Filed under: Grammar | Tags: English With Jennifer, ESL games with song lyrics, grammar games, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, musical chairs, Verb Tenses
This is a simple concept that allows the teacher to choose songs and verb tenses that are most appropriate for a given group of students, depending on their age and language level.
STEP 1 – Select a song for your students. Distribute copies of the lyrics. NOTE: It may not be ideal to use the entire lyrics of a song. Sometimes a single verse will work best.
STEP 2 – Play a recording of the song. Discuss any new vocabulary to help students comprehend the lyrics.
STEP 3 – Place three chairs in the front of the classroom. Designate one PAST, one PRESENT, and the third FUTURE. (Index cards can be used as labels on the backs of each chair, or you can place the chairs near the board and write a time periods above each chair.) Explain that three different students will take turns reading the lyrics in the three different chairs. One student will be able to read the lyrics as written, but the other two students will be required to make changes to suit the tense designated by the chairs they are sitting in.
STEP 4 – After the lyrics are changed correctly to a different tense, the class can discuss the changes in meaning.
VARIATION:
With lower level students, you’ll have covered fewer verb tenses. In this case, use only two chairs to contrast the tenses the students already know (e.g., the simple present and the present progressive) with newer tenses (e.g., simple past and the past progressive).
MODEL: (Demonstrate for the students)
First lines of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
(As is – Present: present perfect progressive)
I’ve been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I’ve been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time of day
= I started working early this morning, and I’m probably still working.
(Past: change present perfect progressive to past perfect progressive)
I’d been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I’d been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time of day
= I was working up to some point in the past, and then something else happened.
(Future: change present perfect progressive to future perfect progressive)
I’ll have been working on the railroad
All the livelong day
I’ll have been working on the railroad
Just to pass the time of day
= I will work until some future point in time.
Other Song Suggestions:
Filed under: Vocabulary | Tags: English With Jennifer, everyday objects, everyday vocabulary, everyday words, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, vocabulary games
I must confess this activity was inspired by a baby shower game, but hey, you got to be open to all sources of inspiration when you’re looking for creative, meaningful activities to help language learners. The activity was born out of the need to teach ESL students how to talk about everyday objects from a paper clip to paper towels. This can be used as part of a vocabulary lesson, or it can be prepared and kept on hand for when you have some extra time at the end of class. It can be adapted for almost any level.
STEP 1 – Select 4-5 common objects, and place each one in a separate paper bag. Number the bags.
STEP 2 – Pass the bags around the room. Students must reach one hand in the bag and guess the object based on touch not sight. They may not look in the bag or take out the object. They should write their guesses in their notebooks. If they do not know the name of an object, they can write its purpose next to the appropriate number.
STEP 3 – Collect the bags. Ask a volunteer to tell his/ her guess for bag #1. See if the class agrees. Pull out the object and confirm/ correct the guess. Write the word on the board. Encourage students to check their spelling of the word in their notebooks. Repeat this procedure for the remaining bags.
STEP 4 – Next to each word on the board, list possible actions one can perform with it. Again, encourage students to copy the information in their notebooks.
Examples:
Paper clip = clip papers together
Paper towel = wipe the table, wipe up a mess, dust, clean a mirror
Battery = put in a battery, take out a battery, replace a battery
Key chain = hold keys, place a key on a key chain, keep keys on a key chain
STEP 5 – Erase the board, leaving only the names of the objects. Quiz the students. Give them a scenario, and let them offer advice using the name of the object and a specific action. You can put them in two teams. Award a point to the team that is first to correctly offer advice.
Examples:
1. The clock on the wall isn’t working. It stopped working this morning.
= You should change the battery.
2. Oh no! Someone spilled coffee on the table.
= You can wipe it up with a paper towel.
3. I sometimes lose my house key and my mailbox key.
= You should keep them on a key chain.
4. I have homework from so many students that I mix all the papers up.
= You can clip all the papers for one class with a paper clip.
Filed under: Grammar, Student Stumpers | Tags: apostrophe, English With Jennifer, genitive case, genitive constructions, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, of-construction, of-genitive, possessive adjectives, possessive nouns, possessive pronouns, student stumper
QUESTION: I heard someone say a friend of mine. Is this different from my friend?
ANSWER: They could be seen as synonymous structures. Couldn’t we introduce a friend both ways?
I’d like you to meet my friend, Bill.
I’d like you to meet a friend of mine, Bill.
However, if we take the time to ponder the two structures, we may discover some subtle differences. Let’s start with the fact that sometimes we have more than one way to express possession. Consider another example that’s similar but doesn’t make use of a possessive adjective or possessive pronoun:
The couple’s families and friends attended the beach wedding.
The families and friends of the couple attended the beach wedding.
Here again we have a choice of two ways to express possession or belonging, and one of the choices is the of-construction. Do we have this choice of alternatives with all nouns? No.
Let’s recall the limitations of the apostrophe. Use of the apostrophe to show possession is most common for people and animals. We also use it for organizations like a company, a committee, and the administration. According to Greenbaum and Quirk, “[g]eographical names take the genitive inflection, especially when they are used to imply human collectivity.” This would mean the following are all appropriate and acceptable to use:
Lisa’s mother
The cat’s fur
The school board’s decision
Pittsburgh’s football team
It would also mean that the following are not appropriate and not acceptable:
The house’s condition
Boston’s highways
Instead, we should use alternative structures:
The condition of the house
The highways in Boston
But rules are not always clear when we’re dealing with objects that are inanimate and without gender. For example, should we say:
The Sun’s diameter OR the diameter of the sun?
The ship’s captain OR the captain of the ship?
Look online and you’ll find many uses of the apostrophe as well as the of-construction to indicate the genitive with words like sun and ship.
Let’s consider a larger context and see if that helps us decide on a structure when two alternatives exist.
Context A:
The Earth has a diameter of about 12,742 kilometers.
- Really? And what about the diameter of the Sun?
Context B
Class, today we’re going to learn about the Sun.
The Sun’s diameter is about 1,392,000 kilometers.
While exploring the choice between the two structures, Greenbaum and Quirk discuss the role of focus and the order of new and old information.[1] I would argue that these two factors explain why the of-construction works better in Context A and the use of the apostrophe works better in Context B. In Context A, the Sun is the focus. In Context B, diameter is new information. Would you agree?
Greenbaum and Quirk also consider the possible need for clarity in number.[2] They use these examples:
George’s sister is coming to stay with us.
= ambiguous (How many sisters are there? Just one?)
One of George’s sisters is coming to stay with us.
= clear (He has more than one sister.)
If we now return to our original examples, I don’t think we can argue that one or the other structure puts more focus on Bill, but I do think there’s a nuance regarding number:
I’d like you to meet my friend, Bill.
= ambiguous (How many friends do you have? Just one?)
I’d like you to meet a friend of mine, Bill.
= clear (You have more than one friend.)
What are your thoughts? What possible differences do you see between my friend and a friend of mine?
[1] Greenbaum, Sidney and Randolph Quirk. A Student’s Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1995. Pp.387-388.
[2] Greenbaum, Sidney and Randolph Quirk. A Student’s Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1995. Pp. 103-105.
Filed under: Writing | Tags: English With Jennifer, JenniferESL, Jennifer Lebedev, adverbs, conjunctions, writing activities, sentence connectors, transitional words, transitional phrases
LEVEL: low intermediate to advanced
LANGUAGE FOCUS: conjunctions and transitional words (sentence connectors)
OBJECTIVES: To understand the function of these structures and to identify when it’s appropriate to use them.
STEP 1 – Present the conjunctions/ transitional words you have selected for your students. With lower level students, you may choose coordinating conjunctions such as and or but. With upper level students, you may select transitional words and phrases such as moreover or in spite of. Need help deciding? Try Joe Landberger’s list or the one shared on Wikipedia. I’d suggest presenting only one or two at a time.
STEP 2 – Have students compose a short paragraph in which the target words or phrases are used. You may require only 3-4 sentences from lower level students. You may ask upper level students to produce 4-6 sentences. Prompt them with questions that focus on general knowledge or general experience:
- How do you like to spend your weekends?
- What hobbies did you have as a child?
- Name two places you wish to visit and explain what you want to travel there.
- Etc.
Model (with moreover):
I like to spend my weekends at home. I work and study during the week, and I’m always running somewhere. On the weekend, I just want to stay in one place. Moreover, by Saturday there’s a lot of housework to do. I do laundry and clean in the morning. In the evening I make a nice dinner and watch TV.
STEP 3 – Correct students’ work, focusing on their use of the target words or phrases. Next, have them rewrite their paragraphs without the conjunctions or sentence connectors.
Model (with moreover):
I like to spend my weekends at home. I work and study during the week, and I’m always running somewhere. On the weekend, I just want to stay in one place. By Saturday there’s a lot of housework to do. I do laundry and clean in the morning. In the evening I make a nice dinner and watch TV.
STEP 4 – Students pair up and exchange compositions. They must read their partner’s work and identify where the conjunction or sentence connector would function best. Alternatives can be discussed. This can be repeated two or three times with different partners.
Filed under: Vocabulary | Tags: English With Jennifer, JenniferESL, Jennifer Lebedev, informal English, idioms
Few, if any, would argue against the need to focus on vocabulary skills in the ESL classroom. All the buzz about the Academic Word List and the General Service List attests to that. High frequency words are taught for general and academic purposes. But what about idioms? Can we argue the need to teach them? Should they be regarded as an appetizer or dessert and never a part of the main course?
I’ve written about how to teach idioms in the past, but I’d like to consider if we should teach them at all. I believe there are some cases when they must be addressed. For example:
- When a student asks us directly to explain an idiomatic expression
- When an idioms appears in a reading or listening passage and could cause confusion
What about at our own initiative? Should we make a deliberate choice to teach a set of idioms? While I wouldn’t rank idioms as high as verb tenses and intonation patterns, I think they do have a place in the ESL classroom. My reasoning is the same as it is for teaching informal speech patterns. The students are going to encounter idioms, and if they’ve had some exposure to these expressions, they’ll be better prepared to comprehend and react to real-life situations. Students don’t necessarily have to incorporate idioms into their speech. In fact, they’d be better off using idioms sparingly and cautiously. It would be easy for a non-native speaker to misjudge the appropriacy of an idiom or forget the grammar a certain idiom requires. (Correct: Give someone the boot… Incorrect: Give to someone a boot…)
If you decide to teach idioms, I’d offer the same advice as I did in my other posting on idioms. Try to go beyond the meaning. Teach register and appropriacy. As with any vocabulary, limit the number of items you teach at one time and always teach vocabulary in context. Use authentic sources if possible to emphasize the frequency of idiomatic expressions. From advertisements to song lyrics to news headlines, idioms are out there. I think it’s a good idea to help our students make sense of the everyday language they will encounter.
Filed under: professional development | Tags: English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, teacher's attitude
Some of my work in the past fills me with a mixture of humility and pride. I see, for example, my earlier videos on YouTube and cringe at the bad lighting, poor audio recordings, and use of fonts that I didn’t know would be too small on screen. I compare those videos to what I’m able to do now, and I’m proud of how I’ve improved the quality of my lessons. (There’s still so much to learn about video making!) It’s similar to what I experience when I read a copy of my first publication, a children’s story in an EFL magazine in Russia. I want to take out a red pen and start correcting my own work. I’m almost embarrassed I ever wrote such awkward phrases, and yet I’m thankful that I can say my command of English and my ability to teach it has improved over the years. I think it’s important for all of us to have enough confidence and pride to share our knowledge, but not let go of humility, the quality that reminds us we can never stop learning and trying to improve as teachers.
Over the years, many English language learners have shown great respect when addressing me as their teacher, but I wonder how many of them realize that I’m the one who is deeply humbled. A number of experiences have served as lessons in humility. Each one made me want to teach my best and offer what I felt my students deserved. To name a few:
- Having children from other countries as young as nine years old reach out after watching my videos on the Internet and write to me in English! (I didn’t even know Pig Latin at age 9.)
- Recognizing the talent of some of my students and feeling privileged to have them follow my instruction. I’ve taught English to ballroom dancers, artists, musicians, black belts in the martial arts, and others with special gifts.
- Finding out that English was one of two or three other foreign languages some students speak.
- Understanding the impact my students want to have and have had on society. For example, I’ve taught social workers, priests, and journalists.
Have you had similar experiences? Feel free to share them.
Filed under: Pronunciation | Tags: English With Jennifer, JenniferESL, Jennifer Lebedev, pronunciation activity, intonation, intonation in a series, making a list
Level: intermediate to advanced
Language focus: intonation in series of items
STEP 1 – Model and practice intonation patterns for a series of items.
Pattern 1: rising intonation is used for each item except the last, which is spoken with falling intonation. Pattern 2: level intonation is used for each item except the last, which is spoken with falling intonation. Pattern 3: rising intonation is used for each item, including the last, which indicates the list could go on.
STEP 2 – Explain that the class must organize a celebration for the entire school (you can decide the occasion), and there are many things to do. Write the first four tasks on the board and invite students to suggest others:
- We need to buy food.
- We need to plan entertainment.
- We need to decide where to have the event.
- We need to buy a gift for the guest(s) of honor.
STEP 3 – Working with a partner, students must take turns making suggestions. The suggestions must be in the form of a list (minimum of 3 items). Prompts can be provided if necessary:
- We need to buy food. / We can buy… (or make)
- We need to plan entertainment. / We can hire… (or ask)
- We need to decide where to have the event. / We can have the celebration…
- We need to buy a gift for the guest(s) of honor. / We can buy… (or make)
Appropriate intonation should be used to make the series of suggestions. Model the exchange with a volunteer:
Speaker A (student volunteer): We need to buy food.
Speaker B (teacher): No problem. We can buy fruit, crackers, cheese, and juice.
VARIATION: Don’t want to plan a party? Use a list of common problems:
- I often lose my keys. / Why don’t you try…? – or – Maybe you can…
- I sometimes miss my bus.
- I don’t have time to eat breakfast.
- I don’t like cleaning my apartment.
Filed under: Grammar, Student Stumpers | Tags: English With Jennifer, existential sentences, here, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, there, there as the subject
QUESTION: This sentence doesn’t make sense: There’s a mistake here. How can there and here be in the same sentence? Is the mistake here or there?
ANSWER: Students first learn to use here and there to identify the location or proximity of a person or thing. In the following examples, here and there function as adverbs:
- I live here. = in this place, in this town, in this house, etc.
- Bob lives there. = in that place, in that town, in that house, etc.
English has many informal, spoken uses of here and there that can confuse language learners, such as here you are, there you go, hi there, and here we go again. But one other standard use of there is to express the existence of a person or thing. We don’t have to teach the tongue-twisting term existential sentence, but we can explain that we need the help of there to state something is. In the following examples, there functions as the subject and has nothing to do with distance in terms of space or time:
- There is a book on the table. = The book exists, and it is on the table.
- There are papers on the table. = The papers exist, and they are on the table.
You can write a sentence on the board with one misspelled word and ask students to identify the mistake. (I see books on the tabel.) Once they do, you can confirm the location of the mistake and point to it, saying, “Yes, there’s a mistake here.” Ask which word expresses location, here or there? They should now understand that here still functions as an adverb and there functions as the subject, helping us explain that a mistake exists somewhere.
Here are similar stumpers for you. Are any of the following sentences incorrect? If so, why? Post your answer, and I’ll tell you if I agree.
- There’s no reason to panic.
- There’s always lots of things to talk about.
- There is always something to do.
- There are never enough minutes in a day.
- There are two projects due this week.
- There are a business plan and a sales report due.
- There is a business plan due on Wednesday and a sales report due on Friday.
Filed under: Classroom Tips | Tags: English With Jennifer, ESL textbooks, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, teacher's guide, teacher's manual
No. That’s the short and simple answer, but did I ask the right question? Maybe the question should be can a teacher’s manual help you teach? To this question I’d answer affirmatively. Would you? May I pose a more direct question? Do you use the teacher’s manual for any textbook you use in the classroom? I’d bet a good number of teachers would answer no.
In my own classroom experience, sometimes the teacher’s manual simply wasn’t made available. Schools where I taught supplied me with a copy of the student’s book, but didn’t always provide a teacher’s manual. Of course, some textbooks are published without a teacher’s version or a teacher’s manual, but if such an aide is in print, it would certainly be appropriate to ask a school administrator to purchase them for staff use.
How exactly can a teacher’s manual help us? Often this resource includes an answer key to unit exercises and supplies unit tests and final exams. This is a common reason for taking the copy off the shelf in the staff room. As we know, creating our own tests is a time-consuming process. Also, it’s sometimes necessary to double check an answer to a tricky item in an exercise rather than assume we’re right. But surely there must be other reasons for cracking open a teacher’s manual. What are they? I think these teaching aides occasionally get a bad rap. Seasoned teachers might feel that using a teacher’s manual somehow diminishes their expertise.
I’d like to encourage teachers with both limited and vast years of experience to give teacher’s manuals a chance to help them. A couple of minutes spent glossing over an author’s suggestions for a particular unit might lead to ideas that improve a lesson plan or add a new alternative to an exercise which you’ve done a half dozen times in the past.
Other treasures a teacher’s manual may contain:
- Transcripts of listening exercises.
- Suggestions for varying the format of an exercise and/or the manner in which unit exercises can be corrected. (I like the one suggestion I found in a manual for the Focus on Grammar series. It suggests having those who complete exercises quickly put their answers on the board. Then when everyone is done, the class can question and correct any answers written on the board.)
- Alternative activities.
- Ideas for your presentation/ explanation at the board.
- Cultural notes or additional language notes.
Filed under: Student Stumpers | Tags: a lot of, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, lots of, plenty of, quantifiers, tricky grammar
QUESTION:
I know LOTS and A LOT OF mean many. I can say I have lots of friends or I have a lot of friends. Is there any difference between them? What about PLENTY OF? Is it the same?
ANSWER:
It can be confusing to have so many similar expressions. I told the student about the difference in register, explaining that LOTS and A LOT OF are more informal than MANY. After some reflection, I began to consider if LOTS is the most informal of the three. It seems that A LOT OF has more widespread use than LOTS, and for that reason A LOT OF doesn’t seem limited to informal spoken English. Would you agree?
Since offering my initial explanation, I’ve also wondered about the nuances of each expression. Does anyone else sense that LOTS is slightly more carefree in its estimation of amount or number to the point of exaggeration? Example:
Do you know what you’re doing?
– Sure! I’ve done this lots of times!
Yeah, right!
As for PLENTY, I think it has the versatility of A LOT. It’s common in everyday English, but it’s permissible to use it in more formal situations, especially when the speaker wants to imply there’s more than enough of something. Examples: We got plenty of time, so let’s not rush, okay? / We have plenty of time before the deadline, so I suggest we be as thorough as possible. The second is a more formal statement, but both uses of PLENTY are acceptable, aren’t they?
I also told the student who originally stumped me with this question that having a choice among similar words and phrases can be confusing, but at the same time it allows creativity in our expression. As students reach higher levels of proficiency, we can show them that knowing synonymous expressions furthers their ability to communicate. We can teach them how variety in both word choice and grammar can make their speech more accurate and more colorful.
