TEACHING GRAMMAR

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Handout 1A

Reading 1

What is grammar?
The term grammar includes syntax and morphology. Syntax is the way words are chosen and
combined to make correct sentences: so in English I am a teacher is grammatically acceptable, *I a
teacher, and *I are a teacher are not. Morphology is the grammar of single words: it includes
features like the plural -s of nouns, or the past tense of verbs.
Grammar is not just a matter of correct forms; it also carries meaning. The meaning of a particular
message in a communicative situation is created by a combination of vocabulary and grammar. We
use grammatical items and constructions to express, for example, time (using tenses) or place (using
prepositions) or possibility (using modals or conditional clauses). It is often the meanings that
create problems for students rather than the forms (for example, when contrasting present perfect
simple I have done my homework with present perfect progressive I have been doing my
homework).
The term grammatical is also applied to units smaller or larger than sentences. A brief phrase said
or written on its own can be grammatically acceptable or unacceptable in its own right: a tall
woman sounds right; *a woman tall does not. The grammatical components may not be whole
words; for example, the -ed suffix indicating the past tense of a regular verb in English, or the –s
plural of nouns.

What students need to learn: standards of grammatical acceptability

There is some debate these days as to what standards of grammatical accuracy should be applied to
English as it is taught and learned in the classroom. How much should we worry about grammatical
accuracy if mistakes do not interfere with meaning? Surely, it is argued by some, the main purpose
of language is communication, so it shouldn’t matter if you make a minor slip in morphology or
syntax, so long as the communicative message is clear. For example, should we correct a student
who drops the third person -s suffix in the present simple (saying she like instead of she likes)? And
should we correct which instead of who in relative clauses relating to a person (the man which
instead of the man who)? Should we only correct such variants when they actually make the
meaning unclear or misleading – for example, when a student uses a present tense verb where a past
tense is needed to convey an appropriate message?

The importance of teaching standard grammar

Although the use of the variant forms mentioned above (such as she like and the person which) does
not affect meaning and will not cause a breakdown in communication, it is arguable that we should

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mostly treat them as errors and encourage our students to use standard grammar. The term standard
means the usages which are seen by most speakers of English as internationally acceptable, not
necessarily the usages associated with the ‘native’ varieties of English.
The main reasons for this are as follows:
 These forms are preferred and actually used by the majority of competent speakers of
English, including those for whom English is not their L1. This group obviously includes
most teachers, who are often the main English-speaker model for their students.
 Even if the variant forms are sometimes used in informal speech, they are rarely used in
writing.
 As a matter of professional standards, most teachers feel they should aim to have their
students achieve internationally accepted levels of accuracy and fluency in their speech and
writing.
 Students also on the whole wish to be accurate, in the sense of using standard forms, and to
be corrected if they make errors
 Most high-stakes English exams require responses from candidates that use standard forms,
and may penalize errors.
It is true that there are situations where grammatical accuracy may matter less. First, an error may
not matter so much if it does not affect the basic meaning of what is being communicated. Second,
accuracy is a lot less important in informal conversation or text messaging than it is in formal
writing. The kind of course we are teaching also makes a difference: if we are teaching a course in
conversational English with the aim of improving oral fluency, we may well ignore grammatical
errors which do not change a message, and not let them affect our assessment of students’
performance. Accurate grammar is more important if our course is, for example, aiming for
improvement of academic English for participants who are planning to apply to a university and
need to be able to write papers and make academic presentations.
The bottom line is that all things being equal, we shall continue in most situations to teach our
students to observe the conventional grammatical rules, while remaining sensitive to the need for
flexibility in certain contexts.

Adapted from Ur, Penny. (2024). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press

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Handout 1B
Task 1 Opinion poll

Read the following statements. With a partner, discuss to see if you agree, disagree
or you are not sure with each one. Then share ideas with the class.
Statements Agree Disagree Not sure
1. The meaning of a message is more dependent on
grammar than vocabulary.
2. Errors in grammar should only be corrected when they
cause misunderstanding.
3. Most students expect to be corrected in their grammar
errors, rather than to use internationally accepted
grammar forms.
4. It is acceptable to allow grammatical flexibility in
conversational English courses.
5. High-stakes exams ( like SAT, IELTS, TOEFL) are a
key reason why standard grammar should be emphasized
in English classrooms.
6. Using non-standard grammar forms can harm a
student's professional or academic prospects.
7. The primary purpose of teaching grammar is to help
students communicate effectively, not necessarily to
achieve grammatical perfection.
8. It is acceptable to allow grammatical errors in
conversational English courses.

Task 2 Discussion

Would you, as a teacher, always insist on the standard forms? Or would you relate to the
non-standard ones – where they do not affect meaning – as reasonable learner variants
rather than as errors, and accept them?

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Handout 2A

Reading 2 How best to teach grammar?

Explicit and implicit teaching

Having decided which grammatical features we are going to teach, how should we do this? Should
we allow students plenty of opportunities to hear, read and use the correct forms through
comprehensible input and communicative interaction, but not explain them (implicit teaching)? Or
should we provide explanations, focused practice and error correction (explicit teaching)? Or should
we use a combination of the two?

Stephen Krashen (1999) claims that grammar is best acquired implicitly, through plenty of
comprehensible input (listening and reading), and that explanations, focused grammar exercises and
corrective feedback have only a marginal effect. Others would add that there is value also to student
communicative output: Michael Long (1996), for example, in his interaction hypothesis, says that
learners learn through interacting with others (both learners and more proficient speakers); Merrill
Swain (1995) says it is important for learners also to speak and write in what she calls pushed
output in order to become more proficient (the output hypothesis).

In favour of explicit grammar teaching, others have produced evidence that grammar acquisition is
facilitated by explanations, practice exercises and error correction. For example, Norris and Ortega
(2001), in a survey covering a large number of studies, came to the conclusion that on the whole
students who receive some explicit instruction in grammar perform better than those who do not.
Teachers and students also generally feel that grammar instruction is helpful.

There is some discussion of the place of explicit grammar practice in the form of drills or exercises.
But all experienced teachers are familiar with the phenomenon that students continue to make
mistakes in the target grammar even after extensive practice. So practice does not necessarily make
perfect. Should it therefore be abandoned?

One of the explanations for the phenomenon just described is Pienemann’s (1984) teachability
hypothesis. Pienemann observed that learners of German acquire German grammatical structures in
a fixed order, regardless of the order in which they were taught. And there is some evidence that
this is true for the acquisition of other languages as well. From this he hypothesized that the
teaching of a grammatical item or construction for which the learner is not developmentally ready
will not result in learning. Ellis (2001) proposes the solution of consciousness-raising. He suggests
that perhaps it is enough to raise learners’ awareness of what a rule is, without demanding
immediate implementation in learners’ own speech and writing. Then, when they are
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developmentally ready, they will notice the occurrence of the grammatical features in input and
gradually start using them themselves. Ellis suggests that practice exercises are, therefore, pointless.
If the learner is ready to acquire the grammar, they will do so anyway, without practice; if they are
not, then practice won’t help.

However, there is evidence that practice does substantially improve performance and has an
important place in formal, course-based language learning (Dekeyser, 2007). It seems that most
learners do, indeed, go through a fairly stable order of acquisition of grammatical features, but that
explanation combined with practice may speed up this process. We need to abandon the
exaggerated claim that ‘practice makes perfect’ and content ourselves with the expectation that
practice, like explanations of rules, can make a significant contribution to good learning and is
therefore worth including in our teaching.

A sensible conclusion, supported by the evidence, is that for good learning of grammar in an
English course, you need both: communicative input and output, together with some explicit
teaching.

Adapted from
1. Ur, Penny. (2024). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
2. Ur, Penny. (2012). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.

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Handout 2B

Task 3
1. Read the following statements of two teachers about learning and teaching
grammar. Discuss to what extent you agree or disagree with each one.

You don’t really need to teach grammar explicitly, saying things like, “This is the
past perfect tense and you form it like this.” That’s unnecessary. Learners will pick
it up for themselves. If they want grammar, the teacher can give them exercises to do
outside class, but don’t waste precious class time teaching it. I think it’s better to
teach learners to communicate, to practise as much English as possible in class with
real language. Grammar will look after itself.

Amanda

I always look over a new unit in a book and then teach my

pupils the grammar rule before we even begin a unit; I
explain the rules that are going to come up and then do some
exercises with the class. That really helps them to be clear
about what the unit is about and they can do the activities in
the unit better. I think they learn better that way.

Julio

2. Group discussion
a. If you were learning the grammar of a foreign language, which teacher would you prefer
to study with? Why?
b. When you learnt English, or another foreign language, in school, how was grammar
taught? What kinds of things were helpful/unhelpful in getting you to use the grammar of
the language correctly?

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Handout 3A
Presenting a New Structure
Task 4

Read the two demos below for grammar structure ‘used to’ and answer the questions:

Demonstration 1

Teacher 1

T. writes on the board: ‘He used to smoke a lot.’

T. says:

In the sentence ‘He used to smoke a lot’, used to is a modal auxiliary signifying past

continued habitual action or a past routine. Used to is the past tense of a defective

verb that has no present tense. The ‘-ed’ ending is silent because of the ‘to’ that

follows

T. writes on the board:

s

Subj. + used to + verb (infinitive)

T. says: Now. Look at the board and write it down

T (point to the sentence on the board) says: Listen. He used to smoke. Let’s say it

together. He used to smoke.

T repeats 3 times

T: Can you say it, Nam?

Nam: He used to smoke.

T: Mai.

Mai: He used to smoke.

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Demonstration 2

Teacher 2
T. sets the scene using or drawing pictures on the board.

T asks: Ss reply:
T: (pointing to the first picture)
Look – this is my uncle Tom a few years ago.
Did he smoke in the past? yes
When did he smoke? a few years ago
Did he smoke a lot? yes
That’s right. He smoked a lot. 40 cigarettes. (2 packs)
Maybe everyday? yes
Was it a habit? yes
In the past? yes
But it’s finished now? yes
T: (pointing to the second picture) This is Tom now.
Does he still smoke now? no
Right. He no longer smokes. But he used to smoke.
He used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day.
Listen. He used to smoke. Let’s say it together.
He used to smoke, then writes it on the board.

He used to smoke.
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T asks: Ss reply:
So, when it’s a habit, in the past, but it’s finished now,

what do we use? (T. points at the sentence on the board) used to

How do we make a sentence with ‘used to’?

(T. points at the board) He (or subject)

Plus? (T. points at the board) used to

Plus? What’s this? verb

Is it in the past form? no

That’s right. It’s not in the past form. It’s the infinitive form

T writes the form on the board:

Subject + used to + verb (infinitive)

Do we say ‘He / used / to / smoke or

‘He used to smoke’? He used to smoke

T. gets Ss to repeat ‘He used to smoke’ chorally and individually

Now. Let’s write it (Write and underline the structure)

T: (asking a student)
Did you often go out during the summer holiday? Yes

Do you go out very often now? No, because I’m busy.

So, what can you say? I used… I used to go out.

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1. Answer the questions about the two demos in the table below:

Questions Teacher 1 Teacher 2

1. Is there a situation that helps the teacher explains the

grammar?

2. Are the students involved in the presentation?

3. Do the students just sit and listen while the teacher speaks?

4. Does the teacher check whether the students have

understood the new structure?

5. Does the teacher check one thing at a time?

6. Does the teacher use simple questions to find out if the

students have really understood the new language?

7. Does the teacher check through the presentation?

8. Does the teacher stop after it is clear that the students

understood the new language?

2.
a. In what way did Teacher 1 present the grammatical structure?

b. In what way did Teacher 2 present the grammatical structure?

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Handout 3B

Task 5

1. What are the steps of presenting the new structure? Number the following steps

in the order of demonstration 2

……. Students copy in their books

……. Teacher writes the form of new language on board

……. Teacher checks pronunciation & get Ss to repeat in choral and individually

……. Teacher says the model sentence & gets Ss to repeat in choral

……. Teacher sets the scene

……. Teacher elicits the meaning of a model sentence

……. Teacher checks the use, form

……. Teacher gives another situation and asks students to give the sentence

……. Teacher writes the model sentence on board

2. Discuss the following questions:

1. What does the teacher do to check students’ comprehension of new language? Why?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. How many things does the teacher check about the new language? What are they?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3. Does the teacher check one thing at a time? Why?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4. What kinds of questions does the teacher ask?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5. When does the teacher use checking?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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Handout 3C

Reading 3 Guidelines on presenting and explaining grammar

Grammar explanations may be initiated by the teacher because they are required in the language
syllabus or come up in course materials. Or they may take place in response to a learning need; you
may have noticed that students are making mistakes with a particular feature and might benefit from
some focused explanation. In any case, below are some guidelines on how to explain.
 Provide students with examples of the target feature in meaningful contexts before
explaining it. This sounds obvious, but some teachers often start by writing up an isolated
phrase on the board and then analysing it immediately, when the students had little or no
idea what it might mean in context.
 Both say and write examples of the target form. This is important, not only because
students might need to use the grammar in both speech and writing, but also because
students vary in their learning styles and preferences. Many find it difficult to grasp a
sequence of language if they only hear it; others have similar problems if they only see it. In
either case, both spoken and written forms are needed.
 Teach both form and meaning. Which of these you emphasize depends on what the target
feature is. Some grammatical constructions have fairly easy forms, but rather complex
meanings that may have no parallel in the student’s L1 and need careful explanation and lots
of examples (the past perfect, for example). Others may have very simple meanings, and
you need to focus on teaching the forms (the comparative of adjectives, for example).
 You may or may not use grammatical terminology. This will depend on your situation
and students. On the whole, older or more analytically minded students will benefit more
from the use of terminology. With younger students, try to manage without it.
 Explain the grammar in the students’ L1, unless they are proficient enough to cope
with English explanations. The level of English needed to understand a grammatical
explanation in that language is quite high, so it may be difficult to understand for many
classes. Using L1 can save time which can then be used for practice or communicative use
of the target grammar. Only use English for explanations with relatively advanced classes
who can easily understand them.
 Compare the English structure with an L1 parallel if you can. Where there are
substantial differences between English and the L1, it can be very helpful to compare and
contrast the meanings of the English structure with an L1 parallel. Awareness of such
differences can help to prevent mistakes. For example, you might point out that the use of
the present perfect in a sentence with for or since (I have worked here for six years) is likely
to correspond to the use of the present tense in the students’ L1.

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 It is often useful to provide an explicit rule. But you have to think about striking the right
balance between accuracy and simplicity. The explanation should cover the great majority
of instances students are likely to encounter. Obvious exceptions should be noted, but too
much detail may confuse and mislead. As a rule, a simple generalization, even if not entirely
accurate, is more helpful to students than a detailed grammar-book definition.
 You can ask students to work out rules for themselves, based on a set of examples
(inductive process), or you can give the rules yourself, and they later work on examples
(deductive). The deductive process is more common in both textbooks and classroom
teaching. However, if the students can work out the rule for themselves, then they are more
likely to remember it. The problem with inductive teaching is that if the rule is really
difficult, students may waste a lot of time on frustrating guessing or on misleading
suggestions. In such cases it is better simply to provide the information yourself. A
compromise might be to provide very obvious examples, and then lead the students towards
the formulation of a rule by guiding questions and hints.

Practical tips
1. Use pictures. If appropriate, use pictures to help your explanation; or, even better, realia.
They help make the explanation memorable.
2. Don’t just say ‘Do you understand?’ Students will often say ‘yes’ out of politeness or
unwillingness to admit they haven’t really understood. Ask them to demonstrate their
understanding by giving examples or explaining in their own words.
3. Get feedback. When you have finished explaining, delete everything from the board, tell
students to close their textbooks, and to write down in their own words what the rule was, in
English or L1. Then ask them to read out what they have written, or share with one another.
This will give you a good idea of how well they have understood the explanation.
4. Teach early in the lesson. As with the teaching of new vocabulary, it’s a good idea to plan
grammatical explanations to take place towards the beginning of the lesson when students
are fresher and more willing to engage with new material.

Adapted from Ur, Penny. (2024). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.

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Handout 3D
Task 6
1. Work in groups. Complete the table by suggesting at least one way you could convey
the meaning of each of the following grammar items. Give details. (Going to has been
done for you, with three suggestions)

Grammar item Demonstration Visual aids Situation

Going to (future Point to a window in Show the class Draw face on board
intention) the classroom. Say something you have, plus thought bubble.
“I’m going to open like tickets, and use Write cinema, gym,
the window”. Pause, these to tell them etc. in bubble, and
and then open it. their future plans. elicit the character’s
Repeat with door, plans for the coming
etc weekend.
Can/can’t (for ability)

Present continuous
(for activities
happening at the
moment of speaking)

2. Choose one of your presentation ideas from the table above. Plan out the steps you
would take to convey the meaning in class, including a stage where you highlight the
spoken and written forms of the new grammar item.

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Handout 4A

Reading 4 Grammar Practice

There remains the phenomenon of students who do all the grammar exercises on a given item
perfectly, but then make mistakes in the same item when they are composing their own free speech
or writing. The problem here is that the structures have not been thoroughly mastered. The student
still depends on a certain amount of conscious monitoring in order to produce them correctly. And
when students are concentrating mainly on communicating, they do not have enough attention to
spare for such monitoring. In other words, if students have not mastered the grammatical point to
the degree that they can produce it without thinking, then in communicative situations they will
make mistakes, often based on L1 interference.

What we can do as teachers is to help our students make the leap from form-focused grammar
exercises to fluent production by providing tasks that encourage them to combine the two. At the
beginning it can be useful to give the traditional gap-fill and matching exercises, with definite right
and wrong answers. However, if this is all the grammar practice the students get, they will not be
able to transfer their knowledge to their own output. Therefore, such conventional grammar
exercises need to be supplemented by activities that prompt students to use the target features to
produce their own sentences, while keeping an eye on grammatical accuracy.

Ordering practice exercises

The first part of the practice stage in grammar lessons is controlled practice. This can be usually a
drill. The teacher stands at the front of the class, works with the whole class, and controls what they
say.
The second part is known as less controlled practice. It is usually pairwork or groupwork. The
students may also work on their own with the cues that the teacher gives them. The teacher moves
from group to group helping them.
Pairwork or groupwork during the practice stage can be beneficial for three reasons:
 Participation: to give everyone in the class a lot more practice time.
 Independence: to teach students to learn from each other without the teacher always being
there.
 Confidence: to encourage quieter students who don’t usually like speaking in front of the
whole class.
Practice is not only repetition. In the practice stage students don’t just repeat what the teacher says
because repetition without thinking is not real learning. Instead students use cues to make sentences
for themselves.
Cues are used for two reasons:
 To help MEMORY: to get students to think for themselves and therefore remember better.
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 To build CONFIDENCE: to get students to formulate as many sentences as they want from
a basic pattern with confidence.
The teacher does a lot of correction in the controlled practice stage. If the target language is new,
students will make a lot of mistakes with it. If the students don’t make any mistakes then they
haven’t learnt anything new. Mistakes are a positive thing because they are a sign of progress.
The aim of the controlled practice stage is to get students to say the new language accurately
through a process of controlled to less controlled activities.
Controlled-practice activities should be followed or supplemented by activities that involve
language production, in both spoken and written forms. The teacher constructs activities in such a
way that they promote communication and yet ensure that the new language occurs unprompted,
naturally, and frequently in the context of other previously learnt language. The unguided manner
in which the new language occurs is what distinguishes a production stage activity from a
controlled - practice stage activity. In other words, the degree of linguistic guidance the students are
given makes these stages different.
There are some differences between activities in the controlled practice stage and the production
stage.
 The teacher uses direct correction during controlled practice and indirect (or 'delayed)
correction during production.
 The teacher gives more cues in the controlled practice stage than in the production stage.
Students have to make their own sentences and think for themselves more in the production.
 During controlled practice, students concentrate on accuracy. During production stage,
students concentrate on fluency.
 During controlled practice, the teacher's role is to elicit accurate language from the students
and give them lots of exercises so they can memorise the new language or the new language
pattern. During production, the teacher has two roles: 'facilitator', helping and encouraging
student to do it by themselves; 'analyser’, seeing how well the objective has been achieved
and what further practice the students need.
 During controlled practice, the target items are isolated and practised on their own. During
production, the target items are added to other structures, functions and vocabulary the
students already know so the students don't just speak in model sentences but in more
natural conversation.

Adapted from
1. Ur, Penny. (2024). A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press.
2. Hubbard, P Jones, H, Thornton, B, & R Wheeler. 1983. A Training Course for TEFL. Oxford
University Press

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Handout 4B
Task 7
Look at the lesson transcript below and answer the questions that follow.

Teacher: Listen. She’s been to Spain. She’s been to Spain. Now you. Repeat.
Class: She’s been to Spain.
Teacher: Good. Again.
Class: She’s been to Spain.
Teacher: Good. Cinzia, can you say it?
Cinzia: She’s been to Spain.
Teacher: OK – but put “she” and “has” together – “she’s”
Cinzia: She’s been to Spain.
Teacher: Excellent. Roberto…..

a. What are the advantages of this type of repetition exercise?

b. What are the drawbacks?
c. Why might the teacher choose to start with coral repetition (the whole class
responding)?
d. Do all new language need to be drilled?
e. Do all learners in the class need to say the new item individually?

Task 8
1. Read exercises a – c and explain how they differ.
2. Explain how these practice exercises are different from drills. What advantages do you
think they have? What can you conclude about providing practice?

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3. Read exercise d. Is it more or less-controlled than exercises a – c. Why? When might

such an exercise be useful?

d Write a sentence beginning with if for each of the following situations.

1 I was late for the interview. I didn’t get the job.
If……………………………………………………………….
2 Wayne broke his foot. He didn’t play in the final.
If……………………………………………………………….
3 The police officer dropped his gun. The prisoner escaped.
If……………………………………………………………….

Task 9
Read the activities and complete the chart that follows by ticking the appropriate boxes.

B. Circle drill (to practise the present perfect)

The learners sit in a circle. The teacher shows the first picture (the Eiffel Tower) to a learner and
asks, Have you ever been to France?. The learner answers; the teacher gives the picture to the
learner who turns to the next learner and asks the same question and then passes the picture on. The
teacher then continues with the other pictures, so that all the pictures are travelling around the circle
with the learners asking and answering questions.
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C. Find someone who … (to practise can)

Learners stand up and mingle, asking questions so as to find people who can do the different
activities. They then report back to the class.

D. Write five sentences (to practise the present simple)

The learners must write three true sentences about themselves, using the new item of language (in
this case the present simple) and two which are not true. They read their sentences to a partner, who
must guess which are true.

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Task 10
Below is part of a lesson plan on using used to + base form to express past habits. Think
back to what you know about presenting new language items, as well as how to provide
practice.
Complete the lesson plan, matching the boxes a–j below with boxes 1–10 in the plan.

Lesson aim: Expressing past habits with used to + base form.

Stage Activity
Building context 1
2 Teacher says, David used to play football.
Highlight meaning 3
4 Teacher asks, Did he play football in the past? (Yes) ‘Does he play
football
now?’ (No)
Highlight spoken 5
form
6 The teacher writes the model sentence on the board. Draws a box
round used to and writes base form over play.
Summarize ‘rule’ 7
8 Learners choose an activity they enjoyed as children and then walk
round the class asking if other people used to do the same thing.

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Report back 9
10 The learners discuss their memories of their first school in small
groups
Report back The teacher asks some individuals what they talked about. Afterwards,
she highlights good uses of language and writes some errors she heard
on the board and asks learners to correct them.

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Handout 5
Grammar Practice Activities (for less-controlled practice)

Activity 1: Chain game

Structure “There’s a………”
 Put students in groups of 8. Number them from 1 to 8.
 Student 1 in each says the first sentence: “There’s a hotel near my house.”. Student 2 repeats
what student 1 has just said and add to it. (S2: “There’s a hotel near my house and a
school.”) Student 3 repeats what students 1 & 2 have said and add to it (S3: There’s a hotel
near my house, and a school, and a river)
 Students continue round the circle, each student repeating and then adding something new.
 The game continues around the circle twice.

Activity 2: Guessing game

Structure “I’m going to the…..”
 Each student takes a piece of paper. Ask them to copy the sentence “I’m going to the ……”
but fill the gap with a place of their own (e.g. movie, theatre, park, cinema, library…)
[ the teacher also copies the sentence onto a piece of paper and fills in “restaurant”]
 Elicit yes/No questions from the class until someone asks “Are you going to a restaurant?”
and the teacher gives a Yes answer.
E.g. S1: “Are you going to the movie?” T: “No, I’m not”
S2: “Are you going to the park?” T: “No, I’m not”
S3: “Are you going to the restaurant?” T: “Yes, I am”
 The student who guess correctly will come to the front and other students in the class will
guess where s/he’s going to.
 The game can be played in groups of 8.

Activity 3: Find someone who

Structure: Be going to + V (infinitive)
 Ask students to copy the table below on a piece of paper

Find someone who is going to…… Name

…stay at home
….visit an aunt or uncle
….visit a new city
….stay in a hotel
….camp in the mountains
…stay in a tent

 The teacher models first by asking a student a question about his/her summer holidays
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T: “Are you going to stay at home?”
S1: No, I’m not.
T: Are you going to visit your uncle?
S2: Yes, I am.
T: What’s your name?
S2: Hung.
[ The teacher fills in Hung’s name on the board in the name column]
 Ask the class to mingle and find someone who is going to do each of these things. Remind
students that they cannot fill in someone’s name more than once.
 The fist one with all the names is the winner.
 When finished, ask students to tell the class about some of people they have found.
[ S1: Dao’s going to go camping. Lan’s going to visit her aunt….]

Activity 4: Mapped Dialogue

 Put the mapped dialogue on the board

Can Tho Hanoi

…Hanoi?
…..cold!
…..Can Tho?

….hot!

….like?

…cold…

….Hanoi!

….like?

….hot…

…Can Tho

 Elicit the following dialogue from students

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A: What’s the weather like in Hanoi?
B: It’s cold. What’s the weather like in Can Tho?
A: It’s hot.
B: What kind of weather do you like?
A: I like cold weather.
B: Come to Hanoi!
A: What kind of weather do you like?
B: I like hot weather.
A: Come to Can Tho!
 Ask the whole class to practice the dialogue and then choose 2 students to model the whole
dialogue again.
 Ask the whole class to practice the dialogue in pairs again.

Activity 5: Noughts and Crosses

Structure: Present Continuous tense
 Draw a ca-ro board on the board

walk to school drive a bus travel by bus

wait for a train ride a bicycle play a game

go by plane drive a car ride a motorbike

 Divide the class into two teams: one is NOUGHTS and the other is CROSSES. Ask one
student of the NOUGHTS team to begin by choosing a phrase and making a sentence.[e.g.
S1: I’m riding a bicycle]
 If the sentence is correct, the teacher puts a 0 in the “ride a bicycle” square. If the sentence
is not correct, no 0 is put in the square.
 The CROSSES team take turns to make sentence[e.g. S2: I’m playing a game]. If the
sentence is correct, the teacher puts a X in the “play a game” square.
 The two teams continue until one team wins (the teams can make three noughts or crosses in
a row across, down or a diagonal line)
 The games can be played in pairs

Useful links
1.https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/teachers-corner-teaching-grammar-
communicative-competence
2. https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/learning-english/activities-for-learners/?skill=grammar

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English Language Teaching Methodology 2