Conversation Cards - Let's talk mini - Roles and Missions

Roles and missions - let's talk mini cards in a brand new, twin version!

A simple idea that offers many possibilities!

Students take on the roles given and have to reach an agreement with the person in the pair. As you may have guessed, the pairs are matched in such a way that an agreement requires quite a combination of logistics and negotiation!

In addition to the linguistic benefit, the cards are great for preparing pupils to discuss world views, beliefs or stereotypes present in our culture.

How to use “Roles and Missions”?

The basic/easy version:

The “Roles and Missions” double set consists of two numbered stacks of cards that are needed to start a conversation.

Students work in pairs. On the desk in front of them, they put the two stacks of cards with the numbers facing up and the text facing down. The cards in both stacks must be in numerical order so that the students can see the same number facing up on both stacks at any given time.

The students turn over one card from each stack: one from the “Roles” and one from the “Missions”.

The “Roles” tell the students who each person in their pair must be in the conversation. The “Missions” tell them what they need to accomplish in the conversation: choose something or discuss some kind of issue. During the conversation they need to remember to use the perspective of the person whose role they are playing.

It is up to the teacher how guided/free the conversation will be. The students may be provided with expressions for giving opinions, suggesting, agreeing and disagreeing. The teacher may also decide how long each conversation should be.

The teacher may choose to remove certain roles and missions from the stacks, considering the language level of the students. Some of the roles and missions are suitable for A2 students, others will require a higher level and more knowledge of the world.

The challenging version:

The students shuffle the cards in both stacks and pick whichever roles and missions happen to be on top of both stacks.

The difficulty of the conversation here lies in the fact that the missions may seem strange for the roles they pick but the students still need to accomplish the task, sticking to their roles and incorporating their perspectives as much as they can.