Reported speech activities

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Grammar - reported speech

reported speech activities

Exercise 1

Exercise 2

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson with reported speech activities are to:

  • practise reported speech in various situations;
  • explore reported speech with audio recordings and film clips;
  • encourage creative thinking in conversations.

With this lesson plan, students watch film clips to practise reported statements and questions. They listen to a recording and discuss professions based on what the people said. Students also work on reported speech and reporting verbs by playing a quest game. In addition, they read situations and use reporting verbs to explain what caused them and continue conversations using different reporting verbs.

B2 / Upper Intermediate60 minStandard LessonPremium Plan

WHAT DID THEY SAY?

In this activity, students practise reported statements and questions. They watch film clips and complete sentences to report what the actors said (e.g. They aren’t my friends. — He said they weren’t his friends.). You can also ask them to guess details about the situations by answering some questions (e.g. Why did the people say the things?). 

GUESS THE PROFESSION

As part of the lesson on reported speech activities, students listen to a recording in which people talk about their professions. They discuss what profession each person has and use reported statements to give reasons for their answers based on what the people said.

WHAT WAS THE QUESTION?

In this task, students get cards with questions. Student A asks the question from the card but instead of reading the word in brackets, they say “beep” (e.g. I’m taking the car. Have you seen my (keys)?). Student B guesses the word in brackets by reporting the question which includes the answer (e.g. I think you asked me if I’d seen your car.). Then, they swap roles

THE QUEST

In this exercise, students practise reporting verbs (e.g. inform, convince, promise, etc.) by playing a quest game. It consists of making choices based on a situation presented on a card. First, students complete gaps using the words in brackets. Then, they read a situation and decide what to do next. Students can play the game a few times choosing different scenarios. 

TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED

Students work on reporting verbs as part of reported speech activities. They read different situations and use verbs (e.g. accuse, remind, deny, etc.) to report what someone might have said to cause them (e.g. The police officer was furious after talking to the main suspect. – The suspect denied being involved and said he had an alibi.). 

CONVERSATIONS

Students work with a partner in this activity. They choose one statement and continue the conversation for as long as they can using reporting verbs (e.g. promise, refuse, suggest, etc.). Students don’t have to be too serious. When they are out of ideas, they pick another statement to start a new conversation.

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