9/21/2016

Grammar: passives | Onestopenglish

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Number one for English language teachers

Grammar: passives
By Jonathan Marks
Lev el: Elementary , Pre-intermediate, Intermediate, Upper intermediate, Adv anced T y pe: Teaching
notes
Some adv ice and suggestions for practising the passiv e in a conv ersation class.
Any ideas about how to practise the passiv e (all tenses) in a conv ersation class? The students (30
energetic Italian pupils aged 15) hav e studied the passiv e forms with their usual English teacher. They can
do written exercises to transform activ e to passiv e and v ice v ersa and can construct passiv e sentences
and questions (at least in theory ). Now I, the conv ersation teacher, hav e been asked to practise the
passiv e orally in my next 50 minute lesson. Any suggestions?
Sim one
I don't know exactly what y ou're expected to do in a 'conv ersation' class, Simone. There seems to be a bit
of a contradiction between conv ersing, on the one hand, and practising a particular grammar structure, on
the other.
One approach would be to giv e rather open-ended conv ersation topics, e.g. 'My early childhood', which
would giv e the learners an opportunity to use passiv es, in this case to talk about how they were treated by
their parents and their first teachers, for example. But of course there's no guarantee that they would use
any passiv es, because there isn't actually any need to. Ev en if y ou told them they were supposed to use
passiv es, they might completely forget about it once they got talking. So the activ ity might be useful as
general fluency practice, but it wouldn't fulfil the aim y ou'v e got in mind.
I often find that learners can study new grammar, and do drills and transformation exercises, and so on,
but when they speak spontaneously they don't put it into practice, but rather use the language they could
use already ; there seems to be no connection between the two ty pes of activ ity . Of course making that
connection takes time, but I think that as teachers we can help to speed things up.
So my suggestions (eight of them) are rather different. They 're much more structured, and contriv ed to
force a need to use passiv es. I don't think there's any thing wrong with contriv ing to do this; in fact I think
it's necessary , in order for learners to begin to add new grammar to the stock of language they can use
activ ely . At the same time, to v ary ing extents, the suggested activ ities contain opportunities for extension
into stretches of freer conv ersation.
Of course, if y ou decide to use any of these, y ou'll need to adapt them to suit the learners' interests and
lev el. Better still, they might stimulate y ou to inv ent some activ ities of y our own!

Old photos
Y ou need some old photos of the learners' town - or may be just one photo if it shows plenty of detail.
May be the learners themselv es can prov ide some.
Display the photos the class in some way circulate them round the class, pin them on the wall, distribute
photocopies (if the quality 's good enough!), or show them on an OHP and ask learners, working in groups,
to note changes that hav e taken place since the photos were taken.
Ask them to report the changes using the present perfect passiv e and adding extra information
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if relev ant

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Grammar: passives | Onestopenglish

Ask them to report the changes using the present perfect passiv e and adding extra information if relev ant
e.g. The main street's been pedestrianised, and now there are flowerbeds and fountains in the middle.
Finally y ou could ask them what they think has changed for the better, and what for the worse, and what
changes they would like to see in the future e.g:
It would be good if traffic was banned completely from the town centre.
I think that ugly office block in XXXX Street should be demolished.

The story of an object

Y ou can model this activ ity for the class. Choose some humble, unassuming object y ou'v e got with y ou,
e.g. a watch, show it to the class and tell its story in the first person, being as inv entiv e as y ou like, and
including lots of passiv es:
I was produced in a factory in Japan about five years ago, packed in a big dark container with lots of
other watches and sent on a long journey across the sea. I felt quite seasick at times and I was glad when
we reached dry land at last... I once got dropped behind a chest of drawers and forgotten about for a
couple of years, and was rediscovered by a big white cat ...
Tell the learners to choose an object and giv e them a couple of minutes to inv ent some episodes in its life or, of course, to recall some real ev ents that hav e happened to it.
They tell their stories to each other in pairs or small groups.
They circulate and find a new listener or a new group of listeners (or y ou might need to organise this more
strictly and tell them who should talk to who).
They can repeat this procedure for as long as it seems productiv e. The v alue of the repetition is that the
stories will get improv ed and elaborated, and it's quite likely that the passiv es in the stories will get more
accurate. In other words it's an opportunity for dev elopment, not mere repetition.

Quiz
Div ide the class into teams and ask them to brainstorm ten general knowledge questions (or howev er
many y ou think is suitable) for the other team(s) to answer. The questions should all contain passiv es. Y ou
might need to giv e some sample questions to get them started. They could include questions like these:
Name three countries where Spanish is spoken
How often is the president of the USA elected?
Where are the next Olympic Games going to be held?
When was Pompeii destroyed?
Circulate and help them to make all their questions accurate and, if necessary , to weed out any unfair
questions!
The quiz then takes place. Y ou could perhaps award points for factually correct answers and for accurate
use of passiv es - in casual conv ersation the answer to the question When was Pompeii destroyed? is likely
to be simply A.D. 7 9, but in a quiz it's quite normal to answer Pompeii was destroyed in A.D. 7 9.

Spoof news items

In groups, learners inv ent a news story about a well-known character, may be a pop singer or sports
personality , or perhaps a member of the class. They should include plenty of passiv es. Example:
(Name of their fav ourite pop singer) has been appointed Professor of Music at (name of local univ ersity ).
The decision was announced y esterday , and was immediately described by the Society for the Promotion
of Proper Music as 'outrageous', but it has been welcomed by (name of singer)'s many fans...
They edit their news items to make them as accurate as possible, giv e them titles (may be using reduced
passiv es like Singer appointed professor) and pin them on the wall so that ev ery one can read all the
stories.

Invent a machine
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Invent a machine
In groups, learners inv ent a machine e.g. a machine for waking heav y sleepers in the morning, an exercise
machine for lazy people, a machine for making square oranges and rehearse an official-sounding
description of how it works. Example:
The bucket is filled with water the previous evening, placed on a shelf above the sleeper's head, and
connected to the timer. The water is kept at a temperature just above freezing point by a sophisticated
cooling system.
They should also draw diagrams on OHPs or large sheets of paper to show how their machine works.
Each group in turn then presents their machine to the rest of the class, and responds to any questions or
comments.

Questionnaire
Y ou could ask learners to write a passiv es questionnaire, or giv e them a ready -made one. Here are some
possible questions:
What's the best thing you've ever been invited to?
Do you know anyone who's been elected to an important position?
Have you ever been robbed?
When was the first time you were taken somewhere on holiday?
Have you ever been mistaken for someone else?
Where were your shoes made?
Do you like being photographed?
Have you ever been punished for something you didn't do?
When was the last time you were kept waiting?
Have any of your valued possessions ever got broken?
What's the most exciting thing you've ever been involved in?
Can you think of a situation when you got left behind?
Do you mind being corrected when you speak English?
How do you react when you get asked questions you don't want to answer?
Y ou could also add the following questions to show that these are also actually passiv es, although the
learners might not hav e thought of them like that before:
Where were you born?
Do you think you'll ever get married?
If you've got a pet, what's it called, and why?
They can work through the questionnaires in pairs, or circulate and ask v arious members of the class.
They should feel free to talk at greater length about any interesting points that arise.
There could be a final plenary stage where they report some of the most interesting things they found out.

Comparing English with L1

Giv e learners a list of passiv e sentences such as this:
Passengers are requested not to leave luggage unattended.
CDs bought and sold.
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CDs bought and sold.

The first prize was awarded to .....
That remains to be seen.
Trespassers will be prosecuted.
Each entry must be accompanied by a separate form.
The church was badly damaged by fire in 1562.
Y ou must have been pleased when you got promoted.
The government's action was described by protesters as a threat to civil liberty.
I can't be bothered.
Faxed proposals will not be accepted.
It's only to be expected.
Ask them to work in pairs and, for each sentence:
a) decide whether it's likely to be spoken or written, or whether it could be either.
b) decide where / when / in what context it's likely to be seen / heard.
c) translate it into their L1, in a way that would be appropriate for the context.
Hold a plenary discussion about their translations. In particular:
a) If their L1 has something similar to the English passiv e, does it appear in the translations? What other
structures hav e they used?
b) If their L1 doesn't hav e any thing like the English passiv e, what structures hav e they used?
Some time later - perhaps the following week - y ou could hand out a list of L1 v ersions of the sentences, or
similar sentences, and ask them to translate them into English.

Changing the classroom

Tell the class to hav e a really careful look at the classroom, because there are going to be some changes.
Div ide the class into two. Half the class let's call them group A go out of the room. Meanwhile, the other
half group B make changes to the room. They could, for example, open or close windows, mov e
pictures, books and chairs, or switch lights on or off.
Group A come back in and try to identify what changes hav e been made, and report them using the present
perfect passiv e e.g.Two windows have been opened, My chair's been moved. If y ou want to award points,
y ou could giv e one point for a correctly identified change and one for an accurate sentence.
Groups A and B can now rev erse roles.
For obv ious reasons, this is only really suitable for small classes, but in larger classes it can be adapted so
that sub-groups make changes to parts of the classroom while their classmates turn round and look away .
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Readers' comments (5)

Web Editor | Mon, 20 Apr 2015 10:17 am
Thanks for y our feedback hlopav ka, we're glad y ou found it helpful!
Best wishes,
The onestopenglish team
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hlopav ka | Sat, 18 Apr 2015 5:42 am

Great ideas! Thank y ou so much for y our adv ice.
kennethbeirne@y ahoo.co.uk | Sun, 4 Nov 2012 1:48 pm
A great v ariety of tasks here to practice using the passiv e v oice.
Tina | Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:20 pm
super ideas - many thanks
andshewas | Sun, 15 Jan 2012 4:43 pm
These are all fantastic suggestions - many thanks for sharing.
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