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MisterButtkins
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Posts: 1221
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 Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 4:15 am Post subject: |
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| IMO quibbling about whether or not there are two or three verb tenses is just a matter of semantics and has no relevance to teaching ESL... |
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Randolf
Joined: 04 Jun 2006
Posts: 15
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| Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 4:58 am Post subject: |
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No it's not just semantics.
I drink/I do drink PRESENT TENSE
i drank/I did drink PAST TENSE
I must drink MODAL TENSE
Teaching the structures related to Tense and Aspect in English is one of the absolute fundamentals.
If you cannot see the critical importance of these structures and how they are used to construe meaning in English for example how for example to construe positivity/ negativity and Mood (Declarative, Interrogative (Open and Closed), Imperative) in English, then you understand nothing about language teaching and as such are an ineffective and dare I say it incompetent teacher.
If you don't teach them things, then what do you do? just talk to them about stuff, play games and let them guess how English is structured? Absolutely ridiculous.
Have you ever actually formally studied another language? Didn't think so, because if you had you would have realised that when you study language you study the structures of a language and how they fit together, so obviously when you teach it you should teach your students just that.
No wonder the Chinese English teachers are by and large left with the job of teaching structure to the students here, even though they don't know how to. The majority of foreigners charged with teaching are just monkeys with no idea at all of what to do which is fine except they can't admit it. |
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El Chupacabra
Joined: 22 Jul 2009
Posts: 378
Location: Kwangchow
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| Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 6:10 am Post subject: |
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| MisterButtkins wrote: |
| IMO quibbling about whether or not there are two or three verb tenses is just a matter of semantics and has no relevance to teaching ESL... |
It's not a matter of semantics, but of syntax, Mr. B.
Details are important. To our credit, Randolf and I are willing to quibble over details. Heated arguments over academic minutiae are essential to understanding for the entire community of practice.
A modal verb can mark tense, and perhaps that what Randolf is trying to assert. It's very likely that we are simply working from separate paradigms and more in agreement than in disagreement. My paradigm comes largely from Andrew Carnie, who wrote the book Syntax: A Generative Introduction, which many of us with a postgraduate degree have cut our teeth on.
Perhaps Randolf and I have been illustrating how we ourselves, as EFL practitioners, cannot come to a consensus of how best to describe syntax to students. |
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MisterButtkins
Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Posts: 1221
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| Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 6:37 am Post subject: |
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| Randolf wrote: |
No it's not just semantics.
I drink/I do drink PRESENT TENSE
i drank/I did drink PAST TENSE
I must drink MODAL TENSE
Teaching the structures related to Tense and Aspect in English is one of the absolute fundamentals.
If you cannot see the critical importance of these structures and how they are used to construe meaning in English for example how for example to construe positivity/ negativity and Mood (Declarative, Interrogative (Open and Closed), Imperative) in English, then you understand nothing about language teaching and as such are an ineffective and dare I say it incompetent teacher.
If you don't teach them things, then what do you do? just talk to them about stuff, play games and let them guess how English is structured? Absolutely ridiculous.
Have you ever actually formally studied another language? Didn't think so, because if you had you would have realised that when you study language you study the structures of a language and how they fit together, so obviously when you teach it you should teach your students just that.
No wonder the Chinese English teachers are by and large left with the job of teaching structure to the students here, even though they don't know how to. The majority of foreigners charged with teaching are just monkeys with no idea at all of what to do which is fine except they can't admit it. |
none of this is at all necessary to understand what a sentence means, nor is it necessary for a student to understand this to generate proper sentences. Argue all you want, it really doesn't have much to do with teaching English.
Go ahead and try to teach a class of Chinese students what a 'modal' is. I will use simple examples then have them practice making sentences which I then correct. My students will come out ahead of yours, who will likely all be confused and/or sleeping.
Last edited by MisterButtkins on Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:30 am; edited 1 time in total |
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El Chupacabra
Joined: 22 Jul 2009
Posts: 378
Location: Kwangchow
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| Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 7:29 am Post subject: |
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| MisterButtkins wrote: |
| I will use simple examples then have them practice making sentences which I then correct. |
When students can notice and correct their own mistakes, their learning begins. Doesn't it make you bitter to realize that you are merely a copy-editor, and not a language teacher? |
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George Macartney
Joined: 25 Oct 2011
Posts: 10
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| Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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| uuuuuggghh |
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