11 Essential Speaking Activities for ESL Classes

Speaking activities are essential for English language speaking classes (obviously!). However, designing  the right speaking activity for a topic is not always an easy task. Teachers need to be aware of the students’ abilities and   personalities as well as the language and grammar they will be presenting. It’s good to be able to run through or think through a list of teaching possibilities before preparing a class. Below I offer some essential speaking activities that have helped make seemingly difficult teaching  challenges a lot of fun.

• Also, see my my post explaining how to use artificial intelligence to create speaking activities:
  • The Art of Prompting Artificial Intelligence for ESL Teachers

1 Conversation and dialogue exercises: routines and daily activities example

Write-a- conversation exercises work really well for many topics including routines and daily activities.  I always get the students to perform just for me …not in front of the class..as they are more relaxed and I get a close up and personal look at their performance. Also, I can ask them to repeat the conversation easily if it is not fluent enough.

Routines and daily activities (PDF)

(YouTube video gap fill version)

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2Conversation and dialogue exercises : food conversation example

Dialogues are a great way to get students talking. Students just need to be presented with an easy example or model that they can practice Once they have mastered the model they can alter it with their own ideas.

Food conversation (PDF)

(see the exercise on YouTube)

3 Questionnaires: Present Perfect Questionnaire example

    This is a  present perfect exercise and worksheet  for English language learners.   Students answer the questions with their own ideas and  using appropriate tenses. For the last two items, they write both questions and answers. 

Present perfect questionnaire (PDF)

(see the YouTube video)

4 Vocabulary and discussion questions: artificial intelligence apps

Artificial intelligence is now a part of everyday life. This is a vocabulary/listening/speaking exploring ideas about AI apps that people use everyday.

(download PDF)

(see the video of this exercise on YouTube)

5 Questionnaires with pictures: talking about shopping example

This is an elementary ESL speaking activity for practicing language useful for talking about shopping. Shopping is a great topic for English language students  as it is universally accessible. Using pictures with the questions gives context. The vocabulary at the bottom of the page can be matched to the pictures as an icebreaker. Students can discuss and answer the questions in groups or in pairs.

Talking about shopping (PDF)

Related Speaking Skills Resources:

14 Write a Conversation Exercises

Socializing Speaking Lessons Home

10 Role Play Speaking Activities

11 Classroom Debate and Discussion Language Activities

5 Cracking Complaints and Annoyances Language and Speaking Exercises

12 Brilliant Business English Speaking Skills  Activities

Listening exercises for all levels

6 Role plays: Bad vacation example

This is a role play about a bad vacation

Bad vacation(PDF)

(see the “Bad vacation” role play on Youtube)

7 Role plays : celebrity interview role play example

Role plays can be really good speaking activities. However, students really need to be able to identify with and be interested in the characters they are playing. The easiest and most successful  role play I have encountered is the celebrity role play. It is also the most  popular role play idea on my website by miles. This is a fun communicative exercise that allows students to to be creative and to improvise.

Celebrity role play (PDF)

(see the YouTube video)

8 Surveys: fashion choices survey example

This is an ESL  speaking and writing lesson  for talking about clothes, accessories and fashion choices. Fashion is a great classroom topic as it easily engages students. In this exercise, students have to write their own questions, survey their classmates and write a short report about their findings. This is a fun communicative exercise that allows students to mix freely.

Fashion choices survey (PDF)

9 Expressing opinions

This is an ESL or English language  exercise for  practicing conversational English.  Brainstorm collocations for the verbs and then create short conversations using the model on the hand out as an example.

Circle of determiners (PDF)

10 Socializing speaking activities : eternal mingle example

In socializing activities, students write one of more questions on a piece of paper and then walk around the classroom speaking to as many people as possible. This is an excellent all-purpose communicative activity for big ESL classes. It’s effective because it just about ensures a high level of student participation. It also lowers inhibition levels, encourages student centered correction and frees the teacher to observe and field questions from students. The possible variations are endless. It can be used as an icebreaker, for drills, or as an initiator of free conversation.

Eternal Mingle (PDF)

Related Resources

9 Super Elementary Speaking Exercises

5 Elementary Conversational Expressions Exercises

5 First Day Activities for an ESL Class

10 Really! Elementary ESL classroom icebreakers

7 Essential Speaking Activities for ESL Classes

12 Great Icebreakers to Start a Class

8 Invitation and Request Dialogues for Everyday Scenarios

11 Interviews: personality interview example

One-on-one interviews also work well in ESL classes. Several good options are the job interview, the personality interview and the “getting to know you” interview.

Personality interview (PDF)

12 Discussions: cities-good or bad example

Discussion activities on topics which students encounter in their everyday lives are also generally successful. Getting students to provide both sides of an argument  helps them to  develop their critical thinking and speaking skills. Discussion topics like this example can be done in pairs, groups or as a class.

Cities- good or bad?  (PDF)

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