Practical Proficiency Podcast
Where world language teachers gather to transition to proficiency oriented instruction through comprehensible input. All through practical, real-life, teacher-friendly ideas that make teaching language more joyful! Hosted by Devon of La Libre Language Learning.
Practical Proficiency Podcast
My FAVE Speaking Activity for World Language Classes: "And you" & How to Play
The "And You" game transforms speaking practice in world language classrooms, helping students overcome anxiety while having fun with movement and authentic communication.
• Based on a college orientation icebreaker game that needs minimal preparation
• Students form a circle with placeholders, with one person in the middle making a statement
• Anyone who shares that trait must find a new spot, creating movement and engagement
• Works with any language unit - from basic likes/dislikes to clothing, food, or complex topics
• Offers scaffolding for shy students through group responses and visual supports
• Requires sufficient comprehensible input before asking students to produce language
• Can be adapted for any proficiency level by adjusting complexity of required statements
• Most effective when kept short (about 10 minutes) and followed by discussion
• Turns the class community into authentic content for language learning
Email me at devon@lalibrelearning.com with your favorite speaking activities!
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What's up? Que lo que Et salut world language teachers. Welcome to the Practical Proficiency Podcast, where we make the transition to proficiency-oriented instruction in your world language class in a way that works for you, your unique context and teaching style, and doesn't sacrifice your well-being along the way. I'm your host, devon Gunning, the teacher author, conference host, curriculum creator and consultant behind La Libre Language Learning. This podcast is for the creative world language teacher like you who's ready to ditch the overwhelming pressure of switching to acquisition-driven instruction and CI overnight. You're ready to discover how using more target language in class can actually bring you and your students more joy instead of adding to your plate. With practical, authentic and down-to-earth strategies that don't require reinventing the wheel or more training, we'll work together towards the magic of a community-based, target language-rich classroom, rooted in the power of community and comprehensible input. Let's go reason that people take our courses and it's the whole reason that people are interested in languages at all right Is they want to be able to interact, communicate and speak with other speakers of their language. So, with that in mind, I'm going to show you a really cool speaking activity today to make speaking a lot more fun in your classroom and to see if this helps your students, who are even at the novice level, be able to communicate in a way that's appropriate for them at the novice level. So, without further ado, this is my speaking activity called and you.
Speaker 1:Now, my name is Devon. I am the creator, teacher, author and curriculum consultant and publisher known as Libre Language Learning, and in my classroom, when I used to teach full time, I would do the speaking activity a lot, and it draws from my philosophy that, as a world language teacher, you are more of a facilitator of language, which is not a new idea in the proficiency space. But what this whole philosophy brings to it is the idea that you are really a party host in class, which means that a lot of the activities that we did in my class were based off of simple party games that you would play. So this activity called and you is based off of a party game that I used to play when I was an orientation leader at my college. Actually, it's from one of my jobs and it was a great way to get people talking and knowing more about each other, but it doesn't actually require a lot of language. So, without further ado, let me show you how this game works and you. You may have seen this too. It's like a common thing to do in colleges and icebreakers and things like that. But I'm going to try and use this real shoddy laminated piece of paper as my functional maybe semi-functional whiteboard. Let's see how it works.
Speaker 1:But this is how the game works. It's called, and you and the way that you need to set this up is you ask students to stand up and bring with them one thing that they can put easily down on the ground to be their placeholder Think of almost like musical chairs. So they need something in front of them that's not fragile or is going to it's not going to be a big deal if it gets knocked over so that it's easy for them to bring with them and hold their place. A lot of students would use something like a pencil case or a notebook, something like that. Don't bring a pencil, it'll get kicked around. So there's a lot of movement in this game, which is the other reason why I love it. So you ask students to line well, not line up, but to form a little circle and they have their little thing in front of them that's holding their place in front of them. That's holding their place. Let's just make a circle for ease of, let's say, you know about 10 students or so and each of them, each of the little students, has something in front of them, a little space. So let's say just, for example, say here okay, so these are all our cutie little students here. They're all in front of their stuff, so on and so forth. You ask students to stand in front of their things, but what you're going to do as I finish drawing these little cuties, is you're going to stand in the middle. You're not going to bring anything with you. Here's how this game works. The person in the middle is going to say something that's true for them. It could be anything, but they're going to say something that's true for them, all right. So there's one person in the middle here let's say that's you, the teacher. You're going to start here. You're not going to have anything in front of you. So it's kind of like musical chairs, where there's always going to be one less spot than the people that you have in your classroom. So you're going to start here and you're going to say something that's true about yourself.
Speaker 1:This is a target language activity, so I would suggest that you pick something that you know your students can respond to and understand. Let's say, for example, you're teaching a unit on likes and dislikes, which this works beautifully for, but you can use it for a lot of different things. I'm going to show you two different examples today. One is for a likes and dislikes focus and one is for a clothing unit. So let's do likes and dislikes first. You're going to say something that you like. So, for example, I would say something like I like anime. Then I'm going to say a twa and you so put, and you in any form that makes sense for your language. So I'm gonna say I like anime.
Speaker 1:Now there are, let's say, two other people in my class who also like anime. There's this guy and there's this girl. They also like anime. So since this statement is also true for them, us three, we're the ones who have to find a new spot. So the other people who don't like anime, they don't need to move, they don't need to do anything. But as soon as I say I like anime, and you guess what, these three people boom. They are all going to be moving around the room trying to find one of these three spots. They're going to be trying to find one of these three spots. They have to find a new spot. So let's say, this person's name is Andy and this person's name is I don't know Sharon. And then this is me. You don't have to worry about the handwriting here. I need to find one of these two spots. I have to find a new spot, and it cannot be the spot that I was just in, nor can it be the spot that's directly next to me. So I'm going to go in here. Puff's going to go in here. So this is me. So I'm gonna go in here. Puff's gonna go in here. So this is me.
Speaker 1:Sharon, let's say, is trying to move over here, but she can't. So Sharon's gonna switch with Andy. So Sharon is now here S and then Andy ends up not having a spot. He's like oh no, I'm lost over here, I don't have a spot. What am I going to do? He's it now. So now Andy comes in the center, all right. So Andy found a little spot and now we start a new round. So Andy, as a review, also likes anime. So he was able to find a new spot, but it wasn't in the circle. If you're in the circle, you're safe. So this ended up being me. These are the three people that moved. Andy was over here, sharon was over here, something like that, and then there wasn't enough spots for everybody, so Andy ended up being the person in the middle and now I'm over here, I'm the prof, I'm over here and Sharon moved from her spot over here. I hope that's making sense.
Speaker 1:The basic idea of it is like musical chairs, where everybody has to find a new spot. Here are some of the intricacies of the rules. Now Andy is the next person. This is where it becomes a speaking activity. Now the only rule is that Andy has to say something that he likes, something that he's into. And let's say Andy is like an average student. So he's going to try and say something really easy to say Like I like sports. So if he likes sports, there's going to be a lot of people in this room who also like sports. I love sports.
Speaker 1:Let's say Sharon loves sports, this person loves sports.
Speaker 1:This person hates sports. So not them. This person hates sports, not him. She likes sports, we like sports, you like sports. Look at all these people who like sports. So if he says I like sports and you can, you guess what's going to happen? All of these people who have likes next to them. They all have to move now. So this is where the game gets really fun. Everybody has to find a new spot, including this kid in the center. So everybody has to find a new spot, including this kid in the center. So everybody has to find a new spot. That's why you need these little placeholders here, like a notebook or a pencil case in front of you, because you cannot do this with desks. You're going to have to move the desks out of the space of your room and you're going to allow for there to be enough space for your students to form a circle and then, after they start moving around from this circle, they're going to have little spaces that they can go to, and I guarantee you students get really into this game. They're going to start running, they're going to start shoving each other, so make sure you go over some rules of movement before they start doing this. But it's really fun. It's a great high energy game.
Speaker 1:Here is how the target language piece works with this. So Andy says to me I know what I want to say, but I don't know how to say it in French. Is you can tell him like okay, well, just come tell me what it is. And he can say I want to say sports, how do you say sports? I'll be like, okay, make sure you ask that in French. Okay, comment dit-on sports en français? And then I'll say, oh, okay, so I'll write the word you know, sport on there. And depending on what level of class that you have, you can expect a full sentence or not at all. But I'm going to say, andy, I know you can do this. Can you say j'aime les sports? And you'll be fine. So can you say I like sports, me gustan deportes, I like sports in Spanish, the whole deal. And so Andy's going to say that in front of the class J'aime les sports, et toi Do you.
Speaker 1:And then everybody here who I've labeled, who has a heart. Now they all have to get up and find a new spot, which is where the crazy really happens. So I'm going to erase this just to show you as an example of everybody who likes sports. They all now have to find a new spot. And let's say for this example here you have two kids right next to each other that like sports. These two kids cannot just switch. That makes sure that everybody has to find a spot. So they have to find one that is not directly next to them. It has to be somebody who's at least two spaces away from them. So there's a lot of switching around. If you didn't have that rule, guess what would happen all of your kids would just shuffle over and find a new spot that way. And so, as my little whiteboard gets messier and messier, this, this keeps going in succession, and here are some ways that you can actually expand this game of and you to include other ways that you can use more target language with this.
Speaker 1:So, let's say, we decided that this was going to be a let's say this is in my level two class and we're learning about clothing be a. Let's say this is in my level two class and we're learning about clothing. So I would ask the person in the center to say something about what they're wearing. That's true. So I would expect something like, let's say, andy is still in the center here. Andy's going to say something like llevo pantalones cortos. So that's what you're going to do, is you're going to say something like llevo pantalones, and they're going to need to say something. That's true for them always. So they say something like I'm wearing pants or I'm wearing shorts, and they have to. Once they say that, say and you and anybody else who's wearing shorts also has to move. Anybody else who's wearing pants and not a skirt or something else has to move. Llevo una sudadera, I'm wearing a sweatshirt. Then if somebody else is wearing a sweatshirt, they have to move too.
Speaker 1:This is where the game also gets really fun, because you can start targeting people that you know are wearing the same things as you, and it can be really fun to do it this way. So it doesn't have to just be about likes and dislikes. You can also say anything that's true for you, about what you're wearing, what hobbies and activities you do, what classes you have. I've used this game really effectively for when you start learning the verb to have and it's things that you actually have like I have this in my backpack, or I have this class, or I have this teacher, and everybody else who also has that also has to move. This is a really great way to make low pressure speaking and incorporate movement with it.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to put down the whiteboard and tell you about some things that you will run into as issues. Number one your students won't know how to say the phrases that you're talking about. An easy way that you can mitigate this is make sure that this is something that you do after a healthy succession of input based activities. So I do not lead off with a speaking activity for a brand new set of vocabulary that kids just learned yesterday. Students need to hear something in context at least 20 times on average for students, but for most students it's actually 50. They need to hear it a lot before it really sinks in.
Speaker 1:So make sure that you're doing an activity where you know you're going to hit like 20 repetitions of the same thing, where you know you're gonna hit like 20 repetitions of the same thing. So if it's a simple structure like shim or me gusta, like I like, which is not simple in every language but if you're also doing simple content, heavy work, like hey, we're learning about sports hobbies, interests and activities and art right now. So if you're saying things like I like to paint, then they should be hearing the word, or they should be hearing that a lot before you ask them to actually do it themselves. It's also good to do after a couple days of writing as well. So you've been doing some writing activities, worksheets, you've been doing review, you've been doing games, whatever it might be, and then on, like day five, six or seven of this unit of new functional chunks and vocabulary and things, this is a great time to do a speaking activity. It doesn't mean that you don't do speaking more, it just means that you have to make sure that kids have enough input before they're ready to produce output which is difficult, like speaking. So that's my number one tip is make sure that you have enough input first.
Speaker 1:Tip number two is have the important phrases and the common things that you think students are going to say already written on the board or already on a slide for scaffolding. So give them the phrases that you know they're going to need to be successful. Tip number three is that you should because this is not exactly a volunteer game, like people are going to end up in the middle who do not want to speak is you should allow them a safe and easy out where you say I want all the students to say it with me or puff, can you say this with me? So offer some sort of social scaffolding as well, especially if you're really shy students or students who don't have a lot of language confidence yet. What this looks like is I would say okay, class, like if you are in the middle and it's your turn to speak.
Speaker 1:You can take the group option, which is everybody says the phrase with you, and what this looks like is they start off with like llevo. If you're talking about wearing, they're all going to start off with that same sentence of I am wearing in Spanish. So you say llevo or me pongo, whatever it may be. Everybody in the room says that in a choral response style, and then the student just has to come up with perhaps, the content, and you can help them as well. If you have students who are really, really shy and don't want to do it, then you can go up and be the person in the middle with them and just take away a spot for for that round and be like oh okay, I see you, alicia, you don't want to do this by yourself? That's fine, I respect that. You're still participating. How about we say it together? So you go up as the puff in the center and you say it at the same time with Alicia, you show her exactly what to say and you do it with her and you just take away your own spot that you've been holding so that it's not available for people and then you add it back in later. It's no big deal. You can also, if you have students who you know are just gonna fight you, fight, you, fight you.
Speaker 1:On this speaking, I don't think it's a bad idea to offer an out, as long as the out is actually quite difficult to do or more tedious or whatever it might be Like. It shouldn't be enticing compared to your really fun game. So you can say well, I mean, you can write and you can be my scribe and write down all of the phrases that everybody said during the class period. Would you like to do that instead? Alicia, as my sample shy student, and they they should say okay, because that's their best option. So you can ask for somebody to be your scribe if you want to do that, and that's actually a lot more responsibility. They have to be listening the whole time, they have to write down all the phrases and all of that, because my tip number four is that you should try your very best to move this into some sort of follow-up, with a write and discuss, talking about the different things that your students have shared about themselves. So they like this. Tanya likes that, alaysia's really into this, marcos really likes that, and you should be able to talk about it as a class afterwards.
Speaker 1:Tip number five is keep the game short, punchy and fun. Like this is something that you can do for like 10 minutes. You're going to need to do it once or twice or three times for students to really get the hang of it and how the movement of the whole game works. And again as an overview, here's how the movement works. There is one less spot on the outside of the circle than the amount of people in your classroom. There's one person who starts in the middle, who says something that's true about themselves, if it's also true for other students. Anybody that it's true for has to move to find a new place. They cannot find a spot that's directly next to them. Whoever is left at the center is the next person who goes, and so on and so forth. The cycle continues until you feel like it's done.
Speaker 1:So, with that movement pattern in mind, I would keep it to about 10 minutes, because if your students are into it, they're going to be running around like crazy, and if you let it go for too long it can get a little bit like push and shove type style, which I kind of I love active things in my classroom. I really want to reward and value the kids who hate sitting. Still, that needs to be something that we do more often, but I would keep it to about 10 minutes If you know your kids are going to get rowdy, especially younger crowds, because this game is really fun. It's like a huge favorite of people. However, on the other side of things, if you are a high school teacher like me, tip number six is that if your students are not into it, don't drag it out. I've definitely had classes that were just not into it because they were really afraid to speak. They didn't want to speak in front of their peers and that, to me, was a okay. We're going to wait for later on in the year to start doing this game, and you can also simplify and scaffold it in different ways. I've done things like as a color review, everybody's holding different colors as crayons and things like that, and you just have to say the name of your color when you go into the circle and everybody else has to move if they have that same color. So you can also do it in different ways to emphasize different things. Different ways to emphasize different things. My last tip for you, though, for tip number seven is for this game to really be fun and to also be a great time saver for you is incorporate this as a frequent routine in your units, because it's a good idea to have a couple really great games tucked into your teacher's toolkit. That so you don't need a bunch of like new and fresh ideas all the time. This, you know, is a really high energy mood booster that you can do at any time, that you can go back and review other ideas from you know what.
Speaker 1:Let's go with a bonus tip for tip number eight, which is that you can do this whole say something. That's true about you for any unit that you teach, literally any unit that you teach, or any concept that you're working on. This works, for you might just have to be a little bit creative about it, like you might be working with only a little bit of language that your kids are comfortable saying. So you're going to want to keep that whole idea very, very simple of what you want them to say. Give them some examples, first, of ways that this can work. Like, if you're doing a school unit and talking about classes, just expect them to say the class in French or the class in Spanish. And then, once they're more comfortable with it or they start to be in level two, level three, level four, they can say more.
Speaker 1:So keep it simple and give them simple ideas and a very finite conversation topic to move within. Like, don't be very open-ended with it. Like, just say something that's true about you. That's going to flop, that's going to be a disaster. It has to be something that's incredibly specific so that kids can come up with the idea on the spot. Like, say what you had for breakfast. If you're doing a food unit, they should be able to be like okay, there's only like four words that apply for breakfast and I'm going to choose one of those. And then you know you can. You can make the prompts different and more fun by adding in other ideas that you want them to be working towards. Like, after you do what you have for breakfast, you can do things like what did you have for dinner last night? And people have to say you know what they had for dinner and make meals and things like that.
Speaker 1:So, in conclusion, for this really fun activity called and you, which is based off of a simple get to know you orientation party game, I would make sure that you have things that can't get kicked over as your placeholders, like pencils, because you'll lose your spot. Make sure that you offer an out for your shy students. Keep the idea really simple for what you want them to talk about. Remember that you can do it for every single new piece of target language that you're teaching, and model for students how to form the sentences that you want them to say. Make sure that they've had enough input before you try this activity, because a sign that everybody's uncomfortable is a sign that they just don't have enough input to try it yet.
Speaker 1:And my last one would be, of course, offering out for students who are feeling like this is really above their shyness meter and capacity. Give them something like writing down or scribing what everybody is saying, so that you can also turn it into a follow-up writing activity, because your classroom, your kids and the interactions that you have really are the best content for your class. So that's my game. I hope that you love it and it helps you to get more speaking into your classroom. What are some of your favorite speaking activities? I would love to know. So let me know in the comments below or email me at devon at la libre language learning dot com and thanks so much for learning with me today. Happy speaking activities. Have so much fun.