Our level 1 curriculum is all about…the student!  I mean, what is a 14 year old’s favorite subject, right?!  When we started with our new thematic curriculum, we based it all on questions and answers.  I firmly believe that we should stress interpersonal speaking at the novice levels above all else.  I spend a majority of my class time having the students engage in various speaking activities.  The challenge at this level is to keep it fresh and interesting.

In this unit, students are practicing various questions about others.  Questions include:

• Who is that?
• What is his/her name?
• How old is he/she?
• Where does he/she live?
• What is his/her nationality?
• What does he/she look like?
• What is he/she like?

To practice these questions and answers, I used an activity called “Speaking Squares”.

Speaking Square Directions: (Example sheets at the bottom of this post)

1. Put students in groups of 4
2. Set the speaking square sheets in the middle of them.
3. Distribute cut up celebrity pictures.
4. The student who is sitting in the RESPONDER seat pulls a picture out.  The other students in the group ask a question about the celebrity based on their position on the speaking square.  The RESPONDER answers.
5. The sheet rotates and the next student is the RESPONDER.
6. Continue until all celebrity cards are used.

I used this as a practice before our interpersonal speaking IPA.  For the exam, students had an unscripted conversation with a random partner.  They each brought pictures of some of their friends and then they asked and answered questions about each other’s pictures.  All of my students either met or exceeded expectations on the assessment.  Outstanding!

Note: This activity was adapted from one of my colleagues, Alexis M. 

Speaking Square Sheets

1. Celebrity pictures