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I would greatly appreciate suggestions for explaining the difference between "I went for a walk." and "I walked." to a group of Survival Beginner-level ESL adults. I almost need to pantomime it, but how?

I use a pair of hand puppets to simulate dialogue, but I can't think of a dialogue that works for this group given their very, very low level.

Thanks in advance, C

Hi,
maybe you could try using a picture sequence story to support the difference. Perhaps you could have somebody sitting at their desk at work, watching the clock till it's time to go home. It's a sunny, warm day and when your stick person gets to the bus stop, they just keep on going - they walked home because of the fine weather. Then you could have the same storyboard, but this time they take the bus as usual. After they arrive home and have had their dinner, they decide to go out for a while to enjoy the nice evening. They went for a walk because of the fine weather.

Note that Macavity's added 'home' to 'Sb walked'. I doubt if 'I walked' occurs all by itself at all frequently (except perhaps as an answer to a question in a context such as 'So, how did you get home last night? All the trains were cancelled because of the crash, and you usually take one, right?' - 'I walked - I had to! There aren't many buses that go my way.').

As for 'I went for a walk', it could provide a context/starting point for then introducing something along the lines of '...but I didn't know the area I was staying in that well, and I got lost. I walked (and walked!) for miles (and miles!) before I found my way back to the hotel.' (Note again how there is more wording beyond simply 'I walked'). This should hopefully help make clearer the possible contrast between simple "physical action" and something more involved (that is, what, a decision concerning an activity, that became an event, that one is reporting as "what one did last night", which is all functionally best described as...ah, but wait, 'I walked and walked' is also "what one did last night" - or at least a large part of it - so perhaps all that needs to be labelled or pointed out as such is the "physical action" itself...or you could simply provide further examples beyond 'I went for a walk' e.g. 'I went to that new Chinese restaurant'; 'I went bowling' etc, to make the "delexical" meaning of 'go for a walk' clearer).

Hi

fluffyhamster said:

"This should make the contrast between simple "physical action" and something more involved (that is, what, a decision concerning an activity, that became an event, that one is reporting as "what one did last night"

I agree, I think to walk is just that - the action or movement described, whereas to go for a walk suggests a leisure activity.

(Don't know how to get someone else's text into the white boxes!)[/quote]

Hiya Mac, how ya doin'?

To get the fancy white boxes, I usually hit the (automatic) quote button when replying, then cut or delete whatever I don't want to include in the final quote from between the opening and closing bits of quote code.

But if I'm making a long post and want to make several quotes (especially from several members) then I type: Open square bracket+the word 'quote'+equals sign+name within double speech marks+close square bracket, i.e. ['quote'="Mr X"], paste what I'm quoting e.g. blah blah blah, then type this: [/quote]. (NB: I've put single quotation marks around the first 'quote', so you'll be able to see the code in unconverted/unconvertible, typed-out form). If you don't feel you need to say who you're quoting, you can omit the = and the name within double quotation marks that follows it (then just a bold 'Quote' without any following name, rather than 'So-and-so wrote:', will appear).

Easy, eh!

= ['quote']Easy, eh![/quote]

Why are you bothering with such a distinction with this group of learners? Give them something that functions for past tense and then move on. They don't really need to know this.

Can they introduce themselves? Can they tell you their names, ages, dates of birth and respond to questions requesting the same? Can they tell you their daily routines? Do they have simple present? Future? Do they know dialogues and language related to shopping, getting a job, or seeing a doctor? I'm not really sure how basic your group is, but suspect that all of these are much more useful than distinguishing between "I went for a walk" and "I walked".

Hope I don't sound too critical

I was thinking of saying the same sort of thing myself, harmony, but then thought: isn't simple past tense pretty basic itself too? (And we don't know where exactly in their learning this group is at - they might've already done most of the stuff you've mentioned, no?). Generally, I'd've thought that learning a few delexical phrases (and knowing why we don't simply say 'I walked...' instead) could be quite useful for any but the most "basic of basic", zero-level learners...

But the main thing that gave me pause was that I didn't know whether Carolyn had to teach those very items (at an employer's behest, in accordance with a to-be-strictly-followed syllabus), and then forgot to ask her for specifics regarding her teaching set-up.

Anyway, even if the general consensus might well be that this stuff is not essential for 'very, very low level', "Survival Beginner-level ESL" adults, that's no reason to not here discuss ways to teach it (with an eye for when presenting it would perhaps be more appropriate).