B2 Speaking "Santa’s elves at work"

Activity title:

Santa's elves at work

2

Skill(s):

Speaking

3

Level(s):

B2

4

Exam part:

Speaking (parts 2 and 3)

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Aim(s):

• to develop students' fluency in speaking,
• to provide freer practice on vocabulary topic "At work",
• to make students more confident with the exam format

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Materials needed:

• handout 1: pictures (see p.3);
• handout 2: diagram with the question (see p.4)

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Preparation:

Print beforehand as many copies as necessary (1 copy for a pair or a group of three students) or project the pictures on the screen when needed throughout the lesson. Markers/chalk and a board or a flipchart.

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Procedure:

Step 1. Ask students to describe a typical working place. Note down briefly their ideas on the board. Clarify some emergent vocabulary.

Step 2. In pairs students describe and compare the two photos for about two minutes. Remind them that they must answer the question above the photos, not just describe the photos. Teacher monitors and takes notes on errors or any emergent language (depending on the teacher's and students' needs)

Step 3. Ask the students to share their ideas on the question with the class, do error correction work or focus on the emergent language.

Step 4. Tell students that Santa Claus has some troubles with his employees; he has some ideas how to make them more productive, but he is not sure how effective the measures will be. Ask students to discuss the effectiveness of each way in 2 minutes.

Step 5. Rearrange the pairs and ask students to briefly discuss and compare their ideas.

Step 6. Students return to their original pairs and choose the two most effective ways of enhancing elves' productivity. They should consider the ideas they've picked up on step 5 as well as their ideas from step 4.

Step 7. Ask students to share which ways they have chosen with their partners and to explain their choice.

Step 8. Conduct the feedback session the way you got used to.

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Variation(s)

The exercise might be divided into two separate activities and arranged in two separate lessons. The teacher might also conduct only one part of the activity. If the lesson time allows, the second part might be prepared by the students: they brainstorm different things that might enhance productivity at work, then teacher offers them to discuss the question provided. Elves might be replaced with simple employees if the activity is conducted not around Christmas time. Step 6 might be skipped or replaced with some whole class feedback if you want to save time. A similar cycle might be applied to any two activities preparing for B2 First speaking exam which are united by the same topic.

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Reflections

I have conducted this cycle with two groups of 16-18-year-old students (one group - beginning their way to B2 level and another - preparing for B2 First). The Santa Claus and his elves might seem too childish for this age, however it lightened up our studying of such a serious topic of work and employment. One difficulty came up at step 2, students got into too many details while describing the pictures that they didn't have enough time to answer the question. That's why I have added the instruction to remind them of the task and the question. The most successful and engaging part appeared to be the second stage (steps 4-6) - these students normally enjoy this type of discussion activities; they also didn't expect the twist of the topic they studied into a Christmas related topic. Students of the first group tended to use simplified grammar structures and vocabulary, so later on I provided them some cliches and more functional language while conducting a similar activity. The biggest success and most effect was creating of holiday atmosphere in class, since students are getting tired at this time of the academic year, keeping them engaged becomes the hardest task for the teacher. Therefore I found this activity quite useful for my two groups.