You've all heard of hangman right? Yes, of course you have! Well, instead of hangman with one word, how about hangman involving a passage instead:

___One____ ____day___ __________ __________ __________ __________

___late___. __________, __________ __________ __sleep___ __________

__________ __________ __________ __________. __________ __________

__________ __________ ___done___? _________ __________ __________

__________ __________ __________ __________ __________ ___clock___!

32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50

so

maybe

walked

went

supposed

created

changing

hopefully

Students have a maximum of 50 wrong guesses. They get to guess one word around the class; if it's correct, it's written in, if not it's put by the side of the passage and they lose one of their 50 lives. Help can be 'bought' by the student; for example, a letter in every word in exchange for one of their wrong guesses. Students should be given as much time as they need to talk about the sentence structure and the grammar of the passage. This exercise makes students aware of how sentences are constructed, and the punctuation also helps with, for example, linking devices.

There are two main types of chains; the first kind is a sentence containing a particular grammar point which a student creates. The next student has to repeat what the first student says, then add another example of the same grammar point. Here is an example :

Student 1 : "Yesterday I had my house painted."

Student 2 : "Yesterday I had my house painted and I had my car washed."

Student 3 : "Yesterday I had my house painted, I had my car washed and I had my hair cut."

The second kind of chain is where the first student creates a sentence using a particular grammar point. The next student creates a different sentence, using the same grammar point but which refers to the first sentence. Here is an example :

John got up late, missed his bus, got fired at work, tried to kill himself, was saved by a beautiful girl, fell in love and got married.

Student 1 : "If John hadn't got up late, he wouldn't have missed the bus."

Student 2 : "If John hadn't missed the bus, he would have got fired."

Student 3 : "If John hadn't got fired he wouldn't have tried to kill himself."

Both kinds of chains are a useful form of controlled practice, as they offer very intensive practice of a structure, but are more interesting and more contextualised than a series of sentences which must be filled with a particular structure.

This is a typical Monday morning warmer, where the students have to wander around talking to their fellow students asking questions to find out who, for example has a pet, likes Chinese food, hates computers etc. It is also very useful however, for targetting specific grammar points, eg the present perfect :

has ridden a camel.

has never been abroad.

has got drunk.

Or phrasal verbs :

has turned up late at a wedding.

has never washed up.

has fallen out with their parents recently.

The list is limitless.

Most teachers learn about the grammar auction during their initial training, but just in case you forgot, here it is!

Students are put into pairs and are told that they are in an auction house, where people bid against each other for antiques. The hope is that they buy something which is a genuine antique and worth a lot of money, and that they can pick it up for only a little. What they don't want to do is spend a lot of money on an antique which actually isn't worth much at all. Instead of buying antique furniture, however, the students are bidding for sentences. They have a sheet with twelve sentences on it, six of which are correct (the equivalents of genuine antiques); six of which are wrong (the equivalent of forgeries and completely worthless).

As each sentence comes up, presented by the teacher, the student pairs must guess whether it is correct or incorrect and start bidding for it from the ?5000 that you have generously given them. The bidding goes up and up until someone wins the bid and bang! You strike the table with your imaginary gavel. Then the students are told whether it is correct or not. If it is an incorrect sentence, they can then optionally earn part of their money back by correcting it. The auction continues until all the sentences have been dealt with, or until the students have no more money or until the teacher has no more voice!

This is one way to deal with areas of grammar the student's find particularly difficult, student composition mistakes, or false friends etc.

It is generally agreed that students focus more on a particular structure during either written or oral practice when the context is either very funny, very interesting or personalised. The first two can be quite difficult to create, as what one student finds interesting or funny, another won't, but personalisation is easy.

One very easy variation on having students fill in a sentence with an example of a structure being studied is to write a series of sentences which are unfinished. The students may have guidelines on the structure to use when completing the sentence, but none whatsoever on the content of the sentence. The whole idea is that they come up with something from their own experience, the mental effort needed to do this helping consolidate the structure being used in their memories. Here is an example :

1. The funniest thing I've ever seen is __________________________

2. The tallest person in my family is __________________________

3. The scariest film I've ever seen is __________________________

4. For me, the most difficult part of English is __________________________

5. The worst moment of my life was __________________________