This is a fun activity for a conversation or speaking class. It usually takes about an hour. The task is for students to work in teams to create the best winter survival plan.
Students are divided into 2 or 3 teams. The teacher explains the survival situation, which is listed below.These activities follow the introduction:
1. Teams rank items in order of importance for survival.
2. Teams choose items from the list one by one. Each time an item is chosen, it is removed from the list and unavailable to other teams.
3. After the items are all chosen, teams create a survival plan.
4. Teams present their plans to the group.
5. Other teams are allowed to ask questions and raise problems with the plan.
6. After all groups have presented, teacher chooses the group most likely to survive.
Situation
You are on a plane that crashes in Northern Ontario more than 300 km from civilization. Luckily, you and your friends all survive but now face the challenge of getting out of the forest and into safety. Considering the location, the temperature is well below freezing and there is a large amount of snow. After you look through the plane you compile a list of all the supplies that are still available. The list is as follows:
Compass
Map
Rope
Matches
Alcohol
Large tarp
Survival meal replacement bars
An axe
Snow shoes
Pots and pans
Knife
3 winter jackets
Gasoline
First aid kit
Flares
Bottles of water
Metal siding from the plane
A sled
A rifle
Blankets
You and your group must first decide what will be your plan of action. Will you try and travel to safety or wait to be rescued? Consider this before you decide which of the resources you will choose. Rank the objects in order of importance from 1 to 21.
This speaking activity helps students practice the 2nd conditional. It is a good variation from the standard conditional conversation questions.
1. The teacher provides students with example tasks and 4
ways to complete these tasks.
Examples:
Learn to swim
a) watch a video
b) Ask friends for help
c) Take lessons
d) Do it
Clean the kitchen
a) Wash the dishes
b) Mop the floor
c) Take the garbage out
d) Clean the oven
2. The students work in pairs an discuss 3 main questions:
a) What order would you use to complete this task?
b) Which items would you not do?
c) Which items would you add to the list?
Depending on the samples you give, some hypothetical questions become more appropriate than others. For example, in the swimming example above, it makes more sense to choose one method of learning to swim. In the cleaning example, it makes more sense to discuss the order and add some more.
The value of this activity is there are no right or wrong answers. This is what creates a situation where the students can be free to speak.
Get is an important verb in English. You can use it in many situations.
These get conversation questions help student practice using it in speaking in the different situations.
- What time do you get up on weekends?
- What is the best gift you have ever gotten?
- How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
- What do you like to get when you go out for breakfast?
- What is a subject in school that you didn't get?
- What time do you get to school/work in the morning?
- What did you get for your last birthday?
- What things get you angry?
- What do you get when you go to a coffee shop?
- What do you do when you get tired at work/school?
- Who is someone you know that always gets mad?
- How long does it take you to get to work/school?
- When did you get married? When do you want to get married?
- What are the best ways to get a job?
- Have you ever gotten caught for something?
Conditionals in English are one of the most difficult topics to learn. They are also very common in conversation, and therefore important for ESL learners to practice and master.
Below are some of my favourite conditional conversation questions.
- If you won the lottery what would you do?
- If you could try any extreme sport what would it be?
- If you had 24 hours to live, what would you do?
- If you could be any animal, what would you be?
- If you could be any superhero, which would you be?
- If you could eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
- If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
- If you could meet anybody, who would it be?
- If you could go back in time where would you go?
- If you could only have one book/CD/DVD, what would it be?
- Would you rather be blind or deaf?
- If your house was on fire what two things would you save first?
- If you could have any super power what would it be?
- What food would you never eat?
- Would you rather have no money or no friends?
- Would you rather be able to fly or swim under water?
- If a classmate asked you for an answer to a question on an exam and the teacher could not see, what would you do?
- If you crashed your car into a parked car and no one saw, what would you do?
- What would you do if you found a wallet?
- If you had one wish what would you wish for?
- If someone gave you a lottery ticket as a gift and you won a million dollars, would you share it with them?
- If you didn’t have to sleep like everyone else, what would you do at night?
- Would you rather live in a place with warm weather that is dark all the time, or cold weather and always sunny?
- When would you wake up if you didn't have school?
