Resources on Sentence Structure

Word Order

Sentence Structure 1

Sentence Structure 2

Sentence Correction

Paragraph Correction 1

Paragraph Correction 2

How Modals Made My Day

Recently I've had a class where I planned to brush up on modal verbs with my students. In one of the previous classes they had to make grammar presentations (see soon in my blog), so this time I needed an activity to bring it all together and, naturally, have some fun (you won't blame me for that, will you?).

That's what I came up with.

1. First, I played this wonderful video for them (without showing the lines) and asked to write down sentences with modal verbs they can hear. The video is a compillation of various song extracts containing modals.

2. Next, we checked what lines they had. They were supposed to have these:

May it be.

We might as well be strangers.

We might as well be living in another time.

I just can't get you out of my head.

I know I can be what I wanna be.

You mustn't sigh and you mustn't cry.

The show must go on.

My makeup may be flaking but my smile still stays on.

It must be love.

You've got to let me know, should I stay or should I go.

It's also a good idea to elicit students' answers on what modals express in each sentence (e.g. ability, permission, obligation etc.)

3. Finally, I asked them to write a short paragraph that could be a beginning or an end of a story, or some part of it, like a monologue of a character etc. The requirement was to incorporate one of the lines they'd written down. 

We had lots of fun when they were reading their pieces! There were extracts from romantic novels, drama, philosophical essays, you name it. It was quite a productive outcome I didn't even expect, especially that this idea was born very much on the spot ))

Grammar Links

Earlier today,  a former student of mine asked me if I could recommend some sites where her teenage friend could practice grammar. As a result of "digging" my Scoop.it pages I came up with quite a comprehensive list. So, here you go!

Perfect English Grammar

Grammar rules, interactive exercises, videos, infographics.

English Leap

Video lessons, grammar and vocabulary exercises, tips, common mistakes.

English Grammar Online For You

Grammar and vocabulary exercises, study tips, tests and much more. Plus Business English section.

Woodward English

Collection of grammar rules, interactive exercises and games. 

English Grammar

A comprehensive collection of grammar rules, exercises (online and downloadable) and many useful tools.

Grammar Quizzes

An impressive grammar guide with exercises.

Tiny TEFL Teacher

A great grammar reference with lots and lots of activities.

English-Grammar

An amazing resourse full of grammar exercises (online practice and downloadable worksheets).

English Exercises

A grammar directory where you can choose exercises according to levels and topics.

Englisch Hilfen

A wonderful collection of grammar exercises of different types.

English Grammar Lessons

Grammar rules and interactive exercises.

Road to Grammar

Lots of interactive exercises PLUS activities for young learners.

Agenda Web

An absolutely fascinating collection of grammar and vocabulary activies for different levels.

The Unbearable Simplicity of the Present

Here are some updates on my Beginner English Course for adults. After making sure that "to be" structures are well processed by my students, i.e. they feel confident asking and answering basic questions and using a decent number of structures in their answers, we're moving forward.

The Present Simple Tense seems to be an obvious choice for helping eager learners proceed on the twisting path of English grammar. The links I'm providing in this post embrace material we've been struggling with  for several lessons. Naturally, as my students are more interested in communicative value of grammar, our lexical focus in conjunction with Present Simple is daily activites and related issues.

Forms of Present Simple in affirmative sentences

• http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/torredelprado/ingles/present_simple1.htm
• http://www.englishmaven.org/HP6/Present%20Tense%20Exercise%206.htm
• http://www.englishmaven.org/HP6/Present%20Tense%20Exercise%201.htm
• http://www.englishmaven.org/HP6/Present%20Tense%20Exercise%202.htm
• http://www.englishmaven.org/HP6/Present%20Tense%20Exercise%204.htm
• http://www.montsemorales.com/gramatica/PresSimp1.htm
• http://www.englishmaven.org/HP6/Present%20Tense%20Exercise%205.htm
• http://www.english-room.com/4_01.htm
• http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-3427.php
• http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/tenses/simple_present_statements.htm

Negative sentences in Present Simple

• http://www.grammar.cl/Games/Dont_Doesnt.htm
• http://www.montsemorales.com/gramatica/PresSimpNeg1Spt.htm
• http://www.english-room.com/negative_5.htm
• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-3.html
• http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar/1g3-present-simple-positive-negative.php
• http://www.learn-english-online.org/Lesson12/TestIt/TestPresSimpNeg.htm

Questions in Present Simple

• http://www.english-room.com/dodoes_5.htm
• http://www.bastrimbos.com/Hotpotatoesfiles/spresvraag2.htm
• http://www.montsemorales.com/gramatica/PresSimpQues2.htm
• http://speakspeak.com/english-grammar-exercises/elementary/present-simple-questions
• http://www.carmenlu.com/first/grammar/present1_1whq.htm
• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-6.html
• http://www.grammar.cl/Games/Short_Answers_Present.htm
• http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=1555

More practice on possessive pronouns

• http://www.english-4u.de/poss_pronouns_ex2.htm
• http://www.carmenlu.com/first/grammar/possadj1.htm
• http://www.english-4u.de/poss_pronouns_ex1.htm
• http://www.english-area.com/paginas/possessiveadjectives.htm
• http://www.adelescorner.org/grammar/possessive_adjectives/possessiveadjectives.html
• http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-5592.php
• http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=712
• http://mbonillo.xavierre.com/exercises/eso1/1eso2007/possessives1.htm

Everyday activities

• http://www.isabelperez.com/actions.htm
• http://www.montsemorales.com/vocabulario/imagine3-1a.htm
• http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-8637.php
• http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2559

To have or To be?

In the previous post I was talking about my experience of tutoring adults. As the course proceeds, I keep posting supporting online materials and resources I find useful. As far as a coursebook for our sessions I decided to opt for Headway Beginner (Oxford University Press). I used to work with this book a couple of years ago and I liked it a lot.

At the moment we're plunging into "have/has" structures, family vocabulary, basic adjectives and possessives.
So, here are some supporting web-based practice that could be used for follow-up practice or revision.

• More on "to be" structures (explanation and tables): http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar-guides/grammar-elementary.php#to
• "To be" questions: http://www.adelescorner.org/grammar/present_simple/to_be_quests.html
• "To be" questions (plus video with explanation and nice tables): http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/Blue%20Level/B3%20Be%20Questions.html
• "To be" questions with question words: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2763
• More practice on question words: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=5283
• Possessive adjectives and pronouns (explanation and tables): http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/Blue%20Level/B15%20Possessive%20Pronouns.html
•  Possessive adjectives and pronouns (practice): http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/Blue%20Level/Blue%20Level%20Quiz%208%20poss%20pronouns.html
• "have/has" exercises:  http://www.learnamericanenglishonline.com/Blue%20Level/Blue%20Level%20Quiz%208%20poss%20pronouns.html
• "have/has" exercises: http://www.english-room.com/3a_have_has.htm

I've also created a Piktochart for basic questions and answers the verb with "to be":

In the beginning, there was "to be"

Recently, I've started tutoring two adults who are eager to master some English basics. They still operate some knowledge of the language as they had a school course years ago. Anyway, we started from the very beginning focusing on sentence structure and revising elementary vocabulary. 

I believe that every now and then English teachers face the situation like this. As long I may face it once again, I've decided to keep track of materials I'm using this time.

So, here are some links that contain materials for grammar and vocabulary practice.

Structures with the verb TO BE:

• http://www.grammar.cl/Games/To_Be_Present.htm
• http://www.grammar.cl/Games/Short_Answers_To_Be.htm
• http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/verbtobe.html
• http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/verbtobe2.html
• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-10.html
• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-11.html
• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-12.html
• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-13.html
• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-14.html
• http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-15.html
• http://www.montsemorales.com/gramatica/Beandpron.htm
• http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=2408
• http://www.grammar.cl/Games/Where_Be.htm
• http://www.english-area.com/paginas/verbtobe.htm
• http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=1017

Introductions (fuctional language):

• http://www.learn-english-online.org/Lesson1/Work/Introductions1.htm
• http://www.englishbee.net/lessons/basic_exer/HowOld/how_old_close/how_old_close.htm
• http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/grammar/1g8-to-be-positive-or-negative-gap-fill.php

Possessive Pronouns:

• http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/possessiveadjectives.html
• http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/possessiveadjectives.html
• http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/possessive.html
• http://www.learnenglish-online.com/grammar/tests/possessive.html

Family (vocabulary building):

• http://www.agendaweb.org/vocabulary/family-exercises.html

Jobs (vocabulary building):

• http://www.agendaweb.org/vocabulary/people_jobs_personalities-exercises.html

Describing people (vocabulary building):

• http://www.agendaweb.org/vocabulary/describing-people-personality.html