Speaking Activities for Any Grammar or Vocabulary with Joshua Cabral

Looking for some fresh, new speaking activity ideas to keep students engaged in the target language? Check out these 3 activities to keep students speaking Spanish!

I talked with Joshua Cabral on his World Language Classroom podcast about these 3 speaking activities, which work for any grammar or vocabulary topic in any language you're teaching.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Spotify, Youtube, Amazon Music, or on his website. Just search World Language Classroom.

Okay, let's get to these 3 speaking activities!

Partner Activity // A/B Info-Gap

Students take turns asking and answering questions with a partner.

There are question prompts at the top of the activity and answer prompts (to their partner's questions!) at the bottom of the activity.

For example, in a food unit students might see "tú / pedir / la cena" and say "¿Qué pides tú para la cena?" and then their partner will see a picture of chicken and they will say "Yo pido el pollo para la cena."

I have step-by-step directions for exactly how to create this activity in this blog post.

Whole-Class Activity // Ask & Switch

Students walk around the room to ask and answer questions with various partners.

Every student gets an index card with a question prompt on one side and an answer prompt on the other.

They find a partner, ask the question prompted on their index card, the partner answers based on the answer prompt they see, the partner asks their question and the first student responds, then both students switch cards and go find someone else.

Students switch cards so that they aren't asking and answering the same questions repeatedly.

For example, in a food unit the question prompt might be just the subject pronoun "tú" and students will know to ask the question "¿qué quieres tú?" and then they show the answer prompt, which would just be a picture of chicken. The student answering will know to say "yo quiero el pollo." Or whatever verb construction you're teaching with food.

I have step-by-step directions for how to create and run this activity successfully in this blog post.

Whole-Class Activity // 9 or 12-box grid

Students get up out of their seats and ask one question with various partners, and they give one of 9 or 12 responses.

I make either a 3x3 grid or 3x4 grid of possible answers (depending on how many vocab words I have in the unit I'm teaching).

Students have one question that they will ask as they walk around the room and talk to various partners. Sometimes I make it so they can give any of the response options and sometimes I pre-assign everyone's answers.

Students write the name of the student they speak to who gives them each answer in the box on their paper.

I have step-by-step directions for exactly how to create this activity in this blog post.