Maps and Prepositions

The usage of prepositions is very important in conveying our message in the right way. Because we are teaching English as a foreign language for Arabic speakers, we see a lot of our students making errors in the use of prepositions. Those errors are the result of transferring their L1 knowledge to the language they are learning. Sometimes they make funny errors, sometimes their errors affect our understanding of what they want to say, and sometimes those errors alter the meaning of what they want to say totally. To avoid such dilemma, it's important to teach them the use of prepositions in meaningful contexts.

Maps can very useful to serve this goal. To read a map or give directions to reach a certain place, you need to use prepositions of place and movement. I used them in my classes and students really enjoyed it. For the purpose of integrating grammar with the other domains like listening and speaking, I used maps in listening activities and asked students to draw a map to their homes and give oral directions on the map to their friends to reach their houses. In such activities, students will have to say for example, "Go through Palm Street, turn left at the liberary, my house is opposite to the supermarket." Such activities helped my students practice using prepositions in real life situations and the direct feedback provided helped in learning this concept in a better way.

Sample Map

On the map below, you can mark specific areas and ask students to locate them, or you can say that someone is at a specific spot and needs help to reach his/her destination. Using prepositions of place and movement is the only way students can perform such tasks and doing that properly would mean your goals have been met!