39 ESL Vocabulary Activities: For Teenagers and Adults - Jackie Bolen, Jennifer Booker Smith 2015

Dictogloss
Games and activities for higher-level students

Skills: Speaking/Listening

Time: 10-15 minutes

Materials: A short story

This is a simple activity for higher-level students that helps them practice their listening and memory skills, as well as substituting vocabulary words if the original word is no longer accessible to them. You can find a short, interesting story of some kind or make one up yourself. I've used various things from children's stories to a story about something I did on the weekend. Just about anything can work.

Tell the story 1-3 times, depending on the student level, and you can also vary your speaking speed to make this activity easier or harder. Once you are done telling the story, students will have to go in groups of 2-3 to retell the story. Emphasize that they won't be able to recreate the exact story that you told, but that they should try their best to keep the meaning the same. Each team can pair up with another team to compare. Then, tell the original story again so students can see how they did.

This activity works well as a writing activity too.

Teaching Tips:

It's very helpful for students to compare answers with partners before they have to say anything in front of the class so be sure to put them in pairs or groups of three to work together on this activity. It's useful for the weaker students to have a stronger student getting them up to speed. It also gives students confidence that they're on the right track, and they'll be less nervous to share their answers with the class.

If you use something “scandalous,” it will make the activity a lot more fun! Of course, it should still be appropriate so just picture your boss observing your class to decide if you should use it or not.

Procedure:

1. Prepare a short story using the key vocabulary words that you'll read to your students.

2. Put students in groups of two or three and read the story to them.

3. Students try to remember the details of the story and compare with their group. I usually only allow them to do this by speaking.

4. Read the story again and have students attempt to recreate the story more closely, again by speaking.

5. Read the story again (depending on level and difficulty of story) and have students again attempt to recreate it, even more closely.

6. Elicit a couple teams to tell their story to the class (in a small class). Alternatively, put two teams together and have them tell their stories to each other (in a larger class).

7. Read the story one final time for students to compare to their own.