LUCRARE METODICO – ȘTIINȚIFICĂ PENTRU ACORDAREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I Coordonator științific, Lector Univ. Dr., Ana -Maria Trantescu Candidat, Stoican… [610933]

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UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE

LUCRARE METODICO – ȘTIINȚIFICĂ
PENTRU
ACORDAREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I

Coordonator științific,
Lector Univ. Dr., Ana -Maria Trantescu

Candidat: [anonimizat],
Liceul Tehnologic Iancu Jianu, com. Iancu Jianu, jud . Olt

Seria 2015 -2017

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UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA
FACULTATEA DE LITERE

COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES FOR
TEACHING THE PRESENT TENSE SIMPLE
AND THE PRESENT TENSE CONTINUOUS
TO INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS

Coordonator științific ,
Lector Univ. Dr., Ana -Maria Trantescu

Candidat: [anonimizat],
Liceul Tehnologic Iancu Jianu,com. Iancu Jianu, jud.Olt

Seria 2015 -2017

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1:
1.1 Introduction.
1.2 Motivation.
1.3 Wor king hypothesis.

Chapter 2: Theoretical considerations on grammatical categories of the verb in English.
2.1. The category of mood.
2.2. The category of voice.
2.3. The category of person and number.
2.4 The category of tense.
2.5 The category of aspect.

Chapter 3 : Means of expressing a Present action in English.
3.1 Present Tense Simple and Continuous.
3.1.1 Present Tense Simple.
3.1.2 Present Tense Continuous.
3.2 Comparison between Present Tense Simple and Present Tense Continuous

Chapter 4 : Teaching English Grammar Methods:
4.1 Humanistic Approaches:
4.1.1. The Grammar Translation Method.
4.1.2. The Direct Method.
4.1.3. The Silent Way Method.
4.1.4. The Communicative Language Learning Method.
4.1.5. The Total Physical Response Method.
4.1.6. The Suggestopedia Method.
4.2.Behaviourism Approaches:
4.2.1. The Audio -Lingual Method.
4.3.Cognitivism Approaches:
4.3.1. Structural -Situational Approaches.

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4.4.Socio -Cultural Turn: Communicative Approach.
4.4.1. The Communicative Language Teaching.

Chapter 5 : Methodological aspects of tea ching the Present Tense in English. Teaching
tenses in the classroom: issues and implications .
5.1. Presenting means of expressing the Present.
5.2. The Traditional Approach –The Audio -lingual Method.
5.3. The Communicative Approach — the Communicative Language Teaching Method.
5.4. Tests —Common mistakes —Conclusions.
5.5. Difficulties encountered by Intermediate learners in using the Present.
5.6. Conclusions and analysis of the experiment.

Conclusions.
References.
Annexes .

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Chapter 1
1. 1 Introduction

The English language is an important language of the world, widely used and with a major
role in every field of activity. It appeals as a language of science and technology , but it is a lso
used in the business world. Although learning English can be challenging and time
consuming , it is worth noting that it could also have major benefits and create s many
opportunities.
The importance of this language is increasing day by day because it is a vital tool for
communication, which is a continuous process of gi ving and receiving information . Effective
comm unication involves the use of proper pronunciation and grammar , by people, when
expressing their thoughts, opinions, beliefs . Different approaches and theories were set to
have a better acquirement in the educational process of teaching a second languag e.
Language is a way of communication among people all over the world. It is a process of
interaction with the people and the environment. It is well known that , nowdays, every person
has a big interest in learning a second language in order to enl arge the oppo rtunities for a
better job or just for a personal development. They can achieve all this information on their
own or in schools. The task of language teachers is, at first, to provide motivation to their
studends, to arouse their interest in a second language by giving them interesting and
challenging materials and topics. They also must create the conditions under which learning
can take place and to impart, by a variety of means, knowledge to their learners.
Learning English means covering a huge variety of language areas from grammar to
vocabul ary to speaking and listening but, i t also means grammatical rules, vocabulary ,
learning strategies, etc. The teacher must have the ability to guide the learners , asses s and help
them practic e, motivate and tutor them, gently correct their mistakes , etc. The process of
language lea rning is as complex as the process of teaching a second language. As Jeremy
Harmer said : ‖ Yet teaching is an art, too.‖
There are different types of learners and each of them has its own purpose of lear ning, his
own ability and skill , his own pace. Whether they learn English for a test, for the future or just
as a hobby the y all have a kind of motivation: extrinsic or intrinsic one . The teacher must
foster and sustain this motivation.

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I would like to highlight that students must be aware of the value of good grammar in
writing well and communicating clearly. These elements enable them to convey their ideas to
their full extension by using correctly gramm ar patterns and structures of language.
Both written and spoken English require an accurate use of grammar which is one of the
main areas of any language.
This paper is aimed to describe the objective condition of the teaching and expre ssing
Present action in English . It includes the teaching preparations, the instructional material used
by the teacher and the means of assessm ent used by the English teacher .
The purpose of the present paper is to display the effectiveness and importanc e of
teaching and learning grammar , and especially of teaching how to express a Present action in
English and using the Audio -lingual Method and Communicative Language Teaching
Method.
This paper contains five main chapters , conclusions, references, annexes and
bibliography.
Chapter 1 – the i ntroduction and the motifs for which this paper s tands for. It also
presents the working hypothesis .
Chapter 2 , 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 3 deals with” Means of Expressing a Present Action in English” . It
encompasses concepts and terms which will be defi ned and compared, namely: ‖Present
Tense Simple and Continuous‖. Comparison between Present Tense Simpl e and Present
Tense Continuous‖.
Chapter 4 describes the tradit ional a nd modern approaches to teaching English language
and it is named ― Teaching English Grammar Methods ”.
Chapter 5 presents “Methodolo gical Aspect of Teaching the Present Tense in
English ”. It also speaks about the issues and implications of teaching tenses in the
classroom. There follows the difficulties encountered by the Intermediate learners in using the
Present . Furthermore, there are presented the methods of teach ing: from Traditional
Approach -―The Audio -lingual Method‖ and from Communi cative Approach -The
Communicative Language Teaching Method‖, accompanied by different activities, samples of
tests, recordings of common mistakes and conclusions.

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1.2 Motivation

The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the significance of learning and teaching
grammar in English language. It underlines how to express a present action in orde r 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 s in the fact that language is a way of communication among
people, so learners need motivation which gi ves 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 appropriatel y. 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 practis e it from basic to more abstract
concepts , motivating them, correcting them, encouraging them to keep on learning in order to
improve their performances.
When we communicate, we usually send a mes sage. 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 . Brock Haussa men, states that ‖Students
and teachers need the terminology of gramma r so they can discuss sentence easily (…)‖
(Grammar Alive, 2011, p. 21).
I consider that grammar is a subject that can im prove our ability to think analytically , to
communicate confidently and effectively, and to understand the language that shapes our
world and our personal identities.
To achieve that, learners have to learn how to make well -formed and grammatically
correct sentences, so to make se nse of what they say or write .
A second reason is that, in case of this paper, it is important how to express a present
action, form Present Tenses (affirmative, negative, interrogative) and also to reveal the
contrast between the Present Simp le and the Present Progressive so that the information is
accurate and the task of the reader or hearer is precise.

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In other words, it helps them to achieve grammatical competence. This is part of the
communicative competence. Grammar know ledge i s not acquired naturall y, 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 . In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules
governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The
term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and
phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragma tics.
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 .

1.3 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 v ariety 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 (IELT S)”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 d esires by means o f voluntarily produced symbols.‖ (Edward Sapir, Language:
An Introduction to the Study of Speech. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921) .
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.

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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 co mmunicative, 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 creat e contexts for the grammar use in the classroom, by mea ns such as listening and
reading activities, discussion, communication tasks and role -playing, will the Romanian
learners be able to better understand a nd 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.

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CHAPTER 2
Theoretical Considerations on the Grammatical Categories
of the Verb in English

Grammatical categorization consists in denoting word classes (parts of speech, i.e.
nouns, pronouns, 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 rec ognized in the
description of particular languages.
Some general characteristics of the verb must be underlined before starting to talk
about the grammatical categories of the verb:
 It is a part of speech that denotes a process in the wide meani ng 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 dist inguishes 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;
 The most universal feature of the verb is the ability to be modified by adverbs ;
 Syntactically, the most important characteristic of the verb is its ability to form the
predicate of a sentence. It is well -known that only fini te 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 interdependen cy 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 wor ds. Some categories have only sy ntheti cal forms
(person, number), others have only analytical forms (voice). There are also categ ories
expressed by both syntacti cal and analytical forms (mood, tense, aspect).

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 It possesses q uite a lot of grammatical categories: mood, voice, person and number,
tense, aspect.

Classification of verbs:
According to several criteria, verbs may be classified after their form, lexical
meaning, complementation. (Murar, 2005)
1. Classif ication 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 morphol ogical 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.
work, play, learn ;
b) Compound verbs: verbs formed of two or more morphological elements written together,
e.g. hitch -hike, overburden, understand;
c) derivative verbs, i.e. verbs formed by means of affixes (prefixes and suffixes): blacken,
synchron ize, unfasten.
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; phrasa l-prepositional verbs.
a) Phrasal verbs: A phrasal verb consists of a verb a nd an adverbial particle (e.g. take down,
go over, get away, give up etc.). The verb is usually a common English verb ( be, bring, cut ,
do, fall, get, , go, lay ,make ,put, see, 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 p hrasal 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):

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 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 sente nce 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, alm ost without association with the base verb: to back up (= to support) , to
break in (=to interrupt ), to come across (= to find unexpectedly ), to hold back (= to hide an
emotion ).
Phrasal verbs are quite common in spoken, i nformal English. In more formal style
they are sometimes replaced by one -word verbs (if there is a synonym):
I have to hand in my essay by Friday. (= submit )
An elderly lady passed out in the church. (=faint)
Don’t put off your trip . (= postpone )
Don’t turn down this job . (= refuse )
A large number of phrasal verbs are poly semantic and, depending on the context, they
can have a literal or idiomatic meaning. For instance, bring up:
Bring the pia no / 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.

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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 d own 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. add on, go for, run after,
etc.). The verb and the preposition express a single idea:
You don`t have to go for her when she does not agree with you. (= attack )
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:
Talk to George . / Talk to him.
She is looking for Mary. / She’s looking 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. / H e 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 preposit ion (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 students 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)

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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 sp eech, 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 throug h suffixes and prefixes.
Some of the most productive verb -forming suffixes are:
-ize: analyse /A.E. analyz e, 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‖. E.g. broaden, deafen, deepen, soften, widen, shorten,
strengthen, lengthen, heighten.
Prefixes are used to a lesser exte nt 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 ver bs: 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:
a) the infinitive (often preceded by the Infinitive marker to);
b) the imperative (2nd person singular/plural);
c) the subjunctive (present synthetic);
d) simple present tense (all persons except 3rd person sg.):
E.g. play, write, take,, s ing, be (am, is, are).

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2. The past tense form (V -ed ): played, wrote, took, sang , was / were
3. The past participle form (V -en): played, written, taken, sung , been.
4. The ‖–(e)s‖ form: is added to the base for the 3rd pers. singular, simple present tense:
plays, wri tes, takes, sing s, is.
5. The ‖ –ing‖, 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): played -played – played; write – wrote – written .
Depending on how they form the past tense and the past participle, the English verbs are
either regular ( play) or irregular ( write ).

2.1 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 a nd 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 . (Murar ,
2005 : p.12 )
E.g.: 1. My cousin works for a big company . (a fact)
2. Would you like me to send you the files ? (a formal request)
3. I wish I were luckier ! (a wish)
4. If I hadn‘t had all this work , I would have gone to that part y. (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 c orres ponds 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 ar e closely related, the grammatical
correlates of Speech Act (i.e. Sentence Type) are sometimes referred to as Mood
(Interrogative Mood, Imperative Mood).

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Mood is one of the kinds of modality, which can be expressed also by lexical means
(mod al 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. thos e 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 modalit y: lexical (modal verbs), lexi co-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 -grammatica l 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 stro ng syntactic relation of the significance. Linguists
distinguish from 2 to 16 moods in Modern English. The reasons are as follows:
1. The category of mood is in the state of development. Some forms have a
limited sphere of use (he, be), new forms are coming i nto the system (let).
2. 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.
3. 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 spea ker‘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 som etimes to a meaning
category marked by such a form‖.
4. In conclusion, while it is not concerned with temporal relations, it interacts
both with tense and aspect.

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2.2 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 assi gned 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 expr essed 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/h earer finds
out about for the first time.
E.g.1: Cows give milk . (Active voice)
↓ ↓ ↓
Subject verb object
The performer the action the receiver
E.g.2: The manager 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.

18

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 fe wer 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, ins tinctively. We would never say:‖ My house was
painted by us.‖ (Passive voice). Instead, we would certainly say:‖ We painted our
house .‖(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, mean ing 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 assign ed 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 expre ss 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 role s 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

19
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. (Murar , 2005: p. 43)
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 :
a. 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 int roduced 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 → The m.
b. 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 i s 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 a ssigned the Nominative case:
Accusative/Dative forms → Nominative forms
(to) me → I
(to) you → You

20
Sg. (to) him → He
(to) he r → She
(to) it = It
(to) u s → We
Pl. (to) y ou → You
(to) them → They.
c. 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.: ―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 info rmation Passive Present Simple agent, doer
Aux. ‖be‖+ Past Participle

According to Thomson and Martinet (1986) , passive construction s are used on certain
occasions some are 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 Eng lish‖, 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 r elationships), in news (here the agent is unimportant, unknown, or
previously mentioned), and very rarely in conversation:

21
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. Be sides 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
grammaticalized, i.e. a special form of the verb additionally shows which person is meant:
E.g.: I go
You go
He/She/It go es
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.

22
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 Pre sent 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 perso n. 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 Ten se Simple:
E.g.: James plays football every day.
As opposed to: John bought a magazine yesterday, where a Past form is used, which
corre sponds to the irregular verb ―buy ‖.
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 Indica tive Mood), thus being contrasting against the
unmar ked finite form of the verb.

23
2.4. The Category of Tense

It is assume d 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 determin e 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 : p.11): ―Tense is the grammaticaliz ed 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 call ed ―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. (Murar, 2005: p.10)

X
Past Now/ST Future

Fig.1. Temporal axis of orientation

Tense is interpreted i n 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

24
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 whi ch 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, accordin g to Comrie
(1985 ), and Smith (1991 ). Klein (1994 ), introduced ―the basic time concept‖, which divided
the time spans into ―before‖, ―after‖ and ―included‖ in the temporal relationship between the
TU (time of utterance) and the TT (topic time). Other gramm arians 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 narr ative 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 t enses 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 live d 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.‖)

25
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 particip les (-
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 (1994)

1. 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:‖ forgiven, been, forbidden,
taken‖).
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 finit e 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 t he sacred Heart.
2. Little Mary was crying as she walked through the dark wood.
3. I will be teaching my daughter to wash, iron and darn.
When it is not used as a part of a tense, this form can function as a non -finite v erb,
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‖).

26
3. Birthday fireworks lit up the faces of the marching protesters. (Epithet, it modifies
―protesters‖).
The Past Participle ( -en forms) is used to construct t he 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 ha d 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:
1. “Pre sent Tense”: ―I like teaching .‖
2. “Past Tense”: ―Your sister bought you a present .‖
3. “Future Tense”: ―They will write the essay .‖
4. “Present Perfect”: ―We have never been to Australia .‖
5. “Past Perfect” or” pluperfect”: ―I had not forecast that thing about him.‖
6. “Conditional Tense”: ―They would soon finish the tasks .‖
7. “Conditional Perfect”: ―She woul d have given up 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 ).

27
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
comple ted 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, that is the semantic
aspectual opposition between perfectivity (a) and imperfectivity (b).
(a) 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 in ternal 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 s hort 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 indic ates 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.
(b) The imperfective aspec t. 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 t he inside, being crucially concerned with the internal structure of the

28
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 ve rb. 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 categori es: 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 s eemed to incorporate the claim that the category of verbs of any
particular language can be split up into these four categories, as follows:
a. States : ―Believe desire, have, own, resemble, love etc.‖
b. Activities : ―swim, walk, push (a car), breath etc.‖
c. Accomplishments : ―draw (a circle), make (a chair), deliver (a sermon), recover (from
illness).‖
d. 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 fr om activities
and accomplishments on account of the fact that the first two categories lack the progressive.
E.g.:
o Bob is working .

29
o Bob is typing a letter .
o Bob is learning the poem.
o Bob is discovering the solution to the problem.
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 ar e 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 do n‘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 fol lowing one another in
time,‖ as 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 d ifferent 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 in stance 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.‖

30
As a conclusion, process ve rb 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 in stance 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 cut ting the bread.‖
State verb phrases are described as ha ving 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 ve rbs have only present
tenses. These verbs can be groups as follows:
1. Verbs of senses (feel, see, hear, smell, notice, observe= notice, and feel, look, taste,
the last three being used as link verbs):
a. 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 i n 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 w rong‖ (=I think you are wrong)
 When it is used as a link verb: ―The water feels cold to my feet .‖
b. LOOK as a link verb can‘t be used in the continuous forms, but when it has th e
meaning of deliberate actions, it can be used in such a situation, especially in the
phrasal verbs: ― look at/ for/in/into/out/on‖:

31
E.g.: Grandpa is looking for his newspaper. (=to seek for it, he wants to find it, so he
deliberately does this act ion).
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 t rying 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 sta tion. (= 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,
especial ly with the 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.

32
2. Verbs expressing feelings and emotions, such as ADMIRE (=res pect), ADORE,
APPRECIATE, CARE FOR (=like), DESIRE, DETEST, DISLIKE, FEAR, HATE,
LIKE, 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.: She is enjoying her trip in Paris.
I‘m minding my own business.
3. Verbs of mental ac tivity: 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 de ceive), suppose, think (=have an opinion), trust (=believe/ have
confidence in), understand.
 E.g.: What are you thinking about? -I‘m thinking about my future projects.
I‘m assuming that that you‘ll have to do a lot of work. (= accept as a
starting point).
I‘m expecting an e -mail. (= await)
4. Verbs of possession: belong, owe, own, possess.
5. 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.: Sam is being rude.
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 dinner.
 Give a party/entertain guests: She‘s having twenty people to dinner.
 Encounter difficulties: I‘m having a hard time with this computer.
 Experience/enjoy: I‘m having a lovely time here.
In sum, the progressive aspect covers the semantic sphere described as belon ging to
the imperfect aspect, i.e. it views a situation under the ontological species of a process, while,

33
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 wil l continue going on after that RT depends
on the course the situation takes.

34
Chapter 3
Means of Expressing a Present Action in English

Other languages have no concept of tense at all, but of course they can still talk about
time, using different methods. In English, the concept of tense is very important. Before
grammarians introduce the notions of Simple Present and Simple P ast, 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 l earners 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
sometime s 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 and gives the indication of when
something happens; the te rm refers to a verb form and thus should be kept distinct from
chronological tim e (Pârlog, 1996: p.150). Aspect reflects the status of an action with respect
to duration , result etc.

3.1 Present Tense Simple and Continuous.

A lexical verb ca n be conjugated by adding the morphemes /ing/, /d/, /z/ to mark
gerund/present participle, past tense/past participle, and the third person singular for Present
Tense Simple. The categories of tense and aspect are closely interrelated in English. The most
frequent meaning of the term ‗tense‘ is that associated with the verb forms of the indicative
mood ( Murar , 2005 : p.15) .
Tense and aspect have been peculiarly resistant to linguistic classification and
explanation.(Binnick R. J. , 1991)

35
The category of tense refers to the forms a verb takes to show the time, continuance or
completion of an action. In English, there are three main tenses: present, past and future, each
of them with four forms: simple, continuous, perfect simple and per fect continuous.
3.1.1. The Present Tense Simple
The Present Tense Simple is formed using the present tense form of a lexical verb (the
same as the base form) for all persons except third person singular.
Forms:
a. Affirmative: S + V
NOTE: Third person singular : S + V -s / -es
I/you/we/they/the men travel a lot.
He/she/it/one/the man travel a lot.

b. Interrogative : DO + S+ V ?
NOTE: Third person s ingular : DOES + S+ V ?

c. Negative : S+ DO NOT (DON’T) + V
NOTE : Third person singular : S+ DOES NOT (DOESN ’T) +V

Uses and values :
A. The present simple expresses several values which have as a basic meaning the fact
that the event is simultaneous with the present moment 'Now'.
(1) The commonest use of the present simple is unrestrictive (or timeless ) use: it
expresses an action or state that extends over a period of time centered in the present moment.
This use covers two subdivisions: generic (or universal) present and habitu al present.
( I.Murar, 2005, p.15).
a) Generic (or universal) present: The present simple denotes generic actions that take
place in an unspecified period of time which includes the moment of speaking: they exist
now, existed in the past and probably will exist in the future.
The generic (or universal) present is used to express generic or universal truths, facts
which are always true, as in the following examples:
Wood floats on water. (general truths or laws of nature)
He works in a factory. (permanent situations or states)
Water freezes at 0ș C.; The Danube flows into the Black Sea.
He who laughs last, laughs best.

36
None of these sentences refers to a particular occurrence: The sentences do not specify
a particular moment or interval of time. The verb is completely timeless: it refers to what is
true for all time. In fact, generic statements imply the presence of the adverb always. As the
examples illustrate, the present simple with generic or universal value is used to formulate
general laws, definitions of scientific language, geographical statements, or proverbs.
b) Habitual Present: The present simple denotes habitual actions, i.e. actions which
happ en repeatedly, regularly.
The repetition of the action is often stressed by adverbs of frequency, such as often,
usually, never, always, as a rule, generally, rarely, sometimes, every day / week / month, on
Sundays , etc.: You usually visit yo ur grandparents on Sundays.
I never get up late during the week. ; He goes to the mountains twice a year;
She goes to the seaside every year. ; I read for one hour every afternoon;
Generally, I don’t go to bed late in the evening ..
None of these sentences refers to a particular moment of time; the sentences do not
indicate a particular event or state.
(2) The instantaneous present contrasts with the generic or habitual present uses in that it
refers to a particular event which is simultaneous with the moment of speaking: the event
takes place at the very moment of speaking. Normally, this value should be expressed by the
progressive aspect, since the progressive aspect is the form taken by such v erbs in order to
designate a single occurrence of an event simultaneous with the moment of speaking.
The present simple is used with dynamic verbs when no duration is thought of or when
the stress is not so much on the duration of the action as on the quick succession of
happenings: the event develops rapidly enough to be perceived in its entirety.
Taking into consideration these temporal and aspectual characteristics of the
instantaneous present simple we can easily understand why it occurs only in a restricted
number of contexts:
a) in radio or TV commentaries , especially sports ones. In making a commentary, the
speaker sees the events in a chain of complete acts; he is merely reporting the events, he is not
indicating their duration:
Brown passes the ball to Emerson who scores the first goal.
In such a commentary, the commentator does not insist on the duration of the events but
on their quick succession: the events are seen as momentary ones completed alm ost at the
same time they are performed.
b) In description of experiments, demonstrations and newspaper headlines:

37
I add the sugar to the eggs yolks and place the basin over a saucepan of hot water.
Man rescues child from lake .
c) In stage directions (when the playwright gives directions to the actors) : The present
simple denotes a sequence of short actions going on at the moment of speaking:
The phone rings . She listens quiet ly. A window opens and a masked man enters
the room.
The reason for not using the progressive aspect here – points b) and c) – is that it is the
idea of repetition which is implied rather than something going on at the moment of speaking.
In other words, these actions will happen each and every time the same circumstances are
created (viz. cooking that dish or performing that particular play).
d) In immediate reactions and in exclamations introduced by here, there :
It seems a bit quiet in here.Where is everyone?
Here comes the postman ! ; There goes your brother ! ; There it goes!
If these statements were not exclamatory, the progressive aspect would be used:
The cab is coming.
e) In a ssertions that use performative verbs. Performative verbs are those verbs for
which the event consists in the uttering of the statement; the event happens at the very
moment of speaking when we describe what we ar e saying as ‗offering‘, ‗begging‘,
‗accepting‘: accept, apologize, admit, deny, regret, thank etc. Syntactically, they usually
occur in the 1st person:
We accept your proposal.
I deny your accusation.
I apologize for my behaviour .
I hope you‘ll finish the project on time.
(3) The present simple is used with state verbs (verbs which cannot be used in the
progressive aspect):
I don’t know her last name.
She thinks you are right.
In conclusion, the present tense simple has several values (generic, habitual,
instantaneous) which all have as a basic meaning the fact that the event is simultaneous with
the present moment, a semantic fact which is reinfo rced by the presence of adverbials a lso
indicating the present. ( Murar, 2005: p.16)

38
B. In addition to the uses discussed above which have reference to present time, the
present simple may indicate other temporal values: it can be used to refer to the future and the
past.
(4) The present s imple referring to future time .
The present simple with future time reference occurs in simple / independent sentences
and in subordinate clauses.
a) In simple sentences: The present simple denotes planned future actions, when the
future action is considered part of an already fixed program me, particularly when it refers to
statements about the calendar, to a journey or timetable . This use is parti cularly frequent with
a limited group of verbs of motion such as come, go, leave , return as well as with verbs
expressing planned activity: begin, finish, start, end, meet .
Adverbials indicating future time are obligatory for the correct interpr etation of the
temporal value: The examination begins at 9 o‘clock tomorrow morning.
The lesson starts at 10.30 tomorrow instead of 9.30.
What time does the party begin ?
Our term starts at the beginning of October.
On day three we visit Venice . (in itineraries – descriptions of travel arrangements)
The present simple is used only in those contexts in which the anticipated event is
considered as an assured fact, the future event is considered as unalt erable, as a certainty .
There is a pronounced modal nuance of certainty with this use. According to R. Quirk, ―the
anticipated event is attributed the same degree of certainty that one usually associates wit h
present or past events‖ (1978: p.89).
Therefore, the present simple with future time reference is used in contexts about
plans and arrangements considered as unalterable .
b) In subordinate clauses: The present simple with future time reference is used in certain
types of subordina te clauses: adverbial clauses of time, condition, comparison. The idea of
futurity is clearly denoted in the main clause which expresses or implies future time:
I‘ll call you when I arrive.
She will be disappointed if he doesn’t come to her party.
Unless you leave now, you will miss the train.
Don‘t forget to turn off the TV before you leave .
They hope to move into the new house as soon as they get back from London next
week.
(5) The present simple referring to past time .

39
The present simple sometimes refers to events in the past in some special contexts:
a) The present simple is used with reference to actions in the past in order to express
vividness in narration, to make past happenings seem presen t, vivid, as if they were
going on now, at the moment of speaking. This use is traditionally known by the term
historic present tense. From the stylistic point of view, the historic present tense occurs
in speech (oral style) as well as in literary style, usuall for purposes of dramatising
important events.
Elizabeth recognizes Spain as her main rival and enemy.

Oral style :
The present simple frequently refers to the past in narratives, where past events may be
recounted partly or wholly in the present tense: for example jokes are often told en tirely in
present tense: Then comes the man and tries to stop the fight.
Then suddenly he picks up th e pieces and creates the puzzle . It was amazing, I couldn‘t
believe it.
The lord tells his butler to call him a taxi. The butler, who never contradicts his master,
says: ‖ Yes, Sir, you are a taxi.‖ ( Turai, 2008: p.337)
The time reference is past which appears from the (apparently incongruous) adverbial
of time then. Normally, a past tense simple would be used. The use of the present gives highly
coloured character to the narration in oral style.
Literary style :
Summaries of historical events, plots of stories, films etc., use present (and present perfect)
tenses:
The battle takes place in a narrow region and in the end they are defeated.
May 1945: The war in Europe comes to an end.
At the end of the play both families realise that their hatred had caused the deaths of the
lovers.
– fiction: It is customary for writers to use the past tense to describe imaginary happen ings
so that the employment of the present simple in fiction is interpreted as a deviation from
norm. G. Leech (1978: 21) remarks that some writers use the present simple in imitation of
the oral style (to give a dramatic heightening of the narrative):
Mr.Tulkinghorn takes out his paper, asks permission to place them on a table, puts on
his spectacles and begins to read. (Charles Dickens – Bleak House )
– in newspaper headlines:

40
Ship sinks into The Pacific Ocean .; Traffic Accidents Kill People on the Main Road .
b) with some verbs of communication : forget, gather, hear, learn, tell, understand the
present simple is used instead of the past tense or present perfect in order to express the
persistence in the present moment of the effect of a past communication, to render the
communication more vivid (in colloquial style):
I forget your name .; They tell me he is back.
I hear his condition is getting worse . (= I have heard)
You win! (= You have won!)

3.1.2. The Present Tense Continuous

It is formed of the present tense of the auxiliary be + the present participle of the main verb:
I am dancing. ; He is running., etc.

a. Affirmative: S + TO BE (Present) + V -ing .
b. Interrogative: TO BE (Present) + S + V -ing.
c. Negative : S + TO BE (Present) NOT + V -ing

Uses and values :

(1) The present progressive main uses are:
a) To represent an action viewe d at some point between its beg inning and end, and
whose duration is limited; the action may or may not be literally in progress at the
very moment of sp eaking;
Look! They are coming this way! (i.e. now)
We are having tea in the garden during this hot weather. (although right now we
may be doing something else )

b) To represent a temporary action , which includes the moment of speaking ( i.e. an
action of limited duration and not yet finished ). The ‗temporary‘ period can be as
short as a few seconds (i) or as long as a few years (ii):
(i) Listen! The birds are singing .
(ii) My cousin is studying in London.

41
Time markers (adverbs of time) are not obligatory with the present progressive because
the tense itself is understood to mean ‗right now‘. Optional time markers for the present
progressive are: now, right now, just now, at the (present) moment:
John is working right now.
The verbal form is working expresses an action which is in progress at the moment of
speaking: the action began in the recent past, before the moment of speaking ‗right now‘ and
will probably continue or will end at some point in the future. Other examples:
I am not wearing a skirt as it isn‘t warm .;
Don‘t disturb your father! He is in his office. He is working on a project.
The sun is shining . The trees are blooming.
Mary is living in Turkey at the moment.
I need a thick er coat because the wind is blowing .

(2) The present progressive may denote an action that extends over a slightly longer period
of time, including the moment of speaking.
a) The present progressive denotes an action which is happening around the moment of
speaking but not necessarily exactly at the moment of speaking. Usual adverbial phrases:
today , these days, this week / month / year, etc.
I’m taking piano lessons this year . – The action can be genera lly in progress but not
actually happening at the moment of speaking.
I am reading a novel by Jane Austen . ;
Mark is studying very hard for this term .
In none of these sentences is there any indication that t he activity is going on at the very
moment of speaking, but the present progressive is used because the action denoted by the
verbs although extending over a longer period of time (this term, this year) , is not permanent.
The present simple is therefore not used because the sentences do not express a ‗general‘ or
‗habitual‘ action.
b) The present progressive is used to denote a developing or changing activity, a transition
from one state to another, which therefore implies limited duration . It usually occurs with
adverbials of degree and adjectives expressing gradual comparison, such as more and more,
faster and faster, gradually, increasingly, etc.:
The weather is getting hotter and hotte r.
More and more forests are disappearing because of fires .
He is earning less and less.

42
Halloween is becoming increasingly commercialized: shops see it merely as a way of
making money.
c) The present progressive is sometimes used in subordinate clauses of time and condition
to refer to an action that may be going on at any time:
I don‘t like to be disturbed when I’m practis ing.
They look lovely when they are dancing .
(3) The present progressive has a stylistically marked use in combination with a frequency
adverb such as always, forever , continually, constantly, all the time , incessantly. Such
adverbials usually combine with the present simple to express the concept of repetition
(habitual present):
My boss always yells at us.
When the progressive form is used with these adverbs it expresses the constant repetition of
an event: an action permanently characterizing the subject, a habit that annoys or caus es a
strong feeling of some kind in the speaker. The construction has a subjective connotation, an
emotionally coloured tone of annoyance, irritation, disapproval:
My boss is always yelling at us . – the construction expresses disappr oval of an act ion
which, in speaker‘s opinion, happens too often.
He’s always getting into trouble.
That child is continually crying.
He is complaining about his work all the time.
(4) Present Continuo us is used with the verb TO BE to refer to somebody's behavio ur at the
moment ; when reference is made to somebody's permanent feature of character the present
simple is used:
She isn't being too friendly tonight, you know?
You are being mean. (i.e. now)
You are mean. ( i.e. generally)
(5) Future time reference: planned or arranged future action
The present progressive with future time reference is used in a much wider range of
situations than the present sim ple. The present progressive is the most usual way to express a
person‘s immediate plans, intentions or definite arrangements in the near future. An adverbial
of time is always used to indicate the time of the action, as otherwise there might be confusion
between present and future meanings.
He is see ing his denti st next weekend .
We’re leaving tomorrow .

43
They ’re having dinner this evening .
What are you doing tonight ?
As compared to the present simple with future time reference, the anticipated event
expressed by the present progressive is less certain; the plan or arrangement may be altered.
The present progressive is used when the future action is the result of a personal arrangement
(somebody‘s arrangement for a future activity), planning, intention on the part of the subject,
while the present simple is used when the future activity is regarded as part of a fixed
timetable, schedule, decision.

3.2 Comparison between Present Tense Simple and Present Tense Continuo us

In order to distinguish the present progressive from the present simple it is necessary
to study three separate aspects of meaning :
a) The present progressive indicates a limited, temporary action and is thus distinguished
from the unlimi ted (generic) present simple. The difference between the limited and unlimited
duration is evident from the following sentences in which the present simple (expressing
unlimited, permanent situations) contrasts with the present progressive (expressing limi ted,
temporary situations):
Water boils at 100ș C. (generic) / The kettle‘s boiling. Shall I make tea?
My grand parents live in the country. / I‘m living here until I can find a bigger flat .
The sentence with the present progressive – am living – implies that the residence is
temporary, that the action has limited time extension.
b) The present progressive indicates duration and is thus distinguished from the non –
durative, instantane ous present simple. The durative meaning of the present progressive is
seen in the contrast of: I close my eyes. / I am closing my eyes .
In the first sentence, the event is mentally conceived as an indivisible entity, without
duration (the sentence suggests a sudden movement); in the second sentence the event is
conceived as having duration (the sentence suggests a gradual movement).
The choice of verb form may depend entirely on the speaker‘s viewpoint. The speaker may
wish to take a synoptic view, a view of an action or series of actions as a whole, in which case
he chooses the present simple. In describing a scientific experiment, a demonstrator is more
likely to take this view: he is interested in his acts or in phenomena as items in a chain of
events:

44
I mix the ingredients and in a few moments they turn into a white sauce.
If the speaker is more concerned with dr awing attention to the fact that an activity is in
progress or in a state of incompletion he chooses the progressive form:
I‘m mix ing all the ingredients. There! Can you se e what‘s happening? They are turning
into a white sauce.
In each ca se the actions or phenomena are the same, but the speaker looks at th em
differently. (G. Leech, 1978, p. 22)
c) The present progressive indicates that the action is not complete and thus it is again
distinguished from the present simple. This diffe rence between complete and incomplete
actions is illustrated by event verbs (become, fall, get, go, stop) which express a transition
from one state to another.
The car stops . – The present simple indicates that the vehicle arrived at a state of re st
[complete].
The car is stopping . – The present progressive indicates that the bus is only slowing
down (in order to stop) [incomplete]
The difference between the present progressive and the present simple can be seen in the
followin g sentences:
I’m leaving tonight. (would imply that I have decided to leave)
I leave tonight: could mean that this is part of a plan not necessarily made by me – the
present simple is more impersonal than the present progressive.
I‘m starting work tomorrow: the present progressive suggests that the speaker expects or
intends to start work.
I start work tomorrow: The present simple suggests that tomorrow is the time fixed for
him to start.
The fact that the present progressive expresses personal arrangement in the future, restricts
its use to verbs having animate [+ human] subjects:
Tom is rising at 5 o‘clock tomorrow.
* The sun is rising at 5 o‘clock tomorrow.
It is for the same reason that in the following pair of sentences the first sentence is correct
while the second is not:
The contests start tomorrow. – *The contests are starting tomorrow.

Some English verbs, which we call state, non -continuous or stative verbs, aren't
used in continuous tenses (like the present continuous, or the future continuous). These

45
verbs often describe states that last for some time. There are verbs that express emotions ,
desire , want , verbs of perception , of being, having , owing , link verbs ( be, become,
look) and mental verbs . Here is a list of some common ones:

Stative (or State) Verb List
like Know belong
love Realize Fit
hate Suppose Contain
want Mean Consist
need Understand Seem
prefer Believe Depend
agree Remember Matter
mind recognize See
own appear look (=seem)
sound taste Smell
hear astonish Deny
disagree please Impress
satisfy promise Surprise
doubt think (=have an
opinion) feel (=have an
opinion)
wish imagine Concern
dislike Be Have
deserve involve Include
lack measure (=have length ) Possess
owe weigh (=have weight)

A ve rb which isn't stative is called a dynamic verb, and is usually an action.
Some verbs can be both stative and dynamic , they can b e used in the continuous aspect ,
with a change in meaning.

46
 Be
Be is usually a stative verb, but when it is used in the continuo us it means 'behaving' or
'acting' :
You are such a naughty little boy. ( = permanent state )
You are being so rude today. ( = temporary situation )
 Think
Think (stative) = have an opinion
I think that this house is perfect.
Think (dynamic) = consider, have in my head
I'm thinking about changing my job. Is it a good idea?
 Have
have (stative) = own , possess
I have a new car.
have (dynamic) = part of an expression
They are just having a walk.
I'm hav ing a good time .
Some idioms with have include :
 have breakfast/ lunch /dinner, et c.
 have a bath /shower/swim/party, etc .
 have an accident/ experience/idea/ a dream , etc .
 have a baby
 have a difficulty/fun /trouble, etc.

 See
see (stative) = see with your eyes / understand
I see what you mean .
I see her , she is wearing a red dress.
see (dynamic) = meet / accompany/to pay a visit to/ attend / take care of/ have an
appointment/go to the doctor
I am seeing my relatives tomorrow .
Bob is seeing his friends to the door.
I shall be seeing her tomorrow.
Who is seeing to the arrangements for the wedding?

47
Jack is seeing the doctor tomorrow.
 Taste / Smell / Feel
taste (stative) = has a certain taste
This chocolate cake tastes great .
The coffee tastes really sweet.
taste (dynamic) = the action of tasting
My mother is tast ing the soup before she puts the parsley.
Smell (stative) = has the smell
The room smell s of perfume.
Smell (dynamic) = is sniffing
The cat is smelling its food.
Feel (stative) = has a soft texture
The towel feels soft.
Feel (dynamic) = is touching
Grandma i s feeling her nephew's forehead.
 Consider
Consider (stative) = to think, to believe
The fans of our football team consider it to be the best in town.
Consider (dynamic) =to think
I'm cons idering whet her to accept the job I've just been offered.
 Expect
Expect (stative) = to hope
I expect that everything will be all right.
Expect (dynamic) = to wait for
We are expecting some friends to come from abroad.
 Differ (dynamic) = to quarrel with
She is always differing w ith his friends.
 Mind (dynamic)= to look after
Alice is minding the baby when Mary is out.

48
Chapter 4
Teaching English Grammar Methods

This chapter provides a brief lis ting of the methods and their profound effect upon
the practice of language teachi ng, grouped in four sections: (4 .1.) The Humanistic Approach
(Grammar Translation, The Direct Method, The Silent Way, Communicative Language
Learning, Total Physical Response, Suggestop edia); (4 .2.) Behavio urism (The Audio -Lingual
Method); (4.3.) Cognitivism (The S tructural -Situational Approach); (4 .4.) The Socio -Cultural
Turn (Communicative Language T eaching).
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 according to some
differences ,‖ not only in terms of their age and level , but also in terms of different individual
abilities, knowl edge and preferences‖. (Harmer, 2007: p.14)
A method also points out that a teacher has a number of different roles and the
adoption of only one of these will be detrimental to a varied and interes ting class. It also
presents the advantages and disa dvantages of student grouping (lockstep, pairwork,
groupwork or individual study) and underlines the importance of a code of conduct designed
so that learning can be efficient and effective during the cla sses. It tells a teacher what
materi als and classroom activities should be used and will allow the teacher to be a walking
resource centre who gives clear instructions and vital information.
There are various language teaching methods: Grammar translation, Communicative
Languag e Learning, the Silent Way, Sugg estopedia, Total Physical Response, the Natural
Approach, Communicative Learning Teaching, and Audio -lingual Method.
All these methods have a profound effect upon the practice of language teaching,
their own objectives, features, characteristics for both teachers and learners, their
specifications regarding error correction, classroom activities and they must be achieved in a
balanced between the components of input and output.
It is the teacher‘s great task to thoughtfully analyze their objectives and appropriacy ,
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 m ust also be pointed out the
fact that a teacher may mix techniques from different methods in order to achieve their
teaching objectives.

49
It must be distinguished between a method and methodology. Methodology is the
general study of the way la nguage 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 P urposes , English as a
Foreign Language – people learn English because they think it will be useful in
some way , English as a Second Language );
 The teacher‘s language level, thus taking into consideration the fact that for some
methods and approaches teachers should speak L2 ve ry fluently in order to foster a
good teacher – student rapport ;
 The resources available, meaning that different methods r equire great amount of
materials in order to support teaching . Teachers should vary activities and topics
over a period of time. As Jer emy Harmer said much of the value of an activity, in
other words, resides in its freshness ; ( 2007: p.29)
 The learner differences (age, learning styles, levels, educational and cultural
background, motivation) .
4.1. 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.
4.1.1. The Grammar Translation Meth od
This approach has gained increasing prominence in language teach ing is that of a
student as a ‖whole person‖. In such methodologies the experience of the student is what
counts and the development of their personality and the encouragement of positive feelings
are seen to be as important as their learning of language ( Atkinson, 1989). 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 e nd 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, learn ers 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;

50
 Teaching vocabulary is reduced t o 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 presen tation 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 lear ners 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:
As the name suggests the grammar -translation method relies on acquisition of language
by learning vocabulary and grammar rules, with translation employed as the main operational
technique. Students are presented with target language reading passages and answe r 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:

51
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 i n 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 exemplify ing 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
acquisit ion 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 t he 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.

4.1.2 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.

52
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 vocabular y 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 (no t 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. Krashe n (1981), using the ―Direct Method‖, the teacher uses
examples of language in ord er 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 questi ons 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.

4.1.3. 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 p rovided by the teacher is reduced to model sentences that
the teacher utters only once and the learners are asked to repeat. Information transmission and

53
feedback are gi ven through visual aids. A well -known technique includes Cuisenaire Rods,
enabling the learners to deduce meanings or forms: a set of coloured pencils , wall charts and a
pointer. The tea cher takes a rod and says ―a pencil ‖ to the students. Next, by using mime the
teacher induces the stud ents to repeat the name of the object. The teacher combines the names
of colours to the object saying ―a red pencil‖, ―a blue pencil ‖, etc. The students are eventually
expected to say ―a red rod‖, ―a blue rod‖, etc. without the teacher‘s model. With refere nce 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 i dea 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 norma l 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. S tudents 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 thoug ht 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 interac tion 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:

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All four skills areas worked on from beginning (rea ding, 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 S tudents’ 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 no r 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.
4.1.4. Community Language Learning/ Councelling Learning
(Charles Curran)
Charles A. Curran took as his main concern the deep -level interpersonal dynamics of
the teacher – learner relationship and the teaching – learning process and concluded that ‖ the
kind of healthy growth which learning can represent must involve the whole, integrated
person of the learner: intellect, emotions, values and personality.‖ (Grigoroiu , 2002: p.54) .
The teacher and the learner 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 t eaching unfolds.
4.1.5 . 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 develop ed 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 traditi onal 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, em ulating the early stage of mother tongue acquisition, and then moving to

55
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
comm ands. Activities are designed to be fun and to allow students to ass ume active learning
roles.
What TPR offers is a less demanding, more leisurely route to the acquisition of
comprehension skills which properly underlie the natural acquisition o f full – blown
communication skills.
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 the ir 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 te acher 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 learnin g; 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 th e 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.

56
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.
Acco rding 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 f or the students, but should
produce better results than the audio -lingual and grammar -translation methods.
4.1.6. 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 th e 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 play ing 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 langu age 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 limi ts 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 mu sical concerts; once with the teacher matching his or her voice to the rhythm

57
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 onl y 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‘ fe elings, 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 Languag e 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 c orrected; 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 ―s éances‖ 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 ac ting 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.
4.2. Behavio urism (Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Edward Thorndike, Burrhus Skinner)
4.2.1. The Audio -Lingual Method
Behaviourism: in psychology, it 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,

58
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, Noa m 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 behavio urist 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 sp eaker 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.
4.3. Cognitivism/ Mentalism
4.3.1. 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 no tion 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
sociali sing function of language, i.e. there is no reference to socio -cultural embeddedness.

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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 cycl e, 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 studen ts‘ 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 o verlaps 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‖.
4.4. The Socio -Cultural Turn: The Communicative Approach / Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT)
4.4.1. 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, 196 9), 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

60
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 expla nation may help some learners, but
extensive experience of target language use helps everyone.
 Effective language teaching is responsive to t he 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.
 Accordin g to Grenfell and Harris (1999: p. 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 imm ediately 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 ma terials (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
commu nity.
 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 inte raction in and
through the foreign language, relating back to the intention to mean and legitimacy
of tasks .

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 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 clas ses 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 lea rners‘ 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 (cognitiv e 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.
4.4.2. Comm unicative 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
replac ement 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

62
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
transf ormational 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 interac tion, 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. Aust in 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 pri marily 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 the se 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 semant ic

63
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.

64
CHAPTER 5
METH ODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TEACHING THE PRESENT TENSE
SIMPLE AND THE PRESENT TENSE CONTINUOUS IN ENGLISH
Teaching Tenses in the Classroom: Issues and Implications

Chapter 5 also deals with the issues and implications of teaching tenses in the
classroom. There follows the diff iculties encountered by Intermediate learners in using the
Present. Furthermore, there are presented the methods of teaching: fro m Traditional
Approach -―The Audio -lingual Method‖ an d from Communicative Approach -―The
Communicative Language Teaching Method‖, accompanied by different activities , the final
test , recordings the difficulties encountered by Intermediate students in using the present and
conclusions.

5.1 Research Aims

The research aim is to show the importance of learning tenses in English , i.e. learning
to express a present action in the English language with children learning English as a
second/foreign language.
There are many reasons why children should learn about grammar, and some of them can be
formulated as follows:
1. Learning grammar is important if the students want to develo p 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, str uctures which they
don‘t possess as children.
2. 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.
3. 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.

65
4. 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.
5. 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 go od introduction to
scientific method;
6. 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 extr emely interesting, even
fascinating;
7. 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 Present Tenses in English ?
 To discover the appropriate method/ -s in differentiating between the use of the
Present Tense Simple and the Present Tense Continuous;
 What are the difficulties encountered by Romanian learners in using the Present?
 Which is the most effective way of teaching Present: 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.

5.2 Research Methods

The research part deals with the aspects of teaching the Present Tenses in English
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 to my students what are the activities involved in
the research and what are the objectives of the lessons I will teach them. To be more specific,
I want to teach Present Tenses to the two classes at the same ti me, but the difference will be

66
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:
1. Which method of teaching is more effective, or the most;
2. How many of the students from both classes wil l have learnt to express correctly
a Present action in English;
3. What are the difficulties they encountered during the learning process;
4. What are the most common errors they made while learning the Present forms of
the verbs;
5. What are the most common errors they made when turning an affirmative
sentence into a negative and interrogative one.

5.2 The experiment

In order to do all these things, I will give them tests to check them upon Present
Tenses, with items which will verify:
1. The basic forms of the verbs;
2. Choosing the correct answer from items in different present tenses;
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 eff ectiveness of each method of teaching;
3. To find out how many of the basic forms of the irregular verbs students will have
learnt, and therefore use them correctly;
4. To grasp possible motifs for which the students want to learn how to express
present actions in English ;
5. How well they manage to express such things in both written and orally;
6. Which are the most difficult ways to express present actions in English .
The research part will contain lesson plans concerned with ways of teaching present
tenses into classes, being accompanied by practice activities.
At the end of the study, conclusions must be drawn and these will concern some
issues:

67
 How many students know the basic forms of the verbs;
 What are the easiest learnt forms;
 If my stu dents are able to express present 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;
 Wha t are the difficulties encountered by the Romanian learners when learning present
tenses in English.

68
Pre-test

I. Complete the text , putting the verbs in brackets in the present simple or
present tense continuous :

This car _______ 1)(belong) to me .Why _____ you ________ 2)( smile)?
______ you _______ 3)(believe) it? I ______ 4)(know) it is very expensive and for the
moment I __________ 5)(earn) much money.But I _____ 6)(love ) it! Look, how it _____
7)(shine)! I _________ 8)(understand) that you _______ 9)(be) a bit jealous. Don't worry, I
________ 10)(borrow) money from you. I ______ 11)(owe) the bank enough. Anyway, you
never ________ 12)(lend) money to anybody… Thi s week my wife _________ 13)(drive) the
car, her car _____ 14)(be) repaired. I _______ 15)(hope) she is being careful, she is a careless
driver. I ______ 16)(feel) rather anxious.You say I am imagining things. It appears you are
right. You ______ 17)(see), she _____ 18)(be) an actress,she ________ 19)(appear) in the
new show tonight. That is why she ______ 20)(need) the car.
(50 p)

II. Write qu estions and answers in the present simple and present continuous :

1. Q. Hello! What (you, do ) ?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
A. I ( read) a novel . I ( write) an essay about it.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
2. Q. I really enjoy (go) to the gym. It (be) really fun.(you,go) ?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
A. No, I (not/go). I ( run) about an h our every weekend .
…………………………………………………………………………………………
3. Q. What (they/ do) in London ?
…………………………………………………………………………………………
A. They (visit) many famous places. They (have) a great time .
…………………………………………………………………………………………
4. Q. (you/ come) in this park every weekend ?
…………………………………………………………………………………………

69
A. No, I don't. I usually (go) in the park near my house.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
5. Q. (your sister/ have ) her passport?
………………………………………………………………………………………………
A. Yes, she (have) it. She (have ) her plane ticket , too.
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
(50 p)
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 subj ect also show that present tenses in general are easily
recognized an d therefore learned, verbs like: ‖believe, owe, borrow, shine ‖. So Present
Tenses of some verbs are easier to form. H owever, there are som e verbs which have been
learned mor e quickly in point of their Present 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 Present Tense Simple and Continuous .
Conclus ions:
a. Students have learned to appl y the rules of formation of Presen t Simple and
Continuous ;
b. They have come to master the order of constituents in affirmative, negative and
interrogative sentences by practic ing enough, and, as a result, they have gained
correctne ss in using Present 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 t he results from the 9 -th
grade A , both at subject I and at the second subject.

70

Diagram 1: Representation of the re sults of the initial test, the 9 -th grade A, subject I
52%
36%
56%
60%
24%
76%
48%
48%
96%
44% 56% 44% 60% 72% 72% 52% 48% 88% 32% 24% Initial test, subject 1, 9-th grade A
belong
smile
believe
know
earn
love
shine
understand
be
borrow
owe
lend
drive
be
hope
feel
see
be
appear
need

71

Diagram 3: Representation of the re sults of the initial test, the 9 -th grade B, subject I

62% 56%
60% 60%
54%
76%
68%
48% 96%
50% 56% 60% 92% 84% 72% 92% 68% 88% 62% 56% Initial test, subject I, 9-th grade B
belong
smile
believe
know
earn
love
shine
understand
be
borrow
owe
lend
drive
be
hope
feel
see
be
appear
need

72
Diagram 4: Representation of the results of the initial test, the 9 -th grade A , subject II

86%
96%
84%
64%
86%
54%
68%
32% 48% 48% 52% 60% 88% 94% 80% 60% Initial test, subject 2, 9-th grade A
S1,int
S1,aff
S1,aff
S2,aff
S2,aff
S2,int
S2,neg
S2,aff
S3, int
S3,aff
S3,aff
S4, int
S4,aff
S5, int
S5,aff
S5, aff

73

Diagram 4: Representation of the results of the initial test, the 9 -th grade B, subject II

100%
96%
84%
86%
86%
90%
96%
98% 48% 68% 84% 90% 88% 94% 100% 92% Initial test, subject 2, 9-th grade B
S1,int
S1,aff
S1,aff
S2,aff
S2,aff
S2,int
S2,neg
S2,aff
S3, int
S3,aff
S3,aff
S4, int
S4,aff
S5, int
S5,aff
S5, aff

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Crt.
No. Verb The 9 -th grade A The 9 -th grade B
1. Belong 52% 62%
2. Smile 36% 56%
3. Believe 56% 60%
4. Know 60% 60%
5. Earn 24% 54%
6. Love 76% 76%
7. Shine 48% 68%
8. Understand 48% 48%
9. Be 96% 96%
10. Borrow 44% 50%
11. Owe 56% 56%
12. Drive 60% 90%
13. Be 72% 84%
14. Hope 72% 72%
15. Feel 52% 92%
16. See 48% 68%
17. Be 88% 88%
18. Appear 32% 62%
19. Need 24% 56%

Tabel 3: Comparison between the results of subject I, initial test

75

Crt.
No. Sentence type The 9 -th grade A The 9 -th grade B
1. Interrogative 86% 100%
Affirmative 96% 96%
Affirmative 84% 84%
2. Affirmative 64% 86%
Affirmative 86% 86%
Interrogative 54% 90%
Negative 68% 96%
Affirmative 32% 98%
3. Interrogative 48% 48%
Affirmative 48% 68%
Affirmative 52% 84%
4. Interrogative 60% 90%

affirmative 88% 88%
5. Interrogative 94% 94%
Affirmative 80% 100%
Affirmative 60% 92%

Tabel 4: Comparison between the results of subject II, initial test

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5.4 Presenting means of expressing the Present.

It has already been stated that Present 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 stru ctures 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 o f meaning‖. Teaching English present tenses is associated mainly with sentence
grammar, which in its tu rn is comprised of syntax and morphology. Thornbury says that
syntax is concerned with ―the rules that determine the way wor ds can be combined to make
well formed sentences‖, whereas morphology involves ―knowing how to construct verb
phrases‖, according t o 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. Adriana Vizental (2008) underlines that the teacher must use interesting texts, so
as to intriduce vocabulary and grammar contextually, to facilitate understanding and learning,
and to promote good habit formation. Celce -Murcia and Hilles (1988) describe three kinds of
factors which should teachers take into account when presenting new grammar.
Social fac tors 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 an d
probability are most naturally taught from a semantic perspective. Some expressions could be
taught most effectively with a focus on morphological, lexical and syntactic contrasts that
signal a difference in meaning.
Discourse factors includ e 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 cont ent. 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.

77
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 i n 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 hea rt, 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 i s 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 exchan ge some terms (example can be annoyed and annoy ing). 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 learni ng 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. organising 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.

78

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,
practising 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 t he 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 ―th e 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 hy pothesis,
 the Natural Order hypothesis,
 the Input hypothesis,
 and 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 ―monit oring‖ 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
shou ld 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

79
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 cu rrent 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. Th ey 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 -confi dence, 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 cer tain 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.
Spok en 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 an d 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 ar e 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.

80
To compare written and s poken text M. Swan (2005, p.41) provides the 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 h e wouldn´t do anythingabout
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 grammatic al exercises where they should practise just this one new grammatical
rule. In my opinion it must have lead 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 o f 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 wel l 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 me aning but to be able to use them needs learning the enormous amount of
difficult forms .
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 m eaning in context, and produce
meaningful sentences using it themselves.

81
P. Ur (1988: p.6) gives a table which presents all the ―bits‖ mentioned above:

Form Meaning
Listening Perception and recognition of
the spoken form of the structure. Comprehension of what the
spokenstructure means in
context.
Speaking Production of well -formed
examples in speech. Use of the structure to convey
meanings in speech.
Reading Perception and recognition of
the written form. Comprehension of what the
writte n structure means in
context.
Writing Production of well -formed
examples in writing. Use of the structure to convey
meanings in writing.
Tabel 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 co nsideration 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
knowled ge 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. Chi ldren 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‖

82
Teach ing 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 shoul d set the
context of new grammatical structure first and then present ―both oral and written form and
both form and meaning.‖, as it is sta ted by Biber et al l. (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 cond ition 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 concer ned, teachers have to de cide
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. A ccording 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 be 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 examp le,
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 dis covered by themselves is better fixed in their minds;

83
 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 implic itly 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 t eacher should ask themselves is whether
the activity, present ation of the grammar and practis ing 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. Th e 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 understan dable. 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 p repare 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 prep ared 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

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teacher can observe how effective the methods were. This is called efficacy. The efficacy of
a gram mar 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 i n 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 certai n study group but need not be suitable for different one. Th ornbury (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 mu ltilingual;
 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 lea rners 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 inv olve
analysis and memorisation.

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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 (ef ficacy). 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 teachi ng 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 oppor tunities 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 a llow 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, i n
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;

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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 becau se 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 p rocess, 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 tea cher 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 Present Tenses, formation rules, their
usages and their comparis on . So, Present Tenses are very often used, they referring to
habitual and repeated actions, general truths, actions which were developing at the moment of
speaking , temporary situatins or fixed arrangements in the near future. Regardless the level
or the specific of the classes, be it the 1st or the 2nd foreign language, Present Tenses are
presented gradually, i.e. a) the distinction between present simple present continuous; b) the
formation rules of the present tenses; c) information about their uses; d) specification of
specific time adverbials; e) comparison between present tenses and with other tenses; f) what
is their equivalents in their mother tongue.
The teacher is the one who chooses which method to adopt when presenting past
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 daily routines : this activity presupposes that the teacher read a text
focused on present activities or it could be played from a recorder. The students are asked to
recall some sentences which contain present tense verbs. (According to Ur, 1988)

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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 using board pictures or flashcards. The children are
asked to retell the story at some points. Finally, the children write a second very similar story
for a different character. (According to Scrivener, 2003).
3. Pilling up events : during this activity, each student is given a verb in the present 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, considering a logical
order of the events. As a follow up activity, the teacher can ask them to write as many
activities as possible , practicing thus the writing activity. (According to Ur, 1988)
4. Dictating key words : the teacher dictates some verbs in present 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 th e 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 Present Simple and Continuous.
(According to Scrivener, 2003).
7. Pictures into stories: A simple picture story is all the mat erial 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 present 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 present
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. Soap opera: for this activity the teacher creates an imaginary ‗soap opera‘ with
varied stereotypical characters. The goal is to elicit from students the different lifestyles and
routines of these characters.. (According to Scrivener, 2003)

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9. Spot the lies game: The teacher starts the activity with telling ten present tense
senten ces about himself/ herself. Eight sentences should be true and two shoul be false. The
students can get very curious about teacher‘s personal life and that‘s why they must guess
which sentences are false. After the teacher‘s presentation, the students‘ s entences follow in
the same way. Writing activity comes when students are given the task to write short
information about themselves. (According to Scrivener, 2003)
10. Sounds interesting : for this activity, the teacher needs a recorded series of recorded
soun ds. The tape is played and students are supposed to guess what is happening. After
hearing the sounds and following them, the children are asked to recap and retell the actions at
varois points .(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 present
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. Cooperative story – writing a diary : 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 t o 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
expose d and so on till all students have written his/her sentence down the paper. (According
to Ur, 1988)
13. Grammar quiz : the activity employs verbs in present 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 present forms. Whether it is correct, he/she can make a
nought or cross on the board. (According to Scrivener, 20 03).

5.5 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 sys tematic procedure, technique‖ or

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―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 probl em
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 stu dents 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 i ts 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 l anguage 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 o f 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 ins trumental 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

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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‖ . The teaching is deeply teacher -centred. The
reason for this approach is explained by the st atement 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 t eacher and ‗listening attentively‘ is […] enough to ensure that learning will take place‖ .
In his book Communicative Language Teaching Today, Jack C. Richards highlights that in
traditional methodology ―learning was very much seen as under the cont rol of the teacher‖ .
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 i n one‘s mother
tongue . The student tries to understand every single word and its grammatical form, because
he believes it is essenti al 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, Broughton ). 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‖ . In the view of Broughton and his colleagues, this approach ―ha[s] for
so many years produced generations of n on-communicator . The same authors hi ghlight that
many learners experienced significant frustration at the moment of realizing that they were
not able to speak in comm on life situations .
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 300 word composition on how you will improve your attitude toward
school.‘ Most teachers teaching in 1985 were bathed in the punishment syndrome when they

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were learning to write. Small wonder that most of us subtly communicate writing as a form of
punishment. We have no oth er model of teaching.
The traditional metho dology 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 demot ivating.
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 th at 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 ‗tr ansmittin g‘ the knowledge‖ . 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 Brought on and Scrivener, the syllabuses are grammatical and the languag e is
grouped by purpose . The primary skills, such as reading, writing, listening and speaking, are
generally taught at an insufficient level. Nevertheless, as Scrivener says, this method, wit h all
its potential disadvantages, has been used very often in schools worldwide, ―and is still the
predominant classroom method in s ome cultures‖ .
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 i n O‘Malley & Chamot (1990: p.531) , Oxford defines learning
strategies as being the ―behaviors or actions which learners use, to make language learning
more successful, self -directed and enjoy able.‖ To be more specific, the same authors define
learning stra tegies as ―special ways of processing information that enhance comprehension,
learning or retention of the information.‖ Cohen (1998: p.4) places the emphasis on the
differences between language learning and language use strategies, defining them as follow s:
―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 lang uage.‖

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To acquire new language, the learner has to take the following steps:
1. The specific information is being focused on with the aim of being stored in the
short -term memory;
2. This information is acquired by an active transfer from short -term memory to a
long-term memory;
3. There are connections established between these ideas from the short -term
memory;
4. 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 l earn 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.

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 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.
H.H.Stern (1 996: 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 m ain 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 al so 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 list ening, 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
Metho d, 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 sustain s 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;

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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 ea ch student is supposed to greet
another;
Principle = the purpose of language learning is to use language in orde r 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 whi ch 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, susta ined 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;

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11. Activity = every time students can handle the subject -matter, the teacher poses s the
questions rapidly;
Principle = students learn to respond automatically, without stoppin g 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 learn ers will encounter
difficulties
16. Activity = the teacher write s 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 w ell-
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

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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 stude nts‘ 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 id eas 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 comparis on 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 practise 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 pro mpt, and the learners say
the new structure.
Substitution drills work best at the beginning levels. They enable students to focus on
structure whi le learning related vocabulary. Teachers first teach a dialogue or sentence
structure, 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 nee ds some drill on the present tense:
T: Does John live in Paris?
S: Yes, he lives in Paris.
T: And does he work there ?
S: Yes, he works there.
T: Does he like his job ?
S : He really likes his job.
T: Is his job interesting?
S: His job is interesting and very important.

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T: Does he have many friends a t work?
S: Yes, he has many friends at work. They are a team .

The use of prompts, or cues, to elicit a new sentence instead of a full question cuts
down the teachers 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 elem ent 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 fo ot, in his veteran steamroller.

(http://mark.yates.net/english/teaching/bk09.htm )

A slightly more sophisticated use of replacement drills is to use them to elicit
structural elements, especially tenses.
T: Right, let's try this situation. Now, we're in an office. You're Mr. Jones and I'm the
secretary. Where are we?
S: We're in an office?
T: Who are you?
S: I'm Mr. Jones.
T: And who am I?
S : You're the secretary.
T: Good. So now call me into your office. OK?
S : Err… Mary, please come into the office.
T : Yes, what is it Mr. Jones.
S: Err … You must not come late to the office.
T: (trying to g iven things up) But it isn't my fault that I am late.

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S : Why are you late?
T : It's because the train is late.
S: Oh … well …

(http://mark.yates.net/english/teaching/bk09.htm )

Once again the teacher is using a very short prompt and this time the student has a lot
of work on his plate to adjust his sentence accordingly. It should be clear from the foregoing
that this kind of drill is appropriate at virtually every le vel of teaching for it can be used not
only for basic practice of certain structures which just require a lot of repetition but also for
the kind of exploratory work which can tell a teacher what needs to be done with more
advanced students.

1.2. Transformation drills :
Rewrite the sentences in the negative and then into interrogative:

1. They collect stamps .
_______________________________________

_______________________________________
2. She works hard .
_______________________________________

_______________________________________
3. Bob play s baseball.
_______________________________________

_______________________________________

4. The doctors examins the patients.
_______________________________________

_______________________________________
5. My cousin visits me twice a week.
_______________________________________

_______________________________________
6. He washe s his car four times a month.
_______________________________________

_______________________________________
7. You are sad .

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_______________________________________

_______________________________________
8. He has a new computer.
_______________________________________

_______________________________________
9. I buy many book s.
_______________________________________

_______________________________________

10. You dance every Friday night.
________________________________________

_________ _______________________________

1.3 Response drills:
To further develop the grammar point a ‗yes/ no‘ drill can be used. The teacher
elicits the p ositive response to Simple Present Tense Questions by holding up pictures of the
respective action taking place.
E.g. Teacher: ― Is he walk ing?‖ / ― Are they run ning?‖ / ― Is she crying?‖ / ―Is it
jump ing?‖
Student: ―Yes, she is.‖ / ―Yes, they are ‖ / ―Yes, she is.‖ / ―Yes, it is .‖
Then elicit a negative response from the students.
E,g. Teacher: ― Is he walk ing?‖ / ― Are they run ning?‖ / ― Is she crying?‖ / ―Is it
jump ing?‖
Student: ―No, he isn't.‖/―No, they aren‘t .‖/―No, she isn‘t .‖/―No, it isn‘t .‖
End by mixing the responses up. Ensure that the students know what i s expected from
them. Give clear instructions concerning the form you want them to drill

1.4 Cued Response Dri ll
In this drill language learners are provide with a cue before or after the questions.
E.g.: Teacher : What is the man doing ? (write )
Students : The man is writing .
Teacher : Who is there with him ? (A woman )
Students : A woman is with him.

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1.5 Expansion Drill
Language learners build up a statement by adding a word or phrase.
Example: Teac her: school
Students : We go to school.
Teacher : every day
Students : We go to scool every day.

1.6 Contraction Drill
Language learners replace a phrase or clause with a single word or shorter expressions.
Example: Teacher : He doesn' t do his homework .
Students : He doesn‘t do it.

5.6 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 -centred. 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.‖ (Scriven er 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 e ssential, 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 Communic ative
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

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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 every day life (Broughton 9,10). Briefly put, some people learn a foreign language
most importantly to be able to communicate with forei gn 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 co mpetence 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 ‖ . 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 ex ample, 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,
addresse s, 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 sk ills 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

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accomplish the task, the teacher should play the listening again or give them m ore time for
reading (Scrivener, 1994 : p. 170-173).
Concerning productive skills, writing and speaking, there are some important issues
to mention too. While students practice production s kills, 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 ‖. As stated by Richards, modern methodology tries to
keep a balance between the fluency and accuracy practice . 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
motivati ng for the learners .
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 t he 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 presenta tion of new grammar also involves students very much. Jim
Scrivener als o makes a good point by stating “Keep it short ‖(Scrivener , p.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 justi fy regular lessons of this kind ‖ (Scrivener ,
p.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 b e 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

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(usually ‘yes’ or ‘no’, possibly ‘we do not know ’). Howeve r, 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 , p. 19). It appea rs 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 prese nting new language is so ca lled‘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 , p.268). The teacher can also introduce a situation, a
context, and e licit 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 importa nt 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
trainingat 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.
 Comp lete gapped sentences with words from a list.
 Discuss a topic (that will feature in the text).

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 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 transla tion from the students .
These lists defi nitely 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 ite ms 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 -teachin g can be used successfully to
practice some words “useful in [their] own right ” (Scrivener, p. 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, p. 228). This can be done in a vocabulary lesson. The vocabulary lesson is a lesson
with the main aim of teaching and practising vocabulary, not grammar or skills. As stated in
the boo k Teaching English as a foreign Language: “Language item which is not
contextualised is more difficult to remember and to use ” (Broughton , p. 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, sugges ted by Jim Scrivener, which are
“1. Preteach lexis […], 2. Written practice of lexi s […], 3. Oral practice […], 4. Reading to
fiind specific information […], 5. Further lexis work […], 6. Communicative activity […] ”
(Scrivener, p.233 -234). This procedure is also in accordance with Jim Scrivener 's above

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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 , p.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 -centred
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 learn ing, 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 m ethods 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 asp ects 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 gramm atical
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 accordi ng 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.
Histori cally, Communicative Language Teaching has been seen as a response to the
Audio -Lingual Method and as an extension or development of the Notional -Functional

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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 direct ions, 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 h elps 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 t o
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 comm on 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 sta rting
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 t he 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 ha ve 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 al so 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

107
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 th e learners will attend, i.e. every day 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, gi ving 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 an d rhetorica l skills, i.e. story telling, 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 l exical 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 intera ction 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 m isunderstandings and work to avoid communication breakdowns,‖ as Richards states
in his book ―Communicative Language Teaching Today‖(1998).

108
According to the same author, fluency practice can be distinguished from accuracy
practice, wh ich focus es 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 Co mmunicative 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 everythi ng 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. The re 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. I n the process of utilizing these kinds of
performance activities, learners avoid using their native language and teachers occasionally, if
ever, correct students‘ mistakes.

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Another typical feature of communicative language teaching is that ―i t 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 Communicativ e 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 i nteract 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 indispens able 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 gro up.
•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 ma terials 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 classro om 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 tha t 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

110
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 Comm unicative 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 th e 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 rathe r 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 learn ers 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 typ es 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
vocab ulary, grammar, and communication strategies to complete a task.

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E.g.: Fill in the gaps w ith the verbs in the brackets and put them at present simple or
the present progressive:
‖ Rosa is sitt ing on the train right now. She ( take/ not/usu ally) __________ the
train, but today her son (need) __________ her car. She (enjoy) __________ the ride today.
There (be) ___________ so many people to watch. Some people (eat) __________ breakfast.
Others (drink) ___________ coffee and (read) __________ the newspaper. One woman
(work) ___________ on her laptop computer. Another (hug) __________ her baby. Two
teenagers( play) ___________ computer games. One of them (wave) __________ his hand in
excitement. A clown (walk) __________ up and down the aisles and (entertain) ___________
the children. Rosa (smile) __________ . The train ride (take, usually) ___________ her
longer than driving, but it (be) ____________ a more enjoyable way for her to travel. ‖

(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 infor mation 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.: Project Jigsaw Reading Activity: Have a look at the follow ing interview between
Alice and Mr. Brown . For each space, choose the best question that you need to ask for that
information.
“Alice : OK, Mr. Brown . Now just tell us a few things about you and your daily programme .
Mr. Brown : Well, I am Jack Brown and I will speak about myself telling you that I am a
happy man : I have a ________ (1) family , a good job and a good health. Every morning I
__________ at 7 o'clock ; I was h, dress , have breakfast and leave for work. I usually forget
_____________ (2) so I go back.
Alice : What is it ?
Mr. Brown : I usually forget my keys.
Alice : Where do you work ?
Mr. Brown : . I work for an ______(3) company . It is called ‖ Income Startup‖. Generally I
arrive at the office a few _________ (4) before everybody else.

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Alice : Why do you lwant to be the first?
Mr. Brown : I enjoy the quiet that always meets me before the others arrive. Soon the office
fills with __________ (5) and a new working day begi ns.

1. How were his family?
How is his family ?

2. What does he do at 7 o'clock ?
What he does at 7 o'clock ?

3. What do he forget?
What does he forget?

4. When do he arrives at the office?
When does he arrive at the office?

5. With what does the office fill?
What does the office fill with?

 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 piec e 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.: They End In “ -s / -es”!
Students enjoy playing this oral language game! All the players are practicing their
simple past tense verbs while playing this engaging board game.
•Game Cards (Use cards for just one sound of ― -s/ es‖ or all 3)
•Game Board
•Number Cards

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Play in groups of 2 to 4.
The objective is to be the first player to reach the finish line. Shuffle the game cards
and put them face down on the draw pile. Shuffle the number cards and place them face -down
on the gameboard. Each student chooses a game piece. Use colore d cubes, beans etc. for game
pieces. Students draw a number card to see who goes first. The player who draws the highest
number is the first to play. Play will go clockwise from the first player.
• The first player draws a card from the draw pile.
• Player reads the card outloud and finishes the sentence.
• Player places the card face up on the table for all to see.
• The group repeats the sentence outloud correctly as a chant.
• If the player is correct she/he draws a number card and moves her/his game pie ce that
number of spaces.
• If the player answers the question incorrectly, she/he loses a turn and play goes to the next
player.
• Play continues until the first person crosses the finish line.
Directions :
• Roll a die to see who goes first.
• If you go first, draw a card from the draw pile.
• Read the card outloud and finish the sentence.
• Place the card face up on the table for all to see.
• The players all read the sentence outloud correctly as a chant.
• If you were right you draw a number card and m ove that many spaces.
• If you were wrong you lose a turn and play goes to the next player.
• Game goes until someone crosses the finish line.
(Adapted from Woodward, S.W.(1997) -―Fun with Grammar‖, Prentice Hall Regents)
E.g.: Memory Round Game
Materials: A 3‖ x 5‖ card per student, with a verb in present tense written on each card.
Dynamic: Whole class.
Time: 20 minutes.
Procedure:
1. Give each student a card with the simple form of a different verb, written . Let each
student decide what the correct form of his/her verb is.

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2. Have students sit or stand in a circle. Instruct them to think of a sentence that uses the verb
on their card. They will have to remember the sentences, so they should not be overly long.
3. Students hold their cards facing the circ le at all times. The first student says his/her
sentence. The next student in the circle says his/her sentence and repeats student one‘s
sentence. Continue around the circle. The last student repeats all the previous sentences.
Example:
Student 1: I have b reakfast at 7:30.
Student 2: I brush my teeth at 7:20, and he has breakfast at 7:3 0.
Student 3: I wake up at 7:00 , she brushes her teeth at 7:20 and he has breakfast at 7:3 0.
NOTE: You can begin with a student who seems weak (he/she will not have to remember so
many sentences) or with the person next to the person who has the best memory. No writing is
allowed; students must focus on what their classmates are saying.
 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 practic e 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 i t. 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 activ e – 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 al so
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 -focussed accuracy work to fluent, but acceptable,
production, by providing a ‗bridge‘: a variety of pr actice 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 a ctivity 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

115
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 te nsion 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 mixe d 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
produc tion 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 encoura ge 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, su cceed 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 someho w 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 programmes,
celebrities, well -known personalities, etc.
 Affective Activities
These have to do with expressing and finding aut 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 combinat ion 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

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principal advantage of the interviews is their flexibility. They may be used from beginning
levels to advanced levels and they may dea l 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 wo rth, 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 favourite day of the week .
2. Debate: What subject do you like most in school?
3. What do you think w as the most important thing in life? advancement
4. What is your favourite free time activity ?

5.7 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 Present tense (Present Simple and Present Con tinuous). 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 wit h both classes was ma de and it is presented in
Tabel 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 abou t their weekly activities. 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 r esults from the second subject reveal the fact that
most students from both classes are able to express correctly a present action, so as to achieve
accuracy, cohesion, communicative competence, even if it is in writing process.
Conclusions:

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a. Most students from both classes have managed to use correctly verbs in the
appropriate Present Tense;
b. A great number of students have become and gained fluency, cohesion, coherence in
using the language;

Final Test

I. Fill in the spaces with the correct form of the verb in any aspect of the Present
Tenses:

Gilbert (come) _______ (1) straight from Manchester. He ( live) _______ (2) there ,
and (run) ___________ (3) a prosperous business there. He has just got an e -mail which
(say) ____________ (4) that the company (want) _______ (5) him there immediately. He
(hate) __________ (6) to be called back when he (be)_______ (7) on holidays . When in
Manchester, he usually (start) _______ (8) work at nine o'clock on weekdays and (work)
_______ (9) till late in t he afternoon. Sometimes he (go) _______ (10) to work on weekends.
Now that he (be) _______ (11) on holidays, he (enjoy)_______ (12) his leisure time . For
example , this very moment he (have a swim) _______ (13) in the swimming pool of the
hotel he (stay) _______ (14) at. Later on he (have dinner) _______ (15) with some friends
and then they (go) ____________ (16) to the theatre. Tomorrow he (go shopping)
__________ (17), and in the afternoon he (fly) _______ (18) back to Manchester . He (say)
________ __(19) he (come) _______ (20) back soon.
(50 p)
( Adapted from Gr amatica limbii engleze, Turai, 2008 )

II. Write about your weekly activities. (Do not use more than 150 words.)
(50 p.)

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Diagram 5. Results of the Final Test, Subject I, the 9 -th Grade, A
82%
77%
82%
91%
91%
86%
86%
91%
82%
82% 86% 91% 91% 86% 100% 86% 91% 88% 82% 96% Final Test The 9-th grade A come
live
run
say
want
hate
be
start
work
go
be
enjoy
have a
swim
stay
have
dinner
go
go
shopping
fly
say
come

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Diagram 6. Results of the Final Test, Subject I, the 9 -th Grade, B
82% 77%
82%
91%
91%
86%
86%
91%
82%
82% 86% 91% 91% 82% 100% 86% 91% 88% 82% 96% Final test the 9-th Grade B
come
live
run
say
want
hate
be
start
work
go
be
enjoy
have a swim
stay
have dinner
go
go shopping
fly
say
come

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Crt.
No. Verb Tense Answer:
Yes/No Percentage
Class A Percentage
Class B
1. Come Present Simple yes 72% 82%
2. Live Present Simple Yes 80% 77%
3. Run Present Simple Yes 80% 82%
4. Say Present Simple Yes 92% 91%
5. Want Present Simple Yes 84% 91%
6. Hate Present Simple Yes 88% 86%
7. Be Present Simple Yes 84% 86%
8. Start Present Simple Yes 88% 91%
9. Work Present Simple Yes 80% 82%
10. Go Present Simple Yes 88% 82%
11. Be Present Simple Yes 100% 86%
12. Enjoy Present Continuous Yes 88% 91%
13. Have a swim Present Continuous Yes 84% 91%
14. Stay Present Continuous Yes 96% 82%
15. Have dinner Present Continuous Yes 88% 100%
16. Go Present Continuous Yes 84% 86%
17. Go shopping Present Continuous Yes 96% 91%
18. Fly Present Continuous Yes 80% 88%
19. Say Present Simple Yes 76% 82%
20. Come Present Continuous Yes 96% 96%

Tabel 6: Comparison of the results from the final test applied to both classes, subject I

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No.
Of
child Task
achievement Language
accuracy Register&
vocabulary Organization,
Cohesion &
Layout Overall
effect Subtotal Total
1. 5 4 4 4 5 22 44
2. 4 4 4 4 5 21 42
3. 5 4 4 4 5 22 44
4. 4 5 4 5 5 23 46
5. 5 5 4 5 5 24 48
6. 5 4 5 5 5 24 48
7. 5 5 5 5 5 25 50
8. 5 4 5 5 5 24 48
9. 5 4 5 5 5 24 48
10. 3 5 5 5 5 22 44
11. 5 5 5 5 5 25 50
12. 4 5 5 5 5 24 48
13. 4 5 5 5 5 24 48
14. 4 5 4 5 5 23 46
15. 5 5 4 5 5 24 48
16. 5 5 4 3 5 22 44
17. 5 5 4 5 5 24 48
18. 5 5 3 4 5 22 44
19. 5 4 3 3 5 20 40
20. 5 5 5 4 5 24 48
21. 5 5 5 5 5 25 50
22. 5 4 4 5 5 23 46
23. 5 5 4 5 5 24 48
24. 5 5 5 5 5 25 50
25. 5 5 4 4 5 23 46

Tabel 7. Results of the subject II, Final Test, the 9 -th Grade A

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No.
Of
child Task
achievement Language
accuracy Register&
vocabulary Organization,
Cohesion &
layout Overall
effect Subtotal Total
1. 5 4 5 5 5 24 48
2. 5 4 5 5 5 24 48
3. 5 4 5 5 5 24 48
4. 5 4 5 5 5 24 48
5. 5 5 5 5 5 25 50
6. 5 5 4 4 5 24 48
7. 5 5 4 5 5 24 48
8. 4 5 5 5 5 24 48
9. 4 5 5 5 5 24 48
10. 5 5 5 4 5 25 50
11. 5 5 5 4 5 24 48
12. 5 4 4 4 5 23 46
13. 4 5 5 5 5 24 48
14. 5 5 4 5 5 24 48
15. 4 5 5 5 5 24 48
16. 4 5 4 5 5 23 46
17. 5 4 5 5 5 24 48
18. 5 4 4 5 4 22 44
19. 5 4 4 4 5 22 44
20. 5 5 5 4 5 24 48
21. 5 5 5 4 4 23 46
22. 5 5 5 5 5 25 50

Tabel 8. Results of the subject II, Final Test, the 9 -th Grade B

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5.8 Difficulties encountered by the Intermediate student s in using the Present.

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 wh ere 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 t hat generally the
teacher focus es 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, te nses 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 w ell.
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 mas ter English grammar.
Presen t tenses are important tenses in the Eng lish language and commonly used .V erbs in
English are complicated and therefore cause many difficulties to learners.
In general, L2 learners have great difficulty ma stering aspects of grammar in a second
language learning process, and especially with the marking of grammatical features at certain

124
parts of speech. These difficulties can be observed directly in students‘ L2 spoken or written
productions, both in spontan eous 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 studen ts when using Presen t Tenses can be
outlined as follows:
– One of t he main problems which the Intermediate learners come across with
when learning and using Present Tense Simple in English is the difficulty in using the
third person singular. The use of marker ‖ -s‖ in the third plural can confuse many students.
When teaching the simple present tense, there are several considerations to take into account.
First, some irregular verbs may put students in difficulty. For instance, the verb ‖have‖ and
‖be‖ have different forms in the simple present ( has, am ,are,…). A second concern is related
to dropping the ‖ -s‖ of the third person singular. Another difficulty is the spelling of the forms
that take the ‖ -s‖ of the third person singular. Sometimes , onl y ‖-s‖ is added (make – makes)
while in some forms ‖ -es‖ is added (wash – washes). Finally interrogative and negative forms
which need the auxiliary ‖do‖ may represent another challenge for beginner students or
intermediate students.
– When usi ng the Present Tense Continuous students someti mes 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.)
For both tenses, simple or continuous, studen ts must take into account the adverbial
and adverbs of frequency which are mentioned in the sentences and also the word order in
interrogative and negative. It can be said that, when using these two types of tenses, students
make different errors: the firs t concerns errors of form, spelling and pronunciation, whereas
the last type is concerned with errors of meaning and function .

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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 p rocesses. 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 langu age 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 whi ch 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 t he 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 s tudents 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
morphol ogy, of syntax, of word order.
In conclusion, the process of learning English is a process by which a learner beg ins
to develop his / her knowledge and they continue to grow more and more similar to the
English grammar of a native s peaker unt il it gets better.

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5.9 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 a nd 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 m ore significant than
the progress made by the students in the 9th grade B , 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 stude nts to do extra work, to practic e language in their free time, to
take responsib ility 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 discove ry 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 pro viding good models of language in writing;
 The atmosphere in the classroom was a relaxing one .
No matt er what the students‘ level is, there are some grammati cal errors that they still
make because s ometimes students tend to ignore the grammar rules. New vocabulary and
language structures should be taught actively and interactively bec ause 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 th e 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 m ore flexible,
more creative with the materials they bring to clas s. 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

127
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 d rills, 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 a nd 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 mo tivating 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 th e use of the P resent tenses .
The conclusions of the experiment in which intermediate students were exposed to both a
traditional and a modern approach in teaching the Present Tense Simple and the Present Tense
Contiunuous 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 situat ion. 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 th rough bilingual word lists dictionary and
memorization. The grammar rules are presented.
This Traditional Method has its own drawbacks.

128
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 langu age 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 f luency 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 mu st use all their language re sources rather than just practic ing one
pre-selected item.

129
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
examinatio n clearly show that the work has r eached its target.

130
CONCLUSIONS

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 meaning s and
relations between words and sentences must be quite clear for them. And, at intermediate
level it is highly important to keep their interest focussed on the actual topic.
Regardless of the methods or techniques used in the classroom , one o f the most
important factors that influence a lesson, is the teacher standing in front of the students. He or
she , should understand from the moment he or she steps into the classroom, that not all
children have identical characters, skills, ambitions or even interest concerning the target
language we are teaching. The best way to approach a new group of students, is in my
opinion, to get to know them first, to try and understand their goals . Only afterwards, should
we decide which method to use , what ty pes of activities would better suit their needs.
Because, in th e end , that has the most importance ; for the students to be able to communicate
fluently and c orrectly using the new language.
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 w ere exposed to both a traditional and a mo dern approach in
teaching the Present 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 re sults 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 distinct ive 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:

131
The Audio -Lingual Method The Communicative Language
Teaching Method
1. Its goal is to attend to structure and form
rather than to achieve meaning; Achieving meaning is the main goal;
2. Its main demand is the memorization of
structure -based dialogues; If used, dialogues are centered around
the communicative functions and are not
normally memorized;

3. The language items that are used are not
necessarily contextualized; Language items are used in context;
4. The language learning process
presupposes the learning of structures,
sounds, words. The language learning process means the
learning to comm unicate;
5. What is sought here is master the
language, or to ―over -learn‖ it; Effective communication is sought;
6. It uses as a central technique the drill; Drilling may occur, but at a peripheral
level;
7. The native -like pronunciation is another
goal of this approach; The comprehensive pronunciation is
sought;
8. It is avoided any grammatical
explanation; Any device is accepted, depending on the
learners ‗age, level, interest etc.;
9. Only after long hours of rigid drills and
exercises, there co me the communicative
activities; It is important to encourage any attempt
to communicate;

10. The usage of the students‘ mother tongue
is forbidden; The use of the mother tongue is allowed
where it is considered as feasible;
11. The translation is also forbidden at early
stages of learning; Translation may be accepted where the
students need it;
12. The reading and writing skills are
deferred till the speech is mastered; The reading and writing skills can be
started from the first day if this thing is
desired;
13. The linguistic system of the target The linguistic system of the target

132
language will be learned through the
overt teaching of the patterns of the
system; language will be learned best through the
process of struggling to communicate;

14. Another desired goal is that the learners
achieve linguistic competence; Communicative competence is another
goal, i.e. the ability of using the linguistic
system to communicate in effective and
appropriate ways;
15. Varieties of language are recognized, but
not emphasized; It uses as key concepts the variation of
materials and methodology;
16. The sequence of the units are determined
mainly following the principles of the
linguistic complexity; The context, the function, or the meaning
are the ones that determine the
sequencing of the units;
17. The teacher is a controller, and he/she
prevents them from doing anything which
will contradict the theory; Teachers will help the learners in any
way that motivates them to work with the
language;
18. ―Language is a habit‖, therefore errors
must be avoided at all costs; Language is created by the individual,
even if through trial and committing
errors;
19. Considered in terms of formal
correctness, accuracy is a primary goal; Another primary goals is achieving
fluency and producing acceptable
language;
20. It is expected that the learners to interact
with the language system through
controlled materials; Students are expected to interact with one
another working in pairs or groups;
21. The teacher is expected to specify the
language that the students are going to
use; The teacher cannot know exactly what
kind of language the students will use;
22. Intrinsic motivation will come from an
interest in the structure of the language. Intrinsic motivation will come from an
interest in what is being communicated
by the language.

133
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 l anguage resources rather than
just p racticing one pre -selected item.
Initially, this paper was meant to have a twofold value: both t o demonstrate the
advantages of communicative teaching on students‘ communicative competence and to be a
good scientific and methodological aid resource for all those i nterested in teaching present
tenses ( simple and contiuous) successfully.
So, in the end, taking into account the students‘ good grasping and use of tenses in
communication as well as thei r good results in oral and written examination clearly
demonstrate that we have finally reached the main objective of our work. It also shows that a
mixture of methods and techniques is the way to a succesful learning process where a foreign
language is concerned.
We should always try to keep our students interested and motivated.

134
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138
ANNEXES A

139

140

141

142

143
ANNEXES B

TEST

I. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form (s imple or progressive) of the presen t
tense :

1. I will enjoy my lunch when you (cook ) __________ for me.
2. You (be) _______ rude to your family today !
3. When the butter ( melt) ____________ , you will have to mix it with the eggs.
4. Sally (want) ____________ to go to Spain every summer.
5. Mary often (leave) ___________ the bags on the kitchen table.
6. ____________ anybody ( cook) for us today?
7. ____________ Ben (repair) his bike in his father's garage?
8. I will not work for them if they (have) ________ financial difficulty.
9. Their parents (be) __________ always helpful, we can count on them.
10. My daughter (talk ) _________ on the phone with her friends right now.
(30 p.)

II. D ecide which present tense (simple or cont inuous) you need for each of the following
verb s and insert them in the text. Some verbs can be used more than once :

read, wake up, say, listen to, mean, be, do, forget, like, get, know, talk

My sister __________ a good book at the moment. At least, this _______ what she
________ . And I ___________ that, whenever she ________ it, she really _________ it. I
always ____________ her re -telling me the story.It _________ quite fascinating for me. Now,
we __________ about an inter esting plot. Sometimes, we __________ the time, because we
____________ so much involved in the stories we read. Most of all, we __________
imagining ourselves beautiful heroines, or spectacular rescuers, but, in the end, dad
_________ us _________ to real ity.
(30 p.)

144
III. Write the ” –s/-es” forms of these verbs and provide the pronunciation ( /s/, / z/
or /әz/) :
– She need / /
– He take / /
– Mary lo ve / /
– The dog listen / /
– She realize / /
– My sister dress / /
– He suggest / /
(30 p.)

145
TEST

1. Correct the mistakes :

2. Mr . Graham delivers the parcels this afternoon.
3. You plan to go to Europe this summer.
4. We listen to music at the moment .
5. The children cry at the moment, so they have to calm them down.
6. I lok for a house to live in these days.
7. Roses are blooming in summer.
8. I am usually listening to my mother's advice.
9. I am having French classes twice a week.
10. Tom and his grandfather dig in the garden now.
11. The policem an waits for his partner right now.

(30 p.)
2. Add the suffix ” -ing” to the verbs :

wake – cut –
get – tie –
stand – choose –
leave – buy –
(30 p.)

3. Turn the following sentences into negative and affirmative :

1. The sun shines brightly every morning.
Aff. ___________________________________________
Neg. ___________________________________________

2. The pl ane lands at 10 o'clock tommorrow morning.
Aff . ___________________________________________
Neg. ___________________________________________

146

3. I am going to the opera tomorrow evening.
Aff. ____________________________________________
Neg. ________________ ____________________________

4. Mr. Clark is typing an article on the computer.
Aff. ____________________________________________
Neg. ____________________________________________

5. On Saturday morning she gets up later .
Aff. _____________________________________________
Neg. _____________________________________________

(30 p.)

147
TEST

 TRANSLATE INTO ENGLISH USING PRESENT TENSE SIMPLE AND
CONTINUOUS :
1. Ea întotdeauna face multe fotografii la ceremonii.
________________________________________________
2. Sunt toți de acord ca Mary este o persoană foarte muncitoare?
________________________________________________
3. Tu trebuie să mergi la doctor acum.
_________________________________________________
4. Sora mea scrie o compunere în acest moment.
______________ ___________________________________
5. Ei merg la un concert sâmbata viitoare.
_________________________________________________
(30 points)

 TURN THE AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCES INTO INTERROGATIVE :

Stewart is playing football at the moment.
__________________________________________________
You are drinking orange juice now.
__________________________________________________
He is swimming in the sea now.
__________________________________________________
I travel to Venice every summer.
__________________________________________________
The children usually order ice cream.
__________________________________________________
More and more people are surfing the Internet.
__________________________________________________
She is being rude today.
__________________________________________________
(70 points)

148
TEST

FILL IN THE BLANKS TO EXPRESS A FUTURE ACTION IN SUBORDINATE
CLAUSES OF CONDITION:
1. She will not pay her a visit if she (leave) ___________ next Sunday.
2. Jack will not go to the office if he (not, finish) ____________ the project.
3. I will not call her if her baby (sleep) __________ .
4. You will not pass the exam if you (not, study) ____________.
5. If Mark (not, arrive) ____________ at 8 o'clock , we will begin the concert.
(30 points)
MAKE QUESTIONS FOR THE UNDERLINED WORDS USING THE WORDS IN
BRACKETS:
1. They are cooking a pizza with tomtoes, olives and cheese.(what)
____________________________________________________
2. It is getting darker outside so we have to get to the hotel .(where)
_____________________________________________________
3. Sue is planning her summer holiday with her friends.(who)
_____________________ ________________________________
4. I am going to a concert in Bucharest next Saturday.(where)
_____________________________________________________
5. She always calls me at school to see if I am all right .(why)
________________________________________________ _____
(30 points)

 ADD QUESTIONS TAGS TO THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES:
1. You know where she lives, _____ ?
2. They usually have breakfast at 8 o'cl ock, _____ ?
3. She thinks we are very polite, _____ ?
4. This scarf belongs to John, _____?
5. We still have a lot of time to finish the paper, _____ ?
(40 points)

149
TEST

CHOOSE THE CORRECT FORM :

 Sarah is writing/ writes a poem at the moment.
 My parents are working/work a lot.
 The cat is under the chair. It is sleeping/ sleeps.
 My cousin is playing/plays basketball every Friday.
 I am enjoying/ enjoy this party .
 He is seeing/sees a doctor tomorrow.
(30 points)
PUT THE FOLLOWING WORDS INTO THE CORRECT ORDER:
1. many/fans/this/letters/receives/singer/his/from
2. father/the/at/reads/my/breakfast/newspaper
3. on/George/is/Sunday/to/coming/see/us
4. are/for/we/looking/a/we/apartment/large
5. clothes/my/always/in/sister/dresses/comfortable
(25 points)

CHOOSE THE CORRECT ANSWER:

1. Mr.Brown is a serious person. He ………….. comedy.
a. does like
b. dislikes
c. likes
d. don't like
2. How often …………. concerts in your town?
a. have you
b. do you have
c. have you got
d. you have
3. And what …………. tonight?

150
a. do you do
b. you do
c. does you
d. are you doing
(15 points)

FILL IN THE SENTENCES WITH DO, DOES, DON'T OR DOESN'T

a. A: …………………… he know the poems by heart?
B: Yes, he ………………………
b. A: ………………….. you play tennis anymore?
B: No, I …………………………
c. A: ………………….. they ride their bikes every day?
B: Yes, they ……………………
d. A: …………………… Mark enjoy fishing?
B: No, he ………………………..
(30 points)

151
TEST
IDENTIFY THE ONE UNDERLINED WORD OR PHRASE (MARKED A, B, C, D)
THAT YOU THINK IS INCORRECT. CHOOSE E IF THE SENTENCE CONTAINS
NO ERROR.
1. I believe it is music that give him the most pleasure when he is alone in his house.
A B C D
No error .
E
2. Of course if you heat ice , it melts , but don't you ever put the electric heater into
A B C
freezer again unless you want your food to go bad . No error.
D E
3. I'm having a tooth out this afternoon and I don't feel like eating now, particularly
A B C
that this soup is tasting awful. No err or.
D E
(30 points)
CHOOSE THE ONE WORD OR PHRASE MARKED A, B, C, D THAT BEST
COM PLETES EACH OF THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES:
1. ‖What's that noise?‖ ‖I think the Browns _________ a party.
A. make B. are having C. have D. are having
2. Your friend _______ me 100 dollars.
A. owns B. owes C. is owing D. is owning
3. They must go now. It _______ dark.
A. is going B.becomes C. gets D. is getting

(30 points)

TRANSLATE INTO ENGLISH USING PRESENT TENSE SIMPLE AND
CONTINUOUS:
1. Ea întotdeauna îmi cumpără eșarfe de ziua mea. Detest eșarfele.
___________________________________________________
2. Despre ce vorbești?
_______________________________________ ____________

152
3. Auzi zgomotul acela? Vecina mea exersează iarăși la pian?
___________________________________________________
4. La ce oră te culci? – Depinde de programul de la televizor.
___________________________________________________
5. Ce mai aștepți? Este deja ora 4.
___________________________________________________
(30 points)

153
ANNEXES C

LESSON PLAN 1

Teacher : Ilie Niculina Iancu Jianu Technological Highschool
Date : Textbook : SHINE
Form : 8th grade Lesson : WELC OME UNIT
No.of students : 30 Level : intermediate

Aims : 1.To ask specific ques tions about present activities ;
2. To use the English language to communicate orally and in writing about their daily
activities ;
3. Present Tense Simple and Continuous in affirmative, negative and interrogative
sentences ;

Skills involved : reading, speaking, writing;
Resources : textbooks, notebooks, worksheets.
Methods : conversation, brainstorming.

Aim Activity Procedure Interaction Timing
1. Checking
homework. The teacher checks the homework and makes
observations and corrections where the need
imposes it. Ss→T 5‘
2. To introduce
the students
into the
atmosphere of
the lesson. The teacher asks the students to look at
the pictures in their textbooks and to identify
the activities in the photos. T→Ss
Ss→T 5‘
3. To as k specific
questions about
present The teacher asks them to try to make
questions for the answers in ex.3 / page.6 . T→Ss
Ss→T 5‘

154
activities .
4. To distinguish
between two
tenses : present
simple and
continuous
The tea cher asks the students to read the
text and then to complete the chart with the
right information abou t those two characters .
After a short revision of the present tense
continuous, they have to write 2 sentences
about their present activity. T→Ss
Ss→T 5‘

Next, the teacher reads loud ly the text
about Mary's daily program and then he/she
asks them to answer some questions
concerning the information from the text
( e.g.: What does Mary do at 8 o'clock ?…)
After the students they have to
write down three sentences
about their own program . finish this
task

T→Ss
Ss→T 5‘
5. Simple Present
—YES -NO
questions.
The teacher writes down the blackboa rd
2 sentences in the Simple Presen t, one with a
regular verb and the other one with an
irregular verb, and then the teacher turns
them into interrogative , making the
necessary changes: emphasizes the presence
of au xiliary Do/does and the fact that the
main verb takes the SHORT INFINITIVE
form:
E.g.: They watch a movie every evening .
Int.
→ DO they watch a movie every
evening ?
↓ T→Ss
Ss→T 10‘

155
Short infinitive
E.g.: She has a letter for John .

Int.
→ Does she have a letter for John ?
↓
Short infinitive

The teacher points out the Interrogative
Rule :

DO/DOES + Subject + V -short Infinitive.

Next, the teacher reads one question
again and elicits some short answer, positive
or negative, after which the teacher gives the
rule:

Aff.: YES, Subject + DO/DOES .
Neg.: NO, Subject + DON'T/ DOESN'T .

E.g.: Do they watch a movie every evenin g?
Yes, they do .
Does she has a letter for John ?
No, she doesn ’t.

6. Feed -back. To make sure the students have understood
the lesson, the teacher gives them some
worksheets to practice on the Yes -No
question with Present Simple and
Continuous . T→Ss
Ss→T
T→Ss
10‘
7. Homework. Exercise 6, page 7 in the textbooks. 5‘

156

LESSON PLAN 2

Teacher : Ilie Niculina Iancu Jianu Technological Highscool
Date : Textbook: Prospects
Form : 9th grade Lesson : Where are they now?
No.of students : 20 Level : Pre-intermediate

Aims : 1. to sequence events in chronological order;
2. to talk about what people do ;
3. present simple/ present continuous contrast ;
Objectives : 1. Students will be able to sequence events in chronological order;
2. Students will have the abili ty to ask someone about a present activity ;
3. Students will hav e the ability to talk about present experiences;
Skills involved : reading, speaking, writing, and listening.
Resources : textbooks, handouts, notebooks, blackboard.

Crt.
No. Aims Procedures Interacti
on Timing
1. Checking
Homework. The teacher comes to the class, greets the
students, asks for the absent students, if any,
and then quickly checks the homework. T→S -s
S-s→T 5‘
2. Warm -up. The teacher asks the students to listen to a
piece of conversation while looking at the
picture from their books. T→S -s
5‘
Then the teacher asks them to work in pairs
and answer to the questions about Amy
Smith and Mike Thompson (ex.6/page 8) T→S -s
S-s→S –
s
S-s→T 5‘
3.

To sequenc e
event in
chronological The teacher asks the students to read the
lines from Ex.1/14 from their books and put
them in chronological order, and then to T→S -s
S-s→T 5‘

157

order.
read them loudly, each line at a time, and
check their answers.
The teacher asks the students to read the
sente nces from Ex.2/14, performing the
operation chorally, and then to read them
individually. T→S -s
5‘
Next, the teacher asks them if they have
noticed anything special about the verbs
from those sentences. T→S -s
S-s→T 2‘
Next, they are asked to complete the letter
using the verbs in brackets in the Past
Simple, working in pairs. After they have
finished, one student from a pair comes to
the blackboard and writes in down while the
other one reads it aloud.
The teacher draw s attention on the
pronunciation of the ― -ED‖ ending and on
the spelling of some regular verbs. T→S -s
S-s→T 5‘
4. To talk about
present
experiences. The teacher reads aloud the examples from
Ex.1/p.9, then writes them on the
blackboard and then asks some students to
read them aloud, too.
Next, the teacher elicits that the question
uses the verb ‖be‖ with the ‖ -ing‖ form of
the verb, and then asks the students to form
the question, writes their response on the
board, and to practice the rest of the
sentence s using the prompts. T→S -s
S-s→T 10‘
5. To co mpare the
present
continuous with
the present
simple. The teacher asks the students to read the
frequency adverbs used with present
continuous , then to complete all the
sentences about themselves in ex.4/p.9.
The students work individually. T→S -s
S-s→T 5‘

158
6. Assigning
feed-back. To practice more about present continuous,
they have to work in pairs and ask questions
and elicit answers from their partner. S-s→S –
ss
5‘
7. Homework. To write a letter asking for information
about an old music or film star that they
like. T→S -s