Teaching comparative adjectives.

Question

Hey gang,I'm currently writing up a lesson plan for teaching comparative adjectives to Elementary level students for my TEFL course. It's all going okay and I'm pretty confident so far, but I was wondering if any of you professional TEFL teachers out there would teach irregular comparitive adjectives in the same lesson as the regular ones?Basically I'm at a loss on whether to include them in my lesson plan. It seems like the students already have a lot to take in with the three regular comparative forms ('er', 'ier' and 'more') and I'm worried that trying to teach the irregular adjectives in the same lesson would be a bit of an information overload.What would you recommend?Oh yeah, also the lesson plan is for a 45 minute lesson, if that makes any difference.Thank you all in advance.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Hello, Goosey - and welcome to English Forums.

Yes, and the superlatives, too. The irregular comparatives and superlatives are in more common use than the regular ones, and should certainly be a part of the lesson. Don't underestimate your students, and always try to give them the 'big picture', not piecemeal grammar. There is nothing terribly complex about -er/-est and more/most. -Ier/-iest is a rather trivial variation.

Vchekh · Answer

I usually explain all the three ways (1. -er, -est; 2. more, most and 3. the irregulars) at one lesson. But I don't go into details from the start. First, I give them a brief outline of the rule. Like:
1. If you have a one-syllable adjective, use -er, -est.
2. If an adjective has 3 or more syllables, use more and most.
3. If there are 2 syllables, use more and most unless the final letter is y (then write i instead of y and add the suffixes).
4. Remember: good-better-best, bad-worse-worst.
I finish by saying that these rules will help them feel confident with 98 percent of adjectives, but there's more to comparison degrees. And later, when we are doing the exercises, I stop to explain some minor points like doubling of the final consonant (big - bigger), the adjectives that have dual forms (commonest/most common), introduce more irregulars (far - further/farther; old - older/elder). Of course, I make sure that these cases are included in the exercises.

Well, on second thought... I teach students whose first language is Russian. As the ways of forming comparison degrees in Russian are somewhat similar to those in English, it is not a difficult topic for Russian-speaking students. However, if you teach a class of students whose first language is grammatically dissimilar to English, it may be a good idea to present the material more gradually.

Teaching comparative adjectives.

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