Expressing preferences with ‘prefer’, ‘like’, and ‘would rather’ | Cambridge English
It’s important for students to practice expressing preferences. In this Grammar and Beyond post, Amy Tate identifies three high-value expressions of preference – Prefer, Like and Would Rather – so that students can have a lively and thorough practice session.
One of the most basic conversational demands on students is to express a preference when given a choice between two items. Besides being relevant for everyday conversation, it is also essential for the second independent-speaking task on the TOEFL exam, the paired-choice question.
You can cover a lot of territory by having students practice just three high-return items—prefer, like, and would rather. Sometimes, students already know at least one of the forms, so I like to teach this in a deductive style, where they can apply what they already know and then work in groups to determine the rules.
Practising preference words
- Give students the conversation downloadable. In pairs, have them complete the form, using only the words listed at the top.
- After five minutes, ask students to turn over this page and work on the second page – the list of rules. This activity works well as a jigsaw, so if time allows, assign each group only one of the preference words (prefer, like or would rather).
- After checking that students have the correct rules, put them in groups with an “expert” from each preference word in the new group, who then teaches the other students.
- As an alternative to steps 2 and 3, have students work in groups or as a whole class to deduce the three rules together.
- Finally, have students re-visit the original conversation handout to correct any mistakes.
Oral practice of ‘would rather’
After this written work, some oral practice helps solidify students’ use of these expressions. I offer them some paired choices and ask them to physically move to a side of the room to express their opinion.
For example: “Would you rather cook dinner or clean up?” The cooks go to the right side of the room and together they announce: “We would rather cook than clean up.” The other students go to the left side and state their preference in unison: “We’d rather clean up than cook.” After several rounds of this, students can be called on to individually state their preferences in first person. Some good paired-choices are:
- Play soccer or watch soccer?
- Go to a movie theater or watch a movie at home?
- Give a presentation or write an essay?
