Teaching Grammar Communicatively Part II:
Sharing Best Practices and Activities
Regional English Language Office Beijing May 12, 2009
Teaching Third Conditional l
Step 1: Discussing the ending of a favorite story: The Wolf Is Coming! Ask students to work in groups and begin with different subjects to make sentences:
If the boy hadn’t… If the peasants in the field hadn’t… If the wolf hadn’t…
Share the sentences with the class.
Teaching Third Conditional II
Step 2: Apply to personal experience:
Ask students to come up with three places that they wish to visit; three things that they wish hadn’t happened to them; and three kinds of foods that they wish to try. Ask students to share their information with their classmates and also the reason why it didn’t work out. Places to visit Things happened Foods to try Why not?
Too busy with schoolwork Stay up late last night The Great Wall Late for school this morning Durian Couldn’t convince Mom the benefits of eating the fruit.
Ask students to use the third conditional to describe their classmates’ experience as fit for the information in the table. e.g. If Mike didn’t stay up late last night, he wouldn’t have been late for the school this morning.
Teaching Third Conditional III
Ask students to browse through the day’s newspaper titles and contents and pick out their favorite story. Ask students to summarize the story in no more than three sentences and add one comment at the end of the summary, using the third conditional: e.g. …… If the Canadian farmer didn’t travel to Mexico last week, he wouldn’t have picked up the H1N1 virus and later passed it on to the pigs in his farm.