Professional Development | Accenture In-Company Lessons

                                            

Accenture in-company lessons

REPORTS – JULY

Professional Development | Baufest In-Company Lessons

Baufest in-company lessons

REPORTS – JULY

 

Professional Development | Baufest In-Company Lessons

                                                                Baufest in-company lessons

                                                                 lesson plan here and here

Great class today! beginning with a warm-up discussion on football, oil companies, and subtitled media. 

We started by correcting a letter containing spelling mistakes in pairs. 

No sooner had all learners arrived I listed 18 of the mistakes on the board and eliciting correct spelling rules which they produced with the aid of some photocopies of rules I had placed at their table. Learners said they had been exposed to British spellings in school, US through subtitled television and they used a mix. They said spelling might depend on whom one is writing to.

Following this we moved to the main-aim task of the day: vocabulary for ways of speaking (e.g. whisper, mumble, shriek). Learners used dictionaries to look up meaning, pronunciation, and example sentences. I watched as they made up examples speaking, writing, and shared information in groups — I didn't see anyone making notes on pronunciation though. Afterwards I drilled a few words containing longer, more difficult vowel sounds, which also served to prepare them and to segue into the next task: Stop The Bus.

Learners elicited the new vocabulary and their teams guessed the words correctly, writing them on the board. 

The team writing all words first  (A)  shouted 'stop the bus,' and the exercise was over. Some quick feedback and it was already 10 o'clock.

Outside the classroom learners collected individual homework tasks, which all aim at consolidate language covered during the course.

when might may not be may

commentary

As sometimes I need to clarify when to use modal verbs 'may' and 'might', and as they are both so often interchangeable, I today discovered some examples of when it is usually

may rather than might, e.g. the planet Venus may be seen clearly in the night sky during this month | The seeds from the plant may grow up to 20 centimetres in length | Exceeding the quoted dose may cause drowsiness – i.e., for academic language to talk about the characteristics or behaviour of something,

and

might rather than may, is sometimes used to talk about what was typically the case in the past, e.g. During the war, the police might arrest you for criticising the king | Years ago children might be sent down the mines at the age of six | In the early 19th century a person might be sent to Australia for stealing as little as a loaf of bread,

in all of which examples 'may' and 'might' are not usually interchangeable.

We can use might or may for a possible situation, e.g. I may go to Ireland | I might go to Ireland, but only might when the situation is not real. For example, If I were Tom's parents, I might look for a better job – you are not in Tom's position, you will not look for a better job.

Other, more everyday examples include: 

may I leave now? | May I help you? | you may not leave now – for permission

might they go by bus? (or could) – for possibility in the interrogative form (may they would imply permission), rather formal.

Historically, 'might' is the past form of 'may', but that fact doesn't offer any help in clarifying any current day usage of these two modal verbs. *I do, however, tell my students to change 'may' to 'might' when using reported speech (I may move to Sydney = he said he might move to Sydney).

Professional Development | Baufest In-Company Lessons

                                                                Baufest in-company lessons

                                                                 lesson plan here and here

REPORTS – JULY

 

Professional Development | ISBAN In-Company Lessons

 

ISBAN in-company lessons

REPORTS – JULY