DAY 1

OK - before you step foot into the classroom you have to accept some universal truths. Even though this is an advanced exam, the students are not advanced yet. Some of them are almost there, but others need a lot more work to get them to the required level to be able to do the exam. Who is in your class? Personally, I always check to see which students are going to be in my class. I know some of them because I've taught them before and I know their strengths and weaknesses but for those students who are completely new, I find it important to get to know their learning styles as quickly as possible.

With all the new teaching techniques and models being introduced - communicative approach, lexical approach - grammar is not something that requires a lot of focus but because the students need to know how to use it correctly, I always think that it will save a lot of time during the course if you give students a glossary of terminology that they will be hearing throughout the course. Picture the scene, you're a week before the exam, doing the last bit of revision and a student puts up their hand and says " Whats a verb?". It's happened. Now I don't care if a student knows what a verb is or not,I only care if the student knows how to use the verb. Therefore, In my humble opinion, if students know from the get go what you're talking about, there will be no mental block to grammar.

GLOSSARY FOR CAE

Grammar

5 VERB FORMS

	REGULAR VERBS	IRREGULAR VERBS
BARE INFINITIVE	walk	take
3RD PERSON SINGULAR	walks	takes
PAST SIMPLE	walked	took
PAST PARTICIPLE	walked	taken
PRESENT PARTICIPLE	walking	taking

Grammar Term	Definition	Examples
Common Nouns Proper Nouns Abstract Nouns	People, places, things, things with a physical form. The proper names of people, books, songs, cities – always start with a capital letter These are nouns that don’t have a physical form. Generally things like emotions.	Desk, window, tree, building, city Tracy, Cape Town, Harry Potter, the Bible Love, hate, advice
Main Verbs	Actions, physical actions, doing verbs	Drink, eat, laugh, cry, take
Auxiliary Verbs	Also called “be” verbs or being verbs	Do / does / is / am / are / did / was / were / have / has / had / be / been / being
Modal Auxiliary Verbs	Each Modal Verb performs different functions such as ability, permission, obligation, advice	Can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must, ought to
Stative verbs	These are NOT used in the - ing form. They are generally emotional states.	Love, like, hate, belong, know, prefer, understand
Adjectives	Words that define nouns. They describe people, places things	A beautiful woman A boring lecture An exciting event
Adverbs	Adverbs have three functions 1. Qualify verbs 2. Qualify adjectives 3. Qualify other adverbs	1. I run quickly 2. She has extremely long hair 3. Manchester United win fairly frequently
Prepositions	These are small words that tell us the position of something.	in, on, at, next to, under, over, below, across
Phrasal Verbs	A very common structure in English. Formed by combining a verb+preposition	Wake up, take off, make out, sit up, watch out
Countable Nouns	Nouns that can be counted. Can either be singular or plural.	Chair – chairs, dog – dogs Irregular plurals: man – men, child – children, mouse – mice, tooth – teeth
Uncountable Nouns	Nouns that CAN’T be counted. These nouns are always singular.	Advice NOT advices, information NOT informations, water, metal, sand, time, money.
Paired nouns	These nouns are always written in plural as they normally come in pairs.	Shoes, socks, earrings, scissors, pyjamas, binoculars, pants, gloves
Literal	You do what exactly what is written or said.	Sit down.
Figurative	Having an idiomatic meaning. The word, sentence, or phrase has another meaning	To stab someone in the back (to be dishonest, to break someones trust)
Conjunctions	Link / connect two words, clauses or sentences together	Co-ordinating: for, and, nor,but, or, yet, so (FANBOYS) Subordinating: if, though, until, while, when, because
Synonyms	Words with same or similar meaning	Near – close, big – large, small – tiny
Antonyms	Words with opposite meaning	Near – far, big – small, tall – short

Homonyms

There are two types of homonyms: 1. Homographs – words with identical spelling but have different meaning. 2. Homophones –words that are spelt differently but are pronounced exactly the same

1. Polish (nationality) – polish (verb) 2. Would – wood, horse - hoarse