How To Teach Prepositions Easily And Effectively

Prepositions in the English language form an extremely important word class because of their frequent use. In fact, some prepositions, such as from, to, of, and for, are in the list of 50 most frequently used English words. In this guide, we’ll explain how to teach prepositions step by step and discuss some important key points that you should keep in mind while teaching prepositions. We’ll also provide some fun preposition activities and resources that you can use in class to teach prepositions.

Why Prepositions Are Difficult To Learn

L1 Interference

One of the main reasons why prepositions are difficult to learn is L1 interference. Different languages have different prepositional systems, and many English prepositions do not directly translate into learners’ first languages.For example, in English, different prepositions are used in the phrases ‘in the afternoon‘, ‘on Tuesday‘, ‘at 12 o’clock‘, but in Korean, the prepositions in these three phrases are all realized by the word 에 (ae).

The lack of a direct corresponding preposition in the learners’ first language makes prepositions difficult to learn. Added to this is the fact that prepositions have multiple functions and meanings in English. The preposition ‘of‘, for example, has more than 22 different meanings in English. Furthermore, different languages also conceptualize time and space relationships differently, and so choosing the correct preposition to use in any particular situation can be incredibly difficult for English language learners. Learners often make errors and choose the wrong preposition due to interference from their first language.

Lack Of Collocational Knowledge

Another reason why prepositions are so difficult to learn is that students lack knowledge about what words collocate with particular prepositions. Collocation is the tendency of words to appear together with other words in natural language. Prepositions have many collocations in English and a lack of knowledge about what prepositions naturally collocate with what words leads to English language learners making errors.

If an English language learner uses a word with a preposition that it does not naturally collocate with, then this can sound very strange to a native English speaker. For example, a student might say ‘at chance’ instead of ‘by chance‘. This error is simply down to the fact that the learner does not know that ‘at’ doesn’t naturally collocate with ‘chance’.

Fossilization

Fossilization can cause English language learners to make errors with prepositions and can make prepositions more difficult to learn. Fossilization in language learning is a process in which learners develop a habit of using incorrect language which cannot be easily corrected.

Errors with prepositions are very easily fossilized making it difficult for English language learners to correct these errors and to learn the correct preposition. Many approaches to language learning these days focus on a communicative approach. If a learner can be understood despite using the wrong preposition, a teacher, or the person the learner is communicating with, may not correct the error. As such, the learner, having successfully communicated their message, may continue to make this error with the preposition and over time this will become fossilized.

As was mentioned above, L1 interference and a lack of collocational knowledge means that learners regularly make errors with prepositions and so there are lots of opportunities for these errors to become fossilized. Once fossilized, it is difficult for learners to correct these errors, making learning prepositions particularly difficult.

How To Teach Prepositions: Step by Step

Step 1: Introduce Prepositions

The first step in teaching prepositions is to provide an easy definition of prepositions and explain how they are used in English. Here is an easy definition of prepositions you can use:

Definition: A preposition is a word (or a combination of words) that you typically use in a sentence before a noun or pronoun to show place, time, direction, or spatial relationship.

Of course, just providing a definition is not enough to help students understand prepositions. So, after providing the definition, you should explain prepositions in more detail and provide lots of examples.

Step 2: Give Examples of Prepositions

After explaining what prepositions are and what function they serve, the next step is to give lots of examples. Most ESL curriculums teach prepositions of place first as these are the easiest to understand for English language learners. Start with showing students some examples of prepositions of place, and when students are ready, move on to the other types of prepositions.

Prepositions of Place Example Sentences

Here are some example sentences using the prepositions of place on, in, under, in front of, behind, next to, and between.

• The eraser is on the desk.
• Let’s meet in the restaurant.
• There is a spider under the bench.
• The car in front of my car is expensive.
• Sarah is hiding behind the tree.
• The bookstore is next to the restaurant.
• Chris is sitting between Kelly and Sam.

Prepositions of Time Example Sentences

Here are some example sentences using the prepositions of time on, at, and in.

• George works in the evening.
• He was born in 1991.
• They go for a walk at night.
• I only work on Mondays.
• Let’s meet at 11 am on Tuesday.

Prepositions of Direction Example Sentences

Here are some example sentences using prepositions of direction:

• Ana drove to the hospital.
• Go into that room over there.
• The dog jumped onto the sofa.
• The Han River runs through Seoul.

Of course, there are more types of prepositions, but teaching students prepositions of place, time, and direction first is best so that students are not overwhelmed. Once you have shown students many examples and they are beginning to grasp the concept, it’s time for students to practice with some fun preposition games and activities.

Step 3: Practice Prepositions With Fun Games And Activities

Once you have explained the basics of prepositions to your students, you’ll need to make sure that they practice a lot so that they can retain the information and use prepositions easily. Here are some games and activity ideas you can use when teaching prepositions:

Prepositions Memory Game

This fun prepositions game is great for practicing prepositions of place. Students will see a picture for 5 seconds and must remember where the objects are. Then, students will be asked to choose the correct sentence that describes the location of the object.

Hands-on Practice

This activity is probably the most common way to teach prepositions of place in class. Ask all students to take out one of their notebooks and a pencil and start giving them directions like the following:

• Place the pencil on top of the notebook.
• Grab the pencil and place it inside the notebook.
• Now remove the pencil and place it beneath the notebook.
• Pick up the pencil again and place it in front of the notebook.

You can also use other prepositions, such as around, below, above, next to, and under, for this drill. This simple activity helps students to visualize and understand the concept of prepositions better.

After that, you can grab a pencil and notebook (or any other classroom object) and perform an action in front of the class, such as placing the pencil on top of the notebook. Then, ask any of the students to explain the action you performed using the correct preposition.

Preposition Passages

Another great way to help students practice prepositions is to write down a long passage on the board. Then you can start asking students to point out prepositions in the passage. Here is an example passage you can use:

I keep my study room well-organized and tidy. It has white walls and a dark brown rug on the floor. I have placed a single bed beside the room’s entrance. It has a beige-colored bed sheet and a light brown fluffy pillow. I study on the wooden desk that’s placed beside the window. There’s a water dispenser on the right side and a wooden bookshelf on the left side of the desk.

As you can see, this paragraph contains many prepositions. You can ask the following question to draw the students’ attention to prepositions in the passage:

• Where is the dark brown rug placed in the room?
• Where is the study desk in the room?
• Where is the bed located?
• What’s placed on the bed?

Prepositions Of Time Quiz

This fun quiz is a great way to review prepositions of time. Students are asked to choose at, on, or in, to complete the sentence.

The Picture Activity

You can also use different pictures to help students practice prepositions better. You can download a picture of a garden or a room from the internet and show them to your class. Then, ask students to write sentences in their notebooks about the objects they can see in the picture. After that, check their sentences to find out if they have used correct prepositions or not.

Step 4: Review With Preposition Worksheets

To help students review what they have learned, provide them with plenty of preposition worksheets. To get started, you can download free prepositions of place worksheets here and free prepositions of time worksheets here.

More Tips for Teaching Prepositions

Teach Prepositions In Manageable Chunks

So that students are not overwhelmed with information, it’s best to teach the different kinds of prepositions in manageable chunks. For example, most curricula first teach prepositions of place, such as on, in, under, and then teach the prepositions of time, movement, and so on, later in the course. This helps learners to slowly build up their knowledge of prepositions over time.

Use Visual Aids And Physical Movement

Using visual aids and movement can help learners to easily grasp the meanings of different prepositions. For example, you could use these prepositions of place flashcards and this prepositions of place memory game to teach prepositions of place in a visually stimulating way. When teaching prepositions of movement, you could use an activity like ‘Simon Says’ and tell students to ‘Sit on your chair’, ‘Stand on your chair.’, etc.

Encourage Extensive Reading

One of the main reasons prepositions are so difficult to learn, is that learners often have no knowledge of what words collocate with (naturally go together with) what prepositions. Native English speakers instinctively know what prepositions collocate with what words because they grew up immersed in the English language and acquired prepositions naturally. For those learning English as a second language, however, it is not so simple.

A great way to help students develop a sense of what prepositions collocate with what words is to encourage them to read a lot! In order to develop a more natural sense of how to use prepositions, learners need to be exposed to a huge amount of comprehensible input. One way to provide this large amount of input is to use extensive reading. By regularly reading comprehensible texts, learners can see prepositions as they appear naturally in the English language, and over time, this can help learners to learn prepositions and the words they collocate with.

Error Correction

To prevent and to help correct fossilized errors, it is important to correct students’ errors with prepositions. However, errors with prepositions can be so frequent, stopping a student every time they make a mistake can be disruptive, not to mention demotivating for students.

A great way to correct students’ mistakes with prepositions is to take notes during the class of common mistakes students are making and then address these errors at the end of the class, without singling out any particular student. This can help to prevent and correct some of these fossilized errors and help students to learn prepositions.

Related Resources

• Prepositions of Place Lesson Plan
• Prepositions of Place Exercises
• Prepositions of Time Lesson Plan
• Prepositions of Time Exercises