Activity-Based English Speaking Classes
by Seanan, Summer 2025
Our Homepage: Activity-Based English Speaking (ABES)
🕙 Session 1: 10:10–12:00
🕙 Session 2: 13:10–15:00
Theme: Designing and Implementing a Successful Speaking Activity
This interactive session will guide you through the process of creating effective speaking activities that engage middle and/or high school students.
Focus: Practical techniques/activities
Pair Work & Warm Up (15 min)
  • Are you paired/teamed up? How do you pair/group your students for speaking activities?
  • Let's do a little (non-teacher) Warm-Up!
Introduction and Teaching Experience (5 min)
In pairs or small teams, get to know each other! Please share the following information:
Who are you?
Introduce yourself briefly
Teaching Details
What grade(s) do you teach?
Experience
How long have you been teaching?
Okay, let's start!
1. Needs Check (10 min)
Discussion & Whiteboard Work
  • Current Practices: What speaking activities do you currently use?
  • Pain Points: Biggest challenges in speaking classes?
  • Solutions: What strategies have you used to get over these challenges?
2. Mini-Lecture: Core Features of Effective Speaking Activities (15 min)
Communicative Purpose
Activities should have clear goals that require genuine communication between students.
Student Autonomy
Allowing students to make meaningful choices increases engagement and ownership.
Authentic Language Use
Focus on real-world language that students can apply outside the classroom.
Flexible for Levels
Activities should be adaptable for different proficiency levels and contexts.
Low-Prep, High-Impact
Effective activities maximize student learning while minimizing teacher preparation time.
3. Practical Example: "Survival Simulation" (25 min)
Summary: Students must choose 5 items to survive on a lifeboat. Each group negotiates, explains choices, and presents their plan.
Why it works:
  • Open-ended
  • Group negotiation
  • Functional, real-life language (persuading, agreeing, disagreeing)
  • Adaptable to various levels
Implementation Steps:
  • ➡️ Analyze what worked, possible problems, and modifications for different levels
4. Hands-on Workshop: Teacher Adaptation (30 min)
Workshop Activities:
In groups, please brainstorm your own "survival" or "ranking" scenario:
  • E.g., Zombie Escape, Trip Planning, Building a School, Best K-pop Singer, Best Football Team, etc.
  • Create student instructions, goals, roles, and key expressions
  • Present briefly to the whole class
This hands-on portion allows you to immediately apply the concepts learned and develop activities tailored to your specific classroom needs.
5. More Interactive Speaking Activities (10 min)
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Interactive Speaking Activities
  • Speed Chatting: Students rotate partners every 2 minutes with a different question/topic.
  • Role-Play Café / Store: Pairs or small groups role-play ordering food, shopping, or complaining.
  • Find Someone Who: Mingling game with personalized prompts (e.g., “Find someone who went to Busan last year”). •
  • Would You Rather…?: Debate-style questions prompting choices and justifications.
  • Ranking Task: Rank 5–10 items by importance (e.g., most useful inventions), discuss and negotiate.
  • Mystery Object: One student describes an object without naming it; others guess.
  • Interview a Classmate: Prepare and conduct short interviews, then present a partner to the class.
  • Story Cubes / Picture Prompts: Students create stories based on random images or dice.
  • Problem-Solution Task: Groups solve classroom, school, or imaginary problems (e.g., how to make English fun).
  • Alibi Game: One student is the “criminal,” others are suspects with matching alibis—class asks questions to find inconsistencies.
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Creative / Project-Based Tasks
  • Design a Product: Students invent a product, create a short pitch, and present it.
  • Mini-Podcasts: Groups plan and record a 1–2 minute “podcast” about a given theme (school news, K-pop, gaming tips).
  • Fake News Challenge: Create two short news headlines: one real, one fake. Class guesses which is fake.
  • Cultural Comparison: Students compare Korean and foreign traditions (e.g., weddings, food, school life).
  • Make a Commercial: Groups create and perform a short commercial for a product they like or invent.
  • Travel Agent Pitch: Prepare a tour of a country, city, or dream destination and pitch it to the class.
  • Emoji Storytelling: Use 4–6 emojis as a story prompt. Students write and present the story.
  • Classroom Court: Debate or “trial” of a fictional or real case (e.g., Should cellphones be banned in school?).
  • My Life in 3 Objects: Students choose three objects that represent them and explain why.
  • Social Media Profile Role Play: Students “become” a historical or fictional character and answer questions as that person.
6. Wrap-Up & Feedback (10 min)
"What did you learn?"
Teachers reflect on key takeaways from the session and how they connect to their current teaching practices.
One idea you want to try next in class
Participants commit to implementing at least one new speaking activity concept in their upcoming classes.
Q&A
Open discussion to address specific questions and provide additional guidance on implementing activity-based speaking classes.
Activity-Based English Speaking Classes
Thank you 😀