6 speaking activities: Likes and dislikes

Category: Teaching

1. Single question surveys

1. T gives each student a question, for example in a cut-up form.
2. Ss mingle asking others and take notes.
3. At the end, T asks Ss to sit back down and give a report to the class.

Single question surveys work well with lower level classes. Each student has only one question which they have to ask each of the other students in turn. One advantage of this method is that you can give weaker students an easier question and stronger students more complex ones.

​Lower level questions

• Do you like cats?
• What is your favorite food?
• What types of music do you like?

 
Higher level questions

• What was your most memorable birthday?
• Where is the best place to eat in your town? Why is it so good?
• What are some of the benefits of traveling alone?
• Have you practiced extreme sports?

2. Conversation cards

1. T writes questions on cards and place them on the desk.
2. T asks 5 Ss to pick one question card.
3. T asks the rest of the class to close their eyes or put their heads down.
4. The 5 Ss put quietly their card on the other’s Ss’ desks and then come back to the front.
5. T asks Ss to open their eyes and one by one, T asks Ss who has a card to stand in front of the S who they think has given them the card and read the question aloud.
6. If the card does not match the person who gave it, that person will give a negative response to the question and the other student will go back to his/her desk. If the card matches that person, the person will say a positive response and the two people will switch places.

3. Tic tac toe conversation

1. T draws a tic-tac-toe grid on the board. Then, write the numbers 1 through 9 on the grid. Each square has one number in it.
2. T writes on a piece of paper nine easy conversation questions. Number the questions one through nine. Each question corresponds to one square on the tic tac toe grid.
3. T puts Ss into two teams, team “X” and team “O”.
4. Ss choose which square on the tic tac toe grid they want to try to get. When they choose a number then T asks them the corresponding question. They get the “X” or “O” on that square if they answer the question with no mistakes.

Examples of questions

• Do you like movies?
• Does your mother like eating chocolate cookies?
• What’s your favorite hobby?
• What are your all-time favorite movies?
• What kinds of programs don't you like?
• What are your favorite kinds of books?

4. Information gap

1. T creates two different versions of a dialogue and hand out version A to Student A and version B to Student B. The idea behind this is all the B section sentences that are missing on version A appear on version B; and vice versa.
2. Ss have to read out loud and listen to and write down sentences from the other student’s paper. 

5. What do you have in common?

1. T writes on the board “What do you have in common?” and asks Ss to ask questions to each other to learn more about themselves.
2. Ss have to find five things that they have in common with the other people in the class. Ss take notes.
3. When Ss finished, T asks volunteers to read their list of things in common.

 
Alternative: Use categories of things that they all have in common. This can include anything from favorite sport to least favorite food. This works better with teams.

6. Yes/No Question bingo game

1. T gives Ss a bingo card.
2. Ss asks questions to each other to elicit an answer that matches a square on their card. For example, if the square of their card says, “No, she doesn’t “, then the S has to ask a question to a classmate to elicit that answer, e.g: “Does your mother like English? (Yes/No Question).
3. Once an answer has been elicited, that square can be crossed off on the card. The first S cross off a certain number of squares (T decides how many squares means a victory — e.g. five in a row, or the whole card) is the winner and the winner shouts “Bingo!” 
4. Finally, the winner shares the Ss’ answers with the class.