Exchanging information: Dicey questions

By Richelle Hewin

Level: Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, Upper intermediate, Advanced Type: Extra

Materials

Several dice (1 per pair / group of three works well)

Procedure

• Elicit question words from the class (e.g. 'What', 'How long', etc)
• Show the dice to the class to elicit what it is, and how many sides it has. Assign number 1 to 'What', 2 to 'How long', etc, until each question word relates to a number on the dice.
• Demonstrate by rolling the dice and asking a question to the class - the number indicates which question word to use... e.g. a roll of 1, means a 'What' question - e.g. "What's your Mum's name?"
• Do a few more examples to make sure everyone has the idea, then let students continue in their pairs / threes!

This has worked really well with low levels - seems to give them the little bit of scaffolding and support that they sometimes need to start talking!!! It also works really well as a picture speculation activity (giving the students a picture to ask questions about, with the dice). Have fun.