Just as a concert often starts with a short lively piece to warm the audience
up, a lesson often starts with a brief activity that is relatively lively. Its main function is to
generate a good class atmosphere, but it can also be used for reviewing material from
previous lessons or introducing new material in the day’s lesson. Incidentally, the warmup tends to set the tone for the lesson, and if it involves real communication, it will
tend to reinforce the importance of genuine communication right from the beginning
of the class period.