A mingling activity like ‘find someone who’ is an example of an effective warmer activity. And basically there are three stages. There’s the setting up stage where the instructions need to be clear. And you notice that the facilitator was eliciting the instructions and providing examples at each stage. Then there is the task itself where the people stand up and mill around asking each other questions and interacting. And then there is the feedback stage where the facilitator asks for reporting back on what was discovered. So I think the advantages of these kind of activities is that it helps participants gain confidence. They feel relaxed. They start interacting, they start speaking in English, if it’s a language classroom, but even if it’s a training session or a meeting, it gets them going, it sort of activates them.

It gives the facilitator or trainer an opportunity to diagnose the participants, see who they are, what do they know, what are their attitudes. If it’s a classroom, their level of English. it also gets participants to get to know each other as well as the trainer or facilitator. It’s a process of beginning to build a rapport and beginning to encourage self-disclosure. It sets the atmosphere for the course. It kind of says, okay, this is the way we’re going to interact. This is the way the learning is going to happen. And it’s an energizer. It gets people active and participating.