Is this situation familiar to you? A very strict and demanding teacher is sitting comfortably on the chair with the text-book in front of her/him listening to the eleven-year-old pupils who are reading out their homework. One boy is reading and the rest are listening to him in silence. The atmosphere in the classroom is tense. Suddenly the teacher interrupts the boy's reading and says in his/her mother tongue for the learner to understand him/her better, "I have told you more than a hundred times that the auxiliary verb "to be" has the form "are" for the subject expressed by a noun in the plural form." At that moment the eleven-year-old child feels very bad and he may think,"I am really stupid. The teacher is right. I can't understand anything." The teacher goes on speaking," Can you count? Do you know that this pencil is in the singular form? Two pencils are already in the plural form. Don't you know the conception of plurality?" Now the little child is completely upset. He can't even utter his own name. The silence becomes more pressing. The teacher stands up and with a harsh voice says, "Now I'll explain the formation and usage of the Present Progressive or in other words the Present Continuous Tense. Be extremely careful. I am doing it for the last time." There is no need to continue. Let's kindly ask this teacher out of the classroom and try to loosen the tense situation. Maybe this teacher knows all the grammar rules very well but he/she will not be a success. The problem is that the teacher is trying to explain something (theoretical explanation) and demands that the students should do a completely different thing (practical usage). So instead of explaining grammar rules for hundreds of times we should first use this grammar phenomenon in our speech with simple words for at least seven times for the learners to grasp this phenomenon by listening. In the preface of his books "First things first", "Practice and Progress" G.B.Alexander states the golden rule of teaching English at elementary and pre-entermediate levels"Nothing should be written before it has been read, nothing should be read before it has been spoken and nothing should be spoken before it has been heard". The best tool for the realization of this principle is teaching grammar with speech patterns. The best practical grammar text-books which use this principle are: "Practical Grammar in Patterns" by T.I.Matyushkina-Guerke and the series of books "Building English Sentences" by Eugene J.Hall. For example, if we want our learners to use the Present Continuous Tense in their speech, we should make up simple unextended statements using this verb tense and showing different pictures. The first picture shows a running boy. The second picture shows a walking girl. The third picture shows a standing man. The fourth picture shows an eating boy. The fifth picture shows two running boys. The sixth picture shows three playing girls. The seventh picture shows a boy reading a book with a note "I am reading". The teacher shows these pictures one by one and says: The boy is running. The The girl is walking. ... The learners listen to the teacher and repeat the same sentences. After several successful repetitions the teacher shows a picture forming a special question: What is the boy doing? Now the learners are sure to raise their hands cheerfully to be the first to answer these questions. Al the children in class are happy because they think that they are smart and witty. They can answer the teacher's questions. They are communicating with the teacher. They are not thinking about the formation of the Present Continuous Tense. Then the teacher makes one more step by showing a picture and intentionally forming a wrong statement and immediately self correcting it. "The girl is running. No, she is not running. She is walking." After several repetitions the learners also can form wrong statements and correct each others' mistakes. Now there is a noise of joy and a loving loving atmosphere in the classroom. After several efforts the teacher manages to calm down the learners and asks them to make up imaginative telephone coversations like this: -Hello David, this is Aram. -Hello, Aram, how are you? - I am very well. What are you doing? - I am reading. - What are you doing? - I am watching TV..-What is your little brother doing? - He is drinking milk.... " The teacher has achieved his aim.
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Submitted on 28 February, 2013 - 11:34
Submitted on 28 February, 2013 - 12:44