Speaking Activities for A2 Elementary Students: Keeping It Simple but Real

The problem with teaching speaking at A2 is that teachers underestimate what students can do. A2 learners are not beginners. They can describe things, express preferences, give simple opinions, and handle most everyday situations. What they can't do is handle abstract topics, hypotheticals, or language that isn't well-practised.

The solution isn't to give A2 students easier versions of adult activities. It's to choose activities that are genuinely appropriate for this level: concrete, personal, structured, and with enough scaffolding that students can engage without constantly hitting vocabulary walls.

YapYapGo is a classroom speaking practice tool for ESL and EFL teachers that filters questions by CEFR level. At A2, the questions are short, concrete, and matched to what students can genuinely answer. Here are 18 activities that work specifically at this level.

What A2 students can do

According to the CEFR, A2 speakers can:

• Describe their immediate environment and personal background


• Express simple preferences and make comparisons


• Handle short, routine exchanges


• Use simple phrases to describe past events and experiences


• Ask and answer simple questions on familiar topics

They struggle with: extended monologues, abstract topics, hypothetical scenarios, complex tenses in real-time production, and vocabulary outside their immediate domain.

The design principle for A2 speaking activities: familiar topics, concrete questions, short turns, lots of repetition, structured responses.

Pair activities for A2

1. The daily routine exchange

Student A describes their typical morning (wake up, breakfast, transport to school or work). Student B listens and asks one yes/no follow-up question about each thing mentioned. Then swap.

The activity generates natural present simple and time expressions without requiring abstract language. The follow-up question teaches active listening.

2. Preference ranking

Give five items in a category: types of food, ways to travel, kinds of film, sports. Students rank them 1-5 individually, then compare with their partner using simple comparative language: "I prefer... because..." / "For me, ... is better than..."

The ranking constraint means students don't have to generate content from scratch - they react to given items.

3. My weekend

Each student describes what they did at the weekend in four sentences. Partner asks two questions using: "Who did you go with?" / "How long did you...?" / "Did you like it?" The four-sentence constraint prevents rambling and the question templates scaffold the follow-up phase.

4. Picture difference (simplified)

Both students have versions of the same picture but each has two details different. Without showing each other their pictures, they identify the differences through description: "In my picture, the table is red." / "In my picture, it's blue." No complex vocabulary - just colours, numbers, positions, and basic objects.

5. The preference interview

Student A is the interviewer. They choose five topics from a list (food, music, sport, travel, animals, weather) and ask their partner one preference question about each: "Do you prefer X or Y? Why?" Partner answers in one or two sentences. Then swap roles.

The interview frame gives students clear turn-taking structure and the preference format keeps responses manageable.

Tool tip: YapYapGo serves A2-level discussion questions that are short, concrete, and personally relevant - no abstract vocabulary, no hypothetical scenarios. The this-or-that generator is particularly good for A2 students: binary choice prompts are immediately accessible and always generate at least one sentence of justification.

6. The memory test

Show students a simple picture with ten objects for 30 seconds. Remove it. Pairs work together to list everything they can remember. Then compare with another pair. Finally, show the picture again and check.

Generates vocabulary retrieval, collaboration, and comparison language. The competitive element (how many can you remember?) keeps engagement high.

7. The same but different

Pairs must find three things they have in common and two things that are different about their daily lives. Constraints: they can't use "we both like..." (too easy). They must find specific, concrete similarities: "We both get up at 7." / "We both have a brother."

8. The simple debate

"Would you rather live in the city or the countryside?" Each student states their preference and gives one reason. Partner gives the opposite view and one reason. Two minutes, then they discuss together.

At A2, the debate is not about winning - it's about expressing and explaining a preference. The format is familiar from real conversation.

Whole-class and mingle activities for A2

9. Class survey

Give each student one question to ask every classmate: "How many hours do you sleep?" / "What time do you usually eat dinner?" / "Do you like cooking?" Students mingle, ask everyone, and report back: "Most people in our class sleep for seven hours." / "Only two people don't like cooking."

Generates question forms, numbers, and basic quantifiers (most, some, a few, none).

10. Find someone who...

Classic format with A2-appropriate prompts:

• Find someone who has visited another country.


• Find someone who can play a musical instrument.


• Find someone who has a pet.


• Find someone who woke up before 7 this morning.


• Find someone who prefers tea to coffee.

Students mingle, ask yes/no questions, and follow up with one open question when they find a match: "Which country did you visit?"

11. The adjective game

Write 10 adjectives on the board: funny, serious, lazy, organised, noisy, shy, creative, kind, competitive, patient. Students interview their partner to decide which two adjectives describe them best. Use evidence: "Do you usually arrive on time? Are you ever late?" After five minutes, share with the class: "I think my partner is organised because..."

12. Describe the person

Student A describes someone without naming them (a family member, a famous person, a character from a film). Student B asks yes/no questions to guess who it is. Maximum 20 questions.

Generates physical description, personality vocabulary, and yes/no question forms.

Scaffolded production activities

13. The sentence-starter chain

Give a topic: "My neighbourhood." Each student must say five things about it using sentence starters on the board:

• "There is a..."


• "Near my house, there is..."


• "I like my neighbourhood because..."


• "I don't like..."


• "I want to..."

The starters remove the blank-page problem entirely. Students focus on content, not construction.

14. The picture story

Give pairs a sequence of four pictures telling a simple story (available from stock image libraries or drawn quickly on the board). They tell the story together: Student A describes pictures 1 and 3; Student B describes 2 and 4. Then they retell the full story together.

15. Role play: the café

Student A is a customer. Student B is a waiter/waitress. Customer orders food and drink, asks about the menu, and pays. This is genuinely useful language for A2 students and the scenario is so familiar it removes almost all anxiety.

A classroom countdown timer is useful for these role plays - two minutes per scenario is enough at A2, and the visible timer prevents pairs from running out of steam and sitting in silence.

16. My home

Students describe their home using: "I live in a [house/flat]. It has [X] rooms. My favourite room is... because... Near my home, there is a..." Partner draws a simple floor plan based on the description. Compare with reality.

17. The routine comparison

Students compare their routine with a celebrity's (you provide a simple paragraph about a famous person's day). "Jennifer Lopez wakes up at 5am. I wake up at 7am. She exercises in the morning. I don't..." Generates comparisons naturally.

18. Speed questions

Give students a set of 10 simple questions. They have four minutes to ask each other as many as possible, alternating who answers. Count how many they covered. The competitive element - trying to cover all 10 - generates faster, more fluent production than open-ended discussion.

The key principle for A2

Vocabulary limitation is the main barrier at A2, not grammar. When students hit a word they don't know, they stop. Build in vocabulary support before every activity: five key words on the board, nothing more. Five is manageable; twenty creates overload. See our post on scaffolding speaking for lower-level students for more on this approach.

YapYapGo serves level-appropriate questions that never push A2 students above their vocabulary ceiling. A random student picker is low-stakes at A2 when used for yes/no questions or simple preferences rather than extended answers. Free to start.

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Sources:

• Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Cambridge University Press. - A2 descriptor and communicative competences.
• Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. - Comprehensible input at i+1: the appropriate challenge level for acquisition.
• Foster, P. & Skehan, P. (1996). The Influence of Planning and Task Type. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. - Structure and planning time benefit lower-level students most.