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Alternative teaching techniques

Teaching the third conditional through a story, at B1. Nine steps: the story, eliciting the sentence, meaning, form, drilling, then controlled, semi-controlled and freer practice, and the twist.

Read this first

A lesson taught through a story

This is a third conditional lesson for a B1 class, and nobody writes a rule on the board first. The class hears a story, is asked one question they cannot answer without the structure, and the sentence comes from them. Everything after that, the meaning, the form, the drilling and the three practice stages, stays inside the same story.

Go through the nine steps in order as the students would. Do each activity yourself; you will see what the technique asks of a class, and why it holds together, better than by reading about it.

Level
B1 — they have already met the first and second conditional
Main aim
To clarify and practise the third conditional in the context of a story
Materials
The picture, and the sentence halves for step 6
The one rule for this lesson Don't explain the grammar before your students have produced it. The whole lesson depends on them saying the sentence first, even imperfectly. If you explain it in step 1, there is nothing left for them to do in steps 2 to 9.
A note on the story Somebody is attacked in it, and badly hurt. Nothing is described in any detail. Read the beats in step 1 before class and decide whether it suits your group.
Step 1

The story

Books closed, nothing on the board. The picture goes up and the story is told, not read. Listen to it with the map in front of you.

6 The hospital close to the bridge 4 His office where he works late 5 The friend’s house in town for a few days 2 The bridge you can walk it 1 Their house in the forest, outside the city 3 The ferryman payment first, always THE CITY SIDE · work, and the friend THE FOREST SIDE · home
1
Their houseIn the forest, outside the city. Bought with a mortgage.
2
The bridgeOne of only two ways across. You can walk it.
3
The ferrymanHis boat is the other way across. Payment first, always.
4
His officeWhere the husband works — and later, works late.
5
The friend's houseAn old friend, in town for a few days.
6
The hospitalClose to the bridge. Someone has got out.
The story, beat by beat
  1. Two people, together since school. Quiet, private, very much in love. They marry and move abroad.
  2. They buy a house in the forest, outside the city. A mortgage. Two ways across the river: the bridge or the ferryman's boat.
  3. He finds work in the city. She can't find any. She stays at home.
  4. Interest rates rise. He takes extra hours, then more. He comes home late, and tired.
  5. She is alone all day. No job, no friends. She begins to think he has stopped loving her.
  6. Their anniversary. He promises to finish early — then calls: he's on nights, home tomorrow.
  7. An old friend is in town, phones to check on her, hears that she is low, invites her to a party.
  8. She walks across the bridge, buys a gift for the host, and goes to his house.
  9. The party is loud. The friend keeps filling her glass and keeps asking her to stay. She loses track of the time.
  10. She realises it is the middle of the night, feels ashamed to have stayed so long, and leaves without saying goodbye.
  11. She has no money for the boat. The ferryman won't take her — he promised his family: payment first, always.
  12. So she walks to the bridge.
  13. A stranger has escaped from the hospital and has not been found. He is on the bridge. He attacks her, and she is badly hurt.
  14. The police investigate. The friend knows. The husband knows. The ferryman knows. Now your class knows.
While you tell it Point at the picture as you go — it carries the geography so your words don't have to. Keep their eyes on you, not on a handout. Before you move on, check they have the map: How many ways are there across the river? Can she walk over the bridge? Does the ferryman take people for free?
Watch the clock This is the step that overruns. Six minutes of storytelling is generous. Ten minutes means you have done all the talking and your students have produced nothing.
Step 2

The question

One question, the one the story was built for. Try to answer it properly: you will find you need a structure to do it.

Ask: who is most responsible for what happened to her?

The wife
She left the house
The husband
He worked through the night
The friend
He let her walk home
The ferryman
He refused to take her
The stranger
He was on the bridge

Then ask why, and push for a full sentence

Step 3

Check the meaning

The sentence is on the board. Answer these questions about it; nobody explains it first.

If she had stayed at home, she would have been safe.
1  Did she stay at home?
2  Did she leave the house?
3  Was she safe?
4  Are we talking about the past, now, or the future?
5  Can anyone change what happened?
6  "She stayed at home" — is that real or imaginary?
Never ask "do you understand?" It has only one answer and it tells you nothing. Every question above has a right answer you can actually hear.
Step 4

Clarify the form

Build the pattern from the sentence on the board. Click a word, then click a gap.

If + subject + + ,   subject + + +

Then show them they can turn it round

This is the point students miss most often, so give it a moment of its own. The if-clause does not have to come first. Start with the main clause instead, and the comma disappears.

If-clause first

If she had stayed at home, she would have been safe.

Comma between the two clauses.

Main clause first

She would have been safe if she had stayed at home.

No comma. Same meaning, same grammar.

How to get it across Write each half on a separate strip of paper and physically swap them over on the board, rubbing the comma out as you do it. They see that only one thing changes. Then ask them to say two or three of the practice sentences the other way round.
Step 5

Model it and drill it, backwards

The sentence is drilled from its last chunk back to its first, so the rhythm survives. Click to build it, and say each chunk as it appears.

The result clause

  1. safe /ˈseɪf/
  2. have been safe /əv bɪn ˈseɪf/
  3. would have been safe /ˈwʊd əv bɪn ˈseɪf/
  4. she'd have been safe /ʃid əv bɪn ˈseɪf/

The if-clause

  1. home /həʊm/
  2. at home /ət ˈhəʊm/
  3. stayed at home /ˈsteɪd ət ˈhəʊm/
  4. if she'd stayed at home /ɪf ʃid ˈsteɪd ət ˈhəʊm/

What to drill for

  • have → /əv/, never /hæv/. At speed it reduces further: would have been safe → /ˈwʊdə bɪn ˈseɪf/. If they learn the strong form here, they will never recognise the structure when someone says it.
  • had → 'd — she'd stayed. Most students can't hear it at all, which is exactly why drilling beats explaining.
  • Stress on the content words: if she'd STAYED at HOME, she'd have been SAFE.
  • Model → whole class → individuals → whole class again. Then go straight into step 6 while it's still in their mouths.
The trap It is very easy to get through this structure without ever saying it at natural speed. If your drill produces "if she HAD stayed at home, she WOULD HAVE BEEN safe" — every word strong — your students now own a sentence they can write and will never use. Drill the reduction, not the spelling.
Step 6 · Controlled practice

Match the two halves

In pairs, match each beginning to its ending. Every sentence comes from the story, so it checks the grammar and the plot at once. On screen, click one from each column to join them.

Beginnings

Endings

While they work Let them say the sentences aloud as they match — it keeps step 5 alive. When you take feedback, ask who said it: sentences 2 and 3 are the husband, 5 is the friend, 4 and 6 are the ferryman, 7 is the stranger. That gives you a second pass over the meaning for nothing.

Number 8 is the only question, and it's the form they find hardest. Leave it until last and drill it again.
Step 7 · Semi-controlled practice

Finish the sentences your own way

Same story, but now the ending is yours. Complete each beginning however you like, as long as the grammar holds. In pairs first, then a few aloud.

How to run it Do the first one together on the board so they can see how much freedom they have. Then set a time limit — five minutes is plenty — and monitor. You are listening for two things: had + past participle in the first half, would have + past participle in the second. Correct those on the spot and save everything else for the end.

Ask for two or three different endings to the same sentence. It shows the class that the grammar is fixed and the idea isn't.
If they finish early Give them one about themselves: If I hadn't come to class today, … It takes the structure out of the story and into their own lives, and it warms them up for step 8.
Step 8 · Freer practice

Rank them, and argue about it

Groups of three or four. Agree an order from 1 (most responsible) to 5 (least). One condition: you may only defend a position with a third conditional. Nothing to write; this stage is for talking.

How to run it Give them two minutes alone to decide their own order first, or the loudest voice in the group sets it and nobody else says anything. Then open the group discussion, then one spokesperson per group reports back.

Stay out of it. Monitor, write down what you hear and keep it — someone will say "If he would have come home…", and that goes on the board at the end, not in the middle of the conversation.

Groups almost never agree, and that is the point. The disagreement is what keeps them using the structure.
Step 9

The twist

Only once the ranking is finished. The story reached the news not because of how it ended, but because psychologists built a questionnaire around it: the five characters are not people at all. Click each one.

The wife
click to reveal
Love
The husband
click to reveal
Work
The friend
click to reveal
Desire
The ferryman
click to reveal
Money
The stranger
click to reveal
Power

Sources. The story is made up for this session. It is built on the shape of a well-known values-clarification exercise, "The Alligator River Story", in Sidney Simon, Leland Howe and Howard Kirschenbaum, Values Clarification (Hart, 1972), and on the five-values reading that has travelled with it since. The lesson built on it is the tutor's own.