Imperative
I’ve always wondered how it is possible to teach someone something from scratch, especially when it comes to grammar and learners who are just starting with a new foreign language. It can be really difficult to explain certain grammar structures without using meta-language, but that’s exactly what can happen if you are teaching young learners or someone who has no idea what an infinitive is, let alone tense or aspect. It’s even more difficult when there are some language structures that do not appear in their mother tongue and then you really have to give your best to make it understandable and as concrete as possible. Imperative can be tricky, but if you introduce some culture and make it fun, your students might just come around eventually. There is a beautiful poem written by W. H. Auden called “Funeral Blues” , which you can use to introduce the imperative. Tell your students to read the poem and circle all the verbs. Afterwards ask the students to whom the au...