In this episode I’m talking about recent things I’ve been teaching in my classes including some grammar and some social English. There’s an absolutely massive amount of grammar crammed into this episode and quite a lot of silly improvisation too!
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Introduction
I’ll give an overview of the groups I’m teaching,and what I’m teaching them including some grammar and vocab. Essentially you can learn what my students have been learning. I’ll also talk about some considerations I make as a teacher and activities I use.
The classes are quite low, probably lower than the average listener of this podcast.
Two classes – A2 (pre-intermediate) and B1.2 (good intermediate)
CEFR A0 – A1 – A2 – B1 – B2 – C1 – C2
Needs of the groups
Gradable and ungradable adjectives
I’ve been using Cutting Edge Intermediate 3rd edition, but a little bit of googling reveals several pages online with good sources of info and some exercises, such as this one from Espresso English . net, which I am paraphrasing.
| Regular Adjective
Graded with:
|
Extreme Adjective (absolutely, completely)
Graded with:
|
| angry | furious |
| bad | awful, terrible, horrible |
| big | huge, gigantic, massive, enormous |
| clean | spotless |
| cold | freezing |
| crowded | packed |
| dirty | filthy |
| funny | hilarious |
| good | wonderful, fantastic, excellent |
| hot | boiling |
| hungry | starving |
| interesting | fascinating |
| old | ancient |
| pretty | gorgeous |
| scary | terrifying |
| small | tiny, minute |
| surprising | astounding |
| tired | Exhausted, knackered |
| ugly | hideous |
Absolute Adjectives
Another type of extreme adjective is called an “absolute” adjective.
These are words that are either “yes or no.” It’s binary, black and white, there’s no grading – not even with words like ‘completely’. For example, dead – you can’t be “a little bit dead” or “very dead” – either YES, you are dead, or NO, you’re not dead.
Here’s a list of some absolute adjectives and their opposites:
It’s fun to play with these ones. I find it funny to grade these absolute adjectives and when you do it knowingly it starts to reveal how you can bend the language to make it humourous or ironic.
| Absolute Adjective | Opposite |
| complete | incomplete |
| Equal (all animals are equal…) | unequal |
| essential | non-essential; extraneous |
| dead | alive |
| fatal | not fatal |
| full | empty |
| ideal | not ideal |
| impossible | possible |
| infinite | finite |
| married | single / divorced / separated / widowed |
| perfect | imperfect |
| pregnant | not pregnant |
| unique | not unique |
| universal | not universal |
| unknown | known |
| true | false |
Exercises here https://www.espressoenglish.net/extreme-adjectives-in-english/
Present simple vs present continuous
Present simple: Facts, always true, habits (things you do every time) and also permanent situations.
Present continuous: What you’re doing right now. Temporary truths. Things that are changing (e.g. social trends). Future plans.
Present continuous, going to & will for future
Social English
Making polite requests
Borrow and lend
Could you lend me your
Could I borrow your
Could I borrow your xxx from you?
Do you mind _ing
Would you mind _ing
I was wondering if you could
Do you think you could…
You couldn’t… could you?
Invitations
What are you doing on Saturday?
I’m not doing anything.
Would you like to have a drink?
Do you fancy having a drink?
Shall we have a drink?
Let’s have a drink shall we?
Do you want to have a drink?
How about we have a drink?
What about having a drink?
Sure that sounds great.
I’d love to.
That sounds great, but…
I’d love to, but…
I can’t
I can’t make it
The Lying Game
Mystery Story Narrative Tenses
Murder Mystery
