The online classroom can at times seem like a very cold space and building a supportive and friendly environment for students while getting a clear idea of their capabilities can be quite challenging. Having some zero preparation activities up your sleeve to get students speaking can be a real benefit.
Here are some of my favourite warmers and fillers to get students speaking.
Find out about Aptis for Teachers
Alphabet vocabulary
This is a simple warmer that can work with any level from elementary upwards and can help to get students thinking in English and revising their vocabulary.
Suggest a subject that your students have studied such as food, sport, objects around the house, etc. Then start a word chain. You can start with a word related to the the vocabulary area which begins with A. The student should then add one that begins with B and you reply with one beginning with C and so on.
Example:
Topic: Fruit and vegetables
Apple, banana, courgette, etc.
If one of you gets stuck on a letter, the other person wins.
You can follow this up by getting the students to write down all the items that they remember from the word chain. Check that they understand what they are and also help if they have any problems with the pronunciation of the words.
Two truths and one lie
This is a useful warmer for getting to know your students a bit better and helping them get to know you. It can also work well as a practice activity to contrast the use of the present perfect tense to describe experiences and the use of past simple to describe specific details about the experience.
Start by telling the students three things about yourself. Then tell them that one of the things is a lie. Tell them they must ask you questions about each of the experiences to find out which is the lie. Make it clear though that you will not answer all their questions honestly, so they will have to watch and listen to you carefully to see if they can tell when you are lying.
If you wanted to be really tricky you could make all of the experiences lies. This will enable you to make the experiences more dramatic and interesting.
Example:
I’ve been married 5 times.
I’ve worked for the United Nations.
I’ve been to prison.
You can follow this up by asking the students to tell you three things about themselves and you can ask questions to find out which is the lie.
What’s in the matchbox
This is a good activity to get students creating questions and practicing question forms.
Show the students a match box. Tell the students that you have something very special inside and they have to ask you questions to find out what it is, but you can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the questions.
They can ask you 20 questions before they have to guess the object.
NB: You don’t actually have to have anything in the matchbox, but you do have to have something in mind so that you can answer their questions.
Tell me about
It’s always better to ask students to tell you about something rather than asking them questions about something, as this increases the amount of talking they do a reduces the amount your do. Here are some warmer topics you can ask students to tell you about.
Tell me about:
The last book you read
The last film you saw
Your last holiday
What you did today
Your last birthday
Tell me about:
Your favourite place in the world
What you do every day
Your closest friend
Your job
You family
Tell me about:
Where you would like to work
Where you will go for you next holiday
What you will do next weekend
What’s the next film you want to see
Tell me about:
What you would do if you won the lottery
Where you would go if you won a free holiday anywhere in the world
Who you think would play you in a film about your life
If students struggle you can always prompt for more information in the same way, using ‘tell me …’ rather than asking direct questions.
Guess the word
This is a useful warmer to help students revise the vocabulary they have learned. It also demonstrates to them how to explain and describe words when they don’t know a word that they want to use.
Prepare a short a list of about 10 words you think your student should know or which they need for the lesson. Tell the student that you will give them the definition of a word and that they should guess what the word is.
Example:
Tell the student the first definition e.g. “You wear these on your feet when you do exercise or go running.” (Trainers or training shoes)
If your student struggles to guess the word you could help with a clue such as the first letter, the part of speech (It’s a noun), etc.
Once the student guesses the word go on to the next definition. If they have problems guessing, don’t make them struggle for too long, just tell them the word.
At the end of the ten words, see how many of them they still remember and ask them if they can still remember the definitions and clues you told them.
Describe an image
This warmer can be used at almost any level and is a good way to stimulate students’ vocabulary and get them speaking.
Choose an image which you think will get your student’s attention.
Ask the student to look at the image and write down ten words they connect with the image.
Once they have done this ask them to use the words to make sentences about the image.
Describe the image
You can follow this up with some error correction from any of the sentences and some praise of the sentences that were well constructed.
Sell me shares in your business
This activity can be useful to get business students talking.
Tell the students that you have been given a large sum of money to invest and that you are thinking of investing it in a company. Tell them that they should tell you about the company they work for and try to convince you to invest in it.
Word association
This is a useful activity to get students thinking in English and revising words they know. It also give you some idea of how deep their vocabulary is.
Tell them that you are going to play word association with them and explain that you will say a word and then they should just say the first English word that comes into their head. Make it clear that they don’t have to think too hard about the word, it’s more important that they just respond quickly. Tell them the only rule is that they shouldn’t repeat a word which has already been said.
Start with the first word and once they say their word respond with your own associated word. Continue like this for a few minutes or until one of you repeats a word.
You can follow this up by getting students to try to remember the chain or words you created together and asking them how they think the words are associated.
Related links
- Find out more about the British Council’s Aptis Test for Teachers
- Find out more about Teaching for us
I hope you find these ideas useful and please do add some of your own in the comments below if you would like to share them.
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