Korean Job Discussion Forums

[aloysha]

I thought I would appeal to the collective wisdom of my fellow
MS teachers here. I have been asked to teach gerunds to 2nd grade.
"Okay", I said.

However, these students are very low level
and I stated this, but I have a suspicion that the lesson is
more for the teachers than for the students, as their
general English ability is lacking in the basics, to put it
lightly.

It is unrealistic to cover gerunds in a
45 min. class. There is simply too much to cover. So, I think
perhaps a simple introduction and game would be best.

Problem: I am coming up blank for ideas.
Anyone have any simple games that were successful for
them in introducing gerunds ?

[aloysha]

I know it is not the most interesting of topics, but c'mon
help a brother out.

[yawarakaijin]

Here is the way I teach gerunds. Some may argue an easier way but my students seem to grasp the concept rather easily.

I usually teach them in combination with infinitives.


example: I stopped to smoke vs I stopped smoking.

I try to get them to visualize to smoke and smoking as simply the regular verb smoke.

So now we have two verbs together, one after the other.

Now I ask them which one comes first. Do you stop and then smoke or you smoke and then stop?

I explain to them that the infinitive "to smoke" is often understood as happening 2nd. ie after you stop.

I then explain that the gerund "smoking" is often understood as happening 1st. ie before you stop.


This rule is not set in stone however and there are cases when both are acceptable without a change in meaning. There are also some that simply don't make any sense and go against this general rule: for example; I look forward to seeing you.

By grade 2 do you mean like in their second year of elementary school? If so, i think gerunds and infinitives are a little bit too much.

However with a little creativity and some simple verbs you can turn it into a little bit of a game. I used to play a game where I would put on a little skit and the students would then shout out what I was doing. I would recommend indicating the two verbs you want them to use just to avoid confusion. Once they get good at it, you can challenge them a little more.

Me: Jumping up and down like a dork and suddenly stopping.
Students: YOU STOPPED JUMPING!

You get the idea.

[aloysha]

Yaweh,

Are you currently sitting at your desk during exams ?

Thanks for the reply, its a godsend

I teach in middle school. My kids are very low level.
If I differentiate between the infinitive and the gerund I feel it will be too much for them.

Maybe lesson #2, if it ever happens.

Some good ideas in there, particulary the game. However, I think it more fitting that I humiliate the students instead of me.

[yawarakaijin]

It's a pretty difficult thing to teach. Admittedly, as native speakers, we learned the difference in gerunds and infinitive in a much more natural way, but students need to understand the concept.

Give it a shot, go slowly, use easy verbs and act it out. You may be pleasantly suprised.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I agree that you should leave infinitives out of it for the first lesson.

I do it like this:

What do you like to do? (point out 'like' and 'do' are verbs)

1. I like to swim. (Get several examples from the students.)

2. Swimming is fun. (Have them convert the other examples.)

[Ya-ta Boy]

I agree that you should leave infinitives out of it for the first lesson.

I do it like this:

What do you like to do? (point out 'like' and 'do' are verbs)

1. I like to swim. (Get several examples from the students.)

2. Swimming is fun. (Have them convert the other examples.)

[aloysha]

Yawer, your game is simple and good. I will save the more nuanced lessons for the advanced classes.

I think getting the students to understand that verbs can be used as nouns will be hard enough.

Ya-ta, I like the idea of converting the sentences, but by using 'to' +verb you are introducing the concept of the infinitive. Quite sneaky, but I like it.

I like both ideas, the game and the converting exercises.

I was also thinking of just using simple substitution to initially get their minds around the idea.

1) Science is fun. 2) Studying science is fun.
Subject 1-->noun Subject 2--> gerund(verb)


And with the more advanced classes use more variation , pronouns, gerunds that follow prepositions etc. Thoughts....?

[yawarakaijin]

If you sometimes find doing grammar lessons difficult I recommend picking up the AZAR series of grammar books. They are full of grammar exercises and are just as/if not more helpful to the teacher than students.

Simply having these books as a reference source whenever a grammar lesson arises is great.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

The infinitive "to ___" is used to answer the question "Why?"

"I stopped."

"Why?"

"To smoke."

The gerund is a noun and it answers the question "What?"

"I stopped."

"What?"

"Smoking."

[yawarakaijin]

[aloysha]

I don�t have any particular difficulty with grammar lessons, but I do
find it helpful to seek out alternative approaches to how I normally
teach. My mind is elsewhere these days and I just needed an
idea or two to get my brain back in gear.


I am curious as to how the K teachers handle these grammar points.
How much time is spent explaining the rules, nuances and exceptions?

Like I alluded to before, I think that maybe the lesson is really meant for
the benefit of a particular teacher. The examples, I have are quite troubling.

Is anyone privileged enough to observe their K teacher's English classes?

[jadarite]

If the Korean teachers were able to teach, then the students would know. Obviously, they don't or we would see the students using the grammar correctly and we wouldn't be asked to teach it.

The thing I find bizarre is that they expect us to explain on the board better than the Korean teachers, as if we have some magical power or something to inject into the students.

I never learned English in school by chanting it or memorizing rules. It was used in context and away from the blackboard. If only schools understood this and developed a curriculum around more hands on learning, we would have a more enjoyable time in class.

They have trained the little monkeys to say "fuse" correctly, but now when they try to say "food", it comes out as "feud". Why they are teaching "fuse" and not "food" is beyond me.

[branchsnapper]

Teaching gerunds to second grade? Just teach a few sentences "Fighting is bad" and "Playing is fun" and such like. Contrasting "to infinitives" with gerunds - which only sometimes results in a change of meaning - would be pretty tough at that level. I'd just suggest to the Koreans that it isn't suitable.

Grammar is somewhat of a battleground. Don't worry too much about feeling lost in it. Korean and native teachers both can't often teach it well, and expert grammarians can't always agree on all that much, so who can blame them? If you have read about gerunds before, you may have seen writers contrast these "verbal nouns" with "present participles". The most respected grammarians now no longer bother with this, even though many would consider it fundamental:(the following from wikipedia)

Traditional English grammar distinguished between gerunds and present participles. Both terms refer to the non-finite verb form ending in -ing (standing, swimming, etc.); traditionally, the former was applied when the verb form was acting in some sense like a noun (say, as the subject or subject of a verb or preposition), and the latter when it was acting in some sense like an adjective. The analogous distinction is very clear in Latin, where gerunds and participles are declined as nouns or adjectives, but the line is blurrier in English, and many modern linguists reject this distinction. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, a widely respected descriptive grammar by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey Pullum, uses the term gerund-participle, and lists its various uses without commenting on which might be considered nominal and which adjectival