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Grammar Chants

Prepositions of Time At and On
Teacher/Leader: At, onClass/Group: At, on
Teacher/Leader: at - with timeClass/Group: at - with time
Teacher/Leader: on - with daysClass/Group: on - with days
Teacher/Leader: We eat at eight.Class/Group: We eat at eight.
Teacher/Leader: We meet on Mondays.Class/Group: We meet on Mondays.
Teacher/Leader: She leaves at five.Class/Group: She leaves at five.
Teacher/Leader: They play on Saturdays.Class/Group: They play on Saturdays.
Teacher/Leader: At, onClass/Group: At, on
Teacher/Leader: at - with timeClass/Group: at - with time
Teacher/Leader: on - with daysClass/Group: on - with days
Prepositions of Time In and At
Teacher/Leader: In, atClass/Group: In, at
Teacher/Leader: in - with months and yearsClass/Group: in - with months and years
Teacher/Leader: at - with timeClass/Group: at - with time
Teacher/Leader: He was born in March.Class/Group: He was born in March.
Teacher/Leader: They lived here in 2001.Class/Group: They lived here in 2001.
Teacher/Leader: When shall we meet?Class/Group: When shall we meet?
Teacher/Leader: Let's meet at two.Class/Group: Let's meet at two.
Teacher/Leader: When do they leave?Class/Group: When do they leave?
Teacher/Leader: They leave at six.Class/Group: They leave at six.
Teacher/Leader: In, atClass/Group: In, at
Teacher/Leader: in - with months and yearsClass/Group: in - with months and years
Teacher/Leader: at - with timeClass/Group: at - with time
Prepositions of Place In and On
Teacher/Leader: In, onClass/Group: In, on
Teacher/Leader: in - rooms, spaces and linesClass/Group: in - rooms, spaces and lines
Teacher/Leader: On - islands, surfacesClass/Group: On - islands, surfaces
Teacher/Leader: in a rowClass/Group: in a row
Teacher/Leader: on the wallClass/Group: on the wall
Teacher/Leader: He waits in the line.Class/Group: He waits in the line.
Teacher/Leader: We stayed on Maui.Class/Group: We stayed on Maui.
Teacher/Leader: They work in that room.Class/Group: They work in that room.
Teacher/Leader: That book on the table.Class/Group: That book on the table.
Teacher/Leader: Those trees in the park.Class/Group: Those trees in the park.
Teacher/Leader: Those pictures on the wall.Class/Group: Those pictures on the wall.
Teacher/Leader: In, onClass/Group: In, on
Teacher/Leader: in - rooms, spaces and linesClass/Group: in - rooms, spaces and lines
Teacher/Leader: On - islands, surfacesClass/Group: On - islands, surfaces
Prepositions of Place At and On
Teacher/Leader: In, atClass/Group: In, at
Teacher/Leader: in a spaceClass/Group: in a space
Teacher/Leader: at a placeClass/Group: at a place
Teacher/Leader: in a space - in the roomClass/Group: in a space - in the room
Teacher/Leader: at a place - at the schoolClass/Group: at a place - at the school
Teacher/Leader: in the garden - at the doorClass/Group: in the garden - at the door
Teacher/Leader: Let's meet in a city at a place.Class/Group: Let's meet in a city at a place.
Teacher/Leader: She lives in New York...Class/Group: She lives in New York...
Teacher/Leader: ... and she works at a bank.Class/Group: ... and she works at a bank.
Teacher/Leader: We sleep in our houses ...Class/Group: We sleep in our houses ...
Teacher/Leader: and we meet at the mall.Class/Group: and we meet at the mall.
Teacher/Leader: in, atClass/Group: in, at
Teacher/Leader: in a spaceClass/Group: in a space
Teacher/Leader: at a placeClass/Group: at a place
Some and Any
Teacher/Leader: Some and anyClass/Group: Some and any
Teacher/Leader: There are many ...Class/Group: There are many ...
Teacher/Leader: rules to learn.Class/Group: rules to learn.
Teacher/Leader: We use some...Class/Group: We use some...
Teacher/Leader: in positives.Class/Group: in positives.
Teacher/Leader: There are some books on the table.Class/Group: There are some books on the table.
Teacher/Leader: There is some hay in the stable.Class/Group: There is some hay in the stable.
Teacher/Leader: We have some fun in the sun!Class/Group: We have some fun in the sun!
Teacher/Leader: We have some things here, more than one.Class/Group: We have some things here, more than one.
Teacher/Leader: Now for anyClass/Group: Now for any
Teacher/Leader: with not and in questions.Class/Group: with not and in questions.
Teacher/Leader: Are there any problems?Class/Group: Are there any problems?
Teacher/Leader: We don't have any questions!Class/Group: We don't have any questions!
Teacher/Leader: Some and any is very clear.Class/Group: Some and any is very clear.
Teacher/Leader: Would you like some?Class/Group: Would you like some?
Teacher/Leader: What's that?Class/Group: What's that?
Teacher/Leader: It's an exception!Class/Group: It's an exception!
Teacher/Leader: To the rule!Class/Group: To the rule!
First Conditional - Real Conditional
First Conditional - Real Conditional Sentences
Teacher/Leader: If ... Class/Group: If ...
Teacher/Leader: If he comes ...Class/Group: If he comes ...
Teacher/Leader: If he comes, we will go ...Class/Group: If he comes, we will go ...
Teacher/Leader: If he comes, we will go to the PARTY!Class/Group: If he comes, we will go to the PARTY!
Teacher/Leader: They ...Class/Group: They ...
Teacher/Leader: They will meet us ...Class/Group: They will meet us ...
Teacher/Leader: They will meet us if we all go to the PARTY!Class/Group: They will meet us if we all go to the PARTY!
Teacher/Leader: What ...Class/Group: What ...
Teacher/Leader: What will you do ...Class/Group: What will you do ...
Teacher/Leader: What will you do if she comes ...Class/Group: What will you do if she comes ...
Teacher/Leader: What will you do if she comes to the PARTY?!Class/Group: What will you do if she comes to the PARTY?!
Teacher/Leader: I'll ...Class/Group: I'll ...
Teacher/Leader: I'll say hello ...Class/Group: I'll say hello ...
Teacher/Leader: I'll say hello if she comes ...Class/Group: I'll say hello if she comes ...
Teacher/Leader: I'll say hello if she comes to the PARTY!Class/Group: I'll say hello if she comes to the PARTY!
Second Conditional - Unreal Conditional
Second Conditional - Unreal Conditional Sentences
Teacher/Leader: If ...Class/Group: If ...
Teacher/Leader: If I had ...Class/Group: If I had ...
Teacher/Leader: If I had a brand new car ...Class/Group: If I had a brand new car ...
Teacher/Leader: If I had a brand new car, I'd take you for a drive.Class/Group: If I had a brand new car, I'd take you for a drive.
Teacher/Leader: What about me?Class/Group: What about me?
Teacher/Leader: What ABOUT you?Class/Group: What ABOUT you?
Teacher/Leader: What would you do if you were me?Class/Group: What would you do if you were me?
Teacher/Leader: If ...Class/Group: If ...
Teacher/Leader: If I were you ...Class/Group: If I were you ...
Teacher/Leader: If I were you, I'd study hard!Class/Group: If I were you, I'd study hard!
Teacher/Leader: What would he do ...Class/Group: What would he do ...
Teacher/Leader: What would he do if he were the teacher?Class/Group: What would he do if he were the teacher?
Teacher/Leader: He'd help us all ..Class/Group: He'd help us all ..
Teacher/Leader: He'd help us all if he were the teacher.Class/Group: He'd help us all if he were the teacher.
Teacher/Leader: We'd have a great time ...Class/Group: We'd have a great time ...
Teacher/Leader: We'd have a great time if we went ...Class/Group: We'd have a great time if we went ...
Teacher/Leader: We'd have a great time if we went on a trip!Class/Group: We'd have a great time if we went on a trip!
Third Conditional - Past Unreal Conditional
Third Conditional - Past Unreal Conditional
Teacher/Leader: YesterdayClass/Group: Yesterday
Teacher/Leader: Yesterday, was such a bad day.Class/Group: Yesterday, was such a bad day.
Teacher/Leader: I got in trouble ...Class/Group: I got in trouble...
Teacher/Leader: ... because I laughed in classClass/Group: ... because I laughed in class
Teacher/Leader: If I hadn't laughed, ...Class/Group: If I hadn't laughed, ...
Teacher/Leader: If I hadn't laughed, I would have got ...Class/Group: If I hadn't laughed, I would have got ...
Teacher/Leader: If I hadn't laughed, I would have got an A on my test!Class/Group: If I hadn't laughed, I would have got an A on my test!
Teacher/Leader: I wish I hadn't laughed!Class/Group: I wish I hadn't laughed!
Teacher/Leader: What would he ...Class/Group: What would he ...
Teacher/Leader: What would he have done ...Class/Group: What would he have done ...
Teacher/Leader: What would he have done if he had had the time?Class/Group: What would he have done if he had had the time?
Teacher/Leader: He would have gone ...Class/Group: He would have gone ...
Teacher/Leader: He would have gone to Mexico ...Class/Group: He would have gone to Mexico ...
Teacher/Leader: He would have gone to Mexico ... if he had had the time!Class/Group: He would have gone to Mexico ... if he had had the time!

Using Reported Speech

The use of reported speech is especially important at higher English levels. Students, at this point, are fine tuning their communication skills to include expressing the ideas of others, as well as their own opinions. Students usually need to focus not only on the grammar involved, but also on production skills. Reported speech includes some rather tricky transformations that need to be practiced a number of times before students feel comfortable using them in every day conversations.
Aim: Developing reported speech grammar and productions skills
Activity: Introduction and written reporting activity, followed by spoken practice in the form of a questionnaire
Level: Upper-intermediate
Outline:
· Introduce/review reported speech by making simple statements and asking students to report what you have said. Make sure to emphasize reporting in the past (i.e., "the teacher said", NOT "the teacher says")
· Provide review sheet of principle reported speech transitions (included in lesson printout pages)
· Have students get into pairs and convert the reported speech paragraph into the direct speech form.
· Correct worksheet as a class.
· Ask students to divide up into new pairs and ask each other questions from the questionnaire. Remind them to take notes on what their partners say.
· Have students divide into new pairs and ask them to report what they have learned about the other students to their new partner (i.e., John said he had lived in Breubach for two years).
· Follow-up with class conversation focusing on problematic tense transformations.
Reported Speech
Study the following chart carefully. Notice how reported speech is one step back into the past from direct speech.
Exercise 1: Put the following paragraph in the reported speech into conversational form using direct speech.
Peter introduced me to Jack who said he was pleased to meet me. I replied that it was my pleasure, and that I hoped Jack was enjoying his stay in Seattle. He said he thought Seattle was a beautiful city, but that it rained too much. He said that he had been staying at the Bayview Hotel for three weeks, and that it hadn't stopped raining since he had arrived. Of course, he said, this wouldn't have surprised him if it hadn't been July! Peter replied that he should have brought warmer clothes. He then continued by saying that he was going to fly to Hawaii the following week, and he that he couldn't wait to enjoy some sunny weather. Both Jack and I commented that Peter was a lucky person indeed.
Exercise 2: Ask you partner the following questions making sure to take good notes. After you have finished the questions, find a new partner and report what you have learnt about your first partner using reported speech.
· What is your favorite sport and how long have you been playing/doing it?
· What are your plans for your next vacation?
· How long have you known your best friend? Can you give me a description of him/her?
· What kind of music do you like? Have you always listened to that kind of music?
· What did you use to do when you were younger that you don't do anymore?
· Do you have any predictions about the future?
· Can you tell me what you do on a typical Saturday afternoon?
· What were you doing yesterday at this time?
· Which two promises will you make concerning learning English?

Integrating Past Continuous

Learning the basic structure and usage of the past continuous is usually not that difficult for most students. Unfortunately, this is not the case when it comes to actively integrating the past continuous, either in writing or in speaking. This lesson is aimed at helping students recognize the situations in which the use of the past continuous would be beneficial in writing. It focuses on the use of the past continuous as a descriptive tense, i.e. its use to "paint a picture" in words of the moment when something important occurred.
Aim: To increase active usage of the past continuous
Activity: Gap filling exercise followed by creative writing
Level: Intermediate
Outline:
· Quickly review the past continuous structure with the class.
· Write various examples on the board of sentences combining the past simple and past continuous (e.g., I was walking through the park when I met David) and ask students to comment on what function the past continuous plays in the example sentences.
· Spend some time raising awareness as to the past continuous' role of "painting a picture" of the moment.
· Have students divide into small groups of 3-4.
· Have students complete activity by first conjugating verbs in the past simple, and then inserting past continuous clauses into the appropriate place.
· Correct exercise as a class, making sure to review and discuss any problems that arise.
· Ask students to complete written exercise.
· If time permits, choose a few of the short essays to present to the class.
Use of the Past Continuous in Writing
Put the following verbs into the past simple
Thomas _______ (live) in the small town of Brington. Thomas _______ (love) walking through the beautiful forest that surrounded Brington. One evening, he ____ (take) his umbrella and _____ (go) for a walk in the woods. He ______ (meet) an old man named Frank. Frank _______ (tell) Thomas that, if he _____ (want) to become rich, he should invest in a little known stock called Microsoft. Thomas ______ (think) Frank _____ (be) foolish because Microsoft ____ (be) a computer stock. Everybody _____ (know) that computers _____ (be) just a passing fad. At any rate, Frank _______ (insist) that Thomas _____ (be) wrong. Frank _______ (draw) a wonderful graph of future possibilities. Thomas ______ (begin) thinking that maybe Frank ______ (understand) stocks. Thomas _______ (decide) to buy some of these stocks. The next day, he ______ (go) to the stock broker's and _____ (buy) $1,000 worth of Microsoft stock. That _____ (be) in 1986, today that $1,000 worth of stock is worth more than $250,000!
The part about the Microsoft stock is true!!
Insert the following past continuous fragments into the above story:
· As Frank was drawing the graph, ...
· ... while he was walking to work,
· it was raining so...
· While they were discussing the stock, ...
· When he was returning from his walk, ...
· As he was walking through the woods,
Written Exercise Write an outline of an important day in your life. Include the most important events that occurred during that day in the past simple. Once you have written the important events using the past simple, try to include a description of what was happening at some of the specific moments when those events occurred.

Time Expressions - Past or Present Perfect?

The following lesson takes an inductive approach to helping students refine their usage of past simple or present perfect. Focusing on time signifiers instead of conjugation can help students improve their overall understanding of the importance time and context plays in speaking English.
Aim: Improving time signifier recognition and production skills in the particularly difficult area of past simple or present perfect
Activity: Group work finding appropriate solutions using a number of different time signifiers
Level: intermediate
Outline:
· Put two category headings on the board: Past Simple - Present Perfect
· Have students brain storm on the various time signifiers that are used in each tense.
· Put the time expressions into the correct category on the board and have students copy the exercise.
· Ask students to provide example sentences for each of the time expressions - signifiers that are on the board.
· Divide students into groups of 3 -4. Give students worksheet and ask them to decide which time signifiers - expressions can go with which sentences. Make sure to point out that there are a number of possibilities for each sentence.
· Correct sentences as a class. Follow-up by discussing which time signifier(s) might be best in each case and why.
Present Perfect or Simple Past - Which Time Signifier - Which Sentences?
Choose which of the following time expressions can be used with which sentences. There are various possibilities for each sentence.
Time Signifiers
ever since that time, yet, just, in the last few months, after the course finished, already, recently, so far, that month, yesterday, many years ago, for the past few weeks, lately, when he went to school, since two weeks ago, just last week, two semesters ago
Sentences
1. He's arrived.
2. She's been working very hard.
3. They bought an Audi.
4. The weather was really hot.
5. I was a Beattles fan
6. Has she finished?
7. We went on Holiday.
8. I used to smoke.
9. He's lived in that apartment.
10. I've been to the bank.

Conditional Statements - Reviewing the First and Second Conditional

Making conditional statements are an important part of fluency. This lesson focuses on helping students improve their recognition of the structure and use it in conversation.
Aim: Improve recognition of the first and second conditional forms used in conditional statements, while inductively reviewing the structures.
Activity: Reading Short prepared text with first and second conditional forms included, Speaking Replying to student generated conditional questions, Writing Developing structurally correct questions using the first and second conditionals
Level: Intermediate
Outline:
· Ask students to imagine the following situation: You’ve arrived home late at night and you find that the door is open to your apartment. What would you do? - Refresh students awareness of the conditional in this relaxed introductory portion of the lesson.
· Have students read prepared extract using conditionals.
· Ask students to underline all conditional structures.
· In groups, students complete fill-in activity based on previous reading.
· Correct worksheets in small groups. Move about the room helping students with their corrections.
· Go over corrections as a class.
· Answer any questions they may have on first and second conditional structure at this point.
· In groups, have students prepare two “What if…” situations on a separate piece of paper. Ask students to employ first and second conditionals.
· Ask students to exchange their prepared situations with another group.
· Students in each group discuss the "what if..." situations. Move about the class and help students - especially concentrating on the correct production of the first and second conditional forms.
Exercise 1: Emergency Procedures
Directions: Underline all conditional structures with either 1 (first conditional) or 2 (second conditional)
If you take a look at the handout, you’ll find all the telephone numbers, addresses and other necessary information. If Tom were here, he'd help me with this presentation. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it today. OK, let's get started: Today’s subject is helping guests with emergency situations. We'd certainly have a worse reputation if we didn't handle these situations well. That's why we like to review these procedures every year.
If a guest looses his passport, call the consulate immediately. If the consulate isn’t nearby, you’ll have to help the guest get to the appropriate consulate. It would be great if we had some more consulates here. However, there are also a few in Boston. Next, if a guest has an accident which is not so serious, you’ll find the first-aid kit under the reception desk. If the accident is serious, call an ambulance.
Sometimes guests need to return home unexpectedly. If this happens, the guest might need your help making travel arrangements, re-scheduling appointments, etc. Do everything you can to make this situation as easy to cope with as possible. If there is a problem, the guest will expect us to be able to handle any situation. It’s our responsibility to make sure ahead of time that we can.
Exercise 2: Check Your Understanding
Directions: Fill in the blanks with the correct missing half of the sentence
you’ll have to help the guest get to the appropriate consulateyou’ll find all the telephone numbers, addresses and other necessary informationthe guest will expect us to be able to handle any situationif we didn't handle these situations wellIf Tom were hereIf this happensIf a guest looses his passportcall an ambulance
If you take a look at the handout, _____. _____, he'd help me with this presentation. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it today. OK, let's get started: Today’s subject is helping guests with emergency situations. We'd certainly have a worse reputation _____. That's why we like to review these procedures every year.
_____, call the consulate immediately. If the consulate isn’t nearby, _____. It would be great if we had some more consulates here. However, there are also a few in Boston. Next, if a guest has an accident which is not so serious, you’ll find the first-aid kit under the reception desk. If the accident is serious, _____.
Sometimes guests need to return home unexpectedly. ______, the guest might need your help making travel arrangements, re-scheduling appointments, etc. Do everything you can to make this situation as easy to cope with as possible. If there is a problem, _____. It’s our responsibility to make sure ahead of time that we can.

Have to / Don't Have to Must and Mustn't

Many students often confuse the usage of the modals 'must' and 'have to'. While meaning is generally maintained in incorrect usage in the positive forms, a mix-up in the negative forms can cause confusion. This lesson uses daily routines and an interviewing game to help students master these important modal forms.
Aim: Learn the modal forms 'have to' and 'must'
Activity: Grammar introduction/review, talking about daily routines and interview game
Level: Lower levels
Outline:
· Ask students to talk about their daily routines. Have them make a list of five things that they have to do every day.
· Introduce the grammar by having the students take a look at the grammar sheet below.
· Discuss the differences between 'have to' and 'must' in the positive form. Make sure to point out that 'have to' is used for daily routines while 'must' is used for strong personal obligation.
· Discuss the differences between 'don't have to' and 'mustn't'. Make sure to stress the idea that 'don't have to' expresses the idea that the person isn't required to do something but may do so if he/she would like while 'mustn't' expresses the idea of prohibition.
· In order to encourage students to favor the use of 'have to', spend the rest of the lesson focusing on daily responsibilities in the following exercises.
· Ask students to take out the list they created earlier and re-write the list using 'have to'.
· Ask students to choose a job from the list provided (you might want to first check that students are familiar with the jobs listed) and think about what a person working in that profession has to do.
· Once you have given students a chance to think a while, play a variation on the 20 questions game. You can begin by choosing a profession and having students ask you 10 or 15 questions about what you have to do in this job. Questions can only be answered by 'yes', 'no' or 'sometimes'.
· The student who guesses the name of your profession should be the next to be asked the 15 questions. Another variation on this game is for students to play the game in pairs.
Have to - Must
Study the Use of 'Have to' and 'Must' in the Chart Below
Must / Have To - Mustn't / Not Have To
Listed below are examples and uses of must / have to / mustn't / not have to

Choose a profession from the list below and think about what a person doing that job has to do every day.

Lesson Plan - Future with Going to and Will

The choice between 'will' or 'going to' is difficult for many students. This lesson focuses on providing context for students so that they can understand the basic difference between something that is planned for the future (use of 'going to') and a spontaneous decision (use of 'will). Students first study a short a dialog and answer some questions. After this, students give answers to a number of questions which elicit either 'will' or 'going to'. Finally, students get together for some small talk to practice.
Aim: Developing a deeper understanding of the use of the future with 'will' and 'going to'
Activity: Dialog reading, follow-up questions, small talk
Level: lower-intermediate to intermediate
Outline:
· Start the lesson off by asking some questions with 'will' and 'going to'. Be sure to mix the questions up. For example:
What do you think will happen at school tomorrow?, What are you going to do after school today?, What will you do if you don't understand this lesson?, Where are you going to travel on your next vacation?
· Ask students to reflect on the questions you asked. Which forms did you use? Can they explain why?
· Pass out the dialog and ask the students to read through and answer the questions.
· As a group, correct the questions and ask students to explain why certain questions used 'will' and others 'going to'. A further possibility is to ask students to highlight the sections of the dialog that used 'will' and those that used 'going to'. Ask them to explain why.
· Have students write out answers to the question sheet. Go around the room to help individual students and check that students are answering using the correct form.
· As a class, elicit answers from various students. When appropriate, ask students to elaborate on their answers in order to give them a further chance to use these forms.
· Ask students to use the small talk questions with each other in pairs or in small groups.
· Optional homework - Ask students to prepare a short paragraph on their future plans for study, hobbies, marriage, etc. (Use of 'going to'). Ask them to write out a few predictions about the future of their lives, the country, the current political party, etc. (future with 'will')
Exercise 1: Dialog - The Party
Martha: What horrible weather today. I'd love to go out, but I think it will just continue raining.Jane: Oh, I don't know. Perhaps the sun will come out later this afternoon.
Martha: I hope you're right. Listen, I'm going to have a party this Saturday. Would you like to come?Jane: Oh, I'd love to come. Thank you for inviting me. Who's going to come to the party?
Martha: Well, a number of people haven't told me yet. But, Peter and Mark are going to help out with the cooking!Jane: Hey, I'll help, too!
Martha: Would you? That would be great! Jane: I'll make lasagna!
Martha: That sounds delicious! I know my Italian cousins are going to be there. I'm sure they'll love it.Jane: Italians? Maybe I'll bake a cake...
Martha: No, no. They're not like that. They'll love it.Jane: Well, if you say so... Is there going be a theme for the party?
Martha: No, I don't think so. Just a chance to get together and have fun.Jane: I'm sure it'll be lots of fun.
Martha: But I'm going to hire a clown!Jane: A clown! You're kidding me.
Martha: No, no. As I child, I always wanted a clown. Now, I'm going to have a clown at my own party.Jane: I'm sure everyone will have a good laugh.
Martha: That's the plan!
Follow-up Questions
· What do they think about the weather?
· What does Martha have to share?
· What are Peter and Mark going to do?
· What does Jane offer to do?
· How does Jane react to the news about the Italian cousins?
· What special plan is there?
· Why does Martha want a clown?
· Does Martha know exactly how many people are going to come? If yes, how many. If not, why not?
· How does Jane think people will react to the clown?
· Is there a theme for the party?
Exercise 2: Questions
· Tell me about your future plans for work or study.
· What important event do you think will happen soon?
· Your friend needs some help with some homework. What do you say?
· Tell me about your plans for this coming summer.
· Complete these sentence: If I don't understand this exercise ...
· What do you think future English lessons will be about?

Lesson Plan - Different Uses of "Like"

The correct use of "like" is of fundamental importance in many basic questions. The fact that these questions use "like" as a verb or a preposition can further complicate the issue. This lesson focuses on helping students identify the principal uses of "like" in question forms and some of the problem areas concerning these questions.
Aim: Improving the understanding of the various uses of "like"
Activity: Matching activity followed by oral comprehension activity.
Level: Pre-intermediate to intermediate
Outline:
· Ask students the following questions quickly, make sure to alternate questions often: What would you like?, What do you like?, What are you like?, What do you look like?, How are you? - change subjects often, especially with the last question.
· Write the questions on the board and ask students what the function of "like" is in each - verb or preposition.
· Discuss the differences between the various questions.
· Have students complete the matching activity, matching questions with answers.
· Correct activity in class. Review any problem areas.
· Have students do the oral exercise (or read each answer from the oral comprehension section yourself). Ask students to ask an appropriate question (i.e., What does he look like?)
· Repeat the first activity. Make sure to alternate questions and subjects quickly.
Various Uses of "Like"
For each answer choose the correct question.
What does he look like?Fantastic. They played for more than 3 hours.
What does she like?He's doing well, thank you.
What would you like?He's tall, dark and handsome.
How is he?Playing golf, reading and going to the cinema.
What's she like?A steak, please.
What was it like?Very interesting, she has travelled all over the world.
Ask the right question with "like" Read the following sentences aloud and ask your partner to ask an appropriate question.
· Oh, she is very interesting. She is very involved in community activities and loves the outdoors.
· He's fine, thank you.
· Just awful, it hasn't stopped raining for the last three days.
· Reading science fiction, watching classic films on late night tv.
· Very pretty, she's got short blond hair, blue eyes and a usually wears jeans and a t-shirt.
· A beer, if that's no problem.
· He's quite the entertainer. He loves having people over for dinner.
· It can be spicy AND sweet. It's delicious.
· It's a painting of a countryside with lots of flowers in the foreground.
· He can be difficult at times.
Answers
· What's she like?
· How is he?
· What's the weather like?
· What does she like doing?
· What does she look like?
· What would you like?
· What's he like? OR What does he like doing?
· What's it like?
· What does it look like?
· What's he like?

Using Modal Verbs to Problem Solve - Discussing a Difficult Situation

This lesson focuses on the use of modal verbs of probability and advice in the past tense. A difficult problem is presented and students use these forms to talk about the problem and offer suggestions for a possible solution to the problem. While the focus is on the past forms of modal verbs of probability and advice (i.e., must have been, should have done, etc.), it also serves as a great starting point for a discussion of issues that are sure to be hotly debated.
Aim: Use of past forms of modal verbs of probability and advice, reasoning, discussing difficult issues
· Ask students to read the following short excerpt concerning a woman who has lost her job in rather dubious circumstances.
· Split students into small groups.
· Ask students to complete the sheet including Facts, Conclusions, and Judgment. Point out that they should use modal verbs of probability or advice when appropriate (i.e., must have been, should have done, etc.).
· Once students have reached their decisions, have a class debate asking the various groups to share and debate their opinions.
· Continue the conversation by asking students to think of similar situations that they have heard of or been involved with.
A Difficult Situation
Janet was employed as a graphic designer at a very successful advertising company. She had worked there for two years, when she was offered a promotion to become head of the graphic solutions department. She was obviously very happy when she heard of her promotion. However, she was also rather concerned as she had also recently found out that she was pregnant. In the past, other women who had had children had found it difficult to continue working full time. Later that day, she asked her husband what he thought she should do. He felt that she should first accept the promotion and then, a few months later, tell her employers about her pregnancy. In this way, her husband felt, she would not jeopardize her promotion. Janet wasn't so sure this was a good suggestion, as she felt that it might be dishonest of her to not let her employers know about the change in her condition. She telephoned her best friend, who had also had the same problem previously, and asked for her advice. Cheryl, her best friend, asked her if she felt that she would be able to continue working as hard after the birth of her child as she had been working up to that point in time. Janet assured her that this was the case and so her friend told her to trust her husband's judgment.
A few months later, Janet told her employers about her pregnancy. At first, they congratulated her on her pregnancy and wished her all the best. Over the next few weeks, she felt that her workload was slowly increasing to the point that she could not handle the amount of work required of her. She scheduled an appointment with her boss, and presented her dilemma to him. He said that he felt for her, but that, because of a recent increase in sales accounts, he could do nothing about the increased workload. Disappointed, Janet went back to work and did her absolute best to keep up with the work. Unfortunately, the workload just continued to grow. Later that month, she received a call from the personnel department and was told to come speak to the personnel director. The personnel director told her that, due to her inability to keep up with the demands of her job, they were going to have to let her go. Janet couldn't believe what she was hearing. She asked him why, if a few months earlier they had promoted her for her excellence, they had now decided to let her go. It seemed ridiculous. He said that he was truly sorry, but that they had no other choice and asked her to gather her things and leave.
Fill in the following chart based on what you have read: PROBLEMS (REAL FACTS)
CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE PROBLEM
JUDGMENTS AND ADVICE
1.1.1.
2.2.2.
3.3.3.
4.4.4.
5.5.5.
6.6.6.
7.7.7.
8.8.8.

INTRODUCTION

Every teacher is constantly searching for effective ways to reach his students. This is undoubtedly a great challenge, especially if students are teenagers with varied interests and an eagerness to experience original, creative ways of learning every minute. Facilitating memorable learning instances has always been our goal as teachers, no matter how long one has been in the field or what methodologies one has experimented with. In recent years, content-based instruction has become one of the answers to this quest for high-quality education. In addition, educating in values contributes to the enhancement of any educational program seeking an integral formation of the whole person. Therefore, I have tried to find ways of integrating these two aspects into my teaching. The following is an example of how I developed a thematic unit around the topic of friendship, in order to celebrate Friendship Day with my teenage students last August.
In the first place, this topic was chosen because it was purposeful. It was something real, relevant to students´ lives. Not only because of the upcoming Friendship Day, but also because of the role of friendship in teenagers´ lives. Secondly, the language I was to teach – character adjectives – and the type of writing task I was focusing on – descriptive composition – would match perfectly with the topic of friends. Moreover, since friends are so important in any person´s life, many songs, stories, poems and other types of authentic materials can be easily found by the teacher and also provided by the students themselves. The following is a description of the unit and a retelling of how each step was approached and what the outcomes were.
LEVEL: ADVANCED TARGET GROUP: 12 15-16-YEAR OLD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
I gave the students 20 words that describe people.
The vocabulary activity used at the beginning of the unit was intended to assess students´ known vocabulary regarding character adjectives as well as to clarify unfamiliar terms and provide more related words students wanted to know. This table, however, is really versatile and can be easily adapted to other assessment purposes.
Example:

After each student has marked his answers individually, students share their answers and try to find out the unknown meanings from their peers. If necessary, teacher clarifies at the end. Out of the 20 items in the original list, students only needed the teacher´s assistance in two cases. That is to say, everybody was able to find someone to explain the unknown words to him or her. I was really pleased with this result and with the whole process, which involved a lot of purposeful cooperation and interaction. This activity, which I have used several times, is effective in promoting students´ autonomy.
The next activity was intended to keep activating vocabulary, and especially to encourage students to include those new adjectives in the game. "I love my love..." is played orally with students sitting in a circle. The initial letter may be chosen by either the teacher or any of the players, or else it can be drawn from a pile of letter cards. Each player says, "I love my love with a/n (A) because he/she is so...(assertive)". Each player has a turn until they run out of adjectives; then, a new letter is chosen.
PREDICTOGRAM: FRIENDSHIP
This is a prediction activity in which students join words about a given topic, activating not only vocabulary on the topic but also ideas. Each group is given a grid called Predictogram. This is a rectangle with its diagonal lines traced. At the center is the word FRIEND(SHIP); at each right angle is a word related to the topic, e.g. TRAITS, SUPPORT, SHARE, ENJOY, etc. Students are instructed to join two or more of those words - those joined by each of the lines in the rectangle- into sentences. Example: A friend is someone who offers you support no matter what. Friends are people with whom you can share good moments.
Cooperative reading – using cutouts from different magazine articles- helped students compare their ideas with those of teenagers from other countries. Students formed groups of three-four. The grouping technique consisted in matching synonyms (I used some of the character adjectives we had been working with). Each group member was given a paragraph to read, which was about a youngster´s idea of friendship and what to look for in a friend. Then, it was each student´s turn to share with the group. Afterwards, students compared and contrasted those teenagers´ ideas about friendship with their own, especially with those expressed in the predictogram.
Role play: roommates. The teacher asked whether it was easy or difficult to find those traits in a person. It was pointed out that in the group, students knew each other very well and some were very close friends since they were very little. However, how would students like to live with their friends? What kind of problems would they have to face? Students paired up according to role cards, on which each pair member was instructed to have a conversation with someone looking for a roommate in order to decide whether to become roommates or not. I prefer to give my students some scaffolding before role playing. Thus, prepared participation was implemented in order to allow each partner to brainstorm the questions / answers to discuss during the interview. Some key concepts to discuss were elicited and listed on the board: habits, hobbies, likes, dislikes, expenses, household chores, to name a few. Some pairs shared their conversations at the end, and everybody shared their conclusions. Most of the students concluded they would be willing to try and live together with their friends, and they made very keen contributions concerning the negotiation involved in terms of household duties, for example. Furthermore, we devoted a few minutes to share what students had discovered about themselves through this activity. Some of them expressed their surprise at discovering things they were not aware they valued so much. This was certainly a rich instance.
Values clarification activity: roommates. Students worked in groups of four, rank-ordering the characters of a text about four roommates´ problems. In this passage, characters and actions were controversial, negative and harmful, thus leading students to discuss and analyze each of them by applying their own scale of values. The debriefing at the end of the activity was very enriching, and students´ feedback on the activity was really positive, as it allowed them to express their own opinions, comparing and contrasting them with other points of view. It was also challenging to try to answer what they would do in the same situation.
Song: "That´s what friends are for". I used this song as a listening activity with three tasks for students to complete as they were listening. There were some lines to order, some corrections to make and some blanks to fill in.
Quick write: I asked students to think about their closest friend and write about him or her, concentrating not on the physical but on the personal traits. Then, some volunteers shared what they had written and the key words were elicited and written on the board.
Game: "If my friend were..." This is an all-time favorite, usually associated with practice of conditional clauses. Though this was not my aim, I chose this game to focus on the students´ feelings and emotions about their best friends. So, we had a round of questions such as "If your friend were a/n (book, animal, color, etc.), what ...would he /she be?" The very last question was "If your friend were a song,..." and this was answered by almost all the group members. I took advantage of the game as a transition to introduce two songs I had selected. So, I announced we were going to work with two songs. The first task was to match a list of objects with the adjectives students associated with them. I wrote on the board the lists below:

After this was shared, we listened to the first song, "Old Friends", by Simon and Garfunkel, and discussed the tone of the song, the view of friendship expressed in it and how the song made students feel.
After this, we did the same with the Beatles´ "When I´m sixty-four". The answers and feelings were completely different, since this song conveys a more positive view of being "old friends". When consulted about which song students would rather sing, they all chose the second one.
The writing asignment that went with this unit was a descriptive composition about one of the following topics:* Describe the person who has helped you most in your life* Describe the person you admire the most. * Describe the person who has influenced you more than anyone else. With the vocabulary activities and the brief writing tasks done prior to this assignment, students counted on enough elements to help them along the way.
Another assignment was a survey in which each student had to ask five people outside the group about the qualities they looked for in a friend. The results of the survey were shared the following class, by listing the favorite traits on the board. A chart was made to show the survey results and was kept on the bulletin board for the rest of the time devoted to this unit.
Another nice, quick warm-up activity I used was this game called "Words within a word". Example: FRIENDSHIPfriends – fire – fried – find – fine – fin – fed – fish – fern – fresh – red - rein – rid – rip – rind – rinse - ripe – ride – rhine – rise – I – in – if – is – end – nerd - dip – den – dish – sin – sip – send – sir – she – shed - shine – ship – hi - his – hid – hide – hip – he – her – heir - hind – hire – hen – pie – pin – pier – pen – spider – spin – pend – pine – per ... ·
To round-up the unit, I chose an episode from the American series "Friends", which was seen and discussed in class. Besides its motivational value and its worth as authentic material, the video also introduced very valuable cultural information, worth pointing out and discussing. ·
But the "grand finale" of this unit was, without any doubt, the Invisible Friend activity we organized. It was agreed that presents had to be hand- or home-made. The results were amazing: from bookmarks to greeting cards, from cassette recordings to paintings, from cakes to picture frames, there was a wide variety of gifts; we all enjoyed receiving and giving those presents and trying to guess our "invisible friend´s" identity.
III. CONCLUSIONS
This was one of the most gratifying units I have ever had to teach. First, the topic itself gave me great pleasure, as did the activities I was planning. Then, my motivation increased as I was getting feedback from my students through the different lesson stages. Finally, the whole success of this work is due to the involvement we all put in. Each one of us was able to participate actively in the different activities proposed. Moreover, our participation was meaningful to our own lives. The purpose of integrating content-based instruction with the work on values which we so much advocate was accomplished. I felt rewarded and motivated to keep on exploring similar ways of "teaching and reaching"...

Who Am I?

Skill: asking and answering personal questionsGroup Size: 4 to 30Prep Time: ~1 hourPlaying Time: 5-20 minutesInterest Level: ages 4 to adultAbility Level: upper beginning to intermediatePaste pictures of popular characters on 4 x 6 or larger cardstock. With very young children, you may want to use cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Simba, Nola, Snow White, Donald Duck, and so forth. With older students, you may choose to use well-known athletes, political leaders, actors and actresses, musicians, and so forth. Call one student away from group. Show the student a card. (Make sure that the student recognizes the individual on the card.) The student then stands in front of the class and his or her classmates ask questions in order to guess who the student is. Students may ask questions such as . . .
Are you male or female?
Are you a real person?
Are you a child or an adult?
How old are you?
Do you like sports?
How often are you on television?
Where do you live?
How much money do you make?
Who likes you more, children or adults?
When a student correctly guesses who the student is, he or she becomes the next mystery person.Suggestion: Collect pictures from magazines and newspapers or print from internet (especially if you have access to a color printer).Variations:
Ask each student to bring a picture of him or herself to class. Make cards for each class using photographs of students in that class.
Watch selections from a video. Create cards using characters seen in the video.
Instead of using pictures, write out names for students who can read reasonably well.
Name That Thought!
Thoughts are important, we all know that. We know it so well that often we do not really realize that we are thinking; it just comes automatically. This English exercise is based on that awareness.
Go outside to a stream or creek. Sit down on the bank and watch the leaves or sticks floating by. Ask them: Did you just notice what you were thinking? The students will probably be surprised because they are not used to being asked to recall their thoughts. The teacher can say again: Just now, what were you thinking? I don't know, is the usual response. The teacher can say: Have you ever just sat a little while and noticed your thoughts? I have. Let's just sit a little while and relax first. Look at the leaves and stuff that's moving down the stream, on the water. Our thoughts are like this, aren't they. I mean: our thoughts come and go, then they pass. We are always thinking. Let's stop one of those thoughts and look at it. At this point, I usually say "O-o-ops!" I just had a thought. Do you wanna know what I was just thinking? I just thought '"Did I lock the car door?" Then I share another thought. At this time, the teacher can ask them to share a thought. Or can explain further, giving more examples appropriate to the student's age and English level.
Then I have the students use their imagination.
Imagine that, as you see each leaf or stick floating by, it is your thought. And give it a name. For example, if I'm thinking "I have to study for my math test", just as I see a small stick float past me, going down the stream, I can name that thought, "The math test". Then I will have another thought, probably in a few seconds, for example, about my puppy at home. "Is he in his bed or in my room, on my bed?" I can name that thought, "The puppy's bed."
I ask the students to watch the leaves and sticks pass by them, floating down stream, and name them, with the thoughts they are having at the moment. Then I ask them to write their thoughts down on paper. I ask them to name about 4 or 5 thought names. Then they share them with the class, saying... "I had a thought. It was about my.... I named it ... "Students of all ages like this game because it helps them to 1.) recognize their thoughts 2.) use English in a sharing way. And they can get out-of-doors too!
With children, you can have them watch leaves flowing down a stream, and have them play a similar game. But draw a line in the dirt beside the stream and as the leaf passes the line, have them name it, "I see a leaf." Then the next child can say, "I see a leaf and I see a ...." (Whatever he or she sees, perhaps a tree.. ) Use your own intuition as to how to apply this to your class.
What Is That Sound?
This game will help them to listen more closely, and describe what they heard, using verbs. In this game, the students sit outside in a circle on the grass. They should have a pencil and paper with them. I ask them to close their eyes and just listen. I do not speak for awhile. Then I ask them: Did you hear anything? Listen again. What did you hear? Then I ask them to write down what they heard. Then after writing, they can use English by saying "I hear a car engine."; "I hear a woman talking" etc. The more advanced ones can say what their neighbor heard, the student sitting next to them, then say whether they did or did not hear the same thing. Then they can introduce what they heard. For example, "Susan heard a man talking but I didn't. I heard children playing" Or They can say, "I heard a man talking first. Then I heard a dog barking; and then I heard a bird. Just before I opened my eyes, I heard the teacher's voice." "Finally, I heard another student talking." This allows them to practice using first, second and finally or lastly.
With children you can play "What do you hear?"
Have them sit in a circle, and cover their eyes. The teacher goes first by covering her eyes. She says: "I cannot see but I can hear." Then the teacher addresses the children. When you cover your eyes you cannot see. (Please put your hands over your eyes.) When all the children have covered their eyes, break a stick. Then say "open your eyes" Ask them, "Did you hear something when your eyes were covered? " (Please cover your eyes again. And this time, please listen.) Did you hear anything? What did you hear?" Then show them what they heard, a breaking stick.
Then say: "I hear a stick, breaking." Then do something else when their eyes are covered. And ask them if they heard anything. Then show them. Then ask them to name it: "I heard a finger snapping." or "I hear two hands clapping." etc. If they need help, I use big cards, written in crayon; and prop them against a tree or lay them in the grass, with the simple sentence structure, "I hear a ----, -----." Of course this game can be adapted to playing inside too. But I find that children like to go outdoors, if they can, in the nice weather. Me too!

Two Truths and a Lie

Object of the Game: Guess which of the three "facts" is the lie. Items Needed: None Preparation: None
Directions: Everyone comes up with two truths about themselves and one lie. The others have to guess what the lie is.
Example: The three things I could say about myself are, "I have been to Africa. I am allergic to horses. And I am one of 11 children." The people guess which of the three is not true. Then, when everyone has made their choice the person reveals the lie, "The lie is I am allergic to horses." Note: This is a great icebreaker or get to know you game.

the Question Game

All players sit in somewhat of a circle, situated so that each player can easily face the person to his left and right.
Somehow decide who will go first and whether you will go clockwise or counterclockwise. To keep it simple, I will describe it counterclockwise.
The first player faces the person to his right. He asks the next person a question. That person does not answer the question he was asked, but instead asks the NEXT person a question. The next person asks the person after him a question, and so on. Players should look at the person who is asking them a question, or who they are asking a question.
A person is "out" if they do one of a few things after asked a question... 1) answers the question answered -- EVEN if the answer is in the form of a question2) does not IMMEDIATELY ask the next person a question3) laughs4) makes a statement instead of a question5) repeats a question that was very recently asked
There is no minimum or maximum length for questions.
When a person is "out" they are not asked any questions, nor do they ask any questions, until the game is over.
When there are only two people left, they ask each other questions back and forth.
Play continues until all players are out, the last one remaining being the winner.
Variations: (mix and match as you like)-People can ask a question to whomever they like-When getting out, instead of having to leave the game, the person must answer the question truthfully-Over 21: When getting out, instead of having to leave, have a drink
t each player can easily face the person to his left and right.
Somehow decide who will go first and whether you will go clockwise or counterclockwise. To keep it simple, I will describe it counterclockwise.
The first player faces the person to his right. He asks the next person a question. That person does not answer the question he was asked, but instead asks the NEXT person a question. The next person asks the person after him a question, and so on. Players should look at the person who is asking them a question, or who they are asking a question.
A person is "out" if they do one of a few things after asked a question... 1) answers the question answered -- EVEN if the answer is in the form of a question2) does not IMMEDIATELY ask the next person a question3) laughs4) makes a statement instead of a question5) repeats a question that was very recently asked
There is no minimum or maximum length for questions.
When a person is "out" they are not asked any questions, nor do they ask any questions, until the game is over.
When there are only two people left, they ask each other questions back and forth.
Play continues until all players are out, the last one remaining being the winner.
Variations: (mix and match as you like)-People can ask a question to whomever they like-When getting out, instead of having to leave the game, the person must answer the question truthfully-Over 21: When getting out, instead of having to leave, have a drink

Integrating Target Grammar Structures

LESSON AIMS
1. Students will improve recognition of the differences between the passive voice and active voice with particular attention paid to the present simple, past simple, and present perfect passive forms.
2. Students will inductively review passive form structures.
3. Students will quickly review language used to express opinions.
4. Students will contextualize the use of the passive by first making guesses about Seattle, and then finding out about certain facts about that city
5. Students will focus on passive oral production skills in the context of speaking about Tuscany.
POSSIBLE PROBLEMS
1. Students will almost certainly have problems with using the passive form in production activities. As the class is an intermediate level, students have principally concentrated on acquiring oral skills using the active voice. For this reason, I have chosen the narrow focus area of speaking about Tuscany so that students can focus on a specific subject in the context of speaking about their part of the world.
2. Students might tend to place the subject of the passive sentence after the participle as they are used to an object being the object of a verb and not the subject of the sentence.
3. Students might have difficulties in recognizing the difference between the passive voice and the present perfect active.
4. Students might substitute /d/ for /t/ in certain participle endings with verbs such as 'send'.
SKILLS

Reading Short prepared text with passive and active in the present simple, past simple, and present perfect forms.
1. Develop skimming skills by scanning text to locate facts about Seattle.Speaking Making guesses and expressing opinions about Seattle.Speaking about Tuscany using the passive voice.

GRAMMAR

Inductive grammar review of the differences between the passive and active focusing mainly on the present simple, past simple and present perfect passives.

Materials:

Here are the Materials used for the lesson:
Seattle Fact Sheet

· The basketball team "The Lakers" are from Seattle

· It often rains in Seattle

· Silicon valley is near Seattle

· Bill Gates and Microsoft are located in Seattle

· Chrysler cars are manufactured in Seattle

· Bruce Springsteen was born in Seattle

· "Grunge" music comes from Seattle

· Seattle is in the Southwest of the United States
My HometownMany years ago, I was born in Seattle, Washington USA. Seattle is located in the Northwest corner of the USA. Recently, Seattle has become the focus of much international attention. Many films have been made there, probably the most famous of which is "Sleepless in Seattle" starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Seattle is also known as the birthplace of Grunge music, both Pearl Jam and Nirvana are from Seattle. For older people like myself, it should be noted that Jimmi Hendrix was born in Seattle! NBA fans know Seattle for the "Seattle Supersonics" which has played basketball in Seattle for more than 30 years. Unfortunately, Seattle is also famous for its bad weather. I can remember weeks and weeks of grey, wet weather when I was growing up.Seattle has also become one of the fastest growing business areas in the United States. Two of the most important names in the booming business scene in Seattle are Microsoft and Boeing. Microsoft was founded and is owned by the world-famous Bill Gates (how much of his software is on your computer?). Boeing has always been essential to the economic situation in Seattle. It is located to the north of Seattle and famous jets such as the "Jumbo" have been manufactured there for more than 50 years!Seattle is positioned between the Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains. The combination of its scenic location, thriving business conditions and exciting cultural scene makes Seattle one of America's most interesting cities.

A VIP - Present Perfect Simple and Continuous
Students often confuse the present perfect and present perfect continuous. This lesson employs an imaginary biography to get students asking questions and speaking about completed accomplishments (present perfect) and duration of activity (present perfect continuous).
Aim: Correct use of present perfect and present perfect continuous, contrasted with simple past
Activity: Use of an imaginary chart of life events to elicit questions and answers using both the present perfect and present perfect continuous, as well as the simple past
Level: Intermediate
Outline:
· Review the present perfect and present perfect continuous with the class. Focus on the difference between present perfect to express an amount finished up to the present moment (I've read three books by Hemingway), and the present perfect continuous to express the duration of the current activity (She's been reading for three hours).
· Ask students to take a look at the sentences in exercise 1 and decide if they are correct or incorrect.
· Make a point of discussing the use of BOTH the present perfect and present perfect continuous with common verbs such as live, work, play, drive, etc.
· Ask students to read the life chart of John Anderson.
· Have students pair up and use the question cues. Ask students to use the present perfect continuous when asking about the duration of an activity.
· To check if students are doing the activity correctly, ask the students to write out the questions once they have finished.
John Anderson: VIP
0Born 1954
6Started school
12Started magazine delivery service
13Started playing tennis
15Hired four other boys for magazine delivery service
17Sold magazine delivery service for $20,000
17Went to Harvard Business School
18Won New York State tennis championship
19Started 'Supersoft' software company with roommate
20Sold 'Supersoft' for $400,000
21Graduated with honors from Harvard
22Received Masters of International Business from Yale
23Started work for Brown and Bran Inc. in New York City
25Married first wife, Josine
26First son born, Josh
26Promoted to Vice President of International Sales
27Won New York Business Club's International Businessman Award
28Left Brown and Bran Inc.
28Started New Media Associates Inc. in New York City
29Divorced Josie
30Won 'New Business Innovation' award
31Met and married second wife, Angela
32Second son, Philip, born
33Won over-thirty tennis tournament of New York City

Grammar Lesson: Tense Review

Instructions: Please enter the correct auxiliary verb. Choose between: are, is, do, does, did, have, or will.
1. He ____ playing the guitar at the moment.
2. Jackie ____ been living in Paris for a few months.
3. Which sports _____ he like?
4. They _____ travelled all over the world.
5. My shoes _____ made in Italy.
6. Peter ____ going to fly to London next Thursday.
7. Do you think the current government ____ change soon?
8. Yamaha pianos ____ made in Japan.
9. Jane ____ doing here homework when I came home last night.
10. When ____ you arrive last night?

Grammar Lesson: Tense Review

These pages provide a lesson aimed at reviewing names and structures of basic tenses. On the second page you will find a printable version of the lesson, as well as the answers to the exercises.
Aim: To inductively review both structure and names of basic tenses
Activity: Personal Questions with follow up tense name and auxillary verb quizzes
Level: Intermediate
Outline:
· Divide students into groups of 2 to 4
· Have students take personal information quiz in groups
· Check answers as a class, ask students to quickly speak about what they have learned about their fellow students
· Have groups identify tense names used in questions
· Give auxiliary verb exercise to students to be done individually
· Correct auxiliary exercise in class
Personal Information Quiz
1. When did you last see a film?
2. How many times have you been abroad?
3. What type of books do you like reading?
4. When were you born?
5. How long have you been learning English?
6. What will the weather be like tomorrow?
7. What were you doing at 7 o'clock yesterday evening?
8. What are your parents doing?
9. Where are your classes taught?
10. What are you going to do after this course finishes?
What are the names of the tenses used in the above questions?
· Past Continuous
· Present Simple Passive
· Present Perfect
· Future Intent
· Present Perfect Continuous
· Past Simple Passive
· Future Prediction
· Present Simple
· Present Continuous
· Past Simple

Here's how to learn English

I discovered a site recently called the linguist. The founder, Steve Kauffman, asserts that he can speak nine languages and now is going to offer you the benefit of his know-how to help you learn English. Although I find his attitude a little smug, his philosophy on learning languages is absolutely right. He criticises traditional language classes based on grammar, just like me. However, he and I are both trying to earn a living from teaching languages, so it would be a little hypocritical to suggest that no language class can be beneficial. I encourage you to visit the site (Mr.Kauffman will thank me for linking to him), and read what he has to say. I confess that I will never learn nine languages like him, in fact I don't find it easy to speak just one foreign language (French). People like Mr.Kauffman are rare. His talent for learning languages is a wonderful ability to have. Alas, it's not something that can be taught. Some people are more gifted than others for learning languages. It's sad but true, and I advise you to set realistic targets. Being bilingual is not only impossible for the majority of learners (myself included), but also unnecessary.The Linguist site makes one excellent point with which I totally agree is the fact that the more you expose yourself to language, reading, writing, speaking and listening, the more progress you will make. And that learning grammar rules has little or no impact. (see my other posts about Scrivener)The internet has made listening and reading much easier, you can expose yourself to English all day long while your computer is running. So I had a long think yesterday about what would make a good source of useful, everyday English that you could listen to regularly to build your vocabulary and comprehension skills. And I've found the perfect solution! I found a site that produces everyday English for you to listen to, just like the English I speak, seven days a week, fifty two weeks a year, with related articles that discuss the same subjects. Want to know where to find it? It's not on thelinguist.com , it's not even on the wonderful anglais-facile.com!

Using mind maps for concept questions

If you are a language teacher, you probably already use mind maps to help your students learn vocabulary. These mind maps are sometimes referred to as “vocabulary networks” or “word maps”. One popular use of such mind maps is organising vocabulary groups, e.g. your central theme is “food” and your sub-themes are “meat”, “fruit”, “vegetables” etc. Another way might be to associate the various nouns, adjectives and verbs with your central theme, e.g. television, programme, film, switch on, watch, interesting, boring...But have you considered using mind maps for teaching grammar points? Anyone with a TEFL qualification will be familiar with using concept questions to help students understand a tricky element of grammar in English. For example, when giving advice, an English speaker invariably uses the modal verbs should or ought to. There are likely no equivalent verbs in your students’ language, so you would ask concept questions to check that they have understood:
you should see a doctorIs it an obligation to see a doctor? – no Is it a good idea to see a doctor? – yes
By answering these two questions, the learner has a good notion of when to use should. But putting these questions into a mind map will help your learner to both visualise the concepts and retain them for future use. In my classes, I write up two questions side by side and circle them. The questions are, “Is it necessary?” and “Is it allowed?” I then start to make my mind map by writing the only two possible answers, yes or no? I then try to elicit the modal verbs, must, mustn’t, have to, don’t have to, can, can’t, according to the answer, and write them in the appropriate place on the mind map.
Perhaps my explanations here aren’t really clear. That’s exactly why mind-mapping is a better way to help your students visualise the concepts. You can try to explain until you’re blue in the face, but a simple diagram does the trick quickly and effectively. You can see an example of a mind map that I created on my site – really, a picture does paint a thousand words!
Think about what points of grammar you are having trouble teaching and start developing concept questions that you can put into a mind map. What concept questions do you think could help them see the difference between “I went” and “I’ve been”? It’s up to you to use your imagination!

Get your intonation right

So you've just finished your 100 hours of English class and you've studied all the English tenses, irregular verbs, comparatives, prepositions and modal verbs. So you can speak English, right? Wrong. You arrive in London for that long-awaited shopping/theatre trip and suddenly you realise that you can't understand a word of what people there are saying!What went wrong? You had a good teacher. You studied hard and took careful notes of vocabulary items and grammar rules. But the English they speak in England still seems like chinese.It could be Chinese for all you know because it's not the same English that your teacher spoke. It is normal, even very necessary, for your teacher to speak slowly and clearly so that you understand. I increase the pace of my speech as my students level of understanding improves. But even with high level students my speech isn't the same as the way I speak in English, with my family for example.More important than pronunciation is intonation. English words have strong stress patterns, unlike French, which can sound a little monotone in comparison. There is a stressed syllable (accent tonique) and a weak syllable in almost every word.So a word like "manager" is pronounced "MANager" Ooobut "computer" is pronounced "comPUTer" or oOo.In your dictionary, the stressed syllable is indicated by an apostrophe ' before the stressed syllable. You don't have to learn phonetics, but it helps to recognise a few of the vowel sounds.You can find them here: pronunciation guideYou must listen to a lot of spoken English in order to have a good level of comprehension. One good way is to listen to "The Archers" every day. You can find my advice about this (in French) here or in English on this blog.

Telephone Tips

Even if you are have a good level in English, talking on the telephone can be a difficult task. Why? Because only a small amount of communication is verbal, that is, the actual words we use. The rest, as much as 90%, is non-verbal - our facial expressions, gestures, the intonation in our voice, body language, etc.Here is my advice if you are feeling nervous about speaking on the phone:
Relax. The more stressed you are, the more difficult it will be to understand. Most people are sympathetic when they realise that English is not your mother tongue, so don't be afraid to tell them so, and ask them to repeat if necessary.
Summarise what you have been told. By repeating back in your own words what the caller has said, you can confirm whether you have understand correctly. The caller will appreciate this as a sign that you are interested in what he is saying. If you have to write down a telephone number, email or postal address, read it back to the person for confirmation.
Use the international phonetic alphabet when spelling. This is used in avaition to avoid potentially catastophic misunderstandings! You can find it at this site: http://www.answers.com/topic/nato-phonetic-alphabet
Concentrate. Don't be distracted by your colleagues, and especially don't be reading your emails at the same time. You need to focus, so cut out unnecessary distractions

More about Nursery Rhymes

Children's songs and nursery rhymes are a great way to discover the history and culture of a country. They are easy to find on the internet and some sites even have midi files so you can hear the melody.Going back to one of my favourite subjects - that of the influence of Norman French on the English language, I discovered some interesting words in my nephew's book of Nursery Rhymes.One had two words that rhyme nicely : to apprise and assizes. Both these words have the sound /ai/ that sounds like "eye".the first word means "to make something known, give information". If you are French speaker you will see that it is derived from the past participle of the verb "apprendre" - to learn/teach.The second word is still in use in Scotland, and is a legal term that comes from French "assise" which means "seated" or "sitting" and refers to a court of law. The English equivalent, "a sitting" is slightly more general, it can be a legal hearing, but also what someone does when they are posing for a portrait or photograph.I also found the word "comfit". If I pronounce it, you would find it hard to find its French root. But the context of the nursery rhyme would help you - it talks about different types of food found on board a ship, and is immediately followed by "apples". So it is the anglicised version of "confit" which is a kind caramelised fruit or other sweet. In French it can also be used for meat, in the South West "confit de canard" (duck) is a traditional dish.

Learning American English

Which English do you want to speak? There isn't one, but several Englishes that people all over the world use to communicate. American English certainly dominates, being the language of Hollywood, computing and aviation. Some would even go as far as calling their language "American", and why not? It has several important differences with my English, British. But for a foreign learner to say that they speak English and American is exaggerating somewhat. The biggest differences between British and American English are vocabulary items, just like there are regional differences in any language.A French speaker is likely to get confused when there is the added problem of "false friends".A good example is the British word "chips". Here in the UK, chips are fried potatoes, generally cut a little thicker than their American equivalents, "French Fries", which are not French at all, but Belgian. However, in France we use the word "chips" for thin slices of fried potato that come in a packet and are eaten as apetisers or aperitif.A French teenager may be very proud of his new "baskets"! I would use a basket to bring home my vegetables from the market (panier). The French word has come from the sport basketball, while the British say "trainers" (shoes for training) while the Americans say "sneakers" (not to be confused with "Snickers", the chocolate bar). "To sneak" means to walk about silently, as if you were somewhere you shouldn't be.As for grammar, the good news is that Americans use less and less the dreaded present perfect - so you have one less thing to worry about. Words like "just" "ever" and "already" can be used with the past simple, whereas in English it's the present perfect.British: have you already seen this film?American: did you already see this film?The British generally have no problem with American English as they are used to watching American films (or movies if you prefer). The Yanks, on the other hand may have a few difficulties understanding a Briton, especially if he uses slang words.

Australia

Another form of English is that of Australia, a commonwealth country that still has the Queen of England as its head of state. Australia was at one time the world's biggest open prison, the British would send their unwanted criminals there, many of whom never returned (even after serving their sentence, the chances of surviving the return trip were so slim it was better to stay put).Many convicts were Londoners or Irish immigrants, and the Australian accent today still has traces of these influences. Other European immigrants later on have made a contribution to the accent and intonation too.Australian has its own words and expressions, some of which have been exported successfully to the rest of the English speaking world. However, some that are claimed to be Australian are highly doubtful, for example, rhyming slang has certainly come from Cockney London.Some of my favourite words that are commonly known in Europe and elsewhere are "smoothie" for milkshake, "Sheila" for woman (Sheila was once a very common first name), "tucker" for food, although "tuck shop" exists in English - a kind of snack bar found in schools. A "Matilda" is a sleeping roll, from where the song "waltzing matilda" has its origins. "Walkabout" was first used to describe the lone journey a young aborigine made as part of his initiation into adulthood, but now refers to any kind of absense - "he's gone walkabout".The first settlers in Australia also used the aborigine words for the new things they discovered: kangaroo, koala, wombat, boomerang, didgeridoo, etc.Here is a link to a website that lists some common words and expressions in Australian English. Some of the words listed for me can't be sure to be 100% Australian, but don't throw a wobbly, it's just for fun!Dictionary of Australian slang

Thoughts on "The Lexical Approach"

When I studied to become an English teacher, one of my instructors talked about a book that had had a considerable impact on the world of EFL. Called "The Lexical Approach", this book by Michael Lewis challenges a lot of the conventional wisdom in English language teaching.Lewis summarises the book himself with the statement that "language is grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar." What does this rather obscure sentence mean? Basically that the language came first, and grammar is our attempt to find order in language. If this is the case, then it is wrong to start with grammar and expect our students to "fill the gaps" by adding vocabulary.Think of it: if you did stupid exercises in your French class like "où est le singe?" - "le singe est dans l'arbre" (where is the monkey? - the monkey is in the tree) you will see that Lewis is right - we don't need possible sentences, but probable ones. In class I still hear students say "my tailor is rich". Why? Because they learned it in school, and never having found an opportunity to use it a real context, they just say it to me like it's part of an interesting conversation.The Lexical Approach can make depressing reading if you are really gung-ho on grammar bashing - but never fear - he does recommend drilling, lexical drilling, that is, which can be rather fun with the right groups.

The Understanding / Using Divide

Something really interesting happened during a lesson last week. I played a cassette to a student to test his understanding of spoken English. On the cassette, a lady said, "I won't be back until eight O'clock". I stopped the cassette, and asked the student what she said. Quite confidently, he replied, "she said she will return home at eight O'clock."He had by and large understood the message. But he couldn't recall the words used. This is because an expression like "I won't be back until eight" doesn't figure in his active vocabulary, and can't be translated literally into French. He nevertheless got the gist.This shows the gap between what we understand and what we are able to produce. I don't know how teachers could accelerate the process of transforming passive understanding into active usage. After all, that should be our job. It seems to me that massive exposure to language along with lots of practice is the only solution, but someone studying two hours a week with little time for homework is surely not going to make rapid progress.

Why I've become a YouTuber

If you are a regular visitor to my site, anglais-facile.com, you will have noticed that I have started making videos and uploading them on to Youtube.com. Youtube is just fantastic for learning English, you can watch video blogs in order to hear all kinds of English accents, you can listen to your favourite songs in English and learn so much about what's going on in popular culture, and now you can even watch me as I try to answer questions that have been sent in by you, my dear readers.I use Youtube because it's free! I would have to upgrade my site if I wanted to put all that video on it, and that would be expensive. Also, I haven't got a clue about how to put video on a web page, so I use youtube's technology. All I need to do is make a video with my webcam, upload it to youtube and then paste the link code into my site. Anyway, I hope you like the videos, some of them are admittedly pretty boring, but it's probably better that you can watch and listen as well as read.

T-shirt talk

If you walk down mainstreet in any French town, just about every other person you pass will be wearing a t-shirt with a slogan in English on it. Most of the wearers are oblivious to the fact that the message they are sharing with the world is either nonsense, full of mistakes or downright obscene. One girl I saw recently had a top that read, 'young hot mistress for erotic massage' followed by a telephone number. There's no excuse for not knowing what it meant, for 'erotic' and 'massage' are both words that exist in French. It seems that the fact it was written in English makes it acceptable, even though the slogan is in effect really saying 'I'm a prostitute'.I mention this because it reminds of the time back in the eighties when everyone was wearing t-shirts with Japanese writing on them. I shudder to think now what I might have been broadcasting to anyone who could understand Japanese. Perhaps a Japanese person could read on my t-shirt, 'stay away from this jerk, he's a complete loser' or worse!After seeing the stupid slogans in english that people wear in France, I will always think twice before buying a T-shirt with anything written in a language I don't understand

apostrophe misuse

In France, in order to make words look more anglo-saxon, there is the habit of sticking an apostrophe and an 's' at the end of words. A shop selling English furniture is thus called 'Interior's'.I would like to inform my French readers, however, that the situation is not better, perhaps even worse, back home in England. Which is even more pathetic, given that in a country where English is the native language, a large proportion of the population has absolutely no idea when and how to use the apostrophe.'s is known as the anglo-saxon genitive and is used to denote possession - the 's goes at the end of the possessor, not the possessed:The manager's car = the car that belongs to the managerWhen a word is already a plural, you put just an apostrophe after the final s, without adding a second s:the managers' cars = the cars that belong to the managersThere are even websites that try to combat the misuse of the apostrophe. Take a look at the following for example:www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.ukThere are some exceptions to the apostrophe rule, however. These would be in situations where adding an 's' to make a plural would be confusing. For example, we often talk about a list of do's and don'ts(a list of things to do and not to do).If we simply added an 's' to 'do' to make it a plural you would get 'dos' which looks like an incorrect spelling of the third person, 'does' or the abbreviation of 'disk operating system'. Also, initials can take an apostrophe in order to avoid making the plural 's' look like one of the intials. For example, it would be OK to write the plural of CD, CD's. If there were no apostrophe, it would look like three initials, CDS.I don't know if my exceptions here are officially recognised, so if you strongly disagree, let me know!

learning words that are relevant to you

If you really want to make the most of your English lessons, it's your responsiblity to learn as many words as you can in your own time. If your average lesson is made up of different people continually asking, "how do say ..... in English?" then you are losing valuable time that could be spent making conversation - real communication.Don't treat your teacher as a walking dictionary. As I've said before, you should be learning word groups that are important to you so that you have something relevant to say in class.You can do this by making mind-mapsor by using flash cards to memorise key words and expressions.Don't expect your teacher to know what words are important to you. If you are serious about your language learning, take the responsibility of building your own vocabulary and then your teacher will have time to work on your pronunciation and sentence structure, as well as the all-important fluency.

choosing your most important words

There's an interesting exercise in the book Keep Talking by Friederike Klippel (Cambridge) called 'word wizard'. Each student is to choose the four words they consider to be the most important if no other words could be used. Which four words would you choose? The aim of the exercise is to try have a conversation with other students, thereby learning their four words a building a vocabulary of up to sixty-four words, assuming that there are sixteen students and no-one chooses the same words.In reality, people have very similar ideas about which words they would choose. Verbs are very popular. So time and again we get choices like be, have, go, want. If had to choose four verbs, maybe eat, drink, sleep, do would be the best for basic survival.Are these really the most useful words? Which ones would you choose?In my next post, I'll tell you why I don't think choosing verbs as your most important words is a good idea.

English- your most important words part 2

Way back in May I wrote about an exercise that involved choosing your four most important words. I had some interesting feedback, especially from a fellow teacher in England who said that her students chose words like boring, Macdonalds, want amongst others.
I suggested that verbs probably wouldn't be a priority if you could only use four words. This is because verbs are action or doing words, as we are taught in primary school. So that means that you can use a gesture to indicate most of them. How many of you teachers have never done a lesson on the present progressive using miming and the question "what I am doing?". The students have to answer, "you're riding a bike", you're having a shower" etc. You get the point.
If you were travelling in Mongolia and nobody around spoke a word of English and you couldn't speak a word of Mongolian, what would be your word number one to learn? I think we can learn a valuable lesson from babies. Generally a baby's first word is mama or papa - not that useful for travelling adults!
But what comes next? Baby wants something that he can see, but doesn't have any vocabulary - so very quickly he learns an incredibly useful word that he can use in conjunction with pointing - THAT!
Now there might ten different translations for the word 'that' in Mongolian, I have no idea. Even so, if you choose one of them that relates to objects or things in general, then you can go into a shop and ask for something to eat - something essential for your survival

Big Bang

Now I've decided that 'that' is my number one important word, I need to think what other words would make up my four-word vocabulary. I've been thinking about the differences between how a baby would develop a vocabulary and an adult. A baby will certainly add words to his central 'that' based on his immediate environment, and a mind map might look like this:

Of course, the baby won't know the 'category' words - food, object, person, thing - just the things themselves, but a lot more essential words could be added to those two main branches and the following sub-branches. An adult, on the other hand, is perfectly capable of categorising crucial vocabulary in order to make a logical sequence of related words. The starting point of an adult's 'big bang' (I call it this because everything 'explodes' from a central point) could be simply his name.

English word of the day

While surfing the net looking for things to write about learning English, I often come across ESL sites that have a 'word of the day' or 'word of the week' box. Some online dictionaries put up free word of the day scripts that you can put on your own site or blog. I did once think about doing it, thinking that it would be a good way for you to improve your vocabulary. The only problem, however, was that most, if not all, the words that came up were ones that I'd never heard of. This is great for me - as a native English speaker they help me to expand my knowledge of English. But how useful would these words be to a foreign learner of English? Even if you have an extremely advanced level, these words have limited usefulness because no-one ever uses them.Michael Lewis makes this point in his book 'The Lexical Approach'. He noted that books aimed at proficiency level concentrate on words that even native speakers never use. I have trouble completing the exercises in these books because these words don't figure in my vocabulary. Since when have 'advanced' or 'proficient' been synonyms with 'obscure' or 'useless'?Having an advanced level in a foreign language doesn't mean knowing a lot of words that even the natives don't know, rather, it means using the same language that the natives use, including slang, idioms and word-plays. And yes, in English that means understanding that awful corrupted, vulgar version of English called 'American'!I've had hate mail from outraged teachers accusing me of discrediting the profession by teaching things like 'gonna' and 'watcha', but that's another story for another day.

Learn this if you dare!!

As you probably know from reading this blog, I'm a fan of using nursery rhymes to practise your intonation and pronunciation, as well as picking up more vocabulary and interesting things about the history and traditions of a country.Well here's one that's just great for getting to grips with those 'swallowed' little words. I'll get around to recording it one day so you can listen to it. Remember that you should stress only the important words - nouns, verbs and adjectives, not the 'grammatical' words like articles, prepositions or determiners.

The House that Jack Built
This is the house that Jack builtThis is the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the cock that crowed in the morn that waked the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the farmer sowing his corn that kept the cock that crowed in the morn that waked the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack builtthis is the horse and the hound and the horn that belonged to the farmer sowing his corn that kept the cock that crowed in the morn that waked the priest all shaven and shorn that married the man all tattered and torn that kissed the maiden all forlorn that milked the cow with the crumpled horn that tossed the dog that worried the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built