Activities to practise Reported Speech

Most ESL learners encounter difficulties while reporting the sentences and using Indirect Speech. Why? The greatest problem about Reported Speech is transforming the tenses, as well as time phrases. Many students don’t feel confident even after completing dozens of grammar exercises without mistakes. Hence, they must also have enough practice in using it in their speech. To make the process of practicing Reported Speech more creative and engaging, you can use the following activities.

Read on topic: Reported Speech (test)

1. Quotations

Separate the class into two groups or ask students to work in pairs. Provide them with some quotations said by prominent people. Set a timer. Ask students to report the sentences. For example:

Abraham Lincoln said he walked slowly, but he never walked backward.

Einstein said the true sign of intelligence was not knowledge but imagination. 

2. Real or imagined Reported Speech

This game is best played in a team. Here the first student whispers a sentence to his classmate.

3. Who asked that?

Divide the class into two groups. Provide them with a list of different people, such as mother, father, policeman, teacher, doctor, etc. 

First group thinks over questions they might be asked by these people, for example: Have you done your homework?

So, they say it to the next group: He asked if I had done my homework. If they guess the person correctly, they get one point. If they don’t guess, they miss the chance to say a sentence.

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4. Student Reporter

Ask your students to work in pairs. One student must be a reporter and the other — a celebrity. While the reporter interviews the celebrity, he also writes down some notes. Later he reports what was said to the class.

5. Tennis

Learners play the game in pairs or in groups. The teacher puts cards with different forms of the verbs on the table. One student chooses a card and makes up a sentence with the given verb.

Learners continue playing the game until one player is left as a winner who never failed.

6. News reports

This activity is best practiced with Intermediate and higher-level learners. Students work in groups or pairs. They watch the latest news (not over 3 minutes) and write some notes. When they are ready, one from each group tells the class about the news in the Reported Speech. The other team may also ask some questions regarding the news to make the activity more lively and challenging.

7. Movies, TV shows

Using movies and TV shows in your classes to help your students practise Reported Speech is one of the most beneficial ones. Here they watch different episodes and report each of the character’s speech. You can also use educational movies for different levels, such as:

1. Beginner
2. Elementary
3. Pre-Intermediate
4. Intermediate

To sum up, we can certainly claim that these kinds of activities do help students to practise grammar in speech more effectively. Let us know in the comments below what other activities would you suggest?