Recently I have created a set of videos to teach the past simple tense in English. There is a video that helps students learn to form the past tense in the following situations:
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Do your students struggle with the past simple tense?
Do you want to make your teaching more effective and fun?
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The aim of this post is to give you a set of materials to help you teach the difference between the present simple and continuous tenses. You can find several other resources on this topic here and here. Moreover, there is a great video by BBC called Grammar Gameshow.
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Grammar Pac and Dictate are two online tools which help me teach English. Both of these tools are online and they are made for interactive whiteboards. Both of them provide a simple way to practise the things which have already been taught.
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To teach the conjunctions of time, it is crucial that the students understand the meaning of the conjunctions. That is why I have created the following graphic organiser which I use to explain the meaning of the conjunctions:
I print the picture and hand it out to my students.
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Then I explain the meaning of the conjunctions. If I teach monolingual classes I translate the meaning of the words and then I explain how the usage differs in English. However, if you teach an international group you need to explain the meaning in English.
- AFTER means later or then.
- WHEN says that action 2 happens after action one. Moreover, action one is certain to happen.
- BEFORE means sooner.
- WHILE – the two actions happen at the same time.
- AS SOON AS – immediately after.
- IF – is similar to when, but the action 1 may not happen and then the action 2 will not happen. I like to emphasize that IF includes a decision.
I am not saying that the explanation is perfect, but it works pretty well for my students so it might work for your students, too.
Conjunctions of time – practise
Now your students understand the meaning of the conjunctions. But can they use them?
I suppose that there will be some exercises in your textbooks or that you can find some worksheets online. So I created two rather unusual exercises to practise the grammar.
The first one is a game. Download the following pdf document and open it in Acrobat reader by Adobe (the game will not work otherwise).
The game is called Penalty Shootout. Your task is to choose the correct answer and then score a goal.
The second unusual activity to practice the conjunctions of time is a video quiz.
Students prepare a piece of paper and watch the video and write down their answer for each sentence. There are eight sentences and the students can see the correct answers at the end.
I hope you will find these activities useful and that your students will learn the conjunctions of time and will use them correctly.
I have already taught the verb to be many times. But this year I failed exemplarily. So I stopped and spent a week planning a sequence of lessons to really teach this basic grammar point. In these posts, I would like to share the lesson plans and materials I have created.
To be able to teach this grammar, I found out that I need to teach the pronouns first. If my students fail to understand the pronouns, they cannot learn the grammar.
So I start with the following video. First, students listen and repeat the pronouns. It is a good idea to tell the students the meaning of the words in their MT now. Otherwise, they might be confused and they will learn nothing.
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Next, students watch the video and supply the correct pronoun.
Third, print the following game. It is best to print it on a slightly heavier paper and laminate it. Ask the students to use their scissors and cut the first two columns. Students need to cut the papers into similar squares.
Once they finish, they shuffle the cards and then they try to match the pictures with pronouns. The teacher goes around and checks their answers.
Fourth, display or print the following graphic organiser and explain the grammar.
Fifth, ask students to use the graphic organiser and write as many sentences as possible. Set a time limit (5 minutes are enough) and make it a competition.
Sixth, ask the students to cut the third column of the game into cards. Now, they use only the black and red words. They shuffle the cards and then they match them. The teacher checks their answers again.
Seventh, students cut the last column into cards and they play the following memory game. They turn all the cards face down. Students work in pairs and they take turns. One of the students turns three cards. If she is able to create a sentence which consists of three colours (black, red and blue), they can keep the cards. The winner is the student who collects most cards. My students love this game and they really care if the sentences are correct.
Eighth, students place the black, red and blue cards in front of them and the teacher says a sentence in their MT and the students make the sentence in English using the cards.
Ninth, students work in pairs and one of them says a sentence in their MT and the other student makes it using the cards. Activities 8 and 9 are possible only if the students share the same MT. If this is not the case, just skip the activities.
Tenth, students watch the following video and they say the whole sentence adding the verb to be in the correct form.
By following the sequence of activities, my students mastered the pronouns and corresponding forms of the verb to be. In the following lesson, I am going to teach the short forms of the verb to be.
I remember the times in my teaching career when I dreaded teaching questions. I especially hated the questions in the past simple tense. After my explanation, students got confused and they often failed to produce even the most basic questions.
Fortunately, the situation has changed. Nowadays, I look forward to teaching this grammar. I have developed a set of activities which help my students learn the grammar easily and they form the questions correctly and without thinking much about it.
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In this post, I would like to share with you the activities which work very well for me and my classes. You will find a great original rap with comprehension questions, and a simple video called Grammar Point, where the grammar is explained and practised. I hope you will find this post useful.
Questions in the past tense – RAP
I start my lesson with the following RAP song. I hand out the following worksheet and I ask my students to answer the questions:
As you can see the worksheet contains five copies of the same worksheet. Print it out and cut it into five pieces. Play the Rap song at least twice and ask the students to write their answers to the questions. Explain that it is enough to write just one word.
Once I check the students’ answers, I always ask my students to rap along and learn the poem by heart. It is not difficult.
To get the pronunciation correct, students can copy the rap or they can follow the recording in American English, which you can hear below:
(Recorded by Christie Baarns. You can order her services at https://www.fiverr.com/christiebaarns/record-a-pro-voice-over?funnel=636d1dd1-8a9e-4ea1-8178-093ac3d4002b She provides great services.)
Grammar Point
Now it is time to explain the grammar. It is much easier now, as the students know the 12 examples given in the rap. I play the following video for my students:
I stop the video after the explanation and I hand out the following infographic which explains the grammar and I clarify the grammar in students’ MT, if necessary.
Once, I am sure that the students understand the grammar, I play the rest of the recording. There is a grammar challenge. Students hear a sentence but part of the sentence is difficult to hear. Their task is to ask about the missing information. The video provides 7 seconds for their answers. Then they will hear the correct answer.
Questions in the past tense – Speaking
To practise the grammar, students need to use it in real-life conversation. I love using Clock Speaking. The questions are divided into four sections and there is a time at the head of each section. Tell the students to find a different partner for each time. Then say what time it is and students have to work with the partner they have arranged. They ask the questions and answer them.
The difference between the words BEEN and GONE is a nice example of how closely grammar and vocabulary are connected. Usually, when you use a grammar rule wrongly, the meaning does not change. However, in this case, the wrong usage changes the meaning of the sentence completely.
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To help you explain this grammar to your students, in this post there is an infographic and an interactive video. The infographic tries to explain the grammar in a simple visual way. The video offers the explanation and there are two exercises. Your students can practise the grammar, too, as there are always gaps when the students can say their answers to the questions.
BEEN or GONE – infographic
The following infographic explains the usage of the words BEEN and GONE in the present perfect tense.
As you can see in the infographic, the form HAVE BEEN is used when we want to say that the person is back at home, but they were somewhere before. We use the form HAVE GONE if the person went away and has not returned yet.
BEEN or GONE – video
To make the explanation clearer and more interesting, I created the following video.
The video is interactive. It has been recorded in such a way, that your students can answer most of the tasks themselves. When the speaker asks a question, there is always a gap that is seven seconds long. In this pause, students can answer the questions. They hear the correct answer then. This is a great feedback for them as they can see whether they answered correctly or not.
You can learn more about the present perfect tense at British Council website.
Another useful website explaining the difference between the words BEEN and GONE is the BBC learning English website.
In this post, I would like to give away my book called GRAMMAR UP. This book uses a new, holistic approach to learning English grammar. In this book, you will practise your reading comprehension and grammar at the same time.
When you take English in school, you learn one piece of grammar at a time. Scott Thornbury calls this approach Grammar McNuggets. After a while, you become confused by all the rules, and you forget most of them.
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Native speakers don’t know the rules for the present simple or present perfect tense. They use them.
With Grammar Up, you work in the same way. The grammar points are not explained—you have to use them. And when you use the grammar, you learn it.
The book contains 17 short texts. First, you have to read the text and answer the comprehension questions. You can either write your answers on a piece of paper or you can remember them. Check your answers on the next page.
This comprehension exercise is followed by the first exercise. You will see the same text you have read, but this time half of every second word is deleted. The text looks like this:
You wi_____ see t_____ same te_____ you ha_____ read, b_____ this ti_____ half o_____ every sec_____ word i_____ deleted.
Try to read the text and complete each word. It is ideal to read the text aloud this time. If you are not sure how to complete a word, turn back to the original text and find the correct answer.
This exercise is followed by the second Grammar Up text. This time you see a text in which all the verbs are in the infinitive form, all the prepositions are replaced by a dash (-), and all the articles are replaced by an asterisk (*). The text then looks like this:
You SEE * same text you READ, but this time half – every second word DELETE.
Your task is to read the text again and add all the missing words and forms. It might not be a bad idea to write out the text as well.
I hope you like this book and that your knowledge of English will go up!!!
“He must be joking!” I thought. I was shocked but I kept quiet. My friend Jane didn´t.
“Why the hell should I throw all my work away?” she asked. We went silent and expected that Jane will be punished.
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The SVOMPT rule is the most important rule in English. As there are very few declinations in English, the word order rule is the one that keeps the sentences understandable. If you do not apply this rule, your sentences will make no sense.
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Unfortunately, there are very few textbook that teach this grammar explicitly. For example, I teach the textbooks Happy House, Happy Street, Project, Inside Out and Headway and none of them teaches SVOMPT. The rule is taught only implicitly. But I think that this is so important that you need to teach it explicitly. Thus, if your textbook fails to do so, set apart two lessons and teach this rule.
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To make your work easier, you will find an infographic and a worksheet which you can use in your lessons here.
SVOMPT – explanation
To explain the basic rule you can use the following infographic which I published several years ago. It is nice and comprehensive but for some students it might be a bit overwhelming. (You can find the whole post on SVOMPT here.)
This time I try to make things a bit easier and I created the following infographic.
When explaining the rule, emphasize that you cannot leave out the subject. You have to express it and it has to be followed by the action that the subject makes. After the action object follows. Object is the thing that has been somehow affected by the action. Then the adverbs follow.
Students have to remember that each sentence has to contain the SUBJECT and VERB. The other parts might or might not be there.
SVOMPT worksheet
To practise the grammar, here is a worksheet with three exercises.
In the first exercise, students circle the sentences that are correct. You might use the exercise before the explanation.
In the second exercise, students place the word in brackets into the correct position.
In the third exercise, students put the words into the correct order.
In the last exercise, students write sentences about the animals, using the words in the pictures.
Reported speech is not easy but when it comes to reported questions students go mad. “There are so many rules to apply,” they whimper. “First, you have to change the question into an announcement and then you have to shift the tenses.” That was why I tried to simplify this procedure.
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In this post, you will find an infographic which simplifies reporting questions and then there is a worksheet with three exercises, where your students can practise this grammar.
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Reported questions – infographic
Display the infographic below and explain how it works.
The first two columns are important. The third and the fourth columns contain just examples.
If the students are asked to report a question, they start with the green column. Their first task is to find and destroy the words in this column. They look at the question they should report and search for one of the words. Once they find it, they destroy it and move to the right. They place the appropriate word from the orange column behind the subject and they are done.
They might need to make one more step, though. If the question does not start with a WH… word, they have to add IF or WHETHER at the beginning of the question.
Reported questions – worksheet
Print the following worksheet for your students. The pdf file contains the exercises and the key.
In the first exercise, students match the reported questions with the direct questions.
In the second exercise, students should report the questions.
In the third exercise, students transform the reported questions into direct questions.
More materials
If you liked this post, you may like two more posts on reported speech which I created. The first one is called Reported speech Backshifting and the other is called Reported speech.
Recently one of my readers asked me to write a post on USED TO, GET USED TO and BE USED TO. He wanted a clear infographic and some exercises to practise the grammar. So I did exactly that. I created an infographic, an online quiz and a simple worksheet to help you learn these phrases.
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Infographic
The following infographic tries to explain the difference and usage of these phrases:
Phrases BE USED TO and GET USED TO are followed by the gerund (-ing form) while USED TO is followed by an infinitive. BE USED TO and GET USED TO mean to be/get accustomed to. BE USED TO describes a state and GET USED TO describes a change in state.
USED TO is used to speak about repeated actions or states in the past which usually are not true any more.
QUIZ
To practise the grammar, try the following online quiz. Choose the correct answers and click them. Then you can see how well you understand the grammar.
You can share your results on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.
If you prefer using a paper worksheet, here is one which you can use.
In the first activity, your students should read the sentences and tick the ones that are grammatically correct. In the second exercise, students should fill in the verbs in the correct form.
You can download the pdf file with the worksheet here:
I hope you find these materials useful and that you will use them in your classes. If you are looking only for some materials to teach only USED TO for past actions, you can try our post on this grammar here. Moreover, you can find more activities to practise the grammar in our post USED TO additional grammar activities here.
Reported speech is often considered very difficult. Students fear the backshifting of the tenses, because they often do not know the tenses very well. If they struggle with the formation of the past tense, you cannot expect them to recognize it and backshift it to the past perfect tense. To avoid all this hassle I came up with a simple system to help students with the backshifting in reported speech.
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In this system students do not worry about the names of the tenses. They just learn a few key words and their reported counterparts, and then they are able to form the reported speech correctly.
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In this post you will find an infographic and several exercises to practise the rules outlined here.
Infographic
The following infographic shows the most frequent backshifting changes in reported speech.
If students see the word IS in direct speech, they should use WAS in the reported speech. Similarly, if they see COULD in the reported speech, they know that CAN is in the direct speech.
Remember to inform the students that reported speech is used after phrases like SHE SAID, HE TOLD ME, THEY INFORMED ME, etc. In other words, after the past tense of a verb that means to give information.
Exercises
In this part there is a worksheet for your students to use to practise the grammar.
You can print the worksheet with the exercises here.
In the first exercise, students should write the verb that will appear in reported speech.
In the second exercise, students complete the sentences with the correct options. All the sentences in this exercise are examples of reported speech.
In the third exercise, students should transform the sentences from exercise 2 into direct speech.
In the last exercise, students transform the direct speech into reported speech.
In his latest video Fluency MC teaches comparatives and superlatives. He uses about forty different adjectives and raps them in the comparative and superlative form. The song is catchy and the grammar very important. Jason was kind enough to allow me to write some teaching materials to go with the song. In this post you will find the song, an infographic explaining the grammar, and a classroom activity.
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Fluency MC and I have already produced a lot of material together. For example, there are four posts on irregular verbs and two posts on collocations with HAVE. You can find a list of all the posts at the end of this text.
Students can get a free copy of the Fluency MC YouTube lyrics book and a free sample of his online course here: http://fluencymc.com/starter-course/ Teachers can get a free copy of the the first unit of his song and video activity book here: http://fluencymc.com/teacher-activity-book-and-media-pack/
Short Adjectives – song
Play the song at the beginning of the lesson. You could ask your students to write all the adjectives they hear. Students write only the basic forms.
Hand out the following worksheet and ask the students to check their answers. All the adjectives from the song are in the worksheet, in the order in which they are heard.
Short adjectives – infographic
Explain that Jason uses only the short adjectives in his songs. These adjectives have just one syllable and thus the following rules apply:
You can download the pdf file here:
Comparatives and superlatives – pdf file
Explain the rules, and then ask the students to take the list of adjectives they wrote during the song and write their comparative and superlative forms. Once they finish they can check their answers using the worksheet they received at the beginning of the lesson.
Superlatives and comparatives – video
Explain the meaning of the superlative and comparative forms. We use the comparative if we compare two things. If we compare three or more things and want to say which one comes at the top, we use the superlative.
Once the students understand the meaning, play the following video. In this video, students look at the pictures and then answer the questions.
Check to see who was the best FBI agent.
Posts with Fluency MC
Ever since I was a boy I wanted to write and publish a book. It took over thirty years for my dream to come true.
In this post I would like to introduce the three books for learners and teachers of English which I published.
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Grammar Up!!
Grammar Up is a book for learners of English who would like to improve their Grammar.
This book contains 17 short texts which you read and then you check your comprehension.
In the second step you see the text again but this time half of every second word is deleted. So for example you would see a sentence like this:
In t____ second st____ you s_____ the te______ again b____ this ti_______ half o____ every sec____ word i___ deleted.
Your task is to read the text again and complete it.
In the third step, you see a text in which all the verbs are in the infinitive form, all the prepositions are replaced by a dash (-), and all the articles are replaced by an asterisk (*). The text then looks like this:
– * second step you SEE * text again but this time half – every second word DELETE.
Your task is to read the text again and add all the missing words and forms. It might not be a bad idea to write out the text as well.
I think this kind of exercise is very useful and it will help you improve your grammar.
You can find more information about the book Grammar Up and a sample chapter here.
444 Grammar Conversations
444 Grammar Conversations is a book for teachers of English. In this book you will find over 450 questions which are divided according to the grammar used there.
My aim was to create a book with a set of questions for each grammar point. The teacher just comes and copies the questions and hands them to students. Students work in pairs and ask and answer the questions practising the grammar.
Here is a set of questions for present simple tense (not included in the book):
1. Where do you live?
2. What do you do?
3. What do you do at the weekend?
4. What food do you like?
5. When do you get up?
6. What music do you like?
7. What do you do after school?
8. What does your mother do?
9. What does your father do?
10. When do you go to bed?
11. What do you do on your mobile phone?
12. What do you want to do on holiday?
13. Do you like English?
14. What sports do you play?
15. Do you like English?
16. What do you do with your parents?
444 Grammar Conversations at Amazon
High School Stories
My last book is called High School Stories, and it contains three stories in simple English. The stories are for pre-intermediate and intermediate students and they will appeal to teenagers.
Here you can see a part of the story called Two Dates:
I have just published a new book. It is called Grammar Up.
Grammar Up is a new, holistic approach to teaching and learning English grammar.
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When you take English in school, you learn one piece of grammar at a time. After a while, you become confused by all the rules, and you forget most of them.
Native speakers don’t know the rules for the present simple or present perfect tense. They use them.
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With Grammar Up, you work in the same way. The grammar points are not explained — you have to use them. And when you use the grammar, you learn it.
How to use this book?
There are 17 short texts. First you have to read the text and answer the comprehension questions. You can either write your answers on a piece of paper or you can remember them. Check your answers on the next page.
This comprehension exercise is followed by the first Grammar Up exercise. You will see the same text you have read, but this time half of every second word is deleted. The text looks like this:
You wi_____ see t_____ same te_____ you ha_____ read, b_____ this ti_____ half o_____ every sec_____ word i_____ deleted.
Try to read the text and complete each word. It is ideal to read the text aloud this time. If you are not sure how to complete a word, turn back to the original text and find the correct answer.
This exercise is followed by the second Grammar Up text. This time you see a text in which all the verbs are in the infinitive form, all the prepositions are replaced by a dash (-), and all the articles are replaced by an asterisk (*). The text then looks like this:
You SEE * same text you READ, but this time half – every second word DELETE.
Your task is to read the text again and add all the missing words and forms. It might not be a bad idea to write out the text as well.
I hope you like this book and that your facility with grammar goes up!!!
Grammar up – example text
Here you can download one of the texts included in the book:
[sociallocker id=”3511″] My holiday – Grammar Up excerpt [/sociallocker]
Present continuous tense is one of the most popular tenses among students. It is easy to form and its usage is crystal clear (at least at the beginning). However, when it comes to forming questions, students often fail. To avoid this, I have come up with a number of activities to help my learners and I would like to share them with you now.
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In this post, there is a video to teach the question word, an infographic, several interactive exercises and logical worksheets.
Present continuous YES/NO questions
In the first part, it is important to teach the formation of the YES/NO questions in the present continuous tense. Print the following worksheet:
Present continuous questions – worksheet
In the first part, there is a column of sentences which students should transform into questions. Tell them to use the colours to guide them. Help those struggling. Check the questions. Then tell students to transform the sentences in the second column.
Now your students should be able to form questions in the present continuous tense. And as they discovered the rules themselves, they are sure to remember them well.
Present continuous tense – short answers
Display the following infographic.
Demonstrate how the infographic works. Write one of the questions on the board. Ask the students with which word the question starts. Point to the word in the infographic. Elicit the colour. Now, point to the question on the board and elicit what follows the first word. Find the continuation in the rectangles and explain that the correct answers are the two possibilities behind it.
It took just two examples for my students to understand the formation of the short answers.
Return to the worksheet and ask the students to write both of the short answers below the questions they formed previously. Check their answers.
Question words – video and infographic
Before you start teaching questions with the question words, teach the question words first. Here is a video teaching the question words:
You can use the following infographic too:
Once the students know the basic question words, it is time to practise them. In the following video students see the answer and their task is to supply the correct question word.
Present continuous questions
Now teach students how to form questions starting with WH… words in the present continuous tense.
Print the following worksheet.
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Present continuous WH questions – worksheet
Ask the students to form questions in the first column asking about the information in colour. Point to the colourful question words at the bottom of the worksheet which will help your students.
Check the answers and tell them to complete the second column.
Finish the worksheet above in one lesson and then bring the following worksheet. This worksheet contains three exercises. In the first exercise students see the answer and their task is to write the question words. In the second task, students see the answer and they should ask about the underlined information. In the last exercise, students see the answer and they should write three questions for the given answer.
Present continuous questions – worksheet 2
Present continuous questions – more exercises
In the first quiz, you should form the YES/NO questions.
Present continuous questions – quiz 1
In the second quiz students have to write the short answers:
Present continuous questions – quiz 2
In the third quiz students know the answers and they have to write the questions.
Present continuous questions – quiz 3
In the fourth quiz, students have some cues and they have to write the questions using the cues.
Present continuous questions – quiz 4
If you cannot use a computer in your classroom, you can use the following worksheet with all the exercises.
Present continuous questions worksheet