Intermediate grammar books often cover structures for giving advice with should, should not, ought to, had better, and so on. The best grammar books contextualize the lesson in a broadly appropriate way. Many teachers want to take the lesson further into a more personal practice session. Here’s an activity that personalizes the giving of advice.
take the lesson further into a more personal practice session.
- Preparatory Homework: Each student lists 10 things a visitor to his/her hometown should or should not do. For a mix of structures, add a caveat like, “Your list should have five things the visitor should do and five things the visitor shouldn’t do.”
- Modeling: While assigning this, give one or two examples: “In my hometown you should be a fan of the Detroit Lions football team,” or “In my hometown, you shouldn’t try to travel by taxi because taxis are rare.”
- Alternating Pair Work: In class the next day, students pair up. They alternate reading their statements to each other. Each student confirms understanding by repeating what he/she heard. A sample exchange:
- Student A (reads): In my hometown, you shouldn’t shake hands with older people.
- Student B: You said that I shouldn’t shake hands with older people. [Notice the pronoun shift to first person—an extra lesson if you want to teach it!]
- Student B (reads): In my hometown, a guest should bring a gift if he’s invited to dinner.
- Student A: You said a guest who’s invited to dinner should bring a gift.
- Whole-Class Follow-Up: Depending on time, call on a few students to share with the whole class one piece of advice from their partners.
“Searching for the Lost Article”
Intermediate-level university ESL students, among others, struggle to produce / reproduce articles correctly in conversation (and often in writing as well). Sentences such as
“The life is full of the problems.”
or
“The friend is taking the business trip to convention in the Nevada.”
endlessly flow from their lips.
I’ve noticed over the years that problems with articles seem to originate with listening. I.e., the students can’t or don’t hear articles when they listen, and then faithfully fail to produce them, or produce them incorrectly orally or in writing.
So, one simple exercise which seems to have worked very well in both raising students’ awareness of correct article use, and encouraging them to yearn to actually use them correctly , is a (simple) dictation—but with this “difference:” Articles missed or written incorrectly cost students five times as many points off as any other incorrect word does. This motivates most students to really listen for articles and then re-produce them correctly.
I’ve found that positive results are generated in the very first couple of dictations. Doing 6 – 8 dictations a week can really produce significantly greater positive outcomes. (BTW: I ask the students to correct each other’s work. That way, they stay more interested in the outcome; they get instant feedback; and they help lessen your homework/lesson planning burden).
Note: This positive outcome occasionally—but only occasionally—comes at the expense of students erring on words much more imortant than “mere articles.”).
fantastic!