Teaching English – Learning prepositions in English as a foreign language

Those annoying English prepositions

You know the prepositions of the English language that lead you to exasperation:

or within or within

or on or above

where was

or opposite

or next to, next to or near

or behind or behind

or under or under

or above or above the head

around

or through

or between

or between

Yes, there are many more prepositions like tense etc., but my students initially cringed when I brought up the subject of prepositions during a class early in the semester. So I’ll start with some positional prepositions to illustrate what I do to help my English as a foreign language learner cope.

Use different methods to illustrate

Since I know that most of my students are very visual, I use graphs, pictures, photographs and other types of illustrations to help them in ELT: I will even draw a lot on the board to help them visualize a lexical set or concept. But neither do I dwell on verbal and visual explanation and illustration. I use various methods, if necessary, to help students internalize these structures and grammatical concepts. For example, realia often work well. I will place an empty desk in the middle of the classroom. I then place some cute stuffed animals on the floor and in relation to the desk.

“Bunny is in front of the desk.”

“The tiger is on the desk.”

“Piggy is behind the desk.”

“The puppy is under the desk.”

“Winnie the Pooh is by the desk.”

Students are encouraged to go up individually to change the positions of the stuffed animal characters. Then they orally repeat what the new positions are.

Use of Realia and TPR in teaching prepositions in English

Another useful technique is to use the students themselves as “pieces” arranged in different ways relative to each other. Doris is between Hector and Maria. Hector is next to Doris. Maria is next to Doris. Carmen is in front of Hector. Hector is behind Carmen. Alexander is on top of the desk. The desk is under Alexander. … etc. After a few of these, plus a bunch of hilarious gaffes and offside takes, the trainees “get it” without further ado. Using graphic illustrations, written and verbal explanations, realia, and TPR by moving real students into illustrative positions of prepositions, students not only have some fun and a laugh, but internalize these prepositions with little difficulty in an EFL class session. .

Give it a try for yourself and let me know how well it works for your EFL student.