Passive Voice- Free and Controlled Speaking

Passive voice free and controlled speaking

Listen to your partner describe one of the topics on the next page in (exactly) seven sentences (using any language they like at this stage). They can talk about that process in general, one particular (past, present or future) example of it, or even how that process has changed over time. You can’t make notes while they speak, but listen very carefully and try to remember everything that they say, counting each sentence on your fingers to help you remember and to check that they said seven things. You can ask for more details when they finish if you like. If they can’t make seven sentences, you get one point for each extra sentence that is needed (e.g. two points if they can only say five sentences).

When your partner has finished, describe the same thing back to them in seven sentences, this time making sure that you use passive voice in as many of those sentences as possible. Your partner will give you one point for every time that you use “be + past participle (PP)” in a sentence which is grammatically correct, makes sense, matches what they told you before, and uses a verb which you haven’t used before. You don’t get any points for information about the thing that your partner didn’t originally say, even if it is true, but you can use completely different words to what your partner said.

You have to stop when you have made seven sentences, even if there is more that you could say. When you finish, your partner will tell you how many points you got, correct anything you said which was (factually) wrong, and tell you what you forgot to say. Then switch roles and play the same game on another topic from below. Continue switching roles until your teacher stops the game.

 

Extensions

Play the same game, but this time you are also allowed to add five of your own passive sentences about the topic once you have tried to repeat back what your partner said.

Play the same games, but about topics which are not on the list below.

Discuss the usual job recruitment system in your own and other countries as a class. How can you make sure you do well at each stage?

 

Different passive tenses grammar presentation

Which passive tenses would you use to talk about each of these?

• general processes
• one particular process in the past (including going back to describe previous stages and things in progress at the same time)
• one particular process in the future
• the changes in processes/ comparing the past and present

 

Passive voice free and controlled speaking topics

Choose one of the topics below, tell your partner which one real example of that thing you are going to describe, then describe it in exactly seven sentences.

• Building something (e.g. how your house was built or how a bridge was constructed)
• (Making and using) a condiment/ herb/ spice (e.g. black pepper)
• A crime
• A dessert
• A machine
• A magic trick
• A mistake
• A natural disaster
• A natural process
• A typical route through the education system
• A weapon
• An accident
• An invention
• Applying for something
• Being green
• Cleaning something
• Fixing something
• Getting a job
• How new laws are made
• How something is made
• Making a drink
• Making and serving a dish
• Making art/ Making craft/ Something handmade
• Making sure that you are safe
• Some admin(istration)/ Some paperwork
• Some decorations
• Some DIY
• Some pollution
• Some public transport
• Some software
• Some technology
• Some weather (= A kind of weather)
• Something imported
• Something made in a factory
• Something that people used to do
• Something that someone gave me
• Something that I own
• Something that I use
• Something traditional
• The legal system/ When a crime happens
• The political system