Lesson/Unit Summary:
This unit consists of 2 lessons. The first lesson focuses on the use of imperatives to write recipes. The second lesson aims to develop students’ competence in using imperatives and other structures to give suggestions/advice.
In the first lesson, cooking videos are played to arouse students’ interest in the topic. Students are guided to finish a recipe with imperatives after watching a video. They are then asked to compare different sentence structures to determine which sentence type is typical of recipes. Students are also encouraged to watch other videos for cooking ideas in order to write up their own recipe to introduce the food culture of Hong Kong to a group of school visitors. The context set can provide a real-life purpose for students to use the target language structure.
The aim of the second lesson is extended to raise students’ awareness of the importance of making appropriate grammatical choices to give suggestions/advice. Students are asked to compare and contrast different ways of making suggestions (including imperatives) to tell the different interpersonal meanings created. Authentic online posts are presented to provide examples of the language used to ask for and give suggestions. Students are then asked to write a reply using the different structures learnt in the lesson. The personalized activities provide students with an authentic reason for communication.
Level of Students: Senior Secondary
Lesson Duration: 90 mins (2 lessons)
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the lessons, students will be able to:
1. Use imperatives to write recipes and give instructions;
2. Tell the different language features of a recipe and of a cooking demonstration.
3. Show an understanding of the different interpersonal meanings expressed by imperatives and declaratives (with modals) to give suggestions / advice;
4. Use various sentence structures to give suggestions / advice.
Lesson Plan:
Teaching Materials:
- L1 Worksheet (student)
- L1 Worksheet (teacher)
- L1 PPT
- L2 Worksheet (student)
- L2 Worksheet (teacher)
- L2 PPT
Useful Websites:
- http://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/imperative-clauses-be-quiet?q=imperatives
- https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-practice/imperatives
Acknowledgements:
The copyright of the learning materials belongs to The Education University of Hong Kong. We are grateful to the original authors for granting us the right to share their ideas. Please fully acknowledge the source of the materials and the authors.
Duplication of the materials is restricted to non-profit making educational purposes only. Otherwise, no part of these materials may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the Project Supervisor.
To cite this resource:
Jiang, Z. X. J., & Lee, F. K. J. (2020). Imperatives. Retrieved from https://lml.eduhk.hk/grammar/?page_id=224.
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