ESL EFL TESOL BEGINNER ENGLISH INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH SPEAKING PRACTICE CARDS 100 QUESTION AND ANSWER SPEAKING PROMPTS WITH REFERENCE BOOKLET AND PLANNING BOOKLET

Students often find speaking quite challenging in English class. They find it really useful to engage with activities that require them to reproduce language they are already familiar with, be creative with that language in order to produce new language, and also enable them to engage with entirely new language. These English paired speaking prompt cards are an ideal way to promote speaking. Working in small groups or pairs helps students feel confident about talking in English without feeling ‘on the spot’, or worried about not getting their pronunciation and accent right in front of the whole class. The prompt cards offer structured talk opportunities, and focus on vocabulary, structures and general knowledge that students are generally engaging with from advanced beginner English into intermediate English level. The CEFR level is roughly A1 into B1.

The prompt cards also address a broad range of grammar points, such as tense usage, question formats and sentence structure, which makes conversational English more realistic and communicative. Students will not necessarily have engaged with all the language used at this stage, and this means the activity is equally about engaging implicitly with new language, as well as practising and reinforcing the current language focus.

Language varies from fairly basic beginner English such as “Do you live in a town or a city? I live in Manchester, which is the largest city in the north of England.” to more involved and complex exchanges such as Do you think that ethical fashion is too expensive? Yes, though it’s quite expensive because clothes are often made in very small quantities.” Both the questions and answers are a starting point: as students develop more competence and confidence in their English, they recreate either similar exchanges, or create entirely new ones, using the given language as a frame of reference. This also helps them develop independent learning and creative writing skills, making the activities really useful for multi-skill language learning.

Questions and answers can be as basic or as complex as students feel comfortable with. As a preliminary activity, it’s useful for students to work with the suggested questions and responses, moving on to asking a given question, with the talk partner creating a new response. Students can also select a given response, with the talk partner creating a new, related question. The activity works well as a spontaneous speaking activity, and students also benefit from a more focused approach, where they can research and plan more detailed and complex questions and responses as their competence and skills develop. The set works equally well for developing writing skills in English.

The set comprises the following non-editable files in a zipped format:
= 100 cards, 50 questions and 50 suggested responses in English (10 cards per page, 10 pages) Laminate these if possible, as they’re easier to manipulate, and will remain in excellent condition for years, so they can used many times

= reference booklet containing all the questions and answers featured in the set

= planning booklet for students to prepare and discuss questions and answers

Students can really consolidate their learning by engaging with the activities on a regular basis over a longer-term series of lessons, or across a school year. This is a successful alternative to practising and testing, helping students to map their progress in learning, and to develop and apply new knowledge. The prompts also work well as entrance and exit tickets and quick refreshers at any time of the school year.

The Lively Learning Classroom offers a wide range of English resources, including special offer bundles and freebies.