Reported Speech Bingo – Speaking Activity (ESL/EFL)

Focus: Reported Speech / Indirect Speech

ESL Level: Intermediate and up

No. of Students: 9+

Time Required: 15-20 Minutes

Materials: A bingo card with the names of all of your students on it.

Activity Description: This is a fun speaking activity in which students mix and report what other students have said to them. Read below for explanation.

Activity Execution

Part 1

After your students have learned the grammar of reported speech and practiced a little, put them into groups of two. Ask them to talk to their partner for 2 minutes. Tell them to get some information from their partner; they can talk about their plans, the future, what they have done, whatever (here, if you want to focus on reporting a specific verb tense, e.g. present perfect, then have them ask questions using that tense).

Part 2

After two minutes, distribute the bingo cards. The cards should have a student's name in each square (see example below). You must prepare this beforehand.

Next, tell them they have to write information about their classmates in the squares on their card. However, the catch is that they cannot speak to the person directly. Therefore, if they want to cross out the square for 'Yalda', then they should find the person who spoke with Yalda in part 1. That person will relay information Yalda said to him/her. They should write that information in Yalda's square.

For example:

  • A: Hello. Who did you speak with?
  • B: I spoke with Navid. Navid told me that he had seen a movie on Saturday night.
  • A: Thank you (student then writes 'movie' in Navid's square).
  • B: Who did you speak to?
  • A: I spoke with Yalda. Yalda said that she was going on a trip this weekend.
  • B: Oh, thank you (student then writes 'going on a trip' under Yalda's square).

Students will have to stand up and mix around to do this. The first student to complete and entire row/column/line (or entire card, however you want to play it), is the winner. The winner should receive a necklace made out of paper clips (optional).

My students enjoyed this activity. Give it a try. It's quite simple to set up. Make sure students understand that they cannot talk to the person directly; they must find the person's partner from Part 1 and get information about him/her reported to them.

Have fun.

- Matthew Barton / Creator: Englishcurrent.com (copyright)

bingo game for reported speech

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