Find Someone Who

This activity is an extremely common one in the ESL classroom, and is used to practice many aspects of Englis grammar or vocabulary. Anyone who has taken a training course or watched a few workshops will recognize it. But here is a quick introduction for those who are new to the teaching realm.

The idea is for students to communicate with each other and locate others in the class who have done something on a list of activities, read one book out of a list of books, etc. The teacher first works with the class to create a list that is related to the target grammar or vocabulary. The teacher then provides copies of the list. Students then go around the class, asking classmates if they match the items. When a match is found, the student’s name is written next to the list item. Some of the results are then presented to the class.

The One-to-One Classroom

But how do we implement such an activity when there is one student in the class. Well, the one-on-one teacher first has to wrap his/her head around the idea that there are times when the teacher must become one of a pair. So, for pair or group activities, you must take on a role that is similar to that of the student. This activity is a clear example.

Do you Know

In a class with only one student, it is pretty much impossible to find someone who, whatever. But your student likely knows a lot of people, as do you. Why not leverage this idea and modify the common classroom activity.

How to Use

This sort of activity requires little or no preteaching. You only need to begin asking questions. If you want to emphasize listening, you can refrain from writing the questions, or if you want to emphasize reading, you can refrain from saying them out loud as you write. Each question should contain the phrase “do you know someone who.” Then the question should contain items that will elicit the target grammar or vocabulary. For example, to practice the present perfect tense, you could ask, “Do you know someone who has visited England recently?” The student should answer with something like, “yes, my sister has visited England recently.” This may take a little coaching the first time or two, as the student may think a simple yes or no is sufficient.

After you have asked your questions, it’s the student’s turn. There are two ways to proceed with this. You can give your student a few minutes to prepare his/her own questions, explaining that the questions should be formed the same way as yours. Or you can choose to put the student on the spot and simply direct him/her to begin asking you questions. Sometimes students need this push to develop immediacy in speaking, though of course the teacher should be patient.

This activity is valuable for practicing many aspects of grammar or vocabulary, such as tenses, adverbs, etc. The video posted below is a more detailed explanation of the value and usage of this activity, giving several examples of practice questions. Please feel free to leave a comment if you can think of other uses that have not come to my mind. Here’s hoping I have helped you in your teaching journey in some small way.

Holly