Just a minute - English conversation games and activities for all levels

49 ESL Conversation Games & Activities - Jackie Bolen 2020

Just a minute
English conversation games and activities for all levels

Skills: Speaking/Listening

Time: 5-10 minutes

Level: High-Beginner to Advanced

Materials Required: Whiteboard, timer

This is a very simple activity to use as a fast warm-up at the beginning of class in order to get students talking. Write a bunch of general categories on the board such as jobs, hobbies, dreams, movies, food, etc. Put the students into groups of four and they can number themselves 1-2-3-4.

Then, ask one of the students to throw a paper airplane or scrunched up paper ball at the board and whatever word it gets closest to is the topic for the first student. All the number ones must talk about that topic for one minute without stopping and if they stop or have a long pause, they've lost the challenge.

Adjust the time limit to be higher or lower depending on the level of students (beginner = 30 seconds, advanced = 2 minutes). Erase the first speaking round word from the board and continue the activity with the remaining three students except that they have different topics. It's helpful if the teacher does an example speech first with a topic that the students choose.

To make this into a conversation activity, I require that the people not speaking listen carefully and each of them has to ask the speaker an interesting follow-up question or two.

Procedure:

1. The teacher writes topics on the whiteboard (teacher-supplied, or elicited from students).

2. Put students into groups of four. They number themselves 1-2-3-4.

3. One student throws a paper airplane at the whiteboard. The topic closest to where it hits is the first one.

4. Student one has to talk about that topic for a minute without stopping. The goal is to have minimal pauses and to never stop talking. The other three students each ask a follow-up question).

5. Erase the first speaking round word. Another student throws the paper airplane and finds another topic. The number two students talk for a minute. Continue with the third and fourth rounds' students.