Учебное пособие: The English grammar

In addition to illustrating meaning, visuals can be used to check understanding.

Examples

Students can be asked to choose the picture that best illustrates the meaning of a particular word or sentence; to put pictures in order to show a sequence of events; or to match pictures and sentences, as in his example which compares the past simple and the past perfect.

Which sentence goes with which picture?

They started the meeting when she arrived.

They’d started the meeting when she arrived .

Time-lines are graphic ways of illustrating the use of tenses. For example:

for six months

now

OctoberApril

We arrived

for a period of time

We’ve been here for six months.

sincenow

OctoberApril

We arrived

since a point in time

We’ve been here since October.

now

pastI rememberedI sent

then

I remembered to send him a birthday card.

now

pastI sentI remember

then

I remember sending him a birthday card.

You can check students’ understanding by asking them to select the correct time-line, to label or even draw time-lines.

Concept questions

Concept questions are questions you ask students to check whether they understand the meaning of a language item. If you consider the concept questions when thinking about the language you’re going to teach this should help you get the meaning clear in your own mind. Until you have had considerable experience you will need to write the questions in your lesson plan and have them to hand at the appropriate stage of the lesson.