Archive for the ‘Modals’ Category

I really should put these in some kind of order of goodness, but frankly

(1) Whether they seem good, bad or indifferent to me depends more on my mood than anything else

(2) The extra five minutes it would take sitting in the virtually natural light free study of my new flat would drive me nuts

So, pot luck it is:

A childhood memory extended speaking (where they really have to listen to each other!)

Phrasal verb mimes (suitable as a first introduction to literal and idiomatic meanings of multiword verbs)

Everyday English social expressions mimes (because you can never have too much TPR!)

Present Perfect Simple and Continuous job interview roleplays (with amusing problems to work out by asking questions)

Present Perfect Simple and Continuous numbers guessing (with some nice personalisation)

Can can’t sports mimes (for young learners or lively adults)

Can can’t match find the best sport for your partner

How was your weekend? roleplays (because giving my students language to talk about their weekend is “my boom”- as we say in Japan)

Past continuous and used to bluff (although mainly past cont, so you could easily just leave off the last few and make it that)

Recommending countries to visit (lots of lovely functional language linked to place names that are different in English and most other languages)

Remembering and forgetting discussion questions (with common mistakes with “remind” etc)

Best of Japan trivia numbers (the best ever numbers practice, now polished up)

Second conditional ghost discussion questions

I’m teaching New Headway Pre-Intermediate (that’s the old New Headway, not the new New Headway!) and New Cutting Edge Intermediate plus Chit Chat 2 with the kids, so if you are too a look at those worksheets and others on the relevant pages of my worksheets bit should be especially worthwhile.

AKA last week’s new worksheets, but thought a blog post with “last” in the title might not be much of a seller. Quite a few good ones this week, though I say so myself:

Renovating hotels (for “enough”, “quite a lot” etc, and a lot more fun than it sounds. Probably good for architecture and travel industry students too)

Design an amusement park (Feelings vocab and amusement park vocabulary- great for 8 to 13 year olds who for some reason this is the best topic in the whole wide world ever ever ever)

Mind the Baby Mr Bean (also feelings and amusement park vocab)

Learning languages discussion questions (good for IELTS or learner training)

Business body idioms pairwork dictation (if you’ve never done a pairwork dictation before, you’re in for a treat- thanks Mario Rin!)

Britain or America? Business and social manners (good for Biz, cultural training classes or lesson on how to generalize, e.g. IELTS)

British and American business etiquette (for modals practice and discussion)

Business writing tasks on the topic of “Success and failure” (for Market Leader, but useable with many others if like me you have made a resolution to give your biz students more writing practice)

Business English Present Simple or Continuous discussion questions (discuss, fill the gaps from memory, discuss the grammar, make your own similar discussion questions)

This is meant to accompany Inside Out Upper Intermediate Unit 11 (Sell!) but would also probably be good with Business English and ESP lessons on marketing or modals. It’s the easiest video lesson in the world. You play the ad (making sure you start it and get it onto the full screen mode before they can see it, e.g. before you turn the projector on, so that they can’t see the writing on the Youtube page) and then pause it at some point for them to guess the product type, company name, nationality of product or whatever else they can with “It must/ may/ might/ could/ can’t be…” or similar phrases like “It is almost certainly…”. This ties in with my classic Marketing Video lesson (which adds “back to the screen” for extra talking) and my new Advertising Slogans Modals of Probability worksheets.

And without further ado, here are the links:

Fosters ad (a great one for this as they get more and more sure that it is an icecream ad)

Schweppes Burst Slow Motion Balloons Ad

Michel Gondry Levi’s ad (good because it looks like it could be a condom ad for a while)

Tango fat orange man kissing ad (only works if they don’t know what Tango is, could also discuss the whole slapping version being banned thing)

Aphex Twin Pirelli ad (good because it looks like a trainer ad, but you might want to turn the music down or even off if you have older students!)

Fed Ex caveman commercial (You’ll need to pause it fairly early, because they mention the name during the ad, maybe once when he sends the stick and again when he reports on the package)

Sony Bravia colour bunnies ad (a bit obvious, good for if they are getting disappointed with not guessing any. Pause near the beginning, again when the colours start to get really wild, and again when the slogan comes up just before the Sony Bravia name appears)

Anti fur ad (very gruesome, so maybe some violent reactions or maybe some interesting discussion depending on the class)

Nike Courage Commercial (a bit obvious what it is for perhaps)

Budweiser frogs ad (pause after the “bud” sound happens twice, then again when the other frog says “weis” and finally when a frog says “er”- but before the sign on top of the bar appears)

Herba natural drink ad (in Spanish with English subtitles, the first one of a compilation)

Chris Cunningham PSP (Play Station Portable) ad

Nick Kamen Laundrette Ad (ties in with the reading in Inside Out Upper Unit 11)

If anyone else has any suggestions for ambiguous ads, would love to hear them

I am in no way an expert in either history or CLIL, but as I’ve written this material and there didn’t seem to be much available when I was looking thought I may as well put my stuff out there in case it helps anyone. If anyone has any links to good stuff on the topic or wants to point out historical (or even historic) errors on mine, that’s what the comments box is for:

Conspiracy theories modals of possibility and probability

World history second conditional discussion questions

History vocabulary for ESL students- the Middle Ages

Interesting activities and topics about the Middle Ages for ESL classes

Interesting topics and activities about ancient history and prehistory for ESL classes

Combining history topics and English grammar (prepositions, determiners, reference words, passives, reported speech, Present Perfect, Simple Past, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous, Will, Second Conditional, Third and mixed conditionals, linking words, infinitive of purpose, modals, comparatives)

History themed art, craft and project ideas for ESL students

The main source I did find was the freebie worksheets from Onestopclil:

Christopher Columbus for primary students

Famous explorers for primary students

George Washington for secondary students

The Cold War for secondary students

If anyone wants more stuff and links to other suitable materials, I’ve got plenty somewhere and will dig it out.

… are exactly the same as Xmas ESL ideas 2007 (haven’t written any special lessons on seasonal shopping in a worldwide depression yet, although I could use my grandfather’s story about his pet rabbit being served up for an East End Xmas lunch if I did), but at least that means this year I can get all the links out of the way in one post and so not repeat the TEFL equivalent of 6 weeks of nonstop Xmas carols like we had here in 2007. And here all the articles, teaching ideas and photocopiable worksheets are- a veritable Xmas feast, stuffed stocking etc etc to bring seasonal cheer to the last few weeks before the holiday without the need for sipping brandy between classes:

Articles and teaching ideas

Christmas vocabulary you can mime

Combining Xmas with a young learner syllabus

Doing something with Xmas songs

Putting the grammar back into Christmas

Games and other photocopiable worksheets

Future Perfect New Year predictions

New Year action and state verbs

New Year resolutions adverbs of frequency - going to for plans and learner training

Xmas first conditional superstitions bluff game - a classic, hopefully not ruined in my version

Christmas Adverbs of Frequency- Present Simple and lots of lovely (not stereotyped) cultural information

Christmas traditions passives bluff game

Xmas guess the country modals of deduction

Christmas Present Simple and Continuous mimes- contrasting routines and things happening now, with lots of nice Chrimbo vocab

Christmas Past Tense mimes - Past continuous when they finish miming and then tense review as they talk about their own experiences of those things

Will for future predictions Xmas

Xmas trivia number pairwork - good for Business English, Technical English and other ESP classes

Business English Christmas cards Do’s and Don’ts - imperatives and important cultural information

Describing Xmas foods bluff game - good for students who want to explain food from their own country to foreign guests, e.g. Business English students who often entertain clients

Going to Xmas mimes - for predictions with present evidence

Xmas party negotiations - the best ever game for the language of meetings and negotiations, as there is a clear winner, and some good Xmas vocab

Video Worksheets

Friends Series One New Year episode

Edward Scissor Hands- cute, seasonal, the easiest film in the English language, and full of lots of lovely reference expressions

The Life of Brian - as mentioned on a recent Dave’s ESL Cafe thread, only for veeeery high level and open-minded students

Xmas Song worksheets

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

The Christmas Song (“Chesnuts roasting on an open fire” etc)

White Xmas song correct the mistakes

As I haven’t said for a while, the real purpose of this blog isn’t pontificating on all things TEFL (not sure how I started doing that, maybe Wordpress is haunted by a malevolent spirit?) but to give links to my articles and worksheets. And here are some more:

15 more ways to bring lucky chances into your classroom and lesson planning

Yet another 15 ways of boosting your teaching confidence

And there is so much new stuff on my worksheet pages that I can’t even remember what it all is, but I seem to remember most of it is in my grammar games and worksheets section, mainly about reported speech, Present Perfect Continuous and modal verbs.

Might I also suggest New Stuff November 08 Part One, which was obviously written when Xmas was much further away as I actually got round to tracking down individual worksheets and putting links to them.

I’ve been very busy deep in the dark chaotic depths of the TEFLtastic Worksheets pages, and have also found time for a few of the usual articles. If useful stuff that makes your life easier is not your thing, will be back to the usual trivia here on the main page soon…

Articles

15 ways to start an adult lesson

15 ways to finish a preschool English lesson

15 more ways to boost your teaching confidence (as promised- not often I actually write something I planned to…)

Worksheets and lesson plans

A much expanded Market Leader worksheets and lesson plans page

Business Past Continuous and Personality Accusations game (THE classic Past Continuous game- not my original idea, but don’t know any other online or Business English versions)

Business English Needs Analysis ranking task

Crime Vocabulary storytelling game

Complaints roleplays

Pingu Will for predictions video worksheet 1 (3 more available on the Video Worksheets page, but can’t be bothered giving each link)

Passives guess the country game

Active/ Passive True/ False quiz

Trends and conditionals discussion and grammar presentation

Rules and regulations pictionary (mainly passive forms)

Second conditional chain writing (consequences) game

Passives disasters storytelling

Second conditional supernatural error correction and discussion

Supernatural modals of possibility discussion

Special occasions reported speech cultural differences guessing game and discussion

Putting the seasonal cheer back into grammar (and putting the grammar back into Xmas)

Some of you might be thinking that the problem with Xmas today is an excess of commercialism or the lack of real religious feeling, but the way I see it the problem is an excess of worksheets teaching students vocabulary like “holly” that they will have forgotten by the same time next year (if they even understand the concept of holly anyway) and a lack of tie ins between those seasonal worksheets and everything else students do in the classroom. For those that agree with me that what is needed to make your Xmas complete is lots more grammar, here are some ideas on how to tie in your Xmas lessons with whatever grammar point you are studying at the time (the ideas should work with other major festivals and celebrations too)…

See below for not only shed loads of good grammar ideas in the continuation of this article, but also a whole stocking full of other ideas for Chrimbo-themed lessons for kids (from pre-school) to adults- “Christmastastic fun for all the family” (R)

(more…)

Here are some game-like resources for teenagers and adults who are going to travel and/ or are working in the travel industry:

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-accomodation-rules-guessing-game-modals-travel-english/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-air-travel-mimes-collocations/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-travel-english-what-are-you-going-to-do-future-household-vocab/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheets-travel-english-compound-nouns-blackjack/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheets-air-travel-compound-nouns-articles-dominoes/

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/worksheet-travel-advice-country-guessing-game-modals-culture-uk-auz-nz/

http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=58025&docid=153941

All tried and tested, but feedback still gratefully received