Psychic

This is a variation on my usual first lesson activity, with a focus on question formation. I've done this with Intermediate /Upper-Int and probably Advanced, usually teenagers or older . Depending on the level, some eliciting/revision might be needed.

1. The first requirement is that you need your students to understand the meaning of "psychic". A combination of mime/drawing will usually achieve this - or maybe you can get a picture of a fairground fortune-teller, etc. Ask if they think there is such a thing as psychic ability and if they think they have any. Don't allow long stories about their experiences at this stage. Just yes or no. You can always get their anecdotes later.

2. You then get your students individually to produce a list of questions they would usually ask a new acquaintance. You might elicit a typical question as an example - "What's your name?" is probably the best for this, and tell them not to use it in the following exercise. Go round and check that the questions they're producing are reasonably correct - there may be some brief points to go over with them later. Encourage questions that are a little different from the normal but exclude any that might be considered insulting. I'd usually ask for about 10 questions and give up to 5/6 min. In a medium sized group (8 or 9) at Intermediate level there will probably be some students who only have 5 or 6 questions after this time but that's enough to go on to the next stage.

3. Put the students in pairs (with a stranger, of course) - if there's an odd number, a group of three will work, or there's nothing to stop the teacher from participating. You tell them that they're going to to find out if they have any psychic abilities. They must study their partner closely and without saying anything they must try to read their partner's mind for the answers to their questions. Talk them through their first question as an example/to establish some sort of time frame - "Think of your first question . Look deep into your partner's eyes - can you picture their thoughts - what do you see? OK, write the answer and go on to your next question." Repeat the last instructions at regular intervals, till they have answers to all their questions. There is no speaking in stage 3, but usually a few laughs.

4. Students ask their partners their questions and check the real answers against their mind-reading. Check quickly how many they got correct and if they want to comment on the exercise, then go over grammar and vocabulary points arising from the question formation, pronunciation points, etc.

5.Reveal your own psychic abilities by telling them that you can tell that they all desperately want now to go on to talk about Linguassist...