Students often need to express an opinion in one or two minutes — responding to questions, analysing problems and/or proposing their own ideas. Not only do they need to do this, but they should do it with adequate fluency and accuracy. All too often, though, they waste precious time hunting for a word or trying to construct a complex grammatical form. Now more than ever, before an exam, they need to understand what it really means to analyse and comment on a topic while the clock is ticking. Read on for a lesson tip on fluency training.
Speed Up Your One Minute
To help students understand time pressure, handle it well, focus on vocabulary, and quickly select the correct grammar, repeat this quick exercise at the beginning (as a warmer) or end (as a wind-down) of your lessons:
- Put students into pairs and give them random topics or statements on cards (you could also draw these up together during the lesson). The topics can be anything, but should be linked to the level and unit you're currently working on. For example, general topics might be: classical music / your city / Italian food / the English language; statements might be: It's good to listen to classical music while you're studying. / I would never want to live in another city. / Italian food is the best in the world. / The English language isn't as easy as it seems, after all.
- Write the four stages you want students to follow on the whiteboard, for example:
- I think… / In my opinion… + their point of view (for a topic), or
I couldn't agree more… / I completely disagree with this statement… (for a statement) - On the one hand…
- On the other hand…
- To sum up… / All in all…
- Explain the task to your students: one student in each pair draws a card and has fifteen seconds to think about it. The other sets a timer on their phone or watch for one minute, starts it, and listens as the first speaker gives their opinion on the topic. Once the minute is up, the timekeeper gives quick feedback and suggestions. The pair then repeats the task with the same topic or statement and the same set-up (so the same student tries again to express their opinion within a minute). This second attempt should be more focused, fluent, and include more detail.
- Monitor students for accuracy without interrupting them. They can repeat the task up to three times. If it's genuinely necessary, you can correct relevant errors between rounds. The exercise should feel brisk and dynamic throughout: draw a card, think for fifteen seconds, talk for one minute, get feedback for thirty seconds, talk again for one minute, and so on.
- After two or three rounds, ask students to swap roles and repeat the whole task.
- At the very end of the lesson, or in the next one, give feedback on accuracy based on what you observed while monitoring. Be selective about which mistakes to address: recurring errors, or slips involving language currently being taught, are worth correcting, but there's no need to flag every single mistake. Even in exams, communicative skill and overall achievement matter far more than perfect grammar or obscure vocabulary.
The first time you explain and run through this task, it may take around fifteen minutes. From the second time onwards, your students will already know what to do and which expressions to use, so it becomes a quick five-minute warmer or wind-down.
You can also reuse the topic and statement cards, though after a while you may want to introduce new opinion-giving expressions (to my mind, as I see it, as far as I'm concerned, etc.) and adapt the topics to suit a new unit.