Here we share an extract and activity from Penny Ur’s Grammar Practice Activities 2nd edition.
In the introduction section of this article, Penny identifies five key features of effective grammar practice. One of these is heterogeneity, which Penny suggests works well for learners of different abilities. In the heterogeneous activity that follows, the focus is on practising conditional forms. Whilst you’re reading, see if you can think of other grammatical structures you could use sentence beginnings for, then ask your learners to complete with their own endings!
Introduction – Heterogeneity
A heterogeneous exercise, as I am using the term here, is one which may be done at various different levels. Because all classes are more or less heterogeneous, a homogeneous exercise cannot possibly provide effective practice for all the students: it will be too difficult for the weaker ones, and/or lacking in quantity and challenge for the stronger. It is, however, possible – and desirable – to design practice tasks that can be interpreted and performed at different levels, so that some students will be able to do more than others in terms of both quality and quantity.
An example of a homogeneous exercise is one based on multiple-choice questions; for example:
1) Jenny is a baby, so she _______ go to school.
a) doesn’t
b) isn’t
c) don’t
d) aren’t
Such an item can only be done by students above a certain level of proficiency: a learner who has not mastered the rules about when you use do or is with negative verbs in the present will probably get it wrong, or may not even do it at all. On the other hand, a learner who is well on the way to mastering the rule and can use it to create all sorts of meaningful statements has no opportunity to do so, but is limited to the rather boring sentence provided and cannot practise at a level appropriate to him/her.
But supposing we say:
2) Jenny is a baby, so she doesn’t go to school. What else doesn’t she do?
… we have thus not only provided for pre-learning and success-orientation by supplying a model of the kind of sentence we are looking for, we are also opening possibilities for the learners to respond with sentences at all sorts of levels. One might say at a simple level: ‘Jenny doesn’t read books’, while another might use more advanced language: ‘Jenny doesn’t use a credit card’.
To put it another way: heterogeneous items like 2) above are typically open-ended: they are intended to elicit a wide range of different, equally acceptable, responses. Closed-ended ones, on the other hand, like 1) above, which have only one right answer, are inherently homogeneous: they provide appropriate practice for only a limited number of the members of the class.
The use of heterogeneous, open-ended exercises, incidentally, not only ensures that a higher proportion of the class get learning value out of the practice; it also, like success-orientation, has a positive effect on learner attitude and motivation. Responses at many different levels can be ‘right’, hence these exercises provide an opportunity for the teacher to give slower or less confident students the approval and encouragement they need. They are also likely to be more interesting.
Activity
3.1 Finishing conditional sentences
Focus: Conditional sentences of the type If + present followed by will (Variations If + past followed by would/could)
Age: Any
Level: Intermediate
Time: 10–20 minutes
Procedure
- Provide half a sentence, beginning If … followed by a present tense.
For example: If I get home early today, …
(See Box 3.1a for some examples.) - Provide an example of how you might complete the sentence yourself:
I’ll do some gardening. - Tell each student to think of his/her own ending and write it down (faster workers should write more than one).
- Elicit different ideas from the students.
- Do the same with other If … beginnings.
Variations
- Do the same using the form If + past tense (see Box 3.1b for some examples).
- Do the same but the other way round, starting with the ‘result’ clause (‘I will go on vacation if …’, ‘I would talk to him if …’). (See Box 3.1c for some examples.)
Follow-up
If the activity is done in full class, students may later try to recall what other students’ variations were. For example:
If Mario gets home early today, he’ll watch his favourite programme on television.
After hearing a few suggestions, ask students to recall:
What were the most interesting endings you heard?
Who remembers what Monique would do?
Box 3.1a: Finishing conditional sentences
If I get home late tonight, …
If I can’t sleep, …
If I have time next weekend, …
If I get a high grade in my next exam, …
If you come to my home, …
Box 3.1b: Finishing conditional sentences
If I had a million dollars, …
If I were not here, …
If I could have one wish, …
If I had 20 children, …
If I had a museum, …
Box 3.1c: Finishing conditional sentences
will + if
I will be very disappointed if …
It’ll be great if …
I’ll help you if …
I will be very surprised if …
We’ll solve the problem if …
would + if
We would all learn English much better if …
I’d have more energy if …
I’d be very happy if …
I would buy a new car if …
We’d take a day off if …
If you’ve enjoyed this post, you might enjoy last week’s article which focuses on an activity from Jack Richard’s Key Issues in Language Teaching and how to help learners develop grammatical accuracy, fluency and complexity.