First and Second conditional........context.....

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dandred

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I'm having a bit of trouble finding a context that will continue through a whole lesson dealing with these two grammar points.....

With the first conditional for example, building a context with travel always brings up the same verbs, If I go to ______, I will see
try
enjoy

The same problem occurs with food, events, ect...... nice contexts but only a limited amount of verbs that can fit with that context.

With the second conditional for example, If I _____, I would _______,
is a great area to encourage freer practice into a lesson, but how to build a context that flows through a lesson from beginning to end?

I know this seems like a strange question, I'm just trying to get some feedback from experienced teachers on how to build a context into something that can't be put into a simple context, while at the same time allowing learners enough freedom to practice the language with as many verbs as possible....

Thank you.
 
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Mr_Ben

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Just continuing along the same lines you can invite them to speculate about what they would do if they visited fictional places. If I went to Pandora (or whatever the planet was called in Avatar), if I went to Wonderland, if I went to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, if I went to Mars/the moon, if I lived on the ocean floor, if I was the opposite sex (careful with this one, it can get a little depressing/controversial depending on your students).

Depending on the level/ambition/ability of your students, sometimes it's best to introduce new grammar without opening up the whole dictionary to them all at once. Just having them quiz each other with prompts like Rome/Alpha Centauri/your grandmother's house/the Pope's private office in the Vatican/London and letting them choose the grammar with a limited set of answers will help them focus on the grammar instead of trying to find the vocabulary to express what they're thinking. Conditionals often involve a lot of complex relationships and conditions (obviously) which can make it very difficult for learners to focus on the task.

If you're still looking for migrane-inducing questions, try these or search google for "if you could" "if you were" or that sort of thing.
 

dandred

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South Korea
Thank you for your reply.

I think I was being to narrow in my idea of a context. A context can be as large or as small as I want to make it, your reply really helped.
 
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