Encouraging fluent speaking in the classroom. 12 fun, creative ways to get EFL / ESL students talking their heads off in class.

Why is it that students have a fear of speaking when studying a second language?

What is it about speaking that sends chills of fear down the spines of even the best students?

Speaking is without a doubt the most stressful skill for students to practice for. This is for the fact that it is instantaneous, the moment that they open their mouths and say something, those who are around them hear and judge them for what they are saying.

But, when you consider the importance of being able to communicate in an effective manner, how can we lessen the stress associated with speaking, therefore creating natural confidence in our students?

Below are 12 classroom activities that for me, have proven to be very effective in helping students to overcome their shyness and fear.

1. Are you really telling the truth?
Have your students, on a piece of paper, write three facts about themselves that nobody in the class knows. Make sure each student writes their name on the top of their page. Collect the sheets of paper and bring three randomly chosen students to the front of the classroom. Choose the papers that belong to the 3 students and then read out aloud one of the facts that is true for each one of them. 

All three of the students claim that the fact is theirs and the class must then proceed to question them in an attempt to determine who is telling the truth and who is lying. 

Each student is allowed to ask one question to one of the three students. After everyone has asked their questions, the students must guess who is telling the truth.

English Grammar and 11 Guidelines for Making it More Understandable.
https://englishforyoutheteachersvoice.blogspot.com/2020/07/understanding-grammar-11-key-rules-for.html

Making the Rules of Grammar Easy to Understand
https://englishforyoutheteachersvoice.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-essential-rules-of-english-grammar.html

Principio del formulario

Final del formulario

2. Taboo. (3 Variation)
For variation 1, create a PowerPoint presentation with a noun on each slide. Have one student come to the front of the room and sit with their back to the PowerPoint. The rest of the students take turns describing the words on the slides, and the student at the front has to guess what it is. Once they guess, change students and try again.

For variation 2, separate the students into groups of four to six. Place a pile of cards, each with a different noun in the center of each group. Have students take turns picking up a card and describing the noun for their group members to guess. The student who guesses correctly keeps the card. At the end of the game, the student with the most cards is the winner.

Variation 3 (Advanced level). Separate the class into two teams. Students are given a word that they have to describe to their teammates. In addition, they are given a list of words that they cannot use in their description. Each student should have four to five minutes to see how many words their teammates can guess.

3. Listen and draw. Creative descriptions.
Pair up the students and give each student a picture, placing it face down so partners cannot see each other’s cards. They must describe the picture to their partner for them to draw.

After they have finished, compare their drawing to the original to see how closely it resembles the original.

Apart from drawing, this could also be done with paints as a way to add an extra dimension of creativity to the activity.

4. Describe the comic.
Give each student a portion or two of a comic strip. Without showing their pictures to one another, the students must try to describe their image, ultimately putting the comic strip back into the correct order. After about 10 or 15 minutes, ask the students to guess the original order of the cartoon strip.

Finally, get the students to show one another their portion, and see if they were correct or not.

5. Listen for the secret Word.
Students are given a topic and a random word that is unrelated to the topic. Next, the students must hide the word in a speech about the topic all the while trying to make sure the other students can’t guess what the secret Word is. The other students must listen carefully to the speech and attempt to guess the secret word.

6. Classroom debates.
Give each student a piece of paper with “agree” written on one side and “disagree” on the other side. Read aloud a relevant short story, article, or statement, and have each student hold up their paper showing the agree or disagree side depending on their opinion. Choose one student from each side to explain their position and then participate in a short debate.

7. Off the top of your head.
Prepare a list of topics that students will be able to talk about. Split the class into two teams, and have each student choose a number that will determine the order in which they will go in.

Each student must respond to a statement without preparation, speaking for a mínimum of 45 seconds. As the student is speaking, the other team listens for moments of hesitation, grammatical mistakes, and vocabulary mistakes. If the other team can correctly identify an error, they get a point.

8. Stranded.
Give each student a piece of paper and tell them to draw any ítem that comes into their head. Collect the drawings and redistribute them to the students remembering that no student should receive their own drawing.

Next, tell the students that they’ve been stranded on a desert island, and only half of the class can survive and continue to live on the island. The only possession that each student will have on the island is the item that is drawn on the paper that was given to them. Their objective is to convince the class that they should survive based on that item.

9. Storytelling activity.
Bring four students to the front of the classroom. Three of them should sit in a row facing away from the board whilst the fourth student should stand behind them and act as a controller. Give the controller a pile of cards with a selection of relevant nouns written on them.

The controller will hand a noun to one of the three students, who will start to tell a story. The student continues telling the story until the controller decides to hand another noun to another student, who will then take over the story. Each student must include the noun in their story.

10. Truth or lie.
Each student should write three statements about themselves on a piece of paper. Two of them should be true, and one should be a lie. Students read their three statements, and their classmates question them to try to determine which statement is a lie.

11. True or false?
Give each student a piece of paper with either “true” or “false” written on it. Each student must then tell the class a story that is either true or false depending upon which word that they received, and the class must then guess whether it’s true or false. To add depth and creativity to the activity, you can ask specific students to question the student telling the story.

12. I have never….
All students in the class should start this activity holding five fingers in the air. The student who goes first tells the class one thing that they have never done. The students who have done that activity should put a finger down, and tell the class a story about this activity. A student is out of the game when all of their fingers are down.

Well, I hope that you like these activities, I know from my own personal experience that some, if not all of them will help to inject some creativity and enthusiasm into your classes.

Good luck!