Day 7: A gift that meant a lot. A speaking task
An easy-to-run speaking task inspired by Activities for Task-Based Learning by Neil Anderson and Neil McCutcheon (I'm a big fan, in case you couldn't tell by now). Students share personal stories about giving or receiving meaningful gifts, I’ve created a short model text you can use,, which connects nicely to our theme for Week 2 – Connection. However, you can use this task with any story!
Goals: give students meaningful opportunities to share personal experiences, practise listening for gist and noticing useful language, support narrative fluency, build topic-specific vocab for gift giving and receiving.
Timing: 15-40 minutes
If you only have 10 minutes: Share your story (keep it brief), have students note 3-5 useful language items, then invite them to plan and share their own story (2 minutes each) and ask follow-up questions.
Timing: 15-40 minutes
If you only have 10 minutes: Share your story (keep it brief), have students note 3-5 useful language items, then invite them to plan and share their own story (2 minutes each) and ask follow-up questions.
Lesson ideas
Please note that I’m suggesting a procedure where you elicit specific vocabulary, and the topic I chose connects to what we’ll be discussing during the second week. However, feel free to use this simply as a lesson-flow template and substitute my language and texts with ones of your own!
a) Ask your students:
Tell your students that you'll discuss something very special today. For lower-level students, introduce the concept of "a special gift"; for higher-level students —"meaningful gift" or "thoughtful gift".
Ask students what words they can use to talk about it and write it on the board. Possible options (click to open):
- Have you bought gifts for your friends and family yet?
- Do you enjoy choosing gifts for people? Why or why not?
- How long does it usually take you to find the right gift?
Tell your students that you'll discuss something very special today. For lower-level students, introduce the concept of "a special gift"; for higher-level students —"meaningful gift" or "thoughtful gift".
Ask students what words they can use to talk about it and write it on the board. Possible options (click to open):
- Possible language to teach for A2-B1
- Possible language to teach for B2+
Tell students about a time you gave or received a gift that felt perfect. Keep it personal! This stage is essential because students will pick up a lot of words from you, you set the tone. Ask students to listen and, with their partner, prepare one follow-up question to ask you. Tell your story (2-3 minutes).
Below are sample stories I wrote (click the link to open), but feel free to use your own stories:
Focus on the language. After your story, direct students' attention to the note-taking section of the handout. And invite them to note down some useful language. You may share scripts of your stories, too!
Below are sample stories I wrote (click the link to open), but feel free to use your own stories:
- "A handmade scarf" for A2-B1
- "A collage photo album" for B2+
Focus on the language. After your story, direct students' attention to the note-taking section of the handout. And invite them to note down some useful language. You may share scripts of your stories, too!
a) Students prepare their own stories. Tell students they’ll share a story about a time they gave or received a gift that felt special. Before they speak, give them some time to write a list of 10–15 key words or phrases they can refer to while telling their story. These can be specific to their situation (names, places, objects, feelings) or related to gift giving in general. Give students 5 minutes to prepare their keywords.
b) Paired storytelling. Pair students (A and B)*. A tells their story (about 5 minutes), using keywords as a guide. B listens and asks questions ( you could either instruct them to do that naturally during the story or at the end). They switch roles. Monitor as students speak. Note interesting stories, common themes, or useful language to highlight later.
*If you’re teaching 1-to-1, take turns telling short stories. First, your student shares their story while you listen and ask follow-up questions. Then you share your own story (you might want to prep a different story), and the student asks you questions. Afterwards, discuss any useful language that appeared in both stories and help the student retell (or expand) their story with more detail.
b) Paired storytelling. Pair students (A and B)*. A tells their story (about 5 minutes), using keywords as a guide. B listens and asks questions ( you could either instruct them to do that naturally during the story or at the end). They switch roles. Monitor as students speak. Note interesting stories, common themes, or useful language to highlight later.
*If you’re teaching 1-to-1, take turns telling short stories. First, your student shares their story while you listen and ask follow-up questions. Then you share your own story (you might want to prep a different story), and the student asks you questions. Afterwards, discuss any useful language that appeared in both stories and help the student retell (or expand) their story with more detail.
Ask each student to share something about their partner's story with the class (or with a new partner):
- What was the gift?
- Why was it meaningful?
- Anything they had in common with their partner;
- Something particularly touching or surprising.