Past simple tense

Past continuous tense

1. Describe something started and finished in the past

E.g. You did a great job yesterday.

1. Describe an action which was happening at a specific point of time in the past.

E.g: I was reading a good book at 10 p.m. last night.

2. Describe main events in a story.

E.g. Mary read a few pages of her book and went to bed.

2. Describe the settings of a story.

E.g. It was raining heavily outside. Mary read a few pages of her book and went to bed.

• When one action in the past happens in the middle of another, we use the past simple to talk about the shorter action, and the past continuous for the longer action.

E.g. I was reading a book when the phone rang.

• When two or more actions in the past are happening at the same time, we use the past continuous for both/all.

E.g. While I was reading a book, my mother was watching TV.

Anticipated difficulties

Solutions

Students may lack knowledge about some lexical items.

Provide students with the meaning and pronunciation of some lexical items.

Students may have underdeveloped listening, speaking and co-operating skills.

- Play the recording many times if necessary.

- Encourage students to work in pairs, in groups so that they can help each other.

- Provide feedback and help if necessary.

Some students will excessively talk in the class.

- Define expectation in explicit detail.

- Continue to define expectations in small chunks (before every activity).

TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES

STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES

CONTENTS

Game: Say a name

- Divide the class into two teams. There are 5 turns for each team.

- Give instructions. There are two separate boxes. One box (A) contains the names of some nationalities, the other box (B) contains names of jobs. Students pick up one card from box A and one from box B. Students have to say the name of at least one famous person corresponding to their cards.

- If one team cannot answer, they lose their turn, and the chance is transferred to the other team.

For example, the card in box A says “South African” and box B says “politician” 🡺 students should say “Nelson Mandela”.

- One point for a correct answer.

- The group getting the highest points will be the winner.

- Students work in groups to do the activity.

- Students pick the cards and say a name.

Suggested ideas:

Box A: Vietnamese, American, British

Box B: politician, footballer, singer, writer

Some possible answers:

Vietnamese politician: Ho Chi Minh, Nguyen Phu Trong, Le Duan

Vietnamese footballer: Nguyen Quang Hai, Nguyen Cong Phuong

Vietnamese singer: My Tam, My Linh

Vietnamese writer: To Hoai, Luu Quang Vu, Nam Cao

American politician: Donald Trump, Barack Obama

American footballer: Landon Donovan

American writer: Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway

American singer: Micheal Jackson, Whitney Houston …

British politician: Margaret Thatcher, Therasa May …

British footballer: David Beckham, Raheem Sterling …

British singer: Adele, Elton John

British writer: William Shakespeare, J.K Rowling…

TEACHER’S ACTIVITIES

STUDENTS’ ACTIVITIES

CONTENTS

Task 1: Listen and repeat. Then practise saying the words. (6 mins)

- Ask Ss to listen to the recording. Have them pay attention to the highlighted letter(s) which contain the diphthongs /eɪ/ (blue) and /əʊ/ (orange).

- Ask Ss to listen to the recording again, but this time, have them repeat the words.

- Tell students that they can find the /eɪ/ and /əʊ/ sounds in various spellings, such as:

/eɪ/

- ‘ae’ as in age, save, fame

- ‘ai’ as in aim, again

- ‘ay’ as in play, essay

- ‘ei’ as in eight, vein

- ‘ea’ as in break, great

/əʊ/

- ‘oa’ as in boat, coach

- ‘ow’ as in snow, growth

- ‘ou’ as in although, shoulder

- In stronger classes, ask them to add more to these examples.

- Students listen to the recording, and then repeat the words.

- Students add more examples of the words that contain the diphthongs /eɪ/ and /əʊ/.

Task 2: Work in pairs. Underline the words that contain the /eɪ/ and /əʊ/ sounds. Listen and check. Then practise reading the whole text aloud (6 mins)

- Ask Ss to read quickly through the text to get a broad understanding.

- Have Ss work in pairs to underline the words with the diphthongs /eɪ/ and /əʊ/ in each sentence.

- Ask them to listen to the recording and check their answers.

- Have Ss practise reading the whole text aloud in pairs.

- In weaker classes, ask Ss to read the underlined words containing the diphthongs first before reading aloud the whole text.

- In stronger classes, have pairs make 3-5 sentences about a specific topic (e.g. famous people), containing as many diphthongs /ei/ and /əʊ/ as possible. Invite them to read these sentences aloud in front of the class, and have other students listen and count the number of correct words with diphthongs. The pair(s) with the most correct diphthongs are winners.

- Students underline the words with the diphthongs /eɪ/ and /əʊ/ first. Then listen to the recording.

- Students read the whole text aloud.

Answer key:

In the first year when ‘The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram’ was published, more than 300,000 copies were sold. The book was also translated into more than 16 different languages. A film based on the diary was made in 2009. Its name is ‘Don’t burn’.