Subject Index: Grammar lessons, videos and exercises

4th December 2020

Grammar

Correct the grammar game // Level 1 // 23rd November 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/11/23/is-grammar-important/

Adjective absolute // Grammar // 6th January 2023: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2023/01/06/absolutely-about-adjectives/

Adjectives // Daliiiiiiiiii ! // Young Learners 4 // 26th October 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/10/24/young-learners-level-4-daaaaaaaallliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii/

Adjectives and sentence building // Young Learners, Level 6 // 15th October 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/10/15/young-learners-level-6-sensational-sentences-a-great-game/

Adjectives for Young Learners // Level 1 // Basics // 24th June 2022: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2022/06/24/adjectives-for-young-learners-level-1/

Adjectives for Young Learners // Amazing Adjectives // 9th August 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/08/09/young-learners-amazing-adjectives/

Adjectives for Young Learners // 2nd August 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/08/02/young-learners-sentence-building-and-zoom-warm-up-games/

Adjectives – adding adjectives, adding interest // hair styles, clothes, new vocabulary // Adult Speaking Class, Level 1 // 14th October 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/10/14/adding-adjectives-increasing-interest/

Adjectives & Grammar Review // present continuous // 5th July 2022: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2022/07/05/young-learners-level-6-adjectives-and-grammar-review/

Adjectives and their opposites // Young Learners, Level 3 // 14th October 2022: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2022/10/14/young-learners-level-3-using-new-adjectives/

Adjectives // Adult Class, Level 1 // 14th October 2019

Adjectives: order // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2: Describing clothes // 19th March 2020

Adjectives: clothes and materials // Adult Speaking Class, L 2: Describing clothes // 19th March 2020

Adjectives: describing people // Adult Speaking Class, L 3: Describing people // 27th May 2020

Adjectives: personality // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2: What type of person ? // 19th June 2020

Adjectives: personality // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2: Extended exercises // 20th June 2020

Adjectives: personality // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3: // 21st June 2020

Adjectives // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Personality adjectives // 7th June 2020

Adjectives: people and hair // Adult Speaking Class, Level 1 // 14th October 2019

Adverbs // Young Teens // 21st February 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/02/21/young-teens-deeply-madly-truly/

Adverbs & adjectives // Young Learners 4 // 16th November 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/category/young-learners-level-4/

Adverbs of frequency & new adjectives // Young Learners 6 // Cadburys Gorilla // 8th April 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/04/08/young-learners-level-6-adjectives-and-adverbs-review/

Adverbs of degree // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 4 // 27th January 2020

Adverbs of frequency // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2, Quick review // 7th June 2020

Adverbs of frequency // Adult Speaking Class, Level 1, How often do you … ? // 16th August 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/08/16/adult-speaking-class-level-1-how-often-do-you/

Adverbs & expressions // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2: Adverbs // 26th June 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/06/26/adult-speaking-class-level-2-adverbs-and-expressions/

Adverb exercise // IELTS: use adverbs frequently // 3rd July 2020

Adverbs of manner // Young Learners, Level 4 // 28th February 2023: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2023/02/28/young-learners-level-4-adverbs-of-manner/

Adverbs of manner exercises // Young Learners, Level 4 // 9th March 2023: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2023/03/09/young-learners-level-4-using-adjectives-adverbs-and-your-imagination/

Adverbs of probability // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2 // Coffee Shop Chat // 11th June 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/06/11/adult-speaking-class-level-2-coffee-shop-chat/

Creative writing // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3: Storytelling part 2 // 30th March 2020

As … as // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 5 // 4th February 2020

Auxiliary (helping) verbs // Beginners’ English: Sentence Building // 16th March 2020

Auxiliary and infinite verbs // Teaching Notes // 9th March 2021:https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/03/09/students-hate-to-be-corrected-but-teachers-like-to-address-issues/

Can, could, be able to // Adult Class, Level 3 // 12th December 2019

Can, can’t, is, isn’t // Young Learners, Level 2: Senses working overtime // 3rd October 2020

Collocations // Adult Speaking Class, level 2: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/01/18/adult-speaking-class-level-2-collocations/

Collocations // Adult Speaking Class, level 2: More collocations // 16th May 2020

Comparisons and superlatives // Young Learners, Level 5 // 19th October 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/10/19/young-learners-level-5-amazon-rain-forest-quiz-and-comparisons/

Comparisons and superlatives // Young Learners, Level 5 // 9th December 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/12/09/young-learners-level-5-superlatives-and-superheroes/

Comparisons // Young Learners, Level 5 // 24th August 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/08/24/young-learners-level-5-comparisons/

Contractions (video) // Beginners’ English, Part 2

Discourse Markers // IELTS // 18th February 2022: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2022/02/18/ielts-discourse-markers/

Discourse Markers // IELTS 5-6.5 // 25th September 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/09/25/ielts-5-6-5-all-you-need-is-love-and-relative-pronouns/

Discourse Markers // IELTS // 7th January 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/01/06/ielts-4-5-speaking-class/

Discourse Markers // IELTS 5 – 6.5. Writing example // 15th March 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/03/15/ielts-5-6-5-writing-example/

First & second conditional // Adult Class, Level 3 // 22nd April 2019

Future plans Signs // Young Learners 4 // 22nd June 2019

Future plans // Young Learners 4 // 9th November 2019

Future plans // Adult Speaking Class, level 1: What will you do ? // 24th April 2020

Future tense // Adult C, L 3 // 6th November 2019

Have to or must ? // Adult Speaking Class, level 2 // 20th December 2019

Have to or must ? // Beginners’ English // 1st July 2020

Idioms // IELTS 5 – 6.5. Writing example // 15th March 2020

Idioms // Adult Speaking Class, level 2: In order to improve // 30th June 2020

IELTS

Pre-IELTS challenge: creative writing, plan a day, pronunciation // Adult Class L 3 // 30th May 2020

IELTS: Adverb exercise // use adverbs frequently // 3rd July 2020

IELTS: Mindset first day warm up // IELTS: Mindset // 23rd June 2020

IELTS: warm up games // https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/02/25/ielts-warm-up-games/

IELTS: vocabulary building // IELTS: Vocabulary activities // 24th April 2020

IELTS // idioms and vocabulary games // Preparing for speaking test // 15th May 20202

Modal verbs // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2 // 25th July 2020

Modal verbs // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2 // 25th January 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/01/25/adult-speaking-class-level-2-part-6-2/

‘ness’ or ‘ment’ ? // IELTS // 28th January 2019

Past continuous // Young Teens // 17th January 2019

Past continuous // Adult Class, Level 3 // 23rd September 2019

Past continuous exercises // Beginners’ English, Part 2 // 7th July 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/07/06/beginners-english-past-tense-exercises/

Past perfect // Adult Class, Level 3 // 23rd September 2019

Past simple // Adult Class, Level 3 // 23rd September 2019

Past simple & past continuous exercise // Adult Speaking Class, Level 1 // 15th August 2020

Past simple & past continuous exercise // Young Learners, Level 5 // 28th October 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/10/28/past-simple-and-past-continuous/

Past simple & past continuous exercise // Young Learners, Level 5 // 4th November 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/11/04/young-learners-level-5-what-were-you-doing-when/

Past Tense // Starting Past Tense // Young Learners, Level 4 // 4th May 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/05/04/young-learners-level-4-starting-the-past-tense/

Past Tense // Exercises, common verbs, pronunciation omnibus // 21st October 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/10/21/past-tense-various-exercises-2/

Past Tense: Get Back to basics // Beginners’ English // 9th November 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/11/09/get-back-we-spoke-in-the-past-tense/

Past tense // Beginners’ English // Beginners’ English Part 4 // 20th January 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/01/21/beginners-english-part-4/

Past tense exercise // Adult Speaking Class, L2 Part 2 //

Past tense exercises // Beginners’ English, Part 2 // 7th July 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/07/06/beginners-english-past-tense-exercises/

Past tense exercises // Teaching Notes // 12th July 2020

Past tense sentence building // Young Learners, Level 3 // 24th August 2022: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2022/08/24/young-learners-level-3-sentence-building-using-the-past-tense/

Past tense pronunciation // Beginners’ English: The past is passed // 7th July 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/07/05/beginners-englishthe-passed-it-past-pronunciation-guide/

Past tense review // Young Learners Level 2 // 26th October 2022: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2022/10/26/young-learners-level-2-basic-simple-past-exercises/

Past Tense and Tet vocabulary // Young Learners, Level 3 // 7th February 2023: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2023/02/07/young-learners-levels-3-4-putting-words-into-practice/

Past tense & past continuous // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2: Grammar quiz // 27th June 2020

Past tense & past perfect/ // Adult Speaking Class, L 2: Grammar – perfect form // 25th May 2020

Phrasal verbs // Adult Speaking Class. Theme: Love & marriage Part 3

Phrasal verbs & collocations // Beginners’ English Part 4 // 20th January 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/01/21/beginners-english-part-4/

Phrasal verb exercises // Teaching Notes: Phrasal verbs // 16th June 2020

Possessives // Young Learners 3 // 7th September 2019

Present continuous (house plan) // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 4 // 27th January 2020

Present perfect exercises // 6th September 2020 // Beginners’ English // Adult Speaking Class Level 1: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/09/06/present-perfect-exercises/

Present perfect exercises // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2 // 4th July 2020

Present perfect exercises // Beginners’ English

Present perfect // Adult Class, Level 3 // 23rd September 2019

Present perfect (have you ever ?) // Adult Class, Level 1 // 26th February 2019

Present perfect (for & since) // Adult Class, Level 3 // 21st November 2019

Present perfect review // Adult Class, Level 1 // 5th March 2019

Pronoun declension // I Me Mine // 3rd December 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/12/03/i-me-mine-pronoun-declensions/

Regular & irregular verbs // Beginners’ English Part 4 // 20th January 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/01/21/beginners-english-part-4/

Reflexive verbs // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2 Part 2

Relative clauses & relative pronouns // Adult Class, Level 3 // 5th November 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/11/05/adult-class-level-3-business-icons/

Relative pronouns // IELTS 5-6.5 // 25th September 2019:

Relative pronouns quiz // IELTS Review // vocabulary, discourse, sentence building // 25th June 2020

Relative pronouns // IELTS // 1st July 2020

Reported Speech // Adult C, L 3 // 8th October 2019

Reported Speech // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 5 // 4th February 2020

Review (irregular verbs, adverbs) // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2, Quick review // 7th June 2020

Sentence correction (basic) // Young Learners 4 // 15th November 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/11/15/young-learners-level-4-can-you-hear-me-major-tom-2/

Similes // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 5 // 4th February 2020

Speaking Grammar

Past Tense // Adult Speaking Class, Level 1 /// Adult C, L 3 // 23rd September 2019 /// Adult C, L 3 // 16th September 2019

Past-time expressions // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 6 // 8th February 2020

Third Conditional: Mr Bowditch // Adult Class, Level 3 // 22nd October 2019

Superlatives (Animals: longest, smallest) // Young Learners, Level 4 // 24th November 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/11/24/young-learners-level-4-longest-heaviest-shortest-lightest/

Tag questions // Adult Class, Level 3 // 15 August 2019: // 12 November 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/11/11/adult-class-level-3-is-was-the-butler-wasnt-it/

Third conditional compilation (various examples, lesson plans and exercises) // 18th July 2020 https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/07/18/third-conditional/

Third Conditional // Adult Class, Level 3 // 22nd October 2019

Third conditional // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2, Part 3 // 16th January 2020

Third Conditional exercise // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3: Third Conditional 23 Jan 2020

15 most common verbs // Adult C, L 3 // 23rd September 2019 // Beginners’ English Part 4 // 20th January 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/01/21/beginners-english-part-4/

Verb endings // Conjugating basic verbs // 5th January 2022: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2022/01/05/2022-the-year-of-the-grammar-back-to-basics/

Verb ‘to have’ & Viet translation // Young Learners 1 // 16th March 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/03/13/young-learners-level-1-lesson-5-parklife/

Verb ‘to have’ // Young Learners 1 // 26th May 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/05/24/young-learners-level-1-i-spy-with-my-little-eye/

Verb ‘need’ // Adult Speaking Class, Level 1:What do you need ? // 21st May 2020

Verbs ‘want’ or ‘need’ // Young Learners, Level 6 // 13th January 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/01/13/young-learners-level-6-stay-healthy/

What do they like ? // Adult Speaking Class, Level 1:What do they like ? // 22nd June 2020

Which one ? // Young learners, Level 4 // 10th November 2020

Adult Speaking Class, Level 1: What will you do … ?

24th April 2020

What will you do after work ?

This blog will teach you how to talk about plans – what you will do later in the day.

The grammar will be future tense, and I’ll show you standard English and some everyday expressions.

I will … after work OR After work, I will … (standard English)

Example: I will play football after work OR After work, I will play football

Try these:

watch a movie // cook for my family // go shopping // play computer games

When I finish work, I’ll (I + will = I’ll) … a contraction

Later, when I knock off work … (knock off = finish) a UK expression / phrasal verb

Practice:

Make sentences, using these phrases. I give you an example:

I’m going to // I will (I’ll) // I plan to // I intend to // I’m thinking of …

After work, I’m going to a restaurant

Try to extend the sentence by giving more information:

After work, I’m going to take my family to a restaurant.

When I knock off, my family and I will go to a fast food restaurant because my son loves fried chicken and chips.

Now your turn:

What will you do after work ? See how long you can make your answer.

Tell me what you see in the photos.

I have some answers at the end of the blog.

Sample answers:

After work, I plan to drink beer. // I intend to drink beer after work with my two best friends.

When I knock off, I’m going to stay home // After I knock off, I’m going to play computer games and eat junk food. // After work, I plan to watch TV and eat crisps, chocolate and cake.

Tonight, I’m thinking of singing karaoke. // Later, I’m thinking of meeting my friends and going to sing karaoke because it’s a lot of fun.

After work, I will take my girlfriend to a restaurant. // Tonight is special because I will take my girlfriend to a romantic restaurant. // This will be a special night because I intend to ask my girlfriend to marry me so I’m going to take her to an expensive romantic restaurant.

Adult Class Level 3: we are family.

6th November for 7th November 2019 AEF 1B pp. 8 – 10

Tonight is a new class, assigned to level 3. However in the past my centre has been somewhat optimistic in their placements; teachers, expecting the students to be able to engage in conversation are confronted with students who can’t string four words together (and three of those words are undoubtedly wrong).

Subsequently, I now play down my expectations. The first lesson is just to assess the ability … and the behaviour and motivation of the students.

So, to warm up, a little game. I want the students to interview each other and then tell the class about their partner. Just basic facts such as age, if they work or are at university, what is their job or where and what subject do they study … additionally, what do they like to do in their free time. Finally, one thing they hate !

We can later use some of these ideas as a basis for sentence building:

Mr Thi likes football as well as K-pop however he dislikes romantic films and maths.

Next, I’ll show some pictures and the students in pairs and discuss them. I want them to be able to describe what they see, so I’ll be looking for adjectives, and what the subjects are doing. Additionally, I want to see if they are able to form their ideas into basic sentences.

Look at the last picture … a young girl arguing (shouting, fighting) with her mother; is this something people would do in Viet Nam or is the culture very different ?

Sometimes people get angry (even teachers !) – some advice is to count to ten, and calm down.

Image result for counting to 10 to calm down

In English, we use the word ‘should‘ to give advice or helpful information.

EXAMPLE: A student is naughty in class. A teacher should:

Help the studentCount to ten and be calm … OR …

Hit the student // punch the student // knock the student out.

Something less painful. My friend Andy is coming to Sai Gon.

Using ‘should’ to give advice or information, make suggestions for Andy.

He loves history … what should he visit or see ?

He loves traditional food … what should he eat ?

He can’t ride a motorbike … how should he travel ?

He likes a beer a night (!) … where should he go ?

NOW – onto the book. It’s a bit heavy tonight, so I’ll try to lighten it with fun activities in between.

Activity break: Family Fortunes

I put class into small teams and ask them questions to which I want four answers. These are very basic things such as four places I’ve visited in Viet Nam (so they hear my appalling pronunciation) // my four favourite Viet food // four things I love about HCMC and, conversely, four things I hate // four instruments I can play (I’m generous with the truth here) // four languages I can speak … Vietnamese is clearly NOT one of them.

GRAMMAR: FUTURE TENSE

We use either I will or I am going to …

I will (I’ll) is for quick ideas or suggestions.

I’ll do my bookwork, then I’ll go for a coffee.

I’ll help you with your English

I am going to (I’m going to) is more for plans

Next year, I’m going to Thailand

I’m going to pass my IELTS then study in Australia.

Predictions (thinking what will happen in the future) use both.

I think Vietnam will win the football World Cup by 2050.

I believe Vietnam is going to be the richest country in Asia soon

Negative:

You’re not going to like Thay Paul’s music !

We will not (won’t) learn English unless we study.

Communication activity – describing a friend, co-worker or family member.

Here is my friend Pete:

He was born in Ireland but now lives in Liverpool with his wife and son.

He is an accountant and works for a large bank. His job is safe but boring. He is going to look for a new job.

He is bald and wears glasses. He always smiles so he looks warm and friendly.

Because UK is cold, especially now in November, Pete has to wear jumpers or sweaters, even inside. He loves jeans and cowboy boots.

As you can see, he loves music and playing the bass and piano. He also likes drinking strong beer. However, he hates people who are bad to animals.

He is very calm and helpful however, he works a lot so he is not always reliable.

His favourite sport is football and he enjoys swimming.

He listens to Jazz music, David Bowie and Irish folk music.

He speaks Gaelic (Ireland) and a little French.

We never see each other because we live so far apart.

When we meet, we drink, talk and laugh together. Sometimes we write songs together.

Hopefully, I will see Pete in 2020 because I am going back to London.

I will be friends with Pete all my life … I hope 🙂

NOW … students’ turn – with a partner, talk about someone close to you.

Here, I will just walk around and listen, giving help where needed. I may board some incorrect phrasing so at the end of class, we can go over it together and all learn.

And now …

Image result for famous people waving goodbye

Young Learners, Level 4: This is the best part of the trip …

Saturday 15th June. Everybody Up 4, Unit 8 Lessons 1 & 2

My manager is very supportive, and concerned over my welfare; she tells me not to expend too much energy in class, especially on a Saturday when I can have three young learner classes. Imagine 50 – 60 children committed to screaming their heads off for as long and as loudly as possible …. Welcome, as the saying goes, to my life.

Last week I prepared quite a bit of work for this class, including general knowledge based on but not in the text book. Unfortunately, it was a minor holiday in Vietnam, and a lot of the top cat students were away and … it became apparent that my multi-media presentation of classical music and classic film, and using the students to represent the movement of the heavenly bodies was … yeah … a waste of time and energy. Not entirely true … three girls were interested, the rest stared at the floor or the ceiling or the clock, while the boys had a contest, who could be the biggest ignoramus. It was a tight contest; they all won.

So, this week, after a debilitating fever, painfully sore throat and constant sneezing, I’m sticking to the book, and devising activities that will make the students use the target language and the target language only (OK, maybe a few new words for the top cats).

It’s a gross generalisation, but in my experience, so many Vietnamese want to do the work as quickly as possible and then do nothing. This covers students from all my centres, TAs, office staff, public servants, contractors, builders … This may explain why my new apartment has cracks inside and out and why so many tenants have had to retile their floor as the original tiles simply broke leaving inches of dust and debris … but, I digress … and so, without further ado, the lesson plan:

Warm Up: Last lesson the subject was future tense and activities. Therefore, I shall board some times – this afternoon / tomorrow / next Monday / next Thursday / next weekend / next month

Under these, I shall write some scrambled nonsense, e.g. ‘who as ees’. The students, placed in teams, have to elect one person to find the corresponding flash card somewhere in the room (‘see a show’) and then say a third-person sentence e.g. “He’s going to see a show this afternoon.’

Information gathering: Class into four groups. One member will be going away and the others in the team have to get information from him or her, then present to the class.

Team 1: Going to Phu Quoc island / is going next month / will be staying in a hotel near the beach / will be going swimming / is going with family

Team 2: Going to London / is going next week / is going to see a show / is staying with family / is going with older sister.

Team 3 : Going to Ha Noi / is going next Tuesday / is going on a bus tour / is going to stay in a big hotel / is going with school

Team 4: Going to Dak Lak Province / is going tomorrow / is going to ride an elephant / will stay in a tent / is going with VUS TAs

The selected member will stand at the front of the class with the information sheet. One teammate must run up, ask one question then tell the rest of the team, who will write the information down. Then a different teammate will run up and ask.

Planning a day out

I have a niece and nephew coming to Saigon. The teams have to plan a day for them including what to see and do, how to travel and what to eat. Of course, they need to but some souvenirs, so where are the best places ?

We shall probably have to board many ideas first. Where do tourists go in HCM ? What is traditional food ? How can they travel ? Do the girls want to take the niece and the boys take the nephew only ?

Hopefully, this will encourage a lot of speaking and ideas and I can show a map of HCM to help.

And if the students are still drawing a blank (or being too lazy to think), this could inspire them: It’s spoken in English, with text, but with Viet accent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0tncoIxT1s

As with all ‘real-world’ videos, the film should be stopped and new words or expressions boarded. The students are later made to write the words down (the majority will simply NOT do any kind of writing unless pressured), and then encouraged to use them where appropriate.

That should easily cover the first hour. After the break, we hit the books, do the workbooks and fast-finishers get an activity sheet, while I can spend at least some time checking the pronunciation and grammar.