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Classroom activities that spark communication

Автор статьи преподаватель Anna Harutyunyan

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There are several classroom activities that can spark communication among students. Here are a few examples:

1. Group Discussions:

Divide students into small groups and assign them specific topics or questions to discuss. Encourage active participation and open dialogue within the groups.

2. Think-Pair-Share:

Have students think individually about a question or topic, then pair them up to share their thoughts with a partner. Finally, have partners share their ideas with the rest of the class.

3. Role-play:

Assign roles to students and have them act out scenarios or engage in conversations related to the topic being studied. This activity promotes active communication and problem-solving skills.

4. Debates:

Organize debates on controversial subjects, dividing students into teams with different viewpoints. Encourage respectful discussion, critical thinking, and evidence-based arguments.

5. Collaborative Projects:

Assign group projects that require students to work together to complete a task. This encourages communication, cooperation, and the sharing of ideas.

6. Presentations:

Allow students to prepare and deliver presentations on various topics. This activity not only helps practice public speaking but also offers opportunities for questions and discussions afterwards.

7. Language Games:

Engage students in language-focused games like word association, charades, or Pictionary. These games promote verbal communication skills and vocabulary development.

8. Socratic Seminars:

Conduct Socratic seminars where students engage in a guided discussion on a specific text or concept. Encourage students to ask questions, explore ideas, and provide evidence for their viewpoints.

Remember, creating a safe and inclusive learning environment is crucial to encourage all students to participate in these activities. Providing clear guidelines and fostering respect for diverse opinions will help ensure effective and meaningful communication.

To develop communication skills, I would like to pay special attention to such exercises as icebreakers, coolers, time fillers and warmers. They diversify the learning process, help to better perceive a new topic and consolidate the material covered. These are short exercises, lasting 5 minutes or less, designed to activate or revitalize students between stages of the lesson, to fill in the pause if students have completed the previous task faster than planned, or to introduce the topic , although time fillers can also be unrelated to the topic of the lesson. Such activities can be carried out in any part of the lesson and do not require special training. Usually, each teacher has several universal exercises that are suitable for any topic, level and lesson.

Icebreakers are interactive exercises aimed at getting the teacher to get to know the students, and the students get to know each other better. These exercises help to create a comfortable atmosphere in the classroom, which is necessary for successful interaction in the lesson. A good exercise to start with is Self-Portrait. Students draw themselves according to their skills with colored pencils or paints. Then the teacher collects the drawings and hangs them on the board, and the students try to guess the author, using, for example, vocabulary on the topic “Appearance”. Students can be given the task of schematically depicting hobbies, favorite colors, favorite seasons, etc.

Warmers are training exercises at the beginning of a class, usually interactive, aimed at reviewing recently learned material or introducing new things. The task of warmers is to stimulate students’ interest in the topic being studied and to activate their knowledge. For example, in the topic “Travelling,” the teacher might write the word TRAVELLING on the board, and the students would work together to form a cluster by naming all the words they associate with the topic. This exercise can be done in groups, which will be competitive. 

Time Fillers are exercises that every English teacher should have. Sometimes the group completes the task faster than planned and there is a pause. It all depends on the teacher, who can fill the gap with an interesting exercise. For example, make or solve a small crossword puzzle to practice vocabulary on the topic studied.

20 QUESTIONS

Students work in pairs, groups, teams or as a class. Everyone on a given topic chooses an object: a famous person, a book or a movie. The purpose of the exercise is for the other party to learn as much information as possible about the hidden object and guess it as quickly as possible with the help of general questions.

INTERVIEW

The teacher sets a time limit (for example, 3 minutes) during which students in pairs or teams must learn as many new facts about their classmates as possible. After the time is over, each pair gives feedback. The purpose of the task is to “untie tongues”, to distract students from a difficult topic or exercises, to give them the opportunity to “speak out” and relax.

PERSUADE ME

A very entertaining game that does not require preparation and resources. Its purpose is to convince your partner of this or that idea, thought, or statement. For example, a teacher asks the question, “Which is better to watch a film at home or at the cinema?” or reads the statement, “At home is better than at the cinema.” Students must convince their partner that watching a film at home is better than at the cinema

IN THE CENTER

Excellent practice of speaking, attentiveness to the speaker, the ability to take notes quickly and formulate feedback. It is best suited for levels starting with Intermediate, but can also be adapted for lower levels. One student sits in the center of the class, and during this period of time he must not stop saying everything he thinks about a given topic. For example, “Films” or “My family”, “My future profession”, “My typical day”, etc. At the end of the time limit, a mini-discussion of what they have heard is held; students can ask questions, share their personal experience on the topic. If time allows, the next person will repeat the task in the center of the class. 

Coolers are exercises that can be used at the end of the class. These exercises are aimed at concentration, repetition of the material studied in the lesson, train writing and speaking skills, think in English, and have a calming effect on students. Using them helps students focus and understand what they have learned and what they have not.

GUESS THE WORD

This simple and fun exercise is aimed at reviewing the vocabulary covered in the lesson. Students do this exercise in pairs. Student 1 writes a word on Student 2’s back, then Student 2 tries to guess that word. After that, the students switch roles. ANAGRAMS

The teacher writes anagrams of the words learned on the board, for example, “lion” as “nlio”. Students solve anagrams in pairs or groups. The winner is the one who solves all the anagrams faster.

MY LIFE

This activity is aimed at developing writing skills. Students make a note in their “diary” on a given topic, for example, “My plans for today/weekend/vacation”, “What good things happened to me today”, an answer to a question about the topic of the lesson, etc. Today’s kids are very fond of their smartphones and often use various websites and platforms – mostly just for fun. So why shouldn’t teachers use their passions in the learning process? We can offer them some interesting tasks.

WHAT`S IN MY PICTURE

Students choose a photo on their phone, but do not show it to their classmates. The rest of the students try to guess what is depicted in the photo by asking general questions

A CLOSE PERSON

Ask your students to choose a photo of someone who is important to them. The student should describe this person using at least three adjectives. Draw the students’ attention to what they say about the person’s job, hobbies, and who they are to the speaker.

DRAW THE PICTURE

The teacher describes a simple picture or photograph, and the students draw what they hear. This activity can be done in pairs or groups. In this case, the dictation is conducted by the students themselves. You can also use a picture cut in half for dictation. Students work in pairs. When asking questions, students try to reconstruct the missing part of the picture, or students take turns describing their part of the picture to a partner and then comparing the result with the original.

GUESS THE STORY

The teacher can choose a story or a short video that corresponds to the level, age or interests of the students. Students watch a small part of the video or read part of the story and make their guesses about how it ends. Students then read the story to the end and test their assumptions. 

Summing up all of the above, I would like to note that icebreakers, warmers, time fillers, coolers have already become an integral part of the educational process, which stimulate the communicative activity of students, motivate students to learn English, and make the learning process exciting. It is not necessary to use these exercises in every lesson, but their use will undoubtedly contribute to the creation of a comfortable working atmosphere in the classroom and the development of students’ communication skills.

08.12.2023
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