49 ESL Conversation Games & Activities - Jackie Bolen 2020

Q&A
English conversation games and activities for lower level students

Skills: Speaking/Listening/Reading/Writing

Time: 10 minutes

Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Materials Required: Nothing

This is a simple variation on having students make example sentences using their vocabulary list. Students work in pairs of teams, creating a list of WH questions (to avoid yes/no answers) using certain vocabulary words. When they have five questions, teams should alternate asking a question to another team and answering the other team’s questions.

Tips for Increasing Interaction:

It's possible extend the activity with some reported speech practice, which will give teams an incentive to listen to the responses to their questions. For example, each pair could report to the class something like the following, “I heard that Su-Jin loves living in the dormitory at our university.”

For higher-level students, I like to require follow-up questions which increases interaction. For each WH question a team asks, they have to listen to the answer and then ask one more question based on that answer.

Procedure:

1. Divide students into an even number of teams of 2-4. Then pair two teams together.

2. Give students a few minutes to create five wh questions using their vocabulary words.

3. Have the paired teams alternate asking and answering each other’s questions. (Optional) Require a follow-up question for each of these questions.

4. Optionally, extend the activity by having teams briefly report the other team’s answers.