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A Game to Help Learn Using a Gerund as the Subject of a Sentence PDF Print E-mail
  Tuesday, 27 October 2009
A Game to Help Learn Using a Gerund
as the Subject of a Sentence
 
By Wayne Qian, Non-Credit ESL,
Glendale Community College of California

Playing games is a fun way to learn English. In my non-credit Level 5 class, I have designed a game to get the students to learn to use a gerund as the subject of a sentence. My experience tells me that while it is easy for them to understand such a sentence, they seldom use it in their own speaking or writing.  

The first thing I do is to give the students the following as part of the “Word Study” in a lesson. The Word Study [1] is done where I pick out from a text for intensive study three or four active words (mostly verbs but sometimes nouns, adjectives and adverbs), expressions and sentence patterns. Examples are given to explain the use.

 

 Gerund as Subject (From A to Z)
 
(Americans often use a gerund as the subject of a sentence both in their writing and in their speaking, especially in short sentences. Let’s learn to do it, too, in our own writing and speaking.)
 
  1. Admitting a mistake even to one’s friend takes courage.
  2. Being an anchor is a challenging job: you’re exposed to criticisms and comments all the time.
  3. In business, cutting corners means trying to make products in simpler and cheaper ways without following the rules.
  4. Drinking a cup of red wineevery dayis the ultimate luxury of my life.
  5. Not eating junk food (Cf. Eating no junk food) is a rule in my family.
  6. Fixing a car is not an easy job. (Compare: It is not an easy job to fix a car.)
  7. Going against the wind requires a lot of effort.
  8. Hiring the right people is important for every business.
  9. Ironing the clothes all day exhausted mom.
  10. Jaywalking is dangerous: you can be killed by a car.
  11. Keeping your promises will win you the trust of others.
  12. Lying lost all her friends. (Listening is an art.)
  13. Managing your time well is to manage your life well.
  14. Nagging is not a sin, but it annoys me.
  15. Opening your mind to the world will keep you in the forefront.
  16. Painting the walls took three afternoons.
  17. Questioning the authority takes courage and wisdom.
  18. Reading a lot has given him the ability to think in English.
  19. Seeing is believing. (Compare: To see is to believe. You have to see to believe.)
  20. Teaching Level 1 is more difficult than teaching other levels.
  21. Using recycled paper has saved the company a lot of money.
  22. Visiting old friends gives her a lot of joy.
  23. Working for industry meant working by the clock (p.24)
  24. X-raying her leg took one hour and forty minutes.
  25. Yawning is contagious. (We usually don’t say: It is contagious to yawn.)
  26. Zipping the bag shut took more time than I had expected.
 

In class, I’ll explain some of the sentences, emphasizing that all verbs, including verb to be, can appear in the form of a gerund as the subject of a sentence. Then as homework, I’ll ask the students to make five or six sentences using a gerund as the subject. In two or three days, I will return to the classroom with my comments on their sentences.

Then comes the game, where the class is divided into small groups of threes and fours. In the game, a student will begin by making a sentence using a gerund as its subject. The next student will come up with a verb using the last letter of that sentence and then make a sentence of his or her own, using its gerund as the subject. A third student will do a similar thing, using the last letter of the second sentence as the first letter of a verb and making his or her own sentence where the gerund serves as the subject. And so on and so forth. One of the students will jot down all the sentences and at the end of the game, hand them to me.

My class played such a game on the morning of September 22, 2009. We had only a little over 20 minutes to do it. But the students showed great enthusiasm for it. Here is what three groups produced.

      
       Group A
 
1.      Living in Glendale is safe.
2.      Eating junk food is not good for your health.
3.      Hiking is fun.
4.      Nourishing [a] baby is essential.
5.      Listening to music is a good leisure. [2]
6.      Educating yourself is [re]warding.
7.      Going swimming everyday (should read “every day”) is [included] in my schedule.
8.      Earning money is very hard.
9.      Doing homework takes a few hours.
10. Smoking is not a good habit.
11. Teaching ESL students is challenging.
12. Gambling is out of [against the] law in Iran.
13. Nursing is a good job.
 
       Group B
 
1.      Learning English is hard.
2.      Driving fast is dangerous.
3.      Studying English is my priority.
4.      Yawning makes you sleepy.
5.      Yelling is bad manner.
6.      Resting is good for everyone.
7.      Eating with [my] whole family is [a] happy moment.
8.      Teaching good habits are (should read “is”) a teacher’s requirement (duty).
9.      Traveling around the world is very expensive.
10. Escaping from the exam gives him [a] bad grade.
11. Egnoring from someone’s advice made your accident. [3]
 
       Group C
 
1.      Living in the US without [a] family is very difficult.
2.      Tutoring is a great job.
3.      Being lazy is awful.
4.      Learning English is more important for me.
5.      Excercising math is boring. [4]
6.      Gambling is a bad habit.
7.      Teaching is rewarding.
8.      Getting a degree is first goal for him (Better: … his first goal).
9.      Making fun of his friends is his favorite thing.
10. Getting a job is very hard today.
11. Yelling is prohibited in class.
12. Smoking is dangerous for your health.
13. Hiking is a very dangerous sport. [5]
14. Thinking of food makes me hungry.
15. Yawning all the time is [a] sign of being tired.
16. Dreaming is senseless for many people.
17. Embracing her child was her greatest dream.
18. Murdering has become a simple game for people.[6]
19. Earning too much money makes some people self-centered.
20. Drinking drove him to poverty.
 
As one can see, most of the sentences are short and correct. Some students showed creativeness in the sentences they made.
This morning, when I talked about the game they played, I expressed the belief that many of them would be using a gerund as the subject of a sentence in future, both in their speaking and in their writing. Many responded with a happy “Yes.”
[1] The Word Study, as a fixture in the English textbook of Chinese universities back in the 1960’s, was designed by the late Professor Xu Guozhang of a prestigious university in Beijing. I taught one of those textbooks and found it very effective in helping students learn English.
[2] The use of leisure as a count noun is problematic. This is my suggested improvement: Listening to music is what she does at her leisure.
[3] Misspelling caused a big problem. My correction: Evading an upcoming car caused the accident.
[4] My correction: Exercising is not boring.
[5] My suggested improvement: Hiking can be a very dangerous sport.
[6] My suggested improvement: Murdering has become a game for a few people.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 October 2009 )
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