I am writing this blog from Russia, where I am currently on tour, sponsored by Helbling Languages and Onara, who have organized International ELT Conferences in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar, Ufa, and Irkutsk. Irkutsk is one of the largest cities in Siberia and boasts a record low temperature of – 49.7 ºC below zero in January. Fortunately, by March the temperature had warmed up to average lows of around – 18 ºC!
Grammar with fun!
I have been giving several different talks, one of which is called – Grammar with fun! – and I’d like to offer you this fun activity to try out with your students.
Awareness raising
In the initial stages of grammar learning, teachers can provide optimal conditions for awareness raising. Here is an activity adapted from *Teaching Grammar Creatively to illustrate this. The aim is introduce who and whose in defining relative clauses.
There are 3 stages:
• Discovery
• Consolidation
• Use
Discovery
Write the following question on the board and ask students to think of the answer.
What do you call a man who lifts up a car?
The answer is – Jack! If necessary, explain the joke. (A jackis the device you use to lift up a car to change the wheel). Do the same for this joke –
What do you call a woman whose hair is purple?
Answer: Di
(You use dye to change the colour of your hair).
Use these jokes to show how who takes the place of he and whose takes the place of her/his.
What do you call a man – (he) lifts up… ?
What do you call a man who lifts up … ?
What do you call a woman – (her) hair..?
What do you call a woman whose…?
Consolidation
Hand out the following questions and ask students to write the correct name from this jumbled answer list on the right.
What do you call a man who steals things? Joy
What do you call a man whose voice is very loud? Carol
What do you call a woman who is happy? Rob
What do you call a woman whose name is sung at Christmas? Mike
Ask students to explain the joke if they can.
Rob = to rob is to steal
Mike = short for microphone
Joy = happiness
Carol = a popular Christmas song
Use
Write this table on the board:
I have a | friend brother sister etc. | who… whose… |
I know a | person someone somebody |
Make up a true sentence about yourself and tell the students. Answer any questions the students ask you. Then invite students to write down their own true sentences. Finally, individual volunteers come and sit at the front of the class, read their sentences and answer questions from the group. If they don’t wish to answer they can simply say, No comment.
*Teaching Grammar Creatively – Günter Gerngross, Herbert Puchta, Scott Thornbury
Jack Scholes has a first degree in German/Russian from Liverpool University, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education and EFL from London University, and he is also a Licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He has over 40 years experience in ELT and is now a freelance writer, trainer and ELT specialist.
