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Elicit from students a list of electric and electronic items and help them along until you have written on the board something like
mobile phones
smart phones
computers
printers
webcams
scanners
digital cameras
televisions
DVD players
microwaves
dish-washers
tablet computers
MP3 players
kettles
refrigerators
washing machines
hair dryers
toasters
vacuum cleaners
air conditioners
mixers
Then write on the board four categories
1) computers (hardware)
2) kitchen appliances
3) phones and cameras
4) TV, video & music
Ask each student/team to pick one and tell them they must write 5 survey questions for that category. This time they are trying to collect generally-known technical information, not just ask about personal usage habits. Give them possible questions like:
Do you know anything about _ _ _ _?
Do you know how to use/repair _ _ _ _?
Do you know how a _ _ _ _ works?
What do you think of (brand)? How does it compare with (brand)?
Have you ever had any problems with _ _ _ _?
The goal is to get them to write questions along the lines of:
Do you know the specs of your computer?
Do you know the different kinds of television available now?
Do you know how a smart phone is different from a normal phone?
What would you tell someone using a microwave for the first time?
Can you explain the different features of a digital camera?
Help them along in this direction with suggestions if they’re having trouble.
When it comes time for the students to interview each other you may find that some still say ‘No, I have no idea’ but the point is for each student to share the information they collect and anything they know themselves or have learned during this exercise they can relate on to that student who knows nothing. Explain this to them before they start.
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Tell the students to imagine a super-store is opening in the local area soon and looking to hire many new staff. Ask them to think of all the different jobs that could be available and help them along until you have written on the board something like:
accountant
baker
butcher
check-out counter staff
I.T. staff
manager
sales clerk in the _______ department
secretary
security guard
staff trainer
Ask each student to choose one job from this list. Then write on the board some typical job interview questions like:
What experience have you got?
What skills have you got?
What was your last job and salary?
What salary and benefits do you expect here?
Why do you think you’d be good for this job?
What can you offer this company?
What are your good points and bad points?
Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult situation at work
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Give the students 10 minutes to prepare answers to all these questions for their particular job and then get them talking in pairs, with one person playing the interviewer and the other the interviewee. When that conversation is finished, they can swap roles.
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These exercises are for students who are already familiar with the separate functions of the present perfect tense, and know their past participles and how to use ‘since’ and ‘for’. They should also be able to use the simple past tense with no problem since- as you must emphasise to them – often we switch from an initial present perfect question to asking for follow-up details in the past simple.
Function 1: Talking about experiences, with ‘ever’
Just write on the board ‘Have you ever (+ past participle) + _ _ _ _?’ and tell the students to make up 5 questions. If there’s a verb table in their textbooks they can use that. You can split the table up into segments and assign each student a portion so as to get a wide variety of verbs and questions.
Survey questions here will be things like:
Have you ever been to Japan?
Have you ever seen a tiger?
Have you ever eaten anything weird?
Have you ever stayed up all night?
Have you ever failed an exam?
Function 2: Talking about how long something has been happening, with ‘since’ and ‘for’
Survey questions here will be things like:
How long have you lived in this town?
How long have you worked at your job? studied at your school/university?
How long has your father owned his car?
How long have you known your best friend?
How long have you had that shirt/that dress/those glasses/that hair-style? (pointing to the relevant thing belonging to the other student)
Emphasise to the students that they must write questions that anyone can answer.
Function 3: Talking about recent events, using time-phrases or ‘yet’ or ‘since’
Survey questions here will be things like:
Have you had dinner yet?
Have you seen any movies this week?
Have you bought anything expensive this month?
Have you done anything interesting since the weekend?
Have you drunk more than one cup of coffee today?
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The students simple have to compose and then ask each other 5 survey questions about places. Do some examples on the board first like:
What place would you like to go to? Not like to go to?
What place would you like to go back to? Not like to go back to?
What place is important for your family?
What place in the world do you think is unique? glamourous? depressing?
What do you think is the coldest/ most expensive/ most fashionable/ most dangerous place in the world?
What beach have you been to most often in your life?
What’s your favourite big city?
Where did your parents meet? Have you ever been there?
What’s your home-town? Tell me about it.
Tell the students to think of cities, towns, villages, resorts, tourist attractions.
As ever, they should also ask follow-up questions.
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The students simple have to compose and then ask each other 5 survey questions about friends. Do some examples on the board first like:
Who’s your best friend? Tell me about them.
Who’s your richest/funniest/kindest/loudest friend?
What friends do you remember from high school? primary school?
Which of your friends went to university? has a car? is married?
What do your friends usually talk about?
When was the last time you met up with a large group of friends?
As ever, once they're working in pairs, they should also ask follow-up questions.
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Write on the board 5 stem sentences i.e. sentence beginnings. They could be anything, for example:
I like to _ _ _ _
My mother never _ _ _ _
Last week I saw _ _ _ _
I think my country _ _ _ _
My bathroom is _ _ _ _
As an example, ask students individually to complete each sentence and then ask follow-up questions. If they say ‘ I like to play computer games’ ask them ‘What games?’ ‘How many hours a day?’ etc
Get every student to write 5 stem sentences of their own. When they’re finished check the sentences to make sure they are correct so far and can be completed by any other student, then get them to speak in pairs. They simply read out their stem, listen to how the other student completes it, and ask follow-up questions.
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Tell students to think of an exciting and/or unusual job. Give them examples like astronaut, stuntman, pop singer, prime minister. Get them to say their job straight-out so that there are no repeats.
Elicit from them and prompt them until you have a lot of questions on the board like:
What do you do?
Where do you work?
How long have you worked there?
What qualifications do you have?
What hours do you work?
What’s your normal routine?
What’s the best/worst thing about your job?
What are your colleagues like?
How much do you earn?
Give them time to copy these questions into their notebooks and prepare imagined answers to these questions. Then they interview each other. As ever they can ask other questions of their own making.
