Oxford`s teachhing methods of english language — страница 10

a mass of books. I’d got over my fear of the dark by around ten. Write ten to twelve sentences using the patterns above. If you’re working in a culture that is anti-boasting then pick achievements that do not make you stand out. Your class will relate well to sentences that tell them something new about you, as much as you feel comfortable telling them. Communication works best when it’s for real. In class Ask the students to have two different colored pens ready. Tell them you’re going to dictate sentences about yourself. They’re to take down the sentences that are also true for them in one color and the sentences that are not true about them in another color. Put the students in fours to explain to each other which of your sentences were also true of their lives. Run

a quick question and answer session round the groups e.g. ‘At what age had you learnt to ski/dance/sing/ play table tennis etc by?’ ‘I’d learnt to ski by seven.’ Ask each students to write a couple of fresh sentences about things achieved by a certain date/time and come up and write them on a board. Wait till the board is full, without correcting what they’re putting up. Now point silently at problem sentences and get the students to correct them. Variation You can use the above activity for any area of grammar you want ti personalize. You might write sentences about: Things you haven’t got round to doing (present perfect + yet) Things you like having done for you versus things you like doing for yourself Things you ought to do and feel you can’t do (the whole

modal area is easily treated within this frame) Reported advice Grammar: Modals and modals reported Level: Elementary to intermadiate Time: 15-20 minutes Materials: None In class Divide your class into two groups: ‘problem people’ and ‘advice-givers’. Ask the ‘problem people’ to each think up a minor problem they have and are willing to talk about. Arm the ‘advice-givers’ with these suggestion forms: You could… You should… You might as well… You might… You ought to… You might try…ing… Get the class moving round the room. Tell each ‘problem person’ to pair off with an ‘advice-giver’. The ‘problem person’ explains her problem and the other person gives two bits of advice using the grammar suggested. Each ‘problem person’ now moves to

another ‘advice-giver’. The ‘problem people’ get advice from five or six ‘advice-givers’ Call class back into the plenary. Ask some of the ‘problem people’ to state their problem and report to the whole group the best and the worst piece of advice they were offered, naming the advice-giver e.g. ‘Juan was telling me I should give her up.’ ‘ Jane suggested I ought to get a girlfriend of hers to talk to her for me.’ Variation If you have a classroom with space that allows it, form the students into two concentric circles, the outer one facing in and the inner one facing out. All the inner circle students are ‘advice-givers’ and all the outer circle students are ‘problem people’. After each round, the outer circle people move round three places. This

is much more cohesive than the above. Picture the past Grammar: Past simple, past perfect, future in the past Level: Lower intermediate Time: 20-40 minutes Materials: None Class Ask three students to come out and help you demonstrate the exercise. Draw a picture on the board of something interesting you have done. Do not speak about it. Student A then writes a past simple sentence about it. Student B write about what had already happened before the picture action and student C about something that was going to happen, using the appropriate grammar. I got up at eight a.m. I’ve just got off the bus I’m going to work today Put the students in fours. Each draws a picture of a real past action of theirs. They pass their picture silently to a neighbor in the foursome who adds a

past tense sentence. Pass the picture again and each adds a past perfect sentence. They pass again and each adds a was going to sentence. All this is done in silence with you going round helping and correcting. Impersonating members of a set Grammar: Present and past simple-active and passive Level: Elementary to intermediate Time: 20-30 minutes Materials: None In class Ask people to brainstorm all the things they can think of that give off light Choose one of this yourself and become the thing chosen. Describe yourself in around five to six sentences, e.g.: I am a candle I start very big and end up as nothig My head is lit and I produce a flame I burn down slowly In some countries I am put on Christmas tree I am old-fashioned and very fashionable Ask a couple of other students