Editorial
A similar text originally appeared in:
www.britishcouncil.org/serbia-elta-newsletter-2009-september.htm

Take the Sting out of Teaching 2^nd Conditional

Natasha Jovanovich, Serbia

Nataša Jovanović has had a substantial 15 year long experience in ELT working with a private language studio for ten years now, her ESOL experience and a range of ESOL courses extended over the years to advanced levels of proficiency and to teaching Cambridge exams, IELTS, TOEFL and ESP English. She is based in Belgrade, Serbia. Apart from teaching, her translation of the book by dr Helen Fisher, an American author and research professor at Rutgers University, was published in 2005. The book embraces the issues of gender studies and the role of women in today’s world, business, science and family life.

E-mail: natasa-jovanovic@sbb.rs natashabbc@gmail.com

Menu

Main aim
Procedure
Anticipated problems
Teaching aids
Target age
Sample sentences
References
Useful links

Main aim

to enable students to use 2nd conditional accurately by introducing humor and making use of students’ knowledge of history

Procedure

Pre- teach 2^nd conditional and then distribute the worksheets with the photos of historical figures your students are familiar with. Elicit sentences of what these figures might be famous for. Insert the related photos of the personages mentioned in each sentence from www.flickr.com or similar websites. Divide your students into two groups so that one group comes up with the names of celebrities or historical personages and the other will have to think of the funny endings using 2^nd conditional. Afterwards, the two groups switch the tasks.

Anticipated problems

past participle of irregular verbs

Teaching aids

photos, print-outs, hand-outs

Target age

16+

Here are some sentences I wrote, which might give you an idea or two on how to deal with this. You might like to award prizes for those who think of the funniest endings . Take off points if they come up with grammatically incorrect endings. Depending on the level of proficiency of your students, you might like to pre-teach mixed conditionals as well.

Sample sentences

If Cleopatra lived in the 21^st century, she would be a hairdresser

If Coleridge lived in the 21^st century, he would live in Amsterdam

If Charles II lived in the 21^st century he would be headhunted for ‘Sex and the City’

If Henry VIII lived in the 21^st century, the feminists would take legal action against him.

If Julius Caesar lived in the 21^st century, he would be sued for genocide and manslaughter

If Shakespeare lived in the 21^st century, he would learn Valley Speak.

If Gandhi lived in the 21^st century, he would take yoga classes and cool down a bit

If Vuk Karadzic, a great Serbian language reformer, lived in the 21^st century, he would have a leg transplanted

If Darwin lived in the 21^st century, he would have himself cloned.

If Queen Elisabeth I lived in the 21^st century, she would consider a sugar-free diet

If Uncle Scrooge lived in the 21^st century, he would not give a fig about a credit crunch

If Sisyphus lived in the 21^st century, he would be a workaholic

If Abraham Lincoln lived in the 21^st century, he would give theatres a wide berth.

If Prometheus lived in the 21^st century, he would set up a chain of restaurants

If Robert Burns lived in the 21^st century, he would join an AA support group.

If Samuel Johnson lived in the 21^st century, he would teach English online.

If Icarus lived in the 21^st century, he would land a job as an air traffic controller

References

Gorham, Joan; Christophel, Diane ‘The relationship of teachers' use of humor in the classroom to immediacy and student learning’ 1990 Communication Education

Kher, Neelam; Molstad, Susan; Donahue, Roberta ‘Using humor in the college classroom to enhance teaching effectiveness in dread courses’ 1999, College Student Journal

Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. 1987 Prentice-Hall International

Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. 1988, Prentice-Hall International

Useful links

Sense of humour, Nik Peachey 2004, BBC/British Council Teaching English website http://teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/sense-humour

The Improving English through Humour course can be viewed here
The Creative Methodology for the Classroom course can be viewed here