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[JRCash]

I am teaching a Thai student in a class of many different L1 learners. He/she (wish to maintain anonymity as much as possible) has lived in an English-speaking country for many years but his/her progress is being held back because his/her grammar is poor. Obviously I can't research Thai issues with English as to teach these would mean nothing to the others, but is there anything you could suggest I do to help him/her without singling him/her out?

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Hi


Yes, this problem is well known to teachers of Thai students. I could write a book on the subject; in fact, I'm thinking of writing a book on the subject. Thai grammar is very simple when compared with English; that's most likely the core of the problem. Thai has one present, one past and one future tense, whereas English has 12 - plus conditionals and modals. The simplicity of Thai grammar makes it hard for Thai students to grasp and use all of the grammatical options available in English. They just get confused and can't seem to remember the rules, to put it simply.

To cope with this problem, I've developed a comparative technique for presenting grammar, which I have tested and tweaked for the past 2 years and now use with all of my students. In a nutshell, here's how it works: most English textbooks off the shelf today begin like this: Chapters 1 and 2, present simple tense. Chapters 3 and 4, present continuous tense, Chapters 4 and 5, past simple tense, and so on. By the time students reach Chapter 10, they have often forgotten what they learned in Chapters 1 and 2.

What I do is slightly radical. I teach 6 tenses simultaneously, right from the get go. To make things a bit easier, I omit 6 aspects of tense that we use less often - these can be presented later when students are ready for it. Here are the 6 I use - the ones we use most often in normal conversation and writing:


Present Simple
Present Continuous
Past Simple
Present Perfect
Will Future
Be Going To Future


I teach the 'when we use these tenses' at the beginning of the course, and then have students practice a simple conjugation exercise, omitting the object of the sentence, which allows them to focus soley on the verb changes. When they catch on, or for more advanced groups, they can add an object - no problemo.

Start off like this:

I eat
I'm eating
I ate
I have eaten
I will eat
I'm going to eat


Next student:

I have
I'm having
I had
I have had
I will have
I'm going to have

Next student:

I write
I'm writing
I wrote
I have written
I will write
I'm going to write


I have students write these out in their notebooks and get them to practice at the beginning of each lesson. After a few weeks, they can do it orally, without looking at their notes. A sign of progress. If your creative juices are flowing, you can turn it into a game, or liven up the exercise by throwing out the verb 'kiss', for example, and watch them all giggle as they say I kiss, I'm kissing, I kissed, I have kissed , etc. By the end of a 48 hour course, if you do it right, they will have it down pat.


To get this exercise going, you need to give students only one handout: a complete, alphabetic list of the irregular verbs. Many Thais do not know past participles. Beginners and intermediate level students often don't know past simple forms either, so this is a handout that everybody can make good use of. I teach my students a simple rule of thumb - if the verb they are using is not on the irregular verb list, it must be a regular verb - therefore you simply add 'ed' to form the past simple and past participle. This simple truth builds confidence. Student 'A' comes across the verb 'exacerbate' - never heard of it. Checks the irregular verb list - it's not there, knows the past simple and past participle is exacerbated. Bingo!


One final note: this method doesn't have to replace your regular course. It can be used as a supplement - an exercise you can do in conjunction with whatever textbook you happen to be using. After you have explained how it works - and students get the hang of it, it doesn't need to take up more than 10 minutes of each class. I use it as a warm-up exercise for every class I teach, regardless of their level. Imho, an exercise like this is good for the whole group, meaning you don't have to single out one student for special treatment.



Good luck.





Bangkok in Focus @ Flickr

[JRCash]

Thanks for your reply, I'll see how I can use it, I'll let you know how I get on too.

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

^ I hope it helps.


Just be patient and stick with it for a few months.

I'll be interested in hearing your feedback.


One little thing I forgot to mention -

it helps to number the 6 tenses (as below) and use the numbers rather than the names of the tenses. It's just faster and easier to say, "This is a good example of #4" than to have to refer to the present perfect tense. It also helps when you give quizzes or tests - to always use the same numbers. i.e., #1 is present simple, #2 is present continuous, #3 is past simple and so on. It simplifies things and takes the 'scary grammar names' out of the picture; I'll try anything to make the learning process a little less intimidating.


Okidoki, it's Friday evening here in Bangkok.


Time for a beer.

I'll have the #6 to go please.



1. I drink beer
2. I'm drinking a beer
3. I drank a beer
4. I have drunk a beer
5. I'll drink a beer
6. I'm going to drink a beer







Bangkok in Focus

[roguegrafix]

Kent, that's a very interesting way to go about things. I'll give it a go in my classes. Just out of curiosity (and because my grammar reference books are 60km away), what are the 6 or so things about the tenses you mentioned that you omit initially and teach later on?
Cheers
S

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

^ Hi


For beginners, I omit the past and future continuous tenses; these are easy to 'tack on' to #2 a bit later in the course.


I also leave out most of the perfect tenses; they are more difficult for students to form and understand, and take longer to explain.

When the time is right, #4 can be expanded to include the past and future perfect, as well as the perfect continuous tenses.


i.e., I keep it simple until they feel confident with the first 6 - and then expand on those 6 when they're ready for it.