Teaching activities 3: Speaking activitty

 Target audience: Senior year students who are in the area of tourism in a public school with a B1 level of English.

Activity: Students will have to answer some questions about their personal life and their families, this will be done using the platform called “present.me” in which they can create a video or an audio depending of the student’s needs or their likes in order to practice their speaking . In this platform they also can put written information like slides as a way to support their speaking in the case of videos for example, if the student is telling her/his name and personal information, this can be seen in the slides at the same time that the student is speaking. Some of the questions related to personal information and family that might help students to reach the goal of this activity are:

What is your full name?

Where and when were you born?

Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.)

Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.

What is your occupation?

Write a full physical description of yourself. You might want to consider factors such as: height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.

To which social class do you belong?

Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?

Are you right- or left-handed?

What words and/or phrases do you use very frequently?

Do you have any strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics?

Do you have any pets?

Are you generally introverted or extroverted?

Are you generally organized or messy?

 Name three things you consider yourself to be very good at, and three things you consider yourself to be very bad at.

How close are you to your family?

Tell me about your childhood home.

How did your family celebrate holidays when you were a child?

Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?

What were the names of your brothers and sisters?

What was your mom like?

Was she affectionate with you? Did she have any nicknames for you?

What do you know about her background?

What about your Dad?

Were you close to him growing up?

What about his background?

What words do you most remember from your mom and dad?

So the student will have to choose as much as possible of the questions given, to create a video or record an audio, answering orally these questions. Once the students have made their videos or recorded their audios, they have to uploaded them in the “present.me” platform, they have to make sure that they used suitable vocabulary, an appropriate voice level, not too loud nor too soft, so when students have completed all these steps they will be ready with this activity in order to be evaluated.

How is using these tools different from other types of speaking activities (example: Face to face)?

These tools are different from regular activities because there is no need to be at the same place at the same time. Also students can feel more comfortable doing speaking exercises and tests at home or the computer room in school than speaking to the teacher in a classroom context. These tools are helpful too for students who get nervous when they are talking to the teacher face to face. Even though they have to finish and answer the test, there is a different level of pressure. Said style of activity may count as a type of limitation for the activity itself consiedring that by avoiding face to face activities, the students' ability to express themselves in public improves slowly.