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Read full storyListening Activities for the Past Simple
Off2Class has released five teacher-led listening activities for the past simple.
Perfect for teachers to promote naturalness and fluency with the past simple!
To complement our 5-part Past Simple Verbs series, which focuses on grammar and form, these listening activities for the past simple assist with pronunciation, and provide authentic texts of speakers using regular and irregular forms.
In LA021, we look at the three standard pronunciations of –ed with regular verbs.
The three-rule approach, based on the final sound in a base verb, to –ed allows many students to master the pronunciation of –ed quickly. The final sound determines the pronunciation of –ed as /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/. We provide opportunities for you to model and drill as required, and of course some less-controlled activities:
In LA022, we provide further opportunity for the student to use regular verbs in the past simple. The lesson contains two texts that recount events in the past, and controlled activities for students to listen for gist and for specific information.
In LA023 to LA025, we introduce the most commonly used irregular past simple verbs, some of which many students will have previously had exposure to. The listening activities for the past simple contain more authentic texts which provide examples of events that occurred in the past. The recordings allow students to hear the irregular past simple in everyday speech, but with correctly graded language to facilitate learning.
The past simple in English is a challenge for many learners, primarily as a considerable portion of the most commonly used verbs in the spoken language have an irregular past participle. We hope that our series of lessons will provide a real opportunity for your students to learn some naturalness and fluency in this much-used tense.
As always, we love to hear from teachers using Off2Class in the field. Let us know whether our Listening Activities for the Past Simple helped your students develop naturalness in both –ed and irregular verbs!
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8 Comments
Pedro Julião do Nascimento says:
March 14, 2016 at 10:50 am
Thank you for this real-English-simple-past-regular-verbs-pronunciation lesson. I can finally convince my studens tha =ED pronunciation is important.
James Heywood (Off2Class) says:
March 14, 2016 at 6:29 pm
Thanks for stopping by.
I agree. Students generally need only to internalize three simple rules to pronounce -ed correctly!
Nancy Owen says:
March 14, 2016 at 11:32 am
I’d love to use the listening activities, but I teach an English learner in the U.S. and it’s too confusing for him to hear the other accent. Have you considered recording North American speakers, as well?
James Heywood (Off2Class) says:
March 14, 2016 at 6:26 pm
Hi Nancy,
We use a North American native speaker in at least 1/3 of the recordings 🙂
Best wishes,
James
Nancy Owen says:
March 14, 2016 at 9:07 pm
Hi James,
That’s good to hear. Perhaps you could consider having two versions of every exercise, so I could use exclusively N.A. English. The only time my student would hear British English would be on the occasional TV show or commercial. When I have played some listening activities, he got too frustrated.
Thanks for your consideration,
Nancy
James Heywood (Off2Class) says:
March 14, 2016 at 9:58 pm
Hi Nancy,
Currently, we are thinking about allowing teachers to make their own recording. This will allow the teacher to use exactly the accent that is required for a particular student.
One of the big challenges for us is that there are so many standard accents. But we’ll get there… it’s a matter of time 🙂
James
Sharon Hadlow says:
March 14, 2016 at 7:17 pm
Are these new lessons intended for pre-intermediate and above James? I have not looked at them yet but I am doing past simple with one of my pre-intermediate students so these would work well and yes a lot of my student get -ed incorrect so these would be super.
Thanks
Sharon
James Heywood (Off2Class) says:
March 14, 2016 at 9:54 pm
Hi Sharon,
We have aimed them at CERF A2, however I think that they will work for students who need further exposure to the pasts simple forms – regular and irregualar.
Let me know how you go after trying one of them with a student. I look forward to further feedback soon 🙂
Best wishes,
James