Friday, July 19, 2013

Conversation cards (Present Simple)

One activity I like to do with beginner and intermediate classes to really focus on conversation is to give them "conversation cards".  When we have finished a lesson (for example: present simple) and before we have a test or quiz, we spend maybe 30 minutes on the conversation cards.


There are two ways I like to use these cards.  Either the students have permanent partners or groups and simply swap cards when they are finished with another group, or they rotate their partners as well.  To rotate partners, I like to have the student who just answered a question take that card and now ask it to a new partner.  That way, they are familiar with the vocabulary and context of the question and can explain it to the new partner.

The questions are intended to have grammar the students should be familiar with, and generally vocabulary they have seen before, but it keeps them excited to throw in a few strange questions (ex: "Do you like to look at the moon at night?") and new vocabulary (ex: "Do you like to ride a roller coaster?"). 

They are intended to be a challenge, but a controlled challenge, and generally the students finish the activity feeling more confident about being able to respond to a variety of topics.

Here is the two page present simple conversation cards. 

Here is a blank template of the cards so you can write in your own questions.

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