Making and responding to offers practice activities

Although we can easily teach “Do you want an apple?” from very young and low-level classes, the topic of making and replying to offers has stacks of other useful phrases, and also complications such as the difficulty of rejecting them politely. This means that the topic of offers is well worth at least a couple of the stimulating activities in this article.

Offers make me say yes

The person responding tries to say no to every offer with different language and a different reason each time, until they have no more ideas and so have to say yes.

Original offers

Different groups all roleplay the same situations where many offers might be made such as in tourist information, then get points for good offers they made that other groups didn’t.

Offers and predicted responses

A student thinks of an offer, writes down what they think the response will be, makes the offer, then compares what they wrote to the actual response. This can be just writing Y or N for positive or negative responses, or including other details like the predicted reason for saying no.

Offers and predicted choices

This is like the game above, but with one person predicting which of two things their partner will say yes to (“Would you like hot tea or iced tea?”) before they ask.

Offers competitions

In groups of three or four, students all make an offer to the same person. That person accepts the best offer and politely rejects the others. This works best if all the offers have something in common such as the same situation (in a hotel, etc), the same offering phrase, or the same key words (like “cup of”).

Offers and predicted popularity

Students try to think of offers which will be accepted by a certain number of people such as exactly half of the class and then make those offers to check. This can be done by:

• writing one suitable offer for each possible number of students to say yes to, e.g. every number between one and twelve
• picking a number from a pack of cards and quickly thinking of a suitable offer to get those many positive answers

Offers bluffing games

Offers must say yes

Students accept all of five offers (without saying no), then their partners guess how many of those they would say no to in real life (easier and more fun with offers like “Would you like some mud in your tea?”)

Real and not offers

Students make a mix of offers that they are really able to make like lending their dictionary and ones which are actually impossible like introducing their partner to a famous movie star. After responding, their partner guesses if each offer was realistic or not.

Real and not responses to offers

Students respond with a mix of their own true reactions and the opposite of what their real response would be, e.g. responding with “That’s okay, thanks. I think it’ll be really easy” to “Shall I help you with the next homework?” even though they’d say yes in real life. This works best as a card game where students place cards with “T” face down on the desk if they respond genuinely but place “F” cards down if they respond differently, with other people challenging them if they think they put an “F” card down. Cards stay down unchecked if no one challenges, and the whole pack if taken by the accuser if the accusation is not true, or by the person who put the last card down if the accusation was right.

See below for a version on this with a coin.

Offers coin games

A coin can decide if students should:

• make a formal or informal offer
• make an offer that they can really make or something imaginary like “Would you like to date my supermodel cousin?”
• try to get a positive response or negative response
• respond positively or negatively
• give their own real response or the opposite
• give up after a negative response or try again

Offers dice games

A dice can decide:

• which of six situations students will roleplay (1 = help prepare a birthday party, etc)
• which of six levels of formality the conversation should be in (1 = super formal, 2 = formal, 3 = medium formality, 4 = casual, 5 = very casual, 6 = free choice)
• how they respond (1 = very positive response, 2 = positive response, 3 = negative response with reason, 4 = negative response and request something different, 5 = not now, but maybe later, 6 = free choice)

Offers guessing games

Students guess the situation or who is speaking by what offers that person makes. For example, they can guess that they are on a plane if they hear “Would you like lemon in that?” and “Would you like chicken or fish?”

Although it’s trickier to explain, they could also imagine that they are a customer in one particular place and respond to offers like “Would you like a blanket?” by whether it matches the place or not, until the person making the offers guesses where they are.

Offers mingle

Students go around the class trying to get students to accept offers like “Would you like a copy of my football fanzine?”, choosing another offer to make once someone says yes. The winner is the person who has had most offers accepted when the teacher stops the game. This works best if the teacher makes a set of around twenty cards with each designed to be only accepted by few or even one person, because they are designed to match the hobbies etc of those students.

Offers key words speaking game

Students try to use key words like “help” and “lovely” as they roleplay situations where offers might be made like working in a day centre. This is most fun if they key words are on cards that they put in the centre of the table as they use them (perhaps being given the cards back if they didn’t use them correctly).