Maximising Student Talk Time: Activity Ideas
Mia Tarau
In his previous post, Michael Rabbidge began a new conversation on maximizing student talk time during lessons (https://shorturl.at/RGmZQ). In this post, I follow up on those suggestions with two ideas for activities built around some of the considerations mentioned by Michael.
1. Icebreaker Idea: ‘Find Someone Who…’ With a Twist
Activity Outline
Activity duration: up to 10 minutes
Optimal time for this activity: at the beginning of a class
Setup: no special setup needed; students can speak to anyone anywhere within the classroom
What you need: A worksheet containing up to 5 discussion prompts
What the students need: Their phones with timers set to 90 seconds
Sample prompts: ‘Find someone who has travelled to at least 4 countries; list the countries and their travel experiences there’ or ‘Find someone who has a problem with carbon taxes and find out why’.
Task and twist: Students go around the classroom and find someone whose experience matches one of their prompts. They write the name of that student down next to the prompt, together with brief notes on any other relevant information. Once a student finds someone who can talk to one of their prompts, that person must spend at least 90 seconds elaborating on their experience – the pair must use a timer to ensure this happens. They then move on to the next prompt and a new discussion partner.
Wrap-up: Elicit some student names who have had experiences based on some of the prompts, together with some details on those experiences, allowing the entire class to get to know each other better and connect through this.
Benefits
This is an excellent icebreaker that can be used daily/weekly by just changing the prompts. Because the time spent talking to each conversation partner is so brief, this activity can reduce the pressure or embarrassment that students might feel when prompted to speak in their target language. At the same time, the informal nature of this activity fosters the creation of a safe classroom culture where students can make new friends while speaking, without feeling stressed about making mistakes. The prompts can be designed for a variety of purposes: to review previous lesson content, vocabulary, or grammar, or simply to help students get into the ‘flow’ and switch their brain on to speaking in the target language. Lastly, this activity combines speaking, listening and note-taking, ensuring that students engage with learning in a deeper way from the get-go.
2. Vocabulary-Focused Idea: Speed-Friending Conversations
Activity Outline
Optimal time for this activity: after covering the weekly learning content
Activity duration: around 15 minutes
What you need: A timer
Setup: students sit in pairs, facing each other; desks/tables should be set up in a way that allows one row of students to move one seat over when the timer goes
Task: Give students questions on the topics covered in class, keeping your learners and their proficiency level in mind. You can design these to be more serious or more fun, depending on assessment times in the course.
Sample questions: ‘What is the most important holiday in your country, and how does your family celebrate this?’ or ‘Let’s practice for a job interview. Where do you see yourself in 5 years, and what skills do you have that would help you achieve this?’
Talk time for each student pair: 2 minutes – 4 minutes, depending on class level and proficiency; when the timer goes, students switch partners
Wrap-up: Elicit some student experiences for these questions, allowing the entire class to get to know each other better.
Benefits
This activity can be used often, helping students connect with each other by practicing vocabulary on any topic covered in class. The teacher can make the final call on how long to keep this going: if the students are talking and enjoying themselves, allow it to go on for longer; if they are struggling, it is still beneficial to allow them to try speaking to 2-3 people. Additionally, as some students might share the same cultural background, this type of task allows for translanguaging practices, giving the learners opportunities to scaffold and help each other out when it comes to formulating their ideas. This is particularly useful at the beginning of a new course, or with students with a developing proficiency in the target language.
Final Reflections on Lessons Focusing on Student Talk
It is essential to encourage students to talk to each other as soon as the class starts, and to maintain this practice throughout the lessons. Allow your learners to feel uncomfortable at times by pushing them to talk for extended periods of time, but balance this out with less structured speaking tasks within the same lesson, drawing on students’ linguistic backgrounds and encouraging student connections. Finally, making these tasks fun never hurts!