Hello and welcome back to Charlie’s Lessons. This is the second speaking activities blog in a three-part series on teaching grammar in the classroom. Here’s a link to the first volume on the Present Simple tense, in case you missed it!
As we discussed in the first speaking activities blog, we will not be focusing on the structure or form of the tense today. But rather on the functionality and how we use it when speaking English.
Specifically for this blog, we will be focusing on the best speaking activities for the Present Continuous.
Fun Activity 1 – Total Outfit Recall
Now, let’s get started with the first activity that’s going to promote the Present Continuous in the classroom. We will start by using the Present Continuous to refer to events time of speaking.
So, the first activity that promotes this function is an activity that I learned on my CELTA course. In pairs, I have students sit back to back. I give them a pen and a piece of paper and they try to recall everything that their partner is wearing.
I give my students a time limit. Once their time is up, I get them to turn around and look at each other again. Now they can make any corrections to what they thought their partner was wearing.
Now here comes the fun part! Ask one of the students to stand up and do a catwalk around the classroom while their partner reads out all the descriptions that they wrote previously.
Make sure students really play with the activity and get into it as much as possible.
So, for example:
“Charlie is wearing a lovely blue shirt and a pair of stylish jeans.”
“Wow! You go girl!”
“Oh no, what have I done to my camera?”
Just remember with this activity – don’t let the teacher get too carried away!
Fun Activity 2 – Writing A Postcard
My next activity to promote the function of referring to events at the time of speaking is to get my students to write a postcard. We can find a postcard template function on the free version of the graphic design website Canva.
Now, I know that students don’t write many postcards these days. So, you can call me old fashioned, but it’s a great way to practice the use of the Present Continuous.
All that we do is ask the students to write a postcard to a family member or friend while imagining that they are in a completely different place. Now we can get them to describe what they can see around them in this other place.
Another fun twist on this activity is to create our postcards during a major holiday like Christmas, or Easter. We can ask the students to think about all of the things that they do on that particular day in the Present Continuous.
A good example would be:
“I can see my family opening presents, eating Christmas dinner, drinking lots of wine…mum!”
“And watching home alone because home alone is the best Christmas film ever.”
When you teach English, it’s very common to run conversation classes for students, that’s why you should check out this post here.
Fun Activity 3 – Comparing Time Zones
My third fun activity to promote the use of the Present Continuous is to get students thinking about different time zones.
Firstly, we open up TimeAndDate.com and allow them to note down the time differences between where they live and the rest of the world.
We then provide trigger phrases like: “When I am having lunch in Australia, they are…”
Our students can then complete these sentences in the Present Continuous for us.
Fun Activity 4 – Moments At Home
My fourth fun activity to get my students engaged with the Present Continuous is firstly to get them to imagine a moment at home. I hand out a worksheet that shows the split of the house as if we are looking into each room.
Now, I get the students to consider how many people they live with, if they have any pets, etc. Then I get them to choose a time on any given day – let’s say Saturday morning at 10 o’clock.
What is your broker doing? What is your mother doing? What is your father doing? What is the cat doing? Get them to describe their answers to you individually. Or you can create teams of two, or they can present their answers to the rest of the class.
Fun Activity 5 – Future Arrangements
Now, we are going to discuss the second function of the Present Continuous which is future arrangements. One of the tried and tested activities that I use that work well with all age groups is simply to come up with a plan for the weekend.
I hand my students a worksheet and ask them to complete the spaces that are available for this weekend. I could also ask them to join up with other students to plan an activity together.
In order for this to be successful, we will have to first teach our students the relevant activity questions.
For example:
“What are you doing on Saturday in the morning?”
“What are you doing on Saturday morning?”
To make it even more fun, I like to try to encourage my students to come up with grandiose plans. For example, going whale watching, playing mini golf or even visiting the moon.
When they have finished their weekend planning, we can ask them to present their weekend to the rest of the classroom. Or again in pairs.
Fun Activity 6 – Adverbs
The final function that we are going to be promoting for the Present Continuous is with adverbs that express a negative attitude or are used to complain. For example, ‘always’.
The great thing about this activity is that it allows students to use the Present Continuous in a completely different context and it promotes a new function. That is, to make a complaint.
I give the students this scenario – to imagine that they have been on a nightmare holiday and they need to make a complaint to their hotel or travel agent. They can do this by either writing a letter of complaint or making a phone call, depending on the skill that you would like for them to practice.
The last time we did this activity in my classroom, we used speaking.
This was my example:
“Hello, room service? Yes, I’d like to make a complaint, please.”
“Yeah. What’s that? It’s not the first one you’ve got? Well, I’m not surprised!”
“Yes, Well, the cleaners are always knocking on my door and the waiters are always offering me prawns!”
“I said I don’t like prawns and the couple next door are always arguing! Well, that’s what it sounds like!”
Final Thoughts
So, that concludes our six fun speaking activities for today. Once again thank you for reading. I hope that this is helpful for you when you have to teach this grammar to your students.
In this blog, we just focussed on times, future arrangements and adverbs. But, there are further functions that the Present Continuous does cover. So, remember to watch out for volume three, don’t forget to subscribe and let me know how you get on in the comments below!