Associations

Here's a simple but versatile activity that belongs in every teacher's tool kit. As with all the best activities, it is fun, challenging, personalized and at the same time really useful. Students are asked to speak on a topic, but are given a framework that forces them to think about syntax as well as content. Thanks to Vivienne Arnold and Rolf Tynan for teaching it to me.

Who it's for:
All levels

What it's for:
Developing both note-taking skills and oral fluency; exam preparation

What you need:
Any issue of Spotlight.

What you do:
Flick through any issue of Spotlight and choose a topic or keyword that might generate associations in students' minds. For example, the 07/2009 issue might offer up "celebrity", "banks", or "boating".

Tell your students to take a new piece of paper. You will give them a keyword which they should write at the top of the paper. Underneath this word, they should write a list of seven or more words or short phrases associated with the keyword. Encourage them to write a mixture of different parts of speech. Ask them to write clearly.

Give students the keyword, and give them a couple of minutes to come up with further words. Some students will have ten words down within a minute; others will find it difficult even to find two or three.

When everyone has written down a few words, ask the students to stop writing, and put them into pairs. One student in each pair begins a "short talk" on the given topic, integrating the words on his or her sheet. The words should be used in order, and in the tense, person or number in which they were written. The other student checks the list as he or she listens.

If you are preparing students for oral exams, you can time the activity, or get each student to speak in front of the group rather than in pairs. As an extension, you could pass the pieces of paper around so that students are using another person's list.