The document provides a list of over 30 speaking activity ideas that teachers can use to get students talking in the target language in the foreign language classroom. Some of the activities described include: trapdoor where students guess the ending of sentences; encore une fois where one student leaves the room while answers are agreed on; and rhubarb where students stop each other from reading if a mistake is made. Overall, the document offers a wide variety of speaking games and exercises to engage students in oral production practice.

1. Get ‘em Talking
Speaking ideas for MFL

2. Trapdoor
Students guess the correct ending and move to
next sentence if they get it correct. If not it
moves to the next student who has to start at
the beginning.
(See next slide for example)

3. (1) Mon collège s’appelle Ridgewood School.
Hallcross School.
Danum School.
(2) J’aime
les maths
l’histoire
l’anglais (3) parce que
c’est
facile.
intéressant.
amusant.
ennuyeuse
irascible
méchante
(4) Je déteste
les maths
parce que le prof
est
(6) Ma matière
préférée est
(5) Le dessin est
plus ennuyeux que
l’histoire
la technologie
les sciences
la géographie
le sport
l’espagnol
j’adore apprendre
les langues.
c’est très facile.
(7) parce que

4. Encore Une Fois
Similar to previous. One volunteer to leave the room. Rest of
class agree on answers. The volunteer comes back in and
begins to read and guesses which is the correct answer. If
they’re correct they continue. If incorrect they must go back
to the beginning and guess again. Every time the volunteer
gets the answer wrong, they must go back to the beginning
and class says ”encore une fois”. This could then be done in
pairs.
(1) Mon collège s’appelle Ridgewood School.
Hallcross School.
Danum School.

5. First letter/syllable
Give the students the first letter/syllable of each
word in a sentence. They have to figure out what
the sentence could be and say it to their partner.
J V A B D L M
Je vais au bord de la mer.

6. Dominoes
Each student is given a ‘domino’ with a
word/phrase in English on one end and another
in the TL on the other end. One student starts
reading out theirs in the TL and other students
have to listen carefully to see if theirs has been
read out. The whole class takes it in turns to
read out their phrase in the TL until all of the
cards have been read out.
dog gato cat vaca

7. Battleships

8. Jenga
Write numbers on the Jenga
tiles.
These numbers correspond with
questions/topics on a tasksheet.
Students work in small groups
and are given a Jenga set and a
tasksheet.
When students pull out the
numbered tile they have to
answer the question/talk about
the topic.

9. Dice
Students roll the dice. Each number on the dice
corresponds to a question/topic. Students have
to answer the question/talk about the topic for
a certain amount of time.

10. Say the next word
Provide students with a text. Read the text aloud
then stop. Students have to say the next
word/next word in the sequence.

11. Against the clock
Time pupils to read out a
paragraph/sentence.

12. Jigsaw reading
In pairs students are given the same text but with
different words missing from each. Person A reads their
text out loud to Person B while they fill in the blanks on
their sheet. Then Person B does the same while Person
A fills in the blanks on their sheet. So they get to
practise their reading, listening and writing skills, as
well as their speaking.

13. Elevens
Go around the room saying 1, 2 or 3
numbers in the target language.
Number 11 is out.

14. Descriptions
A nice starter activity. Show some images
to the students and in pairs they have to
describe them using as many words as they
can.

15. Quiz Quiz Trade
Everyone has a piece of paper with a sentence and the
translation underneath.
Walk around the room reading your sentence to other
people. The other person translates. You then do the same
with their card. If both people translate each others’ cards
correctly you can swap.
Count the amount of times you have exchanged papers.
Can you get more than 10?

16. RHUBARB
Students work in groups. Everyone has a copy of
the text to read along. One person starts reading
it… if they make a mistake, or someone thinks they
do, they shout ‘Rhubarb and tell you what they
think went wrong. If they are correct the student
who shouted out ‘rhubarb’ takes over reading and
wins a point for their team. If they hadn’t made a
mistake, the student who was originally reading
gets a point for their team and carries on reading.

17. Twelve
12 words/pictures on screen without written
support. Pupils can say one or two numbers at a
time, starting at number 1. Whoever says the
twelfth is out of the game. If a pupil cannot
remember the word, they are also out of the
game!

18. Draw Something
• One student to
draw an image on
the board.
• Students to guess
answers in TL.

19. Pass the box around the room.
When the music stops, pick out a piece of paper.
On each piece of paper is a theme in the target
language.
e.g. ‘los animales’
Name an animal in Spanish, then pass on the box.
Pass the Parcel

20. Supermarket
Students play ‘I went
to the supermarket
and I bought…’ using
vocabulary learnt
throughout the
lesson.

21. Make like/dislike and activity cards.
In pairs, students take it in turns to take a
card from each pile and try to say the
sentence.
Me gusta nadar en la piscina.
E.G
Like/dislike

22. Running dictation
Place texts on the wall
around the room. In groups
students have to take it in
turns to remember as much
of the text as they can in 1
minute before returning to
their table and dictating to
the writer. The group with
the text closest to the one
on the wall wins.

23. Back to back descriptions
Students sit back to
back. One student
describes an
object/image to the
other who has to
draw it.

24. Class sentence
Going around the room, each student
has to say a word making up a
sentence/story.

25. Trivial Pursuit
Each colour represents a
topic. Students have to
talk about that topic for a
certain amount of time. If
they manage it they can
colour in one of the
triangles.

26. Spider Web
Think of one sentence using the
vocabulary you have learnt today. Use a
ball of string/ribbon. Students stand in a
circle and take it in turn to say their
sentence and hold the string, making a
web around the room.

27. Vocab Tennis
Students work in pairs and take it in turns to bat
vocab back and forth. Keep changing the topic
to keep them on their toes.

28. Articulate
Just like the board game. Students have a
minute to describe as many words as possible in
the TL and their team members have to guess
what they are describing.

29. Smarties
In groups students have a pack of Smarties and
take it in turns to take one from the pack. Each
colour corresponds to a topic/question. They
could talk about that topic for a certain amount
of time/give vocabulary from that topic/answer
a question.

30. Map speaking activity
Good for talking about places in town, directions
and prepositions. In pairs students have a
different map each and a copy of their partner’s
with some places missing which they have to fill
in by listening to their partner’s
description/asking questions.

31. Ball Repetition
Students throw
the ball around
the room
repeating the
word after the
teacher.

32. Passez la bombe
Buy a kitchen timer and put it in a
small black box. Put the timer in
the box. When you play, set the
timer for between 1-2 mins, put
into box and say a question you've
covered recently which can have
many different answers. Pass the
bomb to first pupil, who can pass it
on when they've said an answer.
Whoever is holding the bomb
when it goes off has to do a forfeit.

33. Ipadio
This is one from my Head of Department
(@Toujoursmfl). In class or for homework ask
students to record themselves on Ipadio. They
could then turn this into a QR code and stick this
into their book for you to easily scan then mark.
You could even record your feedback and
correct any pronunciation they struggled with.

34. Any more speaking ideas?
I’d love it if you would share
them with me…