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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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 Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:44 pm Post subject: Teaching 'in' 'on' and 'at' for time and location. |
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I should be posting this in the teacher forum section but frankly, I didn't think many people go there judging by the age of some questions. So, apologies for posting here.
Anyone know of a site or can provide a good lesson for teaching the subtle differences between the three? I'm in the bed. I'm on the bed. Can be confusing to students. Even though in is inside something and on is on top of something, students may ask whats the difference between the commonly spoken "I'm at the store' as opposed to 'I'm in the store".
I'll be there in March as opposed to I'll be there on March 1st for example.
I tried googling but couldn't find much. Some but not enough to teach a 50 minute class. These kdis are pretty advanced.
Thanks. |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:06 pm Post subject: |
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Prepositions of place 'I'm in the bed, on the bed' are normally taught with pictures, followed up with speaking practice then maybe listening and drawing activities, activities when Sts describe pictures and their partner listens and draws it etc...
Prepositions of time are normally taught by setting out columns and getting Sts to place time expressions into the correct one thus
in at on nothing
summer Xmas Thursday yesterday
Then set up a speaking activity for them to practice, based on when they did./are going to do various things.
In the store/at the store is a tricky one and very much depends on context. I'd avoid getting into general explanations of it. |
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alongway
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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Generally I teach that we use "in the store" as opposed to "at the store" when we need to put a special emphasis on the physical location of the person/thing. Sometimes we say:
A:I'm at the store, come meet me
B:I don't see you, Where are you?
A:I'm in the store
In/on for time, I often draw a time line to show "in march" includes any time from march 1 to march 31, I'll expand this to include examples of "in the third week" or "in 2010" or "in the summer" to show various starts and stops so they can get a clearer picture.
while on is demonstrated by circling that single day and only that day. I'll combine it with a sentence like:
Let's meet on March 1st
Let's meet in March
Let's meet in the third week of march
and show how those all look different on a time line.
I'll do the same when teaching the difference of:
on, by, and before |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 8:55 pm Post subject: Re: Teaching 'in' 'on' and 'at' for time and location. |
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| sirius black wrote: |
I should be posting this in the teacher forum section but frankly, I didn't think many people go there judging by the age of some questions. So, apologies for posting here.
Anyone know of a site or can provide a good lesson for teaching the subtle differences between the three? I'm in the bed. I'm on the bed. Can be confusing to students. Even though in is inside something and on is on top of something, students may ask whats the difference between the commonly spoken "I'm at the store' as opposed to 'I'm in the store".
I'll be there in March as opposed to I'll be there on March 1st for example.
I tried googling but couldn't find much. Some but not enough to teach a 50 minute class. These kdis are pretty advanced.
Thanks. |
Place: at the bank, in my car, near the store, on Main Street, under the sofa.
Time: at 1010, before noon, for a few hours, on Friday, in 2009.
direction: from the post office, to the post office
_________________________________________________________
The combination of a preposition and its object (noun or pronoun and any modifiers such as articles or adjectives) is called a prepositional phrase.
on Tuesday
Prep+N
in the middle
PREP+article+N
at a secret location
PREP+Article+Adjective+N
____________________________________________________________
beginning....In northern China, the weather can be very cold.
middle Zina worked in northern China for several years.
end Dr. Kevin Ford teaches at a college in northern China.
_____________________________________________________________
For Places at is for smaller places like McDonald's, at school, at Seoul National University
On Green Street (a street is bigger)
in San Fransisco (a city is bigger than a street)
in California
in the United States
Time
at 5:00 (smaller) for time
on Monday (bigger), it's a whole day
in July (a month is on the bigger side of the continuum)
in summer
in 1996
___________________________________________________________
Then there are the idiomatic special phrases
in the morning
in the afternoon
in the evening
at night
______________________________________________________
At and place
I use at with the name of a place or with an address and number.
At Boston University. I live at 500 Kensington Avenue.
Time (At) I use at with clock times.
Please come at noon. The class ends at 1:20.
____________________________________________________________
Use on for "medium" sides places or times.
Use on for streets, roads, avenues, etc., when there is no number
I live on Maple Drive.
There were many cars on the highway.
Los Angeles is on the Pacific Coast.
Time:
Use on with days.
His birthday is on March 15 (it's a day).
What did you do on Saturday?
Use in for large places or times:
They live in Paris. We grew up in Florida. Florida is in the South.
Moscow is in Russia. Bill is not here now. He's in the kitchen (large place).
You can sleep in the front bedroom.
Time:
Use in for months, seasons, and years.
The weather is hot in July.
The weather is host in the summer.
I was born in 1979.
Keys to Teaching English Grammar to English Language Learners
Keith S. Folse |
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Harpeau
Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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I usually draw three concentric circles and from the biggest to the smallest write In On At.
Then two headings PLACE and TIME.
Under place I say that In tend to hold the bigger things (big circle)
In Korean,
In Seoul, etc.
On I tell them to picture a line~
On this street. On the 3rd floor
At is most specific. (Smallest circle)
at 102, at Hyundai Dept. Store.
Same with Time.
In the 20th Century,
In 2012.
On January 9th, On this day. On Monday.
Most specific.
At 2:35 pm.
Students then practice with one another~
We then talk about where do they live?
When were they born? |
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jonpurdy
Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Can someone explain the difference for in/on/at in Korean? 에 vs. 에서 etc? |
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schwa
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Grates on my (Canadian) ear when I hear Brits go on about "at the weekend." |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:50 pm Post subject: |
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The weekend is a period of time when you're off work just like Chuseok, Christmas, New Year etc... Do North Americans say in/on Christmas/Chuseok for example? As in, what are you doing in/on Christmas?
Last edited by edwardcatflap on Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:02 pm Post subject: |
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| edwardcatflap wrote: |
| The weekend is a period of time when you're off work just like Chuseok, Christmas, New Year etc... Do North Americans say in/on Christmas/Chuseok for example? As in, what are you doing in on Christmas? |
Most North Americans would say
What are you doing on Christmas? (the day)
or
What are you doing for Christmas? (the vacation) |
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edwardcatflap
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Aha. How about, 'People often get drunk at Christmas?' (meaning the period) 'For' doesn't work in that case. |
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The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
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| Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 11:48 pm Post subject: |
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yeah...most likely switch over to 'during' for that.
Many hockey-playing-Canadian-men often drink themselves into a coma during Christmas. |
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 1:51 am Post subject: |
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Some good stuff. Thanks. I take back all the things I said to me myself about some of you.  |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 2:37 am Post subject: |
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| sirius black wrote: |
| Some good stuff. Thanks. I take back all the things I said to me myself about some of you. |
What did you say about us, fella? Some folks on Dave's are mighty useful, you know? It helped me when I was dealing with the FBI check, grammar, going to the Labour Board back in the day.... |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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the standard lesson and way to teach this is by drawing a triangle on the board. Divide it into three rows. AT at the top / ON in the middle / IN at the bottom. outside the triangle on rows, list the designators. Students will get the point that for both time and place (and space) there is an increasing specificity. The "notions" will be apparent.
Here's a ppt outlining this
http://community.eflclassroom.com/resources/topics/powerpoints-for-teaching
DD
http://eflclassroom.com |
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