This post How To Teach Gerund is a collection of activities which facilitate your English teaching of the topic GERUND. And I design these activities especially for Pre-intermediate level.

Page Contents

Topic: Gerund
Skill: Grammar
Level: Pre-intermediate
Related Topic: Infinitive

How to Teach Gerund

At the Pre-intermediate level, the students need to remember four key things:

Firstly, Gerund is VERB-ing (+) and NOT VERB-ing (-)
After Preposition will be GERUND.
And when we want to change VERBs into NOUNs, we can use GERUND.
Finally, after certain VERBs, gerund is compulsory.

Activity for Teaching Gerund

Activity 1 – What is GERUND

In this activity, teachers ask students to distinguish between GERUND and PRESENT PARTICIPLE (in present continuous). Teachers then show the students many sentences. And their job is to identify which ones are Gerund, and which are PRESENT PARTICIPLE.

For example:

He is talking to me. => PRESENT CONTINUOUS (‘is’ before ‘talking’)
Speaking in class in English is good for you. => GERUND (no ‘be’ before ‘speaking’)
Nobody likes learning grammar. => GERUND (no ‘be’ before ‘learning’)
We are going to the beach now. => PRESENT CONTINUOUS (‘are’ before ‘going’)
I like going to the cinema at 19:00. => GERUND (no ‘BE’ before ‘going’)

Traditionally, teachers can let the students see the board and then distinguish one by one. Or you can let the students work in pairs/groups and discuss.

At a more active level, teachers can let the students find sentences hidden in the classroom. After students (in group) find the pieces, they need to classify them. The order of the game can be as follwed:

First of all, Teachers come early and hide the pieces of sentences around the class.
Then students are divided into pairs/groups.
Now, they are given 5 minutes to find the pieces around the classroom.
After 5 minutes, they need to identify which one is PRESENT CONTINOUS and which are GERUND.
After the designated time, the group/team with the most correct pieces win.

Some suggested sentences can be found here in the Google Document.

Activity 2 – GERUND after PREPOSITION

First of all, we should let the students recall what PREPOSITION is. Let us play STOP THE BUS.

You can download the worksheet HERE (google doc).

Now that the students remember what preposition is, we should explain to them. Make sure the students understand after preposition is usually GERUND. Now we move on to the next activity, interview.

In this activity, the students are asked to interview their friends and write down their friends’ answer. It is quite straightforward. You can download the Questionnaire here.

Activity 3 – Change VERBs into NOUNs

First of all, let the students get familiar with GERUND as a noun. Ask them to find the BENEFITS and HARMS of some activities. For example: Running, Swimming, Learning English, Chatting in class, Using phones, Playing games, Having a lot of money, Going shopping, Writing a diary, Being friendly.

Advisably, teachers can let the students do it in groups. You can just easily write the topic on the board and let the students discuss. Alternatively, you can download the worksheet here and let the students work in groups.

After making sure the students are familiar with Gerund as a Noun, now is the time for them to practice their accuracy. Teachers show the students many sentences and ask them to identify which ones are incorrect. Additionally, teachers can ask them to design INCORRECT sentences. After that, exchange the paper with their friends and ask the other team to correct the incorrect sentences. You can download the Worksheet Here.

Activity 4 – Verbs Followed by Gerund

In this activity, the students are asked to (1) underline the Gerund in each sentences. And (2) to circle the VERBs before Gerund. You can download the whole conversation here.

After completion, now the students are asked to make a NEW conversation, using all of the Verbs followed by Gerund. To make things more challenging, teachers can ask them to do role play in front of the class; or to record an audio file; or to record a video.

Activity 5 – Review

This activity focuses on reviewing the students all of the knowledge that we have just learned. In this activity, students need to identify the gerund in sentences. And then they need to explain why Gerund is used in each case. You can download the whole Worksheet here.