This document discusses eight different ways to teach comparative adjectives in English. The methods include using examples, personal stories, quizzes, speaking tasks, presenting rules directly, having students reconstruct passages, reading comprehension, and practice exercises. For each method, the document outlines the aim, procedures, and requests commentary. It provides various active and engaging approaches to teaching comparative adjectives.

1. Naomi Ruth Linares Hopwood
WAYS TO TEACH GRAMMAR
Here are some ideas for a language focus on comparative adjectives. Which of these have you used?
What is your opinion of each one?
1. Examples
Aim: To revise the form of comparative adjectives.
Procedure: Write a few sentences on the board which contain comparative adjectives. Ask students to
work in pairs to come up with the rules. Then do practice activities, such as personalising the
sentences on the board, or …
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2. Live Listening
Aim: To present comparative adjectives in a personalised way.
Procedure: Tell students about you and your sibling. Ask them to listen for five differences you talked
about. Put these on the board and explain the rules.
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3. Quiz
Aim: To present comparative adjectives in a meaningful way.
Procedure: Students do a geography quiz in teams. Then they fill in a grid to guide them to the rules of
comparatives with examples from the quiz. Then they write their own quiz questions.
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4. Speaking Task
Aim: To provide a context for students to use comparative adjectives.
Procedure: Ask students in pairs to talk about how similar / different they are to one of their parents.
As they speak note down good / bad attempts at using comparatives. Put these on the board, and
explore why the language is right or wrong with students. Then students talk to a different student in
pairs about the parent, as above.
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2. Naomi Ruth Linares Hopwood
5. Rules
Aim: To present the rules of form of comparative adjectives.
Procedure: Present students with the rules on a handout or the board. Students make their own
sentences using the rules to help them.
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6. Dictogloss
Aim: To review comparative adjectives.
Procedure: Read a text containing examples of the target language to students at natural speed. As
you read, students note down important words (give them a post-it and word limit e.g. 5 to prevent
them writing everything). Students in groups of 4 or 5 try to reconstruct the text from their notes.
When they have finished, give them the original text to they can compare it with their reconstruction.
Answer any questions, and explore alternatives with the same meaning.
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7. Reading Text
Aim: To present comparative adjectives in a written context.
Procedure: Students read a text and answer comprehension questions. (The answers may focus on
comparing or not.) Students look for and underline all the examples of the target language. In open
class explore the differences of form. Encourage students to tell you the rules.
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8. Practice Exercise
Aim: To review student competence with comparative adjectives.
Procedure: Give students an exercise from the workbook to practice forming comparative adjectives.
They do this individually, then discuss their answers in pairs before an open-class check. Review the
rules on the board. Give students another practice activity to do – this could be done orally.
Commentary: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
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