Conversation question cards are a great resource to have in your repertoire – you can pull them out at the end of the class when you have a few minutes to spare and they mean you don’t ever have to come up with questions for the conversation areas on the run. But there are many ways you can use them, not just as a filler to use up those spare moments before the bell rings. Here are ten of our favourites:
- Keep it simple: ask the questions to the students at the beginning or the end of the class to revise the conversation areas.
- Pair work: Put the students in pairs and they use the cards to ask and answer questions.
- Exam role-play: Put the students in groups of three. One is the examiner, one is the candidate and the third is the observer. Give the group a set of questions and the language requirements checklist for the level (you can find these in our free resources). The examiner and the candidate role play the exam and the observer notes down the language of the grade the candidate uses and any areas which might need improvement. After two minutes, the observer gives the candidate feedback about the range of language they used and whether they made any mistakes or could have improved their performance. Swap roles and do it again!
- Use a board game: where the student has to answer a question when they land on a particular square. Check out our board game blog for an example.
- Quick fire round: See how many questions each student can answer in one minute – give points for accuracy and content of each answer.
- Play a team game: The aim of the game is to complete a simple picture on the board, e.g. a house. Each team sends one team member to the front. Ask a question from the cards and the team representatives buzz in if they know the answer. If they get the answer correct they can draw the first part of the picture on the board, e.g. the first line of the square. Repeat with different representatives until the drawing is complete.
- Focus work: Take one question and read it aloud to the class and/or write on the board. In pairs, students come up with the best answer possible. Discuss the possible answers as a class and provide feedback about the range of language they should be using. Repeat with another question. This is useful when you are teaching the conversation area and helps students to become familiar with what is expected.
- What’s the question?: Either in pairs or as a team game, one student takes a card, reads the question silently and then gives their answer. The other student(s) have to guess what the question is. Great for practising question formation!
- Question stations: Put 6 students into different parts of the room with a set of conversation questions from the six different areas. The remaining students go to one of the stations and they practise the conversation area with the ‘station manager’ for two minutes. After two minutes, the answering students move to a different station. This activity gets students up and moving and practising in short bursts all the different conversation areas so is a great near-to-exam revision activity.
- Lucky dip: Put the conversation question cards into a bag or a box and students take one each. They mingle around the classroom, asking their question and answering each others.
We hope you like these ideas. Let us know what you think and tell us your ways of using Conversation Question Cards in the comments below :)