Learn tips on how to teach grammar and usage from our editors and grammar experts. 

Grammar & Usage

<h3>Analyzing English words can be addictive!</h3>

<p dir="ltr">I love getting into the nitty-gritty aspects of the English language. At ESL Library, we have a lesson coming out in May about <strong>Gaming Addiction</strong>, and we started wondering about the &ldquo;addict&rdquo; word family. Are both <strong>addictive</strong> and <strong>addicting</strong> adjectives? Which is the better choice?</p>

<p dir="ltr">I dug into my reference books to see what I could come up with, but came up a little flat. There was no mention of usage for these two words in <em>Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s Dictionary of English Usage</em>, <em>The Chicago Manual of Style</em>, <em>The Copyeditor&rsquo;s Handbook</em>, or <em>Bryson&rsquo;s Dictionary for Writers and Editors</em>. Also, both <em>Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s Collegiate Dictionary</em> and <em>Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English</em> only have an entry for <strong>addictive</strong> and don&rsquo;t mention <strong>addicting</strong> as a possible adjective form. Luckily, I did find a few entries online, namely from <a href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/addictive-versus-addicting.aspx" target="_blank">Grammar Girl</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://grammarist.com/usage/addicting-addictive/" target="_blank">Grammarist</a>. So what did I conclude, and, more importantly, what should you teach your students?</p>

<h3>Addictive</h3>

<p dir="ltr">This is the &ldquo;correct&rdquo; form, and you can never go wrong using <strong>addictive</strong> in an adjective position. According to <em>Merriam-Webster</em>, <strong>addictive</strong> is defined as &ldquo;causing or characterized by addiction.&rdquo;&nbsp;Here are a few examples:</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">Most <strong>addictive</strong> substances, such as drugs and alcohol, are not good for your health.</li>
	<li dir="ltr"><em>The Walking Dead</em> is really <strong>addictive</strong>; I&rsquo;ve been recommending it to all my friends.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Addicting</h3>

<p dir="ltr">Who is guilty of using <strong>addicting</strong> as an adjective? I&rsquo;m pretty sure I&rsquo;ve used it and have heard it being used a time or two. Because of the lack of an entry for <strong>addicting</strong>, my reference books seem to suggest that&nbsp;<strong>addicting</strong> should not be used as an adjective. But the online sources mentioned above said that <strong>addicting</strong> is becoming more commonplace; however, they both warn that it&rsquo;s a contentious issue among grammarians and that you&rsquo;re better off sticking with <strong>addictive</strong>.</p>

<h3>Conclusion for teachers:</h3>

<p dir="ltr">My advice is to teach your students that <strong>addictive</strong> is the correct adjective form. For more advanced students, you could get a discussion going about how language changes over time, and give <strong>addicting</strong> as an example. It might be a fun project to get your students to go online or read through newspapers or magazines and see if they can find the words <strong>addictive</strong> and <strong>addicting</strong> in use.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Hope you enjoyed this post, my fellow grammar addicts!</p>

<p dir="ltr">Tanya</p>

Addictive Vs. Addicting

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Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

Articles

<h1>Under the microscope&hellip;</h1>

<p>ESL&nbsp;Library recently received a request from one of our subscribers to explain what the concepts <strong>macro</strong> and <strong>micro</strong> <strong>lesson planning</strong> meant. To be honest, it was the first time I&rsquo;d come across these terms. After a bit of research, I realized both methods of lesson planning were indeed familiar to me because I&rsquo;d put them into practice many times during my teaching career. Let&rsquo;s look at macro and micro lesson planning in more&nbsp;detail.</p>

<h2>Macro Lesson Planning</h2>

<p>The term <strong>macro</strong> comes from Greek <em>makros</em> meaning &ldquo;long, large.&rdquo;&nbsp;For teachers, <strong>macro lesson planning</strong> means coming up with the curriculum for the semester/month/year/etc. Not all teachers feel they are responsible for this as many schools have set curriculums and/or textbooks determined by the academic coordinator. However, even in these cases, teachers may be called upon to devise a curriculum for a new class, modify an older curriculum, or map out themes to match the target lessons within the&nbsp;curriculum.</p>

<p>At my old school, for instance, I had the chance to develop the curriculum for a TOEIC Intermediate and a TOEFL Advanced class when they were first introduced at our school. I&rsquo;ve also modified older curricula (or curriculums, if you prefer&mdash;both are acceptable) for various levels because of students&rsquo; changing needs. And finally, my old school kindly granted the teachers one day a month of paid prep time/new student intake, where we&rsquo;d decide on the themes that we&rsquo;d be using for our class to ensure there wasn&rsquo;t too much overlap with other classes. We did have a set curriculum in terms of grammar points, but themes and supplementary materials were up to us. Doing a bit of planning before the semester started ensured that we stayed organized and kept the students&rsquo; interest throughout the&nbsp;semester.</p>

<p>Another benefit of macro lesson planning is that teachers can share the overall goals of the course with their students on the first day, and they can reiterate those goals as the semester progresses. Students often lose sight of the big picture and get discouraged with their English level, and having clear goals that they see themselves reaching helps prevent&nbsp;this.</p>

<h2>Micro Lesson Planning</h2>

<p>The term <strong>micro</strong> comes from the Greek <em>mikros</em> meaning &ldquo;small, little.&rdquo;&nbsp;In the ELT industry, <strong>micro lesson planning</strong> refers to planning one specific lesson based on one target (e.g., the simple past). It involves choosing a topic or grammar point and building a full lesson to complement it. A typical lesson plan involves a warm-up activity, which introduces the topic or elicits the grammar naturally, followed by an explanation/lesson of the point to be covered. Next, teachers devise a few activities that allow students to practice the target point, preferably through a mix of skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing). Finally, teachers should plan a brief wrap-up activity that brings the lesson to a close. This could be as simple as planning to ask students to share their answers from the final activity as a&nbsp;class.</p>

<p>Some benefits of micro lesson planning include classes that runs smoothly and students who don&rsquo;t get bored. Lesson planning ensures that you&rsquo;ll be prepared for every class and that you&rsquo;ll have a variety of activities on hand for whatever situation may arise (well, the majority of situations&hellip;I&rsquo;m sure we&rsquo;ve all had those classes where an activity we thought would rock ends up as an epic&nbsp;fail).</p>

<p>For more information on micro lesson planning, check out <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-make-a-lesson-plan">How to Make a Lesson Plan</a>, a blog post I wrote last year, where I emphasized the importance of planning fun, interesting fillers so that students stay engaged. I also provided links in that post to many examples of activities you can use for warm-ups, main activities, fillers, homework, etc.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Can anyone think of other benefits of macro or micro lesson planning? Does anyone have a different definition of these terms? Let us know&nbsp;below.</p>

<p>Happy planning!<br />
Tanya</p>

Macro and Micro Lesson Planning

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<h1>Don&rsquo;t be an April fool...figure out the rules before talking about this holiday in class!</h1>

<p>April 1 is fast approaching, and that means it&rsquo;s time to watch out for pranksters in many countries. Though the origin of April Fools&rsquo; Day isn&rsquo;t entirely known, Ellii&rsquo;s <a day="" href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1878" lesson="" title="April Fools">April Fools&rsquo; Day&nbsp;</a>lesson covers many of the possibilities with a reading, vocab, and fun activities. But whether you do an entire lesson with your class, discuss it momentarily, or just need to answer students&rsquo; questions, it&rsquo;s a good idea to brush up on the correct capitalization and punctuation rules about this day of jokes and hoaxes.</p>

<h2>1. April Fools&rsquo; Day</h2>

<p>According to Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s Collegiate Dictionary (11th edition), the correct spelling of this holiday includes using the plural form &ldquo;Fools&rdquo; and capitalizing each word. This dictionary has the apostrophe after the &ldquo;s&rdquo; to show the possessive form of the plural noun. If you are teaching students in the US, this is the form you should use.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Interestingly, the Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English spells it &ldquo;April Fool&rsquo;s Day.&rdquo;&nbsp;This dictionary uses the singular form of the noun and thus puts the apostrophe before the &ldquo;s.&rdquo;&nbsp;So if you are teaching students in Canada, you should use &ldquo;April Fool&rsquo;s Day.&rdquo;&nbsp;I would assume that the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other English-speaking countries also use &ldquo;April Fool&rsquo;s Day.&rdquo;&nbsp;If you can confirm this, please leave a comment below!</p>

<h2>2. April Fool</h2>

<p>What do you shout out after you&rsquo;ve pulled a prank on someone? The correct answer, according to Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s, is &ldquo;April fool!&rdquo; (The Oxford Canadian dictionary didn&rsquo;t have an entry for this case.) This was a surprise to me, because I grew up shouting &ldquo;April fool&rsquo;s!&rdquo; and always assumed it was just the shortened version of the holiday name. Now I know that the correct version is &ldquo;April fool,&rdquo;&nbsp;and that&rsquo;s what I suggest teaching your students. Note that &ldquo;fool&rdquo; is not capitalized&mdash;it is just a common noun in this case. If you are teaching students about this holiday in more detail, note that the alternative name for this holiday is &ldquo;All Fools&rsquo; Day.&rdquo;&nbsp;Also, people sometimes shout out &ldquo;April fish&rdquo; in certain countries (&ldquo;poisson d&rsquo;Avril&rdquo; in French).<br />
<br />
Don&rsquo;t be fooled by all these rules!<br />
&mdash;Tanya</p>

April Fools' Day Capitalization and Punctuation Rules

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<p><em>Updated January 2016</em></p>

<blockquote>
<p>If I remember all the conditional patterns, I will pass the&nbsp;test!</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Let&rsquo;s talk about conditionals. I find that the usual textbook method of presenting one conditional pattern in isolation means that students will only remember and be able to use that one type. When another pattern is introduced weeks or months later, they often won&rsquo;t remember the previous pattern well enough to keep them both straight, and confusion is the&nbsp;result.</p>

<p>I started laying out all four patterns at once in my TOEIC classes, where students needed to be able to distinguish between all types of conditional sentences in the grammar section of the test. After a lot of positive feedback from students, I started using this method in all my classes whenever one conditional pattern came up in the textbook (or just came up in&nbsp;conversation).</p>

<p>I really found that all my students, even the low‑intermediate ones, understood conditionals so much better when all four patterns were clearly laid out for them. The following chart is how I prefer to present conditionals in my classes. Write out this chart on the board, or download and print it out. You&rsquo;ll also find some useful tips below the&nbsp;chart.</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2164"><img alt="Conditionals Chart" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/212/content_Tanya_An-Easy-Way-to-Teach-Conditionals_Chart.png" /></a></p>

<p class="caption"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2164" target="_blank">Conditionals Chart</a> &ndash; Grammar &amp; Usage&nbsp;Resources</p>

<h1>Patterns</h1>

<h3>1. If + Present, Present</h3>

<p><strong>Example:</strong> <em>If he takes vitamins every day, he doesn&rsquo;t get sick. / He doesn&rsquo;t get sick if he takes vitamins every&nbsp;day.</em></p>

<ul>
	<li>This is called the <strong>zero&nbsp;conditional</strong>.</li>
	<li>Use this conditional to show an outcome that happens if a specific <strong>repeated</strong> condition is&nbsp;met.</li>
	<li>The verbs in the <em>if clause</em> and in the <em>main clause</em> will both be <strong>simple present</strong> verbs (remind students that third person singular verbs end in&nbsp;‑s).</li>
	<li>Make sure that students realize, for all the conditional patterns, that the <em>if clause</em> and the <em>main clause</em> order doesn&rsquo;t matter&mdash;the meaning is the same. I like to write out both versions of my example, as I&rsquo;ve done above, so that this point hits home. Also note that a comma is needed when the <em>if clause</em> comes before the main&nbsp;clause.</li>
</ul>

<h3>2. If + Present, Will + Verb</h3>

<p><strong>Example:</strong><em> If she studies for the test, she will get a good grade. / She will get a good grade if she studies for the test.</em></p>

<ul>
	<li>This is called the <strong>first conditional</strong> or the <strong>real&nbsp;conditional</strong>.</li>
	<li>Use this conditional to show a <strong>likely</strong> or <strong>possible</strong> outcome that will probably happen if a specific condition is&nbsp;met.</li>
	<li>The verb in the&nbsp;<em>if clause </em>is a <strong>simple present</strong> verb, and the verb in the&nbsp;<em>main clause</em> is <strong>will + base</strong> form of the&nbsp;verb.</li>
	<li>Make sure to point out that the verb in the <em>if clause</em> will end in ‑s if the subject is third person&nbsp;singular.</li>
</ul>

<h3>3. If + Past, Would + Verb</h3>

<p><strong>Example</strong> (of an <strong>unlikely</strong> situation): <em>If he won the lottery, he would quit his job. / He would quit his job if he won the&nbsp;lottery.</em></p>

<p><strong>Example</strong> (of an <strong>impossible</strong> situation): <em>If I had wings, I would fly to Antarctica. / I would fly to Antarctica if I had&nbsp;wings.</em></p>

<ul>
	<li>This is called the <strong>second conditional</strong> or the <strong>unreal&nbsp;conditional</strong>.</li>
	<li>Use this conditional to show an <strong>unlikely</strong> or <strong>impossible</strong> outcome that probably wouldn&rsquo;t happen (unless a specific condition were&nbsp;met).</li>
	<li>The verb in the&nbsp;<em>if clause&nbsp;</em>is a&nbsp;<strong>simple past</strong>&nbsp;verb, and the verb in the&nbsp;<em>main clause</em>&nbsp;is&nbsp;<strong>would + base </strong>form of the&nbsp;verb.</li>
	<li>Make sure to point out that this is one case where it&rsquo;s correct to use a past tense verb for a future&nbsp;situation.</li>
	<li>Note: The verb<em> to be</em> is always <strong>were </strong>with this conditional, even in the first and third person singular. I usually give an example to ensure that students understand this strange exception: <em>If I were rich, I would buy you a car. / I would buy you a car if I were&nbsp;rich.</em></li>
</ul>

<h3>4. If + Had + P.P., Would + Have +&nbsp;P.P.</h3>

<p><strong>Example:</strong> <em>If I had remembered to call my friend last night, she wouldn&rsquo;t have sent me an angry text message. / My friend wouldn&rsquo;t have sent me an angry text message if I had remembered to call her last&nbsp;night.</em></p>

<ul>
	<li>This is called the <strong>third&nbsp;conditional</strong>.</li>
	<li>Use this conditional to show a <strong>past regret </strong>or<strong> different</strong> outcome that would have happened if a specific condition had been&nbsp;met.</li>
	<li>The verb in the <em>if clause</em> is a <strong>past perfect</strong> verb (<strong>had + past participle</strong> form of the verb), and the verb in the&nbsp;<em>main clause</em> is a <strong>past modal</strong> pattern (<strong>would + have + past participle</strong> form of the&nbsp;verb).</li>
	<li>Make sure to tell students that this conditional isn&rsquo;t very common. We don&rsquo;t often speculate about what might have happened in the past, because we already know what actually&nbsp;happened.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Quick Review</h2>

<p>As a review the next day, write this chart on the board to reiterate the four conditional&nbsp;patterns:</p>

<ol>
	<li><strong>Present (Repeated): </strong>If + Present,&nbsp;Present</li>
	<li><strong>Future (</strong><strong>Likely/Possible/Real):</strong> If + Present, Will +&nbsp;Verb</li>
	<li><strong>Future (</strong><strong>Unlikely/Impossible/Unreal):</strong> If + Past, Would +&nbsp;Verb</li>
	<li><strong>Past (Regret/Different Outcome):</strong> If + Had + P.P., Would + Have +&nbsp;P.P.</li>
</ol>

<p>For more practice, check out ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">lesson plans and flashcards</a> on&nbsp;conditionals! We also have a <a href="https://youtu.be/s59ygVYxpag">First Conditional video on YouTube</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1602">on our site</a>, with videos for the second conditional and third conditional coming soon!&nbsp;</p>

<p>If you try this method in your class, I will be very&nbsp;happy!</p>

<p>Tanya</p>


An Easy Way to Teach Conditionals

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<blockquote>
<p>Teaching students to use big, long lists of&nbsp;adjectives&hellip;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>No native English speaker would say &ldquo;the red, big house&rdquo; because we all know that &ldquo;the big, red house&rdquo; sounds better. Students, on the other hand, need to be taught the correct order of multiple adjectives because they can&rsquo;t rely on what sounds right. Luckily, rules about adjective order do exist and can be followed easily to avoid awkward errors. And what about using commas with multiple adjectives? Read on for the solutions to all your adjective teaching&nbsp;woes!</p>

<h1>I. Punctuation of Multiple Adjectives</h1>

<p>If the adjectives are all being used to describe the noun (aka coordinate adjectives), commas should separate them. Using &ldquo;<strong>and</strong>&rdquo; is a good test to determine if the multiple adjectives you&rsquo;re using should follow this rule. (For an example of when a comma should not be used, see #8, <em>Purpose</em>,&nbsp;below.)</p>

<h2>Examples of Punctuation with Multiple&nbsp;Adjectives</h2>

<ul>
	<li>She has <em>long</em>, <em>dark</em> hair. (She has long and dark hair; both <em>long</em> and <em>dark</em> are adjectives that describe the noun&nbsp;<em>hair</em>.)</li>
	<li>I live in the <em>big</em>, <em>red</em> house down the street. (I live in the big and red house; both <em>big</em> and <em>red</em> describe the noun&nbsp;<em>house</em>.)</li>
	<li>I admired the <em>expensive</em>, <em>new</em>, <em>German</em> cars at the car show. (I admired the expensive and new and German cars; <em>expensive</em> and <em>new</em> and <em>German</em> all describe the noun&nbsp;<em>cars</em>.)</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h3>Note</h3>

<p>Using &ldquo;<strong>and</strong>&rdquo; is necessary when there is no noun that follows the adjectives: The cars were expensive, new, <em>and</em> German. Her hair is long <em>and</em>&nbsp;dark.</p>
</div>

<h2>II. Order of Multiple Adjectives</h2>

<p>The natural order for multiple adjectives is based on what type of adjectives are used. Adjectives should appear in this&nbsp;order:</p>

<table>
	<thead>
		<tr>
			<th>#</th>
			<th>Type of Adjective</th>
			<th>Examples</th>
		</tr>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>1</th>
			<th>Opinion</th>
			<td>
			<p>(what you think about something)</p>

			<ul>
				<li>beautiful</li>
				<li>expensive</li>
				<li>easy</li>
				<li>delicious</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>2</th>
			<th>Size</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>big</li>
				<li>small</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>3</th>
			<th>Age</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>young</li>
				<li>old</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>4</th>
			<th>Shape</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>round</li>
				<li>rectangular</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>5</th>
			<th>Color</th>
			<td>
			<ul>
				<li>red</li>
				<li>white</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>6</th>
			<th>Origin</th>
			<td>
			<p>(where something came from)</p>

			<ul>
				<li>European</li>
				<li>Japanese</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>7</th>
			<th>Material</th>
			<td>
			<p>(what something is made from)</p>

			<ul>
				<li>metal</li>
				<li>silk</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>8</th>
			<th>Purpose</th>
			<td>
			<p>(what something is used for)</p>

			<ul>
				<li>sleeping (as in sleeping bag)</li>
				<li>English (as in English teacher)</li>
			</ul>
			</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h3>Note</h3>

<p>Adjectives of purpose are also included in this list, but please be careful about punctuation with these adjectives. Purpose adjectives are a bit different in that they end up specifying what the noun is rather than just describing it. For example, <em>sleeping bag</em> is now a specific type of bag, whereas <em>red bag</em> could be any type of bag that is red. Be careful about punctuation with purpose adjectives: You will NOT need a comma between another type of adjective and a purpose adjective. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<ul>
	<li>I have a <em>red sleeping</em> bag. (color, <strong>no comma</strong>, purpose)</li>
	<li>I have a <em>comfortable</em>, <em>red sleeping</em> bag. (opinion, <strong>comma</strong>, color, <strong>no comma</strong>, purpose)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Examples of Order with Multiple&nbsp;Adjectives</h2>

<ul>
	<li>My friend is a <em>talented</em>, <em>young</em> musician. (opinion,&nbsp;age)</li>
	<li>That car is a <em>beautiful</em>, <em>older</em>, <em>Italian</em> model. (opinion, age,&nbsp;origin)</li>
	<li>I bought a <em>shiny</em>, <em>small</em>, <em>square,</em> <em>metal</em> vase. (opinion, size, shape,&nbsp;material)</li>
	<li>We browsed through the many <em>antique</em>, <em>colorful</em>, <em>silk</em> dresses in the boutique. (age, color,&nbsp;material)</li>
</ul>

<h3>Note</h3>

<p>If the multiple adjectives are of the same type, then you can use any order you want. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<ul>
	<li>She has a <em>funny</em>, <em>kind</em> coworker. (opinion,&nbsp;opinion)</li>
	<li>She has a <em>kind</em>, <em>funny</em> coworker. (opinion,&nbsp;opinion)</li>
</ul>

<p>I hope that these confusing, stress-inducing rules are now clear in your mind so that you can easily teach them to your students! If anything is still unclear, please let me know in the comment section below. For a ready-made lesson that includes practice with adjective order, try this <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2093">Adjectives</a>&nbsp;lesson.</p>

<p>&mdash;Tanya</p>

<h1>Sources</h1>

<ul>
	<li><em>Chicago Manual of Style</em>, 16th edition, sections 5.90 and&nbsp;6.33.</li>
	<li>University of Victoria English Language Centre, <span style="overflow-wrap: break-word; word-wrap: break-word; -ms-word-break: break-all; word-break: break-all;">http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/adjord.htm</span>.</li>
</ul>


Adjective Order and Punctuation

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<blockquote>
<p>Have you ever <strong>tried to study</strong> (but couldn&rsquo;t) or <strong>tried studying</strong> (started, then stopped) these tricky&nbsp;verbs?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In last week&rsquo;s blog post, we saw a method for <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/gerunds-and-infinitives-helpful-teaching-tips">teaching gerunds and infinitives</a> to students in a clear, organized way. We learned that, following a main verb, there is a lot of memorization and practice required on the students&rsquo; part in order to keep which verbs take gerunds and which take infinitives&nbsp;straight.</p>

<p>As if that wasn&rsquo;t difficult enough, there are certain verbs in English that change their meaning depending on if they&#39;re followed by a&nbsp;gerund or an infinitive! These verbs are best left for high‑intermediate or advanced learners to muddle through, but when they&rsquo;re ready, here is a handy list of some of the most common verbs of this&nbsp;type.</p>

<h1>1. Try</h1>

<h2>Try + Gerund</h2>

<p><strong>Try + Gerund</strong> means that you started doing something, then stopped for some reason (usually because it was too&nbsp;difficult).</p>

<ul>
	<li>She <em>tried learning</em> French, but she gave up after a few months. (She found French too&nbsp;difficult.)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Try + Infinitive</h2>

<p><strong>Try + Infinitive</strong> means that you attempted something but couldn&rsquo;t do it for some&nbsp;reason.</p>

<ul>
	<li>She <em>tried to get</em> into the club, but she got ID&rsquo;d. (She attempted to enter the club even though she was underage, but she didn&rsquo;t get&nbsp;in.)</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Be careful!</h5>

<p>Sometimes you can hear &ldquo;try&rdquo; with both a gerund and an infinitive where the meaning is essentially the same. The reason this is possible is because the focus is slightly different. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<ul>
	<li>I <em>tried calling</em> you last night. (I attempted to call you once [or many times], but I eventually gave&nbsp;up.)</li>
	<li>I<em> tried to call</em> you last night. (You never picked up the phone, so I couldn&rsquo;t talk to&nbsp;you.)</li>
</ul>
</div>

<h1>2. Stop</h1>

<h2>Stop + Gerund</h2>

<p><strong>Stop + Gerund</strong> means you quit doing&nbsp;something.</p>

<ul>
	<li>He <em>stopped smoking</em> last week. (He quit&nbsp;smoking.)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Stop + Infinitive</h2>

<p><strong>Stop + Infinitive</strong> means you were doing something and then took a break, or you stopped on your way&nbsp;somewhere.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Even though he was behind in his work, he <em>stopped to smoke</em> a cigarette. (He stopped working to have a smoke&nbsp;break.)</li>
	<li>I <em>stopped to buy</em> milk on my way home. (I went to the store before going&nbsp;home.)</li>
</ul>

<h1>3. Forget</h1>

<h2>Forget + Gerund</h2>

<p><strong>Forget + Gerund</strong> means that you have already done something, but can&rsquo;t remember doing&nbsp;it.</p>

<ul>
	<li>She didn&rsquo;t recognize him at all. She <em>forgot meeting</em> him last summer. (She forgot that she had met him&nbsp;before.)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Forget + Infinitive</h2>

<p><strong>Forget + Infinitive</strong> means that you had the intention of doing something, but didn&rsquo;t remember to do&nbsp;it.</p>

<ul>
	<li>She <em>forgot to meet</em> her client for lunch, so she got an angry phone call from him later. (She had plans to meet her client, but she didn&rsquo;t remember to do&nbsp;it.)</li>
</ul>

<h1>4. Remember</h1>

<h2>Remember + Gerund</h2>

<p><strong>Remember + Gerund</strong> means that you did something in the past, and you can remember doing it. (This is usually used when you&rsquo;re surprised that you that recall that far back. It&rsquo;s also used when you&rsquo;re reminiscing with&nbsp;friends.)</p>

<ul>
	<li>I <em>remember falling</em> down the stairs when I was four years&nbsp;old.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Remember + Infinitive</h2>

<p><strong>Remember + Infinitive</strong> means that you had the intention of doing something, and you remembered to do&nbsp;it.</p>

<ul>
	<li>My husband was happy that I <em>remembered to pay</em> the bills on time last&nbsp;month.</li>
</ul>

<h1>5. Regret</h1>

<h2>Regret + Gerund</h2>

<p><strong>Regret + Gerund</strong> means that you did something that you wish you&nbsp;hadn&rsquo;t.</p>

<ul>
	<li>I <em>regretted telling</em> him my secret because he told everyone at my school. (I wish I hadn&rsquo;t told him my&nbsp;secret.)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Regret + Infinitive</h2>

<p><strong>Regret + Infinitive</strong> means that you&rsquo;re sorry (usually used in formal cases&nbsp;only).</p>

<ul>
	<li>We<em> regret to tell</em> you that your application was not accepted. (We&rsquo;re sorry to have to tell you&nbsp;this.)</li>
</ul>

<p>Don&rsquo;t <em>stop to worry</em> about these difficult verbs, just <em>stop&nbsp;worrying</em>! :)</p>

<p>Tanya</p>


5 Verbs with Meaning Changes: Gerunds & Infinitives (Advanced)

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<blockquote>
<p>I like teaching and I like to&nbsp;teach&hellip;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Gerunds (the <em>‑ing form</em> of a verb) and infinitives <em>(to + the base form</em> of a verb) are strange little creatures. They combine the action meaning of the verb with the grammatical function of a noun. They are useful because they allow us to use verbs as subjects and objects. But in the object position, the choice of gerund or infinitive can seem quite arbitrary. Also, because they have so many positions in a sentence, they can be confusing for students to learn. Fear not! There are some sentence patterns that ensure the correct choice of a gerund or an&nbsp;infinitive.</p>

<h1>Gerunds</h1>

<h2>1. as the subject of a sentence</h2>

<h4>S = Ger</h4>

<p>This position commonly calls for a gerund. While an infinitive is also possible, it is very formal and not&nbsp;common.</p>

<ul>
	<li><em><strong>Shopping</strong></em> is my favourite&nbsp;hobby.</li>
	<li><em><strong>Working out</strong></em> has really improved my&nbsp;health.</li>
</ul>

<h2>2. following a preposition</h2>

<h4>Prep + Ger</h4>

<p>Here is another common gerund position. This rule applies to all prepositions, including ones that are part of phrasal&nbsp;verbs.</p>

<ul>
	<li>She thought <strong>about</strong> <em>calling</em> him, but decided she&nbsp;wouldn&rsquo;t.</li>
	<li>They are planning <strong>on</strong> <em>going</em> to the party&nbsp;tonight.</li>
</ul>

<h2>3. as the object of a verb</h2>

<h4>V + Ger</h4>

<p>This is the one position where both gerunds and infinitives are commonly used. The choice of which to use all depends on the verb. Some common ones are: <em>advise</em>, <em>avoid</em>, <em>enjoy</em>, <em>finish</em>, <em>practise</em>, <em>quit</em>, and&nbsp;<em>suggest</em>.</p>

<ul>
	<li>He <strong>enjoyed</strong> <em>learning</em> about&nbsp;gerunds.</li>
	<li>My teacher <strong>suggested</strong> <em>studying</em> for the upcoming quiz.</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Note</h5>

<p>Don&rsquo;t forget that some verbs take either a gerund or an infinitive with no change in meaning. While students don&rsquo;t have to worry about these verbs, they should still be pointed out. Some common verbs are: <em>like</em>, <em>love</em>, and&nbsp;<em>hate</em>.</p>
</div>

<ul>
	<li>I <strong>love</strong> <em>eating&nbsp;</em>pasta.</li>
	<li>I <strong>love</strong> <em>to eat&nbsp;</em>pasta.</li>
</ul>

<h1>Infinitives</h1>

<h2>1. following an adjective</h2>

<h4>Adj + Inf</h4>

<p>Though it is possible in some cases to use a gerund after an adjective, it is more common to use an infinitive, making it the better choice for&nbsp;students.</p>

<ul>
	<li>It is <strong>nice</strong> <em>to meet</em>&nbsp;you.</li>
	<li>She mentioned that it was <strong>dangerous</strong> <em>to stand</em> near that&nbsp;machine.</li>
</ul>

<h2>2. following a noun or pronoun</h2>

<h4>N + Inf</h4>

<p>If the verb has an object that is a noun or a pronoun, it is almost always followed by an infinitive. This makes it easy for students to choose the correct&nbsp;form.</p>

<ul>
	<li>You asked <strong>me</strong><em> to call</em> you.</li>
	<li>The doctor advised <strong>Mark</strong> <em>to eat</em> more vegetables. (Note that the verb &ldquo;advise&rdquo; normally takes a gerund, as in &ldquo;The doctor <strong>advised</strong> <em>eating</em> more vegetables.&rdquo; But because there is a noun object in this sentence, we must use the infinitive. The noun rule supersedes the verb rule, which is great news for&nbsp;students.)</li>
</ul>

<h2>3. as the object of a verb</h2>

<h4>V + Inf</h4>

<p>This is the one position where both gerunds and infinitives are commonly used. It all depends on the verb. Some common ones are: <em>ask</em>, <em>choose</em>, <em>decide</em>, <em>get</em>, <em>need</em>, <em>plan</em>, <em>promise</em>, and&nbsp;<em>want</em>.</p>

<ul>
	<li>They <strong>want</strong> <em>to get</em> their tests back as soon as&nbsp;possible.</li>
	<li>The students <strong>are planning</strong><em> to have</em> a party this&nbsp;Friday.</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Note</h5>

<p>ESL Library&rsquo;s new and improved gerund and infinitive lessons are coming soon. In those lessons, we put verbs into categories to help students figure out whether to use a gerund or an infinitive. Also, googling &ldquo;gerunds and infinitives verb list&rdquo; brings up several lists that students can use for&nbsp;reference.</p>
</div>

<h1>One final teaching point</h1>

<p>Because both gerunds and infinitives retain their verb meanings (even though they function as nouns), they too can have objects. That means it&rsquo;s not uncommon to see a sentence with two or more objects when gerunds or infinitives are in play. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<ul>
	<li>I enjoy <strong>studying</strong> <em>English</em>. (&ldquo;studying&rdquo; is the direct object of &ldquo;enjoy,&rdquo; and &ldquo;English&rdquo; is the direct object of&nbsp;&ldquo;studying&rdquo;)</li>
	<li>My boss asked <em>me</em> <strong>to help</strong> <em>her</em>. (&ldquo;me&rdquo; is the indirect object of &ldquo;asked,&rdquo; &ldquo;to help&rdquo; is the direct object of &ldquo;asked,&rdquo; and &ldquo;her&rdquo; is the direct object of &ldquo;to&nbsp;help&rdquo;)</li>
</ul>

<p>I hope you liked learning/to learn about this grammar&nbsp;point!</p>

<p>Tanya</p>


Gerunds & Infinitives: Helpful Teaching Tips

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<h1>The semicolon is not often used; most people aren&#39;t even sure how to use it.</h1>

<p>What is this silly little punctuation mark good for anyway? Is it just some antiquated notion? Should we even bother teaching it to our students? My view is that if it&rsquo;s in the English language, it should be brought to students&rsquo; attention because they&rsquo;re bound to come across it at some point. But it&rsquo;s also our job as teachers to point out which conventions are no longer commonly used, which is indeed the case with the semicolon. </p>

<h3>1. What is the semicolon used for?</h3>

<p>The semicolon is used to join two sentences together, so it is useful for connecting ideas and making sentences more complex. It can take the place of a period or a conjunction such as &ldquo;and.&rdquo; The semicolon should connect two sentences with similar or related ideas. Let&rsquo;s look at some examples:</p>

<ul>
	<li>He was tired. He was up all night studying.</li>
	<li>He was tired; he was up all night studying.</li>
	<li>BUT NOT: He was tired; it was raining. (unrelated ideas)</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>She was a great student, and she got a prestigious scholarship.</li>
	<li>She was a great student; she got a prestigious scholarship.</li>
</ul>

<p>Don&rsquo;t forget to point out the punctuation of transition words to your higher-level students. With transition words, a period or a semicolon must be used. Here are some examples:</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">I forgot to study for the test. In addition, I forgot to bring a pencil.</li>
	<li dir="ltr">I forgot to study for the test; in addition, I forgot to bring a pencil.</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">The professor didn&rsquo;t make us write the test. However, he gave us a lot of homework.</li>
	<li dir="ltr">The professor didn&rsquo;t make us write the test; however, he gave us a lot of homework.</li>
</ul>

<h3>2. Should we teach and/or use the semicolon?</h3>

<p>In formal writing (academic, scientific, etc.), the semicolon may be used. If you have formal essay writing in class, you could get your students to try using the semicolon. If your students are in university or taking a university prep class, it&rsquo;s a good idea to teach and use it, especially if they&rsquo;re using transition words in their writing. But make sure you also tell students when NOT to use it: in emails, text messages, instant messaging, etc. I think it would even look out of place in business letters or job applications. So bring it up, yes, but remind students that the semicolon is very formal, and a little out of fashion. One of these days, I&rsquo;ll write a blog post about my favourite punctuation mark, the interrobang. Now THAT&rsquo;S useful?!<br />
<br />
&mdash;Tanya</p>

How Useful Is the Semicolon?

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<h1>How romantic&hellip;</h1>

<p>Champagne, roses, and&hellip;a discussion of capitalization and punctuation rules? Maybe it&rsquo;s not the most romantic of topics, but you&rsquo;ll soon be discussing this holiday in class, and you&rsquo;ll want to have the rules&nbsp;straight!</p>

<h2>1. Capitalization</h2>

<p>When we write the holiday, we have to use capital&nbsp;letters.</p>

<ul>
	<li>My favorite holiday is Valentine&rsquo;s&nbsp;Day.</li>
</ul>

<p>This could be shortened in casual speech, when it&rsquo;s clear we&rsquo;re referring to the&nbsp;day.</p>

<ul>
	<li>What are you doing for Valentine&rsquo;s&nbsp;(Day)?</li>
</ul>

<p>When we&rsquo;re referring to a gift, greeting, or person, we don&rsquo;t use capital&nbsp;letters.</p>

<ul>
	<li>I bought her a valentine present; I hope she&rsquo;ll like&nbsp;it.</li>
	<li>I got a valentine card from him&nbsp;today.</li>
	<li>Be my valentine.</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Note</h5>

<p>It is common to hear &ldquo;valentine&rsquo;s&rdquo; used in place of &ldquo;valentine&rdquo; (e.g., <em>I got a valentine&rsquo;s card from him today</em>). I think this is because people are using the holiday name, either on purpose or by accident. If you&rsquo;re using the holiday name, write it as &ldquo;Valentine&rsquo;s,&rdquo; with or without the word &ldquo;Day&rdquo; (e.g., <em>I got a Valentine&rsquo;s [Day] card from him today</em>). Personally, I would stick to &ldquo;valentine card.&rdquo;</p>
</div>

<h2>2. Punctuation</h2>

<p>When we write the holiday, we must use &ldquo;apostrophe&nbsp;s.&rdquo;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Happy Valentine&rsquo;s&nbsp;Day!</li>
</ul>

<p>Is there a case where there is an &ldquo;s&rdquo; with no apostrophe? Yes, but only if we&rsquo;re referring to a plural noun, usually &nbsp;&ldquo;cards.&rdquo;</p>

<ul>
	<li>How many valentines did you get? (refers to valentine&nbsp;cards)</li>
	<li><strong>Never</strong> use &ldquo;Happy Valentines Day&rdquo; or &ldquo;valentines&nbsp;cards.&rdquo;</li>
</ul>

<p>Now you&rsquo;re ready for all the fun Valentine&rsquo;s Day activities that you can do with your students! <a href="https://www.ellii.com/" target="_blank">E</a><a href="http://ellii.com" target="_blank">llii</a> has got some amazing resources, including this&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/2145" target="_blank">Valentine&rsquo;s Day poster of love idioms</a>. You should also check out our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/" target="_blank">Valentine&rsquo;s Day lessons</a>&nbsp;and guest blogger Shelly Terrell&rsquo;s <a href="http://ellii.com/blog/14-activities-resources-for-celebrating-valentines-day/" target="_blank">14+ Activities &amp; Resources for Celebrating Valentine&rsquo;s&nbsp;Day</a>.<br />
<br />
And here is a sneak peek of a&nbsp;video lesson that is fun for Valentine&#39;s Day.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/McJHPK8srvo" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
An ad-free version of this video is available for <a href="https://ellii.com/pricing" target="_blank">Ellii subscribers</a> in our <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/3486-what-s-she-like-a-valentine-s-story" target="_blank">digital lesson</a>&nbsp;and in our <a href="https://ellii.com/video/what-s-she-like" target="_blank">Media Gallery</a>.</p>

<p>Happy Valentine&rsquo;s Day to&nbsp;all,<br />
Tanya</p>

<p>Sources: Merriam‑Webster&rsquo;s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th&nbsp;ed., and Oxford Canadian dictionary of Current&nbsp;English.</p>


Valentine's Day Capitalization & Punctuation Rules

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Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

<h1>Adjectives with a twist&hellip;</h1>

<p>This activity involves using adjectives to describe animals. There&rsquo;s a twist, though: you will later reveal that the students are actually describing themselves! Use this warm‑up activity when you&rsquo;re doing a unit on adjectives or descriptions. It&rsquo;s also a good way for students to teach each other new vocabulary. You could also use it when you have a class of new students to break the ice. Students always end up laughing, so it&rsquo;s a great way to start a&nbsp;class.</p>

<h2>Step #1</h2>

<h4>Get students to think of three animals they&nbsp;like.</h4>

<p>Have them write the animal names on a piece of paper. For example, a student might choose <em>tiger</em>, <em>bear</em>, and&nbsp;<em>rabbit</em>.</p>

<h2>Step #2</h2>

<h4>Have students write three adjectives to describe each&nbsp;animal.</h4>

<p>Give some examples:</p>

<table>
	<thead>
		<tr>
			<th>Animal</th>
			<th>Adjectives</th>
		</tr>
	</thead>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>tiger</th>
			<td>aggressive, strong, fast</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>bear</th>
			<td>big, furry, hungry</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>rabbit</th>
			<td>shy, cute, cuddly</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>After writing some examples on the board, I prefer to let students come up with adjectives on their own so that they don&rsquo;t all end up with the same ones. If they&rsquo;re looking a little lost, you could have a brainstorming session as a class before they write their&nbsp;words.</p>

<p>For lower‑level classes, these adjectives can be basic, such as <em>cute</em>, <em>strong</em>, <em>big</em>, <em>little</em>, <em>furry</em>, <em>lovable</em>,&nbsp;etc.</p>

<p>For higher‑level classes, challenge students to find adjectives that their classmates may not know, such as <em>ferocious</em>, <em>majestic</em>, etc. (allow dictionary use if you&rsquo;d&nbsp;like).</p>

<p>Circulate to make sure students are not writing nouns by mistake (this often&nbsp;happens).</p>

<p>Get faster students to help slower students come up with their last few&nbsp;adjectives.</p>

<h2>Step #3</h2>

<h4>Have them read out their adjective&nbsp;lists.</h4>

<p>Put students in groups of four or five and have them read out their adjectives. But instead of saying the animal names, they must use the phrases &ldquo;<em>I think I am</em>&rdquo; + 3 adjectives, &ldquo;<em>My friends think I am</em>&rdquo; + 3 adjectives, &ldquo;<em>I am really</em>&rdquo; + 3 adjectives. Explain that the adjectives represent how you see yourself, how your friends see you, and how you really&nbsp;are.</p>

<p>Use your example to model this before they begin. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>I think I am aggressive, strong, and&nbsp;fast.</p>

<p>My friends think I am big, furry, and&nbsp;hungry.</p>

<p>I am really shy, cute, and&nbsp;cuddly.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>See what everyone has come up with! Share a few of the funnier answers with the whole&nbsp;class.</p>

<p>Have fun,</p>

<p>Tanya</p>


My Favorite Warm-Up Activity

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<h1>It&rsquo;s confusing for students and teachers alike when textbooks use different grammar terms!</h1>

<p>It&rsquo;s not only a difference between countries. Sometimes, in the same country, grammarians choose different terms to represent the same grammatical function. It could be a matter of preference, or maybe it&rsquo;s what they learned when they were studying grammar. As a teacher, it can be quite frustrating to see a grammatical term referred to in two different ways (e.g., &ldquo;progressive&rdquo; in one textbook and &ldquo;continuous&rdquo; in another). Our poor students, who already have so much to take in, now have to remember more than one term for the same function!</p>

<p>Let&rsquo;s look at the list below to get some of the more common mix-ups straightened out.</p>

<h2>Progressive Vs. Continuous</h2>

<p>These words are used for many tenses to refer to a continuing action (the -ing form), such as the present progressive or the present continuous, the past progressive or the past continuous, etc. <em>Progressive&nbsp;</em>seems to be the preferred choice in the US and <em>continuous</em> seems to be preferred in the UK. In Canada, I have seen many textbooks that use <em>progressive</em> and many that use <em>continuous</em>. I learned it as <em>progressive</em>, but I have had many Canadian co-workers also call it <em>continuous</em>. Telling students right off the bat that there are two terms for this grammatical function may help them avoid confusion down the road.</p>

<h2>Word Forms Vs. Parts of Speech</h2>

<p>This was the one that inspired this blog post. A teacher wrote us to say that she wasn&rsquo;t sure what we meant by <em>word form</em>. Both terms refer to the grammatical function of a word in a sentence, such as <em>noun</em>, <em>verb</em>, <em>adjective</em>, <em>adverb</em>, etc.</p>

<h2>Subject-Predicate Vs. S-V-O</h2>

<p>Both cases refer to the subject and the <em>verb</em>, <em>verb</em> + <em>object</em>, or <em>verb</em> + other type of <em>clause</em> or <em>phrase</em>. Both are ways to describe the basic sentence patterns of English. I always teach using S-V-O. Which do you prefer?</p>

<h2>Restrictive/Non-Restrictive Vs. Identifying/Non-Identifying Adjective Clauses</h2>

<p><em>Restrictive</em>, or <em>identifying</em>, adjective clauses don&rsquo;t use commas because the adjective clause is necessary to identify the noun. (Example: <em>The man who sat next to me on the bus was friendly.</em> There is no way to identify this man from any other man unless we include the info that he sat next to me. Now it is one specific man that I&rsquo;m referring to.) <em>Non-restrictive</em>, or <em>non-identifying</em>, adjective clauses need commas because the adjective clause is simply extra information that is not required in order to identify the noun. (Example: <em>Mr. Green, who was wearing a funny hat today, seemed tired when he was teaching us about grammar.</em> The teacher, Mr. Green, is already one specific man, and there&rsquo;s no need to identify him further. The fact that he was wearing a funny hat is just extra information.) Both terms make sense: <em>restrictive</em> means that the clause cannot be omitted from the sentence without affecting the meaning, and <em>identifying</em> means that the clause is necessary in order to identify the noun.</p>

<h2>Reported Vs. Indirect Speech</h2>

<p>Both terms refer to saying what someone else said. (Example: <em>He told me he was coming to the party tonight.</em>) The term <em>indirect</em> is used in contrast to direct speech. (Example: <em>He told me, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m coming to the party tonight.&rdquo;</em>) But it&rsquo;s easy to guess where the term <em>reported</em> came from, because that is the purpose it serves, to report someone else&rsquo;s speech.</p>

<h2>Non-Count Vs. Uncountable Nouns</h2>

<p>Referring to nouns that are too small or too shapeless to count, such as sand or milk, these terms both use a negative prefix with the word count. You won&rsquo;t find <em>non-count</em> in the dictionary (whereas <em>uncountable</em> is listed), but in grammar terms, <em>non-count</em> seems to be used much more often.</p>

<p>If you have any other commonly confused grammatical terms to add to the list, please let us know in the comments section below. Here&rsquo;s to progress(ive)!</p>

<p>&mdash;Tanya</p>


Progressive Vs. Continuous and Other Synonymous Grammatical Terms

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Teaching with Ellii

<h1>Listen up! Transcripts can add a variety of activities to your repertoire.</h1>

<p>Listening is one of the most challenging skills of learning a second language. No matter how well a student may understand the written word or be able to speak in another language, when he or she hears it spoken naturally (i.e., quickly), it can be daunting. You can make it easier on your students by making use of the listening transcripts (for students who are visual learners, transcripts are a godsend). Whether the listening exercise is written out within the lesson (as is the case with ESL Library&rsquo;s lessons) or at the end of the textbook in transcript form, you can now present the listening exercise in many different ways. Why not mix it up from class to class? Variety is the spice of life, after all!</p>

<h3>Method 1: Listen only first, listen with transcript second</h3>

<ol>
	<li>It&rsquo;s a good idea to go over some vocabulary before you listen. You can pick out some tough words from the transcript to cover with your students.</li>
	<li>Present the listening first (without giving students the transcripts). For longer listening tasks, you may want to allow your students to take notes. You could also play the recording a second time before handing out the transcripts (especially for low level students, or difficult, long passages).</li>
	<li>Now give students the transcripts and play the recording again, letting the students listen and read at the same time. Ask students if they have any additional vocabulary questions. This is a great time to go over any slang or idioms that come up.</li>
	<li>For any related comprehension questions that follow, mix it up! You can have them answer the questions after the listening-with-transcript task, or have them answer questions before you do the final listening with the transcript so that they can catch anything they might have missed. If there aren&rsquo;t any comprehension questions available, ask some yourself. Students are a lot more engaged when they know they will be asked questions afterwards.</li>
</ol>

<h3>Method 2: Listen with transcript first, listen only second</h3>

<ol>
	<li>Start with vocabulary. You can pick out some tough words to teach the students, or have students skim the transcript and ask you words they are unfamiliar with.</li>
	<li>Present the first listening while they are reading the transcript. If the material isn&rsquo;t too difficult, you could have them do different things while they listen and read, such as focus on intonation or pronunciation, or underline words they don&rsquo;t know.</li>
	<li>Have them turn over the transcripts and listen to the recording for a second time. Now that they&rsquo;ve heard and read it once, it should be easier to follow this time around. This method is often less frustrating for students, but there should be occasions when you also try method #1, to challenge them. Whether or not to listen for a third time is up to you. I usually go by what the majority of the students want. It&rsquo;s a fine balance between helping out the slower students and not letting the faster students get bored. You could also make the recording available after school or during lunch for any students who want to practice the listening again. This is also part of the beauty of transcripts...slower students can study the written-out recordings later at home.</li>
	<li>Present the comprehension questions and go over any other difficult vocabulary.</li>
</ol>

<h3>Method 3: Fill in the blanks while listening</h3>

<ol>
	<li>This is a fun, different way to use transcripts and vary the listening exercises you give to your students. First, make one copy of the transcript and white out a word or phrase from each speaker&rsquo;s comment, or from every two sentences or so. The amount of blanks will depend on the level of your students. Just make sure not to have too many back to back, as students may get frustrated if they can&rsquo;t keep up.</li>
	<li>Play the recording and let students try to fill in the blanks as they listen. This method ensures engagement during the listening and really makes them aware of each word.</li>
	<li>Play the recording a second time so that students can fill in any blanks they missed during the first go.</li>
	<li>Check the answers together. Make sure you have them check their spelling.</li>
	<li>Now that the blanks are filled in, play the recording a third time and have students concentrate on the overall meaning of the passage.</li>
	<li>Do any comprehension questions and go over any difficult vocabulary.</li>
</ol>

<h3>Method 4: Cut up and put in order</h3>

<ol>
	<li>This is another way of using transcripts creatively. There are two ways to present this method (I prefer the first way). One way is to listen to the recording first, then give the cut-up transcript pieces and have students put them in order second. The second way is to give the cut-up transcript pieces first and have students put them in order, and listen to the passage second. Try both ways for variety and see what your students respond to best.</li>
	<li>To do this method, cut up the transcript into speakers&rsquo; sections (if it&rsquo;s a dialogue) or paragraphs (if it&rsquo;s one long passage). The idea behind presenting the transcript this way is that it forces the students to really think about the meaning of what they&rsquo;re reading and hearing. You can&rsquo;t put something back in order if you don&rsquo;t understand it well. If the transcripts aren&rsquo;t available in the textbook, I always copy them out for students who want to study the dialogue, vocabulary, etc. later at home. In the interest of saving trees, I usually ask how many students actually want a copy, since undoubtedly some of the students will just throw them out. On average, I would say about half the class wants a copy. If you have another way of using transcripts, I&rsquo;d love to hear it! Drop me a line in the comments section below. I hope these tips help your students become great listeners!</li>
</ol>

<p>&mdash;Tanya</p>

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Tanya Trusler