A Brief Encounter with Grammar : I Wish

Main Activities Prediction, listening, grammar (wishes) and speaking.

Suitable for  Teens and adults, Pre-Advanced (B2.2) and above.

TEACHER’S NOTES    (Click here for a pdf of theTeacher’s Notes.)

STEP 1

Put students into groups of three or four. Tell them that they’re going to see a short extract from a film.

STEP 2

Show the film from 07:18 to 10:11.

Then ask them to discuss the following questions:

• What’s happened to the woman?
• What’s the relationship between the two women?
• Is she glad that the other woman is keeping her company?

STEP 3

Get some theories from the groups and write them up on the board. Tell them that you’ll reveal the answer later.

STEP 4

Now see if anyone can answer this question: Which word did she use eight times? Hopefully, someone will come up with the answer “wish”.

STEP 5

Ask them if they can remember any of the things she said using it.

STEP 6

Show them the scene again, but don’t let them write as they watch. When they’ve seen it, ask them to complete the gaps in these sentences.

STEP 7

Let them decide if they’d like to see it one more time to check/improve their answers. Alternatively, play it again, pausing after each sentence.

STEP 8

Display or hand out the answers.

STEP 9

Ask them to divide the sentences (except 3 and 4) into two groups with different meanings and forms. They should decide what the meanings are and describe the rule for the form.

STEP 10

Display the first block of the infographic (either use the one above or click here for the first block only) so they can check their two groups and then reveal the second block, Groups 1 and 2, to see if they have come up with the same.

STEP 11

Now display the plot summary so they can see how close their theories were in step 3.

STEP 12

Ask how she feels about the affair. Does she regret it or not?

STEP 13

Display the third block of the infographic, True or False?. Ask the class to vote on whether the sentences are true or false. Then play the video from 09:27-10:11 again. (This shows that the first one is obviously false – the other two are debatable.)

STEP 14

Now ask them to make a third group for “wish” that describes the structure and meaning for these last three examples. They should come up with something like wish + past perfect verb form, used to express regret about the past.

STEP 15

Finally, reveal the fourth block of the infographic, Over to You, and ask students to complete the stem sentences with true desires, complaints and regrets of their own.

STEP 16

Get students to sit in groups of three, read their sentences to each other and then explain and comment.