I’m always on a quest to get my students speaking in the target language! My latest goal has been getting them to practice the question words and also to be creative with the language. Don’t we want them to feel confident expressing themselves? If they travel they need to be able to communicate, ask questions, and improvise on the spot.
Hang on a minute! How do they do this at the novice level when they’re only supposed to be proficient at making lists and repeating memorized phrases? In a Spanish 1 class is it really feasible that they create with the language on the spot in an interpersonal speaking situation? Exciting news: Yes!
My lower level novice students definitely need scaffolding to make this transition. To better help them, I created “guided speaking” activities. The idea is to give them the start of a question and they finish it. (I include as many of the question words as possible!) They then create follow up questions they could ask their classmate.
Once they’ve created all their questions, they practice asking and answering with a partner. Students change partners after a few minutes, so they’re always hearing new questions. Finally, after a few rounds, they put their sheets away and have open conversations with their partners. But this point, they have practiced enough that it feels easy to them.
Check out my guided speaking activities HERE.
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