Imagine if......

In the entire time I've been teaching Cambridge Exams; the main fear my students have had has always been around the Use of English exam. More specifically phrasal verbs and dependent prepositions.

In my never ending quest to eradicate this this fear and, more importantly, keep students talking and improving on their speaking. After all what is a language if all you can do it put the right word in a space and correctly guess a question with a 25% chance of getting it right with your eyes closed. I digress. What I came up with in the end was a simple idea which involves a lot of cutting up pieces of paper and the need for at least a sprinkle of imagination, on the student's part. 

First I put the class in pair then I get each pair to select for the four following catagories.  

1. A Name/Profession (x2 per pair)                                           
   
2. A Situation (x1)
3. Some recently studied phrasal verbs (x4)
4. Dependent prepositions (x4)

The next step is pretty simple. You hand it over to the students and get them to write a dialogue between these two people in their given situation, using all the phrasal verbs and dependent prepositions they have chosen. 

I've found this brings about a much greater understanding of the selected vocab and a good deal of laughter. 

I've added the printable version to the section at the top (just a few materials).

That's all for now peeps.

At school	On the tube, stuck in a tunnel
At church	In a bar
In an airport departure lounge	At a vegan food festival
In a bar	At a concert
At a police station	On a sinking ship
In a park	On a desert island
In the changing rooms at the gym	Stuck in a lift
In a bar	In a traffic jam
In the bus queue	In a sauna
At the supermarket	After an exam

Barak Obama	Adolf Hitler
Josef Stalin	Vincent Van Gogh
A Hairdresser	Pablo Picasso
Marilyn Monroe	Count Dracula
A computer technician	Albert Einstein
Dalai Lama	Russell Brand
Cristiano Ronaldo	Nelson Mandela
Lance Armstrong	Darth Vader
A doctor	Walter White
A teacher	Batman
Grow up	Hand out
Pick up	Think up
Stand out	Turn up
Stand up	Turn down
Look up	Get off
Think over	Get on
Come up with	Make up
Bring up	Break out
Look forward to	Work out
Drop in	Hang out

Depend on	Break from
Addicted to	Bored with
Admit to	Capable of
Think of	Successful in
Come from	Agree with
Argue about	Arrest for
Accuse of	Discuss with
Stop from…-ing	Explain to
Fear of	Congratulate on
Hope to	Rely on