Lector Univ. Dr. Trantescu Ana-Maria Candidat, Prof. Cotigă (Gherghina) Ana Ramona Colegiul Tehnic „Nicolae Bălcescu”, Balș, Județul Olt 2015-2018… [304097]
[anonimizat] I
[anonimizat]. Dr. [anonimizat]: [anonimizat]. Cotigă (Gherghina) Ana Ramona
Colegiul Tehnic „Nicolae Bălcescu”, Balș, Județul Olt
2015-2018
UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
Aspects of teaching future time
reference in English and Romanian.
A [anonimizat]. Dr.
[anonimizat]: [anonimizat]. Cotigă (Gherghina) Ana Ramona
Colegiul Tehnic „Nicolae Bălcescu”, Balș, Județul Olt
2015-2018
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Motivation
Working hypothesis
Chapter 2. Theoretical considerations on grammatical categories of the verb in English.
The category of mood
The category of voice
The category of person and number
The category of tense
Chapter 3. Means of expressing future in English language
Future Tense Simple and Continuous
Future Perfect Simple and Continuous
3.3.“Going to” and other ways of expressing future.
3.4. Future in the Past Simple and Continuous
Chapter 4. The Tense aspect system of Romanian language
Viitor
Viitor anterior
Viitor in trecut
Chapter 5. Teaching English Grammar Methods
Humanistic Approaches:
5.1.1. The Grammar Translation Method.
5.1.2. The Silent Way Method.
5.1.3. The Communicative Language Learning Method.
5.1.4. The Total Physical Response Method.
5.1.5. The Suggestopedia Method.
5.2. Behaviorism Approaches:
5.2.1. [anonimizat].
5.3. Cognitivism Approaches:
5.3.1. Structural-Situational Approaches.
5.4. Socio-Cultural Turn: Communicative Approach.
5.4.1. The Communicative Language Teaching.
5.4.2. The Direct Method.
Chapter 6. Methodological aspects of teaching the Future Tense in English in comparison with Romanian. Teaching tenses in the classroom: issues and implications
6.1. Presenting means of expressing the Future.
6.2. [anonimizat]-lingual Method.
6.3. The Communicative Approach — the Communicative Language Teaching Method.
6.4. Tests—Common mistakes—Conclusions.
6.5. Difficulties encountered by Romanian learners in using the Future.
6.6. Conclusions about teaching the Future.
Conclusions.
References.
Annexes.
Introduction
English has become a global language. [anonimizat] a better life through enhanced social and economic opportunities. Grammar rules and vocabulary can simply be taught to eager learners as they can use English for social and economic advancement.
The importance of English as a global language is unquestionable and to become a competent user of this language is the demand of the time. English language learning in the simplest way can be to integrate and use them through suitable strategies as the situation demands.
Language is a way of communication among people. [anonimizat] a tendency to learn more languages in order to be able to communicate with people from different countries. Learners need motivation which gives them the energy and desire to spend time on learning. [anonimizat], opinions. Nowadays there is a [anonimizat] a [anonimizat], phrases, sentences in the written as well as spoken form and using this system appropriately. The task of languages teachers is to hand on information concerning foreign language, it means grammatical rules, vocabulary, learning strategies, etc. and showing the learners how to deal with it, helping them practise it, motivating them, correcting their mistakes, etc. The process of language learning – as mentioned above – also contains learning grammatical rules which give the learners the idea of correct combination of the words and forming sentences.
Communication plays an important role in human’s life. In communication, language is the most important means to be used when interacting with others to exchange information, knowledge and ideas. Every country has its own language and its citizens are expected to be able to use the language well. In the globalization era, people are expected to master more than one language. Besides their own mother-tongue language, they are also expected to master at least a foreign language, such as English. Since English is used widely in the world today, it is undeniable that people have to master it. According to some statistics, more than 85% of information in the world today is abstracted in English.
People start learning languages for various reasons. Adult people usually need it for their job. They want to learn the language and improve their level when they know it is connected with their promotion. Such people learn the language because of extrinsic motivation. We can talk about the extrinsic motivation also in the case of pupils and students who did not choose learning languages voluntarily but they have to study it at school they attend. Sometimes they are not interested in the language at all and when we ask them why they learn the language, their answer may be: “Because I want to pass the test, or because I want to have good marks.” Different group of people have an intrinsic motivation. It means that the needs of learning languages come from themselves. In case of English, they can be for example interested in the culture of English-speaking countries or they simply do not want to look uneducated when they travel abroad. The basic task for an English teacher is definitely to motivate his or her students. He or she must show the importance of English knowledge.
But learning English is more than mastering a certain number of words and memorizing a set of rules. Grammarians state that effective learning is achieved by interacting with each other, either orally or in writing. This interaction gives a social aspect to grammar that brings with it hidden social messages.
However, we cannot escape grammar, it is the backbone of any language and it must be understood in order to communicate effectively. Every time we write or say something we are being judged for our grammar, be it good or bad. So, having good grammar makes us look intelligent, it gives us confidence in our further actions.
From discourse analysis viewpoint, grammar and especially the production and the uttering of well-formed and grammatically correct sentences is essential to the organization of messages, in controlling the information flow and helps maintaining a coherent point of view.
This paper is aimed to describe the objective condition of the teaching and expressing a Future action in English and Romanian languages. It includes the teaching preparations, the instructional material used by the teacher and the means of evaluation used by the English teacher.
The purpose of the present paper is to find evidence of the effectiveness and usefulness of teaching and learning grammar, and especially of teaching how to express a Future action in English and Romanian languages, using the Audio-lingual Method and the Communicative Language Teaching Method.
This paper contains an introduction, five main chapters, conclusions, references, annexes and bibliography.
Chapter I contains the motifs for which this paper stands for. It also presents the motivation and the working hypothesis.
Chapter II, named ”Theoretical Considerations on Grammatical Categories of the Verb”, aims to introduce certain theoretical concepts and terms which have relevance to the subject under discussion, words like: “mood”, “voice”, person and number” and “aspect”.
Chapter III deals with” Means of Expressing a Future Action in English”. It encompasses concepts and terms which will be defined and compared, namely: ”Future Tense Simple and Continuous”,” Future Perfect Simple and Continuous”,” Going to and other ways of expressing future”
Chapter IV is entitled” The Tense Aspect System of Romanian Future” and deals with the following notions: ”Viitor”, “Viitor anterior” and “Viitor in trecut”
Chapter V describes the traditional and modern approaches of teaching English language and it is named “Teaching English Grammar Methods”.
Chapter VI presents “Methodological Aspect of Teaching the Future Tense in English in Comparison with Romanian”. It also speaks about the issues and implications of teaching tenses in the classroom. There follows the difficulties encountered by Romanian learners in using the Future. Furthermore, there are presented the methods of teaching: from Traditional Approach–“The Audio-lingual Method” and from Communicative Approach— “The Communicative Language Teaching Method”, accompanied by different activities, samples of tests, recordings of common mistakes and conclusions.
CHAPTER I
Motivation
The purpose of this paper is to outline the importance of learning and teaching grammar in English language, and to know how to express a future action in order to make grammatically correct sentences so as to achieve communicative competence, thus meaning our interlocutors to understand what we are talking about when we are trying to communicate something.
One of the reasons consist the fact that language is a way of communication among people, so learners need motivation which gives them energy and desire to spend much of their time learning, especially a foreign language. Learning a language means to acquire the system of sounds, words, and sentences in the written as well as in the spoken form and to use this system appropriately. So the task of English language teachers is to supply them information concerning the language they are about to teach. This information regards the grammatical rules, vocabulary, learning strategies and especially showing the students how to deal with it. The teacher will do that by helping them practice it, motivating them, correcting them, encouraging them to keep on learning in order to improve their performances.
When we communicate, we usually send a message. But the receiver of the message needs to understand what he/ she is being communicated. For this reason, grammar plays an important role in learning and teaching processes. Penny Ur (2009) states “There is no doubt that knowledge- implicit or explicit- of grammatical rules is essential for the mastery of a language.” I consider that knowing grammar and vocabulary is the very base of English language. It is important to know words, but it’s not enough; we need to know what to do with them in order to communicate effectively. To achieve that, learners have to learn how to make well-formed and grammatically correct sentences, so to make sense of what they say/ write.
A second reason is that, in case of this paper, it is important how to express a future action and form Future Tenses (affirmative, negative, interrogative) so that the reader/ hearer should know exactly what he/ she had intended to say/ write. In other words, it helps them to achieve grammatical competence. This is part of the communicative competence. This concept involves” knowing how to use grammar and vocabulary of a language to achieve communicative goals and knowing how to do this in a socially appropriate way,” as Thornbury (1999) states in his work.
The value of grammar teaching and, consequently, of learning is important in English language domain. It is the very base of English language. Grammar knowledge is not acquired naturally; it needs to be taught, to be instructed. A third reason which I consider Grammar vital is the fact that it operates at sentence level and masters the syntax of a language. Moreover, it also works at sub sentence level as it affects number and person agreement between the subject and the verb of every sentence.
In conclusion, to one that hopes to use English language accurately and fluently at any purpose, it is necessary for him/her to receive grammar rule instructions.
1.2 Working hypothesis
English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers and it is directly connected to the development of society itself. It has been described as the language of opportunity, of business or of science. Throughout the world there is a variety of people that want to learn English, but their reasons for doing this differ greatly. This language is not merely used to communicate, but also to carry out the educational institutions, considering the fact that many English learners want to get a certificate for ―International English Language Test (IELTS)”or “First Certificate in English (FCE)” or “Certificate of Advanced English (CAE).
Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. (Edward Sapir, Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921).
In this extremely fast era of globalization, English has gained an essential role because it is one of the international languages which are being used in most aspects of life such as business, tourism, and economy, social and nevertheless education. So English is not just used for people from foreign countries to communicate, but also for the educational institutions, considering that many English learners want to get a certificate for “International English Language Test (IELT)” or “First Certificate in English (FCE)” or “Certificate of Advanced English (CAE)”.
English Language is a compulsory subject in Colegiul Tehnic “Nicolae Bălcescu” Balș, where I have been teaching English since 2009, and it is an extremely enjoyed school subject, children are very interested in learning it, in knowing more about the English culture and civilization. As Brown(1999, p:4) quotes “The Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language”, “language is a systematic means of communicating ideas, feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, gestures, or mark having understood meanings.”
There are four basic skills in a language: listening, speaking, reading and writing, which are related to each other and students, should engage them all in order to learn and use effectively the language. But to do all these, learners need to master very well language components, such as structure, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling. Out of all, grammar has proved to be the most challenging, demanding aspect for its learners. Maybe grammar is considered to be an uninteresting, boring part during the learning and teaching processes, some of them try to avoid it, to escape those segments because they find it hard to understand.
Hypothesis is an idea that attempts to explain something but has not yet been tested or proved to be correct. It suggests the possible links between the elements of the problem, links that are about to be explained during the process of research.
The hypothesis in the pedagogical research has to assure a balance between the purpose, the development and the final outcome of the education activity. The starting point of a research is the wording of the problem, its delimitation from a wide context of activities or from the practical activity.
The assumptions made by the person involved in the research have to assure us that the formative results of the research are not inferior to the situation in which the activity would have traditionally taken place.
If the issue of teaching grammar is visualized in a communicative, integrative way and not as a distinct, isolated compartment of the English language, students ‘performance will be improved and we obtain both enrichment of students‘ grammatical knowledge and reach a higher level of accuracy and expressivity in terms of language.
For this reason, the working hypothesis of this paper may be formulated as follows:
– If we use the communicative approach in teaching the Romanian students the tenses will they make fewer mistakes in using them?
– If we create contexts for the grammar use in the classroom, by means such as listening and reading activities, discussion, communication tasks and role-playing, will the Romanian learners be able to better understand and to properly use the new grammar rules?
From a methodology point of view, the teacher should not limit him/herself within the borders of one approach, but be open to a wide range of different approaches in order to adjust his/her teaching to the needs and capabilities of every student.
CHAPTER II
Theoretical Considerations on the Grammatical Categories
of the Verb in English
Grammatical categorization consists in denoting word classes (parts of speech, i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.) and their specific features (case of noun, aspect of verb etc.). The term of grammatical category refers to a group of elements recognized in the description of particular languages.
Before starting to talk about the grammatical categories of the verb, some general characteristics of the verb must be pointed out:
It is a part of speech that denotes a process in the wide meaning of the word; it expresses an action, a state, the existence of things or phenomena;
It has strong connections with the other components of the sentence;
It performs the central role in the expression of the predicative functions of the sentence;
It distinguishes itself from the other parts of speech by its morphological categories and syntactic functions;
Semantically, the verb possesses the grammatical meaning of verbalism which is the ability to denote a process developing in time. Lexical verbs denote actions, processes or states and serve to establish the relation between the participants in an action, process or state, according to Biber (2002).
Syntactically, the most important characteristic of the verb is its ability to form the predicate of a sentence. It is well-known that only finite forms can perform this function while non-finite forms can be used in any function but predicate. Furthermore, any verb in the infinitive can be combined with a modal verb. The other parts of speech around it are in a permanent relation of interdependency and determination to get well-formed, grammatically correct and meaningful sentences.
The grammatical categories of the verb are: tense, aspect, mood, voice, person, number. The formative elements expressing these categories are grammatical affixes, inner inflection and function words. Some categories have only synthetical forms (person, number), others-only analytical forms (voice). There are also categories expressed by both synthetical and analytical forms (mood, tense, aspect).
The most universal feature of the verb is the ability to be modified by adverbs.
It possesses quite a lot of grammatical categories: mood, voice, person and number, tense, aspect.
Classification of verbs:
Verbs may be classified in accordance with several criteria: their form; lexical meaning; complementation.
1. Classification of verbs in accordance with their form: There are three ways of classifying verbs on the basis of their forms: in accordance with their morphological structure, derivation, their base forms:
1.1. Classification of verbs according to their morphological structure (or Composition)
According to their morphological structure (or composition) verbs may be classified into:
1.1.1. One-word verbs, represented by:
a) simple verbs: verbs which cannot be further subdivided into morphological elements, e.g. go, eat, sit;
b) Compound verbs: verbs formed of two or more morphological elements written together, e.g. broadcast, underline, blackmail;
c) derivative verbs, i.e. verbs formed by means of affixes (prefixes and suffixes): discover, mislead, deafen, symbolize.
1.1.2. Multi-word verbs: A multi-word verb is a lexical verb which may be combined with one or two particles to function as a verb with a unitary meaning. There are three kinds of multi-word verbs: phrasal verbs; prepositional verbs; phrasal-prepositional verbs.
a) Phrasal verbs: A phrasal verb consists of a verb and adverbial particles (e.g., sit down, go away, get off, give in, etc.). The verb is usually a common English verb (be, break, come, fall, get, give, go, make put, take, turn); The adverbial particle is usually an adverbial of place (across, away, back, down, in, off, on, out, over, up). Phrasal verbs raise two sets of problems: semantic and syntactic.
i. The meaning of phrasal verbs.
– Quite a large number of phrasal verbs have a ‘literal’ meaning. They retain the individual meanings of the (base) verb and the adverbial particle, i.e. the meaning of the phrasal verb is simply a result of the meanings of the two elements (the verb and the particle), e.g. to sit down, to run away, etc.
In some cases, the base verb retains its meaning and the particle simply adds a special sense (so, we can fairly easily infer the meaning of the phrasal verb):
on can mean ‘forward’, as in go on, read on, etc.
up, off, out can mean ‘completely’, ‘thoroughly’, as in eat up, drink up, finish off, tire out (=exhaust completely)
In a fairly large number of phrasal verbs, the particle can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence. However, the sentence sounds a good deal better (or more natural) with the particle, for instance:
Turn round and see who is behind us.
She usually wakes up at about six.
– The meaning of the phrasal verb cannot be inferred from the individual meanings of the (base) verb and the adverbial particle.
The meaning of the phrasal verb is much more opaque or ‘idiomatic’. The particle changes the meaning of the base verb to such an extent, that we have to learn their meanings as a single unit, almost without association with the base verb: to make out (= to decipher, to understand), to let down (to disappoint), to come round (= to regain consciousness), to turn up (= to appear, arrive).
Phrasal verbs are quite common in spoken, informal English. In more formal style they are sometimes replaced by one-word verbs (if there is a synonym):
We decided to carry on. (= continue)
The two girls fell out. (= quarreled)
Don’t give away any information. (= reveal)
Don’t leave out anything important. (= omit)
A large number of phrasal verbs are polysemantic and, depending on the context, they can have a literal or idiomatic meaning. For instance, bring up:
Bring the piano / visitor up. (the phrasal verb has a literal meaning, i.e. carry it (the piano) up, bring him (the visitor) upstairs;
They brought Tom up as their own child. (the phrasal verb has an idiomatic meaning: to raise, to educate)
ii. In addition to problems concerning their meaning, transitive phrasal verbs, (i.e. phrasal verbs that take a direct object) also raise syntactic problems:
– When the direct object is expressed by a noun, the noun object is placed either before or after the adverbial particle (or: the adverbial particle can either come before or after the noun object):
They turned the offer down. / They turned down the offer.
They managed to put the fire out. /… to put out the fire.
The verb and particle may be separated by a fairly short noun phrase. If the direct object is expressed by a long noun phrase, the particle is placed immediately after the verb (the object is placed after verb + adverbial particle):
They turned down lots of perfectly good suggestions.
When the direct object is expressed by a (personal) pronoun, the adverbial particle is placed after the object, i.e. a pronoun object always comes before the adverbial particle:
They turned it down. / They managed to put it out.
b) Prepositional verbs
A verb may also form a combination with a preposition (e.g. call on, look for, look after, etc.). The verb and the preposition express a single idea:
I’m looking for my keys. (= seeking)
She takes after her grandmother. (= resembles)
Like all prepositions they are always used with objects (noun phrases/ pronouns). The noun phrase following the preposition is termed prepositional object. In fact, the purpose of the preposition is to link the (noun phrase) object to the verb. With prepositional verbs, the objects are always placed after the preposition, for instance:
Look at the picture. / Look at it.
I’m waiting for Mary. / I’m waiting for her.
In some cases phrasal verbs with objects look identical to verbs followed by a prepositional object (prepositional verbs). But we can see they are different when we use a pronoun as an object. For instance, run down:
He ran down his own wife. / He ran her down (phrasal verb)
He ran down the hill. / He ran down it (verb+ preposition)
c) Phrasal – Prepositional verbs are combinations consisting of three parts: a base verb, an adverbial particle, and a preposition (e.g. look forward to, look down on, catch up with, put up with, etc.). They are partly phrasal verbs and partly prepositional verbs. The purpose of the adverbial particle is to change the meaning of the base verb. The purpose of the preposition is to link the noun phrase object to the verb. Both particle and preposition come immediately after the verb. Phrasal – prepositional verbs are quite common in informal spoken English. They can often be replaced by a single-word verb in more formal English:
The car ran out of petrol. (= finish supplies);
I get on with my teachers very well. (= to have a friendly relationship with);
I refused to put up with his rudeness any longer (=tolerate);
I’ve got a bad cold. You’d better keep away from me. (= avoid)
Other phrasal – prepositional verbs are: to cut down on (= reduce), to look up to (=respect), to face up to (= confront), to stand up for (= defend), etc.
d) Idiomatic expressions: combinations of verb + other parts of speech, especially nouns, e.g. give way (= yield), make haste (= hurry, hasten), make fun of / poke fun at (= ridicule), etc. In these expressions, the verb itself has a diminished lexical value, while the main semantic load is carried by the nominal element.
1.2. Classification of verbs in accordance with their derivation. Verbs can be derived from other parts of speech through affixation and conversion.
a) Affixation is the device by means of which a verb can be derived from other parts of speech through suffixes and prefixes.
Some of the most productive verb-forming suffixes are:
-ize: analyse/A.E. analyse, recognize, modernize, characterize
-ify: certify, simplify, clarify, magnify
-en: it is a very productive suffix added to adjectives or nouns. It has the causative meaning = “to cause something to be”. Eg broaden, deafen, deepen, soften, widen, shorten; strengthen, lengthen, heighten.
Prefixes are used to a lesser extent to form verbs from other parts of speech. Nevertheless, one of the most productive verb-forming prefixes is en- added to adjectives or nouns: enlarge, enable, ensure, enrich; endanger, enjoy, encircle, enrage, encourage, entrust.
b) Conversion refers to the derivational process by which a word belonging to a part of speech is changed into another part of speech, without the addition of an affix.
– Quite a large number of nouns can be converted to verbs: to paper (a room), to park (a car), to service (a car), to process (leather, cheese, data). Most nouns representing various parts of the body can be used as verbs: to head (an expedition, revolt), to elbow (one’s way through a crowd), to eye (someone with suspicion).
– Adjectives may be converted to verbs: to dirty, to empty, to blue, to brown.
1.3. Classification of verbs in accordance with their base (inflectional) forms. The forms of English verbs are:
1. The base form. It is the uninflected form (given in dictionaries) which can be used as:
the infinitive (often preceded by the Infinitive marker to);
the imperative (2nd person singular/plural);
the subjunctive (present synthetic);
simple present tense (all persons except 3rd person sg.):
E.g. work, write, put, bring, be (am, are).
2. The past tense form (Ved): worked, wrote, put, brought, was / were
3. The past participle form (Ven): worked, written, put, brought, been.
4. The –(e)s form: is added to the base for the 3rd pers. sg. simple present tense: works, writes, puts, brings, is.
5. The –ing form, also called the form for the present participle. It is formed by adding –ing to the base: working, writing, putting, bringing, being.
The conjugation of the English verb is based on the first three forms (they are the dictionary forms of the English verbs): worked -worked – worked; write – wrote – written. Depending on how they form the past tense and the past participle, the English verbs are either regular (work) or irregular (write).
The Category of Mood
The category of mood is the most controversial category of the verb. It must be distinguished from “grammatical tense” or “grammatical aspect”. It expresses the nature of connection between the process denoted by the verb and the actual reality, either presenting the process as a fact that happened, happens or will happen, or treating it as an imaginary phenomenon.
Mood is a grammatical concept in which a speaker/writer can express that a sentence is factual, a command, a formal request, a wish or a false or improbable condition.
E.g.: 1. My sister goes to work by train. (a fact)
2. Would you like a cup of coffee? (a formal request)
3. I wish I were a millionaire! (a wish)
4. If it hadn’t rained, we would have gone into the country. (Improbable condition).
It is often described as the category that refers to the objective evaluation of the truth of the statement by the speaker. As such, mood can be divided into two types: Realis, which presents the content of an utterance as a fact and corresponds mainly to Indicative; and Irrealis, which presents the content of an utterance as non-factual and encompasses Conditional, Optative, Desiderative, and other hypothetical moods. Some grammarians state that because Mood and Speech Act/Sentence Type are closely related, the grammatical correlates of Speech Act (i.e. Sentence Type) are sometimes referred to as Mood (Interrogative Mood, Imperative Mood).
Mood is one of the kinds of modality, which can be expressed also by lexical means (modal verbs and modal words) and intonation (melody). Mood modality is based on the opposition reality unreality. It follows from this that the functional opposition underlying the category as a whole is constituted by forms of oblique mood meaning, i.e. those of unreality, contrasted against the forms of direct mood meaning, i.e. those of reality, the former being the strong member, and the latter being the weak member of the opposition.
Means of expressing modality: lexical (modal verbs), lexico-grammatical(modal words), morphological (mood), syntactic (structure of the sentence), phonetic (intonation). Linguists distinguish between objective modality (expressed by mood-forms) and subjective modality (expressed by lexical and lexico-grammatical means). The category of mood is proper to finite forms of the verb. It is closely connected with the syntactic functions of the predicate. The category is revealed both in the opposition of forms and syntactic structures. So the category of Mood has strong syntactic relation of the significance. Linguists distinguish from 2 to 16 moods in Modern English. The reasons are as follows:
The category of mood is in the state of development. Some forms have a limited sphere of use (he, be), new forms are coming into the system (let).
There is no direct correspondence of meaning and form. There are no special forms for expressing unreal actions (with the exception of the forms “he be, he were”). The same forms are used to express facts and non-facts: “should/would do/did”. They are treated either as homonymous or as polysemantic.
It is difficult to distinguish between mood auxiliary and modal verbs: “may, let’. All the scholars organize the opposition of 2 moods: Indicative and Imperative. Indicative is represented by a system of categories, i.e. tense, aspect, voice etc. It is a fact-mood or a direct mood. The best description of the category of mood is given by R.J.Binnick (1991) in his book on “Time and the Verb”: ‘It has in part to do with (very roughly) the speaker’s ‘attitude’ toward what is said—it may be asserted, hypothesized, expressed as a wish, and so on—is usually marked by the use of ‘modal’ auxiliary verb as may, might, should(…) Modal sometimes is used to refer to a formal category of the verb, and sometimes to a meaning category marked by such a form”.
In conclusion, while it is not concerned with temporal relations, it interacts both with tense and aspect.
The Category of Voice
The voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object etc.).
A verb has three voices: Active Voice, Reflexive Voice and Passive Voice.
2.2.1. The Active Voice is the voice used most of the time. In the active voice the subject is the performer of the action and the object is the receiver of the action. Syntactically, the sentence constituents are in their linear order and the subject is assigned the Nominative case. Semantically, the external Ө-roles of the subject are expressed and these may be: “agent/actor”, ” instrument”, “affected”, “ recipient”, “locative and temporal”, “empty IT”. The object, be it direct or indirect, have Ө-roles expressed in the active voice sentences. The direct object may have one of the Ө-roles: “affected participant”, “locative”, “affected object”, and the indirect object may have few Ө-roles as well: “recipient”, “affected” (in a limited number of cases, with one of the verbs “pay, give”). So in active voice sentences, the grammatical organization is not affected, the sentence constituents are in their natural order, as English is considered to be a relatively fixed word-order language (S. V. O.).
According to pragmatics and taking into consideration the information structure, the subject is considered given information, so the reader/hearer knows who performs the action of the verb, whereas the object is considered new information, which the reader/hearer finds out about for the first time.
E.g.1: Cats eat mice. (Active voice)
↓ ↓ ↓
Subject verb object
The performer the action the receiver
E.g.2: The king made his speech.
↓ ↓
Given, old information; it coincides with definiteness; new information; it is now when
the referent is identified, which means that nobody else the reader/hearer knows this.
but “the” king performed the action.
Active voice is common to transitive verbs, not only the ones which can be used in the passive voice. It is those verbs which, together with the reflexive pronouns, form the reflexive verbs. So they are related to the active voice. But there are some intransitive verbs which are used in the passive voice.
Usage of the active voice
There are certain situations when it is preferable to use sentences in the active voice. These situations can be described as follows:
1. Active voice is used because it makes the documents stronger by showing responsibility or giving credit for an action, because when we avoid showing responsibility, we don’t give enough information to explain the problem and how to fix it.
2. Active voice sentences use fewer words to communicate the same information. It resembles the spoken language, or at least the ideal spoken language, because when we speak, we use active voice without thinking, instinctively. We would never say:” My car was driven to work by me.” (Passive voice). Instead, we would certainly say:” I drove my car to work.”(Active voice)
3. Active voice sentences are shorter and more direct in telling things, in conveying information, therefore more forceful. Such sentences have greater clarity, meaning that the reader/hearer knows immediately who is doing what. They produce sharper imagery that is the reader/hearer gets the picture the second they read or hear the sentence.
2.2.2. The Passive Voice: From syntactic point of view, it must be pointed out the movement of constituents from their linear order and the correlation between grammatical functions such as subject and object. From morphological point of view, the verb morphology is affected, the external Ө-role is absorbed, the Accusative case assigned by the verb is also absorbed, and therefore passive verbs are considered un-Accusative. In the passive voice sentence, the NP which is assigned the internal Ө-role of the passive verb moves to a position where it can be assigned case. The movement of the N P is obligatory in the view of the Case-filter Theory and this movement is allowed because the subject position is empty. The agent of the activity is no longer expressed by an NP in the argument position. If we want to express the agent of the activity, we may do that by means of an adjunct phrase, which is a Prepositional phrase headed by preposition “by” which carries the meaning, the agentivity.
Semantically, the passive subjects have different semantic roles such as “goal”, “recipient”, “arrival”, “beneficiary”, and “place”.
In the fields of Pragmatics, the choice of a passive construction is associated with the information structure and two pragmatic effects: the agent demotion/patient promotion and agent promotion. According to the principle of information structure, the given information precedes the new information. In relation to the pragmatic effects, the emphasis on non-agent passive sentences is on the action, which is associated with the pragmatic effect of agent demotion/non-agent promotion. The emphasis of agent including passive sentences is also on the action but in this group the agent is considered as the late news, which is associated with the pragmatic effect of non-agent promotion only.
Syntactically, all the passive constructions consist of compulsory past participle and the auxiliary verb” be”, which will take the tense of the verb from the active voice sentence (“am/is/are” for Present Simple, “been” for Present Perfect Simple, “being” for continuous tenses, “be” for Future Simple).
The changes from Active to Passive sentence are:
The subject of the active voice sentence becomes the agent in the passive voice sentence, it will move from the first position, which is specific to the subject, therefore to the Nominative case, it will be introduced by preposition BY and it will fill the end position in the passive voice sentence. If the subject of the active voice sentence is a pronoun, it will take the Accusative forms when turns into the passive voice, because the subject will no longer be in the first position, so it can’t be assigned the Nominative case:
Nominative forms → Accusative forms
I → me
You = You
Sg. He → Him
She → Her
It = It
We → Us
Pl. You = You
They → Them.
The object of the active voice sentence becomes the subject of the passive voice sentence, it will fill the first position in the sentence, because it will be now assigned the Nominative case, it will benefit from the action of the verb. If the object is expressed by a pronoun in the Accusative or Dative case, it will take the Nominative forms when turned into passive voice, because an object (direct or indirect) cannot be assigned the Nominative case:
Accusative/Dative forms → Nominative forms
(to) me → I
(to) you → You
Sg. (to) him → He
(to) her → She
(to) it = It
(to) us → We
Pl. (to) you → You
(to) them → They.
Right after the subject of the passive voice sentence auxiliary verb BE is introduced and it will take the tense of the verb from the active voice sentence. It is followed be the verb of the active voice sentence, but in the Past Participle (V+ED/V-en).
E.g.:1. “They make artificial flowers of silk”. (Active voice, Present Simple)( Thomson, A.J.&Martinet, A.V.,”A Practical English Grammar”, OUP,1986)
↓ ↓ ↓
Doer, verb object, it receives the action of the verb
Performs the action
→Artificial flowers of silk are made (by them). (Passive Voice)
↓ ↓ ↓
Subject, new information Passive Present Simple agent, doer
Aux.”be”+ Past Participle
2. “They are pulling down the new theatre.” (Active Voice, Present Continuous)
→The new theatre is being pulled down (by them). (Passive Voice, Present Continuous).
“Beth has finished the report.” (Active Voice, Present Perfect Simple)
( Dixson,R.J.,”Grammar Essentials-Graded Exercisesin English”,Pearson Education Longman,2004)
→The report has been finished by Beth. (Passive Voice, Present Perfect Simple)
4. I have been painting my room. (Active Voice, Present Perfect Continuous)
→ My room has been being painted (by me). (Passive Voice, Present Perfect Continuous)
5.”They threw away the rubbish.” (Active Voice, Past Simple)( Thomson, A.J. &Martinet, A.V.,”A Practical English Grammar”, OUP,1986)
→The rubbish was thrown away (by them). (Passive Voice, Past Simple)
6.”The firemen were putting out fires all day.” (Active Voice, Past Continuous).( Evans,V.&Dooley,J.,”Access Grammar 3 Plus”, Express Publishing,2008)
→ Fires were being put out all day (by firemen). (Passive Voice, Past Continuous).
7. “The burglars had cut an enormous hole in the steel door.” (Active Voice, Past Perfect Simple)( Evans,V. &Dooley,J.,”Access Grammar 3 Plus”, Express Publishing,2008)
→An enormous hole had been cut in the steel door by the burglars. (Passive Voice, Past Perfect Simple).
8.”He had clearly been listening to our conversation.” (Active voice, Past Perfect Continuous)( Evans,V.&Dooley,J.,”Access Grammar 3 Plus”, Express Publishing,2008)
→Our conversation had clearly been being listened to (by him). (Passive Voice, Past Perfect Continuous). ( Evans,V.&Dooley,J.,”Access Grammar 3 Plus”, Express Publishing,2008)
9.”The Company will not fire the employees”. (Active Voice, Future Simple).( ( Thomson, A.J.&Martinet, A.V.,”A Practical English Grammar”, OUP,1986)
→The employees will not be fired by the company. (Passive Voice, Future Simple). ( Thomson, A.J.&Martinet, A.V.,”A Practical English Grammar”, OUP,1986)
10.”Sam will be cleaning the house all day tomorrow”. (Active Voice, Future Continuous). ( Thomson, A.J. &Martinet, A.V.,”A Practical English Grammar”, OUP,1986)
→The house will be being cleaned all day tomorrow by Sam. (Passive Voice, Future Continuous).
11.”She will have finished her exams at school by then.” (Active Voice, Future Perfect Continuous). ( Thomson, A.J.&Martinet, A.V.,”A Practical English Grammar”, OUP,1986)
→Her exams will have been finished by then (by her). (Passive Voice, Future Perfect Simple).
12.” You will have been driving the car for 6 hours by tonight. (Active Voice, Future Perfect Continuous). ( Thomson, A.J. &Martinet, A.V.,”A Practical English Grammar”, OUP,1986)
→The car will have been being driven for 6 hours by tonight (by you). (Passive Voice, Future Perfect Continuous). ( Thomson, A.J. &Martinet, A.V.,”A Practical English Grammar”, OUP,1986)
13.”The artist is going to draw a nice picture.” (Active Voice, Going to Future) Dixson,R.J.,”Grammar Essentials-Graded Exercises in English”, Pearson Education Longman,2004)
→A nice picture is going to be drawn by the artist. (Passive Voice, Going to Future)
14.”We must warn them of the danger.” (Active Voice, Modal Verb) Dixson,R.J.,”Grammar Essentials-Graded Exercises in English”, Pearson Education Longman,2004)
→They must be warned of the danger. (Passive Voice, Modal Verb)
Usage of the Passive Voice:
According to Thomson and Martinet (1986), passive constructions are used on certain occasions:
When it is not necessary to mention the doer of the action as it is more than obvious who he/she is/was or will be:
E.g.:” The streets are swept every day.”
2. When we don’t know, or at least we don’t know for sure, or we have forgotten who did the action:
E.g.: “My car has been moved!”
3. When the subject of the active verb would be “people”:
E.g.: “He is suspecting of receiving stolen goods.” (←People suspect him of receiving stolen things.)
4. When the subject of the active verb would be the indefinite pronoun “one”:
E.g.: “One sees this sort of advertisement everywhere.” (←You see this sort of advertisement everywhere.)
5. When we are more interested in the action than in the person who does the action:
E.g.: “The house next door has been bought (by a Mr. John.)
6. To avoid awkward or ungrammatical sentence. This is usually achieved by avoiding a change of subject:
E.g.: “When he arrived home a detective arrested him.” (←When he arrived home he was arrested by a detective.)
7. For the “have+ object+ past participle” construction:
E.g.: “I had my car repaired.”
8. With verbs that are common in the passive voice: “aligned(with), based(on), born, coupled(with), deemed, effected, entitled(to), inclined, obliged, positioned, situated, stained, subjected(to), approved, associated(with), attributed(to), classified(as), designed, distributed, estimated, labeled, linked(to/with), plotted, stored, viewed”:
E.g.: “Brandon Lee was born in Oakland, California.”(Biber, Douglas et all(2002), “Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English”, Longman, Pearson Education Limited)
The reasons would be that these verbs are more effective in the passive voice, especially in the academic prose (referring to scientific methods and analysis, to report findings or express logical relationships), in news (here the agent is unimportant, unknown, or previously mentioned), and very rarely in conversation:
E.g.: 1. “The same mechanism was analyzed on each.” (Academic prose)(Thomson &Martinet, 1986).
2. “Neither man was injured during the incident.” (News) (Thomson &Martinet, 1986).
3. “I can’t be bothered to play the piano.” (Conversation) (Thomson &Martinet, 1986).
9. In discourse structure, there are several principles which must be respected in order to communicate effectively. Among them, we find: the Given-New Contract and the End Weight.
The first principle is involved in the choice of passive constructions in written discourse such as fiction, newspapers and academic articles. This principle means that the given or old information comes first in a sentence, i.e. information that is known to the reader/hearer, it is previously mentioned in the co-text, and its referent can be identified from the context in the co-text as the referents are introduced by definite expressions. The new information comes at the end of the sentence as it is treated by the speaker/writer as being unknown to the reader/hearer, it is then introduced for the first time to the reader/hearer, it is considered new if the speaker/writer assumes that the reader/hearer cannot identify a referent to it.
E.g.:” In the time-warping thriller’ Frequency’, a lonely son talks to his dead father across decades with a ham radio. This connection had somehow been established by sunspots…” (=the passive sentence is used to continue the topic described in the first sentence, which is the theme of the son talking to his dead father. The passive enables the writer to place the old information, “this connection” first. So the reader/hearer knows what the writer is referring to because he can find a back referent, which is expressed by the definite expression, a demonstrative adjective, “this”).
The second principle favors the choice of long, complex or heavy passive sentences over its corresponding active sentences. According to this principle, a complex noun phrase is placed at the end of a sentence to facilitate processing. Therefore, the reader/hearer does not have to bear in mind all the information or details about that noun phrase from the beginning of the sentence. The reader/hearer will make the necessary identifications of the referents only at the end of the entire construction, so it is easier to process such a sentence.
E.g.: “Roman writings on agriculture were condensed into one volume by a senator of Bologna, Peter Crescentius, whose book was one of the most popular treaties on agriculture of the time.” (=a long, “heavy” NP, the reader/hearer can identify a referent, “a senator “, he/she can also identify more information about it, “of Bologna”, “Peter Crescentius”; moreover, the NP is followed by a Relative Clause which is adding supplementary information about another noun from the sentence, “writings”).
2.3. The Category of Person and Number
The categories of person and number are closely connected with each other, connection which is conditioned by two factors: firstly, by their situational meaning, referring the process denoted by the verb to the subject in the situation, and secondly, by their direct and immediate relation to the syntactic unit which expresses the subject as the functional part of the sentence. Both categories are different in principle from the other categories of the finite verb, in so far as they do not convey any inherently “verbal” semantics.
The category or person expresses the relation of the actions and its doer to the speaker, showing whether the action is performed.
For this matter, the speaker is the first person. In a speech act, there is someone who is addressed, that is the addressee, the second person. Besides them, there is the third person who represents someone or something other than the speaker or the speaker addressed.
In the process of communication, the deictic center keeps changing: I→ you, you→ I. The three deictic categories or persons are lexicalized in the personal pronouns. It is often grammatically, i.e. a special form of the verb additionally shows which person is meant:
E.g.: I go
You go
He/She/It goes
We go
You go
They go.
The expression of the category of person is essentially confined to the singular form of the verb in the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood, and, in addition, it is singularly presented in the Future Tense. As for the Past tense, the person is alien to it except for a trace of person in the archaic conjugation.
In the Present tense, the expression of the category of person is divided into three peculiar subsystems:
a) The first subsystem includes the modal verbs that have no personal inflections:” can, may, must, shall, will, ought to, need, dare), i.e. the modal remains the same regardless the person. So, in this case, the category of person is neutralized with these verbs.
b) The second subsystem is made up by the unique verbal lexeme BE, which has three different suppletive personal forms. An observation must be made with regard to the verb BE whose Present and Past form are as follows below:
To BE in the Present: To BE in the Past:
Sg.: I am Pl.: We are Sg.: I was Pl.: We were
You are You are You were You were
He/She/It is They are He/She/It was They were
Also, the verb HAVE has special forms in the Present Tense:
Sg.: I have Pl.: We have
You have You have
He/She/It has They have.
c) The third subsystem presents just the regular, normal expression of person. The mark is confined here to the third personal singular “-s/-es”, the other two persons (the first and the second) remaining unmarked.
In the Future tense, the person finds quite another mode of expression, namely it marks not the third but the first person in distinction to the remaining two and it also includes in its sphere the plural. The very principle of the person featuring is not in morphemic inflection, as it is in the case of the Present, but in the positional use of SHALL-WILL specially marking the first person.
The category of number shows whether the action is performed by one or more than one persons or non-persons. It is a two-member opposition: singular-plural. Number is mostly restricted to the Present Tense Simple:
E.g.: James walks to school every day.
As opposed to: John went to school yesterday, where a Past form is used, which corresponds to the irregular verb “go”.
The grammatical number of the English finite verbs is hardly featured at all from the very morphemic point of view. Distinct morphemic features can be seen only with the archaic forms of the unique BE, both in the present tense and in the past tense. As far as the rest of the verbs are concerned, the blending of morphemic expression of the categories of person and number is complete, and the only explicit morphemic opposition in the integral categorical sphere of person and number is reduced with these verbs to the third person singular, i.e. the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood), thus being contrasting against the unmarked finite form of the verb.
2.4. The Category of Tense
It is assumed that understanding a sentence requires the reader/hearer locate the event or state, spatially and temporally: time is one of the basic coordinates for truth conditional assessments. In all languages, sentences convey information that allows us to determine the temporal location of the situation expressed. One would like to understand how this happens.
The definition of the term TENSE is reflected in standard definitions such as the following: Comrie (1985: 11): “Tense is the grammaticalized expression of location in time”.Bybee (1985): “Tense refers to the grammatical expression of the time of the situation described in the proposition, relative to some other time”.
Other grammarians like Declerck distinguishes between TENSE and TIME, and states that TIME is “an extralinguistic category”, meaning that it exists independently of language, whereas TENSE is “a linguistic concept: it denotes the situation referred to in time, i.e. to express the temporal relation between the time of the situation in question and an ’orientation time’ which may be either the’ temporal zero-point’(which is usually the tie of speech) or another orientation time that is temporally related to the temporal zero-point.”
Tense is a grammaticalized expression of location in time. It is considered a deictic category and it is defined as representing the chronological order of events in time as perceived by the speaker at the moment at which he speaks, also called “speech time”(ST). So tense is deictic as the moment now is central, meaning that time past and time present are directions whose orientation depends on ST. We know that ST/NOW is the central point on the temporal axis of orientation according to which we interpret the ordering of the events or states.
X
Past Now/ST Future
Fig.1. Temporal axis of orientation
Tense is interpreted in terms of analysis of the relation between tense inflection (a) and temporal adverbials (b). The descriptive idea of the verb is the idea of event. But events can’t be conceived without taking into account the explicit lexical means which place the event in time, namely time adverbials. Reichenbach’s scheme for the interpretation of tenses proposes three points in time—speech time (ST), reference time (RT) and event time (ET). ST is defined as a deictic element which designates the moment of speech and which is anchored by the utterance time. RT represents an abstract moment of time which is postulated by the linguists as present, past or future. ET is pragmatically observable.
The value of temporal expression is the result of the relation of order established between RT, ST and ET. For this reason, RT is established by the combination of tense affixes and adverbials which are supposed to have compatible relational values. ST is the keystone of the temporal system and RT is oriented to it. The temporal interpretation of English sentences is given by means of tense inflections and temporal adverbials. Each tense can be interpreted in terms of two main components, the referent component and the relation component. The first represents the relation between RT and ST, and the latter stands for the relation between ET and RT.
Tenses have consistent relational values: anteriority, posteriority and simultaneity, with the present moment as deictic center, past, present and future, according to Comrie (1985), and Smith (1991). Klein (1994), introduces “the basic time concept”, which divided the time span into “before”, “after” and “included” in the relationship between the TU (time of utterance) and the TT (topic time). Other grammarians claim that there are only two tenses in English, present and past, since English has no future inflected form of the verb. In other words, a finite verb marked with “-ed” or without the that marker could be categorized into tense, however, non-finite verbs can have voice and aspect, and phase, but not tense. Furthermore, the English “future” auxiliary “will” in earlier times expressed not so much futurity as intention or desire; the “present” tense is also used to narrate past events to make the narrative more vivid and the use of the “past” tense to express the present with regard to cognition and emotion.
Some languages have specific means of expressing a wide variety of aspects. In English we can express these aspects, but certain tenses can express more than one aspect and these are not recognized in their names. For example, the past simple tense can be used for an event that is considered by the speaker to have been the case for a long period of time in the past (“Shakespeare lived from 1569 to 1613.”), for a single completed event in the past (“You killed the little bird.”) or for a series of repeated events in the past (“Every day, she danced and every evening, he told her a story.”)
Halliday incorporates aspect in his system network for finiteness. As far as participles are concerned, there are three types of non-finite verbs in English and each can be used with finite auxiliaries to make a tense. These verbs are: infinitives, present participles (-ing forms) and past participles (-en forms).
IMPERFECT (participle)= – ing form
NON-FINITE –- ASPECT TO-infinitive
FINITENESS PERFECTIVE
FINITE=TENSE options ZERO -infinitive
Fig.2. Halliday’s system of tense and aspect
All present participles end in –ing, but most past participle end in –ed and only some irregular verbs have participles ending in –en (for example:” beaten, been, seen, eaten”).
The infinitive is the form of the verb that is listed in a dictionary. In a clause, it may form part of a group, where it may follow a modal operator (for example: “We will tie a rope around your waist, and then he can pull you up.”) An infinitive can be also used with the preposition TO, as in the following example: “The soldier bought some new clothes to wear at the wedding.”)
The –ING form is used with a finite operator and sometimes other auxiliaries to form the progressive. We should notice that although it is called the Present Participle, it is used in both present past and future continuous verbs:
E.g.: 1. The nightingales are singing near the Covent of the sacred Heart.
2. Little Claus was crying as he walked through the dark wood.
3. I will be teaching my son to wash, iron and darn.
When it is not used as a part of a tense, this form can function as a non-finite verb, stand alone to form the head of a nominal group (a gerund), or modify a noun, as in the examples below:
E.g.: 1. Beating a kettle drum, the old man led the way. (Non-finite verb, it realizes a material process).
2. They couldn’t tell when the singing came and end. (Nominal group, it functions as subject of “came”).
3. Birthday fireworks lit up the faces of the marching protesters. (Epithet, it modifies “protesters”).
The Past Participle (-en forms) is used to construct the perfect tenses when combined with the verb HAVE as operator (as in the examples: I have finished, they had eaten). In addition, it combines with forms of the verb BE in the passive, which can exist in any tense, as in the examples: It was trapped, we had been educated, and they will not be admitted). It can also function as a non-finite verb, stand as a head of a nominal group, and modify a noun, as we can see below:
E.g.: 1. Held in custody for five years, the banker was yesterday granted a final appeal by the High Court. (Non-finite verb, it realizes a material process).
2. There is evidence of contact between the accused and the victim. (Nominal group, it is linked with another nominal group).
3. Another half-hour’s walk brings us to the deserted village. (Epithet, it modifies “village”).
Declerck also gives an account of the traditional names of the tenses in English as follows:
“Present Tense”: “I live in Romania.”
“Past Tense”: “My mother made a cake.”
“Future Tense”: “He will help you.”
“Present Perfect”: “We have not met yet.”
“Past Perfect” : “I had not known that thing about him.”
“Conditional Tense”: “We would soon find out the truth.”
“Conditional Perfect”: “She would have left him by now.”
Considering all the things mentioned above, there are still some points to keep in mind when talking about tense. Firstly, it is only the Indicative forms that are tensed. Secondly, all tenses have non-progressive and progressive forms. Thirdly, when we are dealing with a verb in a complex form which involves an auxiliary or more auxiliaries, it is the first auxiliary that is marked for tense and not the main verb.
To sum up, we can say that TENSE refers to the role of specific verb forms in a language to locate situations in time. From the linguistic point of view, tense expresses the temporal relation between the time of actualization of the situation and some other time (i.e. zero-point or other location in time.
2.5. The Category of Aspect
Aspect is defined as a different way of viewing the internal constituency of a situation, of conceiving the flow of the process itself. It is non-deictic and it relates the time of events described in the sentence to a time of reference (RT), informing about the contour of the event. So it describes the internal structure of the event, it can be seen as the relation between ET and RT, whereas tense relates RT to ST.
Aspect is concerned with whether an event has duration or not, whether it is completed or not, whether it is repetitive or not, or whether it is connected to the time of speaking or not. In English, verbs have distinct forms to indicate continuousness, completeness and time. Time can be expressed by tense, whether present, past or future. Continuousness can be expressed by progressive aspect of the verb, whereas completeness can be expressed by the perfective aspect of the verb, According to Leech and Svartvik (1975), aspect is related to “the manner” in which is considered “complete” or “in progress.” Huddleston and Pullum (2002) define aspect as “a system where the basic meanings have to do with the internal temporal constituency of the situation.”
There are some semantic distinctions covered by aspect, the semantic aspectual opposition between perfectivity (a) and imperfectivity (b).
The perfective aspect gives a holistic, summarizing or unifying view on an event with respect to a chosen reference time. It presents a situation on the whole without concern for its internal constituency, meaning that the situation is presented as a single unanalyzable unit and no attempt being made to divide that situation up to the last phrase. It can’t be defined as describing a situation with limited duration. Since it indicates a short period of time, it can be related to its characterization as indicating a punctual, momentary situation. By not giving direct expression to the internal structure of a situation, the perfective has the effect of reducing it to a single point. It indicates a completed action, not complete, meaning that the perfective does denote a complete action, in the sense that it involves beginning, middle and end, but to say completed, it places too much emphasis on the end of the situation.
The imperfective aspect. The difference between perfective and imperfective consists in the fact that: the perfective looks at a situation from outside, paying no attention to the internal structure of that situation, whereas the imperfective aspect considers a situation from the inside, being crucially concerned with the internal structure of the situation. It can look backwards at the start of the situation and at the end of it, forwards.
This distinction is not totally captured by the inflectional forms of the verb. For example, the simple perfect is often perfective. We consider the sentences: “She has arrived”, He has been to Italy”. We can say that they are both perfective. But if we say “They have lived here all their lives”, this sentence is imperfective.
An observation is to be made here, namely, this distinction is possible only in the past tense or in the future or in case a modal verb is present, but not in the present, moreover, it can’t be used to refer to a present process that is unfolding.
Aspectual systems have two components, situation type and viewpoint, according to Smith (1991). These components interact in the sentences of any language. The notion of situation type is based on the categories proposed in Vendler (2002). Situation type indirectly classifies a clause as expressing a situation with certain internal temporal properties. There are three temporal features: Static-Dynamic, Telic-Atelic, and Durative-Punctual. These features cluster in the situation type categories: State, Activity, Accomplishment and Achievement. The verb and its arguments convey situation type, together with adverbs.
Aspectual viewpoints make visible for semantic interpretation all or part of a situation. Viewpoint is usually expressed by a morpheme associated with the verb. Perfective viewpoints make events visible as bounded, including endpoints. Imperfective viewpoints make situations visible without information as to endpoints, unbounded.
Vendler’s proposal seemed to incorporate the claim that the category of verbs of any particular language can be split up into these four categories, as follows:
States: “Believe desire, have, own, resemble, love etc.”
Activities: “swim, walk, push (a car), breath etc.”
Accomplishments: “draw (a circle), make (a chair), deliver (a sermon), recover (from illness).”
Achievements: “realize, recognize, spot, lose, find, reach.”
Being kept at lexical level, i.e. at verbal level, Vendler’s classification is based on the following criteria: duration over time, change, endpoint and homogeneity.
One of the things Vendler pursued was the way in which the 4 categories are to be grouped together. He argued that states and achievements should be set apart from activities and accomplishments on account of the fact that the first two categories lack the progressive.
E.g.: “John is swimming.
John is building a house.
*John is knowing the answer.
*John is recognizing his lost sister.”
States lack the progressive because, although they last “for a period of time”, they do not denote a process over time, they “cannot be qualified as actions”, according to Smith (1991). They may endure, persist over stretches of time; they are homogeneous.
Achievements encode the inception or termination of an act and “occur at a single moment”, as Smith (1991) states in his book. They occur with IN-phrases time adverbials: “John noticed the picture in a few seconds.” But they don’t occur with adverbs like: “deliberately, attentively, obediently etc. „It is to be underlined the fact that they capture either the inception or climax of the occurrence that can be dated or they can be indefinitely placed within a temporal stretch, but not over it.
Activities and accomplishments differ from states and achievements in that they “are processes going on in time (…) they consist of successive phases following one another in time,” sa it is specified in Klein’s “Time in Language”. They involve no culmination or anticipated result, ant part of them is of the same as the whole, they are homogeneous. Unlike activities, accomplishments have an important feature, namely they “proceed toward a terminus (i.e. a set terminal point) which is logically necessary to their being what they are”, meaning that their parts are not of the same as the whole, according to the same author.
The Progressive Aspect
The sense of the progressive aspectual form is that of a process unfolding at a certain reference time, meaning that it began some time before the respective RT.
There are process verb phrases which can occur in the progressive aspect when they are considered at a certain RT: look at, rain, sweep (the floor), squeeze, travel, skate, run, walk, smile, grow, sleep etc.” They can occur with durative adverb phrases: “at the time, for the last x time, all day/night long, meanwhile, for some time.” Such verbs describe 2 simultaneous processes which is rendered either by 2 different sentences and/or by a subordinate adverbial clause introduced by” while, all the time while, as.”
There is a class of non-durative or instantaneous processes which can’t be used in the progressive form in order to denote the single instance of the respective process, i.e. the process being momentary they are not described as happening by stage. This class contains verbs like: “jump, kick, slam/bang (the door), knock, nod, fire (a gun), and tap.”
As a conclusion, process verb phrases occur in the progressive aspect to indicate with respect to a certain RT, that the process is about, the fact that it is unfolding at a respective RT. Non-durative processes do not occur in the progressive aspect when they indicate one single instance of the respective process.
Event verb phrases indicate that a certain goal is reached over and above the activity which lands to that goal. In the progressive form, they are described as unfolding at a certain RT. For example, “I am cutting the bread.”
State verb phrases are described as having an abstract quality and an atemporal interpretation. Such sentences do not occur in the progressive form.
Verbs that are not normally used in the Continuous Forms:
Thomson’s and Martinet’s “Practical English Grammar” gives a detailed account of the verbs that cannot normally be used in the continuous forms, and this happens because continuous tenses are used for deliberate actions, therefore these verbs have only present tenses. These verbs can be groups as follows:
Verbs of senses (feel, see, hear, smell, notice, observe= notice, and feel, look, taste, the last three being used as link verbs):
FEEL + adjectives: “angry, pleased, happy, sad, hot, cold, relaxed, nervous etc., indicates the subject’s emotions. It can be used in the simple tenses, but also in the continuous:
E.g.: How do you feel? /are you feeling?
I feel/am feeling better today.
FEEL (=touch) can be used in the continuous forms, conveying the idea of having something to learn about:
E.g.: The doctor was feeling her pulse. (=to find out information about her condition).
But FEEL can’t be used in the continuous forms when it has the following meanings:
Of “sense”: “Don’t you feel the house shaking?”,
Of “ thinking”: “I feel you are wrong” (=I think you are wrong),
When it is used as a link verb: “The water feels cold to my feet”.
LOOK as a link verb can’t be used in the continuous forms, but when it has the meaning of deliberate actions, it can be used in such a situation, especially in the phrasal verbs: “ look at/ for/in/into/out/on”:
E.g.: He is looking for his glasses. (=to seek for them, he wants to find them, so he deliberately does this action).
c. SMELL, having its proper meaning, i.e.” perceive a scent/an odor”, it can’t be used in the continuous tenses, but when it realizes the meaning “sniff at”, and functions as a link verb, it can be used in the continuous:
E.g.: Why are you smelling the milk? Does it smell sour?
d. TASTE, functioning as a link verb, is not used in the continuous tenses. When it conveys the meaning “to taste the flavor of”, it can be used in the continuous tenses:
E.g.: She was tasting the soup to see if it was salty enough.
e. SEE can be used in the continuous tenses only when it means “meet by appointment (usually on business context), interview”:
E.g.: The director is seeing the applicants. (=is discussing with them).
When it conveys the following meanings, it can be used in the continuous tenses, as it can be seen in the sentences below:
e.1. SEE about (=make arrangements):
E.g.: We are seeing about a work permit for my sister. (=we are trying to arrange this).
e.2. SEE to (= arrange, put right, deal):
E.g.: The plumber is seeing to the leak in the tank. (= he is trying to fix it).
e.3. SEE somebody out (=to escort)/home (=to accompany, to escort)/to + place (=to escort):
E.g.: Is John seeing you home from the party?
No, he is seeing me to the bus station. (= to accompany to a place).
e.4. SEE off (=to say good-bye at the starting point of one’s journey, usually at the station/train/plane/airport):
E.g.: We are leaving tomorrow. James is seeing us to the airport.
f. HEAR can be used in the continuous tenses when it means “listen formally to (complaints/evidence)”:
E.g.: The Court is hearing the evidence tomorrow.
When it means “receive news or letters” it can also be used in the continuous tenses, especially with he Present Perfect Continuous and Future Continuous:
E.g.: I’ve been hearing about the accident.
I will be hearing about the new scheme at our next meeting.
Verbs expressing feelings and emotions, such as ADMIRE (=respect), ADORE, APPRECIATE, CARE FOR (=like), DESIRE, DETEST, DISLIKE, FEAR, HATE, LIKE, LOATH, LOVE, MIND (CARE), RESPECT, VALUE, WANT, WISH, can take continuous forms only when they have the following meanings:
Appreciate =increase in value
Admire = look at with admiration
Care for = look after
Long for/mind = look after, concern oneself with
Value = estimate the financial worth of
Enjoy/like/love = enjoy
Hate = love.
E.g.: He is enjoying his holiday in Mexico.
I’m minding my own business.
Verbs of mental activity: agree, appreciate (=understand), assume, believe, expect (=think), feel (=think), feel sure/certain, forget, know, mean, perceive, realize, recall, recognize, recollect, remember, see (=understand), see through someone (=penetrate his attempt to deceive), suppose, think (=have an opinion), trust (=believe/ have confidence in), understand.
E.g.: What are you thinking about?-I’m thinking about my future plans.
I’m assuming that that you’ll have to do a lot of work. (=accept as a starting point).
I’m expecting a letter. (= await)
Verbs of possession: belong, owe, own, possess.
Auxiliary BE when followed by certain adjectives: quiet, noisy, good/bad, wise/foolish, implying that the subject is showing a quality at that certain time:
E.g.: Tom is being foolish.
Auxiliary HAVE may realize other meanings and only on these occasions it can take continuous forms:
Take a meal: (What are you doing?) I’m having lunch.
Give a party/entertain guests: She’s having twenty people to dinner.
Encounter difficulties: I’m having a hard time with this car.
Experience/enjoy: I’m having a lovely time here.
In sum, the progressive aspect covers the semantic sphere described as belonging to the imperfect aspect, i.e. it views a situation under the ontological species of a process, while, doe to its constitutive properties of subsidiarity, is viewed at the interval now (or then, or after) as unfolding or going on. Whether or not it will continue going on after that RT depends on the course the situation takes.
Chapter III
Means of expressing future in English language
Learners are learning grammar by using it, not by knowing it. Before grammarians introduce the notions of Simple Present and Simple Past, verbs become the focus of the discussion. Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) have distinguished moment from time and tense from aspect by drawing two parallel lines: one indicates the time of event that happened, and the other refers to the moment of speaking about the event. These observations help the learners understand the difference between tenses: the Present Tense indicates a location at the moment of speaking and the Past Tense refers to a time before the moment of speaking. Declerck (1991) said that “tense does not usually locate a situation in time solely, and sometimes, it needs the cooperation of time adverbials or context.” But Greenbaum and Quirk presented the tenses in varieties of ways, not simply the help of time adverbials; they reminded the learners that English sentences are not always so perfect and complete by providing all the components like a “subject +verb +object” string , with a couple of adverbials indicating time, place, or purpose. They also draw attention on the fact that sometimes learners should be sensitive to the core of a sentence, that is the verb, since it conveys much more meanings beyond the meaning itself.
Tense encodes temporal information directly; it gives information about three times and their ordering relations of sequence or simultaneity. Present conveys that all three times are simultaneous; Past Tense conveys that RT precedes ST, and the Future Tense conveys that RT follows ST, always with the element of uncertainty that inheres in the future.
A definition, to the idea of time/tense, is given by the authors of ‘A Grammar of Contemporary English’, ‘in abstraction from any given language, time can be thought as a line (theoretically, of infinite length) on which is located, as a continuously moving point, the present moment. Anything ahead of the present moment is in the future, and anything behind it is in the past. [] we distinguished past, present and future also on a SEMANTIC level. On this second level of interpretation, then, ‘present’ is the most general and unmarked category’ as a statement constructed with the present simple can be applicable to present, past and future, while the past tense has a more restricted applicability:
E.g. John spends a lot of money. (true for past, present, and future)
E.g. John spent a lot of money. ( true for past only)
The authors of this grammar do not recognize future as a formal category, because morphologically, English does not have verb inflection for such a category, but they accept the idea of ‘grammatical constructions capable of expressing the semantic category of FUTURE’. A reason is the absence of inflection for such a category, the present and the past being morphologically marked (-s/-es, for the 3rd person singular, present simple and -ed, for all persons in past simple, respectively), if tenses are defined as forms of the verb.
The main constructions used to express futurity, especially the so-called shall/will forms, bear various modal nuances which the other two time frames, the present and past, respectively, do not possess at all. This is due to the fact that shall and will are modal/auxiliary verbs, that is, grammatical devices, used for building specific categories (such as tense) on the one hand, and semantic units, on the other, which means that they bring extra-information to the utterance, such as the attitude of the speaker towards their discourse, generally speaking; therefore, the discussion about the future tenses and the like overpasses the limitations of grammar seen as structure only, and is better unveiled by the theory of modality and speech acts.
The wedge having to do with form/structure refers to those overt lexical and morphological forms that show how a particular grammar structure is constructed (Marianne Celce-Murcia, Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language).
‘The Simple Future is like a mood in that it expresses the speaker’s attitude towards the future eventuality. It is a future tense because it places the eventuality posterior to the speech point.’
Traditionally, what is generically called the “future tenses” of the English language appears under the following form:
3.1 Future Simple and Continuous
3.3.1 Future Simple
When we are referring to the future, we use “will” with all persons, but in British English, we often use “shall” with “ I/We”. e.g. I/We will see you tomorrow. Or I shall/We shall see you tomorrow. Will and Shall are modal verbs and so they don’t change form to show tense or person. There are also no infinitive or participle forms.
We often use ‘ll in place of “will” in speech and sometimes in writing, especially after vowels: I’ll/He’ll see you tomorrow. We also use ‘ll after consonants: John’ll be here soon.
Negative short forms are:‘ll not, won’t or shan’t. e.g. I’ll not be there/ I won’t be there/ I shan’t be there.
In American English shall and shan’t with a future reference are rare.
In speech, will is often contracted after wh- questions, and after names and nouns.
Will is sometimes called the ‘simple future’ but in fact, it has a large number of different functional uses related to future actions. In some ways, if students want an all-purpose future, they might do better with going to.
Forms:
Affirmative
I'll enjoy the party.
The verb is usually contracted both in written and spoken English. If we use the verb in its full form, the meaning is much more emphatic.
I will ask my boss tomorrow.
Negative
We make negatives by using won't.
They won't find the treasure.
If we don’t contract, the meaning is again much more emphatic.
Interrogative
Will he arrive before lunch?
Will you get me a glass of water?
Won't you have another piece of cake?
Short answers
Yes, we will.
No, I won't.
Wh- questions
When will they arrive?
How will you travel?
Who will come to the party?
Uses of future simple
Prediction: we invite prediction or we say what we think will happen: e.g. Who will win on Saturday? Manchester will win on Saturday. The line between certainty and prediction is slippery. In reality, all statements about the future are to some degree predictions – even when saying The sun will rise tomorrow!
‘Certain’ future events. e.g. Interviews will be held on 2 December
Announcing decisions about the future as they are made. e.g. I'll sing and you can do the actions. In these examples, the decision to do something is made only moments before it is stated. This is in contrast to the use of going to or other futures for decisions made earlier.
Promises. E.g. I'll give you a definite answer tomorrow.
In formal style we say what will happen for events that have been arranged: e.g. The wedding will take place at St Andrew’s on July 2nd
We use shall and will to express hopes and expectations: e.g. I hope she’ll get the job she’s applied for. She’ll get a surprise. – I expect she will.
Confirming intentions, decisions, arrangements, agreements. e.g. I'll book a table for 8 o'clock then.
Requests, indirect requests. e.g. Will you get me a glass of water. I’ll need your name and address.
Shows of willingness and offers. E.g. sit down and I’ll get you lunch
Invitations and suggestions. E.g. Won’t you stay for lunch? Won’t you have another drink before you go?
Shall
We use shall to suggest doing something, offer help, ask for agreement or permission.
e.g. Shall I call you a cab? Shall I put the kettle on for a cup of tea? Gentlemen, shall we begin?
Beyond this, we sometimes use shall as an alternative to will. It suggests more certainty, emphasis, forcefulness or determination, perhaps indicating an element of inevitability or personal control over events. It is also a slightly old-fashioned use and might be one which students do not encounter regularly. e.g. I shall collect your books in at the end of the lesson.
Watch out for these problems . . .
• Students at low level overuse will as an ‘all-purpose future’ to the avoidance of all other ways of talking about the future: It will to rain.
This is because it is met early on, quickly learnt and then it is easy to place the single word into any sentence where they wish to convey a future meaning.
Even if grammatically incorrect it may often be a sufficiently successful piece of communication to encourage students to use it again and again.
• Students use present simple instead of will for instant decisions:
I check the dates. I think I color my hair
3.3.2. Future Continuous
Forms:
Affirmative
I’ll be painting
Negative
For negative sentences in the future continuous tense, we insert not between will and be.
I won’t be working.
Interrogative?
For question sentences, we exchange the subject and will.
Will you be cooking?
Wh- question
What will I be doing?
Where will you be working?
How will she be travelling?
Why will we be studying?
Uses of future continuous
The future continuous tense expresses
An action at a particular moment in the future. The action will start before that moment but it will not have finished at that moment. E.g. Come in the morning, I’ll be painting the kitchen.
Events that are going to happen anyway, rather than events which we choose to make happen. E.g. I won’t fix a time to see you, because I’ll be calling into the office several times next week.
In some contexts future continuous also sounds more polite than will. E.g. Will you be going to the shops later? If you go could you take me some potatoes?
It is used to refer to fixed arrangements and plans. E.g. The band will be performing live in Paris this summer.
When we use the future continuous tense, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about. Look at these examples: I will be playing tennis at 10am tomorrow.
· They won't be watching TV at 9pm tonight.
· What will you be doing at 10pm tonight?
· What will you be doing when I arrive?
We often use the future continuous with
• a time phrase (next January, all winter etc).
We’ll be working in Barcelona next year.
at + time (at midday, at 2.30 etc).
He’ll be arriving at 2.30.
• when + event (when he arrives, when the boss is ready).
She ’11 be working when he arrives.
• while + event (while I sign in, while the machine is moving).
I ’ll be slaving away at work next month, while you’re lying on the beach!
3.3.3.Future simple vs continuous
Bill won't play football tomorrow.
(The fact is that Bill cannot play or does not want to play for some reason.)
Bill won't be playing football tomorrow.
(Bill will not play, because it will be Friday and he never plays on Fridays.)
I'll call Mimi tonight. I'll ask her.
(I will do it because I need to talk to her.)
I'll be calling Mimi tonight. I can ask her.
(I call her every night, that is why I will call her tonight too.)
In these examples the future simple shows intentions, while in the continuous there is no intention, it expresses routine actions.
3.2. Future perfect and future perfect continuous
3.2.1. Future Perfect simple
The future perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and use. The future perfect tense talks about the past in the future.
It involves three key concepts:
a) looking into the future to a certain time (midnight).
b) looking backwards from that future time towards the present.
c) noticing what actions will be done (and possibly completed) in the period between that future time and the present.
Forms
Affirmative: I will have painted, I will have written, He will have painted, He will have written (I'll have painted, He'll have painted)
Negative: I will not have painted (I won't have painted), He will not have painted (He won't have painted
Interrogative: Will you have painted? Neg. question: Will you not have painted? (Won't you have painted?)
Uses of future perfect simple
We use the future perfect simple:
for events that will be completed before or at a certain time. E.g. The train will have left when you arrive.
It is often used with a time expression beginning with by: by then, by that time, by midnight, by the end of the year. E.g. I will have sent the project by Friday
The time can also be given by other time expressions (on Sunday, before 31 June) or other activities expressed in different future tenses. E.g. On 11 August this year we will have been married for five years.
3.2.2. Future perfect continuous
Future perfect continuous is a verb tense that you might never use; it’s pretty rare and almost never necessary. Future perfect continuous has almost exactly the same meaning as past perfect continuous; the difference is that it happens in the future, not the past.
We use future perfect continuous when we want to make it clear that the action will happen
*over time
*until (or almost until) something
* in the future
Forms
Affirmative: I will have been meeting (I'll have been meeting)
Negative: I will not have been meeting (I won't have been meeting)
Interrogative: Will you have been meeting? Neg. question: Will you not have been meeting? (Won't you have been meeting?)
Uses of future perfect continuous
We use the future perfect continuous tense
for activities that will continue until a point of time in the future and will not be completed. Like the simple tense it is normally used with by or other time expressions and future actions. E.g. I'll go home on 20 June. By then I'll have been staying at this hotel for a fortnight. At six o'clock we'll have been waiting here for three hours.
We use the future perfect continuous with verbs like: learn, lie, live, rain, sit, wait and work” which naturally suggest continuity, to say that what is in progress now will be in progress in the future. E.g. By this time next week, I will have been working on this book for a year.
3.2.3. Future perfect simple vs continuous
It is used for incomplete, uninterrupted activities. If we refer to a number of individual actions or actions that were repeated, we must use the future perfect simple.
When I am sixty, I'll have been building houses for thirty years. (one incomplete activity)
When I am sixty, I'll have built more than fifty houses. (fifty individual actions)
By 5 o'clock I'll have been washing this car for an hour and a half. (one uninterrupted activity)
By 5 o'clock I'll have washed this car and replaced the tires. (two completed activities that will be done one after another)
3.2.4. Difference between future, future continuous and future perfect:
– The future simple + time expression = an action will start at that future time (I will have lunch at 3 o’clock)
– The future continuous + time expression = an action will be in progress at that future time (At 7 o´clock tomorrow I will be having a meeting)
– The future perfect + time expression = an action will be finished at the latest by that time (At 7 o’clock tomorrow I will have finished my homework).
Going to and other ways of expressing future
There are several grammatical structures in the English language to describe future activities. Three of them are the present simple tense, present continuous tense and be going to + verb.
3.3.1. Present tenses for future
With the future time expressions (next Friday, tomorrow) both the present simple and present continuous are used for definite plans and arrangements in the near future. The future time must be mentioned; otherwise the sentence would have a present meaning. I am watching TV. (a present activity: I am doing it just now.) I am watching TV tonight. (a future activity – I will do it tonight, it is my plan.)
The present continuous for future is more personal and informal. I am leaving on Sunday. (I have decided to leave on Sunday, it is my plan.) I leave on Sunday. (Someone else has decided it, it is someone's plan for me.)
The present simple for future is typically used in official statements and timetables. The new shopping center opens on 1 March.
The present continuous is the most usual way of expressing one's personal plans in the near future. We are going on holiday to Italy in summer.
Be going to
Form
We make the structure with be (in the correct form) + going to + base form
Whether affirmative, negative or question form, the words going to never alter.
Wh- questions
Who is I Who’s going to look after the baby?
What is I What’s the government going to do about the Health Service?
How are we going to catch up?
1. Be going to + verb is used to show intentions. We use this structure for decisions that we made before the moment of speaking. E.g. I am going to clean the car and you can pack the suitcase.
2. Be going to is also used to express your opinion that something is certain to happen. There is evidence for your prediction. E.g. Our team is going to win. (It is 4:0 and two minutes left. I am sure we will win the match.) The planes are going to land. (They are coming closer and closer to the airport.)
Sometimes we can use either the present continuous or be going to with a little difference in meaning. E.g. I am travelling to France in May. (my personal plan) I am going to travel to France in May. (my personal intention).
Uses of the “going to” future compared with “the future”
There are three basic of the going to future:
Predictions. We often use “going to” to express future, especially when we can see something that is about to happen. e.g. Look she’s going to faint.
Or we can describe something which we know will take place in the future. e.g. John and Margaret are going to be married in June.
Intentions. We often use going to instead of will in informal style. E.g. I’m going to practice the piano for two hours this evening.
Planned actions: we use going like the present continuous or future continuous. E.g. We’re going to spend the winter in Australia.
“We’re spending the winter in Australia” or “We’ll be spending the winter in Australia”
We use will when we decide to do something at the moment of speaking. E.g. We’re lost. I’ll stop and ask the way.
Watch out for these problems . . .
Students avoid going to: Students often find it difficult to select an appropriate future form. Lower level students often plump for one form (typically will) and use it for all sentences that refer to the future. A major problem with ‘going to’ is simply that students don’t use it when it would be appropriate.
Students omit the main verb after g o in g to: e.g. I'm going to football. Sarah's going to shopping.
Students use different forms (possibly also omitting be): e.g. He's go to leave now. He goes to play tennis next week.
Students use going to for spontaneous decisions: e.g. (doorbell rings) I’m going to get it!
Students use will for things already decided: e.g. Hey Frida – did you know? I will have a party next Saturday!
Am/is/are to, be about to, be due to
We use ‘to be to’ for:
Formal arrangements/duties: OPEC representtioves are to meet in Geneva in May.
Formal appointments/instructions; Three tablets are to be taken twice a day.
Prohibitions: You’re not to tell him anything about our plans.
‘to be about to’ refers to the immediate future: Look! The race is just about tot start.
We often ue ‘to be due to’ to refer to timetables: The plane is due to land at 2.15.
Hope. This can be followed by either present or future tenses. E.g. I hope it doesn’t rain. I hope it won’t rain.
Other verbs followed by will. Most verbs of thinking can be followed by will if there is future reference. These include: think, believe, expect, doubt. E.g. I expect the train will be late.
Just/just about to. Just can be used to describe something on the point of happening. E.g. hurry up! The train is just leaving/just about to leave.
3.5. Future in the past simple and continuous
3.5.1. Future-in-the-Past Tense Simple:
Future in the past from English would be translated in Romanian threw “viitor propriu-zis” or “viitor popular”.
Mary said she would give us a call.
Maria a spus că ne va suna/o să ne sune.
Forms
Affirmative:
S + would + infinitive of the verb
She told me I would be in trouble
Negative:
S + would not + infinitive of the verb
We never thought they would not win.
Interrogative:
Would + S + Infinitive of the verb?
Would you go there?
Uses
Future-in-the-past simple is used:
1. when you want to discuss something in the past that you thought would happen in the future. It doesn’t matter whether the thing actually ended up happening. E.g. they knew their boss wouldn’t call them back to work.
2. to discuss a plan or a promise from the past. e.g. He promised he would send a postcard from Egypt.
3. Habitual actions. E.g. Mike said it would be too dark to see anything
4. In the main sentence when there is a temporal sentence in the complex phrase. E.g. Ann asked me whether I should tell John everything when I saw him.
3.5.2. Future in the past Continuous
Forms
Affirmative
S + would + be + present participle
I would be singing.
Negative
S + would not + be + present participle
You wouldn’t be flying.
Interrogative
Would + S + be + present participle?
Would you be going?
Uses
Future in the past continuous is used:
1. Ongoing action in the future. E.g. He said that by that time on Friday they would be flying to Rome.
2. A future action that will take place during the normal course of events. E.g. They confirmed that the company would be signing contracts on the fifteenth of the month.
Chapter IV
The Tense aspect system of Romanian language
The grammatical structure and the basic word stock of the Romanian language have been inherited from Latin. As in all the other Romance languages, in Romanian there is a substratum (i.e. those elements of the native dialects which were incorporated into the Vulgar Latin) and a super stratum (i.e. the new elements that penetrated the new Romanian language as a result of the invasions of the migratory peoples). In Romanian, the substratum is Dacian, and the super stratum is mostly Slavic. The elements of the substratum are difficult to identify, since there are no reliable sources. The criteria linguists unanimously accept would be the comparison with the Albanian language, considered to be the direct continuation of the Thracian dialects. Linguists have studied the Romanian language in comparison with other Balkan languages, especially Albanian, in an attempt to find words of Dacian origin. Some 160 such words have been identified, among them terms related to the human body, family relationships, pastoral activities, agriculture, viticulture, pisciculture, etc.
Over the centuries, the new language experienced numerous external influences, mostly at the lexical level. At the grammatical level, Romanian is one of the most conservative Romance languages, which is due to the fact that the speakers belonged to a marginal area, isolated from the rest of the Romance world. Some scholars consider Romanian the most "pure" Romance language in terms of grammar, i.e. the closest to Latin. However, the nature of this language, especially its vocabulary, has been shaped by various historical influences. Romanian has assimilated Slavic, Hungarian, Turkish, and neo-Romance elements.
The Romanian verb marks the grammatical categories of moos, tense and aspect at syntactic level (by inflection) and at analytical level (by paraphrase), the latter showing different degrees of grammaticalization.
We have a unique axis of tenses, with a main point (prezent) with two derivations, one going up (viitor) and one going down (trecut). We know there are various kinds of past tense – “perfect simplu”, “perfect compus”, “imperfect” and ‚mai mult ca perfect”– and they differ from the point of view of usage (the first is informal, colloquial; the second is the most present in written communication; the third involves, in a way, continuity), but they cover the same position in the scheme. There is an intermediate tense which functions between present and future (called “viitor anterior” or “viitor apropiat”), expressing an action in the future taking place before another fact of the future. And there is another relational tense, named “mai mult ca perfect”, which represents an action in the past happening before something else in the past. The Romanian golden rule is that there is no rules but let us have some examples: -“prezent” in combination with “trecut”: “A spus că vine.” -“trecut” in combination with “viitor”: “A spus că va veni.” -“mai mult ca perfect” in combination with “viitor”: “Spusese că va veni.”So, the Romanian structure seems to be very permissive, the indicative mood being perceived as a succession of tenses situated in a certain order on a continuous axis.
● ● ● ● ●
Mai mult ca TRECUT PREZENT Viitor VIITOR
Perfect anterior
Fig.3: The Romanian axis of tenses
The Category of Conjugation of the Verb
The dictionary form of the verb is the infinitive. The ending of the infinitive indicates the conjugation of the verb.
There are four conjugations in Romanian. The final vowel or vowels of the infinitive indicate the conjugation of the verb:
The 1st conjugation – verbs ending in -a: a cânta to sing, a lucra to work, a întârzia to be late, a parca to park etc.;
The 2nd conjugation – verbs ending in -ea: a vedea to see, a putea to be able to etc.;
The 3rd conjugation – verbs ending in -e: a merge to walk, to go, a face to do, to make, a umple to fill up, a scrie to write etc.;
The 4th conjugation – verbs ending in -i and -î: a fugi to run, a veni to come, a opri to stop, a locui to live, a hotărî to decide, a coborî to climb down etc.
The most numerous groups are the verbs in -a and the verbs in -i.
The Category of Mood
If aspect views directly the semantic level of the grammatical category of the verb, then the grammatical category of mood views the semantic level of the verb from a temporal point of view.
Through this category, it is expressed the implication of the engagement of the subject-speaker in the development of the semantic relation between the verb (as a linguistic expression) and the action (as a state, extralinguistic reality).
We know that the verb is the center of the linguistic process and the nucleus of the speech act, so it is characterized by the qualities of realizing the predication and the temporality. It results that the mood also engages these two features.
Being basically deictic, viewed as an expression of the speaker’s attitude towards the content of the message, mood is also a syntactic category. For example, the verb “a trebui” imposes the choice of the conjunctive mood when it is a predicative verb (“Trebuie să plece din țară.”), and when it functions as an auxiliary verb (“Trebuie să fi plecat.”).
In the Romanian language, the category of mood has its own identity; i.e.it exists and functions through the relations of opposition which it realizes at the semantic and expression levels. Under this interpretation, the Romanian verb brings 5 terms specific to the grammatical category of mood: “Indicativ”, “Conjunctiv”, “Optativ”, “Prezumtiv” and “Imperativ”.
The semantic level of the grammatical category of mood is based on three antithetical pairs of terms: a) certainty/uncertainty; b) reality/ireality; c) subjective involvement or engagement/objective detaching. These three pairs interfere and combine with one another as it can be seen below:
Certainty combines with reality and objective detaching; i.e. the subject-speaker only sees/states the development of an action, he does not get involved in the action, the action is certain, for sure because it is real. This level is specific to the “Indicativ” mood: “A plecat de vineri la mănăstiri.”
Uncertainty combines with ireality; i.e. the action is unfulfilled or the speaker does not know if it is fulfilled because he does not have the knowledge about this fact, but he does not know if the action is fulfilled either.
Ireality stands against the opposition certainty-uncertainty and makes a pair with subjective involvement or detaching.
Taking into consideration all the remarks above, D.Irimia (2008) gives an account of the variants which the grammatical category of mood develops:
Moods of Certainty: a) The “Indicativ”—mood of certainty and of reality;
b) The “Imperativ”—mood of presupposed certainty;
Moods of Uncertainty: a) The “Conjunvtiv”—mood of deliberating, both of possible and uncertain actions;
b) The “Prezumtiv”—mood of hypothesis, of assumption;
Moods which neutralize the opposition certainty/uncertainty:
Potential, assumptive—mood of virtuality, of the speaker’s detaching from the semantic content of the verb;
The “Optativ”—mood of the wanted, desired action.
The Category of Tense
As it can be seen in almost all languages, tense is a universal grammatical category of the verb, alongside with the categories of person and number. Irimia D. (2008) states that “Its categorical content is deictic and syntactic and it originates from the relation between the temporality of the process of linguistic communication and the temporality of the action of the verb as an object of communication.”
This relation generates the “notional tense” and it has three terms each of them corresponding to the three fundamental items in the temporal adverbial representation in the subject’s point of view and of the speaking act:
“azi” = simultaneity, the time of the action = the time of the communication →”prezent”;
“ieri’ =anteriority, the time of the action ← the time of the communication = trecut (perfect);
“maine” = posteriority → the time of the communication = “viitor”.
The grammatical tense is the linguistic expression of the “notional tense” and its semantic features differ from a language to another, depending on the relation between the notional tense and the grammatical tense, on the double nature (deictic and syntactic) of the category of tense and on its complementarity with two other important categories of the verb: aspect and mood.
The double nature has a great importance in the development of two categories of tenses from the semantic point of view: a) absolute tenses, which are deictic, and B) relative tenses, which are basically syntactic.
The semantic values of the absolute tenses come from the direct reference of the time of the action to the moment of speech: “Ieri am vazut-o pe Maria.” Absolute tenses are: “prezentul”, “perfectul (“simplu” and “compus”) and “viitorul I (“simplu”).
The semantic values of the relative tenses come from the reference to another verbal tense and this is observable especially with Complex Sentence (“fraza”): “Cand a venit tata,/¹ Tudor deja plecase./²”Relative tenses are: “mai mult ca perfectul”and “viitorul II (“anterior”).
In the Romanian language, the grammatical category of tense also encompasses the grammatical categories of aspect and mood.
The Category of Aspect
As Dindelegan (2010) states, aspect is seen as “the linguistic expression of the unique way of transformation of the state of being from the point of view of its unfolding in time” as follows:
As an unique event, usually of shorter duration (“momentary aspect”) or as an event occurring in o longer period of time (durative/ ongoing aspect”):
E.g.: Maria deschide fereastra. (State, momentary aspect)
Cade o frunză din copac. (Event, momentary aspect)
Tina se plimbă prin parc. (Activity, durative aspect)
Plouă. (Process, durative aspect).
As a complete action (perfective aspect) or unfinished/ incomplete action (imperfective aspect):
E.g.: A căzut o frunză. (perfective aspect)
Mă uitam la o frunză care cădea. (imperfective aspect)
As a single time occurrence or repeating itself (iterative aspect):
e.g.: A inchis ochii, speriat de fulger.
Închidea ochii mereu, deranjat de lumina puternică.
As being at the starting point (prospective aspect), or on the verge of beginning (inchoative aspect), or taking place (continuative aspect) or at its ending point (terminative aspect):
e.g.: Afară stă să plouă. (Prospective aspect)
Fata începe să scrie. (Inchoative aspect)
Solistul continuă să cânte. (Continuative aspect)
Acum termină de scris. (Terminative aspect).
The perfective –imperfective opposition correlates with another opposition, i.e. fulfilled-unfulfilled.
The imperfective aspect states the absence of the subject’s knowledge of the moment of development of the action: it is possible that the action have ended/ interrupted, but it is also possible that it have continued: “Când am întâlnit-o, cânta într-un restaurant.”
This opposition is best underlined through the characteristics of the “trecut” tense in the Indicative mood: a) perfective aspect: “perfect compus, perfect simplu, mai mult ca perfect”; b) imperfective aspect: “imperfect”.
In the “present” tense, this opposition neutralizes at the grammatical level. There is a component engaged at the semantic level of the verbs which depends on the oppositions such as: momentary/durative: e.g.: “cade/alunecă”.
In the “viitor” tense, the aspectual opposition comes over the temporal antithesis “viitor I-imperfect” and “viitor II-perfect”: e.g.: “voi cânta—voi fi cântat”.
The Category of Person and Number
a. The grammatical category of person can be seen with the verb and the pronoun. With the pronoun it is a semantic constant which differs from a pronoun class to another. With the verb, it originates and manifests itself in the speech act and its syntax, and within the interdependent relation between subject and predicate. Moreover, it intervenes in the agreement relation.
It displays its content through the realization of an internal opposition among correlative terms: “persoana I”, “persoana a II-a”, “persoana a III-a”, as follows:
“persoana I”= it is the subject-speaker, the protagonist, the grammatical subject:
E.g.: Eu spun că eu cânt.
↓ ↓
Interpreter grammatical subject
“persoana a II-a”: the interlocutor is revealed by the subject-speaker as being the protagonist of the action of the verb:
E.g.: Eu spun că tu ai cântat.
↓ ↓
The subject-speaker protagonist of the action of the verb
“persoana a III-a”: the subject-speaker assigns the action of the verb to a protagonist who is interpreted as the grammatical subject of the verb, but he does not participate in the action:
E.g.: Eu spun că el a cântat.
↓ ↓
The subject-speaker grammatical subject
Some observations must be made with regard to the impersonal verbs in the Romanian language. They stay outside the grammatical category of the person. There are some relative impersonal verbs which can be unchanged towards the protagonists of the speech act (“a se întâmpla”, “a trebui”, “a fi frig “) or they can rise to the level of the protagonists/participants in the action in an indirect way (“a < i >se întâmpla”, “a< I > se cuveni”, “a<-i> fi dor/teamă/sete/frig”). But the relative impersonal verbs which imply a participant in the speech act, but this does not necessarily mean that they become real participants, can be considered as lacking the 1st and the 2nd persons. These verbs are “unipersonal” verbs: “Mi-e teamă/ dor/ frig/ rece; Ți-e cald/ foame/ bine; I-e cald/ rece”. Although their semantic level is oriented towards the protagonist of the speech act which is expressed by personal pronoun forms in Dative (“mi”, “ți”, “ i”), they still keep the characteristics expressed above.
The category of person is expressed by some suffixes which are attached to the root of the verb or to the simple base verb(“cant/-a, cant/-a/-se/-m”), but in the case of the modal and compound temporal forms and in the case of the passive voice forms, they find expressions in variable forms of the auxiliary verbs: a) “am, ai, a, am, ați, au = Present Participle of the main verb”—for the “Perfect compus”; b) “voi, veți, va, vom, veți, vor = bare infinitive of the main verb’—for the Viitor I”; c) “aș, ai, a, am, ați, ar = the bare infinitive of the main verb”—for the “Condițonal-optativ”.
Special verbs in Romanian language:
Singular Plural
“A FI”: a)”Prezent”: Eu sunt Noi suntem
Tu ești Voi sunteți
El/ea este ei/ele sunt
b)’Imperfect”: eu eram Noi eram
Tu erai Voi erați
El/ea era Ei/ele erau
c)”Perfect simplu”: Eu fui/fusei noi furăm/fuserăm
Tu fuși/fuseși voi furăți/fuserăți
El/ea fu/fuse ei/ele fură/fuseră
d)”Perfect compus”: eu am fost noi am fost
tu ai fost voi ați fost
el/ea a fost ei/ele au fost
e)’Mai mult ca Perfect”: eu fusesem noi fuseserăm
tu fuseseși voi fuseserăți
el/ea fusese ei/ele fuseseră
f)”Viitor I”: eu voi fi noi vom fi
tu vei fi voi veți fi
el/ea va fi ei/ele vor fi
g)”Viitor II (anterior)’: eu voi fi fost noi vom fi fost
tu vei fi fost voi veți fi fost
el/ea va fi fost ei ele vor fi fost
“A AVEA”: a) „prezent”: eu am noi avem
Tu ai Voi aveți
El/ea are ei /ele au
b)”Imperfect”: eu aveam noi aveam
tu aveai voi aveați
el/ea avea ei/ele aveau
c)”Perfect simplu”: eu avui/avusei noi avurăm/avuserăm
tu avuși/avuseși voi avurăți/avuserăți
el/ea avu/avuse ei/ele avură/avuseră
d)”Perfect compus”: eu am avut noi am avut
tu ai avut voi ați avut
el/ea a avut ei/ele au avut
e)”:Mai mult ca prefect”: eu avusesem noi avuseserăm
tu avuseseși voi avuseserăți
el/ea avusese ei/ele avuseseră
f)”Viitor I (simplu)”: eu voi avea noi vom avea
tu vei avea voi veți avea
el/ea va avea ei/ele vor avea
g)”Viitor II (anterior)”: eu voi fi avut noi vom fi avut
tu vei fi avut voi veți fi avut
el/ea va fi avut ei/ele vor fi avut.
b. The grammatical category of number is similar to that of person both at semantic and at expression levels. The categorical opposition of number places the antithesis of person between two terms: “singular” and “plural”.
“persoana I singular/plural”: “(eu) zbor/ (noi) zburăm”; “(eu) citesc/ (noi) citim”;
“persoana a II-a singular/plural”: “(tu) zbori/ (voi) zburați”; “(tu) citești/ (voi) citiți”;
“persoana a III-a singular/plural”: “(el/ea) zboară/ (ei/ele) zboară”; “(el/ea) citește/ (ei/ele) citesc”.
The grammatical category of the number is not specific to verb, but it indicates if the subject is the one that speaks (“Eu învăț pentru examen.”), or the one that is talked to/addressed (“Tu gătești cina.”), or the one that is talked about (“Ea spală vasele”). This is realizable through the form of the verb and the personal pronouns that accompany the verb.
Unlike the noun and the person, the category of number does not have a proper content with verbs at the sematic level; it does not correspond to a sentence from the extralinguistic reality. It comes from the syntactic relation between verb (as a predicate) and the noun/pronoun (as a subject).
In the third person, this opposition remains at the semantic-syntactic level, i.e. the actor of the action of the verb sets the semantic level through “singular/plural” opposition (E.g.: “el<acesta/ copilul>”, for the singular, goes to “ei<aceștia/ copiii>”, for the plural”).
Being in an interdependency relation with the subject, the verb as a predicate subscribes to this syntactic opposition, “singular/plural”, due to the agreement rules as well:
E.g.: a. El (acesta/ elevul) vine. (Singular);
Ei (aceștia/ elevii) vin> (plural).
In the “persoana I” and “persoana a II-a”, this anthitesis involves also some distinctions which are imposed by their deictic components. Therefore, for the “persoana I”, plural represents the whole category of plurality of the author of the action:
E.g.: Vom merge la munte.= [Eu spun că] Noi [i.e. eu și copiii] vom merge la munte.
Or it can reflect the association of the actor of the verbal action in the development of the action, as in the sentence:
E.g.: Vom merge la munte.= [Eu spun că] Noi [i.e. eu și cu tine] vom merge la munte.
A similar distinction is common to the “persoana a II-a” as well, meaning “plural inclusiv”, which represents the interlocutor in the “persoana a II-a”, and the object of communication, i.e. “persoana a III-a”, which is represented by “tu” and “el”, and the “pluralul exclusiv”, meaning the interlocutor as a whole, but excluding the object of communication, as in the example below:
E.g.: Veți merge la munte.= [Eu spun că] Voi [i.e. tu și amici tăi] veți merge la munte.
At the level of expression, the understanding of the categorical antithesis of persons and number is made at the same time by means of the suffixes which are specific to each person, both numbers and to each tense.
The Category of Voice
It is defined as the grammatical category specific to the verb, which regards the relation between the action of the verb and its doer/-s. According to Dindelegan’s “Gramatica de bază a limbii române” (2010), voice must be considered both from syntactic and pragmatic points of view:
Syntactically, it affects not only the structure of the verb, but also the internal structure of the whole sentence, whose word order is: Subject +Verb + Object.
Pragmatically, because it moves the attention from the communicative point of view from the subject as the agent (in the Active voice sentence) towards subject-patient (in the Passive voice sentence).
E.g.: Ionel a citit o nuvelă. (Active voice).
→O nuvelă a fost citită de Ionel. (Passive voice).
Romanian language has three voices: Active, Reflexive and Passive.
The Active Voice: the sentence constituents are in their original position: Subject + Verb + Object, the subject is the agent, the doer, the author of the action of the verb, the result of the action is conveyed upon the object.
The Passive Voice: It is on operation that affects not only the structure of the verb, but also the internal constituency of the whole sentence: the semantic roles are differently assigned, the subject of the active voice sentence moves from its initial position in the sentence from final position and will be introduced by the preposition” de (către)”, the object (direct or indirect) is given the role of the subject and moves to the first position in the passive voice sentence; the auxiliary verb “A FI” is introduced and it takes the tense of the verb from the active voice sentence, it is followed by the verb of the active voice sentence, but in the “Participiu trecut (-s/-t)”.
E.g.: a. Sabina citește o poveste. (Prezent, active voice).
↓ ↓ ↓
Subject, Verb, direct object,
The agent prezent the affected
→O poveste e citită de Sabina. (Prezent, passive voice)
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Grammatical subject, aux.A FI+Participiu trecut the agent
Beneficiary
The “Indicativ” Mood
We have already seen that the categorical content of the mood organizes itself into five correlative terms: “Indicativ”, “Conjunctiv”, “Condițional-optativ”, “Prezumtiv” and “Imperativ”.
Judging from its usage, this mood expresses a real and certain action. It does not have any specific markers for its forms; it can be used both in main dependent clauses and in subordinate clauses. In order to express tense, it displays the most forms: “present”, “imperfect”, “perfect simplu”, “perfect compus”, “mai mult ca perfect”, “viitor I (simplu)”, “viitor II (anterior)”. Those temporal and aspectual forms are:
Simple, synthetical (with suffixes and inflection suffixes): “dorm, dormi, dormeam, dormisem”;
Compound, analytical (with auxiliary verb): ‘am dormit, voi dormi, voi fi dormit, o să dorm, am să dorm”.
At the semantic level, through the action it expresses and the different temporal variants it uses to do so, this mood comes in an opposition with other moods like the “Conjunctiv” and the “Condițional-optativ”, at the semantic level. At more explicit level, the opposition becomes more visible at the extremities of the opposition, i.e. “realitate-irealitate” and “certitudine-incertitudine”. Moreover, the various ways of expresses the “viitor” tense weighs a lot. At the other side, the “Imperativ” mood comes closer to the “Indicativ” mood, especially when looking at its future forms.
At the level of expression, the “Indicativ” mood opposes to other moods through the lack of a general morpheme which would accompany all its temporal forms as in the case of the “Conjunctiv” mood, which has conjunction “să”, or in the case of the “Optativ-potențial, which has the forms “aș, ai, a, am, ați, ar”, or in the case of the “Imperativ” mood, which displays the intonation.
By means of the multitude of meanings and of the main tenses, the “Indicativ” mood opposes to the other moods once again.
The future tense. The Romanian language has two main tenses in the temporal area of the future: “viitorul propriu-zis” si “ viitorul anterior”, but also has a periphrasis with value of “viitor in trecut” .
“Viitorul propiu-zis”
It is a compound tense that has several series of parallel shapes, equivalent from the temporal and aspectual point of view but stylistically differentiated it is also called “viitor simplu” or “viitor I” .
It has several forms and uses:
“Viitorul standard” is constituted up of an auxiliary (voi, vei, va,vom, veti, vor) followed by the infinitive form of the verb: voi vedea, voi merge, voi scrie. This tense resemblance in form to the English will-future, but it is different in some ways of function and usage.
“Viitorul popular” has mainly the same structure, is different from the previous one in point of register, lost his first consonant and has suffered some phonetic transformations, having the following form consisted from an affix: “oi, ai,(ei,ii,oi,),o om, ati (eti, iti, oti,),or and the infinitive of the main verb. The forms of the 1st and 3rd person are stable but the 2nd person has more phonetic variants
oi merge, o merge, om merge, oti merge
“Viitorul colocvial” is constituted from the affix “o”( which is invariable or has the next plural form “or) followed by a sequence that has the structure of the “conjuctiv” tense: o sa merg, o sa citim, o sa plecati
There is another form of “viitor colocvial”, less used, is made from the auxiliary “ a avea” and a sequence identical with the “ conjunctiv” tense: am sa plec, are sa vina, au sa mearga
There is also a form of “viitor literar” but is used very little in the oral communication, it is associated with certain solemnity and with the written variant of the standard language.
Modal and temporal values
From the temporal point of view, “viitorul propiu-zis” is a deictic tense which has landmark the moment of communication.
“Viitorul I” it is used as a relative tense in subordination with declaration or cognitive verbs. If the regent verb is in the past “viitorul I” acts as “ viitor in trecut” after a moment from the past; from this construction we cannot decide if it happens posterior even in the moment of speaking. E.g. “Acum un an mi-a spus ca se va muta in alt oras. “
The future is used in historical narration, to indicate an intern point of view, reported at a specific time in the past: “ In 1881 se va naste M. Eminescu.”
“Viitorul propriu-zis” expresses unreal and unrealized actions.
4.2. “Viitorul anterior” also called “viitor II” it is a compound tense which corresponds to the “viitor literar”. It is constituted from the future of the auxiliary “a fi” and the participle of the verb: voi fi plecat, vor fi plecat.
“Viitorul anterior” is a relative tense which designates an action of posterity to the moment of speaking, but one of anteriority to a certain moment from the future : E.g. Sper ca, atunci cand vei merge tu aici, eu voi fi terminat deja romanul.
“Viitorul anterior” it is not used at all in the current conversation, is a tense used mostly in books, it can be replaced by the “perfect compus”. Action is presented as closed.
It is considered to be the equivalent of english Future Perfect
4.3. “Viitor in trecut” is a tense insufficiently grammaticalized , is achieved through the transposition of the future periphrasis with “a avea”. The “viitor in trecut” periphrasis is constituted from the verb “ a avea” at “imperfect” and an identical form of the “ conjuctiv” tense : aveam sa plec. His value is that of future reported at a specific time in the past: E.g. In 1852 avea sa se nasca I.L.Caragiale.
In both languages the future forms refer not just to a future time but also to a general truth which classifies his signification omni-temporal. For this reason the linguistics have introduced an alternative terminology (e.g. past vs. non past; future – non future; or present). Most of the above mentioned forms, if not all, do not have a one-to-one relationship with the English forms, thus, the function and the particular meaning of each instantiation brings about a lexical-grammatical constraint when choosing the equivalent.
Chapter V
Teaching English Grammar Methods
This chapter provides a brief listing of the salient features of the methods used in language teaching, grouped in four sections: (2.1.) humanistic approach (Grammar Translation, The Silent Way, Community Language Learning, Total Physical Response, Suggestopedia); (2.2.) behaviourism (The Audio-Lingual Method); (2.3.) cognitivism (The structural situational approach); (2.4.) The socio-cultural turn (Communicative language teaching).
A method is considered to be a plan for teaching language. And it is based on a theory about the way in which language is best learned and taught to people (children, teenagers, adults).
A method also describes the role of the teacher in the classroom and of the learners during the classes; it points out what is learned in what order, it specifies how interaction takes place during the process of learning (teacher-student/-s, student/-s-teacher, student/-s-student/-s). It tells a teacher what materials and classroom activities are used. It describes is learners’L1 will be used during the teaching process.
There are various language teaching methods: Grammar translation, Communicative Language Learning, the Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response, the Natural Approach, Communicative Learning Teaching, and Audio-lingual Method.
All these methods have their own objectives, features, characteristics for both teachers and learners, their specifications regarding error correction, classroom activities and the use of L1 in the classroom.
It is the teacher’s great task to thoughtfully analyze their objectives, the learners’ needs of learning and teaching, the context of the learning and teaching processes in order to choose the most appropriate method(-s). It must also be pointed out the fact that a teacher may mix techniques from different methods in order to achieve their teaching objectives.
It must be distinguished between a method and methodology. Methodology is the general study of the way language is taught, while a method is one approach to the learning process of language.
The selection of one method or another depends on many factors, as follows:
The purpose of the teaching process (English for specific purposes…);
The teacher’s language level, thus taking into consideration the fact that for some methods and approaches teachers should speak L2 very fluently;
The resources available, meaning that different methods require great amount of materials in order to support teaching;
The age, number in class and the motivation of the learners.
5.1. Humanistic Approaches
A humanistic approach to language learning allows for personal growth orientation and for the development of learners’ responsibility; the learners are encouraged to use discovery techniques, being no longer spoon-fed by the teacher.
5.1.1. The Grammar Translation Method
This approach said to have a humanistic grounding (Grenfell and Harris, 1999), although other scholars claim that it is not based on any approach (notably Morgan and Neil, 2001). Furthermore, it can be said to emphasize knowledge for knowledge’s sake. It is heavily indebted to the teaching of classical languages and it prevailed from the end of the 19th century to the 1940s. Richards and Rogers (1986) list several tenets of the Grammar Translation, as follows:
The main goal of learning the language is to read the literature of the foreign language and refine intellectually; secondly, learners are expected to develop a greater understanding of L1; thirdly, students will be able to cope with difficult learning materials and situations;
Reading and writing are taught to the detriment of listening and speaking;
Teaching vocabulary is reduced to the words encountered in the literary texts; vocabulary items are listed and students are asked to learn their translations;
Translation skills, alongside reading and writing, are taught using the literary texts;
Grammar is taught deductively, the presentation stage, consisting of long explanations or rules and exceptions to the rules, is followed by practice; learners follow the prescribed route to the technicalities of syntax. The structures to be translated are presented in a disconnected way, the learners being asked to identify the grammar items used in the text and state the rule(s);
English language teaching is done through English.
We will enlarge on these tenets in the sections below:
The Grammar-Translation Method focuses on developing students’ appreciation of the target language’s literature as well as teaching the language. Students are presented with target language reading passages and answer questions that follow. Other activities include translating literary passages from one language into the other, memorizing grammar rules, and memorizing native language equivalents of target language vocabulary. Class work is highly structured, with the teacher controlling all activities.
Features of the Grammar-Translation Method
Goals: to be able to read literature in target language; learn grammar rules and vocabulary; develop mental acuity.
Roles: Teacher has authority; students follow instructions to learn what teacher knows.
Teaching/learning process: Students learn by translating from one language to the other, often translating reading passages in the target language from the native language.
Grammar is usually learned deductively on the basis of grammar rules and examples. Students memorize the rules, and then apply them to other examples. They learn paradigms such as verb conjugations, and they learn the native language equivalents of vocabulary words.
Interaction: Student-Teacher & Student-Student: most interaction is teacher to student; student-initiated interaction and student-student interaction is minimal.
Dealing with Feelings: n/a (not available, not applicable)
Aspects of Language the Grammar-Translation Approach Emphasizes:
Vocabulary; grammar; reading, writing are primary skills; pronunciation and other speaking/listening skills not emphasized.
Role of Students’ Native Language: native language provides key to meanings in the target language; native language is used freely in class.
Means for Evaluation: tests require translation from native to target and target to native language; applying grammar rules, answering questions about foreign culture.
Response to Students’ Errors: heavy emphasis placed on correct answers; Teacher supplies correct answers when students cannot.
According to St. Krashen (1981), Grammar-translation usually consists of an explanation of a grammatical rule, with some example sentences, a bilingual vocabulary list, a reading section exemplifying the grammatical rule and incorporating the vocabulary, and exercises to practice using the grammar and vocabulary. Most of these classes are taught in the student’s first language. The grammar-translation method provides little opportunity for acquisition and relies too heavily on learning.
St. Krashen (1982) also made a distinction between acquiring a language and learning a language: the acquisition of a language is a natural process, whereas learning a language is a conscious one. In the former (acquisition of a language) the student needs to participate in natural communicative situations. Children acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are unaware of grammatical rules. This is similar to the way they acquire their first language. In order to acquire language, the learner needs a source of natural communication.
In the latter (learning a language), on the other hand, language learning is not communicative. It is the result of direct instruction in the grammatical rules of language – the study of grammatical rules is isolated from natural language; error correct is also present.
5.1.2. The Silent Way Method (Caleb Gattegno, 1972)
The teacher keeps his/her talking time at a minimum (keeps silent), yet, directing and controlling the learners. The input provided by the teacher is reduced to model sentences that the teacher utters only once and the learners are asked to repeat. Information transmission and feedback are given through visual aids. A well-known technique includes Cuisenaire Rods, enabling the learners to deduce meanings or forms: a set of coloured rods, wall charts and a pointer. The teacher takes a rod and says “a rod” to the students. Next, by using mime the teacher induces the students to repeat the name of the object. The teacher combines the names of colours to the object saying “a red rod”, “a blue rod”, etc. The students are eventually expected to say “a red rod”, “a blue rod”, etc. without the teacher’s model. With reference to the wall charts, the students are made to form strings of words using the words they have learnt orally by pointing to a series of words that then they read in the order indicated.
The theoretical basis of Gattegno’s Silent Way is the idea that teaching must be subordinated to learning and thus students must develop their own inner criteria for correctness. All four skills – reading, writing, speaking and listening – are taught from the beginning. Students’ errors are expected as a normal part of learning: the teacher’s silence helps foster self-reliance and student initiative. The teacher is active in setting up situations, while the students do most of the talking and interacting.
Goals: to use language for self-expression: to develop independence from the teacher, to develop inner criteria for correctness.
Roles: Teaching should be subordinated to learning. Teachers should give students only what they absolutely need to promote their learning. Learners are responsible for their own learning.
Teaching/learning process: Students begin with sounds, introduced through association of sounds in native language to a sound-colour chart. Teacher then sets up situations, often using Cuisenaire rods, to focus students’ attention on structures. Students interact as the situation requires. Teachers see students’ errors as clues to where the target language is unclear, and they adjust instruction accordingly. Students are urged to take responsibility for their learning. Additional learning is thought to take place during sleep.
Interaction: Student-Teacher & Student-Student: The teacher is silent much of the time, but very active setting up situations, listening to students, speaking only to give clues, not to mode speech. Student-student interaction is encouraged.
Dealing with Feelings: Teachers monitor students’ feelings and actively try to prevent their feelings from interfering with their learning. Students express their feelings during feedback sessions after class.
View of Language, Culture: Language and culture are inseparable, and each language is seen to be unique despite similarities in structure with other languages.
Aspects of Language the Approach Emphasizes:
All four skills areas worked on from beginning (reading, writing, speaking, listening); pronunciation especially, because sounds are basic and carry the melody of the language. Structural patterns are practiced in meaningful interactions. Reading and writing exercises reinforce oral learning.
Role of Students’ Native Language: Although translation is not used at all, the native language is considered a resource because of the overlap that is bound to exist between the two languages. The teacher should take into account what the students already know.
Means for Evaluation: Assessment is continual; but only to determine continually changing learning needs. Teachers observe students’ ability to transfer what they have learned to new contexts. To encourage the development of inner criteria, neither praise nor criticism is offered. Students are expected to learn at different rates, and to make progress, not necessarily speak perfectly in the beginning.
Response to Students’ Errors: Errors are inevitable, a natural, indispensable part of learning.
5.1.3. Community Language Learning/Counselling Learning
(Charles Curran)
Teaching languages is paralleled to psychotherapeutic counselling, where there is concern with removing tension and negative feelings. Admittedly, the teacher is the counsellor/knower and the learner is the client. They gradually build a trusting or maximum security relationship compared to the growth of the individual from childhood dependence through adolescent rebellion and self-assertion to adult independence. There is a high degree of flexibility in the syllabus design, which virtually develops as the teaching unfolds.
5.1.4. The Total Physical Response Method (TPR) (Harold Palmer, James Asher)
Physical action and learning are linked in language teaching. Production is delayed until learners feel confident (comprehension skills are developed first). J. Roberts (1998: 35) states that “learners execute teacher’s commands for about 120 hours before conversation is encouraged” (1998: 35). Imperative forms (commands) are used by the teacher to elicit learners’ action. The teacher plays a traditional role (controller) and the syllabus is grammar-based.
TPR is a method developed by James Asher, professor of psychology, to aid learning second languages. Asher’s approach begins by placing primary importance on listening comprehension, emulating the early stage of mother tongue acquisition, and then moving to speaking, reading, and writing. Students demonstrate their comprehension by acting out commands issued by the teacher; teachers provide novel and often humorous variations of the commands. Activities are designed to be fun and to allow students to assume active learning roles. Activities eventually include games and skits (= short performances).
Features of the Total Physical Response
Goals: to provide an enjoyable learning experience, having a minimum of the stress that typically accompanies learning a foreign language.
Roles: at first the teacher gives commands and students follow them. Once students are “ready to speak”, they take on directing roles.
Teaching/learning process: Lessons begin with commands by the teacher; students demonstrate their understanding by acting these out; teacher recombines their instructions in novel and often humorous ways; eventually students follow suit. Activities later include games and skits.
Interaction: Student-Teacher & Student-Student: Teacher interacts with individual students and with the group, starting with the teacher speaking and the students responding nonverbally. Later this is reversed; students issue commands to teacher as well as to each other.
Dealing with Feelings: The method was developed principally to reduce the stress associated with language learning; students are not forced to speak before they are ready and learning is made as enjoyable as possible, stimulating feelings of success and low anxiety.
View of Language, Culture: Oral modality is primary; Culture is the lifestyle of native speakers of the target language.
Aspects of Language the Approach Emphasizes: Grammatical structures and vocabulary are emphasized, embedded in imperatives. Understanding precedes production; spoken language precedes the written word.
Role of Students’ Native Language: method is introduced in students’ native language, but rarely used later in course. Meaning is made clear through actions.
Means for Evaluation: Teachers can evaluate students through simple observation of their actions. Formal evaluation is achieved by commanding a student to perform a series of actions.
Response to Students’ Errors: Students are expected to make errors once they begin speaking. Teachers only correct major errors, and do this unobtrusively. ”Fine tuning” occurs later.
According to St. Krashen (1981), Total Physical Response involves the students listening and responding to commands given by the teacher such as “sit down” and “walk”, with the complexity of the commands growing over time as the class acquires more language. Student speech is delayed, and once students indicate a willingness to talk, they initially give commands to other students. Theory predicts that TPR should result in substantial language acquisition. Its content may not be always interesting and relevant for the students, but should produce better results than the audio-lingual and grammar-translation methods.
5.1.5. The Suggestopedia Method (Georgi Lozanov)
Learning takes place in a tension-free atmosphere, special attention being paid to furniture and surroundings. Music is played (Baroque instrumental music) to enhance learning. The typical scenario (“the concert”) runs as follows: students sit comfortably while the teacher reads a lengthy dialogue. Students are provided with the text and the L1 translation. Slow movement music is played. After the interval (no smoking and no drinking), the teacher re-reads the dialogue while students listen without reading the text this time. Thus, learners are supposed to remember best from the teacher playing an authoritative role.
Lozanov’s method seeks to help learners eliminate psychological barriers to learning. The learning environment is relaxed and subdued, with low lighting and soft music in the background. Students choose a name and character in the target language and culture, and imagine that person. Dialogues are presented to the accompaniment of music. Students just relax and listen to them being read and later playfully practice the language during an “activation” phase.
Features of the method
Goals: to learn, at accelerated pace, a foreign language for everyday communication by tapping mental powers, overcoming psychological barriers.
Roles: Teacher has authority, commands trust and respect of students; teacher “desuggests” negative feelings and limits to learning; if teacher succeeds in assuming this role, students assume childlike role, spontaneous and uninhibited.
Teaching/learning process: Students learn in a relaxing environment. They choose a new identity (name, occupation) in the target language and culture. They use texts of dialogues accompanied by translations and notes in their native language. Each dialogue is presented during two musical concerts; once with the teacher matching his or her voice to the rhythm and pitch of the music while students follow along. The second time, the teacher reads normally and students relax and listen. At night and on waking, the students read it over. Then students gain facility with the new material through activities such as dramatizations, games, songs, and question-to-answer sessions.
Interaction: Student-Teacher & Student-Student: At first, teacher initiates all interaction and students respond only nonverbally or with a few words in target language that they have practiced. Eventually students initiate interaction. Students interact with each other throughout, as directed by teacher.
Dealing with Feelings: Great importance is placed on students’ feelings, in making them feel confident and relaxed, in “desuggesting” their psychological barriers.
View of Language, Culture: Language is one plane; nonverbal parts of messages are another. Culture includes everyday life and fine arts.
Aspects of Language the Approach Emphasizes: Vocabulary emphasized some explicit grammar. Students focus on communicative use rather than form; reading, writing also have place.
Role of Students’ Native Language: Translation clarifies dialogue’s meaning; Teacher uses native language, more at first than later, when necessary.
Means for Evaluation: Students’ normal in-class performance is evaluated. There are no tests, which would threaten relaxed environment.
Response to Students’ Errors: Errors are not immediately corrected; teacher models correct forms later during class.
According to St. Krashen (1981), Suggestopedia classes are small and intensive, and focus on providing a very low-stress, attractive environment (partly involving active and passive “séances” complete with music and meditation) in which acquisition can occur. Some of the students’ first language is used at the beginning, but most in the target language. The role of the teacher is very important in creating the right atmosphere and in acting out the dialogues that form the core of the content. Suggestopedia seems to provide close to optimal input while not giving too much emphasis on grammar.
5.2. Behaviourism (Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Edward Thorndike, Burrhus Skinner)
5.2.1. The Audio-Lingual Method
Behaviourism: in psychology, b. is a theory that presents behaviour as the product of heredity and environment, and in particular of a process of conditioning in which certain stimuli promote certain responses. I. Pavlov, was a forerunner, and F. Skinner was a major proponent of the theory. It influenced ESL teaching from the mid-1950s to the late 1980s, especially in the US, part of an association of structural linguistics, behavioural psychology, and language teaching promoted by L. Bloomfield. This led in the 1950s to the audio-lingual method, in which human learning was compared to that of rats in laboratory mazes and pigeons taught to play table tennis. Language learning was seen as a process of habit formation. In 1959, Noam Chomsky challenged both behaviourism and structuralism in a critique of Skinner’s work, as a result of which the use of teaching techniques and materials based on behaviourism had by 1980 greatly declined. The audio-lingual method is based on the behaviourist belief that language learning is the acquisition of a set of correct language habits. The learner repeats patterns until able to produce them spontaneously. Once a given pattern, for example, subject – verb – prepositional phrase – is learned, the speaker can substitute to make novel sentences. The teacher directs and controls students’ behaviour, provides a model, and reinforces correct responses.
This method is to be dealt with in a separate chapter of the present paper.
5.3. Cognitivism/ Mentalism
5.3.1. The Structural Situational Approach
The Chomskyan revolution discredits the development of linguistic competence via the stimulus-response-reinforcement cycle as creativity is part of this process: speakers are able to generate an infinite number of novel sentences (performance, i.e. actual use of the language) starting from a finite number of rules that they have internalized (competence, i.e. knowledge about the language system). He advocates the existence of universal grammar, i.e. of mental blueprints or a mind-set specific to human beings (innate competence as opposed to skill-based behaviourism). Language competence is somehow idealised, being linked to nativeness and perfect knowledge of the language.
Chomsky presents the ideal speaker-hearer in a completely homogenous speech community, who knows his language perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of attention or interests, or errors (random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge of the language in actual performance (Chomsky, 1965: 48). Chomsky’s ideal speaker-hearer is unaffected by limitations of memory, distractions, shifts of attention, etc.
Chomsky’s notion of competence refers to language as a merely abstract entity. Every speaker is believed to be able to generate language through the absorption of examples (Language Acquisition Device – LAD). What Chomsky does not put into this equation is the socialising function of language, i.e. there is no reference to socio-cultural embeddedness.
The Structural-Situational Approach/ Situational Language Teaching has the following features:
It is a far-reaching 3-stage lesson template, labelled the P-P-P cycle, consisting of presentation, practice and production.
Grammar is central to language teaching (grammar-based methodology).
During the presentation stage, the teacher presents the new grammar items, based on conversation or a short text. The identification of the grammar structures is followed by the teacher’s explanation and checking of students’ comprehension.
The practice stage involves the use of drills (controlled or mechanical practice).
There is smooth progress from semi-controlled/meaningful practice to free/communicative practice.
The P-P-P cycle was seriously criticized as “fundamentally disabling, not enabling (Scrivener, 1994: 15). Johnson (1982) had already suggested the deep-end strategy as an alternative: students are pushed into immediate production (the deep end) and the teacher decides to return to presentation or practice according to the students’ performance.
Harmer (2007: 65 ff) endorses the ESA sequence: Engage → Study → Activate. During the Engage stage, learners are engaged emotionally in the process. The second stage corresponds to Presentation and Practice, while Activation overlaps with Production. The model is flexible enough to allow for the re-ordering of stages: E → A → S (a “boomerang” procedure”), E → A → S → A → E → S (“patchwork lesson”). The author concludes that the approach is “extremely useful in focus-on-form lessons” with beginners, and “irrelevant in a skills lesson”.
5.4. The Socio-Cultural Turn: The Communicative Approach/ Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
5.4.1. The positivist view in social sciences is replaced by an ethnographia mundi concern in the 1960s. There is a shift of emphasis from language per se to its instrumentalization (language as a means of communication in social contexts) and to a more naturalistic view. From a linguistic perspective, CLT draws on the Speech act Theory (J. Searle, 1969), shifting attention to the relationship between language and its users, from habit formation to the real intended meaning.
R. Mitchell (1994: 38-39) points out some of the best features of the CLT:
Classroom activities should maximize opportunities for learners to use the target language for meaningful purposes, with their attention on the messages they are creating and the tasks they are completing, rather than on the correctness of language and language structure.
Learners trying their best to use the target language creatively and unpredictably are bound to make errors; this is a normal part of language learning, and constant correction is unnecessary, and even counterproductive.
Language analysis and grammar explanation may help some learners, but extensive experience of target language use helps everyone.
Effective language teaching is responsive to the needs and interests of the individual learner.
Effective language learning is an active process, in which the learner takes increasing responsibility for his or her progress.
The effective teacher aims to facilitate, not control, the language learning process.
According to Grenfell and Harris (1999: 21), the popularity of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) lies in:
The status of the foreign language in the classroom, i.e. the extent to which it is used in the instruction process.
Attitude to error: what, when and how to correct? In the traditional model, error was seen as a heavy impairment, being sanctioned immediately and error correction was the teacher’s central pedagogic tool. In CLT, there is tolerance to error, which is understood as a natural stage in the learner’s linguistic development.
Authenticity of language: a wide range of authentic or real life materials (realia) is used in the classroom. Besides exposing learners to real life situational language, these materials also immerse them in the foreign language culture and raise the learners’ motivation for learning the language of the other speech community.
Spoken and written language are treated as separate entities, requiring different teaching techniques.
practice vs. real language: even if, to some extent, the learners still perceive the
Classroom environment as not genuine, there is meaningful interaction in and through the foreign language, relating back to the intention to mean and legitimacy of tasks.
The Post-Communicative Turn
Jacobs and Farrell (2003) advocate a paradigm shift, which led to 8 major changes in ELT:
Learner autonomy: learners are given a higher degree of autonomy with respect to the learning content and process. Thus, they are encouraged to develop self-assessment skills and the ability to prioritize their language learning.
The social nature of learning: there is no value-free knowledge, but only knowledge serving individual and collective needs or goals.
Curricular integration: English is given a place in a coherent whole, being connected to other subjects in the curriculum. For instance, project work in English classes requires knowledge acquisition from other subjects or from the real world (encyclopedic knowledge).
Focus on meaning: meaningful content is of paramount importance, being the driving force of learning.
Diversity: the teachers should be aware of the learners’ profile (age, personality, type of motivation, learning styles, linguistic proficiency, etc.) and try to cater to this diversity of needs and interests.
Thinking skills: language learning should foster critical and creative thinking skills (cognitive development). For example, learners should be able to select relevant information from a text.
Alternative assessment: there is need for complementing traditional forms of assessment (M/C, Reading comprehension questions, Error correction exercises, etc.) by forms that assess higher-order skills (e.g. portfolios, observation sheets, interviews, etc).
Teachers as co-learners: teachers accrue experience (learning by doing) and capitalize expertise, while also pursuing professional development.
5.4.2. Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. Communicative language teaching began in Britain in the 1960s as a replacement to the earlier structural method(s). This was partly in response to Chomsky’s criticisms of structural theories of language and partly based on the theories of British functional linguists, such as J.R. Firth and M.A.K. Halliday, as well as American sociologists, such as D. Hymes, J. Gumperz and W. Labov, and the writings of J. Austin and J. Searle on speech acts. Some of the areas of linguistic research in this view of language are: functional grammar, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and semantics.
Functional grammar: describes any approach in which the notion of ‘function’ is central. Functional grammar (M.A.K. Halliday, An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 1994) was devised as an alternative to the abstract view of language presented by transformational grammar. Based on the pragmatic view of language as social interaction, it focuses on the rules governing the linguistic expressions that are used as instruments of this activity. In foreign language teaching, a functional syllabus is one where the syllabus content is organized in terms of language functions, such as requesting, persuading, inviting, etc.
Sociolinguistics: is a branch of linguistics which studies all aspects of the relationship between language and society. Sociolinguists study such matters as the linguistic identity of social groups, social attitudes to language, standard and non-standard forms of language, social varieties and levels of language, and so on.
Pragmatics: this term is applied to the study of language from the point of view of the users, especially the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction, and the effects their use of language has on other participants in an act of communication. Pragmatics includes aspects of deixis, speech acts and discourse structure.
Speech act theory is associated with two linguistic philosophers, J. L. Austin and J. R. Searle (J. L. Austin, How to do Things with Words, 1965; J. R. Searle, Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts, 1979). They developed a functional view of language based on the notion that the social use of language is primarily concerned with the performance of certain communicative acts. There are a variety of reasons which may prompt the act of communication. We use language for requesting, informing, ordering, promising, reprimanding, to mention just a few. In all these cases we could say that language is being used to perform certain speech acts.
Semantics refers to the study of meaning in language. Structural semantics applies the principles of structural linguistics to the study of meaning through the notion of semantic relations (also called sense relations), such as synonymy and antonymy. The theory of semantic fields views vocabulary as organized into areas within which words (lexical items) interrelate and define each other.
Approach: Theory of language: The functional view of language is the primary one behind the communicative method. The communicative or functional view of language is the view that language is a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. The semantic and communicative dimensions of language are more emphasized than the grammatical characteristics, although these are also included.
Theory of learning: The learning theories behind the communicative approaches are based on some principles:
– Activities that involve real communication promote learning;
– Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning;
– Language that is meaningful to the learner promotes learning;
This method is also to be dealt with in a separate chapter of the present paper.
5.4.3. The Direct Method
The Direct Method allows students to perceive meaning directly through the language because no translation is allowed. Visual aids and pantomime are used to clarify the meaning of vocabulary items and concepts. Students speak a great deal in the target language and communicate as if in real situations. Reading and writing are taught from the beginning, though speaking and listening skills are emphasized. Grammar is learned inductively.
Features of the Direct Method
Goals: to communicate in the target language, to think in the target language.
Roles: Teacher directs class activities, but students and teacher are partners in the teaching/learning process.
Teaching/learning process: Students are taught to associate meaning and the target language directly. New target language words or phrases are introduced through the use of realia, pictures or pantomime, never the native language. Students speak a great deal in the target language a great deal and communicate as if in real situations. Grammar rules are learned inductively – by generalizing from examples. Students practice new vocabulary using words in sentences.
Interaction: Student-Teacher & Student-Student: Both teacher and students initiate interaction, though student-initiated interaction with teacher or among each other, is usually teacher-directed.
Dealing with Feelings: N/A (not available, not applicable)
View of Language, Culture: Language is primarily spoken, not written. Students study common, everyday speech in the target language. Aspects of foreign culture are studied such as history, geography, daily life.
Aspects of Language the Approach Emphasizes:
Vocabulary emphasized over grammar; oral communication considered basic, with reading, writing based on oral practice; pronunciation emphasized from outset.
Role of Students’ Native Language: Students’ native language is not used in the classroom.
Means for Evaluation: Students tested through actual use, such as oral interviews and assigned written paragraphs.
Response to Students’ Errors: Self-correction encouraged whenever possible.
According to St. Krashen (1981), using the “Direct Method”, the teacher uses examples of language in order to inductively teach grammar; Students are to try to guess the rules of the language by the examples provided. Teachers interact with the students a lot, asking them questions about relevant topics and trying to use the grammatical structure of the day in the conversation. Accuracy is sought and errors are corrected. This method provides more comprehensible input than grammar-translation and audio-lingual method, but unlike the communicative method, it still focuses too much on grammar.
Chapter VI
Methodological Aspects of Teaching Past Tense in English in Comparison with Romanian
Teaching Tenses in the Classroom: Issues and Implications
Chapter VI presents “Methodological Aspect of Teaching the Past Tense in English in Comparison with Romanian”. It also speaks about the issues and implications of teaching tenses in the classroom. There follows the difficulties encountered by Romanian learners in using the Future. Furthermore, there are presented the methods of teaching: from Traditional Approach–“The Audio-lingual Method” and from Communicative Approach—“The Communicative Language Teaching Method”, accompanied by different activities, samples of tests, recordings of common mistakes and conclusions.
Research Aims
The research aim is to show the importance of learning tenses in English and Romanian languages, i.e. learning to express a future action in the English language with children learning English as a second/foreign language, and learning to express a future action in Romanian language with children learning Romanian language as a native language.
There are many reasons why children should learn about grammar, and some of them can be formulated as follows:
Learning grammar is important if the students want to develop their grammatical competence, i.e. to be aware of the grammatical structures and of how to use them correctly, facts which helps them to enlarge their linguistic competence, to include more grammatical patterns in their conversations as adults to be, structures which they don’t possess as children.
To change their competence into actual performance, i.e. to gain, to develop all the language skills (writing, reading, speaking, listening), because this will help them to connect with their teacher and other students from the class, it will allow them all to communicate things better.
To encourage and support the students’ process of learning a foreign language, i.e. to give the students all the explicit instructions whenever they need, even if the teacher has to use their native language in order to accomplish his objectives.
To develop the students’ thinking skills, i.e. it is grammar that helps them realize all the logical connections such as classifications, temporal and causation relations, chronological order of the events, etc.
To develop the students’ skills of investigation, i.e. referring to those situations when grammar is taught using methods like that of investigation which is made by children’s previous knowledge; it is also regarded as a very good introduction to scientific method;
To give them a high appreciation of their own minds, i.e. grammar is considered to be a highly interconnected mental system, and when it is taught well, and as a consequence learned well, most people find it to be extremely interesting, even fascinating;
To develop a critical attitude to the ways in which some people use language in their everyday life, i.e. to “punish” and correct grammatical errors.
Based on the ideas expressed above, the problem of the research may be formulated as follows:
What are the issues and implications of teaching Future Tenses in English in comparison with Romanian language?
What are the difficulties encountered by Romanian learners in using the Future?
Which is the most effective way of teaching Future: from Traditional Approach, using the Audio-lingual Method, or from Communicative Approach, using the Communicative Language Teaching Method?
The writer expects that the research will be useful by increasing her knowledge about the methods of teaching and learning.
Research Methods
The research part deals with the aspects of teaching English Future Tenses in comparison with Romanian ones and the process of teaching tenses in the classroom.
In order to do my study, I am going to choose two parallel classes, namely the 9th graders, A and B, then I intend to explain my students what the activities are intended to and what are the objectives of the lessons I will teach them. To be more specific, I want to teach Future Tenses to the two classes at the same time, but the difference will be that with one class I am going to use the Traditional Method, i.e. the Audio-lingual Method, whereas with the other class, I intend to use the Communicative Approach, i.e. the Communicative Language Teaching Method.
During the teaching process, I will observe the students from both classes and record my findings, which depend on several things I want to analyze:
Which method of teaching is more effective, or the most;
How many of the students from both classes will have learnt to express correctly a Future action in English;
What are the difficulties they encountered during the learning process;
What are the most common errors they made when turning an affirmative sentence into a negative and interrogative one.
The Experiment
In order to do all these things, I have given them a pre-test to check them upon Future Tenses, with items which will verify:
1. The basic forms of the verbs;
2. Choosing the correct answer from items in different future tenses;
3. Turn into interrogative and negative.
Another way to do the analysis is to give them a questionnaire which will be concerned with the following issues:
1. The importance of teaching grammar in schools;
2. The effectiveness of each method of teaching;
3. To grasp possible motifs for which the students want to learn how to express future actions in English;
4. How well they manage to express such things in both written and orally;
5. Which are the most difficult ways to express future actions in English.
The research part will contain lesson plans concerned with ways of teaching future tenses into classes, being accompanied by practice activities.
At the end of the study, conclusions must be drawn and these will concern some issues:
How many students know the basic forms of the verbs;
What are the easiest learnt forms;
If my students are able to express future actions in English ;
If their skills improved at all;
What are the improvements I should do with my future classes;
If each of the methods used in teaching was effective enough;
If teaching grammar is really effective;
What are the difficulties encountered by the Romanian learners when learning future tenses in English.
Pre – test
Complete these sentences using the future simple of the verbs in brackets:
1. In two days, I ………………….. (know) my results.
2. ‘There is the doorbell.’ ‘I ……………….. (go)’
3. You …………………… (regret) this decision.
4. We ………………….. (never know) what happened to her.
5. The whole nation ……………….. (be) proud of you.
6. That …………………. (be) our gift to the school.
7. Kind words ………………….. (give) others joy.
8. This piece of wisdom ………………. (cost) you ten dollars.
9. You …………………… (never understand) my position.
10. Someday I …………………… (write) a novel.
11. He ……………………… (pass) the test.
II. Write question and answers in future simple:
Q. (you / ask) him if he comes with us?
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No, he (not/come), he has to be home when mom comes.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
Q. (it / rain) tomorrow?
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
No, (it/not/rain), at least that is what they said on the radio.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
Q. (the teacher / test) our English?
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
Yes, she (test) us at the end of the semester.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
Q. (what / they / eat)?
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
They (eat) stake and fries.
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
Q. (who / drive / us) into town?
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
Dad (drive) us into town.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
The results of the pre-test are illustrated in the diagrams below and they show the percentage at which the students have succeeded in completing the tasks given.
The diagrams for the first subject also show that present tenses in general are easily recognized and therefore learned, verbs like: ‖believe, owe, borrow, shine ‖. So Future Tenses of some verbs are easier to form. However, there are some verbs which have been learned more quickly in point of their Future forms, verbs like ―be, love, know, hope‖.
As far as the second subject is concerned, the diagrams reveal the fact that there are many students in both classes who succeeded to form correctly affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences in the Future Tenses.
Conclusions:
a. Students have learned to apply the rules of formation of Future Tenses;
b. They have come to master the order of constituents in affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences by practicing enough, and, as a result, they have gained correctness in using Future Tenses;
c. Besides having achieved correctness, they have also become more accurate using the linguistic information.
d. The results registered with the 9-th grade B are higher than the results from the 9-th grade A, both at subject I and at the second subject.
Diagram 1: Representation of the results of the initial test, the 9-th grade A, subject I
Diagram 2: Representation of the results of the initial test, the 9-th grade B, subject I
Diagram 3: Representation of the results of the initial test, the 9-th grade A, subject II
Diagram 4: Representation of the results of the initial test, the 9-th grade B, subject II
Table 3: Comparison between the results of subject I, initial test
Table 4: Comparison between the results of subject II, initial test
6.1. Presenting means of expressing the Future.
It has already been stated that Future tenses are a part of the English grammar, and, as a result, to learn English implies to learn grammar and tenses as well. Yule (2006) defines grammar as “the analysis of the structures of phrases and sentences”, whereas Swan (1996) sees it as “the rules that show how words are combined, arranged or changed to show certain kinds of meaning”. Teaching English future tenses is associated mainly with sentence grammar, which in its turn is comprised of syntax and morphology. Thornbury says that syntax is concerned with “the rules that determine the way words can be combined to make well-formed sentences”, whereas morphology involves “knowing how to construct verb phrases”, according to Thornbury.
Teaching grammar involves grammar and language factors. Although the teaching framework tends to be mostly communicative nowadays, teachers are to integrate grammar in it. Grammar should not be taught isolated. Students should be provided with the context, they should be able to create realistic picture of English and apply what they have learned in actual situations. Celce-Murcia and Hilles(1988) describe three kinds of factors which should teachers take into account when presenting new grammar.
Social factors are described as the factors that refer to the social roles of interlocutors, their relationship to each other, and the purpose of the communication. When communication the learners are not only to use the structures grammatically correctly but also they should be aware of the politeness and appropriateness. They should be able to distinguish which reaction would be inappropriate or even offensive in English.
Semantic factors involve meaning. Expressions of time, space, degree, quantity and probability are most naturally taught from a semantic perspective. (For example, the difference between few and a few is semantic when used in a sentence.) Such expressions could be taught most effectively with a focus on morphological, lexical and syntactic contrasts that signal a difference in meaning.
Discourse factors include continuity, word order and the sequencing of new and old information. This category includes the elements of language which are more effectively defined with reference to their function in discourse than to their sociolinguistic function or semantic content. For example the connectors function would be explained in the best way when the teachers provide the learners with several examples. It would be more useful than just definition of them.
Cases for and against grammar
S. Thornbury (1999) tries to avoid taking an entrenched position on the issue of teaching grammar. In his book he gives arguments for putting grammar in the foreground as well as the arguments against grammar. I would like to mention just some of them which in my opinion rank among the most significant.
The case for grammar:
1. necessity of sentence making
Some English courses use the method of item-learning. It is the way when a student does not learn grammar or rules but they learn some items by heart, various phrases and practise it in particular situations. For travelling for example it can be sometimes worth to know useful phrases by heart. The difficulties come when an unexpected situation appears and we find out that none of our learnt phrases is suitable. In case we did not study grammatical rules, we would probably not be able to construct the sentence that we want at that time. Learning grammar helps us make sentences and communicate.
2. avoiding misunderstandings
Knowledge of grammar helps us avoid ambiguity. It is especially case of written language. In spoken there is a possibility of clarification, using other means such as a mimic, gestures, etc. to avoid misunderstanding. When we do not know grammar properly we can easily exchange some terms (example can be bored and boring). The incorrect usage of word ending changes the meaning of the whole sentence and can easily cause misunderstanding.
3. recalling the rules after some time
When learning a lot of grammatical rules, there is common that a learner does not remember everything but very likely he or she forget it in case he or she does not use it in their everyday life. When such learner begins to use the language again (it may be the case of the stay in a foreign country) the structures that he or she had learnt some time ago are noticed very quickly, the process of brushing up follows.
4. organizing language
The language becomes more understandable and easier to learn when it is organized into categories.
The case against grammar:
There exist some arguments against teaching grammar as such. These theories claim that it is not enough to explain grammatical rules and make students study it. It is important to experience. This way of learning is called experimental learning.
1. communication argument
Some theorists argue that communication is the most important part of a language, in other words that it is the language itself. They prefer using the grammar and vocabulary, practicing it in life like situations. They claim that studying rules of grammar is a waste of time.
2. acquisition argument
The linguist Stephen Krashen´s theory gives the argument against learning grammatical rules because of the fact that he believes when one is learning a foreign language the same principles work as when one is learning the first native language as a baby. He does not call it language teaching but language acquisition. He says acquisition is a natural process and a person who is to learn a foreign language must be exposed to the particular language environment and natural communication when the form of sentences is not as important as the communicative act. He distinguishes between “the acquired system” and “the learned system”. According to Krashen, “learning” is less important than “acquisition” (acquisition-learning hypothesis) Krashen's theory of second language acquisition consists of five main hypotheses:
the Acquisition-Learning hypothesis,
the Monitor hypothesis,
the Natural Order hypothesis,
the Input hypothesis,
the Affective Filter hypothesis.
The Monitor hypothesis explains the function of the learned grammar as a monitoring function. First an utterance system is acquired, then “monitoring” follows.
The Natural Order hypothesis suggests that there is a natural order of the grammatical structures acquisition which is to predict. Particular grammatical structures are acquired earlier than others and the order does not depend on the learner´s age.
The Input hypothesis is the explanation of how second language acquisition takes place. This hypothesis does not deal with the learning but only with the acquisition. It claims that a learner gets a particular level of the language through the acquisition and the learner should be exposed to the “input” which is one step beyond his or her current stage. ”If a learner is at a stage 'i', then acquisition takes place when he/she is exposed to 'Comprehensible Input' that belongs to level 'i + 1'. Since not all of the learners can be at the same level of linguistic competence at the same time, Krashen suggests that natural communicative input is the key to designing a syllabus, ensuring in this way that each learner will receive some 'i + 1' input that is appropriate for his/her current stage of linguistic competence.”
(http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html
The Affective Filter explains various “affective variables” which are significant in second language acquisition. They are motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. Krashen claims that learners with high motivation, self-confidence, a good self-image, and a low level of anxiety are better equipped for success in second language acquisition. Low motivation, low self-confidence, and anxiety can form a “mental block” and form an obstruction in making a progress. Krashen´s view mostly derives from the Noam Chomsky´s work. Chomsky has maintained that the most of knowledge is innate. He implies that children need only learn certain parochial features of their native languages. This innate knowledge is called universal grammar. As an evidence of existing universal grammar he provides the fact that small children are able to acquire their native language in a very short time.
Spoken and written grammar:
It is obvious that there is a significant difference between the spoken language and written language. In spoken language the listener is able to tolerate certain mistakes, repetition of words, omitting words, short and simple sentences. When we read the speech transcribed, it does not make a good impression. The speech can be interrupted. It is created in fact during the time when all the speakers take part in conversation. The speaker can change the topic as often as he or she wants, the clarification can be added when the other speaker asks for it. It is also normal that the speakers complete each other´s utterances. Certainly there is a difference in the choice of vocabulary.
In speaking we do not care much about the appropriateness of the vocabulary, the most important feature is the content, it means what a person wants to say is more important than what the structure of the text looks like. In writing not only content is the most important, however, we care about the form that the text should have. Written text contains longer complex sentences while the spoken text prefers simple sentences. The repetition of the words is inappropriate that is why we should find and use synonyms. Passive structures are used more frequently than in speaking. Writing compared to spoken text is always a monologue without immediate feedback. Question tags are one of the features of spoken text. Still it can appear in written text, too.
To compare written and spoken text M. Swan (2005, p.41) provides following example:
“-Writing: Peter´s failure to gain a degree, and his subsequent refusal to look for work, caused his parents considerable concern.
-Speech: Peter, you know, he didn´t get a degree, and then he wouldn´t do anything about getting a job, and of course, his parents, they got really worried.
The message of both parts of texts is the same. Still there is a huge difference in the form. Written form is much longer and sometimes the sentences can be of double size comparing to spoken form.”
In the past the most emphasis was put on the written language. The course books were not composed for the communicative approach. There was hardly any opportunity to communicate in the lesson. The typical structure of the lesson contained the introductory reading of an article where the new grammatical phenomenon occurred as much as possible. It was followed by the teacher´s explaining the new grammatical rules and finally students were to do the grammatical exercises where they should practice just this one new grammatical rule. In my opinion it must have led to the fact that the students cannot use the language properly. The language is the combination of grammatical rules and no one tells you which rule you should use.
Nowadays there is a tendency towards combination of teaching written and spoken language. Teachers today undoubtedly pay attention to grammatical rules and accurate writing; however, they combine it with speaking. The most of the course books allow students to practice all of four skills-writing, reading, listening and speaking. They provide students with neutral language which can be used in common conversations. When teaching grammar, we should practice it in written as well as in spoken form. First of all, the clear idea must be given. There is a plenty of structures which belong to grammar. Some of them are easy to understand as they are based on the same principle as those in our native language. Some are easy in their meaning but to be able to use them needs learning the enormous amount of difficult forms (example is the past simple and the irregular verbs).
P. Ur (1988, p.6) comments on the spoken and written form: “When we teach any of these types of structures, we are – or should be – getting our students to learn quite a large number of different, though related, bits of knowledge and skills: how to recognize the examples of the structure when spoken, how to identify its written form, how to produce both its spoken and written form, how to understand its meaning in context, and produce meaningful sentences using it themselves.
P. Ur (1988, p.6) gives a table which presents all the “bits” mentioned above:
Table 5. Aspects of the Teaching/Learning of Structures
Apart from these, it should be differentiated between written and spoken grammar. English that is taught at school is based on written grammar and this is due to the fact that written grammar is considered to be neutral, without taking into consideration regional or cultural features.
To know English means both to learn it and to acquire it and theorists make distinctions between the two terms. This distinction is based on the fact that children acquire their natural language (L1) subconsciously. Yule(1986) describes acquisition as “the gradual development of ability in a language by using it naturally in communicative situations with others who know the language”, while learning is “a more conscious process of accumulating knowledge of features, such as vocabulary and grammar, of a language, typically in an institutional setting”.
Harmer maintains the opinion according to which learning a foreign language happens under condition that acquisition of a mother tongue. Children acquire language gradually from one-word to utterances to complex sentences. This exposure to language takes place all the time and in real-life situations, when they are extremely motivated and feel they have the opportunities to try out and use it.
Ur (1999) contributes with the opinion that teaching and learning grammar help learners learn a foreign language, “provided it is taught consistently as a means to improving mastery of the language, not as an end in itself”
Teaching English as we know it today is the result of theories and practical activities.
Ur (1999) suggests that grammar should be presented “in a way that is clear, simple and helpful”, and she recommends that for effective grammar presentation, teachers should set the context of new grammatical structure first and then present “both oral and written form and both form and meaning.”, as it is stated by Biber et al. (2002:p 82). It is essential to check whether learners understand the meaning and provide them with a lot of examples. Teachers should make clear presentations, appropriate and use the terminology carefully, considering mainly the learners’ age and goal. The same condition applies to the decision whether explanation should be given in learners’ mother tongue or only in English, or in a combination of the two languages.
As far as the rules about a new grammatical structure are concerned, teachers have to decide whether inductive or deductive method will be more effective for learners.
a. The deductive approach is sometimes being connected with the grammar translation method because of the fact that it carries similar features. It needs a teacher who has proficiency both in the mother tongue and in the English language, a fact which offers the advantage of saving time, because it can be time consuming find the rules starting from the examples. Much quicker is to explain the rules to them and get to practice. According to Thornbury, it also has the advantage to the learners who have an analytical learning style.
But the method has also disadvantages:
1. Beginning the lesson with a grammar presentation may be off-putting for some learners, especially younger ones;
2. Younger learners may not able to understand the concepts or encounter grammar terminology given;
3. Grammar explanation encourages a teacher-fronted, transmission-style classroom, so it will hinder learner involvement and interaction immediately;
4. The explanation is seldom as memorable as other forms of presentation (for example, demonstration);
5. The deductive approach encourages the belief that learning a language is simply a case of knowing the rule.
b. The inductive approach presupposes that the examples to be first studied and then the learners derive the rules. It has some advantages:
It assures a better memorizing of the grammatical structures because a rule that is discovered by themselves is better fixed in their minds;
Students’ activities are higher than by using the other method because they can get more language practice during group work when they are expected to solve problems and are forced to communicate in the target language. So, it supports and also encourages learners’ autonomy.
This approach presents also disadvantages:
1. The approach is time and energy-consuming as it leads learners to have the appropriate concept of the rule;
2. The concepts given implicitly may lead the learners to have the wrong concepts of the rule taught;
3. The approach can place emphasis on teachers in planning a lesson;
4. It encourages the teacher to design data or materials taught carefully and systematically;
5. The approach may frustrate the learners with their personal learning style, or their past learning experience (or both) would prefer simply to be told the rule.
Thornbury (1991) gives two basic principles which should be followed when teaching. The principles are the E-Factor and the A-Factor.
E-Factor: E-Factor got its name according to the beginning letters of the words economy, ease and efficacy. These words in fact can be included in one simple word which is efficiency. The most important question that a teacher should ask themselves is whether the activity, presentation of the grammar and practicing it is as efficient as possible. The teacher must consider all the steps of their lesson and decide whether activity is appropriate to use and which are not. The time of the lesson is very limited especially at primary or secondary school where one lesson lasts forty-five minutes. It is difficult to incorporate into the lesson everything that the teacher would find useful. Unfortunately it is the question of choice and decision and the decision must be made by a teacher. The explanation of new grammar should be as short as possible but of course the teacher must recognize whether the students understand it. The explanation must be short, quick, clear and understandable. This is what is called economy. The teacher should follow the ease factor. It says that there is no need to prepare a plenty of materials and resources. Usually the teachers have a significant number of lessons a week and in case the teacher would prepare the plenty of handouts and aids for various activity, they would not do anything else than devote their free time to preparing long elaborates. The activity should be easy and the easier the activity is the better it is. After have the activity prepared the teacher is to ask themselves, whether it will work. It is proved by the feedback from the learners. From the results of various tests and tasks the teacher can observe how effective the methods were. This is called efficacy. The efficacy of a grammar activity is recognized partly by the degree of attention and memory. It is important whether the activity arouses the learners’ attention and understanding. It goes hand in hand with memory it means the amount of the subject matter that the learners remember after the lesson. To make the teaching efficient there is a need to motivate them sufficiently. The proper motivation depends on the choice of activities and tasks. The learners must see that the subject matter is useful and that it will help them in their everyday life. Thornbury (1991) consider efficiency as the optimal setting of three related factors: economy, ease, and efficacy. In other words the question should be asked whether the time and resources spent on preparing and executing a grammar task are justified in terms of its probable learning outcome.
A-Factor: A-Factor in teaching grammar arouse from the beginning letter of appropriacy. The teacher must consider not only the efficiency but also the degree of appropriateness of tasks and methods for a particular group of students. One activity may fit the certain study group but need not be suitable for different one. Thornbury (1991, p.27) listed the “factors” to consider when determining appropriacy:
the age of the learners;
their level;
the size of the group;
the constitution of the group, e.g. monolingual or multilingual;
what their needs are, e.g. to pass a public examination;
the learner’s interests;
the available materials and resources;
the learner’s previous learning experience and hence present expectations;
any cultural factors that might affect attitudes, e.g. their perception of the role
and status of the teacher;
the educational context, e.g. private school or state school, at home or abroad.
Activities that fail to take the above factors into account are unlikely to work. The age of the learners is very important. Research suggests that children are more disposed to language learning activities that incline towards acquisition rather than towards learning. That is, they are better at picking up language implicitly, rather than learning it as a system of explicit rules. Adult learners, on the other hand, may do better at activities which involve analysis and memorization.”
To sum it up, grammar activities should take into account the level of efficiency and appropriateness. The efficiency level depends on how much time it takes (economy), how easy it is (ease) and how is it consistent with learning principles (efficacy). Appropriacy considers students’ needs and interests, attitudes and expectations.
Celce-Murcia (2001:p.275) gives a very detailed account of some useful set of principles for which should be taken into account in the process of teaching grammar and which can be presented as follows:
“grammar teaching should be planned and systemic, driven by a strategic vision of eventual desired outcomes;
Grammar teachers should be ‘rough tunned’, offering students at different stages a range of opportunities to add increments to their understanding of grammar;
The process may involve acceptance of classroom code switching and mother tongue usage, at least with beginners;
Grammar should be taught ‘little and often’ and doing a lot revising;
Text-based, problem-solving grammar activities may be needed to develop learners; active, articulated and useful knowledge about grammar matters;
An active corrective feedback and also elicitation will promote their active control of grammar;
This process needs to be supported and embedded in meaning oriented activities, tasks which give them immediate opportunity for practice and use.”
As far as presenting and explaining grammar are concerned, it must be added that the subject which teachers want to teach must be presented in a long enough segment of the lesson as to ensure a good understanding and memorizing of the rule presented. So, the teacher must find a balance between these two items. Presentation must be done by giving a model structure and then allow the students to repeat it, and this can be achieves best by using visual aids. Among visual demonstration, the writing belongs as well the using of time lines when explaining the grammatical tenses. After that, an appropriate feedback must be given, in which case students have the chance to ask any question regarding the subject matter, get a better, maybe simpler, explanation from their teacher, repeat, practice again, fix what has been taught.
In the “Course in Language Teaching”, Penny Ur formulates guidelines on presenting and explaining a new grammatical structure. These can be formulated as follows:
1. “Any presentation should involve both written and spoken forms;
2. The teacher should give students a lot of examples dealing with the new subject matter, using especially visual aids, as it has already mentioned above;
3. The teacher should be able to foresee the learners’ needs; this can happen if the group is analytically oriented and, as a result, they will benefit more from the use of the terminology;
4. Very important roles are played by the current situation and the teacher’s judgment in using the mother tongue or the target language during the presentation and explanation stages in a lesson;
5. It is better to generalize the subject matter because too many details can be confusing; but it depends on the age and the previous level of the learners’ knowledge, so that the teacher should know how much to tell them;
6. An observer can be of great help to the teacher in taking notes on the faults of the process, because the teacher can’t always see them by him/herself; this can be helpful for the further planning of the lessons;
7. The teacher decides which approach he/she should use, because it depends on the group itself or on the subject matter and the teacher should predict whether the students can find the rules easily or whether it would be just wasting the time to let them guess it”.
In the 3rd Chapter we have discussed about Future Tenses, formation rules, their usages and comparison with other tenses. So, Future Tenses are very often used, they referring to future actions, or actions which were developing at a certain moment in the past, or which had happened before another past action, or which had been developing at a past moment and still continued after it.
In Romanian syllabus learners begin to have a clue about Future Tenses starting with the second grade, if English is the first foreign language, and with the 5th grade, if English is the second foreign language. Regardless the level or the specific of the classes, be it the 1st or the 2nd foreign language, Future Tenses are presented gradually, i.e. a) the formation rules of the future tenses; b) information about their uses; c) specification of specific time adverbials; d) what is their equivalents in their mother tongue.
The teacher is the one who chooses which method to adopt when presenting future tenses to students. Grammarians like Ur (1988), Scrivener (2003, 2005), Thornbury (2005) give detailed accounts of practice activities which can help teachers in planning and sustaining of their grammar lessons, and not only:
1. Listening to stories: this activity presupposes that the teacher read a story focused on past activities or it could be played from a recorder. The students are asked to recall some sentences which contain future tense verbs. (According to Ur, 1988)
2. Telling a story: here, the teacher needs to prepare in advance his/her story, come to the class and start telling it to the students. The children are given just the key words from the story randomly. They are supposed to guess what the story is about and, if possibly, to try to make the story. There follows the telling of the teacher’s story and then the students’ task is to put the key words into the correct order. Finally, the children write the story by themselves. (According to Scrivener, 2003)
3. Pilling up events: during this activity, each student is given a verb in the future tense and they have to form the story. It is considered like a chain of events and each student is supposed to repeat the preceding sentences and add his own at the end. As a follow up activity, the teacher can ask them to write as much as they can remember from it, practicing thus the writing activity. (According to Ur, 1988)
4. Dictating key words: the teacher dictates some verbs in future tenses to the students. These verbs are part of a story which the teacher must prepare in advance. Working in pairs or in small groups, the students have to make a story which will comprise the words dictated by the teacher, but respecting that order. The various stories are told to the whole class and then the original story is told. (According to Scrivener, 2003)
5. Chain story: this activity resembles the beginning of the previous one, but the teacher begins to tell the story and he/she stops after a few sentences and asks the students to continue until the story finishes and each one has his/her own contribution to the making of the story. There is one difference though, in the fact that there is no repetition of the previous sentences. Here, the learner just adds their own sentences. This activity helps the student to concentrate on the story itself not only on the correctness of the sentences they make up. (According to Ur, 1988)
6. Miming: the teacher asks the students to mime some actions and the others are asked to guess what it is. All the sentences comprise verbs in the Future Simple. (According to Scrivener, 2003)
7. Pictures into stories: A simple picture story is all the material which the teacher needs in such an activity and which can be found in the students’ books. Pictures are taken one by one and students must write or narrate the story using future tenses. At the beginning, the teacher may just ask questions about the respective picture and the students ask the questions, and afterwards they are asked to make a list of the verbs used in different fuure tenses. There follows the teacher’s telling the story according to the pictures which were shown to the children and the learners can check their lists of verbs. (According to Ur, 1988)
8. Putting stories into order: this activity follows the same principle as the previous one, except for the fact that the students are given to the students separately or together but not in logical order. The goal is to achieve the logical order of the events and then make up a story. (According to Ur, 1988)
9. Change in one’s life: students are asked to think about a future event that they want to take place in their lives. The teacher starts the activity with telling their own stories and makes them ask questions about them. But students can get very curious about teacher’s personal life and that’s why they ask about some details. After the teacher’s story, the students’ stories follow in the same way. Writing activity comes when students are given the task to write their change as a short story. (According to Ur, 1988)
10. Sounds interesting: for this activity, the teacher needs a recorded series of recorded sounds. The tape is played and students are supposed to guess what happened. After hearing the sounds and following them, the children are asked to write/make a story. (According to Ur, 1988)
11. Questionnaires: the students’ task is to survey one another. After that, they make their own questionnaires in which they arbitrarily include questions with verbs in the future tenses and they find out the information they want. Then they tell the result of the questionnaire in front of the whole class. (According to Scrivener, 2003)
12. Alibi: the activity presupposes a scene set in which two students are considered the suspects; they go outside the classroom and prepare their alibi for the particular time when their presence is needed in the classroom. The suspects come back after some time and they are asked questions. If they corroborate each other’s stories, they are proved to be innocent, and in opposite case, they are declared guilty as charged. (According to Ur, 1988)
13. Cooperative story: each student is given a sheet of paper having a title of the stories on it as well as the names of the two main characters, a male and a female. Each student is supposed to write a first sentence and then pass the paper on to the next student. He/she will write the next sentence and passes it to the next colleague. He/she folds the paper to hide the title and also the first sentence, leaving only his/her own sentence exposed and so on till all students have written his/her sentence down the paper. (According to Ur, 1988)
14. Grammar quiz: the activity employs verbs in future tenses forms and there are two teams involved, and the teacher uses a noughts and crosses grid to score on-the team must get three symbols in a row. Someone from a team says the infinitive of some verbs and someone from the other team says the past forms. Whether it is correct, he/she can make a nought or cross on the board. (According to Scrivener, 2003)
6.2. The Traditional Approach –The Audio-lingual Method.
To start from the foundations, first I have to define the root word: ‘method’. In the definitions of this term, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary often uses expressions such as “a procedure or process for attaining” a goal or “a systematic procedure, technique” or “a set of rules” very often related to a science or art (Method). In agreement with this Webster’s definition, Hunkis claims that “methods have form and consistency,” and later on draws attention to the form by stating that methods “have definite steps or stages and sub-behaviours that are recurrent and applicable to various subject matters” (qtd. in Henson 3). As Henson states, some examples of methods are: a lecture, a simulation game, a case study, or an inquiry.
The second step is to define the recurrent term ‘methodology.’ According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, methodology is “a body of methods, procedures, working concepts, rules and postulates employed […] in the solution of a problem or in doing something” (Methodology). This expression can be used as an equivalent to the words teaching and strategy. Henson states, that “strategies represent a complex approach to teaching which often contains a mixture of teaching methods, utilizing a number of techniques with each method” (Henson 3). To summarize, we can say that methodology, or teaching in this sense, is a set of methods based on the same rules and having a common aim, e.g. to encourage students to use the language, involve the students in the lesson, or explain the language to students who have to listen attentively.
Now we can turn our attention to the comprehensive description of the key terms, ‘traditional methodology’ and ‘modern methodology’. I will first focus on traditional methodology, its aims, philosophy, and procedures, and some examples of its methods. Clearly, one of the aims of any methodology in foreign language teaching is to improve the foreign language ability of the student. However, traditional methodology is based largely on a reduction of the integrated process of using a foreign language into sub-sets of discrete skills and areas of knowledge. It is largely a functional procedure which focuses on skills and areas of knowledge in isolation. Following on from this, traditional methodologies are strongly associated with the teaching of language which is used in a certain field related to the students’ life or work. As stated in the book “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” by Geoffrey Broughton et al, “the recognition that many students of English need the language for specific instrumental purposes has led to the teaching of ESP – English for Special or Specific purposes.” The same authors illuminate the impact of this approach on the teaching output created; they inform the reader about “the proliferation of courses and materials [being] designed to teach English for science, medicine, agriculture, engineering, tourism and the like” (Broughton 9), which actually meant that the content of the course was limited to the specific vocabulary and grammar of the chosen field. For example, agricultural courses included exclusively agricultural vocabulary and all grammar was presented only in an agricultural context. Vocabulary, phrases, and sample sentences from other fields and activities, even from the realm of specifically communicative English, were excluded.
A very typical feature of traditional methodology, as Broughton and his colleagues claim, is the “teacher-dominated interaction” (Broughton 22). The teaching is deeply teacher-centered. The reason for this approach is explained by the statement of Assist. Prof.Dr. Abdullah Kuzu, who asserts that it is based on the “traditional view of education, where teachers serve as the source of knowledge while learners serve as passive receivers” (Kuzu 36). This idea corresponds to the simile of Jim Scrivener, who claims that “traditional teaching [is imagined to work as] ‘jug and mug’ – the knowledge being poured from one receptacle into an empty one.” This widespread attitude is based on a precondition that “being in a class in the presence of a teacher and ‘listening attentively’ is […] enough to ensure that learning will take place” (Scrivener 17). In his book Communicative Language Teaching Today, Jack C. Richards highlights that in traditional methodology “learning was very much seen as under the control of the teacher” (Richards 4).
To sum up, the traditional methodology puts the responsibility for teaching and learning mainly on the teacher and it is believed that if students are present in the lesson and listen to the teacher’s explanations and examples, they will be able to use the knowledge.
Traditional methodology, however, also appears to have some disadvantages. According to some authors, there is not enough attention paid to teaching the basic skills, reading and writing, speaking and listening. As mentioned above, “reading” in a foreign language seems to have more to do with deciphering than with reading in one’s mother tongue (Tyler 23). The student tries to understand every single word and its grammatical form, because he believes it is essential for understanding the text. As I have pointed out above, other authors agree on the lack of speaking and pronunciation practice in traditional teaching methodology (White 8, Broughton 9). Instead of trying to speak and get the meaning through, the students are smothered with linguistic information, “rules with examples, its paradigms […] and related exercises” (Broughton 39). In the view of Broughton and his colleagues, this approach “has for so many years produced generations of non-communicators” (Broughton 39). The same authors highlight that many learners experienced significant frustration at the moment of realizing that they were not able to speak in common life situations (Broughton 9).
Concerning writing, Donald H. Graves makes a notable point: Writing has been used as a form of punishment: ‘Write your misspelled worry 25 times.’ (This is called a reinforcement of visual memory systems.) ‘Write one hundred times, I will not chew gum in school.’ ‘Write a 300word composition on how you will improve your attitude toward school.’ Most teachers teaching in 1985 were bathed in the punishment syndrome when they were learning to write. Small wonders that most of us subtly communicate writing as a form of punishment. We have no other model of teaching. (Graves 3)
The traditional methodology teaches the written language as the highest priority in learning a foreign language. However, it presents writing in a very unpleasant way. This forms a significant contradiction in the students’ attitude to the foreign language itself: writing in the language is essential and it is highly appreciated; if one can write in the language he is considered to have reached the goal; yet on the other hand, the same activity is a form of punishing students. For the students, this approach can be highly demotivating.
To sum up the above mentioned ideas, we can say that traditional language teaching is based on a traditional approach to the target language, which regards the language as a body of grammatical rules and an enormous number of words that are combined according to the rules. Traditional methodology thus focuses on grammatical structures and isolated items of vocabulary. Jim Scrivener adds that “the teacher spends quite a lot of class time using the board and explaining things – as if ‘transmitting’ the knowledge” (Scrivener 16). Students are expected to learn the rules and the items of lexis, and it is supposed that they will be able to use the language. However, students mostly explore only narrow avenues of the language, because, according to Broughton and Scrivener, the syllabuses are grammatical and the language is grouped by purpose (16, 31). The primary skills, such as reading, writing, listening and speaking, are generally taught at an insufficient level. Nevertheless, as Scrivener says, this method, with all its potential disadvantages, has been used very often in schools worldwide, “and is still the predominant classroom method in some cultures” (Scrivener 16, 38).
Grammarians state that transfer is the central learning strategy in the process of acquisition of a second or a foreign language as well as in any other domain of learning. It also enables the learner to draw on his/her preexisting linguistic knowledge in order to understand and produce utterances in the target language.
Being quoted in O’Malley & Chamot (1990:p531), Oxford defines learning strategies as being the “behaviors or actions which learners use, to make language learning more successful, self-directed and enjoyable.” To be more specific, the same authors define learning strategies as “special ways of processing information that enhance comprehension, learning or retention of the information.” Cohen (1998: p4) places the emphasis on the differences between language learning and language use strategies, defining them as follows: “processes which are consciously selected by the learners and which may result in action taken to enhance the learning or the use of a second language or foreign language, through storage, retention, recall, and application of information about the language.”
To acquire new language, the learner has to take the following steps:
The specific information is being focused on with the aim of being stored in the short-term memory;
This information is acquired by an active transfer from short-term memory to a long-term memory;
There are connections established between these ideas from the short-term memory;
There might be an appeal to the knowledge of related content from the long-term memory in order to make understanding of the current knowledge possible.
In 1950s and 1960s, in the USA a new method appeared, which is used even today, and which is called the Audio-Lingual Method. The principle of this method lies in the learning of particular blocks of language and then students are supposed to learn the rules of how to combine it. The language skills are taught in order of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It uses the dialogues as the main form of language presentation and drills as the main training techniques. What is to be noted is the fact that mother tongue is not used in the classroom. In addition, teaching techniques using tape recordings and language lab drills offer practice in speaking and listening fields, which are considered to have primary importance in language teaching. The reading and writing activities are limited in usage, but not completely ignored, it should be presented gradually and only after the students are considered capable enough and the material should be kept seriously to what learners has heard and repeated. The aim is to fasten the acquisition of listening and speaking by drilling the students into the use of grammatical sentences patterns.
The main features of the method are listed by Celce-Murcia (2001) as it can be seen below:
Each grammar lesson is begun with a dialogue;
Language learning is considered to be a habit-formation; that is the reason why mimicry and memorization are used here;
Grammatical rules are taught using the inductive approach, and the grammatical structures are sequenced;
Skills are sequenced too, i.e. listening, speaking-reading, whereas writing is postponed. It is believed that a more effective way to learn something is to present it orally first, and in the written form finally.
Achieving a correct pronunciation is extremely important and it is stressed out.
It is also vital to prevent learners’ errors, because these constitute bad habits and can hardly be corrected, even impossible to succeed it.
Language is often manipulated without context or meaning.
Stern (1996: p.462) makes a list of other characteristics of this method as it can be seen below:
The separation of the skills-listening, speaking, reading, and writing- and the primacy of the Audio-lingual over the graphic skills;
The use of the dialogue of the main means of presenting the language;
The focus upon certain practice techniques, mimicry, memorization, and pattern drills;
The appeal to the use of the laboratory;
Establishing a theory as the basis for teaching method by means of the linguistic and psychological theory;
So, the writer assumes that in the case of Audio-Lingual Method, the learners should have a great effort to get the language acquisition. They do a lot of listening and speaking by imitating and repeating after the teacher, and they also memorize the structure. It is thus clearly seen that one of the teacher’s major roles is to be a model of the target language. Teachers should provide students with a native-speaker-like model and they present the material gradually, beginning with listening, to speaking, reading and then writing. What matters here is the fact that all the process is emphasized on spoken language as its teaching objective.
Although it is true that this was a very brief experience with the Audio-Lingual Method, Diane Larsen-Freeman makes some observations regarding the teacher’s behavior and the activities he/she uses with such a method. According to the observations that she made in her book (2000: p.42-45), to each activity there is a principle which sustains it.
1. Activity = the teacher introduces a new dialogue; the students memorize it by using mimicry and applied role-play;
Principle = language forms do not happen by themselves, but they need a context to make possible such a development;
2. Activity =teacher use only the target language in the classroom; they make an appeal to other means such as pictures, actions, realia in order to achieve meaning;
Principle = we know that the native language and the target language have their own system, and these should be kept apart as much as possible in order to avoid the interferences of their mother tongue into the acquisition process on the target language;
3. Activity = the teacher introduces a new dialogue by drilling it two times, i.e. she/he introduces the drills by modeling the correct answers, and, at other times, the teacher corrects mispronunciation by modeling the proper sounds in the target language;
Principle = teachers must provide with a good model to their students. So by listening how it supposed to sound, students should be able to mimic the model they hear;
4. Activity = the children repeat each line of the new dialogue as many times as it needs to perform it correctly;
Principle = It was stated above that language learning is a habit formation, so the more often they repeat the lines proposed by the teacher, the stronger their habit becomes and the greater the effect of the learning process becomes, too;
5. Activity = It often happens that a child stumble over a line from the dialogue, and the teacher uses a backward building-up drill with that line;
Principle = the teacher must draw attention that errors are not permitted, due to the fact that they constitute the premise for bad habits of learning. So, when errors happen, they must be immediately corrected by the teacher;
6. Activity = the teacher initiates a chain drill in which each student is supposed to greet another;
Principle = the purpose of language learning is to use language in order to communicate, and to do it effectively and meaningfully;
7. Activity = the teacher uses single-slot and multiple-slot substitutions drills;
Principle = each part of speech occupies a particular place in a sentence, so learners need to know which place is occupied by which part of speech in order to achieve correctness and meaningfulness in communication;
8. Activity = the teacher says “Very good!” when the children ‘answers are correct;
Principle = children need to be encouraged, sustained in their activities and whatever small their progress is, they should be encouraged, because a positive reinforcement helps them to develop correct habits of learning;
9. Activity = the teacher uses spoken cues and picture cues;
Principle = learners need to and should learn to respond to both verbal and nonverbal stimuli;
10. Activity = the teacher conducts transformation and question-and-answer drills;
Principle = we know that each language has a finite number of patterns, these help students to form habits which enable the learners to use the patterns;
11. Activity =every time students can handle the subject-matter, the teacher poses the questions rapidly;
Principle = students learn to respond automatically, without stopping to think about the answer; that is “overlearning”;
12. Activity = the teacher gives the children cues, he/she calls on individuals, she/he smiles with encouragement, and holds up picture one after another;
Principle = the teacher’s role is to be an organizer, a conductor, a guide, a controller and nevertheless an observer of students’ behavior and attitudes in the target language;
13. Activity =new vocabulary is introduced through lines of dialogues an the amount of vocabulary is limited;
Principle= one of the major objectives of the language teaching should be for students to acquire the structural patterns, they will learn the vocabulary afterwards;
14. Activity = students are given no grammatical rules; grammatical patterns are learned through examples and drills;
Principle = the learning of a foreign language should be the same as the acquisition of the mother tongue, because we do not need to memorize rules in order to use our native language; so the inductive method applies here;
15. Activity = the teacher does a contrastive analysis between the mother tongue and the target language in order to find out those places where she/he expects the students will have troubles;
Principle = one of the great challenges a teacher of foreign languages has to face is the effort of getting his/her students overcome the habits of their native language. Such a comparison will tell the teacher which are the areas where the learners will encounter difficulties;
16. Activity = the teacher writes a piece of dialogue on the blackboard toward the end of the week; the students are asked to do some limited written work with the dialogue and the sentence drill;
Principle = speaking act is more basic to language than the written form, as it well-known; so the natural order of skills acquisition is: listening, speaking, reading and then writing;
17. Activity = subject matters concerning culture and civilization, as the supermarket alphabet game or a discussion of American supermarkets and football, are included;
Principle = we know that language cannot be separated from culture, and culture does not include only literature and arts, but people’s every day behavior who use the target language. So, one of the teacher’s responsibility is to present them information about that culture.
From the techniques and principles above, the writer concludes that language acquisition is acquired by habit formation through oral exercises by imitating and repeating. In this approach, the teacher is like a leader, a controller, a director of the students’ language behavior.
Activities:
1. Drill is a method of teaching technique used for practicing sound or sentence partners concerned with the fixation of specific association for automatic recall. The final goal is a more or less effortless exchange of ideas in real – life conversation. The “Drill” is here refers to the “Response drill” in teaching grammar.
One of the best general criteria as to how a lesson is going is the proportion of time spent by the student in trying to speak in comparison to the time spent in speaking by the teacher. A competent teacher should be able to maintain a student participation of 60-70% with ease. Some techniques can increase this a lot further for a time and one of them is replacement or substitution drills.
1.1. A substitution drill is a classroom technique used to practice new language. It involves the teacher first modelling a word or a sentence and the learners repeating it. The teacher then substitutes one or more key words, or changes the prompt, and the learners say the new structure.
Substitution drills work best at the beginning levels. They enable students to focus on structure while learning related vocabulary. Teachers first teach a dialogue or sentence structure, and then allow students to substitute different content words.
Like many other practice techniques the basic principle is to set a pattern which the student follows. Usually he repeats a sentence and then changes an element in it. Suppose we have a student who needs some drill on the future tense:
T: Will Tim come with us?
S: Yes, he will come with us.
T: And will he be happy with this arrangement?
S: Yes, he will be happy.
T: I wonder if he will take his kids.
S: he will definitely take his kids.
T: His job will be interesting?
S: His job will be interesting and very important.
The use of prompts, or cues, to elicit a new sentence instead of a full question, cuts down the teacher’s intervention time considerably. The potential for drill like this in even a simple sentence is enormous: subject, object, verb, adjective, adverb, tense – all can be changed to create a new sentence. If we take a simple sentence: "John goes to Brighton twice a week by car."
John=A, Brighton=B, Twice = C, Week=D, Car=E. Each element A-E can be changed in a replacement drill. A few simple examples:
A: Peter, Mr Jones, My assistant, The man next door, A girl who works with me, you, me, my husband and I.
B: Newhaven, the country, the seaside, work, a nice little pub by the river.
C: Once, 5 times
D: A day, a month, a year, an hour,
E: By taxi, by bicycle, on foot, in his veteran steamroller.
(http://mark.yates.net/english/teaching/bk09.htm)
1.2. Transformation drills:
Rewrite the sentences in the negative and then into interrogative:
They will collect postcards.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
You will jump high.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Albert will play squash.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
The teacher will test our English.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Fiona will visit her grandma.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
He will wash the car.
_______________________________________
_______________________________________
Substitution drills
A substitution drill is a classroom technique used to practice new language. It involves the teacher first modeling a word or a sentence and the learners repeating it. The teacher then substitutes one or more key words, or changes the prompt, and the learners say the new structure.
Substitution drills work best at the beginning levels. They enable students to focus
on structure while learning related vocabulary. Teachers first teach a dialogue or sentence structure, and then allow students to substitute different content words.
e.g. I will go_____________ next week.
home
shopping
on holiday
1.3 Response drills:
To further develop the grammar point a ‗yes/ no‘ drill can be used. The teacher elicits the positive response to Future Present Tense Questions by holding up pictures of the respective action.
E.g. Teacher: ―Will he answer? / ―Will they run? / ―Will she smile?
Student: ―Yes, he will. / ―Yes, they will / ―Yes, she will.
Then elicit a negative response from the students.
E,g. Teacher: – Will he answer? / ―Will they run? / ―Will she smile?
Student: ―No, he won’t. No, they won’t. No, she won’t.
End by mixing the responses up. Ensure that the students know what is expected from them. Give clear instructions concerning the form you want them to drill
1.4 Cued Response Drill
In this drill language learners are provide with a cue before or after the questions.
E.g.: Teacher: What will the man be buy? (book)
Students: The man will be buying a book.
Teacher: Who will help him (his brother)
Students: his brother will help him.
1.5 Expansion Drill
Language learners build up a statement by adding a word or phrase.
Example: Teacher: holiday
Students: We will go on holiday.
Teacher: next summer
Students: We will go on holiday next summer.
1.6 Contraction Drill
Language learners replace a phrase or clause with a single word or shorter expressions.
Example: Teacher: He will do his chores
Students: He won’t do them.
6.3. The Communicative Approach- the Communicative Language Teaching Method.
Let us now turn our attention to modern methodology, its aims, philosophy, and procedures, and some examples of its methods. Unlike traditional methodology, modern methodology is much more student-centered. According to Jim Scrivener, the teacher’s main role is to “help learning to happen,” which includes “involving” students in what is going on “by enabling them to work at their own speed, by not giving long explanations, by encouraging them to participate, talk, interact, do things, etc.” (Scrivener 18, 19). Broughton adds that “the language student is best motivated by practice in which he senses the language is truly communicative, that it is appropriate to its context, that his teacher’s skills are moving him forward to a fuller competence in a foreign language” (Broughton 47). Briefly put, the students are the most active element in this process. The teacher is here not to explain but to encourage and help students to explore, try out, make learning interesting, etc.
Though being essential, the aim of learning a foreign language according to modern methodology is still discussed, and there is a variety of possible aims. In his book Learning Teaching, Jim Scrivener claims, that nowadays a great emphasis is put on “communication of meaning” (Scrivener 31). Jack C. Richards also highlights the communicative competence which is, as he defines it, “being able to use the language for meaningful communication” (Richards 4). Thus many professionals refer to this methodology as the Communicative Language approach. Another group of authors headed by Broughton propose a different idea. They point out that foreign languages are taught “not simply for the learner to be able to write to a foreign pen friend” but to broaden his or her horizons by introducing “certain ways of thinking about time, space and quantity [and] attitudes towards” issues we have to face in everyday life (Broughton 9,10). Briefly put, some people learn a foreign language most importantly to be able to communicate with foreign people and other people learn a foreign language above all to see the world from a different point of view, to discover new approaches to life or to find out about other cultures.
Since modern methodology is aiming for something different, also the way to achieve the goal has changed. As pointed out by Jack C. Richards, “attention shifted to the knowledge and skills needed to use grammar and other aspects of language appropriately for different communicative purposes such as making requests, giving advice, making suggestions, describing wishes and needs and so on” (Richards 8). Teachers’ methods, courses, and books had to be adjusted to new needs of the learners to fulfil their expectations. Instead of grammatical competence, communicative competence became the priority. Ronald V. White articulates three principles of modern methodology: firstly, “the primacy of speech; secondly, an emphasis on “the centrality of connected text as the heart of teaching-learning process; and thirdly, an “absolute priority of an oral methodology in the classroom” (White 11). Instead of memorizing grammatical rules and isolated vocabulary, modern methodology prefers to present contextualized language and to develop skills.
Let us now focus on one important part of modern teaching – teaching skills. The main skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They can be classified into two groups: receptive (listening and reading) and productive (speaking and writing). These skills consist of sub-skills; for example, reading includes skimming (reading for gist), scanning (reading for specific information), intensive reading, and extensive reading. While listening, students can listen for gist, or for specific information: for some details, like numbers, addresses, directions etc. In real life we do not normally listen for every word spoken. Therefore, as many professionals today agree, the task should be realistic too. The tasks should improve skills, not test memory. According to Jim Scrivener, with receptive skills it is always better to assign one task, let the students accomplish it, have feedback, and then assign another task, let the students read or listen to the text again, have feedback, etc. Scrivener also points out that the tasks should be graded from the easiest to the most difficult, or, in other words, from the most general to the most detailed, and the students must know what the assignments are before the listening or reading itself is done. If the students do not manage to accomplish the task, the teacher should play the listening again or give them more time for reading (Scrivener 170-173).
Concerning productive skills, writing and speaking, there are some important issues to mention too. While students practice production skills, a teacher using modern methodology is aware of a contradiction between accuracy and fluency. According to Jack C. Richards, “fluency is natural language use occurring when a speaker engages in a meaningful interaction and maintains comprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations on his or her communicative competence” (Richards 13). As stated by Richards, modern methodology tries to keep a balance between the fluency and accuracy practice (Richards 14). There is another aspect important in speaking activities. This vital aspect is context and purpose. This is supported by the opinion expressed by Jill and Charles Hadfield who claim, that activities which mirror real life situations and which have a goal, for example finding a rule, are “more interesting and motivating for the learners (Hadfield 4).
We can recapitulate the above mentioned ideas by stating that skills should be taught in a context which is close to real life situations in which students might well find themselves, the practice should be involving and the activities should be well aimed and executed. This approach helps learners to be motivated and interested in the subject matter.
Teaching grammar in a modern way is an essential part too. Unlike the traditional method, however, the presentation of new grammar also involves students very much. Jim Scrivener also makes a good point by stating “Keep it short” (Scrivener 267). Keeping this rule in mind, when teaching is essential, since long explanations often become confusing and boring. Scrivener also emphasizes, that “the monologue may provide useful exposure to one way of using language, but it isn’t sufficient to justify regular lessons of this kind” (Scrivener 16). This point highlights the need for the students’ participation and interaction. Some ways to involve students in the grammar presentation are elicitation and personalization. These two methods appear to be very useful tools. Students always seem to be interested in their teacher’s personal affairs, friends, etc. In fact, situations that the teacher presents as personal do not always have to be true. Elicitation meanwhile invites students to be active, to take part in the lesson, to present their knowledge and ideas. Since most of the interaction is going on in English, modern methodologists recommend checking understanding throughout the grammar presentation. Teacher can carry out this essential procedure by using timelines, examples, (if suitable) visual aids, or by asking concept questions. Concept questions highlight the meaning of a target language item and are simple to understand and to answer (usually ‘yes’ or ‘no’, possibly ‘we do not know’). However, very often they are not easy to make up. They are asked in the target language, though they must not contain the structure or word being taught. The presentation should be followed up by appropriate practice which is usually controlled, guided and free respectively (Zemenova). These suggestions agree with Jim Scrivener’s statement that the “ability to use language seems to be more of a skill you learn by trying to do it […] than an amount of a data that you learn and then try to apply” (Scrivener 19). It appears that encouraging students to ‘play’ with the target language is very effective in helping them learn to speak it.
Modern methodology includes a number of methods. One of the effective methods for presenting new language is so called ‘guided discovery.’ Scrivener defines it this way: the teacher is “leading people to discover things that they didn’t know they knew via a process of structured questions” (Scrivener 268). The teacher can also introduce a situation, a context, and elicit the language from the students. A suitable reading or listening can be used as a source of the new language. Vocabulary or lexis is a very important part of learning a language. However, what does teaching a word involve? What should a learner know about a word to be able to say “I know this word”? In a guided discussion in the methodology training at Masaryk University the students and teachers agreed that the important issues are its meaning(s), its pronunciation (both individually and in a sentence), its spelling, its various forms (tenses, plural, etc.), its uses (position in a sentence), its connotations, and its collocations (among others). All of them do not have to be taught in one lesson, of course (Zemenova)
We will now consider the modern ways of teaching lexis. One has probably met many ways to teach or revise vocabulary. As suggested by Jim Scrivener, the most popular or the most common methods in modern teaching are:
Match the words with the pictures.
Check the meaning of these words in the dictionary.
Match the words with the definitions.
Brainstorm words on a set topic (i.e. collect as many as you can).
Divide these words into two groups (e.g. food words and hobby words).
Label the items in a picture with the right names.
Complete gapped sentences with words from a list.
Discuss a topic (that will feature in the text).
Say which words (from a list) you expect to be in a text about… (Scrivener 231).
Besides these methods, there are other ideas too:
miming, drawing or showing a flashcard to indicate the meaning of a word.
using timelines or percentage (in comparison with some similar words).
eliciting some words for a short preferably funny or personal (possibly repetitive) dialogue or story.
letting the students get the meaning from the context.
using synonyms and opposites.
crosswords, riddles.
for some difficult words, such as abstract items or verbs, translation is useful
too; however, it is preferable to elicit the translation from the students(Zemenova).
These lists definitely do not include all the methods a teacher can use. However, these methods can be used in a variety of activities, such as pre-teaching, listening for lexis, reading for lexis, using a dictionary, etc. Pre-teaching lexis can help students to recall items they have met before as well as learn new words. Jim Scrivener points out that “the main aim is to help ensure that the following activity will work (because there will be fewer stumbling blocks of unknown lexical items).” Scrivener adds that pre-teaching can be used successfully to practice some words “useful in [their] own right” (Scrivener 230-233). In classrooms, pre-teaching seems to be helpful and can be very exciting and involving. Introducing and establishing the meaning of new item of lexis is, nevertheless, not enough. Scrivener claims that learners need to “meet new lexical items and understand their meaning(s), the ways they are used and the other lexical items they often come together with,” practice using the new vocabulary, remember them and finally “recall and use the lexical items appropriately” (Scrivener 228). This can be done in a vocabulary lesson. The vocabulary lesson is a lesson with the main aim of teaching and practicing vocabulary, not grammar or skills. As stated in the book Teaching English as a foreign Language: “Language item which is not contextualized is more difficult to remember and to use” (Broughton 41-43). We can see that in a vocabulary lesson it is important to keep new words in context. This aim can be achieved by observing six stages of such a lesson, suggested by Jim Scrivener, which are “1. Preteach lexis […], 2. Written practice of lexis […], 3. Oral practice […], 4. Reading to find specific information […], 5. Further lexis work […], 6. Communicative activity […]” (Scrivener 233-4). This procedure is also in accordance with Jim Scrivener’s above mentioned statement that “ability to use language seems to be more of a skill you learn by trying to do it […] than an amount of a data that you learn and then try to apply” (Scrivener 19). Many people agree that with remembering lexis, using is the best method.
To sum up, the modern methodology principles, we can highlight the student-centered interaction which is connected to the involvement of the students in everything going on during the lesson. This shifts the teacher’s role to not causing the learning, but helping learning to happen. The teacher’s task is to choose activities suitable for their learners to guide them in the lessons and to encourage them to experiment with the language.
The modern methodology comprises a rich variety of methods which should have some common features: activities involving students and close to the real-life situations. To be effective, the methods follow after each other in a suitable order, and there should be a balance of teaching focused on different aspects of the language.
Communicative Language Teaching can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, about how learners learn a language, about the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate the process of learning, about the roles of the teachers and of the learners in the classroom.
Communicative Language Teaching sets as its goals the teaching of communicative competence. In order to understand this term, we must compare it with the grammatical competence. Grammatical competence refers to the knowledge of a language that tells us about our ability to produce sentences in a language, and to be more specific, it refers to the knowledge of producing blocks of sentences (i.e. parts of speech, tenses, clauses etc.) and how sentences are formed.
Communicative competence involves the following aspects of language knowledge:
Knowing how to use language for different and various purposes;
Knowing how to vary the use of language according to the setting and the participants involved, i.e. the cases in which we must use formal or informal speech, or the situations when we are supposed to use language appropriately in written or spoken communication;
Knowing how to produce and understand different kinds of texts, i.e. narratives, reports, interviews, conversations etc.;
The ability to maintain communication despite having limitations in one’s language knowledge, i.e. by using distinct kids of communication strategies.
Historically, Communicative Language Teaching has been seen as a response to the Audio-Lingual Method and as an extension or development of the Notional-Functional Syllabus. If it is considered this way, then it places great emphasis on helping students use the target language in a variety of contexts and on learning language functions. The learners are lead to be able to say something, to find out more facts, information, express their likes or dislikes etc. It contains also notions which can be asking for directions, apologizing etc. During the classroom activities, the students are encouraged to use the target language as much as possible and use it for communicative purposes. The activities are meaningful and the learners can feel the language they use really helps them and it can be practiced easily every day. The materials used are related to the children’ age, level of studying, hobbies, interests, real life segments.
Activities that are truly communicative have three common features, according to Morrow (in Johnson and Morrow, 1981) and these are: information gap, choice and feed-back. Meaningful communication means that there is an actual purpose for the learners to communicate in the target language. Information gap means that one learner has a piece of information that the other one doesn’t. Choice means that the learner has a choice of how to communicate, and feedback means that the learner receives some response as to whether or not he/she has successfully communicated.
The common aspect is the usage of authentic materials which keeps them motivated for learning. Among these materials are newspapers, recipes, telephone directories, videos, discussions programs etc. Their textbooks are used but not entirely; they function as a starting point of their activities. The teachers add their own materials including the use of stimuli and rely on their professional expertise. The learners’ needs are fulfilled and the learners are exposed just to formal language, but they can have access to idiomatic language which will be heard in everyday language or in common conversation between people.
The teaching process does not contain repetitions and drills, but the learners’ creativity and spontaneity are encouraged as well. Pupils have the opportunities to hear a lot of information about a particular topic so that they can assimilate it easily.
This approach proposes classroom activities in which both the teacher and the learner are assigned new roles. Now, the learners have to participate in classroom activities that are based on cooperative rather than individualistic approach to the learning process. Students have to become comfortable with listening to their colleagues while working in group or pair, and not to rely so much on the teacher’s support. Above all, students are communicators, being actively engaged in negotiating meaning—in trying to make themselves understood and also in understanding the others–, even when the knowledge of the target language is incomplete. The teacher is now a facilitator, a monitor; rather than being a model who offered correct speech and writing, and also the one who had the primary responsibility of making his/her students produce errors free sentences, the teacher has now to develop a different view of the learners’ errors and to create his/her role in facilitating language learning.
Grammarians like Van Ek and Alexander argued in their book (1998) that a syllabus should identify the aspects of language use in order to be able to develop the learner’s communicative competence, and these aspects can be summarized as follows:
A detailed consideration about the purpose for which the learner wishes to acquire the target language, i.e. business, in the hotel industry, tourism etc.;
Some ideas about the setting in which they want to use this language, i.e. office, airport, store etc.;
The learners have to have socially defined roles and their instructors as well, i.e. a traveler, a student etc.;
The communicative events which the learners will attend, i.e. everyday life, vocational or professional situations, academic situations etc.;
Establishing the language functions involved in such events, or what the learner will be able to do with the language i.e. making introductions, giving instructions, offering advice, accept/refuse something etc.;
The notions or concepts involved, or what the learner will need to be able to talk about, i.e. leisure, finance, history, religion etc.;
The skills involved: discourse and rhetorical skills, i.e. storytelling, providing an effective business presentation etc.;
The varieties of the target language that will be needed, such as American, Australian, or British English;
Establishing the grammatical content which will be needed;
Establishing the lexical content or vocabulary which will be needed.
Another goal of the Communicative Language Teaching is to develop fluency in language use. Fluency is defined as “the natural language use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and maintains comprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or her communicative competence. Fluency is developed by creating classroom activities in which students must negotiate meaning, use communication strategies, correct misunderstandings and work to avoid communication breakdowns,” as Richards states in his book “Communicative Language Teaching Today”(1998).
According to the same author, fluency practice can be distinguished from accuracy practice, which focusses on creating correct examples of language use. Based on the previous statement, there are different activities specific to each concept.
Activities which focus on fluency:
Reflect the natural use of the target language;
Focus on the process of achieving communication;
Require meaningful use of language;
Require the use of communication strategies;
Produce a kind of language which may not be predictable;
Seek to link language use to context.
Activities which focus on accuracy:
Reflect the classroom use of the target language;
Focus on the formation of correct examples of language;
Practice language out of the context;
Practice small samples of language;
Do not require meaningful communication;
The choice of the language is controlled.
In other words, learners do not go through a learning experience in which they acquire the structural properties of a language and then learn to use this structural system in communication. As a matter of fact, they discover the system itself as they learn how to communicate in a language. This version proposes that teachers provide learners with ample opportunities to familiarize themselves with how language is used in actual communication. Other authors in the field have defined and characterized Communicative Language Teaching in various ways (Brown, 2001; Larsen-Freeman, 1986; Littlewood, 1981; Richards, 2006; Savignon, 1991). According to Larsen-Freeman (1986), the most obvious attribute of Communicative Language Teaching is that ‘‘almost everything that is done is done with a communicative intent’’ (p.132). In Communicative Language Teaching, meaning is given prime importance, which is achieved through interaction between reader and writer, and through negotiation between speaker and listener. There are a variety of communicative activities (e.g. games, role plays, simulations, and problem-solving tasks), which offer learners an opportunity to practice their communication skills meaningfully in different contexts and by taking on different roles. In the process of utilizing these kinds of performance activities, learners avoid using their native language and teachers occasionally, if ever, correct students’ mistakes.
Another typical feature of communicative language teaching is that “it gives planned emphasis on functional as well as structural features of language, combining these into a more completely communicative view”(Littlewood, 1981, p. 1).
Teachers who espouse this method move beyond teaching structural rules of the target language, and create opportunities for learners to use the target language in a meaningful way. In doing so, they help their learners build up communicative competence. Small group work can also be regarded as an important tenet of Communicative Language Teaching. Larsen-Freeman (1986) puts forward that activities in a communicative class are commonly carried out by students in small groups. Negotiation of meaning can be accomplished by involving learners in group work in which they can freely interact with each other. Through small group activities, the students are engaged in meaningful and authentic language use rather than in the simply mechanical practice of language patterns. Emphasizing the importance of pair and group work as an indispensable aspect of Communicative Language Teaching classroom, Richards (2006) argues that carrying out activities in pair and group work will benefit the learners in the following ways:
•They can learn from hearing the language used by other members of the group.
•They will produce a greater amount of language than they would use in teacher-fronted activities.
•Their motivational level is likely to increase.
•They will have the chance to develop fluency.(p. 20)
In this respect, using authentic materials can be helpful for language teachers to expose their students to the target language the way it is used by native speakers. Richards (2006) lists the following arguments in favor of the use of authentic sources as the basis of communicative classroom learning:
•They provide cultural information about the target language.
•They provide exposure to real language.
•They relate more closely to learners’ needs.
•They support a more creative approach to teaching. (p. 20)
Another feature of Communicative Language Teaching is "its learner-centered and experience-based view of second language teaching" (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 69). As cited in Li (1998), individual learners have their unique interests, learning styles, needs, and goals that should be reflected in the design of instructional methods (Savignon, 1991). Li (1998) further states that it is crucial for teachers to develop materials-based on the established needs of a particular class. Besides, in a Communicative Language Teaching classroom, students must be made to feel secure, unthreatened, and non-defensive, so teachers adopting this method should avoid taking on a teacher-centered, authoritarian attitude (Taylor, 1983). Brown (2001), in describing the key principles of the Communicative Language Teaching, offers the following six characteristics:
Classroom goals are focused on all of the components (grammatical, discourse, functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic) of communicative competence. Goals therefore must intertwine the organizational aspects of language with the pragmatic;
Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Organizational language forms are not the central focus, but rather aspects of language that enable learner to accomplish those purposes;
Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques. At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use;
Students in a communicative class ultimately have to use language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts outside the classroom. Classroom tasks must therefore equip students with the skills necessary for communication in those contexts;
Students are given opportunities to focus on their own learning process through an understanding of their own styles of learning and through the development of appropriate strategies for autonomous learning;
The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and guide, not an all-knowing best owner of knowledge. Students are therefore encouraged to construct meaning through genuine linguistic interaction with others. (p. 43)
Finally, other activity types that are typically implemented in a Communicative Language Teaching classroom can be listed as follow:
Information-gap activities:
The concept of information gap is an important aspect of communication in a CLT classroom. This essentially is based on the fact that in their everyday lives people generally communicate in order to get information they do not possess. This is referred to as an information gap. If students can be involved in information gap activities in order to exchange unknown information in language classrooms, more authentic communication is likely to occur in the classroom. By doing so, they will draw available vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies to complete a task.
E.g. Complete the dialogue. Use Will
1. A. (Paul, lend) ___________________________ us some money?
B. Yes, _____________ or No, _____________
2. A. (Jane, graduate) __________________________ this spring?
B. Yes, _________________ or No, _______________.
3. A. (her, parents, be) ________________________ at the ceremony?
B. Yes, _________________ or No, _______________.
4. A. (I, benefit) ___________________________from this business deal?
B. Yes, _________________ or No, _______________.
(Adapted from ―Fundamentals of English Grammar, Third Edition Workbook”, Copyright 2003, 1992, 1985 by Betty Schrampfer Azar)
Jigsaw activities:
These activities are also based on the information-gap principle. The class is divided into groups and each group has part of the information needed to complete an activity. The class is supposed to fit the pieces together to complete the whole. In that way, they need to use their language resources to communicate meaningfully and so take part in meaningful communication practice.
e.g. Pingu Gets a Bicycle – Will for predictions
Teacher’s instructions
Put the students into pairs (if you are continuing from the stages above, it might be worth having them in the same pairs for the team games). In each pair, sit one student with their back to the TV/ projector screen. If there is one group of three, two of the three sit so that they cannot see the TV.
The one student in each group who can see what is happening will describe what they can see to their partner. The person listening can ask them questions about what is happening, but they cannot tell them anything that is written on their worksheets or ask the person watching to make predictions. When the teacher pauses the tape, let them describe what they can see on the paused screen for a few seconds and then tell all the people watching the video to be quiet. The people with their back to the screen should then choose one of the sentences they have on their worksheet (see below) as their prediction for what will happen next, and tell the teacher what their prediction is.
Places to pause the tape, with answers:
1. Pause as the driver is just about to restart the truck thing.- It will crash into the pram
2. Don’t restart the video. – He will cry
3. Pause as Pingu is walking away from the baby for the first time. – He will get a drum to play with
4. Pause as the baby looks at the trolley full of toys. – He will push the trolley over
5. Pause as the father stops outside the shop. – He will buy a present
6. Pause before the baby opens the present – There will be a cuddly toy inside
7. Pause after Pingu gives his bike to the baby – He will cheer up
8. Pause when the baby is riding the bicycle – He will crash into a snowman Pingu Gets a Bicycle Will for predictions (Video 3)
Student Worksheet (for “blind” students only)
Instructions
Read through the worksheet and ask your teacher about any words you don’t understand. Listen to your partner explaining what is happening in the video WITHOUT
LOOKING AT THE SCREEN. You can ask your partner questions about what is happening, but you can’t tell them what is written on your worksheet or ask for their predictions of what will happen next.
When the teacher pauses the video, choose one of sentences below and tell the class your prediction. Your partner will then watch the next segment and check whether your prediction is correct or not.
Activity
Here are the sentences that you can take your predictions from. 4 of them do not happen in the film. Read through them carefully before the video starts.
1. He will push the trolley over
2. He will punch someone
3. He will kick it
4. He will buy a present
5. He will knock
6. He will cry
7. He will cheer up
8. It will crash into the pram
9. There will be a cuddly toy inside
10. He will steal something
11. He will crash into a snowman
12. He will get a drum to play with
(https://tefltastic.wordpress.com/worksheets/videos/pingu/pingu-will/pingu-will-for predictions-3/)
Communication games:
These games primarily involve information-gap activities which are intended to provoke communication in the classroom. The games are generally in the form of puzzles, drawing pictures and putting things given in the correct order. The students have a piece of information which is part of the total, what they need to do is to walk around to get the necessary information in order to reach the entire information, through which an artificial need on the part of the learners is created to get them to speak. Students feel it as a challenge to participate; thus an unconscious learning and practicing of knowledge occurs which erase out the fears learners have for speaking in the class (Johnson &Morrow, 1981).
e. g. 1. FORTUNE COOKIES
Materials: One fortune cookie per student
Dynamic: Whole class
Time: 15 minutes
Procedure: 1. Discuss with the class where they find predictions in the “real world.” (Usual answers will include weather forecasts and fortune telling.) Ask if they can think of a restaurant where fortunes are used. Most of the time, at least one student will mention Chinese restaurants. Explain that the fortune cookies at Chinese restaurants sometimes contain fortunes, but sometimes may be just factual statements (“You are a good person”).
2. Give each student a fortune cookie and have them look at their “fortunes” to see if the main verb form is either to be + -ing or will + simple form. If a student has one of these forms in his/her fortune, ask him/her to read it aloud to the class.
3. Because these fortunes are often difficult for a non-native speaker to understand, go over the meanings, perhaps asking the class what they think is meant.
NOTE: Fortune cookies can usually be found in large supermarkets in the Asian food aisle.
2. MAGIC 8 BALL
Materials: A 3” x 5” index card per student, Magic 8 Ball
Dynamic: Whole class
Time: 30 minutes
Procedure: 1. Have students write two predictions for their classmates on their index cards––one using will and the other using be going to. Tell them to make the predictions general so that they can apply to anyone in the class. They can be serious or funny and should be positive. Put all the cards into a hat or bag.
2. Each student pulls a card. If a student draws the card he/she wrote, he/she replaces it and chooses another.
3. The students read one of the predictions on the card, turn it over, and on the back write one or more questions that might come before the prediction.
Example: Prediction: You will win a hundred dollars.
Questions: Will I be lucky in Las Vegas?
Will I win the lottery this weekend?
4. Collect the cards again. Pull out the Magic 8 Ball and announce that Professor Grammar has a magic ball that can tell the future.
Ask volunteers to pose a question to the Magic 8 Ball. Professor Grammar reads the ball’s answer to the class. Everyone will want to question the ball at least once.
5. If time, they can read the second question for the second prediction.
SUGGESTION: Instead of using a Magic 8 Ball, you can prepare some general answers on slips of paper, such as yes, no, definitely, probably not, it’s unclear at this time, etc. When a student asks his/her question, Professor Grammar can reach into a bag and pull out a slip with the answer to the question.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Materials: Several different pictures representing some activities
Dynamic: Small groups
Time: 30 minutes
Procedure: 1. Arrange students in groups of three or four, and give each group a picture. (Magazine advertisements are good for this activity.)
2. Tell the groups to look carefully at their pictures and decide what is happening or has happened. If various scenarios are possible, the group should settle on the most likely. Then, the students predict what they think will happen next to the people in the picture.
3. You may want each group to work together to write a short paragraph describing what they think will happen. Another way to close this activity is for each group to show its picture, describe the scene, and then give its predictions.
(From Woodward, S.W.(1997)-“Fun with Grammar”, Prentice Hall Regents)
Prepared talks and oral presentations:
These are the talks which are prepared by students about a specific topic and given in the class with the aim of persuading, informing students about a topic or just to entertain them.
After presentation and explanation the stage of practice comes. Ur (1991) explains the need of practice as the need for students to absorb the learnt material into long-term memory. After presentation and explaining the learners can understand the principles well but it cannot be said that they have mastered it. The material learnt is perceived and taken into the short-term memory. Practice helps to the ability of the learners to produce their own examples. Practice activities can be either passive – the learners are exposed to spoken or written input- or active – it is the case when learners are to produce certain language items.
The aim of grammar practice activities is to make students manage the particular subject matter. It does not only mean coping with the grammar exercises but it includes also the master the structures in speaking or writing. It is common that learners are able to do exercises on the certain subject matter without any faults but they are not able to use the new grammatical structures when they are asked to compose a piece of writing or a speech. Ur (1991, p.83) sees the task of teachers as follows: “One of our jobs as teachers is to help our students make the ‘leap’ from form-focused accuracy work to fluent, but acceptable, production, by providing a ‘bridge’: a variety of practice activities that familiarize them with the structures in context, giving practice both in form and communicative meaning.”
The activities should be constructed in such way that the certain grammatical structure should be repeated in the activity as much as possible. On the other hand it does not mean the mechanical repetition of forms but the students’ production of many various examples either in written form or in the spoken form. The practice should be composed in such a way as to make it likely that the students will be successful when doing it. It encourages them and makes them feel more confident. The activity which would carry the risk of many possible students’ mistakes would make the learners feel demotivated and would cause the tension and anxiety.
The exercise should be heterogeneous. It means that there is a possibility to do it in various ways at various levels. The exercise lacking the heterogeneity is for example multiple choices. As the most of the group are mixed ability group such exercise can be easy for stronger students and on the contrary too difficult for weaker ones. The example of heterogeneity is given by Ur (1988). The first arbitrary sentence is said or written and students add the continuing sentence. The advantage is that the stronger students give longer and more complex sentences while the weaker provide simple sentences, which is all right.
The role of a teacher during practice activities lies in assisting the learners in their production and supporting them rather than continuous correcting mistakes. Ur (1988, p.14) sees the teacher’s assistance as “simply giving extra time to reread or think; repeating or simplifying a text; approving the beginning of an utterance in order to encourage production of the whole; suggestions, hints, prompts. All this means that we have to be very alert to sense when and where help is needed and what form it should take. Again, there is a wider message: I, the teacher, am here to help you, the learner, succeed and progress in your learning, not to judge, scold or make you feel inferior.”
The practice activities must arouse learners’ interest and make them motivated. It depends among others on the choice of the topic. The topic should be somehow related to the students and it should have something to tell them. It can be topics concerning geography or history, entertainment and spending free time – films, television programs, celebrities, well-known personalities, etc.
Affective Activities
These have to do with expressing and finding out emotional attitudes. Language teachers can select any function such as expressing pleasure or displeasure, interest or disinterest, satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and so on or any combination of them and create a communication activity. The teacher's role in this activity may range from central to peripheral.
Interview :
Students may also interview a classmate about any topic related to the course content. For example, early in the course when students are learning to give personal information, they can interview each other to become better acquainted. The principal advantage of the interviews is their flexibility. They may be used from beginning levels to advanced levels and they may deal with superficial or profound topics. The interviews can help students feel more comfortable in communication activities and more confident in their ability to learn a second language.
Discussion and debates:
They are of widely utilized activity types due to their low effort demanding nature of the teacher. Every now and then, an intimate atmosphere of discussion occurs in the classroom, however, when appropriately exploited, these discussions will undoubtedly end up in speaking opportunities of extreme worth, both in terms of language and grammar, presentation and practice. Either encouraging competition or cooperation, which one to choose is a matter of familiarity with the students; the teacher may foster discussion over debate.
E.g.: 1. Talk about your favorite day of the week.
2. Debate: What subject do you like most in school?
3. What do you think was the most important thing in life? advancement
4. What is your favorite free time activity?
The final test
At the end of the study, a final test was given to both classes. The test comprised two subjects. The first subject aimed to test the students’ ability to put the verbs in brackets into the correct Future tense (Future Simple, Future Continuous, Future Perfect Simple, Future Perfect Continuous and ‘Going to’). The results obtained by the students in both classes are presented in Diagrams 5 and 6 and they show the number of students from each class who succeeded to put the verbs given in the correct tense. A comparison between the results registered with both classes was made and it is presented in Table 6. The comparison reveals the fact that the results of the students from grade B are higher than the results of the students from grade A.
The second subject asked the students to write about what they will be doing in their Christmas holiday. Their compositions were corrected by applying the marking scheme (Task Achievement, Language Accuracy, Register and Vocabulary, Organization, Cohesion Layout, Overall Effect), and the results are presents in Tables 7 and 8. The results from the second subject reveal the fact that most students from both classes are able to express correctly a future action, so as to achieve accuracy, cohesion, communicative competence, even if it is in writing process.
Conclusions:
a. Most students from both classes have managed to use correctly verbs in the appropriate Future Tense;
b. A great number of students have become and gained fluency, cohesion, coherence in using the language;
Final test
Fill in the spaces with the correct form of the verb in any aspect of the Future Tenses:
Carrie has been training her dog, Jack, for competition for the past six months. Carrie is Jack’s “handler,” and together they are a team. If Jack is ready, Carrie (take) _______ ______ (1) him to a rally in a nearby city this coming September. Carrie imagines the upcoming rally. She has many questions about it. She decides to ask one of her friends, Jessica, about it. “What _______(2) I (do) ______ ________ (3) at the rally, exactly?” she asks. “You (compete) _______ _____ ________(4) against other teams as they complete a course of challenging exercises,” Jessica tells her. “The exercises at the rally (involve) _______ _______ _____ _______ (5) giving commands, jumping, pivoting, spiraling, side stepping, and dropping. Each exercise (be) ____ _______ ____ ____(6) numbered. As they are doing the exercises together, the handlers (talk) _______ _____ ________(7) to their dogs.” “Before beginning the course,” Jessica continues, “Each team (receive) _______ _______ 8) 200 points. Each time a team makes a mistake, a point is deducted by the judge. At the end of the course, the handlers (probably, praise) _______ ________ _______ (9) their dogs and give them food as rewards. The teams (do) _______ _______ _______(10) their best together, and therefore will deserve a rest. By the time the dogs finish eating, the judge (tally) _______ _______ _________(11)each team’s final score.” “The dogs at the rally will not only be purebred. Lots of mixed-breed dogs (surely, participate) ______ _______ _____ ________ (12) in the rally, too. There is no age limit for the dogs, either, and it has been decided that all future rallies (include) _____ _______ _____ _______ (13) a division for handlers ages 8 to 18. This way, kids can get more involved.” Carrie is 19 years old, and Jack is 10. He is a Labrador mix. If they go to the rally, they (enter) _______ ________(14) the Level 1 competition, because it (be) _______ ____(15) their first rally. Rallies also include Levels 2 and 3. 3 is the highest level. Carrie has a plan. She says that she (decide) ______ _______ _____ ________ (16) by July 4th whether Jack is ready to compete. By then, she (train) _______ _______ _______ ________ (17) him for eight months. She hopes they (win) ______ ______ (18) a blue ribbon! (50 p)
http://www.englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/Future_Tense_Exercise_20.pdf
Write about what you will do on your Christmas holiday. (Do not use more than 150 words.) (50p)
Diagram 5. Results of the Final Test, Subject I, the 9-th Grade A
Diagram 6. Results of the Final Test, Subject I, the 9-th Grade B
Table 6: Comparison of the results from the final test applied to both classes, subject I
Table 7. Results of the subject II, Final Test, the 9-th Grade A
Table 8. Results of the subject II, Final Test, the 9-th Grade B
6.5. Difficulties encountered by the Intermediate students in using the Future.
In a foreign language teaching process, teaching grammar is one of the stressed points that teachers cannot disregard. In the literature, studies and articles, there are different points of view concerning whether grammar should be taught or not, having been outlined pro and against arguments, debates. But, in spite of all these, there is a general agreement on the matter that a systematic and purposeful teaching of it is vital if people/students want to master the target language.
It has already been pointed out the fact that in our country, grammar is an obligatory component in the secondary education curriculum, and in higher education only in the classes which have a bilingual mode of studying, and in universities where students want to become teachers of foreign languages.
The general pattern for the teaching of grammar is to give some rules using a lot of technical terminology, talk about the rules and the exceptions to the rules, and ask students to solve exercises and practice upon those items a lot. But, even if the students‘ performance in a grammar test is very good, this is no guarantee of the fact that they would be able to speak or write in English correctly. Grammarians claim that in most cases, grammar is taught as an end in itself rather than as a means to itself. Ideally, the teaching of grammar must help students to produce utterances that exemplify the grammatical rules, but it seems that generally the teacher focuses on teaching the rules of grammar and ignores the communicative aspect of language.
Being composed on tenses, grammar is an essential, even indispensable, part of a language, and also of language learning, and it constitutes the backbone of it. As a consequence, tenses need to be learned or acquired by the learner either consciously or unconsciously. As it has an essential role in language teaching, the teachers of foreign language need to tackle with it within syllabus skillfully so that the learners can grasp it well.
The ability of using English is the main demand nowadays, regardless the domain or field which require people/student to have knowledge or certificates of proficiency in English language. If students want to be able to use English, they have to master English grammar. Present tenses are important tenses in the English language and commonly used .Verbs in English are complicated and therefore cause many difficulties to learners.
In general, L2 learners have great difficulty mastering aspects of grammar in a second language learning process, and especially with the marking of grammatical features at certain parts of speech. These difficulties can be observed directly in students‘ L2 spoken or written productions, both in spontaneous productions and in controlled tasks.
Tense is a matter of inflection, i.e. the changing of the shape of the word by adding a morpheme. It must be pointed out that there is a difference between ―tense‖ and ―time‖, i.e. ―tense‖ is ―used to refer to a verb form, not to chronological time‖, according to Graver (1986). English verbs are used to express the aspect (simple, continuous and perfect) of an action or event. The choice of a verb form is quite difficult and so it is the usage of the language appropriately for the appropriate situation of communication. This can happen because, as they have not developed on the stressed points efficiently, they fail to get their message across.
The difficulties encountered by the Romanian students when using Future Tenses can be outlined as follows:
Students at low level overuse will as an ‘all-purpose future’ to the avoidance of all other ways of talking about the future. This is because it is met early on, quickly learnt and then it is easy to place the single word into any sentence where they wish to convey a future meaning. Even if grammatically incorrect it may often be a sufficiently successful piece of communication to encourage students to use it again and again.
Students use present simple instead of will for instant decisions:
Students avoid going to: Students often find it difficult to select an appropriate future form. Lower level students often plump for one form (typically will) and use it for all sentences that refer to the future. A major problem with going to is simply that students don’t use it when it would be appropriate.
Students omit the main verb after “going to”. Students use different forms (possibly also omitting be). Students use going to for spontaneous decisions.
Students use will for things already decided.
When using the Future Tense Continuous students sometimes forget the structure of the sentence by omitting the auxiliary verb ”be”. They also need to focus on the rules when adding -ing to the short infinitive of the verb. Another aspect to pay attention to is the categories of verbs which are not used in continuous aspect – these are called „stative verbs (e.g. : believe, love, depend, exist, taste, hate, know etc.)
To sum up, tenses always become the most problematic case in learning English not only for the second language learners, but also for English as foreign language learners. They say that English tenses are confusing; therefore they often ignore an appropriate tense usage either in speaking or in writing, as it is stated in Harvey‘s book (2003: p.17).
Ron Cowan (2008) speaks about the influence of the native language when learning and using a second/foreign language, since it constitutes an element which affects these processes. He states that ―Many of the ungrammatical sentences that English language learners produce result from the transferring of grammar rules from their native language to English. These L1 transfer errors can take many forms. For example, sometimes a grammatical property associated with certain L1 verbs is transferred when the students begins to learn English.
Researchers have also raised the problem of whether errors which learners make while learning and using a second/foreign language can be overcome with focused instructions that involves correction. In order to do this, we should look at the development of interlanguage. This concept ―refers to the language system (the grammar) that evolves as a learner studies an L2. During this process, some aspects of the interlanguage grammar may be identical to L2 grammar, but other aspects may be different as well. Cowan also states that the eventual result of instruction and years of practice speaking an L2 will produce an interlanguage which grammarians call the ―end state grammar‖ (White, 2002) or ―stabilized grammar‖ (Long, 2003).
We understand from the things expressed above that this is the grammar that the learners will use in order to communicate with native speakers of the L2 from that moment on. Cowan also underlines the fact that there may be no big changes, or it may not be identical to the grammar of a native speaker. What matters is the fact that it may be very close to it.
The most recognized source of foreign language learning errors is that of L1 interference, i.e. those elements that are similar to the learner‘s native language will be simple for him, and those that are different, will be very likely to produce errors. Some of our mistakes which our students make in learning English are also based on false analogies within the foreign language, but the majority of the mistakes result from carrying over into the English language the speech habits of Romanian learners, habits of pronunciation, of morphology, of syntax, of word order.
In conclusion, the process of learning English is a process by which a learner begins to develop his / her knowledge and they continue to grow more and more similar to the English grammar of a native speaker until it gets better.
6.6. Conclusions and analysis of the experiment.
The paper is an attempt to draw a comparison and contrast between the traditional approaches and CLT approach of language teaching. I can state that the traditional methods focus and emphasize mainly on the learning of grammar rule and vocabulary and as such do not pay much attention to the four skills mainly LSRW.
In conclusion, several explanations can be formulated concerning the results of both classes. The difference between the results obtained in the final test with the 9th grade B, the Experimental Class, and the results obtained in the initial test is much more significant than the progress made by the students in the 9th grade A, the Control Class, because of the following:
The students in the 9th grade B are highly motivated, they show acquisitiveness, they really want to learn and they have powerful reasons for doing so, including the fear of failure;
I encouraged the students to do extra work, to practice language in their free time, to take responsibility for their own learning;
The 9th grade B is more engaged with the process of learning than the other class, proving willingness to listen, to experiment, to ask questions, to think about how to learn;
I used modern, interactive methods such as discovery techniques, role-play, problem solving, debates and different games;
As for the class management, I adopted group work and pair work; the strategy of peer help and teaching was used to help weaker students- they worked together, explaining things or providing good models of language in writing;
The atmosphere in the classroom was a relaxing one.
No matter what the students‘ level is, there are some grammatical errors that they still make because sometimes students tend to ignore the grammar rules. New vocabulary and language structures should be taught actively and interactively because students absorb new structures without paying much attention to rules. Identifying the error by themselves may not be enough in order to see and understand the correct form, but it definitely is an important step in improving students' writing and speaking skills.
Classes should be more student-centered; while the teachers should be more flexible, more creative with the materials they bring to class. Therefore, with the modern audio and video aids, the teacher can create the impression of real life conversation in class, this way students would be more motivated to take the lead in communication. Although, alternative textbooks offer a large variety of communicative activities, teachers often tend to use them for reading and writing traditional exercises which usually become boring and reduce students‘ speaking in time.
As a result, students find themselves simply able to read and solve drills, but unable to communicate in English.
On the other hand, communicative teaching enables students to feel confident when they use the language; it gives them real opportunities to express themselves in English. The use of modern techniques and strategies, such as: role-play, discovery techniques, interview, simulations, as well as the use of authentic resources- newspaper and magazine articles, poems, songs, manuals, recipes, videos, maps, pictures, together with realia, make learning English more interesting and motivating because it is appropriate for pupils‘needs and interests, thus, it is much more pupil-oriented than other approaches.
I would like to finish my work briefly revising its aims, stages and results so as to be able not only to formulate the final conclusions, but also to suggest a few guidelines for further practice and research. The theme of the study was suggested by an observation made during the process of teaching, namely the students do not master the use of the Future tenses.
The conclusions of the experiment in which intermediate students were exposed to both a traditional and a modern approach in teaching the Future Tenses emphasize the idea that as long as students do what they like while interacting in life oriented experiences they are motivated and perform accordingly.
I will make a short presentation of strong and weak points in using traditional and modern methods:
Traditional method
The Traditional Method is a cross lingual technique used in language learning. Grammar is given more importance in this method. Learners understand the grammar rules better. The exercises in this method put the learner into an active problem-solving situation. In the schools, the teachers often follow the traditional method of translation technique. It is an easy way to explain things. Reading and writing are the major focus. Vocabulary selection is based solely on the text used. The words are introduced through bilingual word lists dictionary and memorization. The grammar rules are presented. This Traditional Method has its own drawbacks.
1. It fails to produce oral fluency in English.
2. Students find the method boring as they have to memorize words and rules.
3. It does not develop confidence among the learners.
4. The use of L1 is more predominant in the class.
5. No link between the text words and real life situations.
6. The learner is unable to use English in day to day Communication
7. This method focuses only in reading and writing. Little attention is paid to speaking.
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) CLT is a functional approach to language learning whose main aim is to develop the communicative competency of the learner. His need of understanding and expressing in the L2 (The language acquired through learning) is the main focus of this method.
Objectives of CLT:
1. To produce effective communicative competency in learners.
2. The focus is on meanings and functions of the language.
3. More importance on the learner and his learning.
4. Language is acquired in CLT.
5. The teacher is a facilitator in language acquisitions.
6. Involve the learner in the learning process through problem solving, tasks, participation and interaction.
7. All the four LSRW skills are equally treated.
The main advantages of CLT are that language is used for a genuine purpose meaning that real communication should take place, and that at the stage where the learners are preparing their report for the whole class, they are forced to consider language form in general rather than concentrating on a single form (as in the Traditional model). Whereas the aim of the Traditional model is to lead from accuracy to fluency, the aim of Communicative Teaching is to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency. The range of tasks available offers a great deal of flexibility in this model and should lead to more motivating activities for the learners. Unlike a Traditional approach, the students are free of language control. They must use all their language resources rather than just practicing one pre-selected item.
This paper was meant to have a twofold value: both to demonstrate the advantages of communicative teaching on students‘ communicative competence and to be a good scientific and methodological aid resource for all those interested in teaching present tenses successfully.
To sum up, taking into account the good results of the students in oral and written examination clearly show that the work has reached its target.
CONCLUSIONS
Throughout this paper I have attempted to give a picture of the grammatical phenomenon called futurity, both in the English and the Romanian languages. At the end of this research and experiment, I think it is important to remember, briefly, the reasons and the methods used in this paper. The main idea was suggested to me by numerous situations encountered in my teaching experience. The students need to master the vocabulary and the grammar in the language they are trying to learn; they should be able to communicate freely , fluently and correctly and in order to do that, the meanings and relations between words and sentences must be quite clear for them. And, at intermediate level it is highly important to keep their interest focused on the actual topic.
During the experiment, two different methods have been used, the Audio-Lingual approach and the Communicative approach on two different classes, regarding the same topic, namely present tense simple and present tense continuous. In time, many linguists have researched and developed the best ways to teach a foreign language, usually as a response to the methods used by their predecessors. It should not be considered, though, that only the newest methods are right and the old ones are wrong. The conclusions of the experiment in which intermediate students were exposed to both a traditional and a modern approach in teaching the Future tenses , emphasize the idea that as long as students do what they like while interacting in life oriented experiences they are highly motivated and perform accordingly. The results of the tests come to demonstrate this statement.
However, both the Traditional and the Modern methods have their strong and weak points, as many linguists have shown in their researches.
Finocchiaro and Brumfit found some distinctive features of the two approaches discussed above and these differences are listed in Richard‘s and Rodger‘s book as we can see in the following table:
Table 9: Comparison between the Audio-lingual and the Communicative Methods
Whereas the aim of the Traditional model is to lead from accuracy to fluency, the aim of Communicative Teaching is to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency. The range of tasks available offers a great deal of flexibility in this model and should lead to more motivating activities for the learners. Unlike a Traditional approach, the students are free of language control. They must use all their language resources rather than just practicing one pre-selected item.
As Thornbury (1999: 153) suggests, a teacher dealing with English grammar in his/ her language lessons should bear in mind several rules. Firstly, grammar ought to be taught in context and grammatical forms in association with their meanings. Secondly, there should always be some communicative use present in the process of learning grammar. Thirdly, a teacher ought to economize the presentation stage in favor of the practice stage. Teaching the grammar that the learners have problems with and referring to similarities with their mother tongue are another rules that should be embedded in English lessons. The final rule that Scott Thornbury mentions with regard to teaching grammar is the rule of appropriacy. He concludes that all the above-mentioned principles ought to be interpreted according to the level, needs, interests, expectations and learning styles of the specific learners. Regardless of the method the teacher uses, teaching grammar should always be varied and motivating for the students.
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Annexes A
Annexes B
LESSON PLAN
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