2 Truths and a lie - English conversation games and activities for higher level students

49 ESL Conversation Games & Activities - Jackie Bolen 2020

2 Truths and a lie
English conversation games and activities for higher level students

Here are some of the best ESL conversation games and activities for more advanced students.

2 Truths and a lie

Skills: Writing/Listening/Speaking

Time: 20-30 minutes

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Materials Required: Nothing

Play in groups of 4-6 in a bigger class, or everyone together in a smaller class. My general rule is that it takes about 6-7 minutes per student. It’s a good activity for “always, usually, sometimes, never” or “can, can’t” and “I’ve.”

Students write three sentences, one of which is false. Other students can ask three questions, or question the person for a pre-determined amount of time (2-3 minutes) to determine the false one. A correct guess gets one point. Each student gets a turn to play. It's a fun challenge to try to catch someone in a lie and of course some people are better liars than others!

Teaching Tips:

This is a useful activity for practicing the speaking sub-skills of initiating a conversation and responding to something in a questioning way. For example, students will have to say something like, “So you can make/play/do ...? I kind of don't believe you! Tell me ...” if you allow question time.

It's possible to do this activity in one class, perhaps at the beginning of the semester as an icebreaker. Or, it's possible to do it over a series of days. For example, I taught at a winter camp where I had the same group of students for 10 days in a row. My class had 20 students, so as a warm-up for each day, two students had to go in the “hot-seat” (one at a time) and we asked the students questions about their 2 truths and 1 lie for three minutes. Everyone who figured out which one was the lie got a point. I appointed a “captain” to keep track of the points throughout the two weeks. The two winners got a $5 Starbucks gift certificate, which was a small way to add some friendly competition to the class.

It's possible to give points to the student in the hot-seat for anyone who doesn't figure out the correct answer. But, either do this or the other way I mentioned above. If you do both, it gets complicated and confusing very quickly!

Emphasize that students must pick things that are “big picture” ideas. The terrible examples I give are things like birthdays, hospital they were born in, name of sister, etc. There is simply no way to verify this information through asking any sort of interesting questions. Better categories are things like hobbies, travel, part-time jobs, skills and abilities. I have students write down their statements and try to catch any of the bad ones before the game starts.

Procedure:

1. Write three sentences on the board about yourself: two are true and one is not.

2. Explain to students that they are to do the same for themselves.

3. Do a demonstration with one group. Read your sentences and those students can ask three questions (or have two minutes, etc.) to ask questions.

4. Each student must choose for themselves which sentence is false. Reveal the answer and whoever guessed correctly gets a point.

5. The students play the game in small groups, making sure that each person gets a chance to share their three statements. Help move the activity along by acting as a time-keeper, giving each student's turn a specific time limit.