There are also activities for revising or practicing tenses. It is much easier to present tenses than to find good communicative practice. It is necessary for students to practice, to see and hear tenses in use. It appeals their attention to tenses and provides their quicker remembering.
For an advanced level you may prepare a fairy tale or a story. You can find examples of fairy tales at Amazon.com.” The teacher divides the story into paragraphs and cuts up the story. The task of the students is to place all the parts in the correct order and read them. As soon as the order is checked, it is time for a reading race during which students look at a worksheet and find various examples of all sorts of grammar points, such as:
Find… • an example of a/an applied before an occupation (If aricles do not exist in your native language, pay students’ attention to their apply). • present perfect for a finished action that has a connection with the present tense. • find an example of present indefinite • present prefect for an action that began in the past and goes on up to the present moment • a superlative degree of the adjective
Such activity encourages your students to think about some of the rules for tenses and other structures and find them in the context. If you want to use a warmer to repeat some tenses, use a game of moving questions where various tenses are applied in the questions. Grammar practice is very useful and effective. One more activity that can be applied to revise tenses is the grammar auction. You may apply Songs in Class either. Traditionally the teacher prints out the lyrics, write out some unknown or difficult words that students should fill in while listening a song. Use words that sudents can understand. The teacher should at first listen to the song herself or himself and pay attention to the words that are difficult to hear and identify. Another more interactive and competitive activity is to take 10-15 words from a song and write them on big peaces of paper. The teacher explains the meaning or gives an example first, and then the students choose the correct word that the teacher hangs on the board. The teacher divides the students into two groaps. They should take these words off the board as quickly as they hear them. But only the person who stands first in each line can take the word off, other participants of the group can name the word as soon as they hear it, but they are not allowed to take it off. As soon as the first persons in each line take off the word, the next two participants take part in the activity.
Such activity is funny but useful and effective, because it encourages people to listen attentively. Such activity will be interesting even for adults. You may take such songs as “If I Had a Million Dollars” by Barenaked Ladies and “Imagine” by John Lennon.
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