Alexander van Dieten Shosei JHS Speaking and Listening Present Giving Dialogue Activity
Class time needed for lesson: 20-50 minutes (20 minutes at least, but can be expanded to full class length)
Class size taught: 30 students
Target audience: Junior High School students, 2nd year
Objective: To understand specific grammar points through speaking and listening.
目的：話すこと、聞くことの活動を通して文法を理解する
Materials: Dialogue sheets, sheets with dialogue options (verbs, presents, emotions). You can make cards for the dialogue options if you want to go the extra mile.
Procedure:
- Put the students in groups of four and split the groups into pairs, Team A and Team B. Each team will have a student who does the dialogue (student 1) and one who handles choosing dialogue options from the option sheets (student 2). Each team gets a copy of the dialogue sheet. Additionally, Team A gets copies of the verb options and emotion options sheets, Team B gets copies of the present options and emotion options sheets.
- The students select who does the dialogue (student 1) and who handles the dialogue options (student 2). The students will start doing the dialogue, when they reach a gap in the dialogue the other student on their team (student 2) will select a dialogue option, which (student 1) will incorporate into the dialogue. There is one exception (see the included dialogue sheet), when A thanks B for the present they have to act out the emotion selected by their teammates.
- Be sure to demonstrate the dialogue at least once with your JTE, preferably with two students joining your team. Having the students join in makes it clearer for the students, that one person does the talking while the other chooses the dialogue options.
Additional information:
- I designed this activity with the aim that students can do the dialogue four times within their group whilst having a new role every time. So after the first run through they swap roles within their team. After that, they swap teams and then roles again. However, should you want to run it longer you can just tell them to keep going, as the amount of combinations possible with the option sheets is very high. Additionally you can swap team members in order to create fresh groups.
- This activity worked well in regards to getting all the students to participate. Students who hardly participated in class actively joined in because they got to act out silly things and could come up with silly combinations. There was much laughter to be had in all the classes I did this activity with. Alexander van Dieten Shosei JHS Speaking and Listening - Note: All the dialogue options I used for this game are included here, but I crammed them together in one table. The verb and present (which had pictures) option sheets were A4 size, the emotion (with smileys) option sheets were A5. I included everything for inspiration and clarity.
Dialogue sheet
Instructions:
Choose which pair is team A or team B. Then in your pair choose who does the dialogue and who chooses the dialogue options. Replace the letters A and B with your own names.
B: Hey A, how are you?
A: Hi B! I’m good thank you. Did you know it is my birthday tomorrow?
B: No, I didn’t! I should get you a present. What do you enjoy?/What are your hobbies?
A: Well, I like/enjoy ______. (USE –ing FORM)
B: Thanks, that gives me an idea. (THINKING OUT LOUD) I’ll give A a/an ______tomorrow. See you tomorrow A!
A: Bye, see you later!
The next day
A: Hey B!
B: Hi A, happy birthday! I got you a present, here you are. It’s a ______.
A: Thank you for the present B! (EXPRESS EMOTION)
B: A, you look ______.
A: Yeah, I like/don’t like/already have ______.
B: Ah, I see. Talk to you later.
A: Yeah, bye. Alexander van Dieten Shosei JHS Speaking and Listening
Verb dialogue options
To read To sing To cosplay To watch books/manga TV/movies
To run To swim To go to onsen To hike
To play games To play baseball To race on a To skydive motorcycle
To practice kendo To draw To fly an airplane To ride a horse
Presents dialogue options book/manga microphone costume romantic movie
running shoes swimming towel hiking backpack goggles gaming console baseball cap helmet parachute
shinai pencils pilot sunglasses pony
Emotions dialogue options
Happy Sad Excited
Angry Confused Surprised