Al Do vs. Al B. Doing

Stick two pictures of 2 different men on the board and introduce them as Al B. Doing and Al Do. The more confident looking one should be Al B. Doing. Explain that we use I’ll be (doing) for something we know we will be doing at a certain point in the future, whereas we use I’ll (do) for spontaneous predictions, which of course may not come true. Put the students in pairs and assign one role to each.

Point to Al B. Doing on the board and say next week/ traveling to America to elicit:

Al B. Doing:  Next week, I’ll be travelling to America.

Al Do:  Err... I’ll be here next week.

Continue with other prompts. Tomorrow/climb a mountain, next year/move to Canada Friday/pick up my new car  september/learn chinese

Note: Al Do does not have a cue because his predictions are spontaneous, so a hesitation is completely natural.

Past vs present

Student A describes a picture in the present. He should add things that are not there and say somethings that are not true. There’s a man riding a bike, he’s wearing a green hat. Then he gives it to student B. Student A a now describes it from memory in the past because he can no longer see the picture. After each sentence Student B says the equivalent present tense sentence. Eg

A There was a man riding a bike

B He’s still riding a bike

A He was wearing a green hat

B He’s not wearing a green hat any more

(The second sentence was not true.) Thus, you not only practice past and present tenses, but create a context for still and not... any more

An extention is ‘he must have lost it.’

Alphabetical order

Give out one picture card to each student. Tell them to call out the object on their card. Then tell them to stand in a line (or around the edge of the classroom) according to the first letter of their picture. This could be used as  pair/group formation activity, as people standing next to eachother can work together. Eg they could talk for a minute on the subject of their picture for one minute.

Same words different meanings.

Choose two pictures, one of a confident person and one who looks rather timid. Repeat these sentences in two ways, which may be said by the people in the picture with different meaning each time. The assertive  person sounds strong the other iw wek and complaining.

I’ll never do it : refusal vs defeatism

I can do it : determination vs volunteering for a job.

I’ll do that: determination vs spur of the moment

Don’t kid me:    threatening vs pleading

I don’t have to:   refusal (= I’m not going to) vs someone opting out of doing something (=I don’t have to go if you’d rather I didn’t)

I’m allowed to!  (strong assertion vs. question intonation= Are you giving me permission?)

I’m always here  assertion= I’m here to help vs I’m always in the same place complaint)

What are you going to to about it?  A challenge aggressive vs a genuine enquiry

Get out of the way or you’ll get hurt  threat vs real warning eg theres a car coming

You shouldn’t have done that  threat, criticism vs simply acknowledging  the wrong thing was done

Don't move  threat vs warning.

Say each sentence then   ask studnets to say which person is saying it. Say sentences in a neutral way and point at a picture and get students to say it in the way they are saying it.

Vague descriptions

Describe pictures using stuff thing, ie omitting all the nouns, students have to guess what the picture is, eg There’s big red thing next to a green thing. The green thing has yellow bits on it. There's some blue stuff under the green thing.

(a red bus next to tree with green and yellow leaves, in front of a lake.)

Talking pictures, speaking activity.

Take two pictures  of two different people and hold them up. Put students in pairs. One role plays each person. Hold one picture up  as a sign for the student playing that person to speak, then the other, and so on. Use contrasting people (age, appearance) for an interesting conversation.