Make grammar learning more meaningful and more interesting

Learn and Practicein contexts (input and

comprehension) and

in writing (output and application)

In the presentation, I will mainly provide some teaching ideas or activities. As for the design or arrangement of the lesson, it is completely up to your students’ English levels.

Grammar

Degrees of Comparisons

degrees of comparisons like the comparative and superlative degree forms of adjectives and adverbssentence patterns like:

Grammar I•The brown house’s windows (The windows of the brown house) are twice as wide as those of the white house.•My handwriting is not half as good as yours. •The white box is four times deeper than the black box.•This road is twice longer than that one.•The red building is twice the height of the grey building.•Our school is three times the size of yours.

Grammar I•The brown house’s windows (The windows of the brown house) are twice as wide as those of the white house.•My handwriting is not half as good as yours. •The white box is four times deeper than the black box.•This road is twice longer than that one.•The red building is twice the height of the grey building.•Our school is three times the size of yours.

Grammar II•Winter is coming. It’s getting colder and colder.•The girl becomes more and more beautiful.•The busier my mom is, the happier she is.•The book is a lot more interesting than that one.

Grammar II•Winter is coming. It’s getting colder and colder.•The girl becomes more and more beautiful.•The busier my mom is, the happier she is.•The book is a lot more interesting than that one.

In Book III we will learn some more sentence patterns:•I don’t think we have as many freeways as Sydney.•We have as much rainfall in Beijing as in Tianjin.•There are fewer tourists in Beijing than in Sydney.•Beijing is less dangerous than Sydney.•I think Sidney has less rain than Beijing.•Beijing has many more inhabitants than Sydney.•He has done much more work than expected.•I couldn’t agree with you more.•It couldn’t be worse.

In Book III we will learn some more sentence patterns:•I don’t think we have as many freeways as Sydney.•We have as much rainfall in Beijing as in Tianjin.•There are fewer tourists in Beijing than in Sydney.•Beijing is less dangerous than Sydney.•I think Sidney has less rain than Beijing.•Beijing has many more inhabitants than Sydney.•He has done much more work than expected.•I couldn’t agree with you more.•It couldn’t be worse.

Before learning the new grammar item, we can get the students involved and prepared byReviewing of big numbers, fractions and decimals•9,123,456,789; •110,120,000; •5,100,000 …•1/4; 1/3; 4/5; 1/10; 3/4; 1/2; 2/3 …•25% …Practicing:•½ of 6,000 is ________.•35,246,000+12,800,000=?•…

Exploring:List some sentences with the various target sentence patterns:•The Longman Dictionary is over 100 yuan. It is twice the price of that Xinhua Dictionary.•How much is the Xinhua Dictionary?

•The price of iPad 2 (16G) is sold at over 6000 yuan, but iPad (16G) is less than 4000. •So iPad 2 (16G) is __________ times as expensive as iPad (16G).

•…

Exploring:List some sentences with the various target sentence patterns:•The Longman Dictionary is over 100 yuan. It is twice the price of that Xinhua Dictionary.•How much is the Xinhua Dictionary?

•The price of iPad 2 (16G) is sold at over 6000 yuan, but iPad (16G) is less than 4000. •So iPad 2 (16G) is __________ times as expensive as iPad (16G).

•…

Attention: We can also provide some easier sentences like:

•Tim is 24 years old now. Mary is only 12. •So Tim is twice as old as Mary.

•Henry weighs 80 kg. Jean weighs only 40 kg.•So Henry is twice as heavy as Jean.

•Nokia 8 costs 3600 yuan. Samsung 502 costs only 1200 yuan.•So Nokia 8 is 3 times as expensive as Samsung 502.•Or Nokia 8 is twice more expensive than Samsung 502.

Attention: We can also provide some easier sentences like:

•Tim is 24 years old now. Mary is only 12. •So Tim is twice as old as Mary.

•Henry weighs 80 kg. Jean weighs only 40 kg.•So Henry is twice as heavy as Jean.

•Nokia 8 costs 3600 yuan. Samsung 502 costs only 1200 yuan.•So Nokia 8 is 3 times as expensive as Samsung 502.•Or Nokia 8 is twice more expensive than Samsung 502.

Songhua River / Yangtze River

2,309 km / 6,300 km (long)

winter in Beijing / winter in Harbin

-50C / -200C (cold)

temperature in Harbin / temperature in Beijing

-200C / -50C (low)

Mount Tai / Mount Qomolangma

1,521 m / 8,844 m

my house / my aunt’s house

80 square meters / 160 square meters (large)

weight of Lily / weight of Tom

45 km / 90 km (heavy)

Picture presentation and Pattern practice

Game timeDesign the activities and set the difficulty level based on your students’ English levels.

Authentic context 1:Winter is coming.temperature, low / day, short / night, long / weather, cold / people, clothes• The temperature is lower and

lower.• The day is getting shorter and

shorter.• The night is getting longer and

longer.• The weather is becoming colder and

colder.• People are putting on more and

more clothes.

• The temperature is lower and lower.

• The day is getting shorter and shorter.

• The night is getting longer and longer.

• The weather is becoming colder and colder.

• People are putting on more and more clothes.

Authentic context 2:Class will soon be over.the classroom, noisy / the teacher, angry / his voice, loud / situation, controlled

Authentic context 3:Let’s go on diet!•The more you eat, the more weight you will put on.•The more weight you put on, the more diseases you might get.•The more diseases you get, the less healthy you will be.•The less healthy you are, the more medicine you will have to take.•The more medicine you take, the more money you will spend.•The more money you spend on medicine, the poorer you will be.•The poorer you are, the …•So …

Authentic context 4:Let’s work hard at English.•The more words you learn, the easier it will be to learn English.•The easier it is to learn English for you, the more interested you will be in English.•The more interested you are in English, the better you will be at English.•The better …

TasksEmploy their ability of social survey that has been developed in Module 4.For elementary levels:•Compare the cost of living between rural and urban areas. (Refer to Page 31)•Compare the cost of air ticket and railway ticket from Beijing to Yun Cheng, as well as the time cost.

For intermediate levels:Go home and get some information about the house prices in different areas in the city, especially the downtown area and the suburbs of the city. And ask their parents about the changes in their income from the year 2006 to 2011.Exchange the information in groups and work together to:Compare the prices of houses in the downtown and the suburbs and tell the differences, like:•The average of house price of the suburb is around 2000 yuan a square meter.•But the average price of buildings in the downtown can be as high as 8000.•Therefore, the downtown building price is about 4 times as high as that of the suburb.

Compare the prices of houses in the years 2011 and 2006. And also compare the income of your parents in 2006 and 2011, and tell the changes in the five years. Make predictions of the house prices in another 5 years, like:

• In the year 2006, the house price in Yuncheng was as low as less than 1000 yuan. But now it is as high as 8000 yuan per square meter in some areas of the city. And in some business districts it is even higher than 8,000. So we can see that the house price now is at least 8 times as high as that of 5 years ago. Or we can say the house price is 7000 yuan more expensive than that of 5 years ago.

• In the year 2006, the house price in Yuncheng was as low as less than 1000 yuan. But now it is as high as 8000 yuan per square meter in some areas of the city. And in some business districts it is even higher than 8,000. So we can see that the house price now is at least 8 times as high as that of 5 years ago. Or we can say the house price is 7000 yuan more expensive than that of 5 years ago.

• Comparatively, my parents used to get a total about 2,000 yuan per month in 2006, but now their income is about 3 times as high, that is, around 6,000 yuan, or 4,000 yuan more. So we can find the increase of the citizens’ income is much slower than that of house prices. And we are confident that the gap between people’s income and the house prices will be bigger and bigger.

• Comparatively, my parents used to get a total about 2,000 yuan per month in 2006, but now their income is about 3 times as high, that is, around 6,000 yuan, or 4,000 yuan more. So we can find the increase of the citizens’ income is much slower than that of house prices. And we are confident that the gap between people’s income and the house prices will be bigger and bigger.

For advanced levels:Write a report, describing the changes in house prices and people’s income, using what has been learned today and …Analyze the reasons behind the problem, using what is provided below as a hint. (Encourage them to search for more resources on the Internet after class…)real estate, wealthy people, make profit, government, policy, control, benefit, architecture, shopping malls, parks, low-income groups, rent, apartment buildings, blocks, …

Ask them to make presentations to the class or write reports and exchange them in groups. This step is of great importance.