The third conditional (a lesson plan)

January 20th, 2010 · 16 Comments

Homer Simpson once said something along the lines of: “If God had wanted us to be vegetarians, he wouldn’t have made animals out of meat.”

This is the starting point for a lesson plan on the third conditional.

third-conditional.pdf

In the activity, students are given a homework task in which they have to use a search engine to find other examples of sentences that start with the words, “If God had wanted …“. Here are a few examples that were found earlier:

If God had wanted us to fly, he would have given us wings.
If God had wanted us to enjoy Mondays, he wouldn’t have given us weekends.
If God had wanted us to run around naked, we would have been born that way.
If God had wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees.
If God had wanted us to think for ourselves, he wouldn’t have invented television.
If God had wanted journalists to get everything right the first time, he wouldn’t have given us copy editors.
If God had wanted us to learn about science stuff, he would have made it easier to understand.
If God had wanted the Scots to rule the world, he would never have given them whisky.

And now, a disclaimer: Apart from the fact that some students may feel that such a lesson plan presents trivialises religion, the example sentences that students bring back to the classroom may be sexist, homophobic, religious and anti-religious not to mention anti-vegetarianist. Only you can judge whether or not an activity is suitable. As always, teachers should:

Get to know their students.
Make professional decisions about classroom content.
Not hold me responsible when things go horribly wrong.

A part of this posting was going to be taken up with a discussion on the merits of teaching the third conditional. Any comments on that?

Tags: Grammar · Learner-friendly corpora · Lesson plans · Third Conditional · Translation · Using search engines

16 responses so far ↓

1 Tyson Seburn // Jan 20, 2010 at 7:41 pm

Love it! Any opportunity to utilise the Simpsons as a platform for a lesson must be taken.
2 ALiCe__M // Jan 21, 2010 at 1:46 pm

If God had wanted us to keep quiet about the third conditional, he wouldn’t have given us language.
3 admin // Jan 21, 2010 at 1:54 pm

If God hadn’t wanted us to teach the third conditional he wouldn’t have given us Michael Swan.
4 leo // Jan 22, 2010 at 12:27 am

I think my only problem with the lesson would be that I would probably not teach it to my pre-intermediate students, but maybe intermediate and higher levels.
What makes this particular lesson even better is the fact that it is more student centered than most lessons i’ve observed on the third conditional (most lessons use that old cliche example of “I had won the lottery …).
Oh, one more thing I love using google search for chunks of language and lesson plans. It’s a great tool.
Keep it up. Jamie
5 admin // Jan 22, 2010 at 1:02 am

Thanks Leo
Really appreciate the feedback (especially since it’s positive)
Let me know if you decide to use it. Would love to hear how it worked out.
Thanks again
Jamie =)
6 Emma Herrod // Jan 23, 2010 at 11:23 pm

Hi Jamie,

I mentioned on Twitter that I was so pleased you had posted this lesson. It came at a good time when I was wondering how/if to deal with this piece of language that was coming up again and again with one student.

Well end of a busy week, so I’m finally sitting down to give you my feedback. You know how it is!

This lesson worked a treat. At the end of the section above, I dictated to the student some recycled language. We had noticed and looked at some formulations of this conditional over the previous few weeks and I once again gave her the sentences she had wanted to say, but with the key verbs missing. After the activities above, she was able to finally put her own language together so her meaning was clear.

Her homework for this week is to listen out at work and in her day to day life for more example s of this language in use. I think one of the issues with this particular area of language is that our students learn the rules and are then faced in the ‘real world’ with the ‘might have’, ‘could have’ etc . They realise the rules aren’t as watertight as the grammar books lead them to believe and they avoid using it altogether.

The student I used this with is an upper-int student so I was actually able to discuss some of the above problems with learning the rules and say that when she’s listening for examples, she gets extra points if she can bring some other forms of the language next week.

With this student I am concerned a tad. It’s a fossilised error that she’s always got around using a mixture of ‘would’, ‘will’, ‘to be’ in no particular order! The age-old question of how time spent on the above isn’t time wasted as far as learning and retention is concerned. Any thoughts?

And just to let you know a couple of sentences my student wrote on her list:

- “If God had wanted Sarah Palin to be taken seriously, he wouldn’t have made her a retarded nutball” ( )

- “If God had wanted us to enjoy Mondays, he wouldn’t have given us weekend”

Just FYI and for your readers ‘delight’ here is an article from The Telegraph, entitled ‘What ‘The Simpsons’ can teach us about life’.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/6872394/What-The-Simpsons-can-teach-us-about-life.html

Thanks again for sharing

Emma Herrod
7 admin // Jan 25, 2010 at 3:43 pm

Hello Emma

Thank you very much for taking the time to write such an interesting comment.

It doesn’t surprise me that your students has problems with this structure. I have been living in Spain for years and still stumble over this notorious piece of grammar whenever I have to produce the Spanish equivalent.

I think it’s interesting that you hold onto examples that she comes out with in class. I can’t think of a better way to go about it. It sounds as if you have done everything humanely possible to help her. Perhaps the only way forward from here is for her to drill herself in her own time (on the metro, on the on the toilet, etc).

Thanks again. And thanks for the interesting article about the Simpsons.

Jamie =)
8 Stephen J Hall // Jan 27, 2010 at 7:21 am

Greetings Jamie from tropical Kuala Lumpur,

When you work with learners who are in a very here and now culture and teenage ones at that, the concept of third conditional is quite iffy, if you get my drift.
On a more personal note, If God had given us intellect, we would all not live with horrendous winters.
Cheers and keep up the great website.
The Kiwi Doc.
9 admin // Jan 27, 2010 at 10:47 am

Hello Stephen
Great to see you here
Hope all is well in KL. Quite a mild winter here in Barcelona. Wrap up cold now!
Jamie =)
10 Nicky // Jan 27, 2010 at 5:13 pm

Hi there!
I’m looking forward to using this at some point with some of my learners who have a habit of mangling 3rd cond.
I especially liked your disclaimer about the content. I could probably use something like that on a couple pages over at my own blog.
Anyhow, thanks for sharing!

ah, p.s. by what standards is this a “mild winter” in Barcelona?!
11 admin // Jan 27, 2010 at 11:43 pm

Hello Nicky
Would interested to know how you get on.
Yes, the mild winter thing. Not sure what I was talking about there. I think I had the central heating on full blast and I had forgotten where I was. A bit nippy out there today!
Thanks for the comment
Jamie
12 Jeremy Taylor // Feb 3, 2010 at 10:21 pm

Hi Jamie, love the If God had examples. I get my students to teach me some history using the 3rd conditional. If the Russian linesman had been paying attention, England wouldn’t have won the World Cup in 1966 etc. I then cut up the strips and the students try to match them together. If Hitler hadn’t invaded Poland, the Spice Girls would have sold more records - and other fun sentences… and lots of 3rd conditional practice.
13 Cristina Cabal // Feb 7, 2010 at 3:51 pm

Great site and great lessons. Thanks for sharing!!
14 admin // Feb 8, 2010 at 2:24 pm

Thanks very much Cristina
Nice to meet you!
Jamie =)
15 RobL // Mar 1, 2010 at 10:56 pm

Having stared at a double-page spread about bullying in Headway, trying to work out how to make it relevant to my class of ADULTS, I see this website as the following:

1. A kickstart for me to remember to use my imagination when planning and not just drag my students kicking and screaming through Headway;
2. An interesting an innovative use of the internet that, even though I’m a certified internet geek, simply hadn’t thought of;
3. A work of genius. Is there =anything= the Simpsons can’t do?

Well done you.
16 admin // Mar 2, 2010 at 1:22 pm

Ha ha
Thanks Rob. Really like your comment! I’m glad you’ve found the site useful.
You are right about the Simpsons. berhaps Matt Groening should commission a Simpsons course book. Would that be preferable to Headway? I don’t know.
Jamie =)