Do
your students groan when you tell them they are going to study
grammar? Perhaps they don't realise that grammar is all about
communication. Read our top tips to find out how to make grammar
more communicative.
 Gap fills When you
do gap fills, use questions rather than sentences. When students
have filled in the gaps, they can ask and answer with a partner.
Try the following exercise on the present perfect and past
simple. * Present
the grammatical structures as normal and drill as necessary. * Give
students the following gap fills:
How long _______________ (you, live) in your current house?
When _______________ (you, move) to your current house?
_______________ (you, read) any books by Hemingway?
_______________ (you, do) your homework last night?
Where (you, go) _______________ last weekend?
_______________ (you, go) to the beach this year?
_______________ (you, have) any strange dreams recently?
_______________ (you, have) a strange dream last night? |
* When students have filled in the gaps, ask them to check
with a partner and compare answers.
* Check
the answers as a class then tell students to ask and answer
the questions with their partner. * Finally,
write some topics on the board (e.g. dinner last night, snake
soup) and tell students to write questions to ask their partner.
Pairwork sheets
Use pairwork sheets to revise a grammar topic you have taught.
Pair work sheets are two lists of questions on two separate
sheets. Each student has one but cannot look at their partner's
sheet. Students ask and answer the questions then think about
the grammar they have been using. Try the
following activity to revise 'will', 'going to' and the present
continuous for the future.
* Put students in pairs of A and B and give them the following
sheets:
A
Are you meeting your friends this weekend?
Are you going to study at university?
Where are you going to live when you are older?
Is someone collecting you from school tonight? |
B
What is the first thing you will do when you get home tonight?
What are you going to do next summer holiday?
Will you watch TV tonight?
Are you going to buy any new clothes in the near future? |
* Tell students to ask and answer the questions on the sheet
and to listen carefully to the grammar that their partner
uses.
* When
students have finished, write the following questions on the
board and ask students to discuss:
Which tenses did your partner use in his or her questions?
Why did he or she use those tenses? |
* As feedback, ask students to explain their answers to you.
Cuisenaire rods
Cuisenaire rods are those multicoloured sticks of plastic or
wood that come in a box. You can use them for all sorts of purposes.
Try this activity for a chaotic but enjoyable lesson (if you
don't have any rods, use pens or coloured pieces of paper).
* If you have just taught prepositions, give every student
a different question containing a preposition (e.g. What music
stations do you listen to?; What would you like to be famous
for?). * Ask
your students to read their question and remember it. Now
give each student a cuisenaire rod and tell them that the
rod represents their question. * Each
student must find a partner, ask their question and answer
their partner's question. Then they teach their question to
their partner and learn their partner's question. * When
they have memorised their partner's question, they exchange
rods and start again with a new partner and their new question. * It helps
to model this process a few times with one of your more able
students. Deliberately make mistakes when the student is teaching
you their question and students will understand that they
have to correct their partner.
This activity gives students personalised speaking practice
as well as allowing the students to act as teacher for a while.
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