Jazz Up Your Lesson

TENSE PRACTICE

Present Perfect Continuous

Remind the students about the form of this tense and how to use it correctly.

Give them an example:

I live in London.

How long have you been living in London?

I have been living in London for 17 years.

Then distribute the following cards to the students and ask them to make a survey.

The aim of the survey is to ask all the people in the group to find out the most experienced person in every particular field. Every card has only general questions. The student’s task is to circulate around the classroom and ask these questions. In case they get a positive answer they should ask one more specific question, composed by themselves, starting with “How long have you…” thus finding out who is the most experienced. Ask the students to write down the answers to compare them later. As a feedback – ask them to sit in a circle and tell the class about the most experienced people they have found.

Cards:

1) Do you live in Moscow? 2)	1) Are you learning English? 2)
1) Do you play the guitar? 2)	1) Do you practice any sport? 2)
1) Are you on a diet? 2)	1) Do you collect something? 2)
1) Do you have a mobile phone? 2)	1) Do you play the piano? 2)
1) Do you write poems? 2)	1) Do you believe in horoscopes? 2)
1) Do you have a pet? 2)	1) Do you have a hobby? 2)

Past Perfect and Past Simple

Remind the students about the forms of these tenses and how to use them correctly.

Give them examples with the conjunctions:

Conjunctions – as, because, since, so

I was hungry, so I ate all the food in the fridge.

I was very hungry because I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.

Because/as/since I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, I was very hungry.

Practice the process with the students – have them combine ideas into compound sentences.

Before the game starts, cut one set of situation cards and one set of causes-and-consequences cards for each group of players. Divide the class into groups and hand them the material.

The game process:

– players shuffle the situation cards and place them face down on the table;

– then they shuffle causes-and-consequences cards and distribute them evenly among the players;

– one player turns up a situation card; whoever is holding a card expressing a suitable cause or consequence for the given situation may place it to the left or to the right of the fact card, connecting the ideas with the correct conjunction;

– the group decides if the connection is suitable or not – if the connection is ok, the card remains on the table, if not – the player takes the card back;

– the winner is the player who gets rid of all his cards.

Situation Cards:

I was hungry.	I was very tired.
I couldn’t get a room in a good hotel.	He already expected to be fired.
I was late for school.	She failed the test.
I lost my money.	I couldn’t deposit the cheques.
I didn’t recognize him.	I was lost.

Causes-and-Consequences Cards:

I had overslept.	I hadn’t had lunch.	I hadn’t made the reservations beforehand.	She decided to study harder next time.
I had spent all my money for the new clothes.	The bank had just closed.	We hadn’t met for many years.	My account was overdrawn.
I went to McDonald’s.	I hadn’t been here before.	I hadn’t slept all last night.	I got lost.
I missed my first class.	I fell asleep in the middle of the concert.	I had to stay with friends.	I didn’t talk to him.
I borrowed some money from my mother.	He wasn’t surprised.	She hadn’t studied much.	I had lost an important contract.