ORAL ACTIVITIES


[ Strange Happenings ]  [Punch Lines ] [ Talk Show ] [ Newsline ] [ Tall Story ][ The 1-Minute Experience ]
[ Meet The Press ] [ Inventors' Convention ] [ Alien Visitor ] [ Memory Power ]


Strange Happenings

Students are given an interesting news item which lacks some important background information. They are then asked to work in pairs and build a story around that item. After this they tell their story to the class. This exercise usually makes for a high level of student attention because the students are keen on listening to the various versions of their peers and eventually on finding out what really happened. Example (from an incident that happened in London some years ago. )

A man buys a potted plant and takes it home. As he waters it for the first time he notices that the plant starts quivering all over. As this happens each time the plant is watered, he phones the experts at Kensington Gardens who tell him to stay away from the plant. An hour later two men wearing protective gear turn up at the man's house.

The students will have to assume the role of the owner of the plant, for example and make a really nice story out of it, which, of course, has to include an explanation for the strange happenings. (In this case an exotic spider with its siblings was found to have made its home in the soil under the roots of the plant. What happened to the spiders was never known, but with the British being so fond of animals, we can rest assured that they lived happily ever after.)
NB: Kilian Schneider suggested that this is a great exercise for practicing questions: The students have to find out what happened through asking questions which can be answered with "yes" or "no" or "not important". You may want to try the silent approach, too. Draw a big YES, a big NO and a big "NES" ("NOT IMPORTANT" for the more seriously minded) on the board and point at one of the words after each question. As soon as you have done this once, you´ll hit on zillion interesting variations.


More stories


Punch Lines
The class are given the last sentence of a story which they will have to make up. The punch line could be anything from an ordinary sentence (``and each time I put on this jacket, a shiver runs down my spine'') to a proverb (`` He who laughs last laughs best'') or the punch line of a joke, which the students know. Have the students work in pairs. Each pair draws one slip of paper with their line from an envelope. Allow them around 10 - 15 minutes preparation time.


Talk Show
The following activity is based on the regular talk shows on German television. I like to do this activity in connection with literary work, although I believe, it can be adapted to a variety of uses.
After dealing with "Macbeth" for example, I have a group of students, who represent various characters from the play, appear on a talk show panel. The theme of the show could be anything from "Your ambition has ruined us" to "My husband is a whimp". The host introduces the guests successively, always trying to ask provocative questions. Any member of the audience can participate by just standing up and waiting their turn to turn to any member of the panel and ask some (very personal) questions. Naturally this takes a bit of preparation, which can easily be done in the form of group work. I believe that the atmosphere can reach a fairly high degree of authenticity, if the show is recorded on video. This also makes it easier to evaluate the individual members´performance.

Note

If you want to give the activity a sense of direction, you might want to hand out role cards to both the panel and the members of the audience.


The News


I have found that news programs lend themselves as a basis for a coherent talk. The following has worked reasonably well with (most of) my classes.

Variation:

The students who give the talk do not know the list of key words, which might appear on the board hidden for the contestants, but for the rest of the class to see. Again, this type of activity lends itself to an indefinite number of uses.




A Tall Story?

Read out a short and simple story. Make the students work in groups and find five nouns which have absolutely nothing to do with the story. These words are then written on flash cards.While one student retells the story, the flashcards are held up successively in random order. The student must then react very quickly and integrate the new word into his story. This exercise is best done with competing teams/groups. As a warm-up exercise it can also be modified so that group members take it in turn to say one sentence only. If a student hesitates or stutters or fails to say anything, the next team continues to talk and to score points.


The One-Minute-Experience

 One of the most effective ways of getting students to talk is a one-minute-talk. This can be about anything, from a summary of a text to a statement on a current topic, a description of an object or an activity (make the other students guess) or even a nonsense talk  ("Why all car wheels should be square"). I usually write the topics on slips of paper, which the individual students draw from an envelope with eyes closed. To make the rest of the class listen, I make them suggest possible titles for the talks. As with the acitivities mentioned above, the number of variations is only limited by your imagination.



Meet The Press

This activity can be used in umpty classroom situations. Say, you have read a short story in class and you want to elicit first reactions. Pick out the protagonists, the author, some readers or whoever fits the bill and make them meet the press. The students take on the roles of the various media. It makes sense to have them prepare their questions thoroughly. I always hammer home to them, that they are not students now but real reporters whose articles increase or decrease the circulation of their respective paper. Also, the way a question is worded can make all the difference. Thus, it may be easier to elicit a meaningful answer by offering a stimulus or some known facts instead of using a question word.
Example: The questions "Why did you decide to leave home?" might elicit a better response if worded: "I understand that even at a very early age you didn't feel very comfortable in your home and family. Are there any particular circumstances ... " You get the drift, I hope.
Of course, the reporters must write an article about the press conference later, so if the class has some experience in note-taking, all the better.


Inventors' Fair

 The students think up inventions that have not been made yet and present them to the class and to a jury. Such "inventions" may include "An automatic kid wash", "The ultimate homework machine", "The Catch-the-Thief-contraption" etc. etc.
Once the individual students (or groups) have presented their inventions, the jury awards the prizes. Naturally, all the inventions could be put to a vote - the possibilities are unlimited.


Alien Visitor

 The class accept a visitor from a far-away planet, who has no idea about life on earth. The visitor walks around the classroom and asks various students about objects in the classroom. This is the obvious version. It becomes more interesting, when the students are informed that they are dealing with a hostile alien and they have to provide false information. As always there is a number of variations to this activity. Try them out!


Memory Power

 Students do not want to memorize texts or poems any longer. If you subscribe to this statement and would like your students to actually enjoy memorizing texts, why not try this simple exercise. Write the text to be memorized on the board. Have one or more students read the text out aloud. Grab the sponge and wipe out, say, each senventh word or each verb or .... Have the students read the text out again. Go ahead and wipe out another set of words. Got me? In the end one or more students will "read" a perfect text from an empty board. I leave it to your imagination to put this exercise to all kinds of uses.