Speaking activities
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Some simple ways of improving young learners speaking abilities:
Full version! (previous link missed the beginning -oops!).A film made with my class of 7 years olds. Clic on the image to watch it. This is an edited version, the original version has a more funky soundtrack but I had to change it for copyright reasons to post it online. But you'll get the idea. Tips on how to make a film coming soon. Watch this space.
Interview activities and stories for children to retell Simple 2 person activities and simple short stories designed to get young learners talking to their partners.
Present simple
The Little Mouse: to be A small mouse shows he is more than a match for the bigger animals. Followed by a simple interview.Robot salesperson: can Students design their own robot and then try to sell it to their classmates.
Royal battleships: simple questions
Write a Magic Spell: Students write their own magic spell and then practise chanting it.
Police interview: present simple Students role play a police interview, practising present simple questions.
Daily routines: present simple Students talk about what they do every day.
The Vampire's day: Contrasting third person affirmative and negative (this activity can also be used to contrast past simple afirmative and negative)
The New Sheriff: present simple questions Students interview each other to find who would make the best new sheriff.
Describing an animal Students describe the parts of an animal and then practise with a simple pet shop role play.
My favourite animal: present simple Children describe their own animal using a simple framework.
The Space telephone: Present continuous
Clothes shopping A brave knight goes shopping.
Clothes vocabulary and shopping
At the beach: Talking about what you can do at the beach
PET/FCE type speaking activities
A day out: Students have to plan a day out (PET/FCE oral type of activity)
A perfect holiday: Students have to decide where to go on holiday (PET/FCE oral type of activity)
What was the weather like? Talking about the weather.
Blood Hotel: Past simple A vampire recounts his holiday. Students then have the task of finding the perfect holiday for a wizard.
When I was young: Past simple negative. Two elderly people remember when they were young. But they remember it rather differently!
The Vampire's day: Contrasting past simple affirmative and negative (this activity can also be used to contrast present simple third person afirmative and negative)
Battleships: present and past simple Battleships using the present and past simple.
The Alibi game: past continuous and past simple 2 students (the criminals) invent an alibi which other students (the police) have to try to break. This game does not require any photocopies.
Present perfect
Have you ever? Interview
Dramatic Dialogues: Present perfect - Have you ever ...?
Dramatic dialogues: Present perfect - yet already
First conditional
Dramatic Dialogues: First conditional
Second conditional
Dramatic Dialogues: Second conditional
Should
A Superhero's advice: Should (giving advice). A superhero gives advice on how to be really good at English.
Food
Food: does doesn´t like Students try to guess what another student likes and then interview them to see how many guesses they got right.
Food: likes and dislikes Students talk about likes and dislikes.
Vegetables survey Which vegetables do you eat and how often?
Food: healthy and unhealthy A questionaire about healthy eating.
My healthy meal Students design a healthy meal using the vocabulary picture prompts
At the Restaurant A funny dialogue which includes vocabulary for restaurants.
Future
Fortune teller: be going to Students use pictures to tell each other' s fortune, with a simple dialogue as a model.
Future questionaire: will, might Students make predictions about what life will be like in the future.
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Stories for children to retell to each other
3 little monkeys 
(Powerpoint): A song and a story
The Princess and the Witches How will the princess escape from the witches?
The Princess and the Witches (POWERPOINT)
The Princess and the witches play
The Princess and the witches play (lower lever)
The Princess and the Dragon
The Princess and the Dragon (POWERPOINT)
The Magic Seed: A story about magic and the seasons
The Magic Seed (POWERPOINT)
The Stolen Crown Three little dinosaurs try to rescue a stolen crown
The Stolen Crown: Part 1 (POWERPOINT)
Once the learners know the story why not get them to write it?
The Stolen Crown: Part 2 (POWERPOINT)
The Magic Seed (POWERPOINT)
A picnic in the park Sasha goes to the park and meets a hungry alien. A simple story with versions for different levels.
A walk in the forest Sasha goes for a walk in the forest and meets a dragon. A simple story with versions for different levels
The Magic Sword: Prepositions of place A short story with pictures which practises prepositions of place. The same
prepositions are practised in The Treasure Map (below)
The Magic Sword (POWERPOINT)
The Treasure Map: Prepositions of place
The Dragon A dragon terrorises a town but it turns out he is a friendly dragon, but the locals don´t understand him because they don´t speak English! A little girl who has learnt English saves the day!
Sophie the monkey Sophie the monkey saves a bird trapped in a tree, much to the surprise of the other animals. This story has a simple 2 page play to go with it.Sophie the monkey - play (7 parts) and
Sophie the monkey - play (12 parts)
Santa's day: Daily routines A simple picture story for students to retell (in the present simple or past simple). For tips on how to use this story in the clasroom, see Stories.
Santa's advice: Household tasks and giving advice. Santa gives advice on how to be a good boy or girl.
Santa and the king Can Santa help the king and sort out the witches? A simple story (in the present simple or past simple) designed for students to retell.For tips on how to use this story in the clasroom, see Stories
Santa and the King (POWERPOINT)
Santa's adventure. An evil robot santa Kidnaps the real Santa Clause. Can the elves save him?
Santa's adventure: Part 1 (POWERPOINT)
This story was too big to upload as one file, hence I have had to divide it into 2 parts. It is designed to be told as one story.
Santa's adventure: Part 2 (POWERPOINT)
A Christmas questionnaire Talking about Christmas
A Christmas questionnaire and Santa sketch (lower level)
A Christmas Adventure: A play with 7 parts. Can Santa stop the robbers and save the day?
A Christmas Adventure: A play with 27 parts. Can Santa stop the robbers and save the day?
2-page sketches (Radio plays - with sound effects, great fun to record on tape)
Frankenstein (Radio play) A cook and a gardener come to work at Frankenstein´s castle and accidently set the monster loose!
The Visitor (Radio play) Some children in a school have a big surprise when an alien comes to visit.
The Treasure of Seagull Island (Radio play) A tale of pirates and treasure.
The Robbery: Part 1 (Radio play) Robbie the Robber tries to rob a bank. Can Inspector Green stop him?
The Robbery: Part 2 (Radio play) Robbie the Robber escapes from prison. Inspector Green sets a trap to catch him
The Day of the Robots (Radio play) Aliens try to take over some robots.
George and the Dragon (Radio play) Can George save everyone from the dragon?
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Mummy (Radio play) Moriarty has a dasterdly plan. Can Holmes stop him?
The Space Detectives (Radio play) The Space Detectives are on the hunt for a galactic criminal.
The Vampires of Planet X (Radio play) Some school children discover their teacher is a vampire!
A Jungle Adventure (Radio play) A brave mouse saves the jungle animals from poachers.
EFL Plays Aliens, vampires, robbers, pirates and more!
Christmas activities
Santa's day: Daily routines A simple picture story for students to retell (in the present simple or past simple). For tips on how to use this story in the clasroom, see Stories.
Santa and the king Can Santa help the king and sort out the witches? A simple story (in the present simple or past simple) designed for students to retell.For tips on how to use this story in the clasroom, see Stories
A Christmas questionnaire
A Christmas Adventure: A play with 7 parts. Can Santa stop the robbers and save the day?
A Christmas Adventure: A play with 27 parts. Can Santa stop the robbers and save the day?
Dramatic dialogues
These are funny 2-person dialogues incorporating key grammatical structures.
Dramatic Dialogues teacher´s notes
Dramatic Dialogues: Present perfect - Have you ever ...?
Dramatic Dialogues: Past simple
Dramatic dialogues: Present perfect - yet already
Dramatic Dialogues: Second conditional
Dramatic Dialogues: Going to - The Fortune Teller
Dramatic Dialogues: First conditional
Dramatic Dialogues: Present continuous
Beginners
Dramatic Dialogues: Can you ...?
Dramatic Dialogues: Have you got ...?
Dramatic Dialoges: Are you ...?
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How to use Dramatic dialogues
The children role play the dialogue in pairs, first just reading , then they swap roles. Then repeat the process but this time get them acting (adding more expression). This is fun, but the essental point is that repetition is necessary for learners to take in new structures, yet children have a short boredom threshold. The secret is not to keep changing activities. If the language focus changes too often, they won´t take it in. The secret is to keep the same langauge focus but modify the activity slightly so that itappears to be a different activity, (i.e swap roles, swap partners, now do it with expression etc). Yes, it´s called cheating. But it works.
As an example, here is the fisrt part of a Dramatic Dialogue which practises the present perfect with yet and already.
Spies on Holiday
James Bond: Have you booked the hotel yet?
Lara Croft: Yes, I’ve already booked the hotel.
James Bond: Which hotel have you booked?
Lara Croft: I’ve booked the Hotel Paris. It’s very good.
James Bond: Have you bought the super-micro film yet?
Lara Croft: No, I haven’t bought the super-micro film yet.
James Bond: We need the super micro-film!
Lara Croft: I know. I know.
James Bond: When are you going to buy it?
Lara Croft: I’ll buy it today.
James Bond: Have you packed the gun yet?
Lara Croft: Yes, I’ve already the gun.
This is followed by a gapped version with the key words gapped out. The students go through this again pairs doing it orally, NOT FILLING IT IN! Not only is it better for them to practice orally, if they don´t fill it in you can reuse it again and again as a quick 5-minute filler.
Go through again with your partner but DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING!!
James Bond: _____________________hotel yet?
Lara Croft: Yes, ________________ hotel.
James Bond: Which hotel_______________?
Lara Croft: I _____________Hotel Paris. It’s very good.
James Bond: ___________________the super-micro film yet?
Lara Croft: No, ________________the super-micro film yet.
James Bond: We need the super micro-film!
Lara Croft: I know. I know. I________ it today.
James Bond: _____________ (pack) the gun yet?
Lara Croft: Yes, _______________the gun
As with all drilling however, it is essential to bear in mind 2 points:
1: Drilling must be done at a very brisk pace.
2: Drilling is not an end in itself – it is a means to and end. That end is learners being able to use the target structures naturally in freer practice. Once the learners are confident in getting their mouths round the target language, once they can remember it (i.e. it has gone into short term memory) then they can immediately (i.e. in the same lesson) move on to some kind of controlled practice, and then, again in the same lesson, some freer practice.
Here are the typical stages I go through when using Dramatic dialogues.
Stages
1.Make sure the students already understand the basic grammar point.
2.Pre-teach any new vocabulary in the dialogue. It can be a good opportunity to
add a little new vocabulary.
3.Students read in pairs. 2 minutes
4.Students swap roles and repeat. 2 mins
5.Students swap partners and repeat.* 3 mins
6.Demonstrate the idea of how to act. 1 min
7.Students repeat, but acting. With original or new partners. 2 mins
8.Students do the gapped version in pairs, NOT writing! 2 mins
9.students do skeleton version in pairs. NOT writing! 2 mins
10. Students act out the dialogue with the work sheet covered! 2 mins
They can to some extent invent here. This can become semi-free practice
– provided they use the target language
11. select a group to act out in front of the class, with or without script. 2 mins
20 minutes aprox
Have you got any comments or suggestions?