Learning English

Versatile Grammar Activities

Dan and Sian talk about some versatile activities you can use to help teach grammar

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Versatile Grammar Activities

Some grammar can be boring to teach, so it’s a good idea to have a dynamic or fun activity up your sleeve. These activities can be adapted to fit many different types of grammar lesson.

Change places if…
Put the students in a circle, each sitting on a chair, or standing on a piece of paper. Put one student in the middle. That student makes a statement beginning with ‘change places if…’ and the target language, e.g. the present perfect: Change places if you’ve been to France. If this statement is true for a student, they must leave their current place and move to another. The student in the middle also moves. The student who has no place after the change becomes the middle student. 

Invisible question
Send a student or number of students out of the room. Write a question on the board using the target language. The remaining students answer the question by themselves – ideally their answer should also use the target language. Then erase the question and bring in the students who were outside. Have them talk to the students with the answer. By collecting answers they need to try and work out what the question was. This can also be done with sentences.

Line up
This one is simple to do. Set a category using the target language, e.g. the present continuous: Line up in the order of who is wearing the most colourful clothing. Students must communicate to each other to work out the correct order they need to line up in. It helps if they do so using the target language – ‘Today, I’m wearing red, green, blue…’ Then let the students try setting the category.

Day 1 mind map
A great mingling ice-breaker. Create a mind map based on yourself, copy it and hand it to the students. Have them ask you questions based on it. then pair them up and get them to draw mind maps and ask each other about them.

To do

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Get involved

Well, those were just a few ideas that we here at BBC Learning English had, but we know that you teachers out there have lots of fantastic ideas too, and we’d like you to share them with us and everybody else.

If you have a great tip or technique for teaching grammar, or anything else, please email us at learningenglish@bbc.co.uk. Your email could be posted here on this page, or may even be mentioned in our show.

We are also looking for video tips to include in the programme. In order to do this, please include whether or not you’d like to be included for video with your tip, and we'll get in touch with you. You could be rewarded with a T-shirt for your efforts.

End of Session 4

Next up is Learners' Questions. What will this week's learner's question be? Whatever it is, Dan's here with the answer! Join us in Session 5 to find out.