Tag Archives: grammar

Introducing Have Something Done

14 May 2012A word on Grammarexercises, grammar, have sth done, methodology, passiveCristina Cabal

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

15 Grammar Goofs that make you look silly

8 March 2012A word on Grammarconfusing words, errors, grammar, vocabularyCristina Cabal

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.

Forcing the Past Continuous

22 February 2012Funny Stuff, Students' Cornerfun, grammar, past continuous, vocabularyCristina Cabal

For the past few days I have been thinking about possible situations where my students could use the Past Continuous. But, by far, the funniest one has been this one I’m about to tell you.
Bear in mind before going on reading that I work with teenagers. They can sometimes get quite emotional so I have to be careful not to push them too far so that they also enjoy the activity. Drama, on my side, is essential or they won’t buy my story. The more drama, the more fun you’ll get! This is my story and I have realised I love being naughty!!

(Going into the classroom with a gloomy face is a must for this story. Say nothing for a while and stare at them. Soon students will begin to feel uneasy and someone will eventually ask: “What’s wrong, teacher?”).

Well, you see! Yesterday afternoon I came to Grado (name the town where you teach) to do some shopping and a very unpleasant thing happened to me. (sad face and some more staring) . While I was leaving a shop (name the shop for realism) I heard a boy and a girl calling my name and running away. I couldn’t see their faces but I think I recognised their voices. When I went over to my car I realized someone had scratched my car with a key. That’s why I’m so sad. “Sara, the girl’s voice sounded just like yours!” ” Oh, no, no teacher” “What were you doing yesterday at 5 o’clock?” “I was doing my homework at home” and you David “Were you in Grado yesterday afternoon? Yes , but I was playing a football match!

As I said : I love being NAUGHTY!

Human Bingo to Revise Irregular Verbs

1 June 2011Gamesbingo, fun, games, grammar, irregular verbs, methodology, revising, vocabularyCristina Cabal

I got this wonderful idea from Mel Wawen although I have slightly modified it. As she explains, it can be used as a warm up before the lesson or at the end of it when students feel they have had enough of English,

This time I needed to revise Irregular Verbs and this is how I did it.

I asked students to tidily sit individually and in rows of three or four.
Then, I asked each of them to choose an irregular verb from the ones we had studied. I told them to write it down in its irregular past form on a piece of paper.
Every row is a team, so they should make sure every student in the same team has chosen a different irregular verb.
Tell them you are going to say a verb at a time, using the infinitive form. When the students hear the infinitive for the irregular they have chosen, they must say the irregular past form aloud and then sit down.
The first team with all the students sitting down wins the game.

Follow up:

I used this game when they first learned there was something called irregular verbs. It was funny and it only took about three or four minutes.

The second time I played this human bingo, students also had to write a sentence containing the irregular verb. After checking that their sentence was grammatically correct, I made sure they knew how to pronounce in wors in their sentences.

It was their turn now. They had to stand up and read aloud their sentence but without saying the verb. Students in the class had to provide the right verb in the past to fill in the gap.

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A Word on Grammar:Reported Speech Questions and Orders

21 March 2011A word on GrammarB1, B2, comics, fun, grammar, onlinetools, reported speech, studentsCristina Cabal

Walking towards the end of the course we tend to feel rather stressed and pressed for time and I’m not the exception. But I don’t really believe that an awful amount of time will be saved by not introducing new grammatical points in a nice way.

This is how I introduced Reported Speech Questions and Orders. This time it was the traditional way of teaching, ie, chalk and blackboard and I’m not good at drawing so needless to say, my students had to use their imagination to guess that I was drawing a little girl and her mother.

The truth is I did little more than guiding them. My students named the characters and provided the questions. I only had to set the atmosphere -which was a four-year-old girl pestering her mother all day long with questions -and from there, we had the husband coming back home and her mother complaining about their talkative daughter.

Grammar here, Exercises here ,here and here

Realizing they were learning and “sort of” enjoying themselves I continued with the story and went on to teach Orders and Requests in reported Speech, the girl being 15 years old in this context and, as it’s usually the case, the mother now pestering the girl to do things (I’ve got a 15-year-old son, as you have probably guessed)

Grammar here . Exercises here.