15 Activate Stage Activities for ESA Lessons

The Activate stage is where an Engage–Study–Activate (ESA) lesson moves beyond practising English and gives students an opportunity to use English to accomplish an outcome.

This distinction is important because a speaking activity is not automatically an Activate activity. Students can speak extensively during the Study stage through surveys, information gaps and controlled dialogues. The difference between the Study and Activate stages is the amount of control the teacher places over the language students produce.

During Activate, students should have greater freedom to choose the language they need. Instead of completing an exercise designed primarily to practise a grammatical structure, students communicate to solve a problem, make a decision, create something or accomplish another meaningful outcome.

Here are 15 Activate stage activities that can help teachers make this final stage of ESA genuinely communicative.

1. Role-Plays

Role-plays place students in realistic situations requiring spontaneous communication.

Students might be customers returning defective products, travellers checking into hotels or employees discussing workplace problems.

Instead of giving students complete dialogues, provide roles, objectives and essential information. Students decide how to conduct the conversation themselves.

2. Problem-Solving Tasks

Give groups a problem that requires discussion and a solution.

For example:

The school has $100,000 to improve student life. Should it build a computer room, improve the cafeteria, create a sports field or organize more school trips?

Students discuss the possibilities and agree on a solution.

3. Ranking Tasks

Give students several alternatives and ask them to rank them.

For example, students might rank the five most important qualities of a good manager.

The value comes from the discussion. Students need to explain choices, challenge opinions and negotiate the final ranking.

4. Decision-Making Tasks

Provide several possible options but require students to select only one.

Students could compare apartments and decide which to rent, examine job candidates and choose whom to hire, or compare destinations and select the best place for a holiday.

The decision provides a purpose for communication.

5. Survival Challenges

Students imagine themselves in a difficult situation, such as being stranded on an island.

Give them ten possible objects but allow them to choose only five.

Students must discuss priorities, disagree, persuade classmates and ultimately reach agreement.

6. Planning Tasks

Ask students to organize something together.

They could plan a three-day vacation, birthday party, company event or class trip.

Give them realistic constraints such as a budget, schedule or list of requirements. Constraints create reasons for students to negotiate rather than simply exchange opinions.

7. Debates

Debates encourage students to develop arguments and respond spontaneously to opposing views.

Topics should be appropriate for students’ language ability and interests.

Instead of focusing heavily on grammatical accuracy during the debate, teachers can monitor and provide delayed feedback afterwards.

8. Negotiations

Negotiations work particularly well with Business English and intermediate-to-advanced students.

Student A might represent a company trying to purchase a product for the lowest possible price, while Student B represents a supplier trying to maximize profit.

Both sides have different priorities but must reach an agreement.

9. Real-World Simulations

Simulations recreate situations students may actually encounter.

Examples include job interviews, business meetings, restaurant complaints, parent-teacher meetings, travel problems and workplace discussions.

Provide students with objectives rather than scripts so they need to respond naturally.

10. Mystery Investigations

Give students clues about a mystery or unusual event.

Different students can receive different pieces of information. They must share what they know, evaluate the evidence and determine what happened.

Unlike a controlled information gap, the emphasis is on solving the mystery, rather than repeatedly producing one predetermined grammatical structure.

11. Consensus Tasks

Give group members several possibilities and require everyone to agree on one final answer.

For example:

Your town can build only one new facility: a hospital, sports centre, public library or public transit station. Which should it choose?

Students cannot simply state their opinions. They must respond to others and negotiate agreement.

12. Projects

Projects give students opportunities to create something using English.

Students could develop a tourism campaign, design an advertisement, create a restaurant concept or prepare a short presentation.

The language becomes a tool students use to produce the final outcome.

13. Advice Clinics

Give students realistic problems:

Maria has been offered a higher-paying job, but she would have to move away from her family.

Groups discuss what Maria should do and provide recommendations.

This can naturally generate structures such as should, could, conditionals and expressions for giving opinions without requiring students to use only those forms.

14. Opinion Discussions with an Outcome

Open discussions sometimes produce plenty of conversation but little direction.

Improve them by requiring an outcome.

Instead of simply asking, “Is working from home better?”, ask groups to decide on three situations in which employees should be allowed to work remotely.

The final objective gives the conversation greater purpose.

15. Scenario Challenges

Give students a realistic situation containing a problem and several constraints.

For example:

You have $3,000 to organize a five-day trip for four people. Choose the destination, accommodation, transportation and activities without exceeding the budget.

Students must analyze possibilities, make suggestions, reject ideas, compromise and present their final plan.

What Makes an Activity Truly Activate?

The defining feature of Activate is not simply that students are speaking. It is that communication has become the primary purpose of the activity. A useful test is to ask:

Are students using English mainly to demonstrate a language structure, or are they using English to accomplish something?

Compare these two activities.

Both involve communication. But in the second activity, the outcome drives the interaction, and students have greater freedom over the language they use.

This is why effective ESA lessons often progress from:

Ultimately, the Activate stage gives students what worksheets and drills cannot fully provide: an opportunity to discover whether they can use English independently, spontaneously and purposefully. The Activate stage is the point where students begin moving from practising English to actually communicating in English.