Blog de Cristina A NEW LANGUAGE MEANS ANOTHER VISION OF LIFE

If you are one of my students in the first course, you know I’m not exaggerating the slightest bit (well, maybe the “burping”  thing is too much)  when I say I’m going to wallpaper the classroon with this funny cartoon I came across on  Pinterest.

The moment I read it I realized it was perfect to teach my youngest students the -ing form because it is something they can easily relate with and have fun . Now, I’m not saying they are wild, for goodness sake , I’m just saying some of them need to learn how to behave in a classroom as,now and then ,they fail to see the difference between  the classroom and  the schoolyard , lesson time and  break time .

This is the cartoon and these are Mrs Mutner’s rules( from now on, mine too). Easy to see its potential when trying to explain the formation of the -ing  form, although I’m going to use it to go over the rules I have already explained.

My idea is reading Mrs. Mutner’s  rules with them, clarifying meanings  and then asking students to volunteer to write the rules for the formation of the gerund on the board. Then, students will have to arrange the -ing forms under the right rule.

 Some interactive exercises to practise : here and here

I don’t really think I have ever studied lists of verbs followed by infinitive and/or gerund but I really don’t think I should be telling this to my students.

I always claim that English grammar is easy, especially when  compared to the Spanish grammar, but  it gets a bit messy when it comes to verbs  followed by infinitive or gerund  .
You see, the easy thing to say is that some verbs are followed by infinitive (promise to go) and some verbs are followed by gerund (can’t stand ironing). But then we find that, some other verbs are followed by infinitive or gerund with no change of meaning (start to study/start studying)and some others are followed by infinitive and gerund with a change of meaning (stop to smoke/stop smoking) and if this were not enough ,some verbs are followed by infinitive with to (offer to help) and some others by infinitive without to ( make me study). Some verbs are followed by gerund but if there is an object pronoun in between the verb and the gerund, then the gerund becomes infinitive (recommended reading / recommended her to read) … amazing, isn’t it?

 Now, you can begin to  understand why I have never studied lists of verbs but relied on my intuition  when trying to decide on the right structure.

I hope these exercises will help my students.You are welcome to do them.

I got this tip from Vaughan ( yes, the archifamous Vaughan )  by sheer chance.

I normally subscribe and unsubscribe to tons of different sites which, at some point ,find interesting and then I get  bored and unsubscribe . When I decide to unsubscribe from a mailing list, it  is because I’ve been for some time too bored to read the same kind of stuff all over again. I was about to do likewise with Vaughan when I decided to give him a last chance . I opened the email and Voîla! a great tip about Saxon Genitive for my students.

The thing is that I normally teach  Saxon Genitive the way he does , that is , by using translation and by pointing out that what you say first in English is what you say last in Spanish but it had never ocurred to me to use numbers… and numbers are very visual and… visual things work very well when learning.

So, here’ s his tip, which I’m dying to try with my students. I’m going to use his same examples.

♥El perro(1) del vecino(2) de mi tío(3) es ciego.My uncle’s(3) neighbour’s(2) dog(1) is blind.    La mesa de trabajo(1) de la jefa(2) de mi jefe(3) está desordenada.My boss’(3) boss’(2) desk(1) is messy.

♥A bit more complicated ???La novia(1) del médico(2) de la hermana(3) de Carlos(4) está embarazada.Carlos’(4) sister’s(3) doctor’s(2) girlfriend(1) is pregnant.

♥ Even more…? Mi gato se comió al canario(1) del vecino(2) de la tia(3) de la mujer(4) de mi jefe(5).My cat ate my boss’(5) wife’s(4) aunt’s(3) neighbour’s(2) canary(1).

Now, can you solve this puzzle? Remember Spanish  1,2,3 …. English 3,2,1

My name’s Frank. Who is my mother’s younger sister’s father’s bother-in-law’s wife’s father’s only great grandson? My uncle is called John and his father is called Jim. Jim has got two brothers Jack and Jeremy

What’s your guess? Check here

You’ll never believe the number of times I have corrected this mistake! I sometimes ask myself  : “If I explain this mistake in Mandarin Chinese , Will they pay more attention? Let’s try this way:

THE VERB “TO ARRIVE” IS NEVER FOLLOWED BY THE PREPOSITION “TO”

See? I have used red , put it in bold, inside quotation marks…. will it work now?

The verb ARRIVE is followed by two prepositions AT or IN. See? NEVER “TO”

Arrive at a building , station, airport

Arrive in a country, city. etc

Be Careful: You arrive at someone’s house BUT you arrive home

Surely, it isn’t that difficult to remember.Why don’t you  try reading this post like two or three times ? and then  what about Clicking  here to do some interactive exercises . I bet I won’t have to correct this error again. Naive? Maybe!

One of the most common mistakes  my students make is due to their translation of the Spanish equivalent . “Somos seis”

Teacher: How many people are there in the class?

Student: We are six

“we are six” actually means ” we are six years old” so when the teacher asks

How many people are there in the class?  the correct answer must be

There are six of us

 unless, of course, you really are six years old, which I very much doubt if you’re reading this . Do you make this mistake? If so, now you know how to answer properly!

This is how I am planning to introduce the structure Have Something Done. I hope it is helpful!

Situation 1. Students are shown a picture  such as a wedding  . Ask leading questions such as Would you like to get married? What sort of preparations are required for  this event?  Make sure students become aware that  one person cannot do it all alone. Ask the students what the solution is or how they cope to elicit that they pay people to do it for them.

Students will most probably tell you that the bride goes to the hairdresser’s and pays someone to do her hair or to paint her nails.

This should be the right time to introduce the structure.

Exactly , so the bride has her hair done at the hairdresser’s and her nails painted at the beautician’s.

Some  more hints :
Wedding dress/ design
Hair /do
Photographs /take
Nails /do
Wedding cake /decorate
Invitations / send
Music at the ceremony /play

 Situation 2. Being rich

Students imagine they are rich and could have all sorts of things done for them , like annoying everyday chores that nobody likes doing plus some luxuries that money allows for.

I’d have my back massaged every day.

Encourage students to use their imagination  and ask them to try to come up with something very extravagant . You can put them in groups of four and vote for the most extravagant luxury  within the group and then within the class. This will encourage everybody to participate and have a nice laugh while learning.

 Grammar and some exercises here

Capital letters are important and therefore one should  say it is essential to know how to use them in the correct way.

Capital letters are the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse. (sorry for being rude, but isn’t it a good example?;-)

Want to know more about Capital letters? Watch this fast paced  video about when and how to use then and remember that the overuse of  capital letters ,when writing ,is considered by most people rude.

I’m up to my eyes with exams so I don’t have much time to publish. I was saving this post for a rainy day -so to speak- and the rainy day has finally come .
It is literally embedded from the webiste www.copyblogger.com and if you’re wondering what a “goof” is you are about to know. A “goof” is a silly or stupid mistake. Without further ado here are the 15 grammar mistakes that make you silly:

Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger.