Teaching vocabulary and practice speaking
Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide review and practice the difference between gradable and non-gradable adjectives.
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide accuracy using gradable and non-gradable adjectives while speaking about emotions in dramatic situations using appropriate stress and intonation.
Procedure (32-41 minutes)
- To ask students to give some adjectives and write them on the board.
- Teacher explains that some adjectives are gradable and some are non-gradable using the right adverb with each adjective. - Teacher focuses the students attention on the table and point out that 'good' is a gradable adjective. 'Incredible' is a non-gradable adjective. - Teacher goes through the questions with the class. As they work out their answers, teacher encourages them to say the two sentences aloud so that they get a feel for what souunds right. Teacher makes sure every one is clear on the answer to each question before moving on to the next.
- teacher goes through the adjectives with the class and make sure that every one understands them. Then asks them to work individually to match the pairs of adjectives with similar meanings. Teacher explains that in each pair, one adjective will be gradable and the other non-gradable. Teacher asks sudents to try to put them in the table in the appropriate columns. Teacher allows them to compare in pairs before checking with the class. - Teacher goes through the example with the class and makes sure that every one understands why it uses 'absolutely' with 'boiling'. Then asks them to work individually to write five more true sentences. - Teacher goes around helping and checking that every one understands the principle of gradable and non-gradable adjectives and is using them correctly.
- Teachers focuses the students' attention on the two exchanges and ask them to identify the gradable adjectives "cold - funny" and the non-gradable adjectives "freezing - hilarious". - Teacher plays the recording and asks the students to listen carefully to the speakers' intonation. - Teacher asks them what they notice about it ( they emphasize the adjectives to enhance their meaning and make what they are saying more dramatic and exciting). - Teacher reads the dialogues to the class without emphasizing these words and allows them to see how flat and boring it sounds. - Teacher goes through the example with the class. Then plays the recording and asks them to respond to the prompts with similar sentences. - Students make up similar short dialogues in pairs using gradable and non-gradable adjectives. - Teacher goes around the class listening to them. Picks out many particularly good ones, which they can perform for the class. Teacher encourages the students to use a range of adjectives from ex. 2 as well as any of their own ideas, and not just those in the examples. - Teacher focuses the students attention on the pphoto and asks them to say how they think the people on the rollercoaster might be feeling. - Teacher goes through the emotions in the box and the situations to make sure every one understands them. - Teeacher gives the students time to decide how they would feel in each situation. Also asks them to tick the situations they have actually experienced. - Teacher reminds them that thhey can use their own ideas if the words in the box don't describe exactly how they would feel. Then the teacher puts them in pairs and asks them to tell each other how they would feel. - Teacher tells them they can add any more emotional situations that they can think of and would like to talk about.