1Minimal resources: intermediate level activities
Author: Miles Craven
Level: starter/beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate Type: teaching
notes
Tips and ideas for intermediate level activities
1.1Starter level
Word tennis: Vocabulary
This is a good activity to review key vocabulary for a variety of starter-level word groups.
· Put students into pairs and tell them to turn their chairs to face each other.
· Choose a word group (e.g. colours or furniture) and write it on the board.
· Explain that students should take turns to say one word they can think of that belongs to the
word group.
· They should continue, like a game of tennis, with the ‘rally’ lasting as long as either of them can
think of an appropriate word.
· The winner is therefore the last student to say a word!
· You may wish to follow this up by telling students to write down all the words they thought of.
· Tell the pair with the longest list to write it on the board, and then review spelling and
pronunciation.
Dialogue build: writing and reading
· Put students into pairs and give each pair six strips of blank paper.
· Tell them to write a short dialogue to practise any English they know.
· Explain that they should write each line of dialogue on a separate strip of paper.
· Give students time to think of a dialogue and write the six lines of their dialogue on their strips of
paper.
· Monitor and check for accuracy. When students have finished, tell them to mix their strips of
paper and exchange them with another pair of students.
· Explain they should read the strips of paper and try to put the dialogue in the correct order.
· When students have completed the reordering activity, tell them to practice the dialogue with
their partner.
· Tell students to continue to exchange their strips of paper with their classmates until each pair
has reordered and practiced each of the dialogues.
1.2Elementary level
Category game: vocabulary This is one way you might wish to revise key vocabulary:
· List the following categories in a column on the board: country, sport, meat, vegetable, fruit,
animal, job, colour.
· Divide the class into groups, and write one letter at the top of the board, for example S. Tell each
group to think as quickly as they can of a word for each category that begins with that letter
(e.g. spain, swimming, sausages, etc.)
· The first group to finish should shout ‘Stop!’
· Tell them to call out their list of words and write them on the board next to the appropriate
category.
· You may wish to ask groups to spell any difficult words. If all words are correct, award the
group five points. If they make a mistake, deduct five points from their total.
· Then begin the game again by writing a different letter on the board.
One minute, please!: speaking
This is a good exercise to try top develop confidence and fluency with students at lower levels.
· Begin by writing a list of topics on the board, such as football, boys, school, parents, food,
holidays, etc.
· Then divide the class into two teams and ask for a volunteer from one team to come to the front
to sit in a chair facing the rest of the class.
· Explain that students from the opposing team should choose a topic from the board, and that the
student must try to talk about that topic for no less than one minute.
· Add that while some pauses are allowed for thinking time, no pause should be longer than five
seconds.
· If the student manages to talk for a full one minute, award five points. Give proportionally fewer
points for less than one minute of talking time.
· Continue the game with students from each team taking turns to come to the ‘hot seat’ and talk
about a topic for one minute.
· The team with the most number of points at the end of the game is the winner.
· You many wish to note any grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation errors and review these in a
later lesson.