Speaking Pairwork 11: Compare Men and Women

Click here for ‘The Basic Method for Speaking Pairwork’

This is a fun exercise as long as you have students who get on well together and have a sense of humour about themselves. It’s supposed to provoke disagreements but not serious ones!

Simply ask the students to write 5 survey questions comparing men and women. Write on the board the kind of sentence structures they can use but emphasise these are just examples and they can use other formats if they want.

Who is more _ _ _ _?
Who’s better at _ _ _ _?
Who spends more time on _ _ _ _?
Who spends more money on _ _ _ _?

Ask a student or three a few examples- things like:

‘Who spends more money on electronics?’ ‘on clothes?’ ‘on furniture?’ 'Men or women?'
‘Who is more polite?’ ‘more conservative?’ ‘more interested in politics?’ 'Men or women?'
‘Who’s better at driving?’ ‘at maths?’ ‘at English?’ ‘at art?’ 'Men or women?'

Also write on the board follow-up questions they can ask of each other like:

Why do you say that?
Give me an example
But what about _ _ _ _?