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CHAPTE.K 13

CHAPTE.K 13

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Find someone who... can be adapted to suit any structure or structures. For example, we (ould make a chart asking students to find someone who has nevcr been to India, has always likęd musie, has never eaten raw fish, has always had coflfee for breakfast, etc. We can also get students to write the ąuestions themselves to make il morę interesting for them or, at the bcgintiing of a term or semester, we can find out one interesting fact about each indmdual student and put these facis i nto the chart (e.g. Find someone who is a keen swimmer, Find someone who pluys iń an orchestra, etc.). The activity thus becomes an cxccllcnt way for them to get to know each other.

There are many mini-surveys that we can use forgrammar practice in this way. For examplc, we can construct (or have our students construct) any number of lifestyle tjuestioos asking such things as What time do you normnlly get np? What do you have for breakfast? Ho w many cups of cojjee do you drink in a day? Or, if we want students to practise past tenses, they can design a cjuestionnaire in order to asie When did you last go to the cinetna? Who did you go willi? What iras the name of the film? What did you think oj lite film? etc.

Btample 11: Perfect one iiners    Langu age:    past perfect continuouś

Age:    any

Leyel:    intermediote to adyanced

In this activity, students practise the past perfect continuouś tense by making sentences in response lo prompts from the teacher. They are reąuired to use their imaginations and/or sense of humour and the cxercise is given added enjoymcnt by being designed as a team gamę.

The teacher divides the dass into smali teams of two to four students. Shc tells them that she will be reading sentences for which they have to find appropriate responses, using the past perfect continuouś. Shc starts by giving them a sentence such as When Igot hotne last night, my llamiate was asleep in the car. She asks the dass, in generał, what reasons they can think of to explain this, and hopes to elicit sentences like Weil, she had been listening to a progntmme 011 the radio andfallen asleep, or Yes, well that’s because she had been talking to a hypnotist on her mobile phone, etc.

Now that the students understand the idea of the exercise, she reads out the sentences in Figurę 21. (Sonie of the sentences in a coursebook, such as the one about Henry VIII and, perhaps, the blood-soaked wedding ciothes, may not be appropriate for all students, so we may have to come up with sentences of our own.)

a)    When I came to see you yesterday, your cat was in the fridge.

b)    Can you explain why you bit my dog?

c)    That was my new Rolls Royce your son pushed over the cliff.

d)    You had blood all over your wedding dothes after the ceremony.

e)    You were the only one in the room before the theffc.

f)    You had different coloured socks on the other day.

g)    Why did Henry VIII have his wife Annę Boteyn beheaded?

fic.urf 21: Sentences from The Anti-grammar Grammar Book by N Hall and J Shepheard {Pcarson Educ-ation Ltd)

The teams are given a short time to come up with a good explanalion for cach sentence. If they are correct and/or appropriate, the teacher awards a point, but no team can offer a sentence that has been uscd previously.

This game-like practice forces students to make sentences using a particuiar verb tense. Yet by adding the element of surreal humour, it can provoke great enjoyment. And the best thing about it is that it requires no materiał or technology and can be slotted into lessons at many different stages.

Grammar ganies

As we shall see on page 349, many games fforn television and radio (and gajnes that people play at homo in their everyday lives) can be adapted for classroom use. The following four exanipler, however, show how we can design games especially for learners. We hope they (and games like them) will engage students and encourage them to use the target structures with enthusiasm.

Example 12: Askthe right question Langusge:    sny

Age;    older children plus

Level:    elemeńtary plus

Students sit in two teams. There is a pile of cards between them. On each card there is a word or phrase (sec Figurę 22). The cards are face down.

A member of team A picks up the first card and then has to ask the other team members questions until they give exactly the answer that is written on the card.

The gamę, which is suitable for ail levels, forces students to think extremely carefully about the exact construction of the ąuestions they are asking.

Example 13:    Putting sentences    back    Langusge:    comparatives and superlatives

together again    Age:    young learners

Level:    intermediate

A comnion way of practising and testing syntax (see page 383) is to give students sentences with the words in the wrong order, e.g. bananas / don’t / eating III like for I don't like eating bananas. But such word-ordering activities can be used in a morę game-like way, too.

The teacher provides two sets of envelopes, each numbered 1-12 (for example). In each enveiope there are the words that make up a sentence. Both envelopes marked 1 will have the same word cards (see Figurę 23), and there will be two envelopes for sentence number 2 and number 3, etc.

FiGURi- 23: Cards for gamc cnve!ope 1

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