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A grammar quiz
Questions
1 Which sentence is correct?
Answers
a)
a) I saw a film ago a week.
b) I saw a film last week.
2 What’s the past of eat?
adverb
3 The past of go is goed. Correct or incorrect?
ago
4 What word completes this sentence?
ate
I saw her two hours ______.
5 What’s the adverb for good?
b)
6 Which sentence is correct?
did
a) He cooks badly.
b) He badly cooks.
7 Is quietly an adjective or an adverb?
incorrect
8 What’s the past of make?
made
9 Is this sentence correct?
nervously
I didn’t saw you yesterday?
10 Choose the correct alternative.
no
J.K. Rowling write / wrote Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire.
11 Complete the answer.
well
a) Did you watch TV last night?
b) Yes, I _____.
12 Choose the correct alternative.
wrote
He laughed nervous / nervously.
How many did you get right?
11–12: Excellent. You know the grammar!
8–10: Good. Think about the answers you got wrong.
5–7: You need to study more.
0–4: You need to study a lot more.
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A grammar quiz – Teacher’s notes
Level: Elementary (equivalent to CEF level A1)
Aim: Students revise the grammar from Unit 6 by doing an interactive quiz.
Language focus: Grammar: adverbs of manner and past simple irregular verbs.
Preparation: Make one copy for each pair, fold along the dotted line as indicated.
Procedure:
1. Put the students in pairs and tell them they are going to do a quiz.
2. Hand out the worksheets and tell the students to work together and answer the
questions on the left-hand side.
3. Set a time limit, i.e. 10 minutes. Monitor and give hints where necessary.
4. After the students have finished ask them to unfold the sheet.
5. Tell the students that they now have the answers, but that they are not in the correct
order.
6. The students should now match the answers on the right to the questions on the left
and compare the answers to the ones they have given (this technique allows the
students to check their answers themselves).
7. Monitor and help where necessary.
8. Check any answers that need clarifying.
Note: For some of the questions you might want to extend the answers, i.e. If goed isn’t
the correct past tense form of go, what is?
Optional follow-up activity:
Ask the students to work in pairs and write five quiz questions of their own. Put the pairs
in groups of 4 and get them to exchange their quiz questions and try to answer the other
pair’s quiz.
Answers:
1 – b)
2 – ate
3 – incorrect
4 – ago
5 – well
6 – a)
7 – adverb
8 – made
9 – no
10 – wrote
11 – did
12 – nervously
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What’s in my house?
Down
1 This is in the kitchen. You
make food hot in it.
2 _____________________
_____________________
5 _____________________
_____________________
6 _____________________
_____________________
8 _____________________
_____________________
10 ____________________
_____________________
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Across
3 You sit on this in the living
room.
4 _____________________
_____________________
7 _____________________
_____________________
9 _____________________
_____________________
11 ____________________
_____________________
12 ____________________
_____________________
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What’s in my house? – Teacher’s Notes
Level: Elementary (equivalent to CEF level A1–A2)
Aim: Students practise giving definitions of vocabulary to complete a crossword.
Language focus: Vocabulary: parts of a house, furniture.
Preparation:
Make one copy of the worksheet for each student, cut along the dotted line as indicated.
Procedure:
1. Divide the class into two groups, decide who is A and who is B.
2. Tell the students that you are going to give each group a different half of a crossword.
3. Hand out the worksheets and ask students to write definitions for the words they have
in their crossword.
4. Put students in pairs – one with crossword A with one with crossword B.
5. They must take it in turns to ask for clues for their missing words to complete their
crosswords, e.g.
A: What’s number 3 across?
B: This is in the living room. You sit on it.
6. Monitor and help where necessary.
7. Check the answers together.
Optional follow-up activity.
Ask students to describe there house using the words from the crossword puzzle and the
structure There is / are ….
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Fussy eaters
----------------------------
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Fussy eaters – Teacher’s notes
Level: Elementary (equivalent to CEF level A1–A2)
Aim: Students practice asking simple questions about lexical items connected to food.
Through the answers they receive they identify the lexical item they were given.
Language focus: Vocabulary: Food
Preparation: Make one copy of the set of cards for each group of students and cut out.
You will also need tape or pins so that you can fix the cards to the student’s backs.
Procedure:
1. Start by modelling the task.
2. Ask a student to pin one of the cards from the set on your back – tell them to make
sure you don’t see the word.
3. Tell the students you will ask them questions to try and find out what the word is.
4. Begin by asking questions like: Can you eat it? Am I red? Do you cook me? Am I
countable? Am I an adjective?, etc. Ask enough questions to try and guess the word.
5. Elicit some of the questions you asked and write up the question stems on the board,
i.e., Can you …? Do you …? Am I …?
6. Put students in groups of 5-8 and tell them that each one will have a card pinned to
their back, they should ask the other students questions and try to guess the word.
7. Give each group a set of cards and get them to pin a card to each other’s backs.
Monitor and help where necessary.
8. At the end, you could write up some of the mistakes you overheard in terms of the
questions formed.
Note: You could appoint a secretary in each group and ask this student to write down all
the questions asked. At the end, ask the group to look at these questions and correct any
mistakes they find.
Alternative procedure 1:
1. Rather than doing this activity in groups, do it as a whole class mingling activity.
2. Repeat steps 1-5 from above. You may need to copy more sets of cards.
3. Pin a card to the back of each student.
4. Ask the students to stand up and find a partner, they should then show their word to
their partner.
5. Next, they should ask three questions to try and find out what their word is.
6. Once both students have asked their questions, they should find a new partner and
repeat the process.
7. Students continue this until they guess their word. They then come to you and tell you
the word. If it is correct you can give them a new word and get them to repeat the
process.
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Alternative procedure 2:
1. Rather than pining the cards to the students backs, this same activity can be done in
small groups as a card game.
2. Repeat steps 1-5 from above.
3. Put students in pairs and give one set of cards to each pair. The cards should be placed
face down in a pile.
4. The first student picks up a card from the pile and the other student has to ask
questions until he/she guesses what the word is.
5. The procedure is then reversed with the other student picking up a card and answering
questions. Monitor and help where necessary.
6. At the end, you could write up some of the mistakes you overheard in terms of the
questions formed.
Optional follow-up activity:
Get students to choose five words and write a sentence using each word.
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What's happening in the street?
Worksheet A
What can you see in your picture? What are the people doing?
Talk to your partner and find the 7 differences.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Worksheet B
What can you see in your picture? What are the people doing?
Talk to your partner and find the 7 differences.
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What’s happening in the street? – Teacher’s notes
Level: Elementary
Aim: Students work in pairs and practise asking and answering questions about what
people are doing in a picture and try to find seven differences between the two pictures.
Language focus: Present continuous
Preparation: Make one copy of the two pictures for every pair and cut so that there is
one picture for each student.
Procedure:
1. Review some of the language for the activity i.e. What’s the man doing? Is there a
woman eating something? The girl is talking on a mobile phone. etc. You could do
this either using pictures, or drawing on the board or by miming a few actions.
2. Put students into pairs.
3. Explain you will give each of them a picture of a street scene, but there are seven
differences between the two pictures.
4. The students must talk with their partner and find the seven differences. They must
NOT show each other their pictures.
5. Hand out the Worksheets.
6. Monitor and help where necessary.
7. Check to see if the students have found all seven differences.
Answer key:
In Picture A: 1) a man taking photos; 2) a couple standing near a bench holding hands; 3)
two boys kicking a football; 4) a man sitting in a car behind the steering wheel, but still
parked; 5) a girl eating an ice cream; 6) a man smoking a cigarette; 7) one person
standing on the corner of the street.
In Picture B: 1) man with camera but not taking photos; 2) a couple standing near a bench
kissing; 3) one boy holding a football; 4) a man climbing into a car; 5) a girl talking on
her mobile phone; 6) a man drinking something; 7) two people standing on the corner
talking.
Optional follow-up activity:
1. Ask the students to draw a simple street scene of their own with various people doing
different things.
2. Put the students in pairs and get one of the students to describe their picture while the
other one tries to draw the picture. Once they’ve finished get them to swap roles
before they have a look at each others pictures.
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My Family
_________&_________
_________&_________
__________
__________
_________&_________
_________
__________
Ben has one sister.
Simon is married to Jane.
Jane has one son.
Alex is an only child.
Greg has one brother and one sister.
Louise is Glenda and Bill's daughter.
Glenda has three children.
Hannah's grandfather is called Bill.
Jane is Ben's aunt.
Greg doesn't have any children.
Greg's sister is called Louise.
Ben has two uncles.
Andy has two children.
Andy is Greg's brother-in-law.
Simon's father is called Bill.
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My Family – Teacher's notes
Level: Elementary
Aim: To get students to practise vocabulary connected to families and to make a family
tree by sharing information.
Language focus: Vocabulary connected to families i.e. mother, daughter, husband, sonin-law, uncle, only child, etc.
Preparation: Photocopy and cut up one worksheet per group of students (see procedure
for information about group size).
Procedure:
1. Put students into groups. There are 15 strips of information so it is possible to have
groups of 15, for example, with each student getting one piece of information.
Alternatively you could have groups of five where each student gets three pieces of
information.
2. Explain that you will hand out some information about a family. Working together, in
their group, the students have to make a family tree using the information. Ask them
to try to do this by speaking to each other and NOT by showing each other the
information they have. (However, if this is too difficult allow them to look at all the
information together).
3. Monitor and help where necessary.
4. Finally, check to see if the groups have the correct family tree.
Answer key
Bill & Glenda
Simon & Jane
Alex
Louise & Andy
Greg
Hannah
Ben
Optional follow-up activity.
Get the students to draw a simple family tree for themselves. Then, put the students in
pairs and get them to tell their partner about their family and to make a family tree based
on the information they are told before comparing it to their partner's original family tree.
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Grammy award winner interview
Student A
Name: _____________________________________________________________
Magazine name: _____________________________________________________
Make the questions. Invent 3 extra questions.
1. How/feel about the Grammy award?
_______________________________________________________________?
2. /ever won any other awards?
_______________________________________________________________?
3. How/celebrate the award?
_______________________________________________________________?
4. Who/at your party?
_______________________________________________________________?
5. Where/from?
_______________________________________________________________?
6. Where/live?
_______________________________________________________________?
7. What/favourite way to relax?
_______________________________________________________________?
8. Where/travelled to this year?
_______________________________________________________________?
9. How often/see your family?
_______________________________________________________________?
10. _______________________________________________________________?
11. _______________________________________________________________?
12. _______________________________________________________________?
__________________________________________
Student B
Name: _______________________________________________________
Invent your life! Make notes about how you feel about the award, where you are from, where
you live, your friends, your free time, your holidays, your family/ your love life…. Look at the
examples to help.
feel – I am very excited about the award. I have never won an award before. I’m very
happy.
from – I am from New York but now I live in London.
• feel _____________________________________________________________
• from ____________________________________________________________
• friends __________________________________________________________
• free time _________________________________________________________
• holidays _________________________________________________________
• family ___________________________________________________________
• love life __________________________________________________________
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Grammy award winner interview
Level: Elementary
Language aim: To revise question forms and question words: what, where, who, how
often and to practise the use of the present perfect.
Activity: This activity can be done after Unit 12, when the students have read about
Grammy award winners. It is a pairwork activity where the students act out an interview
with a winner of these awards.
Preparation: This activity works best if the students have gone over question forms
beforehand. To prepare, make a copy of the handout for each pair and cut the handout in
two for Students A and B.
Procedure:
1. Ask what the following artists have in common: Tracy Chapman, Sting, Black Eyed
Peas and Justin Timberlake.
Answer: They have all won a Grammy award. Then ask the students what they
remember about the awards from the reading they did from the Student’s Book.
2. Ask them to imagine what kind of life these famous artists have. Ask them about:
places they live (e.g. London, New York, etc.); where they have travelled to; what
type of friends they have; what they do in their free time; what they like or don’t like
about their life. The aim here is to model the language: ‘Where do they live?’, ‘Has
Tracy travelled a lot?’, ‘Who are Tracy’s friends? (famous people or ordinary
people?)’, etc.
3. Put the class into pairs, A and B. If you have a class of teenagers ask them to think of
a current music artist they like. If you have a class of adults tell them to choose from
the following list of Grammy winners:
Lionel Richie
Christina Aguilera
Justin Timberlake
Frank Sinatra
Celine Dion
Bono (U2)
Madonna
Elton John
Paul McCartney
Cher
4. Tell Student As they work for a famous music magazine like Rolling Stone and
Student Bs are the artist who has just won a Grammy. They are going to prepare an
interview for the magazine and perform it for the class.
5. Give out the handouts and give instructions for Student As to complete the questions
using the prompts and Student Bs to invent ideas about their life based on the
prompts. The information does not match exactly to make it more realistic and
challenging, but you can guide Student Bs to invent suitable information for Student
As’ questions. It might help to put Student As together and Student Bs together for
this stage so they can help each other.
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6. Monitor and help the students with their preparation. Allow plenty time for this stage.
7. Now tell the students to do the interview. Emphasize to the students that they
shouldn’t write the conversation down. Demonstrate how to start, with a strong
student, Hello, I’m ______from ______ magazine. How are you? Can I ask you some
questions? etc.
8. Monitor and make notes of any problems with question forms or the present perfect.
9. Go through the language you have noted with the class when they have finished the
interview and ask them to repeat the exercise without making the same mistakes.
10. Ask pairs to perform for the group.
11. Reverse roles if you have time.
Alternative procedure:
If you have the time and the equipment you could record the interviews and let students
listen to themselves and correct any mistakes they make and congratulate themselves on
their performance.
If you are teaching one-to-one take part in the activity, and let the student decide which
role they would like to play.
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myfreeroom.com
You have a free room in your house and you want to offer the room to tourists who visit
your city or town. Write a description of your house, room and location and put it on the
internet website myfreeroom.com. Use the questions and the box below.
Give your house a name: ____________________________ (Guest House, Hotel, Bed &
Breakfast)
1. Write some adjectives to describe your house/flat. ___________________________
2. Is it near an important area? For example, the town centre, shops or an important
monument. __________________________________________________________
3. Write some adjectives to describe the room. ________________________________
4. What’s in the room? Bed, table, shower, etc. _______________________________
5. When is the room free? All year? Summer? ________________________________
6. What food do you serve? Breakfast, dinner, etc. _____________________________
7. Do you accept children, animals or smokers? _______________________________
8. How much does the room cost per night? __________________________________
Now use the box below to write an advert for your room for myfreeroom.com. Cut the
advert out. Your teacher will give you instructions on what to do with your advert.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - cut - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
myfreeroom.com
Name of your hotel: _______________________________________________________
Description: _____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
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myfreeroom.com – Teacher’s notes
Level: Elementary (equivalent to CEF level A2).
Aim: Students write a description of the house and room they want to rent to tourists.
They then read each other’s descriptions and choose the most attractive room.
Skills: This activity integrates the skills of writing and reading.
Vocabulary: The lesson recycles vocabulary practised in Unit 5D.
Preparation: Photocopy the worksheet, one copy per student. Have some scissors ready
to cut out the students’ adverts.
Procedure:
1. Lead-in questions. Ask the students which hotel they chose from Unit 5D and why?
Students answer the questions in pairs. Conduct a brief feedback session.
2. Tell them they are now going to describe a room in their house or flat. Give one copy
of the worksheet to each student and ask them to read the introductory paragraph. Ask
the students to turn the worksheet over again and summarize the paragraph. Ask them
guiding question: What do you have to do? Why are you describing your house or
flat?
3. Students complete the first part of the worksheet. They can refer to the adverts in Unit
5D to help them. This will give you an opportunity to give them language help as they
prepare their adverts.
4. Students now write a paragraph in the second part of the worksheet and cut out the
advert.
5. Place the adverts on the wall, board or any other suitable area in the classroom.
6. Invite the students to go and read the other adverts and choose a nice room for the
weekend.
7. Feedback. Students discuss which room they chose and why.
Extra idea: The class could then vote for the best room and award ‘Hotel of the Year’ to
the winner.
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Worksheet 1
st
Person of the 21 century
TIME magazine created the title ‘Person of the century’ to celebrate the most
important people of the 20th century. In December 1999 the magazine voted Albert
Einstein as ‘Person of the 20th century’. The editors believed that the 20th century
will be remembered for science and technology and that Einstein is the person
who had the biggest effect in this area during that period.
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Person of the 20th century
Now fold your worksheet and answer the following questions with your partner:
1. Who created the title ‘Person of the century’?
2. Why did they create it?
3. Who was the ‘Person of the 20th century’?
4. Why will the 20th century be remembered?
Person of the 21st century
1. Who has had the biggest effect on the 21st century?
2. Think of an individual or group of individuals who has had the biggest effect on
the news during this century.
Name of individual or group of individuals:__________________________________
3. Now go to Worksheet 2 and prepare a short biography of your ‘Person of the 21st
century’.
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Worksheet 2
st
Person of the 21 century
1. Answer the following questions on your personality (individual or group of
individuals):
a
Name: _______________________________________________________
b
Do they have a very public life?
c
What have they done in the 21st century?
d
Make a list of five infinitive verbs which represent your personality’s actions.
1. __________
3. __________
2. __________
4. __________
5. __________
2. Use the verbs to make sentences in the present perfect. For example, He has
helped the poor.
3. Write the sentences in the biography below:
I think ___________________________ should be the Person of the 21st century
because__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
You are going to make an oral presentation on your person to the class and vote for the Person
of the 21st century. Your teacher will give you instructions for this part.
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Person of the 21st century – Teacher’s notes
Level: Elementary (equivalent to CEF level A2)
Aim: Students create a biography, make an oral presentation of the biography to the class
and vote for the Person of the 21st century.
Grammar: The present perfect simple.
Preparation: Photocopy Worksheet 1, one copy per pair. Photocopy Worksheet 2, one
copy per student.
Procedure:
1. Start with some lead-in questions: Who is Jeff Bezos? Which magazine did he appear
in? Why did he appear in this magazine? Can you name any other people who have
appeared in previous years?
2. Give each pair a copy of Worksheet 1. Tell them that they have only a short time to
read the article before they fold their paper (set a time limit, for example one minute).
Students then fold the article along the dotted line.
3. In pairs students answer the questions on the article from memory. Conduct a brief
feedback with the whole class.
4. Now give the students thinking time, tell them you are going to ask them a question but
they must only think of their answer and not say it. Ask them who has had the biggest
effect on the 21st century so far (the century has only just started but this is fun). Allow
them a minute or two of silent time to think of their answer before they write the name on
the worksheet.
5. Give each student a copy of Worksheet 2. Students complete the worksheet
individually. This will give you an opportunity for some one-to-one teaching and
feedback.
6. In small groups students make an oral presentation of their Person of the 21st century
while the group listen. The listening task for the group is to listen to each presentation
because they have to vote for one of the other personalities (not their own). Each student
has one vote. Larger groups can be divided up into several smaller groups, for example
five or six students.
7. When the presentations are finished each individual student votes for the Person of the
21st century. This can be done by secret ballot: students write their vote on a piece of
paper and put it in a box.
Extra idea: For homework the students can read more about their personality or some of
the others on www.wikipedia.org or other information websites.
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Worksheet 1
Is it paella?
1 Look at the photo of paella. Can you remember what is in it? Ask your teacher for help.
2 Read the descriptions of these two popular international dishes. Do you know their
names?
This is a dish from Italy. For ____________ you need spaghetti, an onion, some garlic,
meat, tomato sauce, salt and pepper. It’s wonderful with red wine for lunch or dinner. I
like it with parmesan cheese.
This is a popular dish from India. It’s simple it has rice, an onion, some chicken or
vegetables and a spicy sauce. There are many different kinds of __________ and I like
it for dinner with a large glass of cold water. I eat lots of yoghurt for dessert. Very
important!
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Worksheet 2
Is it paella?
With your partner or team write descriptions of three popular international or local dishes.
This is a dish from __________. For this you need (list the ingredients):
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
It is (adjective) _________________________________________________________
(Extra information)______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
This is a dish from __________. For this you need (list the ingredients):
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
It is (adjective) _________________________________________________________
(Extra information)______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
This is a dish from __________. For this you need (list the ingredients):
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
It is (adjective) _________________________________________________________
(Extra information)______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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Is it paella? – Teacher’s notes
Level: Elementary
Aim: Students describe popular local or international dishes to play a guessing game.
Grammar: Countable & uncountable nouns
Vocabulary: Food
Preparation: Photocopy Worksheet 1, one copy per pair of students. Photocopy
Worksheet 2, one copy per pair or small group.
Lead-in:
1. Give each pair of students Worksheet 1 and focus on the photo of the paella dish. Ask
students if they can remember what is in it. You may want to reproduce a similar
description to the one in the Straightforward Elementary Student’s Book on page 75
on the board.
2. Now focus students’ attention on the descriptions of the two international dishes on
Worksheet 1. Ask them to guess the names of the dishes.
Answers: spaghetti bolognese, curry
3. Tell students that they are going to play a similar game. They must describe other
popular dishes (international or local) in a similar way but they can’t mention the
name of the dish.
The game:
4. Put the students into small groups or pairs (teams) and give them a copy of Worksheet
2.
5. Give the students time to prepare three descriptions. This will give you time to give
them individual attention and help.
6. Now the teams are ready to compete. Pairs or small groups could compete against
other pairs / small groups. With small classes there could be just two teams.
7. Teams take turns to describe their dish and the other teams guess the name of the
dish. Encourage the guessing teams to ask questions using language from 7B and
vocabulary from 7C if necessary. You may want to limit them to only one or two
questions to make it more competitive. Teams receive one point for each correct
answer.
Extra idea:
In the event of a draw you could have a tie-break. This could be done by the teacher
describing other previously prepared descriptions or students describing more dishes to
each other ‘live’ with no preparation.
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Odd words out
CARD 1
CARD 2
1. two twelve third twenty three
1. Brazil German Italy Russia Spain
2. desk chair board teacher clock
2. coffee beer juice cola water
3. house flat town city noisy
3. bookcase chair sofa wardrobe shop
4. passport draw tickets guide book visa
4. clean cold windy cool hot
5.
5.
CARD 3
CARD 4
1. t-shirt earring skirt socks dress
1. great grey white black green
2. food drink eat speak go
2. grandfather aunt uncle brother son
3. café coffee shop restaurant hotel
3. art hall kitchen bedroom balcony
4. drive type draw warm hear
4. cartoon horror lovely thriller comedy
5.
5.
CARD 5
CARD 6
1. third sixth thirteen fourth first
1. on next to under at ate
2. beautiful ugly fair dark read
2. people men boy women children
3. spoke met forgot opened went
3. nap lunch breakfast dinner snack
4. good awful great lovely nice
4. angry sit nervous bored hungry
5.
5.
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Odd words out – Teacher’s notes
Level: Elementary
Aim: Students identify the odd word out and then test each other on vocabulary learnt in
class so far.
Vocabulary: Review of vocabulary from units 1-6
Preparation
Copy and cut out the cards on the worksheet – one card for every two students.
Procedure
1 Write the following words on the board and ask students which word does not belong
with the others. (Answer: run is a verb, the others are adjectives)
big
small run
little thin
2 Explain that the students are going to do a series of similar exercises. Put them into
pairs and give each pair a card. They must decide, in English, which word is the odd word
out and why. Circulate and monitor.
3 When most pairs have finished, tell them to make their own odd one out exercise for
number 5 on the card. They can refer to the word lists in the Student’s Book if they like.
4 Instruct each pair to work with another pair. They must take turns reading out each odd
word out exercise on their respective cards. The other pair guesses the odd word out and
says why. They must do this for each exercise, including the one they made. This forces
students to focus also on the spoken form of the word.
5 At the end, do some whole class feedback. If there were any exercises that students
were unable to do, go through these as a class.
Answers
Card 1: 1 third; 2 teacher; 3 noisy; 4 draw
Card 2: 1 German; 2 coffee (hot) or beer (alcoholic); 3 shop; 4 clean
Card 3: 1 earring; 2 food; 3 coffee; 4 warm
Card 4: 1 great; 2 aunt; 3 art; 4 lovely
Card 5: 1 thirteen; 2 read; 3 opened (regular verb); 4 awful
Card 6: 1 ate; 2 boy (singular); 3 nap; 4 sit
Optional follow up:
With stronger groups, you could get them to choose one of the exercises and continue
reducing it. For example, the exercise in stage 1 becomes reduced to big, small, little, thin
(big is the odd one out because the others are all small in size). This could be further
reduced to small, little, thin. It could further be reduced to small and little, which are near
synonyms. This is a harder exercise, but worthwhile because it really forces students to
think about meaning and shades of meaning.
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Can I …?
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Can I …? – Teacher’s Notes
Level: Elementary
Aim: Students play a card game to practise asking for permission and for making
requests.
Functional language: Requests, asking for permission (Can I…, May I…, Is it OK if I…).
Responses (Yes, of course/go ahead/sure. No, I’m sorry you can’t, …).
Preparation:
Copy and cut out the cards from the worksheet, one set of cards for every four students.
Procedure:
1 Review the language for asking for permission on the board. There are two ways you
can do this:
•
•
Write the functional language from the box below, but with gaps. Ask the students to
complete the gaps.
Draw a stick man and stick woman. In the stick woman’s hand, draw a phone. Next to
the man, draw a car with smoke coming from under the bonnet. Explain that the man
would like to use the woman’s phone. Elicit the different ways he could ask her for
permission and write these up on the board. Do the same for the responses.
Asking for permission
Can I
Could I
May I
Is it OK if I
Is it OK to
use your phone?
smoke here?
(please).
Responding

(Yes)
Of course.
Go ahead.
Sure.

(No)
I’m sorry (but…)
I’m afraid not.
2 Put the students into groups of four. Tell them they will be practising asking for
permission and responding. Give each group a set of cards and tell them to distribute the
cards so that everyone has the same amount of cards. Explain the rules of the game
below. It may be easier to demonstrate how this works with a strong student.


If any students have a matching pair of cards, they can put them down at once.
One person starts. He/she must address another student and ask permission for
something using the prompt on one of his/her cards. He/she should use the target
language on the board.
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



If the other student has a matching card, he/she must respond by saying ‘yes’ (+ an
appropriate response) and give the card to the first student. The first student then
places both cards on the table.
If the other student does not have a matching card, he/she must respond by saying
‘no’ (+ an appropriate response).
Play continues with each student taking turns asking for permission and collecting
pairs of cards.
The student who gets rid of all his/her cards first is the winner.
3 Allow students to play the game. Circulate and monitor. Correct any errors made in the
production of the questions.
Optional follow-up activity
Ask students to work in pairs. Tell them that they should choose one of the prompts and
responses they have used. Ask them to think of the answers to the following questions:
1 Who is speaking?
2 What is their relationship?
3 Where are they?
4 What do they say next?
Together they should create a short dialogue for their prompt. Students then read their
dialogues to each other and explain the context.
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Words you know
Write FOOD words in English.
Write DRINKS words in English.
Write TRAVEL or
TRANSPORTATION words in
English.
Write COMPUTER words in English.
Write SPORTS words in English.
Write VERBS in English.
VERBS
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Words you know
Teacher’s notes
Level: Elementary
Aim: Students play a word brainstorming game to see how much English they already
know.
Vocabulary: Internationally known English words for food, drinks, computers and travel
and sports
Note: This activity is particularly good for those students who begin an Elementary class
saying ‘I know NO English’. This activity is to raise students’ confidence that they
probably do know in fact several words in English.
Preparation:
Copy and cut out the cards on the worksheet, one card for every two students.
Procedure:
1 Put the students into pairs. Give each pair a card and tell them not to show the card to
any of the other pairs. Ask them to brainstorm as many words as they can for their
chosen category. They should write these words on the back of the card. Give them a
two-minute time limit (be strict).
2 After the two minutes, tell the pairs to stop and put their cards aside. Ask them to take a
new piece of paper. Write SPORTS on the board and ask every pair to write on a
separate piece of paper ONE word connected to sports. However, the pair that had this
category in stage 1 should not write anything.
3 Ask the pairs to read out their words (from stage 2) and write them on the board.
4 The pair with the original Sports words now reads out the words they wrote in stage 1.
They get 1 point for every word they have which is not on the board (i.e. which the
other students did NOT write in stage 2).
5 Repeat stages 2 to 4 with the other categories (food, drinks, computer words, verbs,
travel and transportation). The pair with the most points at the end of the game wins.
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