Speaking and Listening Strategies for English Language Learners
Total Physical Response (TPR)
Students listen for key words and respond by acting out corresponding action
· Teacher: run
· Students: (run in place)
Listen/Guess
Teacher/student describes something with words. Students raise their hands when they know the answer. Can be done whole group, small group, or with partners.
Example: I’m thinking of a food. It is a fruit. It is long, soft, and yellow. It is sweet. (Banana)
File Folders
Provide students with file folders with sentence starters to guide their conversations. Students sit across from one another, placing file folder between them to support their conversation. File folders should be scaffolded to support students’ language needs.
Inner/Outer Circle
Step 1: Split the class in half (A and B).
Step 2: A will form an outer circle
Step 3: B will pair up with an A, forming an inner circle.
Step 4: A asks B a question, and listens for and records answer on listening guide (time 30 seconds to 1 minute).
Step 5: After time is up, every B rotates to the right one person, facing a new A.
Step 6: Repeat steps 4-5 until B gets back to original A.
Step 7: Switch roles so that B is now the outer circle.
Step 8: Repeat Steps 2-6
Fishbowl
Step 1: Provide students with list of possible discussion questions in advance (about a reading, current theme, anything really). Give them time to prepare and practice their answers.
Step 2: On day of Fishbowl, split class into groups of 3-4 students. Each group will have at least one opportunity to be the Speakers and multiple opportunities to be Listeners.
Step 3: Provide Speakers with one of the questions to discuss in front of the class.
Step 4: Listeners choose a Speaker to observe during the discussion; they take notes/answer questions about what the Speaker is saying.
Four Corners
Label 4 corners of the room: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. Provide students with several statements on a Likert scale. Independently, students must decide how they would answer the question (Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). Then, teacher reads one statement. Students move to the appropriate corner of the room. They discuss with other students why they are there. After about 1 minute of student discussion, students share out in a larger class discussion. Do this until students have discussed all questions. Teacher can prod students to develop their ideas.
*This is a great preview activity for reading.
Word Ball (thanks, Jen Danowitz!)
Students stand in a circle. Teacher asks a question and throws the ball to a selected student. The student must answer the question when they catch the ball. If you want every student to answer the same question with a different response, students can throw the ball to each other and take turns responding. If you want to differentiate questions, have each student throw the ball back to the teacher so that you can ask a different question to each student.
Differentiate questions:
Easier: Q: “Name an animal that lives in the ocean.” A: Octopus.
Harder: Q: “Tell me your favorite ocean animal and why you like it.” A: “My favorite animal is a whale because it is so big.”
Readers’ Theater and Dialogues
Help students practice oral language and develop reading fluency simultaneously. You can use Readers’ Theater pieces that are already written (Reading A-Z has tons) or you can involve students in writing their own. You can differentiate for students’ reading and speaking levels by assigning students more or less challenging parts. (Readers’ Theater is basically like a play)
Oral Presentations
You can use oral presentations as final assessment activities for almost any unit. This is also a good opportunity to help students develop public speaking skills and teach them about different levels of formality we use in language depending on the context (i.e. when we’re talking with a friend vs. when we’re giving a formal presentation). It can be very effective to involve students in the process of designing the rubric for their presentations before they start.
GAMES
Go Fish. Students practice asking and answering questions using thematic vocabulary.
Hedbanz. Students wear a picture on their head. They practice asking and answering questions to identify the picture. (This is an actual game, but you could easily make your own cards).
Guess Who? A childhood favorite with a classroom purpose. Students use physical descriptors to practice asking and answer questions about people.