hot seating

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   a drama exercise in which one person sits in a chair and answers questions while staying in character.

   Grammar: Names an activity, so it has no plural and usually takes no article: 'Hot seating helps build a character.'

   Patterns

   • do hot seating
   • use hot seating
   • a hot seating exercise

   The teacher used hot seating to help us understand the main character's motives.

   In hot seating, the actor stays in role and answers questions from the group.

   We spent the whole lesson on hot seating and improvisation.

2. 2noununcountablespecialist

   a classroom technique in which a learner sits in a special chair and answers questions from classmates.

   Grammar: Often used in language teaching to practise speaking and question forms.

   Patterns

   • do hot seating
   • a hot seating activity

   For speaking practice, the teacher set up hot seating with one student as a famous person.

   Hot seating gives shy learners a clear role and a reason to speak.

Common combinations

do hot seating

We did hot seating in drama class today.

hot seating exercise

The hot seating exercise took about ten minutes.

in hot seating

In hot seating, you must answer as your character.

use hot seating

Teachers often use hot seating before writing a story.

Synonyms and how they differ

role-play

Role-play is a broader activity where learners act out a situation; hot seating is narrower and focuses on answering questions in character.

improvisation

Improvisation means acting without a script; hot seating is a structured version that usually involves an interview format.

Commonly confused: hot seating or hot-desking?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “hot seating”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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