Consciousness-Raising Tasks

Students examine language data and work out the grammar rule themselves through guided questions.

Procedure

1. Present carefully selected examples (correct AND incorrect) of the target structure.
2. Ask guiding questions: "What do you notice?" "What's the difference between A and B?" "Can you figure out the rule?"
3. Students discuss in pairs and formulate a rule.
4. Groups share their rules; teacher confirms, refines, or corrects.
5. Test the rule against new examples.

Tips

• Resist the urge to give the answer — the struggle to figure it out IS the learning.
• Works best for rule-based grammar (not irregular forms).