You are a teacher planning a Language Focus Stage to explicitly teach the grammar in

each of the example sentences below. The grammar point you should focus on is in
parentheses in the example sentences below. Include each step below for every example.

1. Assess language for level. - Which proficiency level l (A1, A2, or B1 - defined in Module
2.6) would each sentence be most appropriate for?

2. Describe how you could establish a context to place the sentence in. Would you tell a
story, show pictures, or plan a reading? Describe in detail.

3. Elicit the meaning of the grammar point – not the meaning of the sentence – from the
students through clarifying questions. How will you know they really understand?

4. Review its form of the grammar point. Does it take on other forms or are there important
exceptions students should know about, for example?

5. Review aspects of phonology of that grammar point.

6. Finally, how would you concept check the students’ understanding?

Refer to the descriptions of the components of a language focus stage in a lesson (Section
10.5). It is acceptable to check a grammar reference book, if necessary, to understand the
grammar. However, your work must use the model format in the sentences given below and
must be original.

Example Sentences

1. You are going to meet a tall, mysterious stranger. (simple future, going to form, used
for a prediction.)

I think this sentence would be appropriate for an A2 class.

I would use an example using pictures. In one picture, it appears a woman meeting a
tall, mysterious stranger and below the word “NOW”, then another one but the word
below the picture says “in 2015”, and the other picture has the year “2021” in it but
 the man is not present, just the woman. So I elicit which picture they think the
sentence is making reference to.

I would ask questions such as: is this happening now? or not yet? Are we talking
about the present or the future?

Students should know that when using the structure “going to” they shouldn’t skip the
to, and that always after the “to” it follows a verb in its base form.

One aspect of phonology in “going to”, is that we drop the “g” when pronouncing it.

I would concept check as follows: Is the tall, mysterious man here (while showing the
picture that says “in 2021”)? Students reply: No. and I ask: Why? Because she is
going to meet him (in the future).

2.
Mary threw the ball to Jane. She threw the ball to her. (subject and object pronouns)

This sentence is appropriate for a B1 level.

I would use a picture that shows a girl (Mary) throwing a ball to another girl (Mary) to set up
the context. First I would elicit what personal pronoun is suitable for both girls, students
should answer She.

To elicit the meaning of the grammar point, I would ask: She threw the ball to she or she
threw the ball to her? what do you think it follows “to”: she or her? Students should answer
“her”.

When reviewing the form of the grammar point, I would ask: If Mary threw the ball to Jane,
could Jane be replaced by she or her? Students say: her. So I say: Ok, and “her”: is it a
personal pronoun or an objective pronoun? what do you think? Who is throwing the ball?
Students should say “Mary”. So Mary is the doer of the action, Mary can be replaced by She
(personal pronoun). Mary throws the ball … to whom? Who is the person that receives the
ball? Students should answer: Jane. Teacher says: Ok, Jane is she or her? Her. Ok, so Mary
throws the ball to her. “Her” is the object pronoun then. Why? (elicit) Because she is the
“receiver” of the action (students have to say).

Phonology can be pointed out in “throw”, and how to form the “z” sound which is a dental
sound: I tell students that in order to pronounce this sound correctly, they should place the
tip of their tongue in contact with the upper teeth (and show this to students myself). “To Her”
can also be introduced as regards phonology by making sure they know how to pronounce
the T, especially if they are Spanish speaking students. Here, I could demonstrate the
difference between the T sound in Spanish and in English, in English the tip of the tongue is
a little bit backwards in the upper palate, whereas in Spanish T it is near the upper teeth.

For concept checking, I would elicit: Are Mary and Jane both women? Yes. In the
sentence, can Mary and Jane be replaced by the same pronoun? No. Why? Because
one (Mary) is the doer of the action and the other is the object or receiver of the
 action. ok, So what pronoun do we use for the “active” person? She. And for the
“passive” one or the one that gets the action? Her.

Then Her is an object pronoun, for the person that does the action we use or can
replace it by a personal pronoun.

3.
She´ll have finished by the time we arrive. (future perfect tense)

This sentence would be suitable for a B2 level.

To set up the context, I would use a story. It could be a story about a woman (Linda)
who is throwing a party and invites some friends. And at a moment, the friends
discuss whether 9 pm is the right time to go to the woman’s house or if it is still early.
The group of friends decide that She’ll have finished arranging everything by the time
they arrive (since they know her well).

To elicit the meaning of the grammar point I can ask students: Do you think that when
the group of friends arrives at Linda’s house, she will still be doing all the
arrangements like setting up the table, etc? Students say: No. So I ask Why?:
Because all will be done by then.

To review the form of the grammar point, I will make sure students understand its
structure. Will + have + verb in past participle. First I would ask the students: Is the
verb that follows “have” in base form? No. Which form do you think this verb is? Sts
have to answer: in past participle form.

Aspects of phonology on this pint could be as follows: when we say a sentence that
has will + have + (past participle verb), the sound of the “h” in have disappeared
when linked to the “l” of “wil”, so in this case the H sound is silent (which means it is
not a voiceless glottal fricative, although we don’t introduce this specific term to
students). Also, when we pronounce the verb in past participle “arrived”, that final
“ed” sounds like a “t”, not like “id”.

To concept check the students’ understanding, I would ask them: What does the
sentence mean? Which action happened first? The fact that the friends arrived? Or
the fact that she finished everything? Students have to answer: “The fact that she
finished everything”. Ok, and both actions: are referring to something that already
took place or referring to the future? How do you notice this? To the future, and we
notice it by the use of will (the students answer).

So, for the action that happens first of 2 actions that will take place in the future, what
tense do we use? present perfect tense. And for the action that happens later? past
simple.