12 Fun Checking/ Clarifying Practice Activities
Alex CaseChecking/ clarifying phrases like “Sorry, I didn’t catch…” and “Do you mean…?” are vital for communication inside and outside the classroom, and are also good examples of other functions such as making requests. They should therefore be practised regularly until students can smoothly ask for all the help they need. This article gives a dozen stimulating activities to help achieve that.
1 Checking/ clarifying trivia quizzes
Make a general knowledge quiz in which all the questions can also be used in normal communication such as “How do you spell giraffe?”, “Does rush hour mean a race?” and “Can you give me an example of an ape?” After answering some example questions and maybe underlining the useful question stems, students make up similar questions to test each other with, perhaps on a topic from the syllabus such as “transport” or “food and drink”. Note that for questions like “Which syllable of this word is stressed?”, students will need to point at words written down in order to avoid giving the answer in the question.
2 Checking/ clarifying revision quizzes
In a similar way to the trivia quizzes above, it can be good to combine these kinds of questions with review of recent vocabulary, with questions first from the teacher and then other students like “How do you spell ‘fallen’?” and “How many syllables does ‘churches’ have?”
3 Checking/ clarifying question mark game
Give students at least 10 cards with just a “?” on each, then let them discard one each time they use a different checking/ clarifying question to what anyone else has used during the roleplay or similar speaking activity (e.g. a roleplay business teleconference).
4 Checking/ clarifying politeness competition
Perhaps the most common problem with checking/ clarifying phrases is students saying rude things like “Please slow down”. Give students about 10 of these rude phrases. They choose one and take turns making it more and more formal, usually also meaning longer and longer, as in “Can you slow down?”, “Could you speak a little more slowly?”, “Could you possibly speak just a little more slowly?”, etc. When they give up making it even more formal, they should discuss which is really best, then do the same with another rude phrase.
5 Checking/ clarifying longer phrases
This is another good way of presenting and/ or practising longer, and therefore more specific and/ or more polite, phrases. Ask students to put cards together to make basic phrases like “Can I check + one thing?” When at least one group thinks they have finished, give them extra words to go in the middle like “Can I check + just + one thing?” for them to check and expand on their answers. They can then deal out those cards and use phrases with those words during roleplay speaking.
6 Checking/ clarifying dictating activities
Taking people’s details down on the phone is the time when students are most likely to need these kinds of phrases, so are good for roleplay activities. To provide more challenge and variety, you could give them a list of things to dictate (“a large number”, “a postcode”, etc) and/ or specific things to say (“double oh seven nine”, etc). To be absolutely sure that they have to check what is said, you can choose from online lists of names that even native speakers find it difficult to say and spell.
To really force a range of different questions, I often get students to dictate a whole list of different words, numbers, etc to each other, then allow as many checking/ clarifying questions back from the other person, but with each question having to be at least a little different (not just “Can you repeat…?” each time).
7 Checking/ clarifying picture dictations
An intensive and fun, if not very realistic, activity is for someone to describe a picture for the other person to draw, with each person unable to see the other person’s paper until the end.
8 Checking/ clarifying problem roleplays
Typical situations for this language like dictating over the phone and teleconferences can be made more interesting and challenging with roleplay cards saying “Speak very quickly”, “Speak very quietly”, “There is lots of noise on the line”, “Check about 50% of what they say”, “Check everything”, “Make some mistakes when you check the information back”, “Make some mistakes when you are dictating, then correct yourself”, etc.
9 Real checking/ clarifying problems
You can make students really need more checking/ clarifying by sitting them far apart, sitting them so they are speaking across the conversation of another pair and/ or by adding noise to the classroom. You can find more on such activities by looking up “shouting dictations”.
10 Vague statements for checking/ clarifying practice
Students choose statements to discuss which first need to have their exact meaning checked like “You have problems with your neighbours” and “There are too many people in your office”. They give more precise details (of their own choosing) when their partner asks “Do you mean that there is overstaffing, or that the office is too small?”, then they discuss it, e.g. what should be done. Note that students are unlikely to be able to come up with such vague statements themselves, so they will all need to be prepared in advance.
11 Checking/ clarifying keyword activities
Keywords for this function like “spell”, “again” and “mean” can be used to brainstorm useful phrases, to put into gaps in useful phrases, on cards to be discarded as they are used in communication, or on a worksheet to be crossed off as someone uses them to check something.
12 Checking/ clarifying functions activities
Checking/ clarifying phrases can be divided into ones just showing lack of understanding (e.g. “Pardon?”), asking for repetition (“Say again”), checking what you think you understand (“Did you say…?”), etc. These names of functions can be used as headings on a blank sheet for brainstorming into, on cards to be discarded when speakers do those things, or on a worksheet to be ticked off as people use those tactics.