This is a question-answer orientated activity designed to follow on from the Presentation and/or Practice stages of language learning. Used effectively, it provides "natural feeling" practice and confidence in producing spoken English. It also emphasizes the need to focus listening on key elements of the oral language, and to speak clearly when conveying information or expressing oneself. The activity is "natural feeling" in that it simulates the sort of language likely to take place between English speakers gathered together at say a party or a meeting. It is excellent for "getting to know" or "finding out". Given that the communication is in the main from students to students, it highlights the fact that they are the language users, and the language can be used in a way that is relevant and applicable to them.
From an ESL perspective, the activity is an important tool in "filling the classroom up" with the sound of English. Students are too busy using the language to consider switching back to the mother language. There is no individual focus, removing attention from shy or slow students. After regular use of this activity, the majority of students should have increased confidence in their own ability and the effectiveness of their class as a whole. Depending on the personalities of the students, it also has the potential to provoke frustration and humor, which can make it light-hearted and fun.
Understanding how the activity 'works'
For this activity, clearly the objective in the eyes of the students is simply to complete the spaces on their Answer Sheet. With 4 -8 (or more) questions, and 4 -12 students (depending on class size: in general the bigger the class the more effective the activity) to ask them to, they have quite a task in front of them anywhere from 16 -72 questions in total. The teacher should adjust the set up and materials so that it is possible to fill out most of the sheet in the class time available.
What the students probably haven't accounted for is the fact that there are several other students with the same objective thus they will be under pressure to listen and answer questions while they are asking and writing the answers to their own. Students thus become each other's distracters. They need to listen carefully and speak loudly and clearly to achieve understanding through the classroom noise. The classroom set-up can be an important factor in controlling the difficulty and flow of communication between the students. In general, the activity starts off slow and calm and gradually picks up pace and noise level. It usually creates a certain degree of frustration, and brings out the students who enjoy a challenge - so sometimes the noise level rapidly reaches crescendo level or a series of wave-like crescendos. Students tend to enjoy the frustration element and the fact that they are bellowing a language they may previously have thought of as difficult. A certain amount of laughter is likely to eventuate while students are roaring for each other's attention and having to repeat or ask others to repeat themselves.
The classroom noise may seem chaotic, but it really brings the skill focus areas under pressure without focusing attention on any one individual. If the language models are clearly understood from Presentation and/or initial Practice stages, the students will have very little need or inclination to resort to the native language. The activity should facilitate interactive communication in a very natural environment the most important part of the classroom noise is that it is "English noise".
It is recommended that correction take place during the first running of the activity - but as students get used to it the teacher should consider pausing the activity at intervals for error correction, or to do error correction at the conclusion of the lesson. Confidence, fluency and interaction are the key objectives of this activity.
Members Downloads:
A range of answer sheets for 5,6, or 8 questions for 1,4 or 7 students, some combining picture drawing frames with answer writing grids
