GRAMMAR CAN BE FUN

Grammar can be fun 1

Name of the Activity: Inspiration cards

Material: 20 cars with different pictures, bb.

Ss’ Level: any

Source: Educationalworld. July,2007

Procedure: The T puts Ss into 4 groups and gives each of them 5 cards with different pictures. The she assigns each group a phrase structure ( whichever the Ss may have dealt with lately ) such as VERB- ARTICLE – NOUN or NOUN – VERB.

Ss have to write, in a sheet of paper, different phrases using the structures asked for. The phrases can be wild, surreal, non sensical in which all the elements from the pictures can be combined o associated, for example “ ignore the sun “, “ dog flies “, “chase the thunder “. A few minutes later, the T collects the pictures and the papers and sticks the pictures, at random, on the bb. Then she invites one S per group to come to the front of the class and to read the paper his/her team wrote. The rest of the Ss have to identify the pictures the phrases stand for and the structure used.

Grammar Can Be Fun 2

Name of Game: “Broken Telephone”

Material: -

Student’s level: Any

Procedure: First the class is arranged in a horseshoe. Then, the T gives a sentence to the first student in the line, which he or she must then memorise and pass on to the next person, by whispering. The next person will pass the sentence down the line to the next and so on until it finally gets to the last person in the group. That person in the group will then have to stand up and say what the sentence is.

It's really funny hearing the sentence at the end because it is often a mad distortion of the original. The students often have a good time laughing at what it all became in the end, and more importantly, realise the value of word order and structure.

Grammar can be fun 3

Name of the Activity: THIRD CONDITIONAL GUESSING GAME

Source: Teaching English. August 17^th 2007. <http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/speaktry/third_con.shtml>

Material: no material needed

SS’ level: intermediate

Procedure:

• The teacher asks for a volunteer to leave the room.
• While that person is out of the room, the teacher and the rest of the class decide on something very unusual that could have happened while he/she was out of the room. For example, two students get married, the OHP explodes, basically whatever the students can suggest.
• Then, the person who has left the room comes back in and asks each student in turn 'What would you have done if this had happened?'
• Each student in turn answers in a full sentence for example, 'If this had happened, I would have bought some flowers.'
• When answering, the students must not mention the names of anyone involved because the student who is guessing has to work out what happened to whom.
• If the student guessing cannot find out what happened in his/her absence, he/she asks a new round of questions and the rest of the class must give new answers.

As this is for speaking practice, the students should use the contracted form for the conditional grammar - 'If this'd happened, I’d have bought.’