D. Using a generative situation
Generative: In linguistics, generative is used to describe linguistic theories or models which are based on the idea that a single set of rules can explain how all the possible sentences of a language are formed.
Here is a generative situation.
What structure(s) could it be used to teach? What examples could it generate?
- Past tense, went, bought, crossed, had, discovered.- Possessive / places -> baker’s, newsagent’s- Use of the article the (the road, the post office, the newsagent’s etc)- Use of the word some (some stamps, some bread)- Chronological order (Firt, then, when, now)
Tom went shopping. First he went to the baker’s and bought some bread. Then he crossed the road to the post office and bought some stamps. Then he went next door to the newsagent’s and bought a magazine. Then he crossed the road again and had a cup of coffee in a café. When he went to pay he discovered he didn’t have his wallet with his money in it. Now he’s wondering where he left it.
E. Using minimal sentence pairs (use Thornbury pages 63-65)
Design a set of 'minimal sentence pairs' for this contrast
(say, five pairs for this contrast):
must have done versus should have done
1a) They must have done that before we arrived, everything is so clean!
b) They should have done that before we arrived, now we have to clean everything!
2a) She must have done a lot more than I, to get such a high mark.
b) I should have done more to pass the exam.
3a) He must have done something wrong.
b) He should not have done anything like that in the first place
4a) My mother must have done the laundry while I was at school.
b) I should have done the laundry while my mum was at work, but I forgot.
5a) He must have done the best he could, look at him!
b) He should have done the best he could, this was embarrassing.
F. Teaching Grammar creatively
Design an activity to introduce the Past Progressive in association with the Past Simple.
(Of course try a TPR and/or Realia method!)
Devide the class into two groups, one representing the Past Simple and one representing the Past Progressive. I’ll hand out 1 sheet to each group with the explanation of both the Past Progressive and the Past Simple and each group will get several sheets with signal words, they have to find out whether a certain word is a signal word for the PS or for the PP, and take the sheet to the group they think it belongs to. After all the sheets are devided the students have to try to make a sentence with each of the signal words (in their tense of course), afterwards the groups will exchange ‘their’ sentences and they will judge each other’s work.