Hard Bargaining (speaking activity)

Old and looking a bit dog-eared on the shelf in the staffroom, but still packed with good ideas...

This one came to my email inbox in the DevelopingTeachers.com "Weekly Teaching Tip" (details below). The original source is Jill Hadfield's Advanced Communication Games (Nelson, 1987), a collection of photocopiable speaking activites.

'Hard Bargaining' involves getting the students to barter. Each student has a card and they have to negotiate with the other students in order to get what they need. An example card might be 'You have but don't need 10 sheep' and then 'You need 4 pigs' and each student has different things in each section.

Here the focus is on animals but a simple change to the cards can produce a lexical set that has been introduced that week for example. The students could be bartering with anything and reviewing whatever vocabulary you wish.

You can see the past tips on developingteachers.com. You can also sign up to receive them weekly in your mail box.

See also
In a previous post, there were other things that you can receive in your mailbox. "Don't search, have things come to you!" I always say.