25-08-2017, 09:32 PM
TENSE CHART AS A TEACHING DEVICE
[attachment=21257]
Introduction
Throughout 39 years of my teaching I noticed very often that my students appeared to have a sort of scattered knowledge of grammar. In my opinion it is because of the concepts of textbooks. The subject matter is presented to students in the form of small sections called units and this is how every coursebook, i.e. syllabus functions. Syllabus can be a great help but it can be a burden , too, for both students and teachers. This is wholly the teacher’s job how to interpret a syllabus and try to map out how to cover the content in the time available. So students move from the first unit to the last one, until exams come. During the period of the schoolyear the next thing I noticed was students who kept making notes on small pieces of paper. These are popularly called puskice in Serbian language. Obviously students needed them to summerize the complete material. I had to stop and reflect on what was happening.
Why the topic of tenses?
Having been an English teacher for so many years I recognized the need of students to help themselves in the process of learning especially at such level as summerizing is. Their complaint about the number of tenses they should acquire somehow did reach my mind. So the number of the tenses and the confusion they made in students minds were the decisive elements which led me to brood over the problem. Seven tenses are being taught at elementary schools (Simple Present tense, Present Continuous tense, Present Perfect, Simple Past tense, Past Continuous tense, Past Perfect and Future tense ). I have chosen to write about tenses because this part of syllabus appeared to be the most difficult to my students. They kept complaining about how affirmative forms, interrogatives and negatives, and interrogative-negatives got confused in their minds.
From elementary to secondary schools and on
If you multiply 7 tenses with persons you get 56 items to be memorized. These 56 again multiplied with 4 forms makes 224 items which we expect the students to keep in their memory, possibly permanently. The functions of tenses have not even been mentioned, if you multiply 2 functions, at least, per tense that is 14 times 224 which is 3136 regarding only the basic things referring to tenses at elementary school syllabus of English language. The tenses are taught throughout 4 years if they start in grade 5, or even longer if they start earlier. Very rare are the students who can memorize these scattered (in time) pieces of information and put them in practice at the moment when their English teacher asks them to, or even worse, when they are tested.
The same happens on the level of secondary schools , and further on to FCE, and AC, etc. Although the students are older and more mature, their brain working on more complicated issues, they still need help in summerizing things.
This time I decided to help the students summerize the tenses in the form of table/chart of tenses.
Active approach as a part of learning process
Firstly, I stated the assignment- the task that tense chart functions most effectively if it is done on one sheet of paper so that the contents of all cells can be seen clearly in one glance.
THE MOST IMPORTANT step of this process is creating the chart on the blackboard together with students. It is essential to get all students actively involved in making the chart. The students were asked about their ideas, about numbers and arrangement of columns and rows. Our appreciation of students’ suggestions encourages them to produce more ideas, more convenient solutions. It is goood to draw the graph on the blackboard at the moment when mutual agreement about some of the issues is reached. So, the students can see the chart growing in front of them. I did it so many times and was always learning together with my students. These were my best lessons, when children were given the framework, and the rest is done by the students themselves.
[attachment=21257]
Introduction
Throughout 39 years of my teaching I noticed very often that my students appeared to have a sort of scattered knowledge of grammar. In my opinion it is because of the concepts of textbooks. The subject matter is presented to students in the form of small sections called units and this is how every coursebook, i.e. syllabus functions. Syllabus can be a great help but it can be a burden , too, for both students and teachers. This is wholly the teacher’s job how to interpret a syllabus and try to map out how to cover the content in the time available. So students move from the first unit to the last one, until exams come. During the period of the schoolyear the next thing I noticed was students who kept making notes on small pieces of paper. These are popularly called puskice in Serbian language. Obviously students needed them to summerize the complete material. I had to stop and reflect on what was happening.
Why the topic of tenses?
Having been an English teacher for so many years I recognized the need of students to help themselves in the process of learning especially at such level as summerizing is. Their complaint about the number of tenses they should acquire somehow did reach my mind. So the number of the tenses and the confusion they made in students minds were the decisive elements which led me to brood over the problem. Seven tenses are being taught at elementary schools (Simple Present tense, Present Continuous tense, Present Perfect, Simple Past tense, Past Continuous tense, Past Perfect and Future tense ). I have chosen to write about tenses because this part of syllabus appeared to be the most difficult to my students. They kept complaining about how affirmative forms, interrogatives and negatives, and interrogative-negatives got confused in their minds.
From elementary to secondary schools and on
If you multiply 7 tenses with persons you get 56 items to be memorized. These 56 again multiplied with 4 forms makes 224 items which we expect the students to keep in their memory, possibly permanently. The functions of tenses have not even been mentioned, if you multiply 2 functions, at least, per tense that is 14 times 224 which is 3136 regarding only the basic things referring to tenses at elementary school syllabus of English language. The tenses are taught throughout 4 years if they start in grade 5, or even longer if they start earlier. Very rare are the students who can memorize these scattered (in time) pieces of information and put them in practice at the moment when their English teacher asks them to, or even worse, when they are tested.
The same happens on the level of secondary schools , and further on to FCE, and AC, etc. Although the students are older and more mature, their brain working on more complicated issues, they still need help in summerizing things.
This time I decided to help the students summerize the tenses in the form of table/chart of tenses.
Active approach as a part of learning process
Firstly, I stated the assignment- the task that tense chart functions most effectively if it is done on one sheet of paper so that the contents of all cells can be seen clearly in one glance.
THE MOST IMPORTANT step of this process is creating the chart on the blackboard together with students. It is essential to get all students actively involved in making the chart. The students were asked about their ideas, about numbers and arrangement of columns and rows. Our appreciation of students’ suggestions encourages them to produce more ideas, more convenient solutions. It is goood to draw the graph on the blackboard at the moment when mutual agreement about some of the issues is reached. So, the students can see the chart growing in front of them. I did it so many times and was always learning together with my students. These were my best lessons, when children were given the framework, and the rest is done by the students themselves.