What's New?

Levels: 
A2
Teaching point: 
Present Perfect
Theme: 
Good and bad news
Activity: 
Picture differences information gap
 - hancockmcdonald.com/node
A pairwork activity in which students and their partners describe their pictures and find the differences. The pictures are so designed as to contextualize and elicit the present perfect tense, such as 'I've failed my exam'. There is an optional letter writing activity too, and an audio download to go with it.
Resources: 
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AttachmentSize
PDF icon Whats new.pdf650.35 KB
Audio icon Whats New audio letter.mp3843.37 KB
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Comments

no news is good news. news is always singular because it is an uncountable noun.
Mark Hancock's picture

Hi Maria! Do you mean in the sentence "Which events are good news and which are bad news"? Here, "are" is plural because "events" is plural. Or did you mean something else?

Hi Mark! thank you. I would avoid using news in that context since it is such a difficult word to teach. Visually students remember "... are good news" if you see what I mean. Thanks a lot anyway. By the way, I'm using some of your materials and they are very effective.
Mark Hancock's picture

Ok, Maria. I see what you mean, and it's a good point. Thanks for the feedback!

permalink, I think you should never avoid using "difficult" words or structures. On the contrary you should make your learners "notice" so that they should raise awareness
Mark Hancock's picture

Thanks for this Guliz. On balance, I agree with you.

Not sure whose responsibility it is to check the page, but, should there really be an apostrophe in "partners"? (Line 1) BTW, I have used your Authentic Listening" book here in China, and my students lapped it up, especially the Shanghainese girl. Fantastic resource. Listening and pronunciation is a real problem here, but I trust that, as I explore the site further, I will be able to recommend it 100% to my students.
Mark Hancock's picture

Tadpole zapped. Thanks for the observation, David! Lovely to get feedback on authentic listening book, and it's interesting that students go for the characters of their own nationality.

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