Level: Upper-Intermediate +
Materials: A copy of the gapped quotation for every 2 or 3 students; one role card per student
Time: 30–60 minutes
Focus: Intensive discussion of abstract themes; practice with the zero article
Requirements: 8+ students
Preparation: None

Procedure:

1. Students work in 2s or 3s to find suitable words for the gapped text. Provide help with language as needed.
2. Groups compare their solutions with other groups or with the entire class.
3. Announce that the class is now going to do a different exercise. Distribute a role card to each student, explaining that they are going to have conversations with 5 or 6 different people. Rather than role-playing a grandparent, policeman, or politician, they have to personify the abstract word that is written on their card.
   For example, "I am experience. I teach people how to succeed. I'm much more useful than academic education. How useful are you? What is your function?"
   Students circulate around the room, dialoguing with others, one at a time in cocktail party fashion. Students in large classes will sometimes meet up with someone with the same card, but this doesn't matter. They may discuss together or move on to find a new partner.
4. Write up the 12 words on the board or O.H.P. and ask the students to try slotting them into their correct places in the gapped text.
5. The class can discuss its reaction to the quotation and/or to the conversations that they had

Note:

If there is an odd number of students, the teacher should participate in Step 3. If there are fewer than 12 students, some of the role cards can be left out.

Variation:

Reverse steps 3 and 4.

Acknowledgement:

The quotation and the gap-filling exercise is taken from Bernard Dufeu, Teaching Myself, Oxford University Press, 1994. Role-playing objects or abstract ideas comes from the Gestalt tradition. Its use here was inspired by Robert C. Hawley, Value Exploration Through Role Playing: Practical Strategies for Use in the Classroom, Hart Publishing, 1975, pp. 62–66; 79–80; and by Carol Trowbridge, "Gestalt and Foreign Language Teaching" in Beverly Galyean, Human Teaching and Human Learning in the Language Class: A Confluent Approach, Confluent Education Development and Research Center, 1973, pp. 14–32.

I believe that _____________ is stronger than _____________, that _____________ is more convincing than _____________; that _____________ are more powerful than _____________; that _____________ has always triumphed over _____________; that _____________ is the only remedy to _____________, and that _____________ is stronger than _____________.

I believe that the imaginary is stronger than science, that myth is more convincing than history; that dreams are more powerful than facts; that hope has always triumphed over experience; that life is the only remedy to worry, and that love is stronger than death.

— Robert Fulghum

the imaginary	science
myth	history
dreams	facts
hope	experience
life	worry
love	death