Ideas of Speaking Activities to Maximize your Chat Mats

Communicative Classrooms

As language educators, we recognize the vital role that speaking skills play in enhancing language proficiency. That's where Chat Mats come in. 

These communication-focused, incredible resources have emerged as a valuable tool for nurturing the art of conversation and promoting speaking skills in our world language classrooms. With their vibrant and engaging designs, Chat Mats provide a unique tool for meaningful student interactions. 

What makes Chat Mats truly special is their ability to facilitate dynamic and interactive language practice in a safe and supportive environment. Students can engage in conversations, express their ideas, and explore language in a way that fosters growth and confidence.

In this blog post, I am aiming to share with you a variety of ideas on how to incorporate Chat Mats into your teaching practice, both as a means of introducing them to your class and as engaging activities for language development that can work well both as starters or main speaking activities during your lessons.

Let’s start with the ones that I use in rotation as a starter for all my classes, so I make sure that we start the lesson 

Introducing Chat Mats to your Students

If you have shorter class periods, a quick and effective way to introduce Chat Mats is by giving students a few minutes to make sense of the visual elements and prompts independently. Afterward, you can review the details as a class, allowing students to share their interpretations and meanings. This approach ensures a speedy comprehension check, ensuring everyone understands the Chat Mat. It also promotes student engagement and collaborative learning, as they can learn from each other's insights and perspectives. This concise method is ideal for maximizing limited class time while ensuring that the entire class benefits from the introduction of Chat Mats.

Mini Boards 

Since I read the book Total Participation Techniques by Prsida Himmele and William Himmele, I have been actively seeking opportunities to create equal learning opportunities for all students in my classroom. I strive to give them chances to answer questions and receive automatic feedback, all while maintaining a suitable pace in my lessons. With that in mind, one idea for incorporating Chat Mats into the class is using Mini Boards.

Here's how it works: I project the Chat Mat on the board and distribute copies to each student. Then, I call out a sentence or concept in English found on the Chat Mat. Students use their Mini Boards to locate and rewrite the sentence or idea directly onto their Chat Mats. This activity encourages active participation and interaction with the Chat Mats while allowing for individualized responses and immediate feedback.

By incorporating Mini Boards, I ensure that every student has a chance to participate and contribute to the activity, creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment. It also reinforces comprehension and retention of the language concepts depicted on the Chat Mats.

Gallery Walk 

Now, imagine that you want to introduce a chat mat like the Weekend Chat Mat displayed below. Your students probably have already seen the pink one (present tense), so why not expose them to one more or the other two (past and future (depending on their level)? 

You could display these Chat Mats around the classroom, ensuring they are easily visible and accessible. You could divide the class into small groups and assign each group a starting point in the gallery. Your students could spend a few minutes at each Chat Mat, carefully examining the sentences and prompts and taking notes on how the tenses change the expression of ideas. Students can discuss their observations and insights within their groups, comparing verb forms, time markers, and other language features that indicate the different tenses. 

This activity promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and the practical application of language skills as students develop a deeper understanding of how grammar structures influence meaning in different tenses.

Gamifying It

To add excitement, introduce a game format with sentence cards and a race against time and against other groups. This activity requires a bit of prep, but not much. 

You will have to prepare sentence cards with the Chat Mat sentences in English or mother tongue and divide the class into groups. Each group owns a hat with all shuffled cards, but you keep them as they need to get your okay to move on to the following sentence. The groups designate a runner, who will pick a card and bring it to the group. The group will then try to find the translation in the target language from the Chat Mat, and once they write it in the card, the runner quickly returns for accuracy checks. If correct, they can pick another card. The group that completes all cards first wins the game.

This competitive variation adds thrill and encourages quick and accurate language retrieval. Students practice language skills while enjoying the game. 

Speaking Activities, you can do with Chat Mats 

Now, let's move on to some exciting speaking activities that you can do with Chat Mats. 

Clock Partners

Clock Partners is a dynamic speaking activity that can be combined with Chat Mats to create an engaging language learning experience. Students pair up and rotate to converse with different partners. Each student receives a Chat Mat and discusses the prompt with their initial partner. After a designated time, they turn to the next partner on their "clock" and continue conversing. This rotation continues until they have spoken with all partners.

One aspect that I personally like about Clock Partners is that it adds a level of target language in the class that can be adapted to students' proficiency levels. For example, you can give students a sheet like the one below indicating specific clock positions, such as 3, 6, 9, and 12.

In a novice group, students may simply walk around the class and say:
Student 1: "Three?"
Student 2: "Yes, three."
Student 1: "Okay."

This simple exchange helps them find each other and become clock partners at 3 o'clock. On the other hand, in a more advanced group, students can engage in a more elaborate conversation:
Student 1: "Are you free at three?"
Student 2: "Yes, I am free."
Student 1: "Okay, thanks."

Before starting the activity, allow students to find their partners at the designated times. Instead of going through the entire clock, you can create different clocks for each unit or term. This approach allows for efficient grouping without spending additional time on the process.

Speed Dating 

Speed Dating, popularized initially as a social event for singles to meet potential romantic partners, has been adapted as a lively, fast-paced conversation practice in language classrooms. While I have never been to a Speed Dating event, the activity seems fun and has gained popularity as an effective way to engage students in dynamic conversations. 

It's worth noting that if students have never done Speed Dating before, there may be some giggling or initial excitement in the class as they experience this new activity. 

When implementing Speed Dating in the classroom, each student receives a Chat Mat, and the classroom is arranged to facilitate face-to-face interactions between pairs or small groups. 

Students then participate in timed conversations, using the prompts provided on the Chat Mat to guide their discussions. 

Using signals or timers will help you to facilitate smooth transitions and maximize speaking time. 

Back-to-Back Drawing 

In this engaging interpersonal activity, students sit back to back with their partners to gather and exchange information. They take turns asking questions and listening to their partner's responses. Based on the information they hear, they produce a drawing. The information can range from personal life details to recreating a previous picture created by one student that the other student must replicate.

The activity sparks creativity and communication as students actively listen and interpret the information their partners share. It often results in delightful surprises when students compare their drawings at the end. Some illustrations may turn out remarkably similar, while others may differ significantly, leading to laughter and enjoyment in the classroom.

This activity promotes active listening, communication skills, and artistic expression. It encourages students to engage with their peers while fostering a sense of camaraderie and shared experiences.

Picture Description

The picture description activity is an interactive exercise that improves descriptive skills and listening comprehension and provides an opportunity to practice the circumlocution technique. 

The students work in pairs and take turns describing one of the images you provided them to their partner using circumlocution, which helps students develop their ability to communicate effectively even when faced with language gaps. 

The picture description activity enhances communication skills and fosters creativity, critical thinking, and vocabulary expansion. It provides an engaging and enjoyable way for students to practice language proficiency while building confidence in their ability to express themselves in various situations.

Role-Play

In the role-play activity, pairs of students can step into different roles or scenarios using Chat Mats. As part of my language teaching approach, I have been developing Chat Mats that specifically focus on real-life situations like booking a room in a hotel. These Chat Mats serve as a helpful resource to invite students to engage in role-play conversations and practice their language skills in a fun and interactive way.

I find that using Chat Mats in role-play activities creates an immersive experience for students. It allows them to imagine themselves in different scenarios and perform specific roles. For example, one student might pretend to be a customer looking to book a room in a hotel while the other student acts as the hotel receptionist. Students can effectively simulate the conversation and practice their language output by utilizing the prompts and images on the Chat Mat.

Students gain valuable language practice through these role-play activities by engaging in authentic and meaningful interactions. They learn how to make inquiries, communicate preferences, and respond to situations they may encounter in real life. Moreover, by assuming different roles, students develop their empathy and understanding of different perspectives.

Storytelling

This activity may not be suited for beginners, but if you have more advanced groups, they can use the Chat Mats to create a story inspired by it. This helps them to revise vocabulary and sentence structures. 

I love seeing their creativity come alive as they craft unique narratives using the visual prompts. Also, it makes you see the Chat Mat with other eyes. 

They also love sharing their stories with partners or the class, so overall, It's an engaging way for students to practice fluency and express their ideas confidently. It's a rewarding experience that combines creativity and language proficiency.

Special Person Interview

We can use the Chat Mat that we have been working on for special person interview activities and ensure that all students, including the special person being interviewed, have a copy in front of them.

Alternatively, we can use a combination of chat mats to create meaningful questions that students are already familiar with. This approach allows for various questions and answers, making the activity engaging and interactive.

Having familiar Chat Mats provides students comfort and confidence as they can rely on their existing knowledge and vocabulary. It fosters engaging discussions and elicits insightful responses from the special person.

Incorporating familiar Chat Mats in special person interviews adds versatility and excitement. Students can craft unique and tailored questions, resulting in personalized and enriching interview experiences.

Have you used them yet?

As an educator who has experienced the benefits firsthand, I highly recommend incorporating Chat Mats in speaking activities within the world language classroom. 

The use of visual prompts and structured conversations not only enhances students' speaking skills but also makes the learning process creative and engaging. 

Teachers must be open to experimentation and adaptation, tailoring the activities best to suit their specific teaching context and students' needs. These are just some ideas that I have successfully used with my students, but the possibilities are endless. 

I would love to hear about how you have utilized Chat Mats in your classes. Let's foster a collaborative environment where we can learn from one another and continue to elevate language instruction. So, drop a comment down below, and let's learn together. I love connecting with dedicated educators like you who are passionate about providing the best learning experiences for our students.