Have you ever...? Christmassy Questions

Hi Teachers!

At the moment I'm teaching present perfect simple in order to express personal experiences. Since Christmas is coming I thought that my students could practise the target language focusing on their own experiences about the best time of the year!

I made up a set of cards with "Have you ever...?" questions about Christmas.

TYPE OF GAME: CARD GAME
STUDENTS: YOUNG ADULTS/ADULTS A2-B1
LINGUISTIC SKILL: SPEAKING/LISTENING

HAVE YOU EVER... CHRISTMAS QUESTIONS
Just cut out the cards and put them face down on the desk.

Each student turns a card and read the question. Then decide who they want to ask the question to.

Or you can give each student 3 cards (I played with 5 students) and if the person they ask the question answers "Yes, I have" they can get rid of their card by putting it on the desk. But if the person they ask the question, answers "No, I haven't", they have to keep the card. The person who gives away all their cards first, wins! Of course students need to give explanation for their answers if they don't want to pick up their classmates' cards!

I hope you will have fun with your students!

Make it visual, make it personal: PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE

It's difficult to remember all the uses of PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE especially for Italian students. That's why I decided to create this map which sums up the main uses. I hope it will be useful for you and your students.

Bye for now,

Larissa

The power of mobile apps - No3 FaceGoo Lite (a lesson plan)

I got the idea for this lesson from a TV game show I used to watch a couple of years ago. It was successful with my students because it made a thorny grammatical issue seem funnier and easier.

Learners: Teenagers - Adults
Level: Intermediate
Time: 90 minutes

1) Show the learners the following picture

Speculate about who he might is by using modal verbs of speculation e.g. it might be, it can't be, it must be, etc.

2) I reckon you and your students cannot guess who he is, that's why you need to listen to this man talking about himself. http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/texttospeech_output_files/0302246001427045995/5416869.mp3
[I used a text to speech online software to create the tape, click on the link to download it]

By now you know who he is, don't you? Yes, it's Brad Pitt.

3) Hand in the handout above and ask the learners to answer the following questions

4) Tell the learners to underline the verbs in the speech bubbles meanwhile draw on the board a two-column chart.
Ask them in which tenses they are. The answer is: PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE & PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS.

4) Ask students to report the sentences in the right column and then together try to understand why you use whether present perfect simple or past simple.
In my case, I used a smart board and this was the result:

5) It's time to check if your learners have understood the difference.
According to the number of the students you can decide if they will work individually, in pairs or in groups of 3 or 4. In my case they worked in groups of 3.
Each group has a biography of a famous living person but there are 10 missing verbs. They need to fill in the gaps with the right verbs conjugated in the right tenses. Finally, they need to guess who the celeb is.

6) Monitor the learners while they are working and give them tips (e.g. "Do you know when the action happened?") or help them with the vocabulary.

7) Now it's learners' turn! (In class or as homework)

a) Download 1picture of a famous living person.

b) Write a short biography (80-100 words) about him/her using present perfect simple and past simple  (You can use www.biography.com to get some information.)

c) Edit the picture with the mobile app FaceGoo Lite (Free Android/iOS)

d) Record your voice while while you give hints about the mysterious famous person. Remember to use the 3rd person singular. 

e) Students listen to each other's biographies and try to guess who the mysterious celebs are.

I hope you and your students will enjoy this lesson. If you try it out please let me know in the comments ;-)