Category Archives: Speaking

This is a great activity to get the entire class involved in saying and listening to the vocabulary in the target language. The teacher begins by cutting the strips of paper on the dotted line and giving five students a slip with two pictures on it. These students go to the front of the class without revealing their pictures to the rest of the class.

• French C’est Qui? Activities
• Spanish ¿Quién es? Activities

The other students in the class each receive the first sheet and begin by writing down the names of the five students in the front of the room.

One at a time members of the class take turns trying to guess who has which picture  on their sheet. All students record the answers as they are given.

An order of students should be established by the teacher and this order will be repeated until a student has correctly identified all the people/pictures on his/her turn. If the answers are not correct the questions continue.

Students should be informed that each person has only two pictures and that no two people have the same picture.

You can also download several version of this activity here:

• French C’est Qui? Activities
• Spanish ¿Quién es? Activities

I try to find new ways to use these materials beyond their original intended purpose before giving up on them.  One such activity is the Memory or Concentration game that always seems to be on a shelf somewhere in the classroom.

In this variation two students sit facing each other and place a barrier such a book between each other so that each one can’t see the tabletop area in front of the other person.  One student takes the picture cards and the other takes the cards with the words.   The student with the words lines the cards up in any order that he wants.  He then reads off the list to the other person who lines up his picture cards in the order that he hears.  When done, the barrier is removed and they can check to see that they are lined up in the same order.  They can then switch sides or try other variations such as having the student with the picture cards read off the list and the student with the word cards lines them up in the correct order.  Here is what it may look like:

French Memory Games

• Class Objects
• Animals
• City Locations
• House and Furniture
• Food
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Professions
• Clothing
• Transportation

Spanish Memory Games

• Class Objects
• Animals
• City Locations
• House and Furniture
• Food
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Professions
• Clothing
• Transportation

This is a very engaging and interactive way for students to practice  vocabulary in a communicative way. It requires students to speak to everyone in the class in order to complete the task. The activity employs information-gap and jigsaw language teaching techniques to engage student participation.

Each student has pictures of 4 things/objects (the example below uses city locations)  and students also have a sheet with all of the objects.   Students circulate and ask their classmates if they have the various objects (or are going to tge various places in the example below) and record their name if the answer is YES.

This is a great way to get students talking to everyone in the class and it reinforces the vocabulary through repetition in a meaningful and communicative context.

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Download Whole-Class Communicative Speaking Activities Here:

• French Speaking Activity with Animal Vocabulary
• Spanish Speaking Activity with Animal Vocabulary
• French Speaking Activity with City Locations
• Spanish Speaking Activity with City Locations
• French Speaking Activity with Food Vocabulary
• Spanish Speaking Activity with Food Vocabulary
• Additional Speaking Activities on many more topics