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teaching zero and first conditional

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 2:55 pm
by NYCteach
Hi, I am a new teacher and I'm having problems brainstorming a good engaging activity for introducting the zero conditional (if you go out in the rain, you will get wet) and the first conditional (if you win the lottery, you can travel more)....

Any help much appreciated!

Re: teaching zero and first conditional

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:21 pm
by Lorikeet
NYCteach wrote:Hi, I am a new teacher and I'm having problems brainstorming a good engaging activity for introducting the zero conditional (if you go out in the rain, you will get wet) and the first conditional (if you win the lottery, you can travel more)....

Any help much appreciated!
Hmm. To me, those are both the same. I never use the terms "zero" and "first" conditional, so maybe I don't understand. I thought there were basically three:
If you go out in the rain, you'll get wet.
If I had a million dollars, I'd buy a new house.
If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have done it.

Is there another one?

4 conditionals

Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 3:26 pm
by NYCteach
From the way I understand the differences are:

zero conditional (hard facts both in the present simple)
if you head water, it boils
when I'm angry, my face turns red.

first conditional (two facts about the future)
if you don't study, you will fail

http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/en ... onals.html


--- but if anyone has ANY games they use for ANY conditional statements, please fill me in!

Thanks!

Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 5:37 am
by Brian
There's a good first conditionals board game in Reward Pre-intermediate resource pack. I think the same pack also has a great second conditional mingle activity called 'dream on'.

When I teach second conditional, I often play an advice game called - 'if I were you'....

Four or five students play, and they have a pile of cards (you'll need to make these in advance) in the centre.

Student one takes the first card and reads it - each card has a dilema or problem on it, for example: "You hate your boss and your job is very boring, but you can't quit because you need the money".

The student should memorise the information rather than just reading it directly from the card. She then tells the other students her problem. Each student in turn advises them "If I were you, I'd secretly look for another job" etc etc

After hearing all the advice, the player gives the dilema card to the person whose advice she likes best. Play moves on from player to player.

When time is up (or there are no more dilema cards left) the winner is the one with the most cards (the person who has been giving the best advice).

Hope this helps - it's quite basic, but the students always seem to enjoy playing it, and it's a great way to get everyone talking. You can make some of the dilemas serious (like the job one above) and you can add some humerous ones too "My new girlfriend smells like cabbages".

Brian

My grammar comics ... www.grammarmancomic.com


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