Tag Archives: grammar

Present Continuous Games

General, , , , ,

If you’ve been reading me for some time you’ll probably have guessed that I favour kinesthetic learning.The activities where students take an active part and enjoy while learning are my favourite.I like them getting up and moving around the classroom and I even welcome the noise because they are using English.

And you cannot even begin to imagine how proud I feel when I see that they have been able to overcome their natural shyness at making mistakes and just concentrate on using the language and having fun.

These are two of my favourite activities to orally practise present continuous. Hilarious, trust me!

♥MIMING

I divided the class into two groups Group A and Group B; one student from Group A comes up to the front of the class and is given a card with a sentence containing the Present Continuous, like for example, I am watching TV. The student has to mime this activity and the members of his group have to guess, exactly, the same words written on the card. The student is given one minute to mimic as many sentences as possible.

Suggestions

  • I’m cleaning the house
  • He’s cooking an egg
  • She is dancing in the disco
  • I am playing the guitar
  • He is drinking a coke
  • He is reading a novel
  • I am thinking about my teacher
  • My mother is working now
  • He is walking to school
  • He is painting the house
  • I am studying History
  • I am not sleeping
  • I am playing tennis now
  • She is reading a newspaper
  • She is eating chocolate
  • I am riding a blue bicycle

♥DESCRIPTION OF A PHOTO

For this activity, the students are sitting in pairs, one student facing the board and the other with his back to the board. Using the OHP, a picture of people performing something is displayed. Now, the person seeing the picture has to describe it in as much detail as possible and the other person has to draw the picture. Allow them four or five minutes and then choose the best picture. Below are two of the pictures that I used:

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Infinitive and Gerund Transformations

A word on Grammar, Grammar and Exercises, , , ,

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.

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Learning Saxon Genitive:A tip for Spanish Students

A word on Grammar, , ,

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 poin, 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’s(3) boss’s(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’s(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

 

Grammar Snacks Videos

Audio, Grammar, Listening, ,

Grammar Snacks is a great site from the British Council  to watch videos about grammar shown in a natural way.

The videos offer the grammar in context with subtitles and although the videos might be a bit too long for an elementary student , it gives them the chance to read along and improve pronunciation. So, as the idiom goes, you kill two birds ( or maybe three) with the same stone. After watching the video there’s a clear grammatical explanation about when and how the grammar is used and some attractive interactive exercises.

So far, the site offers videos on the following :

♥Comparatives and Superlatives

♥There is/are  and It

♥This, these , that, those

♥The Present Continuous

♥The past Simple: regular and irregular verbs

♥To Be: Present and Past

♥Countable and Uncountable

♥Have Got

♥Present Simple

Predicting the Future : another game

Games, , , , , , , ,

To play this game you don’t need any preparation, which, to be honest, sometimes it’s just what  we -busy teachers- ask for. But if you are like me, you’ll find yourself doing just the same as your students, ie, having lots of fun.

For this game you need to make an origami fortune teller, also called “cootie catcher”( see picture). Instruction on how to make one and how to play here.

Ask students to write 8 fortunes inside the flaps. Encourage them to use their imagination and make sure they use the future simple: will.

Once this task is completed, ask students to stand up and mingle. Time to be a fortune teller!

Ask a student to choose one of the four colors. Spell that color out, while moving the fortune teller in and out. Then ask this student to choose one of the numbers that is showing. Move the fortune teller in and out the right number of times.

When you finish, have the person choose one of the four visible numbers. Open up the flap they choose, and read their fortune.

Have fun! Who said English was boring???? ;-))