Find something in common - English conversation games and activities for higher level students

49 ESL Conversation Games & Activities - Jackie Bolen 2020

Find something in common
English conversation games and activities for higher level students

Skills: Speaking/Listening

Time: 10-20 minutes

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Materials Required: Nothing

This activity is an excellent way for everyone to get to know each other. The students stand up with a piece of paper and pencil in their hand. They have to talk to everyone in the class to try to find something in common (they are both from Seoul or they both know how to play the piano). Once they find this thing in common, they write it down along with the person's name. Keep going until most of the students have talked to everyone. For larger classes, perhaps require that students talk to 10 students instead.

Teaching Tips:

This is a great activity for students to practice the sub-skill of initiating a conversation, which is something that many of them find quite difficult. Coach students before the activity starts and give them a few phrases or conversation starters to keep in their head if they get stuck.

However, since this game is mostly for higher level students, I wouldn't write them on the board because students will be referring back to them throughout the activity when they are actually capable of remembering a few phrases in their head and can recall them easily.

Many students struggle with speaking because it happens in real time. Unlike in writing, where we can first plan and then produce later, planning and production overlap and often happen at the same time. If our students focus too much on planning, fluency can suffer. If they focus too much on production, accuracy can suffer. In this activity, fluency is far more important than accuracy because the students are having short, small-talk type conversations. I tell my students not too worry too much about choosing the perfect vocabulary word, or exact grammar constructions, but instead just focus on communicating quickly, in a way that is “good enough.”

Tell students that while it is okay to have short conversations about the thing they have in common, the goal of the activity is to try to talk to most of the people in the class so they need to keep moving and talking to new people. I recommend to my students that they try to spend only 1-2 minutes talking with each person.

Procedure:

1. Students stand up with a pencil and paper in their hands.

2. They talk to another student and try to find something in common by asking some questions. Some kinds of questions that work well are things like, “Have you ever ... (lived abroad)?”, “Are you ... (an only child)?” or, “Do you ... (have a brother)?”

3. Once they find something in common, they write that down, along with the person's name.

4. Then, they find a new partner and continue until they've talked to everybody in the class or the time is up.