Category Archives: A word on Grammar

Useful Posts to Revise for Finals

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I have been meaning to give MentorMob a try for some time and I never got around to doing it but when my students asked me where to revise for finals, MentorMob flashed in my mind and I saw the light. ;).

This little tool  allows you to organise your favourite posts or websites into a playlist  in a very easy way  and then you can always share it and embed it in a blog or website. In this way you can easily organise videos, pdfs, documents, websites, articles….. into playlists and then  assign them to your students in the computer room, as homework or  in a flipped classroom setting .

Create your own Playlist on MentorMob!

A Word on Grammar: Think Of,About, On or In?

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If you must ask, yes, it’s still raining in Asturias; raining and freezing cold but…I have to say that this is unusual weather for this time of the year. So, if you are considering holidaying in this part of the world, don’t cross it off just yet; the weather must definitely improve this week ( it can’t get any worse).

The idea for this post came while dozing off on the sofa watching the new (probably not so new now for some of you) James Bong film SkyFall. I suddenly came wide awake when , in the film, M’s computer is hacked and a THINK ON YOUR SINS is displayed on her computer. This single preposition got me thinking … how, in the name of God, are my students supposed to learn English prepositions? Thus, I decided to write this post, about the tricky English prepositions.

♥Think Of/ About. Most of the times you can use both when talking about people. So: I’m thinking of you and I am thinking about you mean pretty much the same.

But

-Think about. You use think about with the meaning “consider”:

I need to think about this problem

–Think of. You use think of   with two meanings

  1. when you are “asking somebody’s opinion”.

What do you think of my sister’s boyfriend?

2. Or with the meaning “to imagine”

It is hot! I am thinking of lying on the beach eating a big ice-cream.

I also very often use the expression Come to think of it…

 

On the other hand, both Think On and Think In are less used.

♥Think On is a bit archaic and it is much close to the meaning of think about 

Think on your sins

♥Think in is very easy to differentiate as it is only used with the verb to speak

Do you think in Spanish when you speak in English?

I hope it is helpful! Now if you want to relax after this boring explanation, enjoy the soundtrack of this film, performed by the great Adele.

A word on Grammar : -ing Forms

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If you are one of my students in the first course, you know I’m not exaggerating the slightest bit (well, maybe the “burping”  thing is too much)  when I say I’m going to wallpaper the classroon with this funny cartoon I came across on  Pinterest.

The moment I read it I realized it was perfect to teach my youngest students the -ing form because it is something they can easily relate with and have fun. Now, I’m not saying they are wild, for goodness sake, I’m just saying some of them need to learn how to behave in a classroom as,now and then, they fail to see the difference between  the classroom and  the schoolyard, lesson time and  break time .

This is the cartoon and these are Mrs Mutner’s rules( from now on, mine too). Easy to see its potential when trying to explain the formation of the -ing  form, although I’m going to use it to go over the rules I have already explained.

My idea is reading Mrs. Mutner’s  rules with them, clarifying meanings  and then asking students to volunteer to write the rules for the formation of the gerund on the board. Then, students will have to arrange the -ing forms under the right rule.

Some interactive exercises to practise : here and here

Reported Speech: Famous Quotes

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Happy Thursday to everybody!  Yes, Ok, in Asturias  we have rain, clouds, and cold but I’m trying to keep my spirits up!

Next week I’ll be focusing on Reported Speech and I thought this could be a good way of getting their attention. I have chosen  a  few quotes from  some  famous people  and created a Power Point Presentation  Hope it’s useful!!

 

Visit my Intermediate Section for more exercises on reported Speech and also read another article (Reported Speech: questions and Orders)  I published some time ago with more ideas here