teaching imperatives to adults

8/8/2019 Teaching Imperatives to Adults

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Teaching Imperatives toAdults in ESL

An Educator's Reference Desk

Lesson Plan

http://ericir.syr.edu/

Vanessa Gmez Riquelme


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Grade Level(s): Adult/continuing education

Subject(s): Foreign Language/EnglishSecond Language

Duration: 1 hour


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Description: The students learn how to use

imperatives by doing activities after they have

been given a brief instruction about thestructure of imperatives.

Goals: The students will learn how to

construct imperatives.

Objectives: Students will construct

imperatives on their own to fit practice

situations.


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MATERIALS

Various predetermined objects such as an apple, a

pen, a toy car, a book, and a ball placed on a

table with a chair.

Blank note cards.

Note cards with prewritten sentences on them, such

as:

The ball needs to be on the chair.

The car should be under the table.

Is the pen on the apple? It should be.


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PROCEDURE

Background:

The most basic imperatives in English use a verb only, suchas: Go! Eat! Run!

You can add to these by placing adjectives and comparatives after the verb: Goaway! Eat now! Run faster!Direct and indirect objects are placed directly after the verb with the indirectobjects following the direct objects:

Go to the store now!Eat your food!Run home faster!

Hit the ball!

Key Concepts:Put the necessary contents of the imperative in this order:Verb + Direct Object + Indirect Object + Comparatives + Adjectives


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ACTIVITY 1: CREATE IMPERATIVES

Objective: Have students create their own imperatives.

Procedure: On one note card for each student, have them writethree imperatives of their choice that have not been given asexamples. One imperative will be toward a friend, one for aparent, and one to a pet. Have them read one imperative fromtheir card to the class. They choose which one. Collect the cardswhen they are done for a "daily grade", and use the goodexamples in future activities, such as activity 2 thefollowing semester, after rewriting the good ones onto individualcards.


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ACTIVITY 2: INVOLVEMENT

Objective: Have the students create usefulimperatives for a real life situation.

Procedure: Give each student a pre-prepared card.Have the first two students come up to the table.Without doing anything but speaking, the firststudent must give the proper imperatives to thesecond student in order to satisfy the condition ontheir card. When this is done, the first student sitsdone in their seat, the second student takes theirplace, and the next student takes the secondstudent's role. Continue this until the last studentgives imperatives to the first.


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ASSESSMENT

If the second student performs the proper

task. Then the message was transmitted, and

both students have an understanding of thematerial.

If the imperative is improperly formed,

provide appropriate feedback and let

students try again.

teaching imperatives to adults

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