What are your
reasons for (not) believing in UFOs?’ ‘Why do you think people talk
about UFOs so much?’ ‘Have you ever seen a UFO or a programme
about UFOs? Tell me about it?’ ‘What explains the phenomena of
people’s fascination with UFOs, do you think?’
3 While learners are formulating their questions, go round the class
and offer constructive feedback.
4 Now put learners in pairs. Tell them there is a time limit – say, four
minutes – for each conversation. They interview the other learner in
their pair and take notes of their answers (or record them).
5 When four minutes are up, the pairs swap roles of interviewer and
interviewee for another four minutes. Learners now make new pairs
and repeat the process. They do this until everyone in the class has
worked in different pairs. While the activity is going on, go round
the group offering light-touch feedback.

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 6 Finally, ask individual learners to collate all the answers they
have received. They can make notes to prepare to give an oral
presentation (see 47). Go round and offer constructive feedback.
7 In this and subsequent lessons, individual learners present their
findings. The other learners now have the opportunity/obligation to
comment and ask questions.
8 When the activity is finished, both you and the learners can make
comments about the presentations they have watched, with an
emphasis on what they liked about those presentations.

Why it works for me

This is ‘real-life’ communication! The preparation of the survey

questions, the interviews themselves and the reporting of them ensure
satisfying and effective purposeful repetition, attention to meaning in
context, and authentic interaction.

Alternatives

The ideal kind of surveys involve learners interviewing people in ‘real’

conversations outside the classroom (as when I was questioned, once,
by a couple of teenager learners of English outside the Museo de
Antropologia in Mexico City). There are obvious safeguarding issues
of course, but once overcome, the excitement of having these real-life
interactions cannot be overstated.

In an A1 or A2 class, learners make charts with, say, a list of foods and

class names. They go round the class asking, ‘Do you like bananas? Do
you like beetroot? Do you like tomatoes?’ etc. and then report back
their findings.

Online/virtual variations

Many people use written online survey programs to gather information,

and that can lead to oral presentations, of course. But we want learners
to communicate orally with others. We can set up breakout rooms on
a rotating basis (setting a time limit for each interview). We can ask
friends and colleagues if they will agree to be interviewed online by
learners. We can ask them to interview each other, etc.

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 Formal debate 46

Learners prepare for and take part in a formal debate.

We are all familiar with the concept of debating, whether in politics,

for example, discussion or university or school activities. The English
classroom is no different – just a bit more challenging! We have to be
available to help (see stage 3).

In a formal debate, opposing teams put together arguments and argue

against each other before a vote is taken on who has made their
arguments most effectively.

1 Tell learners that they are going to take part in a formal debate
and explain the rules and procedure: two opposing teams speak for
and against a motion/proposition. This is how it works: a proposer
from team A speaks for five minutes. Then an opposer from team B
speaks for the same amount of time. A second proposer from team
A speaks for three minutes, trying to answer team B’s first speaker.
Now a second speaker from team B speaks, trying to answer team
A’s first speaker. Now, at this point, members of the ‘audience’ can
make their comments on what they have heard and ask questions.
Next, the second speaker from team A makes a short summarising
comment and the second speaker from team B does the same.
Finally, the main speakers make their closing summaries and appeal
for the audience’s vote. The audience now vote for or against the
proposition based on what they have heard.
2 Divide the class into two teams, A and B. They have to consider a
proposition such as: ‘The rise of social media has done more harm
than good.’ Team A has to discuss reasons that they could use to
support that proposition. Team B has to marshal arguments about
why, on the contrary, social media has done more good than harm.
Explain that these arguments do not have to depend on the group
members’ personal beliefs. Instead, the idea is to think of arguments
to support the point of view they are arguing for, whatever they
themselves might feel about it.

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 3 Set a time limit for their discussions. Help teams with language
difficulties and suggest ways of saying things.
4 Now each group selects a proposer (main) speaker and seconder.
The rest of the group now detach themselves from their team so that
they can be the audience where they are free to react and speak as
themselves. They make their own evaluation based on their feelings
and the speakers’ performances.
5 Appoint someone to take charge of the debate. They have to say
who speaks when and keep a strict control on the time they have
been given. Some teachers prefer to take on this role themselves
so that they can ensure the debate’s smooth running and offer
encouragement when the pace or the enthusiasm sags.
6 The debate now takes place. When the four initial speakers have
made their arguments, set a time limit for audience comments
and questions.
7 When the debate has finished, get the audience to vote.
8 Conduct feedback with the class. Who did they think spoke best
or made the most effective points? You may wish to add your
own comments and, perhaps, pick out any language you want to
highlight and improve.

Why it works for me

What has always appealed to me about this activity is that learners have
to really listen to others and respond accordingly – quite apart from
finding the right words to express their own meanings. Debates have so
much of what we are looking for!

Alternatives

A much shorter version – which does not involve such a detailed

sequence – is Tennis match (see 16.)

Online/virtual variations

Online debates miss some of the features of physically shared space,

of course. But learners can still prepare in groups and deliver their
speeches – and be questioned. This demands a clear online turn-taking
protocol. Inbuilt emojis on the platform can be used for voting.

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 Group presentations 47

Learners work in groups to prepare and deliver an oral

presentation supported by whatever visuals, media or
props they need.

Project work has always been part of teachers’ repertoires. It demands

a sustained attention span and dedication from learners, including
research and planning. Since the arrival of online access, project work
has become more feasible.

1 Before the lesson or lessons, select a topic for the learners to work
on. It can be anything from the typical ‘Sites of interest in our town/
city’, to ‘How mobile devices have affected real life conversation’,
‘How the world is combatting the climate crisis,’ or ‘Fashion through
the ages’. Alternatively, you can ask learners to choose their own
topics or give them a range of alternatives which they can choose
from. Decide on how long the students will have; a 60-minute
sequence demands quick thought and pressured communication; a
longer sequence, over more than one lesson, will give learners time
to conduct face-to-face interviews, take pictures or do more in-depth
research.
2 Tell the learners that they are going to work in groups to prepare a
presentation for the rest of the class. Explain that each individual
learner must be an active participant in the presentation (see also 41)
and that they can use any tools or media to help them make their
presentation.
3 Put learners in groups – probably not smaller than three or bigger
than five or six. Offer them the topic(s) you have chosen (see 1
above). If you have offered alternatives, give them a few moments to
discuss their choice.
4 Offer learners stages that might help them plan their presentations:
for example, they can come up with initial ideas about topic and
structure. They decide how they are going to research the topic
(online, using the library or face-to-face interviews, etc.).

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 5 When the groups have collected all their data, they try and put it into
some sequence. While they are doing this (and with all the stages from
3 onwards), go round the groups, checking on their progress, offering
suggestions, and helping with any language issues that may come up.
In particular, you may need to encourage learners to limit their focus
if, as sometimes happens, they try to do too much.
6 Learners now put their presentations together and practise what they
are going to say. Remind them that each one must play a part in the
presentations.
7 Groups present to the rest of the class. Each person listening is asked
to write down at least one question.
8 When a group finishes, get the listeners to ask their questions
ensuring, over the course of this stage, that every learner asks at least
one question.
9 Together with other learners, give feedback on what you have heard
and help learners to make improvements so that they can re-do the
presentation. Such task repetition is both satisfying for them and
valuable for learning.

Why it works for me

It’s the inter-group co-operation and work on repeated language

elements that make this such an effective activity. I love the sense of
individual responsibility within the group that happens.

Alternatives

Learners can listen in groups of three. One says three things they liked
about the presentation; the next asks three questions about what they
have heard and seen and the third says three things they would express
differently or have a different opinion about. The presenting group then
looks at their presentation again with a view to making it better.

Online/virtual variations

This sequence can be put together by groups of learners online. They

can be in contact with each other – operating in their online groups.
They can prepare their presentations and the presentation media they
wish to use. They present to their colleagues online, one by one, whilst
using screenshare for the media they have chosen.

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 Two-group interviews 48

Groups identify a job and design interview questions for it.

Then they hold the interviews.

Going for an interview is something that all of us have to do in our

lives, sometimes many times! This activity thus has a useful dual focus:
language improvement and life-skill training.

1 Ask learners what questions they would expect to meet if they went
for a job interview – for just about any job. These might be things
(for a B2 class) like, ‘Why do you want this job?’ ‘What qualities
would you bring to this job if you were successful?’ ‘Why do you
think you are suited for this post’ ‘Do you have any questions for
us?’ etc. For lower levels questions might be, e.g., ‘Why are you good
for this job/post?’ or ‘Why are you the right person for this job?’ etc.
2 Ask the class to select a job that they want to focus on. It is wise to
take your own suggestions into the classroom to help them along.
The jobs could be anything from fire officer, children’s library
assistant, supermarket clerk to pilot, waiter, school principal,
hairdresser, etc. Tell learners, individually, to choose a job and think
about what qualities would be required in such a job.
3 Divide the class into two groups. Each group comes to a decision
about one job and then discusses five qualities they will be looking
for in a successful applicant. While they are doing this, go to the two
groups and make sure they are on task. You may want to give a time
limit for the two stages of decision-making (the job and the desirable
qualities).
(In large classes, you can set up any number of groups to prepare
and enact job interviews. Other learners (candidates) go from group
to group. Did each group choose the same person if each group was
interviewing for the same job?)
4 Now tell each group to come up with ten questions which they will
ask each candidate. The questions should not only elicit answers
about the candidate’s character but also about how well they match

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 the qualities that were identified in stage 3. Check over the questions
and help with minor suggestions to make them more effective.
5 When the questions are ready, tell each group what the other
group’s choice of job is and what desirable qualities they are
looking for. Groups now have a chance to predict what questions
the other team will ask them. Give them a chance to discuss how
they might answer them.
6 A learner from each group goes to the other group and is
interviewed by them for the job they have decided on. Tell
interviewing groups that they should be welcomed, offered a seat,
given introductions, etc., just as in a life-outside-the-classroom
interview. The members of the interviewing group take notes of the
answers the interviewees give. When the first interview is done, two
more learners swap groups and the process is repeated, with exactly
the same questions.
7 The activity continues until all learners have been interviewed. Now
each group discusses who they will choose and why. The results are
announced!
8 Lead a discussion with the whole class. What did they learn from
the activity? What did they like and not like about it? Which of their
questions were successful for helping them make their choice and
which were not? Which questions did the interviewees find easy/not
so easy, etc?

Why it works for me

The question preparation and the interviews are incredibly language rich
and the decisions – because they are based on the interviews themselves –
ensure authentic communication and real attention to language.

Alternatives

Groups can design charts/forms to fill in about each candidate to help

them in their post-interview discussions.

Online/virtual variations

Many interviews take place online in real life. All we have to do is

replicate that with our groups going into breakout rooms instead of
gathering together in physical space.

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 The front page 49

Learners create a newspaper/website front page and

respond to new stories as they come in.

There is a long tradition in language teaching of simulating the activity

in a newsroom where decisions have to be made, headlines created,
articles written and changes made, sometimes at the last moment
(see stage 8).

This activity can, of course, be compressed into a one-lesson sequence,

but it has much more power when it stretches over two or more classes.
It becomes as much a learning as a practice activity.

1 Give learners examples of print newspapers and online sites. What

you choose will depend on their age and level, of course. Ask them
to notice features such as how articles are constructed – an opening
paragraph which briefly states the whole ‘story’, detailed information
in the next paragraphs, final paragraph which sums up the story and
ends with questions or (what people say) is going to happen next.
Have them look at the headlines and see how they are constructed:
in print media, grammar words such as articles and auxiliaries
are often omitted, for example. Online headlines are often more
‘complete’, but how and why? Ask learners to look at what stories
come first and why. Finally, they can discuss issues such as what
photos and other visuals are used and why.
2 Put learners in small groups. Give each group two or three different
stories. Depending on their age and level, these can be ones that
you invent or adapt. In higher level groups, you can hand round
newspapers and/or have them investigate different online news sites.
You can assign different sites to different groups. Ask the learners to
make notes of all the main stories – but not the headlines, especially.
You should also find, adapt or write some appropriate stories to feed
in as ‘late-arriving news’ at stage 8.
3 Now make new groups by moving one or two learners from the
original groups. (If it is a smaller class, these next stages can all be
done as a whole class activity.)

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 4 Ask learners to share the stories they have found. While they are
discussing them, they should start to think of which ones are the
most important.
5 Now tell learners how many stories should fit on their front page.
Tell them to choose which ones they will include. Depending on their
age and level you can give them word limits for each article – and
other constraints to help them formulate their pieces.
6 Learners now write their articles following, as far as the possible, the
models they came across in stage 1. While they are doing this you
can go round offering support and advice.
7 Now ask learners to write the headlines.
8 Give learners time to design their pages. The learners who have the
best digital skills should do the layout and design while the others
offer their opinions and suggestions. At this stage – depending on the
level of the class and the time available – you can introduce some late-
arriving stories. The students will have to decide whether to include
them or not, and how this will affect the layout of the front page.
9 When learners have finished their front page, they can show them
to the whole class who then evaluate them and, if you think this is
appropriate, choose their favourite.

Why it works for me

Front page is an exciting ‘hands-on’ activity which involves reading

(and listening/watching), design, and crucially (which is where the face-
to-face communication comes in), discussion and decision-making. Best
of all, the learners have something to show for it when it is over.

Alternatives

You can use the same basic procedure to recreate a radio or TV

newsroom. Learners have to choose the stories which will be aired,
what order they will be presented in, and what words the newsreader
will use. Once again, we can feed in late-arriving news, and we can
have them make the programme after choosing camera operatives,
newscaster, etc. (see also 43). We can substitute other topics (fashion,
entertainment, sport etc.) instead of general news if we wish.

Online/virtual variations

This activity works extremely well online since it is exactly how many
print and online media organisations operate anyway.

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 Visitor interview 50

Learners prepare to interview a visitor to their virtual class

including writing letters of invitation and questions. They
research the visitor’s life and occupation. After the visit –
in which they interview their guest – they write thank you
letters and reflect on what they have learned.

Preparing to interview a visitor to a class (research, invitations,

question preparation, etc.); interviewing the visitor; summarising the
interview later; writing thank you mails; etc. These are all part of a rich
communicative sequence. I am going to describe such a sequence used by
An Croenen Brutsaert with her online learners. I am very grateful to her
for letting me describe her lesson(s) here. The sequence was provoked by
a song called The President Sang Amazing Grace by the folk artist Zoe
Mulford – who then became the class ‘visitor’. The song details the visit of
then-US president Barack Obama to Charleston, South Carolina in June
2015 to commemorate nine victims of a white supremacist murderer.

1 An started by asking her learners to look at a photo of President

Barack Obama attending a memorial service in Charleston, South
Carolina on June 17, 2015. In breakout rooms, pairs were asked to
discuss whether they were surprised that the photo is from a funeral.
They were told that it shows the president singing the song Amazing
Grace about forgiveness, and they were asked to speculate why he
would do that – and then to research it online.
2 The learners watched a YouTube video of the event that day.
3 They then did a matching definitions exercise with qualities such as
‘introspective’, ‘empathetic’, ‘adaptable’ and ‘resilient’ and discussed
which qualities a leader should have.
4 The learners were told they were going to meet a folk singer called
Zoe Mulford in a few days. They did a fill-in discovery exercise
about her and her song.
5 The learners were directed to a video of Mulford singing the song
(see below). A glossary was provided for potentially problematic
words or phrases.

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 6 Together the learners wrote a letter of invitation to Zoe Mulford.
They prepared questions they would like to ask her.
7 In an online session, the learners interviewed Zoe Mulford
and interacted with the answers she gave. This was the main
communicative activity at the heart of this sequence.
8 After the interview the learners discussed their reactions to it. They
were encouraged to write thank you letters to their visitor. One
student, for example, wrote, ‘You are a great person who is able to
talk about everything with such wisdom and humility.’

Why it works for me

Nothing can provoke real-life processing and emotional/cognitive

engagement more than this kind of activity with its authentic
communicative interactions and meaningful real-life stories. It is a
fitting last activity sequence for this collection.

Alternatives

If we can’t invite a real person into our virtual classroom, we can

get learners to role play an interview with an imaginary character
or celebrity. It can be good fun to imagine what they might say! Or
they can decide together on questions they would like to ask someone
famous and then imagine what their answers might be.

Face to face variation

As Laura Edwards pointed out during an online conference in 2020, it

is easier to get someone to agree to be interviewed online than in real
life – it is less disruptive for the interviewee (Edwards 2020). However,
it is surely possible, sometimes, to invite a physical person into the
classroom – anyone the learners might find interesting. They can be a
mystery person and the learners have to find out who they are and why
they are interesting. We will need to prepare our visitor for the learners’
language level.

The President sang Amazing Grace can be seen and heard at

https://zoemulford.com/the-story-of-the-president-sang-amazing-grace
(accessed 04/12/2020)

Edwards, L. (2020). ‘IATEFL Global get together’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgCzsB1LOkM&t=1393s (accessed 22/12/2020)

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Index
Allwright, D. 37 Musical stories 14–15
Andrews, M. 71 Mystery objects 22–23
Ask the right question 29–30 Personal interviews 4–5
automaticity 33 Portrait interviews 12–13
Space station speed dating 6–7
Backs to the board 31–32 What’s my line? 10–11
Balloon debate 77–78 Wordless conversation 18–19
Bilbrough, N. 45 event planning activity 73–74
Brutsaert, A. C. 105 Everybody up 2–3
Experts 8–9
celebration activity 73–74
Chagall, Marc 37 false statements activity 39–40
charades activity 82–83 Film a scene from a movie 93–94
Choose the best photograph 63–64 First draft of history 90–91
Clare, A. 20 Fishbowl improvisation 16–17
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated fluency circles 7
Learning) 68, 80 Formal debate 97–98
Constructing stories from pictures 43–44 Four corners 41–42
Cranmer, D. 12
Cuisenaire rods 45–46 grammar drills 35–36
Cunningham, S. 67 Group presentations 99–100

debating activities 33–34, 97–98 Harmer, J. 6, 31

decision making Harmer, P. 16, 95
Choose the best photograph 63–64 Harris, B. 45, 46
It’s not fair 65–66 Harris, R. 54
Last survivor (Balloon debate) 77–78 Hayward, L. 6
Stamps 67–68 House rules 26–27
T-shirt 71–72
The party 73–74 I’d rather 80–81
Time capsule 69–70 identity cards 5
What’s the link? 75–76 information gap activities 31–32, 43–44,
desert island words activity 60–61 52–53, 75–76
A different point of view 48–49 interacting with/from text 47
Discussion cards 24–25 A different point of view 48–49
Drawing happy dreams 20–21 Jigsaw prediction 54–55
drill chains 35–36 Jigsaw reading 52–53
Press conference 56–57
Edwards, L. 106 Reassembling poems 50–51
engaging communication 1 Situation-based role play 58–59
Discussion cards 24–25 Suitcase language 60–61
Drawing happy dreams 20–21 interviews
Everybody up 2–3 Experts 8–9
Experts 8–9 Personal interviews 4–5
Fishbowl improvisation 16–17 Portrait interviews 12–13
House rules 26–27 Space station speed dating 6–7

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 Two-group interviews 101–102 Playscript 84–85
Visitor interview 105–106 see also Film a scene from a movie
Islamabad 45–46 poems activities 50–51, 76, 86–89
It’s not fair 65–66 Poetry enactment 86–87
Poetry learning 88–89
Jigsaw prediction 54–55 Portrait interviews 12–13
Jigsaw reading 52–53 PPP model (presentation, practice and
jigsaw technique 41, 52–55 production) 35
Johnson, G. 26 practising communicatively 28
journalism activities 8–9, 90–91 Ask the right question 29–30
Backs to the board 31–32
Keegan, P. 14 Constructing stories from pictures 43–44
Klippel, F. 5 Four corners 41–42
Kramsch, C. 84 Islamabad 45–46
Learner-generated drill chains 35–36
language practice see practising Similarities and differences 37–38
communicatively Tennis match 33–34
Last survivor (Balloon debate) 77–78 Truth and lies 39–40
Learner-generated drill chains 35–36 prediction, jigsaw technique 54–55
presenting/performing activities 79
Maley, A. 86 First draft of history 90–91
Marsh, A. 20 Group presentations 99–100
mime I’d rather 80–81
Revision charades 82–83 Playscript 84–85
What’s my line? 10–11 Poetry enactment 86–87
Wordless conversation 18–19 Poetry learning 88–89
mingling activity 2–3 Revision charades 82–83
Mitra, S. 80 see also role plays
Moor, P. 67 Press conference 56–57
Mount, S. 86 Prodromou, L. 33
movie scenes activity 93–94 Pulverness, A. 86
Musical stories 14–15
Mystery objects 22–23 question-based activities
Ask the right question 29–30
news reporting activities 90–91, 103–104 Opinion survey 95–96
newspapers 103–104 see also interviews

online learning see virtual learning Reassembling poems 50–51

Opinion survey 95–96 Revell, J. 2, 58
opinions activities 41–42, 95–96 Revision charades 82–83
see also interviews Rinvolucri, M. 26
Roberts, R. 4
performance see presenting/performing role plays
activities; role plays First draft of history 90–91
Personal interviews 4–5 It’s not fair 65–66
photographs Playscript 84–85
Choose the best photograph 63–64 Poetry enactment 86–87
Mystery objects 22–23 Portrait interviews 12–13
What’s the link? 75–76 Press conference 56–57

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 Revision charades 82–83 Learner-generated drill chains 35–36
Situation-based role play 58–59 Musical stories 14–15
Space station speed dating 6–7 What’s the link? 75–76
Suitcase language 60–61
scripts activity 84–85
see also Film a scene from a movie; T-shirt 71–72
role plays task repetition 41
sequences, activities in 92 see also practising communicatively
Film a scene from a movie 93–94 Tennis match 33–34
Formal debate 97–98 see also Formal debate
Group presentations 99–100 text see interacting with/from text
Opinion survey 95–96 The front page 103–104
The front page 103–104 The party 73–74
Two-group interviews 101–102 Time capsule 69–70
Visitor interview 105–106 Truth and lies 39–40
Similarities and differences 37–38 TV broadcast activity 90–91
Situation-based role play 58–59 Two-group interviews 101–102
Space station speed dating 6–7
Stamps 67–68 What’s my line? 10–11
Stevick, E. 45 What’s the link? 75–76
stories Wilson, K. 8
A different point of view 48–49 Wilson, P. 18
Constructing stories from pictures 43–44 Wordless conversation 18–19
Film a scene from a movie 93–94
Jigsaw reading 52–53

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Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press