20 teaching ideas for speaking and listening

© www.teachit.co.uk 2013 21446 Page 1 of 2

Gobbledygook. Working in pairs, students take it in turns to describe a film or television programme they’ve seen but they must speak only in gobbledygook instead of real words. Discuss how much they could understand based on gesture, facial expression and tone of voice.

Yes, go on. Working in pairs, one student will deliver a speech while the other listens. The first student cannot move on to the next section of the speech until the second nods and says ‘Yes, go on.’ Otherwise he/she needs to repeat it until the other understands and lets him/her continue.

Making a pitch. Students should imagine that they are part of a film production company who hope to make a film of a text they’ve been studying. They should prepare a five minute pitch to investors. They could include: visual aids, a short dramatic excerpt from the ‘film’ and a persuasive speech.

Voiceless. Two students prepare a presentation. One sits and gives the ‘speech’, the other uses gestures, eye contact and indicates where signposting is used (topic changes) and when the speaker speeds up or slows down and increases or decreases volume.

Hot-seating. Students should research a key figure in a novel or play they’ve studied. In character they should be interviewed by other students –questioners may also be assigned roles such as reporter or counsellor.

Listening circle. Set up a basic debate about smoking/abortion/uniform etc. between four students. Another four students focus on the debaters’ S&L skills – who leads, who asks questions, who is quiet, who is too opinionated, who draws others in, who responds well. Peer review and feedback.

Reducing the aids. Have students write a short speech and then read it to a partner. They should then reduce their written aid to a few key bullet points and try delivering the speech with that. Then reduce it further to a few key words and finally, no notes!

Listener macro strategies. Stop a talk at various places. Ask students to find case studies / facts that support the main point (monitoring), to think of examples from their own life that supports or negates the speaker’s point (responding), to think of questions that help them to understand what the speaker is saying (clarifying), and to guess at new words’ meanings based on the words around them (inferencing).

Epic or fail? Watch YouTube clips of failed and successful inventions and discuss why a product is successful and why it fails. In groups, design an app or gizmo. Describe design features and functionality. Explain what makes it unique, and why people would use it. How it would enhance people’s lives?

Alternative endings or offstage characters. In groups, have students prepare an alternative ending to a novel or play they’ve studied or create a scene involving a character who is mentioned but never seen. Encourage them to match the style and tone of the original work.

20 teaching ideas for speaking and listening

© www.teachit.co.uk 2013 21446 Page 2 of 2

Equilateral triangle. Only works once! Use for a topic where all points are equally valid (friendship, manners, character). Cut out little equilateral triangles to make a ‘big’ triangle. On each triangle write an important aspect of the topic. Students discuss where each triangle should be placed in the big triangle. When all little triangles are in place, ask group where the top of the triangle is.

Character tag. Focus on one moment in a story (play, poem, or prose) between two characters. Two students adopt the roles of the characters and the rest of the group ask questions about characters’ motives. When other students feel they understand the character better, they tag the first actor out and continue in role.

Round robin. Pairs or individuals research opinions on a topic relevant to the class. Open a discussion with a controversial statement that should be supported or rebutted in one or two sentences by the person to the left of the initial speaker. Then allow the discussion to continue moving to the left.

Storytime. Working in a large group, start a story. After a sentence or two, pass to the next person in the circle to carry on. Ask them to aim to develop the story logically from the previous speaker and to avoid too many deaths (as that tends to kill the story as well!)

Still images. Choose a particularly exciting moment from a play or novel you have been studying or project an interesting painting and ask the students to form a dynamic still image representing this moment. Then invite one student to tap each person in the image to speak his or her thoughts.

Flashbacks. Encourage students to think of characters’ motivations by having them create a flashback to a significant moment in a character’s life. Discuss how this moment may have shaped his or her later actions.

Mould the model. Individually or in pairs, students should use an agreed text and decide where to use gesture and eye contact, change of volume or speed to enhance the message. They can use rhetorical devices (repetition, power of 3, parallel structures, figurative language) to alter the text.

Characterful props. This can really help some less confident performers. Provide a selection of props (canes, hats, shawls, glasses, jewellery, briefcases, diaries etc.) and ask the students to develop a character based on that prop.

Blindfold signposting. Two students, one blindfolded, walk an obstacle course. The seeing student gives directions to the blind one. What phrases were used at the beginning of each sentence and how important were those phrases for helping the blind student know a change was coming?

Prediction. Class read the summary of a talk and the speaker’s biography, and predict what they expect the talk will be about, using quotations from the text to support their predictions. They can also refer to their own knowledge of the topic within reason, to help predict the content of the talk.