Activity Name: The Interruption Game      

Purpose: To practice ways of politely interrupting someone. This is a good activity to use with intermediate and advanced students.

Preparation Time:  None

Materials:  None

Preparation: Jot down a few phrases that can be used to interrupt someone politely.

Procedure:

1)      Teach the phrases to the class. Be sure to draw attention to the intonation pattern of the phrases (the melody of English) and have students practice saying the phrases using polite intonation.

2)      In pairs, students practice using the phrases and adding on to them with language that sounds natural (asking for the time, for change for a dollar, etc.).

3)      Put students into groups of three. In this new group, two students will be having a conversation and the third student will be the interrupter. Students may make up their own conversation or read a dialogue from a textbook in turns. The third person must use one of the phrases to interrupt the other two politely in order to ask something.

4)      Students switch roles in the group until each person has had the chance to be the interrupter.

5)      Conduct a class feedback session on how successful they thought they were, if they felt uncomfortable, etc.