Hands-on English current events activity for October, 1997
UPDATE--One of our readers suggests that this activity also works well if the topic is the July 98 forest fires in Florida. (She adapted the exercise a little and brought in some newspaper articles about the Florida fires for her students.)
Note: You are welcome to print, copy and use this activity with your students. However, this material is copyrighted, so please don't re-publish it anywhere without permission.
Practice with have to/can't/won't be able to
(Appropriate for high-beginning and intermediate level students; or
use as review for advanced students. Also works for multi-level
classes.)
The
context for this grammar activity is the smog problem in Indonesia
and surrounding countries. First, find out what your students already
know about this issue. You might bring in some news photos to look
at, a map, or some clippings to read and discuss.
If
you have students in the class from the affected regions, this could
be an excellent opportunity for them to tell the other students what
they know about these events.
Begin by explaining to your students:
Everyday
life in Indonesia is being disrupted by the disasterous forest fires
and the air pollution they create. What people usually do every day,
they can't do now, and if the fires continue, they won't be able to
do these things for a long time.
Present
the following two lists side by side, and ask students to match the
nouns in column A with the actions in column B (more than one correct
answer is possible).
Column A
boats
airplanes
people
children
wild animals
businesses
coffee farmers
tourists
Column B
go to school
live in the forest
make money
harvest their crops
navigate the ocean
breathe the air
land at the airport
visit the beautiful places
Now
ask students to use words from the two columns to make the following
kinds of sentences. Do these orally first; then follow up in
writing.
1. Make sentences with "usually."
For
example: "In Indonesia, children usually go to school."
2. Make sentences with "usually have to."
For
example: "In Indonesia, children usually have to go to
school."
3. Make sentences with "can't."
For
example: "Now, because of the fires, children in Indonesia can't go
to school."
4. Make sentences with "won't be able to."
For
example, "If the fires continue, children won't be able to go to
school for a long time."
As
a follow-up, have students write the sentences, but do each topic as
a set, in one paragraph. For example, a student's answer might look
like this:
Depending
on how much writing your students want to do, they could write all of
these, or just select two or three to work on. Since there is some
room for variation here, it might be interesting to have students
read some of their answers aloud to the rest of the group.
Ask
your students if they have any ideas or suggestions on solving some
of these problems. (For example, what about home schooling, or long
homework assignments for the Indonesian children? If they have
computers at home, can the children communicate with their teachers
by email? What about television? Could schools broadcast some classes
for the children? Or is it OK if they just take a break from school
for a while?)
This
activity is simple and structured enough that even students with very
limited English can succeed at it. Intermediate students can do the
same exercise but create more complex sentences, and advanced
students can use it as a review and a starting point to further
work.
For
adult students of all levels, the opportunity to discuss and share
their ideas on serious issues of global importance is a valuable
one!
Editor's
note: I'd be very interested to hear what you and your students
thought of this activity! Thank you! We welcome teaching
suggestions.--Anna Silliman. 
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