Speaking Pairwork 8: ‘Which is Better?’ Survey Questions

Click here for ‘The Basic Method for Speaking Pairwork’

Write on the board ‘Which is Better?’ and something like

KFC/Macdonald’s
cats/dogs
pizza/spaghetti
Spanish football/British football
breakfast/dinner

Go through each pair asking one student to state their preference. Ask them why they think that and any follow-up questions that occur to you.

Then tell the students they must come up with 5 pairs of similarly comparable things which they are going to ask other students about.

Write on the board at least 10 categories which will help get them thinking – things like

Beach Resorts
Computer Games
Countries
Drinks
Festivals
Food
Movies
Newspapers
Pop Stars
Restaurants
Seasons
Shopping Centres

When everyone has 5 pairs ready and you’ve checked them to make sure they really are comparable things and there is no overlap with other students’ pairings, set them to talking in pairs. They should of course ask ‘Why’ etc. Though these are just simple questions each conversation about a pair should still be at least 2 minutes long.

If you want, you can ask the students to keep a score of who likes what in each pair and they can relate one or two of these scores back to the class at the end, with a general discussion of why one thing is more popular than the other.