Sentences to read out

 

They used a … angled lens	Wide
He looked at her with a … smile	Broad
The socialists won by a …. Margin	Narrow/broad
She is very … minded	Broad/narrow
He speaks the language with a … London accent	Broad
You were wrong what you said was … of the mark	Wide
You had a … escape	Narrow
Of course they’re … open to criticism	Wide
They went down the canal in a … boat	Narrow
She opened her eyes …	Wide
The news was broadcast nation …	Wide
The path was three meters …	Wide
The light was so bright that she … her eyes	Narrowed

 

Variation

You can play this game with many sets of grammar exponents:

§ Forms of the article; a, the and zero article

§ Prepositions

Etc.

 

 Cognitive games

Spot the differences

 

Grammar:	Common mistakes
Level:	Elementary
Time:	20-30 minutes
This activity can be adapted for use with all levels Materials:	One copy of Late-comer A and Late-comer B for each student

In class

1. Pair the students and give them the two texts. Ask them to spot all the differences they can between them. Tell them that there may be more than one pair of differences per pair of parallel sentences. Tell them one item in each pair of alternatives is correct.

2. They are to choose the correct form from each pair.

 

 

Late-comer A	Late-comer B
This women was often very late	This woman was often very late
She was late for meetings	She was late for meeting
She were late for dinners	She was late for dinners
She was late when she went to the cinema	She was late as she went to the cinema
One day she arrive for a meeting half an hour early	One day she arrived for meeting half ah hour early
Nobody could understand because she was early	Nobody couldn’t understand why she was early
‘Of course,’ someone said, ‘clocks put back last night.’	‘Of course,’ someone say, ‘the clocks were put back last night.’

 

 

3.       Ask them to dictate the correct text to you at the board. Write down exactly what they say so students have a chance to correct each other both in terms of grammar and in terms of their pronunciation. If a student pronounces ‘dis voman’ for ‘this woman’ then write up the wrong version. Only write it correctly when the student pronounces it right. Your task in this exercise is to allow the students to try out their hypotheses about sound and grammar without putting them right too soon and so reducing their energy and blocking their learning. Being too kind can be cognitively unkind. 

 

Variation

To make this exercise more oral, pair the students and ask them to sit facing each other. Give Later-comer A to one student and Late-comer B to the other in each pair. They then have to do very detailed listening to each other’s texts.

 

 

Feeling and grammar

Typical questions

 

Grammar:	Question formation-varied interrogatives
Level:	Beginner to elementary
Time:	20-30 minutes
Materials:	None

In class

1. Ask the students to draw a quick sketch of a four-year-old they know well. Give them these typical questions such a person may ask, e.g. ‘Mummy, does the moon go for a wee-wee?’ ‘Where did I come from?’. Ask each student to write half a dozen questions such a person might ask, writing them in speech bubbles on the drawing. Go round and help with the grammar.

2. Get the students to fill the board with their most interesting four-year-old questions.

 

Variations

This can be used with various question situations. The following examples work well:

- Ask the students to imagine a court room-the prosecution barrister is questioning a defense witness. Tell the students to write a dozen questions the prosecution might ask.

- What kind of questions might a woman going to a foreign country want to ask a woman friend living in this country about the man or the woman in the country? And what might a man want to ask a man?

- What kind of questions are you shocked to be asked in an English-speaking country and what questions are you surprised not to be asked?

 

 

Achievements

 

Grammar:	By +time-phrases Past perfect
This activity also works well with: present perfect+ yet, like doing, like having done, and modals Level:	Lower intermediate
Time:	20-30 minutes
Materials:	Set of prepared sentences

Preparation

1. Think of your achievements in the period of your life that corresponds to the average age of your class. If you’re teaching seventeen-year-olds, pick your first seventeen years. Also think of a few of the times when you were slow to achieve. Write the sentences about yourself like these:

 

By the age of six I had learnt to read.

I still hadn’t learnt to ride a bike by then.

I had got over my fear of water by the time I was eight.

By the time I was nine I had got the hang of riding a bike.

By thirteen I had read a mass of books.

I’d got over my fear of the dark by around ten.

2. Write ten to twelve sentences using the patterns above. If you’re working in a culture that is anti-boasting then pick achievements that do not make you stand out.

3. Your class will relate well to sentences that tell them something new about you, as much as you feel comfortable telling them. Communication works best when it’s for real.

 

In class

1. Ask the students to have two different colored pens ready. Tell them you’re going to dictate sentences about yourself. They’re to take down the sentences that are also true for them in one color and the sentences that are not true about them in another color.

2. Put the students in fours to explain to each other which of your sentences were also true of their lives.

3. Run a quick question and answer session round the groups e.g. ‘ At what age had you learnt to ski/dance/sing/ play table tennis etc by?’ ‘I’d learnt to ski by seven.’

4. Ask each students to write a couple of fresh sentences about things achieved by a certain date/time and come up and write them on a board. Wait till the board is full, without correcting what they’re putting up. Now point silently at problem sentences and get the students to correct them.

 

Variation

You can use the above activity for any area of grammar you want ti personalize. You might write sentences about:

- Things you haven’t got round to doing (present perfect + yet)

- Things you like having done for you versus things you like doing for yourself

- Things you ought to do and feel you can’t do (the whole modal area is easily treated within this frame)

Reported advice

 

Grammar:	Modals and modals reported
Level:	Elementary to intermadiate
Time:	15-20 minutes
Materials:	None

In class

1. Divide your class into two groups: ‘problem people’ and ‘advice-givers’.

2. Ask the ‘problem people’ to each think up a minor problem they have and are willing to talk about.

3. Arm the ‘advice-givers’ with these suggestion forms:

 

You could …	You should …	You might as well…
You might …	You ought to …	You might try… ing …

 

4. Get the class moving round the room. Tell each ‘problem person’ to pair off with an ‘advice-giver’. The ‘problem person’ explains her problem and the other person gives two bits of advice using the grammar suggested. Each ‘problem person’ now moves to another ‘advice-giver’. The ‘problem people’ get advice from five or six ‘advice-givers’

5. Call class back into the plenary. Ask some of the ‘problem people’ to state their problem and report to the whole group the best and the worst piece of advice they were offered, naming the advice-giver e.g. ‘Juan was telling me I should give her up.’ ‘ Jane suggested I ought to get a girlfriend of hers to talk to her for me.’

 

Variation

If you have a classroom with space that allows it, form the students into two concentric circles, the outer one facing in and the inner one facing out. All the inner circle students are ‘advice-givers’ and all the outer circle students are ‘problem people’. After each round, the outer circle people move round three places. This is much more cohesive than the above.

 

 

Picture the past

 

Grammar:	Past simple, past perfect, future in the past
Level:	Lower intermediate
Time:	20-40 minutes
Materials:	None

Class

1. Ask three students to come out and help you demonstrate the exercise. Draw a picture on the board of something interesting you have done. Do not speak about it. Student A then writes a past simple sentence about it. Student B write about what had already happened before the picture action and student C about something that was going to happen, using the appropriate grammar.

 

 

I got up at eight a.m.

I’ve just got off the bus

I’m going to work today

 

2. Put the students in fours. Each draws a picture of a real past action of theirs. They pass their picture silently to a neighbor in the foursome who adds a past tense sentence. Pass the picture again and each adds a past perfect sentence. They pass again and each adds a was going to sentence. All this is done in silence with you going round helping and correcting.