Job Discussion Forums

[isanity]

[Stephen Jones]

Considering that most authorities agree English has only two tenses (The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language considers the Perfect to be a tense and not an aspect and so allows four but is an exception) there is not going to be a lack of material.

You explain that the Present can be simple, continuous, and perfect and the same for the past. You then give them a diagram and you have the eight 'tenses' neatly in the four columns and two rows.

You point out the modal system is completely separate from the tense system.

This is in agreement with most resources, both printed and on the net. Any resource that pretends there's a future tense in English, or gives 'might' as the past of 'may' is best ignored.

[Gregor]

I always want to take a real world approach. The students only need grammar (i.e. naming the parts) to the point that they can use the more or less correct language (more or less because native speakers from different places say different things - I've already eaten/I ate already, for example, can both be correct in the right context and country).
In Indonesia, students talk about "verb 1, verb 2 and verb 3" to mean the base form, simple past, and past participle. I have no problem with this at all. Learn to speak the language and then feel free to throw the labels and rules right out the window.
I tell the students about my brother to illustrate this. He's educated past the master's degree level, but his background is medical. He can speak beautifully, often speaks colloquially, and writes and publishes in professional journals...but if you put a gun to his head and ask him to elucidate the difference between a participle and a gerund, or explain the correct usages of the past perfect, you'd have to shoot him. He knows these things, but only intuitively. He wouldn't know what you were talking about, I don't think. But his English is superb.

That said, it's good for US to be able to explain them. But be careful not to confuse the students, because THEY don't need to know as much as we know, and their eyes are going to glaze over and they are going to get discouraged, and there's no reason for this. I only get into details of grammar names when it's necessary for the class (high levels, TOEFL and so on) or the students are particularly interested.

[Freddie Miles]

In the Turkish language, there is no present perfect tense, but there is a sort of/kind of past perfect (pluperfect tense!!) So the students-even advanced students-- tend to drop into past tense and discard that strange mysterious present perfect tense. I am not too shabby at teaching present perfect tense and I often see a glimmer of enlightenment flash over their faces before the end of my presentation.

Time lines for every tense can often help. Sometimes when the student made the same mistake again and again, I would give the board marker to him and tell him to draw the time line for himself.

[Freddie Miles]

By the way, I have a question for the British native speakers. Recently I have been perplexed by something that, for all I know, has always been around but I have only recently started to notice.

Every time I turn on BBC lately I hear somebody say " I am sat here with Mr. So-and-so." or "I am stood here..." Now, I realise that the passive form might be correct insofar as, the interviewer was, in all likelihood, "placed" in this situation by another person. However, isn't this just an incorrect replacement of "present progressive". I mean, in my opinion, it sounds, at best, rather weak-willed. Has anybody else noticed this creeping up?
If it IS correct, then why the heck are we still teaching present progressive?

[newtefler]

Estuary English has gradually crept in replacing the Queens English which we traditionally associate with BBC newscasts in the UK.

Estuary English is used to describe the accent but I suspect it's use has impacted on the grammar also.

For those non-Brits, who may not have heard the phrase "Estuary English", check the link below...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/167651.stm

[jonniboy]