Would you like to know how speed dating questions for students can really help them practice the target language? I will tell you all about it! Speed dating is such a fun activity for collaborative learning, as well as just plain practice of speaking fluency. It may be awkward at first, but this is really a good activity to take away any pressure and to scaffold speaking practice at the same time.
I used to always just use the speaking tasks our textbooks had available. But those were boring, and quite frankly, inauthentic. I am to make my speaking activities as meaningful as possible, and my students love it. When my students ask each other questions that they would really enjoy finding out the answer to, they enjoy learning. That’s how I came up with speed dating as a learning activity! It has so many benefits. Let me tell you all about it below!
Would you like to try some Speed Dating Sheets for novel study that I use? Grab them for free by clicking here! Or keep reading for a PDF of fun speed dating questions.
Speed dating questions for the classroom
You can add the activity of speed dating to any part of the lesson, depending on your goal with it. For instance, you can do it at the start to introduce a topic, in the middle to do a brain break, and at the end to do review of what was learned. Some examples of the topics I’ve used it for:
- Grammar review: ask students to use the grammar point correctly to answer certain questions.
- Novel study: get students to analyze literary elements in the novel they’re reading on their own or as a whole group.
- Listening or reading review: have students discuss questions you pose about a text they just read or listened to/watched.
- Any questions really to just practice speaking skills!
These speed dating for the classroom activities have the following benefits:
- This is a speaking activity so students practice speaking the target language outside, and this will help them become more fluent.
- In this activity, there is lots of movement, which is fun and engaging for students. Students have to move to the next seat whenever the signal is given. They will never sit in the same place for long.
- The students facing each other can help each other formulate words and sentences correctly.
- Both students also practice their listening skills while they are not speaking.
- Students only have to talk to one person at a time, so
a. That relieves the pressure of the performance. If only one person can hear you speak, that’s not so scary.
b. It leaves enough room for both students to practice speaking
Speed dating questions icebreaker
Speed dating works really well as an icebreaker activity! Give students cards or sheets with questions on them that must lay between two students that are sitting opposite each other. It is easier to talk about your life or your opinions if you only have to give the answer to one person that is sitting rather close to you as well, so you don’t have to talk so loudly. This provides a low-pressure situation that is intimate at the same time and leaves a room for both speakers to speak. It’s easier to let yourself make mistakes in this type of setting.
Some interesting questions you can have students ask each other in the pairs are:
- If you had a pool in your backyard that you could fill with any liquid, what would it be, and why?
- What superpower would you like to have, and why? Give some examples of what you would use it for.
- If you had to choose only ever being in nature, or only ever being in the city or town, which would you choose, and why? Explain with good reasons.
Would you like these, and twenty more questions in a handy PDF that you can print off? Click below to download the Speed Dating Questions PDF.
Speed dating questions ESL students will love
Some good speed dating questions for ESL students could be about where they’re from, what languages they speak, what they think of the country they’re in now, how they’ve experienced moving to a different country, what they like about their new school, and what they look for in a good classmate. Hopefully they feel comfortable enough to answer these questions. I will leave that up to your discretion.
So, in short, give asking speed dating questions for students a chance! It’s a fun and engaging activity for students, and a great one to spice up any lesson with some speaking skills practice.
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