What are you cooking? - English conversation games and activities for higher level students

49 ESL Conversation Games & Activities - Jackie Bolen 2020

What are you cooking?
English conversation games and activities for higher level students

Skills: Writing/Speaking/Listening/Reading

Time: 30-60 minutes

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Materials Required: Nothing

This a fun activity that requires some serious interaction from beginning to end! Put students into groups of three and tell them to write down items from each of the following categories:

✵ 1 meat

✵ 1 dairy product

✵ 1 green vegetable

✵ 3 more vegetables

✵ 1 grain

✵ 3 fruits

✵ 1 tin of some kind of food

✵ 1 jar of some food

✵ something salty

✵ something sweet

✵ 3 herbs or spices

Then, collect the papers from the students and redistribute them to the other groups. Explain what a three course meal is and give some examples. If you have access to a computer and PowerPoint, use Google Image search and look for “three course meal.” There are lots of nice examples there.

Each group has 10-15 minutes to plan a three course meal with their ingredients, along with cooking oil, salt and pepper. However, they are not required to use all the ingredients if they don't want to. It should consist of an appetizer, main course, and dessert.

When each group is finished, give them some time to prepare for their presentation. Each group will present their menu to the class. I usually require that each student in the group talks about one course which is perfect if you put students into teams of three for this activity.

Students can vote on their favorite menu that's not their own! You can prepare a small prize for the winning team.

Teaching Tip:

With larger classes, consider making bigger groups of 5-6 students instead of three. This is because listening to more than 7-8 presentations can get kind of boring. Not each student will talk during the presentation in this case though.

Procedure:

1. Put students into groups of three. They have to write down the required ingredients in each category. This usually takes around five minutes.

2. Collect the papers and redistribute them to another team.

3. Each team must make a three course menu with their ingredients (appetizer, main course and dessert). They don't have to use all the ingredients. I allow 10-15 minutes for this, and then five minutes to prepare for the next step.

4. The teams do a short presentation about their menu, and the class votes on their favorite.