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[leeroy]

To carry on from shmooj's Present Perfect thread...

Functions are cool - most of the time it's better to attach functionality to grammar points instead of just teaching them in their singularity. It makes the language more practical for students, and (sub)consciously they will attach more importance to the language point if they can see when to use it.

OK, so functions by grammar point... I'll choose one, then someone else continue with another, 'kay?

Second Conditional sentences (or, 'unreal conditionals with "would"')

Hypothesizing: "It would be cool if aliens landed"
(How about a speaking activity, where students must choose an area in the world (such as rainforest, desert, etc...) and describe what it would be like if they were there. Copied, ahem, from Inside Out Intermediate, Chapter 11 I believe...)

Expressing a dream, or unreachable desire: "If I could, I would (marry) Britney Spears"
(I'm thinking a 'lies' game, where students (in teams) read out sentences with 3 possible endings. One true, two lies. For example "If I could marry anyone, it would be a) Britney, b) Christina Aguilera, or c) Kylie Minogue". Then, the other team has to guess the correct answer).

Politely making an offer: "If I paid for you, would you come?"
(Maybe a business role-play, with two sides negotiating various factors. A la English First Curriculum book, level 10 I think...)

Giving advice: "(If I were you) I would see a doctor"
(Students have a 'problem' memorised, like "My dog is ill", and as a whole-class milling activity must share their problems (then give advice) with their classmates.)

Why not, let's do another...

The Present Continuous Tense

Stating what is occurring now: "It's raining!"
(OK, so this one's a bit simple. A miming game, what's he doing? He's eating, etc...)

Talking about future plans: "I'm meeting Juan on Saturday"
(Students have a 'timetable' for the weekend, and must arrange to meet and do stuff with other classmates at different times. Milling activity, naturally)

Complaining: "He's always swearing!"
(Perhaps a role-play of some kind, a husband and wife arguing and listing all the things they hate about each other?)

Describing societal trends: "More women are working nowadays"
(A task (with, perhaps, a reading detailing what life was like 50 years ago or something) whereby students describe how society now is different from how it was.)

Talking about a temporary situation: "I'm living in Oxford at the moment"
(Build this up by initially establishing where the students live and work. Then tell them that for the next two weeks they will be living and working somewhere else (as a temporary arrangement). Either you or they decide this - the language can then be practiced through role-plays, mill-drills, or whatever)

OK, so my ideas for activities may not be practical for all - but you get the idea, right?

[dyak]

Last week was passives, a long week. But the highlight was when one of my students came to me after the lesson to explain that he wanted to write a note to his landlord. He�d somehow managed to fuse the iron to the end of the hoover, thereby ruining the hoover attachment. He wanted to tell his landlord that the attachment had been broken and that he knew where a new one could be bought� without admitting to it or offering to pay for it� ahhhhh!

The note went something like:

Unfortunately the hoover attachment has been broken, but I do know where a new one can be bought.

Not quite sure how I�d do the task, but the potential�

[shmooj]

providing convenient anonymity/hiding the person responsible passive

this is very often seen in political spoken statements and also in news articles.

The BBC make me sick with all their "xxxx believed to be...", "xxxx said to be...", "xxxx known to be..." To me it's just an excuse not to validate your sources and simply pass gossip around disguised as news.

In fact, if you search the BBC website for the three passive verbs "known", "believed" and "said", you'll find a preponderancy of "said"s indicating that very little, if anything that passes as news there is in fact "known" by anyone at all

Other websites might be just as bad. I just happened to check out the BBC with my students.