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UNIVERSAL ACTIVITIES

for Grammar/Vocabulary Practice and Warmers

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BEFORE THE

SENTENCE

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

She had to cut back on her spending.

He was able to get by without much money.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

His anger built up for a year.

She had to cut back on her spending.

He really let her down.

He was able to get by without much money.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

His anger built up for a year.

They dropped out of college.

She had to cut back on her spending.

He really let her down.

They wouldn’t back him up.

He was able to get by without much money.

She put off looking for a new job.

She decided not to bring up his past.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

He sorted out the confusion.

They ran into a lot of problem.

His popularity dropped off.

He get over the relationship quickly.

His anger built up for a year.

They dropped out of college.

She had to cut back on her spending.

He really let her down.

They wouldn’t back him up.

He was able to get by without much money.

She put off looking for a new job.

She decided not to bring up his past.

They held back their tears.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

He sorted out the confusion.

They ran into a lot of problem.

His popularity dropped off.

He get over the relationship quickly.

His anger built up for a year.

They dropped out of college.

She had to cut back on her spending.

He really let her down.

They wouldn’t back him up.

He was able to get by without much money.

She put off looking for a new job.

She decided not to bring up his past.

They held back their tears.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

He sorted out the confusion.

They ran into a lot of problems.

His popularity dropped off.

He got over the relationship quickly.

His anger built up for a year.

They dropped out of college.

She had to cut back on her spending.

He really let her down.

They wouldn’t back him up.

He was able to get by without much money.

She put off looking for a new job.

She decided not to bring up his past.

They held back their tears.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

They have spent all their money.

She has eaten all the cake.

He has disappeared

He has lost his keys.

I have forgotten your name.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

She was sleeping when it happened.

They were riding the subway at midnight.

I was counting money when they saw me.

He was dancing when I arrived.

She was eating when I called.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

If I had been there, I would have helped.

They would have come if they had known about it.

If he had eaten it, he would have got sick.

If she had known, she would have been angry.

If she had told me, I would have laughed.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

She took the book which was on the table.

They revealed the secret that I told them.

He called the woman who had painted it.

I saw the man who did it.

I lost the thing that you lent me.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

She took the flash drive that was on the table.

I finally found an adapator at the train station.

He wore his headphones for the whole trip.

I was sitting too close to the speaker.

He found the remote control on the shelf.

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

Use for:

all grammar
all vocab
collocations, colligations, word formation, etc.

Useful because it:

contextualizes TL
is written and spoken
focuses on form and meaning
is controlled and freer
easily allows for error correction
fun, funny, creative, active
student-centred

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BEFORE THE SENTENCE

Procedure

1. Put students into pairs and tell them each to think of a sentence containing the target language. If you are practicing vocabulary, list the words/phrases/expressions on the board and each pair comes up and crosses off the item they are going to use. If you have more students than words, you can have pairs using the same items. After all pairs have chosen, erase the list

2. Once students have thought of a sentence, one member of each pair comes up and writes it anywhere on the board.

3. When all pairs have written their sentences on the board, make any corrections that you deem to be necessary. If the errors are with the target language, it would be a good idea to get students to tell you what the error is.

4. A member of each pair comes up and selects a sentence by putting a check mark beside it - any sentence other than their own.

5. Get each pair to think of a dialogue that could take place before the sentence. Tell them they will be performing their dialogues but will stop before uttering the last sentence. Unless the learners are of a very low level, you should specify that they are not to script the dialogue but they can make some notes as to what they will talk about.

6. One group performs its dialogue for the rest of the class without the last sentence. Elicit some guesses from the class as to which sentence from the board would follow.

7. Continue with the other pairs.

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DON’T SAY ‘YES’

OR ‘NO’

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO'�

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO‘ �

Do you like

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping eating

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping eating doing

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping eating doing having

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping eating doing having cooking

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping eating doing having cooking drinking watching singing kissing running fighting

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping on the street / alone eating doing having cooking drinking watching singing kissing running fighting

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping on the street / alone eating dog food / meat / dirt doing having cooking drinking watching singing kissing running fighting

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping on the street / alone eating dog food / meat / dirt doing having a hangover cooking drinking watching singing kissing running fighting

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

Do you like	sleeping on the street / alone eating dog food / meat / dirt doing having a hangover cooking drinking vodka / a lot / coffee watching stupid TV shows / me singing in the shower kissing your mother / sister running up the stairs / marathons fighting

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO' �

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO’�

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO'�

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DON'T SAY 'YES' OR 'NO'�

Procedure

1. Put the structure up on the board leaving space to fill in the variable slot. The example on previous slides show how you might begin for practicing gerunds.

2. Elicit some other examples to fill the variable slot in the structure and get them on the board, Try to get the students to be creative, it will be more fun (see the board photo).

3. Explain to students that each one of them will take a turn on the “hot seat”. This means the other students will be firing a barrage of questions at them using the prescribed structure. The student on the hot seat will have to answer them without using “yes” or “no”.

4. Tell them also that they cannot repeat the same answer twice in a row. This is to prevent students from saying something like “maybe” repeatedly.

5. Establish how long each turn on the hot seat will be. One to two minutes is usual.

6. You can take the first turn on the hot seat. Tell students to listen to some of the ways you answer. Here are some ideas:

• “Not often”

• “Only on Saturdays”

• “I’d rather not say”

• “Certainly”

• “Of course”

• “Whenever I can”

• “I try to avoid it”

7. Start the first student in the hot seat. If he/she says “yes” or “no” before the time limit is up, their turn ends. For large classes, you can get two or more groups to do this activity simultaneously.

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FIND SOMEONE WHO

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FIND SOMEONE WHO�

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FIND SOMEONE WHO�

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FIND SOMEONE WHO�

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FIND SOMEONE WHO�

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FIND SOMEONE WHO...

Students work in pairs.
Compose two identical lists.

Ss use own lists or...
Ss label lists A/B then collect and redistribute

Split class in half into A’s and B’s.
Partners compare findings afterwards.

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FIND SOMEONE WHO...

Students work in pairs.
Compose two identical lists.

Ss use own lists or...
Ss label lists A/B then collect and redistribute

Split class in half into A’s and B’s.
Partners compare findings afterwards.

A

B

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FIND SOMEONE WHO...

as an icebreaker

FSW has been to the ROM.

as a warmer to review grammar/vocab
as a practice activity for grammar/vocab

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FIND SOMEONE WHO...

as an icebreaker

FSW has been to the ROM.

as a warmer to review grammar/vocab
as a practice activity for grammar/vocab

FSW likes...
FSW usually...
FSW went to...
FSW is going to...
FSW is considerate.
FSW knows what ‘slippery’ means.

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FIND SOMEONE WHO�

Procedure

First you need to make sure students understand how the activity works. Let them know that they will get a list of “Find someone who” commands and they have to find a different person for each one and then write their name beside the command when they find them. You can make it competitive by telling them whoever finds the most people will win.

Once you’ve told the students what grammar or vocabulary you want them to practice, put them in pairs and have them compose the commands. You can have them write their own commands or you can make it more interesting by telling them to write them for other students in the class. Establish how many commands they need to have. Then give each student a paper and make sure both students in each pair write an identical list of commands. You can monitor to check for accuracy while they are writing. When all the students have finished writing, tell the pairs to label their two lists A and B. Then collect all the papers and redistribute them – it doesn’t matter if someone ends up with their own paper. Then tell A’s to get on one side of the class and B’s on the other. Divide the class in two with the A’s on one side and the B’s on the other. You can instruct them to both ask and answer their questions using the target language, if you wish.

When you stop the activity, get students to find the student on the other side of the class who has the same list of questions. They then compare lists to see how many they got in total. You can elicit their totals to determine a winner.

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COMPETITIVE

SUBSTITUTION DRILL

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