Decentralised Teaching and Learning

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This is a very simple, no-materials pair work activity that gets learners talking!

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Procedure

 

Introduction

1) Write ‘Show me your pen!’ on the white board.

2) Tell the learners that you’re going to do a speaking activity called ‘Show me your pen’. 

Model the activity.

3) Say to a learner ‘Show me your pen!’

4) Go up to the learner, inspect the pen slowly and carefully.

5) Ask the learner ‘Where do you get this pen?’ and ‘How long have you had it?’ Feed in vocabulary if necessary (e.g. from my friend, for two years).

6) In open class, ask learners to tell you the two questions that you asked and write them on the white board.

7) Elicit answers to ‘What other questions can I ask here?’

8) Write further questions on the white board. 

Activity

9) Get learners to pick pairs. They simply say ‘Show me your pen, …….’ (name of person). Then they just go and sit in pairs but do not talk yet.

10) Tell learners that you’d like them to ask questions and talk about their pens for a few minutes. If they finish talking about their pens, say that they can talk about other objects such as watches, necklaces, rings, bags and so on.

11) Monitor. 

12) Get learners to change places and repeat their dialogue with a new partner.

13) In open class, go over examples of good language use and errors.  

Extension/ Variation

This activity would make a good introduction to language work on imperatives, question forms or comparatives. 

 

Conclusion

I hope that you like this warmer – let me know how it goes with your learners!

 

 

Images

Pen Macro. Dan Foy on flickr. CC license 2.0 Generic.