Mime it!

This miming activity gets students waving their arms around and generally getting a bit of oxygen to the brain, either through the exercise or out of frustration. It can function as a way into a topic, or simply as a "separator" or energy raiser between other activities.

Although it may seem a trivial way of exploiting a text, this activity is actually quite revealing in communication terms, demonstrating how a speaker needs supportive feedback in order to get his or her message across and, consequently, how communication is a two-way process.

Who it's for:
All levels

What it's for:
Energy raising, reading for gist

What you need:
Copies of two short texts from Spotlight magazine that include elements which could be mimed, for example "Kayaking in Kerala" and "Camel steak, anyone?" from World View in Spotlight 4/2009.

What you do:
Put the class into pairs and hand out copies of the texts, so that each person has a different text to his or her partner.

Give students a minute or two to read their texts quietly. The information is top secret and not to be shared! It's better not to tell the students what you are about to ask them to do.

When you think most people have finished reading their texts through once or twice, ask them to close their magazines or hide the copy.

Tell the students that they are going to report on what they have just read — but that they can only mime their story.

In pairs, one student mimes to the other. The partners who are being mimed at should try to work out what's going on by putting what they see into words.

Set a time limit, such as a minute, before the other partner can have a go.

Don't spend too much feedback time on the stories themselves, unless you plan to use them further, but do mention the point above about communication needing both a sender and a receiver, and that frustration can be felt by either.