Insanely Easy Speaking Activities for Spanish Class: Info-Gap Activities

Whenever I am brainstorming how to teach a particular grammar topic or set of vocabulary, my go-to speaking activity is an info-gap activity.

It's easy to set up (once you get the hang of it) and I can target whatever grammar or vocab that lesson is focusing on.

What is an info-gap activity?

It's a partnered speaking activity, where each partner has a set of prompts for questions and they also have prompts for the answers to their partner's questions.

How do you create an info-gap activity?

Let's say you're working on a food unit and you've taught dinner food vocab with the verb querer.

You taught students "¿qué quieres para la cena?", "¿qué quiere él/ella para la cena?", "¿qué quieren ustedes para la cena?", and "¿qué quieren ellos para la cena?".

You also taught them how to answer these questions in complete sentences, and you taught 10-15 dinner food vocab words.

You used pictures to teach the food vocab, so you can use those pics as prompts for answers.

Step 1

Open up a Word doc. Label the first page ESTUDIANTE A at the top. 

Step 2

Write the directions on the first page below ESTUDIANTE A and make an example for students to follow. I like to include a cheat sheet of the questions for students to refer to.

Step 3

I usually give students 6-8 question prompts. Number 1-8 under your directions.

Write question prompts for each number. I usually just write a subject pronoun.

Step 4

Write "Use the following information to answer your partner's questions" in a large font below the question prompts. The answer prompts will go below this.

Step 5

Copy everything you have typed so far, hit enter enough times to get to a second page, and paste everything.

Change ESTUDIANTE A to ESTUDIANTE B.

Cut and paste the question prompts from Student A to where your answers will go for Student B. Change the subject pronouns if you need to (if the question prompt was "tú", then the answer prompt will be "yo").

Add in clipart for the answer prompts.

Step 6

Time to make the questions for ESTUDIANTE B and answers for the partner.

Number the top of the second page 1-8 and type different question prompts. Or the same ones, but in a different order. That way Student B isn't just asking the same question as Student A for the whole activity.

Step 7

Then copy and paste the question prompts for ESTUDIANTE B back on the first page for ESTUDIANTE A's answer prompts. Change the subject pronouns as needed and add in clipart for answer prompts.

How do you use this activity in class?

You have to train students on how to use this type of activity, otherwise they will think their questions and answers match on their page. 

I pass out a pair of papers to every other student and tell them to give one of the papers to their partner next to them. 

I explain how their questions match their partner's answers and vice versa. 

I have a pair of students do an example the first few times we do this type of activity to make sure everyone gets the format.

What sorts of topics does an info-gap activity work well with?

Ummmm just about all of them.

Yep. I'm confident with that statement.

I prefer to use it with grammar and/or vocab topics where I can use picture prompts. 

I don't want students reading off the page. I want them to create the language in a structured format, so they can get used to what sounds right before embarking off on some less structured speaking activities where they are liberally creating language.

Have you ever used this type of speaking activity in your classroom? Let me know in the comments below!