Tag: learn English

Learn the Parts of Speech
Learn the Parts of Speech

For ESL students and pupils in Great Britain, India, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries, it is crucial to learn the parts of speech in English. In fact, this knowledge is very useful for EFL learners too, as it helps them get more information from dictionaries and grammar books. And as this topic is not difficult, it is worth spending a few minutes on it.
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[showmyads] In this post there is a wonderful song by Fluency MC, an infographic and several games which will help you master the parts of speech. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead!!!

Parts of Speech – song

The following song was created by Fluency MC. Listen and sing along. It is easy

Click here to get Fluency MC’s new (and FREE!) YouTube Songbook and to check out his new online speaking and listening program. the Weekly English Workout.
http://fluencymc.com/weekly-english-workout/

Parts of Speech – infographic

The following infographic contains all the information from the song. The parts of speech are organised into a mind map which allows your students to revise the facts. Ask the students to cover either the definitions or the parts of speech and then recall the covered information (They could do this in pairs too).

Parts of Speech infographic

If you want to download the full picture, click the button:

Parts of Speech – infographic

Parts of speech – games

Let’s start with a quiz which will help your students practise the parts of speech either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the words and the names of the parts of speech. In the second part, students have to write the name of the parts of the speech behind the words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Parts of speech – quiz
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[showmyadsa] The second game is called Fling the Teacher. To win the game, you have to answer all the questions by choosing the correct answer. If you answer all the questions correctly you will fling your teacher. (But I am sure, that he/she will not mind as long as you know all the parts of speech 🙂 ). The game is in Flash and it will only play on desktop computers.
Parts of speech – Fling the teacher
To practise the parts of speech you can play the following game. Its name is En Garde. Your task is to choose the correct answer and then stop the target as close to the centre as possible. Hopefully, you will be faster and more accurate then your opponent. The game is in Flash and will play only on desktops:
Parts of speech – En Garde game
The last game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct part of speechand then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.
Parts of speech – Penalty game

Learn the parts of Speech

Teaching English using Poetry
Teaching English using Poetry

Have you ever used poetry to teach English in your class? If you have you can probably confirm that it was not a great success. The majority of your students were probably bored and didn’t share your passion for the poem. And thus they found your lesson boring and useless.

Therefore, it may seem that using poetry for teaching is a waste of time. So, how about if I offer you a poem your students will love and remember for a long time? Do you think it is impossible? Well, try the following lesson plan and see if you don’t change your mind.
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Using poetry – Teaser

Introduce the topic. Tell your students that you are going to play a video for them. Play the following video till the time 0:50. Then ask your students whether they want to see the whole thing. I am sure their answer will be YES.


Using poetry – vocabulary

Explain that they need to know a lot of vocabulary in order to understand and enjoy. To introduce and teach the vocabulary I use the following method which I call Remembering Tables. Print out the following worksheet. Each student needs to have his/her own worksheet.

Eugene poetry vocabulary

I usually print both pages on one sheet of paper, but you can print it on two different sheets of paper, too.

Make sure that the students are looking at the same page as you and read the words in the first table aloud. Ask your students to repeat the words after you. Then ask them to read the definitions. If you teach a monolingual class, ask them to translate the words. If you teach an international class, check your students’ understanding of the words by using concept questions.

Once your students understand all the words, tell them they have 20 seconds to remember them. When the 20 seconds are up they have to cover the table on the left and complete the table on the right by filling in the words. Once they finish they can check and complete their answers using the table on the left.

Do the same with the second, third and fourth tables, but increase the time given to remember the words to 30, 45 and 60 seconds.

Do both of the pages with your class and then you can move to the following task:

Using poetry – Speaking

I love using the following activity to practise the new vocabulary. Print out or display the following questions and ask your students to complete them using the new words:
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  1. What time did you __________ the school today?
  2. How do you feel in ________________ places? Do you like it when there are many people around you?
  3. What would you like to ______________?
  4. When was the last time you gave somebody an ____________? What were you sorry about?
  5. What do you think about _____________? How often do you read a poem?
  6. Have you ever performed on a _______________? How many people watched you?
  7. Can you describe your ________________? What are you like?
  8. What is your _____________? How often do you do it?

The correct answers are: 1 enter 2 crowded 3 give a go 4 apology 5 poetry 6 stage 7 personality 8 passion.
Next, I ask my students to choose 3 questions they would like to ask me. They ask me the questions and I answer as well as I can.

Then the students work in pairs and ask and answer the questions.

Using poetry – Video comprehension

Now it is time to play the whole video. Turn on the closed captioning if you feel that your students’ level of comprehension is not high enough for them to understand all of it.

Ask your students to read the comprehension questions first, and check that they understand the questions:

1. How old is he?
2. What is his job?
3. What is his passion?
4. Why does Piers buzz him?
5. Who thinks that Eugene is a loser?
6. What do girls do when Eugene enters a room?
7. What do the judges say at the end?
8. Is Eugene happy at the end?

Using poetry – Finish

To finish the lesson, it is ideal to practise the new vocabulary and do a speaking activity.

Start with the speaking activity. It is a simple role play. Ask the students to work in pairs. One of them is going to play the role of Eugene and the other is a reporter. It is one week after the show was broadcast, and the interviewer wants to know what has changed in Eugene’s life. Thus the interviewer asks questions and Eugene answers as best as he can.

To practise the vocabulary, you can use the following crossword and a fill-in-the-blank exercise. The students can do the exercises at school or at home. Please print 2 pages on one page for best results.

Eugene poetry crossword

Eugene poetry crossword key

Using poetry – Conclusion

This lesson plan is based on a video of Eugene performing his poem in the talent show called Britain’s Got Talent. In this lesson, students will learn 25+ new words and phrases, and they will get a chance to use the phrases at school. To make the lesson even more concentrated on poetry you can ask your students to write their own poem in English.
Here is a brief summary of the lesson plan:

1. Video teaser
2. Vocabulary – memory tables
3. Speaking – complete the questions and ask your partner
4. Video + comprehension questions
5. Speaking – role play
6. Vocabulary revision

I hope that this lesson serves as a great demonstration of how to use poetry to teach English and that your students will remember a lot of real-life vocabulary.

Teaching English Using Poetry

Prepositions of place – speaking activities
Prepositions of place – speaking activities

Recently, in the post called Questions with Like, I asked you to choose the activity you would like me to write about. Most of you voted for a Speaking activity, so I prepared a set of speaking activities to practice the prepositions of place.

I have already created a post on prepositions, so this time there will be no infographics just two speaking activities. If you are looking for more speaking activities, you can find a two great speaking activities here.
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Speaking activities – Battle

The first activity is called Battle and it was devised and recommended by K. Folse in his book The Art of Teaching Speaking.

First, print out the worksheet with 18 pictures. Each picture is different and they are labelled with letters A to R.

Ask students to work in groups of three. They should label themselves A, B, and C. Student A starts.
Student A will choose a room in the worksheet. Then students B and C will take turns asking yes – no questions to identify A´s room. For example, B asks: “Is the table in front of the sofa?” If student A answers “Yes, it is,” student B asks another question. He continues in this way till student B answers “No.” Then it is student´s C turn. Students go on like this till someone identifies the picture student A is thinking of.

After student B or C has guessed A´s room, student B chooses a room and students A and C try to guess it in the same way as they did with student A.

Students keep track of how many rooms they guessed correctly, and the winner is the one who guessed most.

Here is the worksheet students will use (it is enough to print out just one worksheet for each group.)

Speaking activities battle room worksheet

Speaking activities – Language needed

To be able to do the task above successfully, your students need to know the following vocabulary and grammar:

Vocabulary: plant, picture, lamp, table, cushion, plant, sofa, floor, wall, chair, ball and the prepositions of place (you find the materials to teach Prepositions of place here).
Grammar: to form question with is/are and the phrases There is / there are.

If your students do not know the language mentioned above, the speaking activity will not work!!!

Speaking activities – Drawing a Picture

First you need to print out the following worksheet once for each pair of students. They should cut it in the middle and each student should keep one sheet. (Now each student has two pictures with the room.)

Then, each student draws between 5 and 10 objects into one of his pictures. He or she has to draw objects they know the English words for. I personally ask my students to draw pieces of furniture we learn in the textbook unit.

Students sit with their backs to each other and one describes their picture for their partner, and the partners draws the objects into the picture he or she has not drawn into yet. When one student finishes they swap their roles and the other student describes their picture.

At the end the students compare their pictures.

Here is the worksheet:
Speaking activites drawing a picture web
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To be able to print out the worksheets in the best possible quality, use the following pdf file:

Speaking activities pdf worksheet prepositions of place

Speaking activities – Language needed

To be able to do the task above successfully, your students need to know the following phrases:

Can you repeat that?
Tell me again.
Where does the …. go?

Speaking activities – Conclusion

I hope you will find both of the speaking activities useful and interesting, and that they will make it into your classroom. Both of the activities should ensure that your students will produce a lot of language and they will practice their knowledge of prepositions of place.

Speaking activities – prepositions of place

School subjects – speaking activities
School subjects – speaking activities

Speaking activities are the most important component of English courses using communicative approach. However, it is very difficult to find quality speaking activities that would work. That is why I would like to publish a speaking activity here once a week. All the activities will be based on the recommendations given by Keith S. Folse in his wonderful book The Art of Teaching Speaking.
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[showmyads] In the first post I offer you two pair speaking activities using school subjects and the verb HAVE. Let’s start!

School subjects – language for the activity

To be able to complete the task successfully, students will need the following sets of language: the verb HAVE (or have got) and the names of the school subjects.

If you have not taught the school subjects yet, it is necessary to do so before you start the speaking activities. For the following tasks, your students need to know the following school subjects:

School subjects mind map web

The other set of language your students need to know is the usage of the verb HAVE for questions like “What subject has she got on Monday?” or sentences like “She has chemistry on Monday at 11 o’clock.” You can find materials for teaching the verb HAVE GOT here. Once your students know the vocabulary and grammar you can move to the next part. Please, do not skip this step. Otherwise, your students might be either very quiet or use their native language to accomplish the tasks.

School subjects – speaking activities

In my experience students speak most when they work in pairs or groups of three. In bigger groups some students tend to dominate the task and some opt for not doing anything. That is why all of these tasks are designed for pairs or small groups.

The first activity is called Information gap. In this task students trade missing pieces of information to complete their sheet.

Information gap – in class

Put the students in pairs.

Hould up an example of the two sheets and explain that you’ll give each pair an A sheet and a B sheet.

Each sheet has a school timetable, but each sheet has only part of the timetable. Pairs need to work together to find out their missing information so that they end up with two complete and identical sheets.

Distribute the papers. Tell them not to look at each other’s papers. Let the students do the task.
Once they finish they can show each other the sheets and compare them.

Here are the two sheets:

Pair speaking activity School subjects

Pair speaking activity School subjects sheets

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Battle: Find it first – in class

In this task, students work in groups of three and they take turns asking yes/no questions to identify the picture that one student has in mind.

Print out one copy of the sheet (all 9 timetables) for each student.

Hold up one of the sheets and show everyone that the sheet contains nine timetables that are similar yet different. Students need to listen, think and then ask questions so that they can guess which picture the person is thinking about.

Put the students in groups of three.

Student A will pick a timetable and then students B and C will take turns asking yes/no questions to try to identify A’s timetable. B begins with a yes/no question. If A answers yes then B continues. If A answers no, then c asks a question. The goal is the to be the person who gets a yes answer to the a question such as, “Is it Jane’s timetable?”

After B or C has guessed A’s timetable, then A and C try to guess B’s timetable. Finally, A and B try to guess C’s timetable.

The winner is the student who guesses most timetables.

Here is the sheet each students should get:
Speaking activity school subjects timetables

I hope that you find the School subjects – speaking activities useful and that you will use them in your classes. You can download the worksheets in pdf here. All the pictures are in much better quality here:

School subjects speaking activities worksheet

Gerund or infinitive?
Gerund or infinitive?

Engames and Fluency MC have joined forces again to bring you a post that will help you decide whether you should use a gerund or an infinitive after a verb. This post is not going to provide a comprehensive overview of the grammar. Our aim is to give your students a simple guide to help them decide correctly between the two parts of speech most of the time.
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The post contains a song, an infographic, an interactive online quiz and a game.

Gerund or Infinitive – pretest


Do you think you know the grammar already and don´t need to read the article? Try the following test and see how well you do.

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Gerund or Infinitive – song


Watch the following song and complete the lyrics. The aim of this song is to introduce the topic.

Here are the lyrics in a pdf file:
Lyrics gerund
Here are the lyrics as supplied and created by Fluency MC:
Gerund-or-Infinitive

Gerund-or-Infinitive-2

Gerund and Infinitive – infographic


The following infographic does not contain a comprehensive list of all the verbs. Only the verbs that are used in the song appear here.

Gerund or infinitive infographic
Gerund or infinitive infographic

These rules are so called rules of thumb. They work in most cases but not all. However, to use the rules correctly, students first have to understand them.
The rule goes like this: “If the first verb happens before the second verb, use TO. If the second verb happens at the same time or before the first verb use the ending -ING with the second verb. “ Thus in the sentence “I hope to go to the party,” I first hope and then go to the party. That is why you use TO. On the other hand, in the sentence “I enjoyed going to the party,” I enjoyed the party at the same time as I was there.

Assess your students understanding of the rules using the following test. Choose 10 verbs at random and ask your students to write them down and write if they think they should be followed by TO or -ING. Then go through their responses and elicit the correct answers.

Once you feel that the students know the grammar, it is time to practise it.

Gerund or infinitive – online quiz


The best way to remember the verb patterns is by using them. The following quiz is in HTML5 and will work on all mobile devices.

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To display the quiz on full screen click the button below.
Gerund or infinitive? – quiz

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.
Gerund or infinitive – On target game

Gerund or infinitive – links


At engames.eu I have already published two posts on the use of gerunds and infinitives in English. The first post is called Verb Patterns – preintermediate, and the second is called Verb Patterns again – final solution. You can practise the grammar there as well.

Gerund or infinitive

Past simple and past continuous
Past simple and past continuous

Yesterday a friend sent me a song he’d written that uses only the past simple and past continuous tenses. He asked me how I liked it, and I had to admit it was great. A few hours later I encountered a short explanation of the same grammar by Australiaplus.com, and I realised that I wanted to share both with my friends on the Internet. This post is the result.
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In this post there is the song by Chris Barickman, a video explanation, an explanation by Australiaplus.com, an infographic and an interactive quiz.

Past simple and continuous – song


Let’s start with the song. Please listen and complete the lyrics:

The lyrics worksheet:
Past continuous tense lyrics

Past simple and continuous – explanation


Now listen to the following explanation.

And here is another short explanation of the same grammar by Australiaplus.com:

https://soundcloud.com/australiaplus/past-continuous

Past simple and continuous – infographic


Here is a set of infographics created by www.engames.eu.

Past continuous tense affirmative

Past continuous tense questions

See how the questions are formed in the past continuous tense

Past continuous tense usage

See when you should use the past continuous tense


If you want to download the full infographic in superb quality, you can do that here:
Past continuous tense – full infographic

Past simple and continuous – quiz

The following quiz is in HTML 5 so it will play on all mobile devices and desktop computers. Your task is to choose the correct tense – either the past simple or the past continuous. Enjoy the games if you pass the tests.

Past simple or past continuous? – quiz

Past simple and past continuous

Facebook vocabulary
Facebook vocabulary

Facebook is the most popular social network in the world. Many of our students spend hours on it every day. But have you ever given them a chance to speak about Facebook in an English lesson?

In this post I would like to bridge this gap and give you a chance to teach some words connected with Facebook. Once the students know the words they will be able to talk about Facebook and what they do there. To teach the vocabulary, there is an infographic, a quiz and several speaking activities.
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Facebook vocabulary – infographic


Go through the following infographic with your students and ask them to translate the words if you teach a monolingual group.

Facebook infographic vocabulary

Facebook vocabulary – online quiz

In the following quiz your students can practise the vocabulary taught in the infographic. The quiz consists of two parts. It is in HTML5 and it will play on mobile devices and desktop computers.

Facebook vocabulary quiz

Facebook vocabulary – speaking

The following section contains several speaking activities to give your students a chance to practise the new words in a meaningful way.
The first activity works very well with students who are 15 or older. Hand out the following questions and ask your students to choose three questions they would like to ask you.

a) What was the last post you put on your timeline?
b) Do you share your photos on Facebook?
c) What was your last comment?
d) How often do you comment?
e) How often do you write a status on your timeline?
f) What was the last post you liked?
g) How many friends do you have on Facebook? Do you know your friends personally?
h) Do you ever message anyone? How often and why?
i) What is in your cover photo?
j) What was the last thing you shared on Facebook? How often do you share things?
k) Do you use news feed or any apps on Facebook?
l) Are you a member of any groups? Why?

Answer the questions as best as you can and demonstrate the way you would like your students to discuss the questions.

Then ask your students to choose 7 questions they would like to ask their partner. Ask them to work in pairs and discuss the questions.

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The second speaking activity is called ranking. The students should rank the following Facebook features from the most useful and interesting to the least.

GROUPS, BOOST POST, STATUS, MESSAGE, COVER PHOTO, LIKE, SHARE, PROFILE, COMMENT, EVENT

If you have never done a ranking activity with your students before, it is a good idea to teach the phrases first. Teach phrases like: “I think …. is the most useful…,” “I think …. is the least useful …,” etc. If your students are not able to use these phrases, their discussion will not be very interesting or long.

Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 4
Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 4

This is the last post in which we try to teach the irregular verbs mentioned in the rap song by Fluency MC. This time there are 15 irregular verbs and to help you teach or learn them there is an infographic, a quiz and a game.

Irregular verbs – song


First, listen to the following song and complete the lyrics. Start at 2:45.

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The lyrics worksheet:
Irregular verbs song lyrics 4

Irregular verbs – infographic


Display or hand out the following infographic and go through the irregular verbs with your students. Explain the meaning of the more difficult verbs if necessary or ask your students to use dictionaries.

Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 4

To print ot the infographic, use the following pdf file:
Irregular verbs with fluency 04

Irregular verbs – online quiz


The following online quiz consists of two parts. In the first part the students should match the irregular verbs and their meanings, and then complete the sentences with an appropriate irregular verb in the past tense.
In the second part the students should drag the irregular verbs to the appropriate spaces in the sentences. After they pass each part of the quiz they will be rewarded with a game.
The quiz is created in HTML5, so it will play on all electronic devices and computers.

Irregular verbs Quiz

The second game is called Goose Science Quiz, and your task is to click the dice in the upper right hand corner and then answer the questions. If you manage to get to the finish first, you will win the game. The game can be played by multiple people at the same time.
Once again, the game is in HTML5, so it will play on all electronic devices and computers.

Goose Quiz on irregular verbs

Irregular verbs – all irregular verbs with Fluency MC posts


As I wrote above, this is the fourth post we have prepared together with Fluency MC. You can find the previous posts here:
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Teach irregular verbs with Fluency MC #3
Teach irregular verbs with Fluency MC #3

As I wrote before, irregular verbs are the most important thing for all students of English to learn. However, it is not easy to master them. That is why Fluency and I started to collaborate on a series of posts that deal with teaching just the irregular verbs.
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In this post we are going to introduce another set of 15 verbs. To learn them there is a song, an infographic, a quiz and a game. If you go through all the activities you will meet each word at least 6 times. We hope you will like our work and share the post.

Irregular verbs – song


Listen to the following song and try to complete the lyrics. To complete the lyrics start the song at 2:05.

You can find the lyrics here:
Lyrics part 3

Irregular verbs – infographic

Irregular verbs with Fluency MC

Here is the infographic with all the irregular verbs, you should learn in this post. For each word there is a definition (in either word or picture form) and two examples of usage.

Display the infographic and go through the verbs with your students. Explain the meaning of the difficult words.

Irregular verbs – game and quiz

Here is a two-part online quiz. Your task is to choose the correct answers and pass the quiz. You you will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz if you pass.
This game is in HTML5, so it will play on all mobile devices as well as desktop computers.

Irregular verbs Quiz

Irregular verbs – other sites

You can find more irregular verbs practise at https://grammarlane.com/irrverbs/irrverbsen.html . Choose the irregular verbs you want to practise and choose the mode (speaking or writing). Then write or say the past tense and the past participle of the verbs you see.

Irregular verbs by British Council.

Irregular verbs by BBC.

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A song by Fluency MC on irregular verbs:

Teach irregular verbs with Fluency MC #2
Teach irregular verbs with Fluency MC #2

In my opinion, irregular verbs are the most important thing one has to learn in English. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that students know them. However, teaching them is not easy. There are no rules, and the number of new words that students manage to commit to memory is quite low. Thus the teaching materials have to be interesting enough that students would return to them.

And one of the best materials for teaching irregular verbs is this song, which was created by Jason R Levine from Fluency MC:
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In this post we are going to deal with the verbs mentioned in the second verse of the song. Below you will find an infographic, an online quiz and a game to help your students learn the irregular verbs.

Irregular verbs – infographic


Display the following infographic and go through the words with them. Use the pictures to explain the meaning or ask your students to use their dictionaries.

Irregular verbs mind map 2


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Irregular verbs – an online quiz and a game


Start with the online quiz. The quiz is in HTML5 so it will play on mobile devices too. In the first part, you should drag the words to the correct spaces. If you pass, you will be rewarded with a game called Angry Farmer. In the second part, you have to look at the picture and complete the sentence. Use the past tense of a verb that best fits the sentence.

Irregular verbs quiz

Irregular verbs – links

You can practise the irregular verbs in sentences in the following video.


Irregular verbs by British Council.

Irregular verbs by BBC.

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A song by Fluency MC on irregular verbs:

How to decide between an adverb and adjective
How to decide between an adverb and adjective

Students often hesitate over whether they should use an adverb or an adjective in a sentence. And to be honest, I did not make it much easier for them with my explanations. So I decided to buckle down to work and create a simple system which will work for my students.
Here is the final result. I have created an infographic which helps the students decide what form they should use. Then there are two games to help them to practice what they have learned and an interactive quiz where they can test their knowledge.

Adverbs or adjectives – infographic


First, make sure, that your students know how to form adverbs. If they don´t, we have a great post on adverbs here.

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Once you are sure your students can form adverbs correctly, show them the following infographic. Explain that they have to consider two factors when deciding whether they should use an adjective or an adverb. First, are any of the verbs mentioned in point 1 in the sentence? If so, they should use an adjective.
If not, they should consider point 2. Is the word in front of a noun and does it describe it? If so, they should use an adjective again.
In all other cases the students should use an adverb. I know it is just a rule of thumb, but it works most of the time.
You should not forget to mention that there is a difference between GOOD and WELL after the verbs in case 1. GOOD means not bad and WELL means fine or healthy.

adjective or adverb

Adverbs or adjectives – games


Now there are two games to practise the grammar in an enjoyable way. The first game is called On Target. Your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles near the walls and thus earn a bonus.

On Target game

The second game is called Penalty Shootout and students love it. Your task is again to choose the correct option and then score a goal.

Penalty Shootout Game

Adverbs or adjectives – online quiz

Now you can practise the grammar in the following quiz. Students should fill in the correct answers and if they pass the quiz they will be rewarded with a game. Unlike the games above, this one is in HTML5 so it will play on all mobile devices.

Online quiz

Prepositions of place – elementary
Prepositions of place – elementary

I like teaching prepositions of place. I can use the Cuisenaire rods, and my students can be creative in many ways and use English a lot.
Here I would like to share the activities I use to teach prepositions of place. In this post you can find the following activities: a mind map, an infographic, a worksheet and online exercises.

Prepositions of place – infographic


First, I introduce the prepositions of place using the following infographic. If you have an interactive whiteboard in your English class, you can display it there, or you can print it and hand it out to everyone in the class.
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Prepositions of place infographics

Then display the following mind map and elicit the prepositions.

Prepositions of place speaking

Prepositions of place – worksheet


Hand out the following worksheet to your students. There are four pages and it is best to print out two pages on one sheet.

Prepositions of place worksheet

First you need to practise the names of pieces of furniture with your English class. You can find a furniture vocabulary post here.

Ask your students to solve the crossword and word search and then check their answers.
The second page concentrates on the prepositions. Ask your English class to figure out the names of the cats using the clues on the right.

In the task that follows, students should complete the sentences using the correct prepositions.
On the third page there is another infographic to introduce the meanings of the prepositions of place.

If you have a monolingual class and you speak their mother tongue, you could ask them to translate the sentences.

In the last task on page four, students have to place the pieces of furniture in the room. Then they have to describe their room to their partner and the listener has to draw the room.

Prepositions of place – Cuisenaire rods


My English classes love this activity. I bring the Cuisenaire rods and I give each pair of students a set. First, I tell them that they have 3 minutes to play with the rods.

After the 3 minutes I ask them to stop playing and put all the rods in the box. Then I dictate sentences like: Put the red rod on the table. Put the green rod under the red rod. Put the white rod next to the red rod.

I dictate 5 sentences and then we check the resulting shape.

In the next phase students work in pairs. One of them dictates and the other puts the rods on the table. After a while they swap their roles.

Prepositions of place – online quiz

You can either ask your English class to use the following online quiz at home or you can do it at school if you have enough computers.

As the quiz is in HTML5 and should play on every mobile device, you could even ask your English class to do the quiz on their mobile phones.

In the quiz there are several slides with questions. If the students pass the quizzes, they can play a game.

Prepositions of place – full screen

Prepositions of place – links


There are some great activities for learning and practising prepositions of place at the British Council site.

Office equipment vocabulary
Office equipment vocabulary

Most of the people who learn English spend their life in an office. Therefore it is neccessary for them to learn the names of the equipment there.
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In this post I introduce 25 office vocabulary items in an infographic and a video. You can then practise all the words in interactive quizzes (over 70 quiz questions) and in a paper worksheet. Moreover, if you have your own blog, you can share the activities.

Office Equipment – infographic


The following infographic contains 25 vocabulary items. Students should first study the picture and try to remember the meaning of the words.

Office vocabulary infographic

You can practise or learn the correct pronunciation of the words in the following video. Simply, listen and repeat:

Office Equipment – quizzes


The activities above are ideal to introduce the words and their meaning. However, to really learn the words, you have to use them and practise them. In the following quizzes you have to produce the words and thus there is a bigger chance that you will remember them.
The first quiz is interactive and as it is in HTML 5, it will play on any mobile device.

Office equipment – full screen quiz

If you do not like doing quizzes on the screen, you can print out the following pdf files and use them instead. There are several tasks to practise all the words.

Office vocabulary worksheet

Office vocabulary key

Office vocabulary – share

If you like the quiz above and you would like to share it on your blog or use it in a classroom without an internet connection, you can do this. You can download all the files here and upload them to your site just unpack the files and use them in the classroom:
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Office Vocabulary

Kitchen tools and equipment
Kitchen tools and equipment

It is very popular to teach vocabulary in lexical sets. It is easier to explain the meaning and you can present quite a few items at one time. Moreover, the presentation can look good and induce the students to study the words.
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Surprisingly, research shows that it is not so effective as teaching unrelated items. But you still can learn and teach quite a lot of words if you want to. In this post I am going to teach 26 items you can find in a kitchen. There are kitchen tools and other equipment.

Kitchen Equipment – infographics


The following infographic contains 26 vocabulary items. Students should first study the picture and try to remember the meaning of the words.

kitchen tools and equipment
© Macrovector | Dreamstime.com

You can practise or learn the correct pronunciation of the words in the following video. Simply, listen and repeat:

Kitchen Equipment – quizzes


The methods above are fine to introduce the words and their meaning. However, to really learn the words, you have to use them. In the following quizzes you have to produce the words and thus there is a bigger that you will remember them.
The first quiz is interactive and as it is in HTML 5, it will play on any mobile device.

Kitchen equipment – full screen quiz

If you do not like doing quizzes on the screen, you can print out the following pdf files and use them instead. There are several tasks to practise all the words.

Kitchen words_key

Kitchen words_ws

If you would like to have all the exercises in one file, download the following file. Moreover, there is the picture with blank gaps and thus it can serve as an ideal exercise to practise the vocabulary.

kitchen and tools vocabulary_full

Kitchen vocabulary – share

If you like the quiz above and you would like to share it on your blog or use it in a classroom without an internet connection, you can do this. You can download all the files here and upload them to your site just unpack the files and use them in the classroom:
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KITCHEN EQUIPMENT (Web)

Learn 10 words in 21 minutes

This is the second post which contains ten new words for intermediate students. The words are among the 4,000 most frequent words in English. This selection of words is based on Paul Nation’s list of words. If you have missed the first post on vocabulary, you can find it here.
I hope you will find it useful and that you will learn the new words. This time it will take a bit longer as there are more exercises in the print version and there is the video with the pronunciation of the words.
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Vocabulary Lesson 2 – infographic

First, you should study the words in the following infographic. I try to give the definition of the word, a clue to remember the word quicker, and some example sentences. I honestly hope these will help you learn the vocabulary better and quicker.
Vocabulary infographic 03

To get the pronunciation right, listen and repeat the words with the native speaker.

Vocabulary Lesson 2 – interactive quiz

You can practise the vocabulary now in the following interactive quiz. The quiz is in HTML5 and it will play on all mobile devices. If you pass the quiz you can play a game as a reward.


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Interactive quiz – full screen

If you cannot do the quiz above or you prefer working on a paper, you can print out the following document and practise the vocabulary there.

Vocabulary_4000_set003_ws
Vocabulary_4000_set003_key

Possessive case #2
Possessive case #2

I have already published a post on possessive case. But when I tried to teach it again, I found out that it was not clear enough for the group I am teaching now. So I created a new infographic and several new interactive exercises in which students can practise the grammar. And my new students understand it now nearly perfectly. I hope you will find these materials useful too.
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Possessive case – infographic


Have a look at this infographic and see how we form the possessive case in English.
Possessive case mind map
To cut the explanation short, add the apostrophe+s to a singular noun and add only the apostrophe to a regular plural noun. If the noun has an irregular plural add the apostrophe+s. If you feel that you understand the grammar, it is high time to practise it in the following exercises.

Possessive case – quiz


The following quiz is in HTML5, so it will work on all mobile devices. Thus your students can practise the grammar anywhere they like. If they pass the quiz they will be given a chance to play a game as a reward.

If you feel that the quiz is too small, click the button below and play the game on the full screen.

Possessive case – quiz full screen

If you are looking for more practise I recommend British Council page on possessive case.

Possessive case – share

If you like the quiz above and you would like to share it on your blog or use it in a classroom without an internet connection, you can do this. You can download all the files here and upload them to your site just unpack the files and use them in the classroom:
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Possessive case_quiz (Web)

Will for the future
Will for the future

There are many different ways to speak about the future in English. You can find all of them in the previous posts on future tenses at Will or be going to or at Be going to post. In this post I would like to explain and teach the usage of WILL for speaking about the future. You are going to find a mind map, a story about WILL and several interactive exercises here. I hope you will find this post useful.

Will for the future – mind map


First study the form of WILL in the following mind map:
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Will mind map

Once you present the form of the verb WILL it is time to explain the usage. I prefer using stories when explaining the grammar. I do it this way because stories are more memorable than just a simple explanation. You can create your own story or you can use mine. If you are afraid that your students´ English is not good enough you can tell the story in their Mother tongue.

The story about WILL


Ever since Will was born he was strange.
He looked like a normal boy but he wasn’t. He irritated people with his behaviour. He simply talked too much
For example when he was at school he always wanted to help other people. But while other children helped without any words WILL always spoke.
“I, Will, help you, sir,” he shouted when he saw the teacher carrying a lot of things.
“I, Will, clean the board,” he jumped up another time.
Of course, his friends did not like it and soon they started to say ironically.
“I will do it.” or “She will do it.”
As I say, Will talked too much. And he liked talking about his opinions.
“I think …” were his favourite words. And as children did not like him they soon parroted.
“He thinks it WILL rain.” “I think I WILL earn a lot of money.“
And one day another strange thing happened. Will’s eyes went big and he started to predict the future.
“There be people on the Moon. We fly to Mars.”
But children did not believe him and they laughed even more.
“There WILL BE people on the Moon. We WILL fly to Mars,” they screamed all over the school.
Nowadays no one remembers Will or his behaviour at school but ever since people still say “I will do it,” when they decide at the moment of speaking to help anyone.
We still say “I think she will fail.” when we express our opinions about the future.

And when we predict something we say “People will not use tablets in 10 years time.”

No one remembers the nerd WILL but his name is there in the sentences.

WILL for the future – practice

You can watch a bit different video explanation the usage of the will form here:

Once you think your students understand the grammar you can try the following quiz:


WILL – full screen quiz

WILL for the future – leave a comment and learn

WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE YEAR 2015.

Write your opinions into the comments and I will correct them and inform you about your grammar.

WILL for the future – share

If you do not have the internet connection in the classroom you can download the quiz and presentation here. Moreover, you can place these at your blog or website 🙂
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Will explanation

Please rate this post below. Our previous post on adverbs of Frequency scored 4.49 stars. Do you think this one is better?

Adverbs of frequency
Adverbs of frequency

Teaching adverbs of frequency has to consist of several steps. First, the students have to learn the words. If they do not know the words it is useless to teach them the grammar. Once you are sure that the students know the adverbs you have to teach them where they should place them in a sentence. It is not easy to achieve this, but I hope that the following materials will help you.

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Adverbs of frequency – vocabulary


As I write above, it is neccessary to teach the vocabulary first. Here is a worksheet which tries to teach the vocabulary. I would recommend that you first translate the words with your students.
In the worksheet there is a list of the adverbs, a crossword, a wordsearch and jumbled words.
The crossword might seem a bit intriguing as the students are supposed to solve it without any clues. They have to count the number of letters in each word and then combine them into the crossword. Do not forget to emphasise that each adverb is used only once.

adverbs_of_frequency_worksheet
adverbs_of_frequency_key

Adverbs of frequency – grammar


Once you are sure that the students know the words you should teach the grammar. The following mind map shows where the adverbs should be placed. You should point out that the words at the top of the pyramid show that the action happens infrequently, while the adverbs at the base say that something happens very often or regullarly.

Adverbs of frequency_mind map

Adverbs of Frequency practise

And now if you have an interactive whiteboard at school you can try the following games and activities. These activities are in HTML5 so your students can try them on their phones or iPads too.

Adverbs of frequency – full screen quiz

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If you would like to try out any more activities, there are several interactive and print activities at British Council site on adverbs of frequency.

WAS or WERE – the really important grammar
WAS or WERE – the really important grammar

As the word WAS is the ninth and WERE the 34th most frequent word in English it is crucial to use them correctly. You simply cannot avoid using these words, and if you make mistakes in these two words, people will think that you cannot speak English. For teachers it is important to teach this piece of grammar correctly and practise it a lot with their students.

In this post, I would love to teach these two words properly. You can find here a mind map to present this grammar, an MP3 drill recording where your students can practise the forms and two games which will test your or your students’ knowledge of the grammar. I hope it will work.

WAS WERE – mind map


Look at the mind map below and study the usage of the words WAS and WERE. I have tried to present the grammar a bit unusually and put WERE first. Moreover, I list a lot of subjects to give the students a chance to deduce their own rules.

was were mind map

WAS WERE – Drill


Play the following recording. After each subject there is a pause in which you should supply the correct form WAS of WERE. After this pause you will hear the correct form given by the native speaker. This recording is suitable for listening to in your car or on your mobile phone or iPod.

You can download the file by right-clicking on the following link

The verbs WAS and WERE drill – download

Videos

You can practise the grammar using the following Youtube videos. In the first video, read and complete the senteces with WAS or WERE. Try not to make a mistake.

In this video, you should make negative sentences with WAS or WERE.

WAS WERE – Games


In the following quizzes you can test your knowledge of the grammar. The first quiz is in HTML5 and it will play on any mobile device. If you pass the test you will be able to play the game called TIC-TAC-TOE. The game is quite difficult, but believe me there is a way to win it. Can you find it?

If you want to play the game on the full screen click the button below:

WAS WERE – TIC TAC TOE full screen

The second game is in Flash and it will play just on your desktop. However, it is suitable for a classroom use, as the questions are short and there comes a short game after each question the students pass. The game is called A car race and it is quite popular with students.

If you want to play the game on the full screen click the button below:

WAS WERE – CAR RACE game – full screen
Irregular verbs again
Irregular verbs again

I have already published several posts on irregular verbs: Past participles – divided according to the pronunciation and Present perfect tense. However, a week ago a student of mine contacted me and asked me if I could create a way for him to learn the irregular verbs. He spends a lot of time driving so he asked me to prepare something to listen to in his car. So I did. In this post there are 33 irregular verbs presented in an associative matrix, in mp3 for listening, in mp3 for learning and two games for practising them.
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Irregular verbs – learning


Here you can find two ways to learn the irregular verbs. I have tried both and both work. The first one is called associative learning and you should write two words in your mother tongue under each verb. The words should be similar to the English words and at the same time they should emphasize the differences between the forms. For example Drive – Dr, Iveta DROVE – Dr., ovce, DRIVEN – Dři, venku. Create your own associations and you will see that you will know the verbs quickly.
Irregular verbs cards for associative learning

Here is the pdf version of all the irregular verbs:

Irregular verbs_part1

Irregular verbs – Listen and learn


In learning there are only a few methods which work for everyone. One of them is called Random repeat. You are presented with something new and then after a short time you are tested. Then another new thing is presented and you are tested again. This is repeated several times and at the end you know a lot. You can try this method here. You will here three irregular verbs and then you will hear just the infinitive and you have 3 seconds (quite a lot of time actually) to supply the past tense and past participle. After the three seconds you will hear the correct answers and another verb. I hope it will work for you:

If you need just the correct pronunciation of each of the verbs presented above, here is the mp3 with all of the verbs:

You can download the files here:

All the irregular verbs
All the verbs learning mp3

Irregular verbs – games

Once you believe that you know the irregular verbs, it is time to practise them. Here there are two games for your mobile phones to practise the irregular verbs:

If you want to enjoy the game on the full screen click on the button:

Irregular verbs – Tower defence

In the second game you should fill in the sentences with the correct words. If you pass the test you can play the game called Math pop and practise your maths at the same time.

If you want to play the game on a full screen, click the button below:
Irregular verbs – Math pop

You can find several online exercises at our new site grammarlane.com to practice irregular verbs.