The problem wasn’t that my students couldn’t speak…
It was that they didn’t want to. Every time I said, “Let’s practise speaking,” I could almost hear the collective sigh. They were afraid of making mistakes, of sounding awkward — and honestly, the activities I gave them were too predictable.

Everything changed when I started using speaking tasks with a twist — guessing games, object stories, real-life role plays, even creating their own surveys. Suddenly, the classroom was buzzing with energy. Mistakes still happened, but students laughed, helped each other, and most importantly — they spoke.

The Teaching Speaking Effectively resource is built for that transformation: clear strategies, practical tips, and ready-to-use activities that make speaking feel natural, not forced.

✨ Because confidence doesn’t come from perfect grammar — it comes from speaking without fear.

1️⃣ Warm-up – Introducing the topic and job vocabulary

The teacher shows pictures or a short video about familiar jobs (doctor, teacher, firefighter, pilot, singer, etc.).

Students guess the jobs → the teacher introduces new vocabulary.

💬 Suggested activities:

• 🎯 Drilling vocab: The teacher says each job and students repeat with different rhythms (fast/slow) to remember pronunciation.

• 🧠 Eraser vocab and rewrite: The teacher writes the jobs on the board. One student comes up to erase while others close their eyes. When they open their eyes, they try to remember and rewrite the missing words.

• ✋ Air writing: The teacher “writes” a word in the air for students to guess – great for spelling practice.

• 👄 Lip reading: The teacher mouths a job name silently and students guess what it is.

2️⃣ Controlled practice – Target structure

When I grow up, I’d like to be a/an ______.

💬 Suggested activities:

• 🔄 Speaking chain / Speak in circle: Students take turns saying their sentences around the circle.

→ “When I grow up, I’d like to be a doctor.”

→ “When I grow up, I’d like to be a pilot.”

• 💭 Controlled dialogue:

A: “When you grow up, what would you like to be?”

B: “When I grow up, I’d like to be a singer.”

3️⃣ Freer practice – Encourage creativity and personalization

Students use extended sentence patterns to describe their dream jobs:

• They wear…

• They use…

• They help…

💬 Suggested activities:

• 🎭 Pick a paper piece and answer: Students make a secret box with small papers containing job-related clues. Others pick one and guess the job.

• ✍️ Write your dream job: Students write full sentences on a worksheet using information from the paper pieces or the teacher’s prompts.

Example: “When I grow up, I’d like to be a vet. They help sick animals.”

• 🎤 Interview and report: Students interview their classmates about their dream jobs and report to the class. → Practice verb agreement with proper names.

🎈 If you’d like more classroom ideas that integrate all four skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing – leave a comment or inbox “86”! I'll send you my ebook info!

 🎈If you want to understand the logic behind the sequence of classroom activities — step-by-step guiding students to remember, understand, apply, analyse, and create with the language — you can book a coaching session on the mindset and flow of ESL classroom activities designed for test-prep–oriented teaching.