Video timeline
00:00 Introduction
01:06 Context
01:35 Pre-listening task
01:49 Listening
02:58 Meaning
03:29 Guided Discovery of Form
04:27 Other practice ideas
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Video transcriptConditionals can be tricky for learners. The form is quite complex, but also, the meaning can be confusing. I’ve got a great activity for helping learners get to grips with the difference between the first and second conditionals- want to know more? Keep watching…
If this is the first time we’re meeting, I’m Jo Gakonga, I’ve been teaching for over 30 years, and training teachers on CELTA and MA TESOL programmes for over 20 of those. I’ve also got a website at ELT-Training.com where I make video based material for teachers at all stages of their careers. Check it out and don’t forget to like and subscribe if you want to see more – I make a new video every week.
This activity is a guided discovery so hopefully, having to see the patterns for themselves will help learners remember them.
Start by asking about lotteries. Do your learners buy lottery tickets (if they’re adults), do they plan to buy them (if they’re not)? Do they think lotteries are a good thing? - national lotteries generate a lot of money for charities but it’s just a form of gambling, so this could be a problem…. Let them discuss this in pairs or small groups.
Now tell them about four people waiting in line to buy lottery tickets. The first time just ask them to listen for whether these people are more or less likely to win:
Bob – he buys a lottery ticket every week- just one- but he has big dreams – if he won the lottery, he’d give up his job and travel the world on a private yacht.
Susan – She’s very rich and she likes to gamble. She buys 1,000 tickets every week. If she wins the lottery, she’ll spend the money in a casino in Las Vegas.
Kim – This is the first time she’s ever bought a lottery ticket, but she wants to try, so she buys one ticket – she’d give it all to charity if she won a million pounds.
Lucky Lucy – She buys a ticket every week and is often lucky – she’s never won a lot of money, but she often wins £10. She’ll have a Chinese take-away at the weekend if she wins this week.
Obviously, you could add others or change these according to your learners and their situation.
They’ll hopefully get that Susan and Lucy are more likely to win. Now ask them to listen again and write down the ‘if’ sentences for each person in these two categories= likely / unlikely. When you’ve read out the situation again, they can check with a partner and you’ll end up with this:
Very unlikely to win
Bob if he won the lottery, he’d give up his job and travel the world on a private yacht.
Kim –she’d give it to charity if she won a million pounds.
More possible win
Susan –If she wins the lottery, she’ll spend the money in a casino in Las Vegas.
Lucky Lucy –she’ll have a Chinese take-away at the weekend if she wins this week.
Now ask them to discuss the differences between the form of the unlikely and more possible scenarios:
Unlikely- second conditional – If + simple past tense + would (clauses can be reversed)
More possible- first conditional – if +simple present tense + will (clauses can be reversed)
You could give them some more possibilities to differentiate between the two forms- maybe characters who are more or less likely to pass exams, or go for a walk without getting wet, or sleep undisturbed… the list is only limited by your imagination!
Hope that works well for you and if you want more help with grammar check out my Grammar for Language Teachers and Teaching Grammar Communicatively courses!
