This book is more of a practical guide as it contains a wide range of speaking activities on different topics and for different classes. Most of the activities are supplemented with photocopiable pages and practical tips. There are 55 activities altogether, divided into 3 sections.

Contents: two short chapters on general principles of using discussions and practical guidelines, followed by 3 bigger sections with practical activities. The activities in these sections are based on length and complexity. The first section deals with simpler, shorter discussion ideas for lower levels; the second is devoted to the activities of medium length and difficulty; the third contains longer and more challenging ones.

The first section with activities for lower-level learners starts easy. You will find there chants, picture dictations, guessing games, true-false activities, some ideas on describing pictures and many more. Tasks in this part involve a lot of visuals and drawing. My favorite activity here is called 'Interrupt me':

  1. Tell the students you are going to start telling a story. As soon as anyone thinks of a question to ask about it, he or she should raise a hand.
  2. When a student raises his or her hand, stop, listen to the question and answer it.
  3. This continues until you manage to finish the story (or don’t!).

The second section includes longer and more complex activities. Your students will make up stories, think of possible uses of an object, give reasonings, interpret dialogues, speculate and interview each other. My favourite activity from this part is named 'Interpret dialogues':

  1. Write up a dialogue on the board, for example:

    – So what was it like?

    – Awful!

    – Why? What went wrong?

    – Nothing. Just a waste of time, that’s all.

    – Well, I’m sorry. Maybe next time…

  2. Invite students to guess who the characters are, what the relationship is between them and what their situation is. They should find at least two different interpretations for each dialogue they are working with.

The third section is about more challenging activities like group discussions, role plays or giving presentations. They cover the levels up to C1 and can easily last for a whole lesson each. My favourite is 'Zoo plan' where you get a zoo map and a list of animals. You need to decide which animal should go to which enclosure, taking into consideration some special information. All students must agree.

You need this book if: you want to provide your students with varied and engaging practice of speaking English. The activities require little or no preparation, so busy teachers will find this book to be a real time-saver. If you are a novice teacher, "Discussions and more" might be your practical guide to speaking activities and ways of working with them properly.