teflgeek

This is a lesson that aims to increase the range of linking devices / expressions learners have available to them, and in particular focuses on five relatively simple devices:  In order to  /  so that  /  as  /  in case  /  otherwise.

The lesson as given would probably be best for Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and maybe FCE as a revision lesson, though with some simple adaptation (i.e. changing the target linkers) it could easily be used for lower and higher levels.  All of the content in the lesson is provided by the learners, so it should be more meaningful and memorable for them.

The lesson is available as a pdf file to download here:  teflgeek – A lesson on linkers

If it’s not entirely suitable for your class, there are additional materials available on the web which might help you to adapt either the language focus or to extend the lesson with further activities.  Resources that I came across that might be relevant include:

• Scott Thornbury has an article in the methodology section of onestopenglish on Coherence and Cohesion and the importance of linkers.
• ESL About has a reference guide to sentence connectors with additional links slightly down the page to linkers for specific purposes (cause and effect, comparison, contrast etc) that might be a good starting point for a lesson, but doesn’t include any activities or tasks to use with them.
• The British Council teaching english site mentions  “Writing Consequences“, though you would need an input stage that actually focused on the target linkers.
• Cambridge ESOL have resources on cohesive devices for FCE, CAE, BEC H & BEC V as well as a task on linking devices for PET and one on textual cohesion for CPE.
• ESL Printables has worksheets like this one on linkers, though it requires registration to download.

As always, any feedback, comments, criticisms and queries are also welcome!