This document outlines 15 activities to encourage spontaneous speaking in a foreign language classroom. The activities include discussing food menus, comparing pictures, talking about TV schedules, and describing Olympic medal winners. Preparation depends on how familiar students are with spontaneous speaking. Feedback from teachers found that providing some structure worked better than unstructured approaches. Pictures, questions, and games can help prompt conversation. Songs, raps and word walls also help students learn phrases for spontaneous speaking.

1. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 1 Discuss preferences about types of food
MaterialsReal menu in TL(and English), for example: http://www.lepreverre.com/fr/
http://www.cafejournal-
mannheim.de/media/JournalMA_SK2010_web.pdf
Task Groups are asked to discuss the items on the menu in order to decide what they
might eat. Only one person gets the translation.
Comments CB- used as starter activity. Pupils used their own menu and made one which was
provocative! I.e. unusual Spanish dishes e.g. bull’s testicles, brains, etc. One person
had translation but found it was not enough for pupils to have it written down. We
had to practise vocab as a class. Perhaps after a visit to Spain he might use this again
to find out if anyone actually had some of the unusual food. Good for spontaneous
talk because the unusual items created a genuine emotional response! They really
wanted to say” ew! That’s disgusting” or “yum yum” and real opportunity to practise
opinions.
JS- told class to pretend they are in a restaurant and talk about the menu. They
needed the context for their discussion so although it was like a role play the
conversation was not prescribed. The discussion among the students happened
before they placed their order and JS extended this by playing the part of the
waitress and taking orders.

2. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 2
Discuss differences in pictures
MaterialsPictures of French football teams , for example;
http://i2.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article833599.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/France+football+t
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-
J1FdJckkNMY/TwX9br40kRI/AAAAAAAAEQM/Sevg0Ywdbtk/s1600/France+National+Foo
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2006/06/01/France372x192.jp
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dr73s9kBj1w/ThZdbre6pGI/AAAAAAAAAH8/HqJduW59ALE/s
France+0-USSR+2-photo+1.JPG
Task Students discuss the differences in the pictures. Reveal more pictures gradually.
Comments CB used two pictures the idea was to talk about the pictures. Good with IB class.
Good for practising comparisons.
Pupils most enjoyed talking about possible stories behind the pictures.
Could compare X factor finalists, a cat compared to a dog.
Choose pictures which relate to particular class so that the task is relevant.

3. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 3 Discuss what you are going to watch on TV tonight
Materials Tonight’s TV schedule
For example: http://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings
Task Using the schedule students discuss what they might watch that evening.
Comments This was a very popular successful activity. Great for a Friday lesson. All schools tried this and found it
very productive.
A Spanish channel shown. Pupils enjoyed recognising familiar programmes with Spanish names.
Good for future tense and conditional tense. “If I were in Spain I would watch xxxx or If I didn’t have too
much homework I would watch… I would watch XX but I will be with my Grandma”
Allows for differentiation by outcome.
After Christmas could practise past tense and ask “what did you watch? Why? Was it good?”
There may also be scope for not planning too much which grammar points you want them to practise
but waiting to see what they want to say. Pupils enjoy learning odd/ unusual random vocabulary.
Teachers found it useful to take a photograph of the vocabulary they had written up on the board to
make sure it could be revisited.
Pupils find unusual vocab more memorable and enjoy trying to reuse it.
With a lower ability group they may need drilling more/ giving more support.
Some teachers found they took longer because this was generating so much talk. This was thought to
be valuable use of time even though it may go away from the topic area of the moment which
contributes to spontaneity.

4. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 4
Discuss Olympic medal winners
MaterialsPictures for example:
http://www.london2012.com/photos/country-galleries/country=great-
britain/index.html
http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/photos/
Task Discuss the pictures and whether you enjoyed the Olympics, saw these winners etc.
Comments CB – Trainee teachers did this activity. They prepared it in groups. Someone had
the photo and other learners had to guess who it was by asking questions. Pupils
took it further and started describing the person in the picture. Teacher wanted this
activity to practise using questions words but leaners found it more natural to
describe the picture. The pupils did practise questioning though.
With other groups use different people e.g. TV celebs.
With year 11 lower ability set more direction / structure was given to focus them on
the questions the teacher wanted them to practise.

5. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 5
Discussing the previous weekend
MaterialsIn a previous week the teacher needs to ask the class to bring in a picture/ item
which would start this discussion.
Task Students ask each other about what they did.
Comments This was a disaster for one class because the items brought were very diverse and
so even if that pupil had prepared their input the others didn’t understand. E.g. one
pupil wanted to talk about dyeing their mum’s hair and another about Cumbrian
wrestling. It became too diverse for the teacher to be able to support all needs.
They wanted to talk about their own weekend but didn’t care about what the
others wanted to say. It might work better with a smaller class.
An unstructured approach didn’t work in this case and any structure might detract
from the spontaneity.
It might work if the pupil prepares a talk and a list of questions for the rest of the
class to answer while they are listening. Pupils answer these questions but also
then ask the presenter follow up questions.
QKS Adapted it as a speed dating activity.
Actually gave them questions to turn over at random. And added asking opinions.

6. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 6
Sentence building
MaterialsKey students phrases on the wall (What did he say? We had that one. etc.
Grid for giving opinions, for example about school subjects. See powerpoint
Task Teacher notes a sentence. Students have to work out what it is by saying a sentence
from the grid, one piece of info per column. By telling them how many they have
correctly got right (but not which ones) they start to work it out.
Comments TN- in the context of the market- pupils had a grid with info with which by the end
that they could use to form different sentences. Once pupils got ownership of it
worked really well with pupils asking for “ 100Kilo turnips”
Differentiated well by outcome. Weaker pupils however picked fewer sentences
although not necessarily the most simple ones which moved them on well.

7. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 7
Pick-a-path
MaterialsGrid with first letters of a sentence. See powerpoint.
Task Tell students where to start, but no more. They may move from that letter one
square in any direction, using each square once only, to build the sentence I have
written down. They can then think up their own.
Comments Once students get the hang of the activity type this works really. It is worth persisting
with. It could be just 4 squares to start with and grow to 12+ or a blockbusters grid.
There might not necessarily be a right or wrong sentence.
Sentence might not make sense but be grammatically correct!
Pupils could have a laminated grid and make up themselves.
Can be a bit tricky if the teacher doesn’t have a correct sentence in mind. In one case
the learners were putting the teacher back on track.

8. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 8
Song
MaterialsSee powerpoint
Task Put frequently used phrases on a slide and sing along to a well-known tune. Usually
nursery rhymes, soap theme tunes, pop songs or Christmas carols work best.
Comments This is at the beginning of the continuum leading towards spontaneous talk to help
pupils learn key phrases. Pupils can make their own up e.g. one group of pupils did
daily routine phrases to the tune of Joseph and his Technicolor dreamcoat. Depends
on the personality of the teacher wanting to sing. Very good for supporting
memorisation. Pupils (and teachers!) remember songs for many years later. Good for
cultural aspects by picking tunes from the TL country. Useful for preparing for
speaking tests!

9. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 9
Rap/Rhyme
MaterialsSee powerpoint – find examples of raps in text books, or BBC learning zone might be
useful
Task Put frequently used phrases on a slide and sing along.
Comments Good for pronunciation- break up words. See notes on previous activity. It would be
useful to have sound. Again not necessarily an opportunity to generate spontaneous
talk but good for embedding useful phrases for immediate recall.

10. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity Word wall task noughts and crosses/blockbusters.
10*
MaterialsFrequently used statements in the room.e.g. pictures representing holiday phrases
or common classroom language in OX grid
Task Either as a class team task or in pairs. 9/16 English phrases on a noughts and crosses
grid. Have to say the TL phrases to get the square on the grid.
Comments First step would be to do the activity with classroom phrases in the grid, the next
stage would be to play the game with “topic vocab” but pupils use the classroom
phrases and are rewarded both for getting the topic phrase right but also for using
the classroom language phrases.

11. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 11 Describe the differences between 2 pictures
Materials see powerpoint slides 1,2,3
WE ARE NOT SURE ABOUT COPYRIGHT ISSUES WITH THESE PICTURES
Task Students look for differences
Comments Tell pupils how many differences there are. Could give some pupils one picture and
others the different one and get them to describe it to see what the differences are.
Often they don’t know the languages so good opportunity to practise saying what
you want to say in another way with the languages you do have. Useful to give
them phrases like “truc” “machin” “dingsbums” “ una cosilla”. Possibly ask an FLS /
native speaker to compile a list.

12. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 12 Personalities
Materials see powerpoint slide 4
WE ARE NOT SURE ABOUT COPYRIGHT ISSUES WITH THESE PICTURES
Task Students talk about what sort of person the figures might be
Comments Good for language of conjecture e.g. “she is sad because ….” pupils can agree/
disagree with the inventions of others and give reasons.
Probably about a 10 minute speaking activity but also possibly a stimulus for a
writing activity. Allows teacher to focus on a particular point to prepare for a CA for
example.
Risks not being too spontaneous if pupils given too long to prepare what they want
to say.

13. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 13 Describe a picture
Materials see powerpoint slides 5-14
WE ARE NOT SURE ABOUT COPYRIGHT ISSUES WITH THESE PICTURES
Task One student has the picture and describes it to their partner
Comments There are many websites which collate odd photos!

14. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 14 Invent a story
WE ARE NOT SURE ABOUT COPYRIGHT ISSUES WITH THESE PICTURES
Materials see powerpoint slides 5-14
Task Students invent situations or dialogues based on the pictures.
Comments

15. SLF MFL spontaneous talk project. 15 10 minute ideas to trial.
Preparation will inevitably depend on how familiar the class is with the idea of “directed spontaneous” talk.
Activity 15 Questions on cards
Materials see example sheet
Task Students pick up a card unseen, at random to start a conversation
Comments Random questions requiring students to speak of the top of their heads. These
have worked well. They have enjoyed trying to answerquestionsknowing there was
no right or wrong answer but just using the languages they have.
Pupils could have time limit like “Just a minute” to talk about the card. This doesn’t
have to be a question it could be a topic or person etc.
Similar activity about what you would spend £10000 on to improve the school