Using Quotations in the Classroom

Quotations are always extremely popular with students and they can be used as a rich source of additional language practice in the classroom. Quotations are also ideal to keep in your ‘grab bag’ of activities to use at the beginning of class as warmers, at any point during the lesson to change the pace, or as fillers, especially for those extra five or ten minutes often left over at the end of a class.

An incredible wealth of subjects and topics can be dealt with, ranging from general areas such as grammar, vocabulary, usage, culture and customs, to specific subjects like collocations, idiomatic expressions, phrasal verbs, and slang.

Here is just one simple example of how you could use a quotation in the classroom. The starting point could be an item of language in the quotation, which is then used as a springboard for further information about the English language.

Every day, in every way,

I am getting better and better.

Émile Coué

Better and better

Binomial phrases are two words from the same grammatical category coordinated by the word ‘and’. They are extremely common in English and have a fixed order, which cannot be changed. Here are some examples:

Bread and butter

Plain and simple

Safe and sound

Peace and quiet

Lost and found

Black and white

Knife and fork

Now and then

Wait and see

This and that

Forgive and forget

Ladies and gentlemen

Thunder and lightning

Bangers and mash (UK)– sausage and mashed potatoes.

Ups and downs– the mixture of good and bad things in life.

The ins and outs– all the details, or complicated facts.

To um and ah– to be unable to decide what to do.

To cost an arm and a leg – to cost a lot of money.

Odds and ends– small things that are all different and not valuable or important.

Hands and knees – on your hands and knees = crawling on the floor.

You can always find quotations very easily on the Internet, but if you would like to have a ready-made collection of quotations, providing enjoyable ways to improve your English with explanations and examples, check out my book – Gems of Wisdom.

If you would like to know more about how you can use quotations with your students plus lots of very practical suggestions, just access the Cover Topic of New Routes # 33 – Gems of Wisdom – Information and Transformation.

Once you start using quotations, you will find that they provide endless opportunities to improve your students’ English. Quotations are a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to communicate, motivate, educate and have some fun while doing this.

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.

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