The document focuses on the importance of speaking and listening skills in learning English, emphasizing that effective language acquisition happens through active use rather than mere reading and writing. It provides a variety of task-based activities designed to enhance these skills among students, regardless of age, such as mingling exercises, jumbled sentences, running dictation, and the 'police' game. Each activity aims to create an interactive and engaging classroom environment where students can practice speaking and listening in meaningful contexts.

1. To learn English is to Speak &
Listen to English
Grammar, reading and writing are all well
and good, however, if a student can’t speak
or understand spoken English they aren’t
really learning. The following activities are
to help students with speaking and listening.
Tara Lockhart

2. Why speaking & listening skills are
important to encourage?
If students are going to live or work in an English
speaking country, it is important to know that
we often give instructions and details verbally.
I find most of my Asian students want to see
everything written down instead of actively
listening. In order to help them improve their
speaking and listening as well as fluency (speed
of speaking), Canadian teachers work hard at
making the classroom as “active” as possible.

3. Task-based warm-up activities
These are great activities to get students to
actively & naturally use vocab and grammar
they have already learned, or will learn.
Believe it or not these activities are not just
for young learners! Older learners also need
to “actively” use language.

4. 1. Mingling
1. Teacher types up different questions on a piece of paper
(to practice current vocab or grammar).
2. Cut the papers ¾ of the way, so the questions can be torn
and handed out to students.
3. Students stand up and walk around talking to different
partners.
4. Student A asks Student B their question and listens to the
answer. Student B asks their question. Then they switch
question and find a new partner.
5. The teacher monitors and/or participates as well & gives
out new questions when needed if a student receives the
same question.
This works best with larger classes, and encourages students
to get to know each other and talk to different people.

5. 2. Jumbled Sentences
Give students words in a sentence in a random
order and ask them to put them in the correct
order.
Option 1: Write a scrambled sentence on the
board, & give students a minute or less to put
the words in the correct order.
Option 2: Type & print the sentences off, then
cut up the papers. Pairs / teams work together
to put the words in order.

6. 2. Jumbled Sentences
**Option 3: Cut up each sentence and put the
pieces inside a deflated balloon. In class, blow up &
tie the balloons. Put the students into teams. Each
team can choose one person to get a balloon from
the front of the room.
> Tell the students they CANNOT use their hands OR
their feet to break the balloon.  Once the person
breaks the balloon, they collect the papers and
bring them back to their team.
*Note: Make sure the balloons are far apart, or
students don’t try to break their balloon too close
to someone else – the papers will get mixed up.

7. 2. Jumbled Sentences
**Option 3:
As soon as a team thinks they have their
sentence is put together properly, the teacher
checks it. If it is correct, they choose another
person to go “get” another balloon / sentence.
*This can also be done with short stories. Put a
sentence(s) from a story into a balloon. Each
team has a different colour of balloon. They
have to break all the balloons and put the
sentences in the correct order.

8. 3. Running Dictation
word Definition of the word.
This works best with 7-10 new vocabulary words.
Put students into pairs.
Each team/pair of students are given a paper with the words on them, and blanks where the
definitions go.
Student A. stays at the desk/table while Student B “runs” to a word posted on a wall around
the classroom as well as outside the classroom.
Student B goes to a word, reads the definition and tries to remember it.
Then goes back to their partner to dictate the definition.
Student B can go back and forth to the definition as often as they need to.
I always make sure students know they can’t shout the definition from across the room to
their partner. I ask the students to put their hands on the table when they’re dictating to
reinforce the “no shouting” rule.  I have also had to confiscate cell phones to prevent
students from taking pictures.
Once the definition is written down, partners switch places.

9. 3. Running Dictation
word Definition of the word.
This is not only a good listening and speaking (pronunciation) activity, but it’s also a good
reading, writing and spelling activity. Even if a student doesn’t know how to say a word, they
can spell it to their partner.
Using a timer helps motivate students. You can either give them 10-15 minutes (or a litte
bit longer depending on your students), OR you can use a stop watch to time the speed
of the teams. First place, second place, etc.
I also have a copy of the vocab & definitions to give to students when it’s done as I don’t always
want to wait for students to re-write their own copies of the vocabulary definitions.
They can also check their spelling and any mistakes they made while doing the activity.

10. 4. Broken Telephone
This is a common activity, but I’ll include it anyway.
It’s a good idea to demonstrate whispering and the
importance of enunciation.
Put students into teams. Teams make a line.
Two people from each team leaves the classroom with the
teacher. The teacher can either tell the students the
sentence, or show them the sentence on a piece of paper.
I always model the sentence for pronunciation.
Said students then go in and whisper the sentence to the
next person in line.
That person whispers to the next person and so on.
The last person in the line writes what they heard.
Students rotate on their team, so that everyone gets the
chance to be the first person to whisper and the person to
write on the board.

11. 4. Broken Telephone
To circumvent cheating, I usually demonstrate
before we start to play that body language is NOT
ok. The use of L1 is NOT ok.
If the person writing on the board makes a
mistake, they have to go back to their team and
the person who whispered to them, can whisper
to them again.
The initial person can also hear or read the
sentence again any time they need to. 

12. 5. One word at a time Relay Race
This is similar to “broken telephone” except, the
teacher reads the sentence out loud for the
entire class to hear.
Each team works together to write the sentence,
however, each team member can only write one
word at a time.

13. 6. Reading: Speaking and Listening
Students are put into pairs.
Student A reads a very short story/reading.
Student B also reads a very short story/ reading.
Then students tell each other what they read using
their own words.
Students are encouraged to ask each other
questions about what their partner read.
Then students have a chance to read their partner’s
story/reading.

14. 7. Police!
This is a great game that I have recently started
using.
• Give students a list of questions. (Review if
necessary.)
• Ask students B, C, E & F to stand up and face a
partner.
• Students A and D are the POLICE.
• Students will rotate when the teacher shouts
“Change!”
A
B F
C E
D
Change!! Change!!
F
A E
B D
C
E
F D
A C
B

15. 7. Police!
The police will listen to 2 students having a
conversation. If they hear a mistake, they shout
“STOP!” and the student who made the mistake
must begin again.
NOTE: The student asking the question, may
look at their paper. Questions don’t have to be
asked in order.
The student listening to the question MAY NOT
look at the paper; if they don’t understand, their
partner will ask again and help them understand
using English if necessary. Then they answer the
question.

16. 7. Police!
Students on the right are asked questions that they have
to answer.
Students on the left ask questions and listen to the
response.
In a more advanced class, students can ask follow up
questions that are not on their handout based on their
partner’s answer.
As students rotate around, they’ll each take turns
answering and asking questions.
As the teacher, you can monitor to make sure the “police”
are doing their jobs, or if there is an odd number of
students, you can take part in the activity.

17. 8. Error Corrections
Type and cut up a bunch of papers like the below example.
Each paper has an incorrect statement / question & the correct form.
Students are put into pairs.
Student A reads the incorrect statement to their partner. They should not show their partner
their paper. They read the incorrect statement as many times as their partner wants ( at least
3-4 times). Student B tries to figure out what the mistake is.
The corrected statement is on the bottom of the paper. Partner A tells their partner if they
are correct, or gives them hints, or if necessary tells / shows their partner what the correct
sentence is.

18. 8. Error Corrections
This activity requires some preparation. 
This can be done as a review after learning a
grammar point, but it’s often good to use before
learning a grammar point to see what students
already know, but also to discover the grammar
themselves or through peer teaching.

19. 9. Taboo / Password
• This activity has many different names, but it’s a
great way to teach students how to paraphrase ,
define and describe words. In reality this is a
great communicative exercise, because if a
student doesn’t know a word in real life, this
exercise teaches them how to describe a word in
order for the listener to understand.
• If you have access to the game “Taboo Junior” or
“Taboo,” I highly recommend using it. If not, you
can easily make your own vocab cards, write the
word(s) on the board, or on the Smartboard.

20. 9. Taboo / Password
On the smart board or white board:
Ask a student to either sit or stand in front of
the board with their back to it. Write / type the
word on the board. The class as a whole, or you
can do it in teams, tries to get that person to say
the word. The only catch is that the students
describing the word CANNOT say the word(s) on
the board.

21. 9. Taboo / Password
I often type up or write out by hand playing
cards that pairs or groups of students can use.
And just like Taboo, students want their
partner(s) to say the top word, but they cannot
say any of the words on the card.
Depending on the class level, I might
only have one word on the card, or
2 – 3 words beyond the top word
that they can’t use.

22. 10. Computer search relay race
• Students are put into pairs.
• Student A goes sit at a computer.
• Student B is told the question they are to
answer by the teacher.
• Student B then goes to their partner and tells
them what they have to look up. Student B
writes down the information. Then switches
with Student A.
• Student B then comes back to the teacher and
gets the second question, and so on.

23. 10. Computer search relay race
Don’t show the students the questions. If they don’t
understand, simply repeat or paraphrase.
I usually have the questions written on a piece of paper
with #’ed sticky notes over them to keep students from
cheating and each pair starts with a different number.
Ex: Team A starts with #1, Team B starts with #2…etc, so
that each team is not searching for the same info at the
same time.
End the activity when the first team finishes or shortly
after, and review the answers.
*Alternative: Students have to show you their answer; if
it’s correct then give them the next question.

24. 11. Trivia
Put students into teams.
Each team has trivia questions (and answers).
Teams take turns asking their trivia questions to
the apposing team.
Let students decide on the rules; i.e. if they’ll
accept answers that are close, if they’ll give the
apposing team 3 chances to guess or if they
want to give multiple choice options. 

25. 11. Trivia
• I recently did this to practice the Passive Voice,
thanks to a fellow staff member who taught
me this activity:
Example: When was Canada founded? (1867)
Students at this level were expected to give
answers in full sentences. Example:
“Canada was founded in 1867.”

26. 12. Password & Taboo Active Alternative

27. THANK YOU!!
I work and have worked with some really great
teachers over the years, and thankfully they
share / have shared their games, activities and
warm-ups with me.
I am also thankful to the great teachers who
have shared their activities on-line.