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Dear Reader,

If you'll forgive me for getting a tad high-browed this Sunday (but as you'll see, it won't be for long), I've been thinking about the mathematical idea of duality: how two apparently different things can be alternative expressions of the same underlying form. This idea of duality was the principle that inspired one of the light installations in the yearly Light Night festival I went to this week (if you'll forgive the quality of the video taken for you by yours truly 👇)

Why have I been thinking about this idea that two things can actually be the same thing, just from different perspectives? Well. [Deep breath]. On this side of the Pond, at least where I live, it's been half term this week. Half term is how the Brits commonly refer to that week schools close in the middle of each term. And because there are generally 3 terms in UK school years, you get - you guessed it - 3 half term holidays per year. These are on top of the Easter and summer holidays.

Naturally, half term is technically one thing, but the duality really comes alive here because it's one thing for students...

And a different thing for parents:

But as a parent, I am pleased to confirm that I have successfully survived this half term and am ready - definitely very very ready - for the next term to start¹.

Half term, done and dusted: long games were played, several pumpkins were carved, and a couple of excursions were completed with a lot of fun had by all - with some of the finest British humour caught at a train station:

This idea of duality has accompanied me as I reconsidered one of the biggest questions that I know trouble most English language teachers: why won't they talk?

You know the feeling: you set up an activity, hoping students will finally talk and develop their speaking, but they [start talking in their L1/mess around/talk for exactly 5 seconds then start messing around/insert other unproductive activity]. This has happened to me more times than I care to admit, so I've been thinking: what if there are two ways of looking at the same issue and the problem is not the activities we do, but how we tweak them?

So today, I'm going to tell you about:

• 3 awesome speaking activities adaptable for different levels, plus how you can tweak each of them to make sure, or at least make it much more likely, that students will actually talk;
• to make it even easier, one downloadable worksheet with prompt cards, one PPT and 3 Canva templates I've made for you!

Got your breakfast drink? Let's dive right in 🌟

1. Silly storytelling

You've heard this plenty of times: personalise your lessons! Create engaging activities! And that's all well and good, sure: but how about the need to make other people laugh, which is to some extent common to children and teens?

In this activity, you give each learner a little card with a title and challenge them to speak on the topic for a given amount of time.

This way, they practise their speaking and storytelling, and are motivated by the silliness of the topics, which can elicit a good laugh from their peers.

👉 How to tweak the activity so it becomes a winner - teen edition: to encourage the genuine desire to speak without putting shy learners on the spot, introduce an element of competition and don't require all learners to speak. Split the class into teams, give each team one or two prompts, give them a few minutes to prepare, then spokespeople come to the front of the classroom to speak. If they can speak for e.g. 1 minute without stopping, they win a point. Alternatively, if you do want all learners to speak, you can do this as an individual activity in the last 5 minutes of each lesson: give everyone a topic and a couple of minutes to prepare, then choose 3 learners to speak each time. Once everyone has spoken, then the class votes for the funniest story!

👉 How to tweak the activity so it becomes a winner - lower levels edition: because this is such a free practice activity, it might benefit from scaffolding, especially for younger students and lower levels. This can take the form of teacher modelling (yes, you will have to tell a silly story!), more preparation time, rehearsal with feedback and providing sentence stems or useful vocabulary to tell a story.

Want to use my prompts? Download the Word version here.​

2. Speed dating questions (with a function focus)

Have you ever tried speed dating... as a learning activity?² It works very much like speed dating: students sit in facing rows, talk with a partner for a set amount of time on a set topic, then rotate to a new partner and repeat, so everyone gets lots of short, varied speaking practice. And - big bonus - they get to speak to different people in the classroom, not only their very best chummy buddy.

You can set them any task and any timing - frankly, I think you could do this with most speaking activities in your textbook! But for today, I've created a little presentation you that you can project directly on your board:

I have written prompts and scenarios that encourage learners to use structures related to specific functions: giving advice, complaining, apologising and making requests.

👉 How to tweak the activity so it becomes a winner - lower levels edition: if students still struggle to speak, it may be for a very good reason: they don't have the language. That's why, for each page, there is also a box with useful language: it is animated, so you can use it or not use it depending on your learners' needs. For lower levels, you might also like to give them more time. Finally, for all levels, I would recommend delayed feedback: this activity can be hectic enough as it is (but fun!), so I wouldn't interrupt them while they're trying to talk. And of course, if speed dating is too much of a logistical nightmare, you can just use these as conversation prompts for pairwork.

Would you like to try these out? And then pinky promise to let me know how it went?

Download the PowerPoint

3. Scenario-based board game

If you've been with me for a while, you know me: I can be pretty nerdy when it comes to board games. I've been using board games with learners ever since I started teaching and some of my fondest memories are tied to lessons in which I used board games³.

Quick example: in this board game, simply set students the rule that they have to talk for at least 30 seconds in order to win. Monitor quietly and only give feedback on language at the end of the game: the point here is to improve fluency and to push them to produce language, even if it's imperfect.

👉 How to tweak the activity so it becomes a winner: personalisation can really win the day here. Did you know your students can very easily make their own board game? You can choose a topic or a grammar point, and they have to create the board game themselves. For example, they have to fill in all the spaces with:

• questions about a specific topic (e.g. getting to know you, your house, your hopes and dreams). Every time a student lands on a space, they have to answer the question and speak for at least 30 seconds.
• scenarios requiring the use of functions, like in the speed dating game. For example, in a game about giving advice: "I'm stuck on a mountain"; "my cat meows at all hours of the night"; "I wanted to be a superhero but unfortunately I'm human" - you get the gist, the more far-fetched, the better. Every time a student lands on a space, they have to give advice and speak for at least 30 seconds.
• trivia questions about specific topics or, if you're feeling rather grammar-inclined, examples of grammar mistakes: each time a player lands on a space, they have to correct the mistake. If they get it right, they move one space further; if not, they don't.

Students create their board games in pairs or small groups, then swap them with other pairs/groups (otherwise they'd know all the answers!)

The best part? There are plenty of templates online you can give your students for their board games. I've adapted three of them for you on Canva:

Open then, click "make a copy" and you'll be able to edit them on your own account.

And that brings me to the end of this materials-packed newsletter! Which activity are you going to try out? It always makes my day when you tell me about something you tried out based on this newsletter, so: do tell me ♡

And don't forget to add your words to the community Padlet: what is one word or idiom you want to remember from today's newsletter? We've had all sorts so far and one recurrent comment is that some are words you have in your passive vocabulary (i.e. you understand them), but by reading them here in context, you want to move them to your active vocabulary (i.e. you start using them). Surprise me!​

And with that, I wish you a relaxing Sunday (and, I'm sorry, official start to the pre-Christmas rush).

Take care, dear teacher ✨

¹ But do you know one thing that is not subject to duality and will forever objectively plague my life? The pointless discussions about how school holidays in Italy are "too long" compared to other countries and Italian teachers don't work enough. While it may be true that the summer holidays are longer than other countries (unsurprisingly, given the ever-rising temperatures), Italian kids go to school for approx. 200 days a year on average, which is a fair bit longer than most other European countries. By contrast, state schools in England are normally required to offer 190 school days and there are countries in Europe where there are even fewer school days. And of course, who are the people I tend to have these conversations where I begrudgingly try to stay calm and poised and not raise my voice while they do everything in their power for me to fail in my noble quest? Of course, they're unfailingly always people who don't work in education, but somehow think they know all about education because hey, they went to school some [insert multiple of 10] years ago...

² I've tried it as a learning activity with teens especially in the summer, when you can have class outside. It removes the faffing about with desks and students' property, which is a great plus. I've never tried speed dating in real life. Have you? Between the speed part, the dating part and the having to talk about yourself very briefly part, I would likely be the most awkward person in the history of speed dating and they would have to make a documentary about the record levels of awkwardness I'd achieve.

³ A school I worked at when I still had all my hair and no wrinkles once asked me to do intensive classes for a gifted 10-year-old boy who had a C1 level. Can you picture my face when he told me he absolutely loved board games? We spent a whole term developing a board game in English just for him, making it more and more challenging as he progressed. This is my idea of fun on the job and nothing short of Santa Claus joining me as a teaching assistant will convince me otherwise.

P.S.: My weekly suggestion for things to listen to/watch/read to improve your English while relaxing: whatever your feelings on AI/the internet/technology, if you were alive a decade or so ago, you really can't miss this advert from Firefox featuring some of the most popular internet faces from the early 2000s (yes I realise this is technically longer than a decade ago but in my mind I'm still essentially a teen, only with bad knees and a bad back, please indulge me). Disclaimer: this is not a sponsorship, I just genuinely enjoyed the retro feel of the ad! The following, however, is an ad and it looks really conducive to the goal of spending less time on a screen/more time reading books, so I've allowed it:

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