TEACHER'S NOTES
ESL / EFL RESOURCES You said…
Activity Type Introduction
Miming and speaking Here is a reported speech game to play in class. In the activity,
activity, pairwork students play a miming game where they guess what their
classmates were told to do using reported speech.
Language Focus Procedure
Reported speech
Demonstrate the activity by inviting students to come to the front
Imperatives of the class one at a time and whispering a command in their ear,
e.g. close the door, don’t turn off the radio, etc.
Aim Students then mime the command to the class. If the command
is negative, the students make an X by crossing their arms before
To guess what your they do the mime.
classmates were told to
do using reported speech. The class then guesses what you told each student to do using
reported speech, e.g. 'You said to close the door'. 'You said not to
turn off the radio', etc'.
Preparation
Explain that the students are going to play a similar game in
Make one copy of the groups.
cards for each group of
four and cut as indicated. Divide the class into groups of four. Split each group into two
competing pairs. If possible, have each pair consist of a male and
female to help the students practice 'He said...' and 'She said'.
Level
Give each group a set of cards. Ask the students to shuffle the
Pre-intermediate (A2)
cards and place them face down in a pile on the desk.
Pairs take it in turns to play. One student picks up a card and
Time whispers the command on the card to their partner.
25 minutes
Their partner mimes the command to the other pair of students.
If the command is negative, the student makes an X by crossing
their arms before they begin the mime.
The other pair of students watch the mime and try to guess what the
student told their partner to do. The pair then uses reported speech
to say what they think the command was, e.g. 'He/she said to close
the door'.
The pair has one minute to guess what the student told their
partner to do. If they manage to do this and make a suitable
sentence with reported speech, they score a point.
The pairs then swap roles and the process is repeated. Students
play until there are no more cards left. The pair with the most
points at the end of the game wins.
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REPORTED SPEECH
ESL / EFL RESOURCES You said…
turn off the music come in and sit down
make me a cup of tea turn on the light
don’t answer the phone wash the dishes
don't come in pick up your bag
open the window do your homework
take the dog for a walk don't speak English
make me breakfast don't play the piano
clean the house don't drive fast
don’t look out the window listen to me
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