Speaking Activities for Really Elementary ESL Classes

Super elementary speaking activities are a really good way to get students speaking at a low level. They have to be designed so they are easy to explain and understand. If an  activity works, the class is much more entertaining, fun and helps students get over their reticence to speak English.

1 Daily Activities Speaking Activity

This is one of the most basic speaking activities to get students practicing with the verb “to do”. Students ask other students about their daily activities.

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2 Do you….”So do I” and “Neither do I”

Another exercise to get students speaking a little bit. And it also introduces them to negative and positive agreement.

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3 Elementary Job Suitability Interview

This is a great way of familiarizing students with some useful adjectives in a personalized way. Students have to interview their partner and then match their personal preferences with a suitable job.

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4 Roommate Interview

This is similar to the exercise above but it is using the verb “to be” and further expands students knowledge of adjectives. It’s also a really personal and quite funny exercise as students have to asses their partners/friends as possible roommates.

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Related Resources:

9 Super Elementary Speaking Exercises

14 Create a Conversation Exercises for Speaking Classes

5 Elementary Conversational Expressions  and Listening 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

5 Personality Adjective Survey

This is a bit more advanced than the two exercises above. It also focuses on adjectives It can be really successful in a talkative class. The adjective list can be greatly expanded on if the students are up to it. Sometimes I have assigned each student or a pair of students an adjective and found this a way of getting a great variety of questions and talking going on in the classroom.

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6 Shopping Speaking Activity

Shopping is a great topic for any elementary English language lesson. This is a simple way to get some speaking done and getting students to practice using the verb “do”.

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7 Talking Shopping

This is a little more advanced and a little more interesting than the exercise above. It explores shopping vocabulary in a matching exercises and the students create short conversations.

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8 Movie Brainstorm and Speaking

Movies usually (in my experience) get students motivated. Students have to match movie genres to the pictures and then think of movie titles for each genre. Then they can ask their partners the questions at the bottom of the page.

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9 Music Brainstorm and Speaking

This exercise explores genres of music and asks students about their musical preferences. Similar to the speaking activity above, it is a great way to start off a class.

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