Declare and chain, round the room
Round the room. Your teacher gives a hypothesis; you declare the type and produce one link; the next person takes your result and adds a link in the same type.
Anybody who changes the type sits down. See how far the room can get.
Eight sentences. Match each to the type it is and the reason.
The page is not the argument
On the page
Even if the total number of gamblers stayed exactly the same, I would count it a success if the average age went up by five years.
Out loud, under interruption
— People will gamble anyway. You know that. — Yes. I do know that, and I am not arguing they would not. Say the number stayed exactly where it is — exactly the same, not one person fewer. If the average age of a first bet went from seventeen to twenty-two, I would call that a win, and I think most people would.
Three questions comparing the two.
1. The spoken version opens by agreeing. Why?
2. Say the number stayed exactly where it is — exactly the same, not one person fewer. Why repeat it?
3. The written version uses even if. The spoken one uses say. Are they doing the same job?
Holding a chain while somebody interrupts
Four moves under interruption
| They say | You say | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A fact you cannot deny | Yes. I do know that, and… | Concede it instantly; arguing costs you the exchange |
| An objection you answered | I said that — say the number stayed the same… | Point back rather than repeating from scratch |
| Something off the point | That is a different question. On this one — | Name the move, then return |
| A good point you had missed | That is fair. Then it comes down to whether… | Take it, and narrow the argument |
Six moves. Put them into the order you will use — the written shape with one change.
The unit task, in three parts
Task card · Part one · Hand in · 4 minutes
Your clean opinion piece goes into your portfolio today.
A final check against five things, then hand it over.
- Six paragraphs, about 230 words, count at the bottom.
- The objection paragraph is the longest one.
- Every chain in one conditional type.
- Commas only where the if-clause comes first.
- Every number either citable or explicitly marked as not.
Task card · Part two · The discussion · 8 minutes per pair
A new partner who has been told to disagree with your position, whatever they actually think.
Four minutes defending, four minutes attacking, notes face down.
- Open with the change and the scale, then chain three links in one declared type.
- When they interrupt with a fact, concede it instantly.
- Answer the objection with even if, and attach the requirement.
- Take at least one point from them and narrow the argument to it.
- Then swap and attack theirs. Your job is to find the objection they have not answered.
Listener’s job — the third person in each group. Three columns:
1. Every if-clause, and whether a main clause arrived. Mark O for orphans.
2. Every conditional type, and any change inside a chain.
3. Every fact conceded instantly, and every one argued with. The second column is usually longer.
Task card · Part three · The comparison · 5 minutes
You now have a marked opinion piece and a listener’s page from an eight-minute argument.
One sentence about the gap.
- Count the type changes in the writing. Count them on the listener’s page.
- Look at where the orphans fell — which link of which chain?
- Look at column three. How many facts did you argue with rather than concede?
- Write one sentence: Under pressure my chains break at link ___ , and I default to ___ .
Closing the unit
Eight errors, one from each lesson. Fix each and name the lesson.
1. If I would have more time, I would learn Greek.
2. I would move, if the rent went up.
3. If it will rain, the schools close.
4. Even if it would cost more, I would do it.
5. If they lost money, some will fold.
6. Unless they don’t act, it will be too late.
7. Take cash if the machine is broken. — as a precaution
8. If the service got worse — anyway.
One final argument, one type throughout. One to four words per gap.
If the library , the town lose the only building anybody under sixteen can sit in for free. If they lost that, most of them go to the shopping centre, somebody would complain within a month about teenagers in the shopping centre. it cost the council nothing to keep open, which it does not, I argue for it. the replacement includes somewhere warm and free, it is not a replacement. the town finds out what the library was actually for.
What this unit was about
Four questions covering the whole unit.
1. What decides between the first and second conditional?
2. Where does the comma go?
3. What removes about half the errors from a chain before they happen?
4. What does even if do?
The unit in one line. The second conditional maps almost perfectly onto Portuguese, so the meaning was never the problem. What breaks is structural, and it breaks late — at the third link, under load, where the type slips and the condition gets orphaned.
One decision before you start, and a rising voice at the end of every if-clause, fixes most of it.
Not in this unit, and coming later. The third conditional — if I had known, I would have told you — and wish, for present regret. Both arrive at B2, in Unit 25, together with mixed conditionals.
Next unit. You have been arguing about what might happen. Next you report what other people actually said, and find out what English does to their tenses on the way.