Lesson no. 5

Lesson no. 5

23 June 2009 / Tuesday

(16:05 – 17:45)

Topics of the day:
- Adjectives and Infinitives
- Articles: A/An
- For/Since?
- At/In

Today there were only three students in the class. I think that the change in the timetable wasn’t seen and understood by the others; or there might be another reason for their absence.

Initially I had two handouts for the beginners, 3 handouts for the non-beginners (general and advanced) and 1 handout for the advanced students. This might sound a bit complicated, but I had decided to explain one general handout to the whole class and once they were busy with the exercise, I wanted to carry on with the beginners and explain them their handout.

Since there were only three students today, who belonged to the advanced group, I did the 3 handouts for non-beginners and 1 handout for advanced students with them.

Part 1: Adjectives and Infinitives

The exercise about adjectives and infinitives was done first. The exercise was handed out and the students were asked to choose the best option.

The following points were discussed in connection to this exercise:
Sentence 7.
The students aren’t prepared ____ the exam. (a. to take, b. to listen, c. to work)
The students aren’t prepared to take the exam. (this is correct!)
The students aren’t prepared to listen to the exam. (‘listen to’ isn’t an option here!)
The students aren’t prepared to work on the exam. (‘work on’ isn’t an option here!)

Sentence 11.
The form of the verb ‘to be’.
He is
Your brother = He, therefore we use: Your brother is

Sentence 17.
Women = plural
They are --> Women = They à therefore, Women are
(Also: 1 Woman --> 2 Women)
For the handout of Part 1, see: http://www.english-zone.com/teach/adj-inf1.html

Part 2: Articles: A/An

The explanation on top of the handout was explained and then the students were asked to answer the questions.

Explanation:
Vowels = a, e, i, o, u
Consonants = all the other letters in the alphabet except the vowels: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z.

You use an: If a word begins with a vowel sound!!!
You use a: if a word begins with a consonant sound!!!

A few exceptions were discussed in connection to the use of a/an e.g. Hour
The word ‘Hour’ begins with the letter ‘h’ (a consonant), but the word ‘hour’ begins with an ‘o’ sound (vowel sound!!!), therefore we say an hour, instead of 'a hour'.

For the handout of Part 2, see: http://english-zone.com/grammar/a-an.html

Part 3: For/Since?

This was a very difficult part. It was more difficult for the students than I had expected. When the three students were busy with this exercise, I realized that it would have been a very difficult topic to be given in a general class if more people were present.

I used the explanation on top of the handout to explain the difference between for and since.

For = used for general periods of time
Since = used for a specific time

The first sentence from the handout was used to explain the difference between these two words. Some other sentences were also used.

I wrote the following on the green board, which was quite clear I think, if one wants to understand when to use which of both words:
When you know when something happened--> it is specific --> use since

Initially the exercise appeared to be difficult for the students, therefore I decided to look at each sentence. E.g. I have studied English for/Since two months. I asked the students whether ‘two months’ was specific or general. I asked them whether they knew about which two months we were talking here. Were we talking about the two months a few year ago or at the beginning of this year. Since there was no clear indication of a specific period of time, the students termed the phrase ‘two months’ as ‘general’. And as the rule says, we use ‘for’ if we talk about a ‘general period of time’.

One by one all sentences were studied, and the students were asked to decide whether a phrase referred to a specific or general period of time. It was a nice exercise as students got the chance to explain some things to each other. Sometimes one understands best if he/she explains it to others.

For the handout of Part 3, see: http://english-zone.com/grammar/sincefor.html

Part 4: At/In

Prepositions: e.g. on, in, under, above, below

The explanation on top of the handout was explained:
At: at home, at school, at work
In: in bed, in class, in jail, in prison

I didn’t know the exact rules as to when one should use ‘at’ and when one should use ‘in’, therefore after finding out the exact rules myself, next time I will explain them for sure.

For the handout of Part 4, see: http://www.english-zone.com/grammar/at-in1.html

Plan for next time:
There are a few things from this lesson that either need further elaboration (use of ‘at’ and ‘in’) or need further practice (use of ‘for’ and ‘since’). Therefore, along with preparing the main lesson I will keep in mind to do something about these two topics.