The English language is studied in Romanian schools from early ages. Being an English teacher at gymnasium I was motivated enough to choose the… [622880]

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Introduction
1. The purpose of the paper
The English language is studied in Romanian schools from early ages. Being an English teacher at gymnasium I was motivated enough to choose the future tense
to be investigated as this tense is studied in student’s textbooks. Lately English
has benefited of great attention and acquired a new role. Being closely connected
with the development of the society has made researchers to devise new ways of teaching, new methods and so on. Communication between humans is an extremely complex and ever changing phenome non, and it is not my intention in
this paper to examine all the many variables that are involved. But there are certain generalizations that we can make about the majority of communicative events and these will have particular relevance for the learning and teaching of languages.
Approaches to teaching foreign languages in the 20
th century went hand in
hand with the changes in the face of society, the basic pedagogical concepts of the age and the characteristic needs of the students. According to the teach ing
methods devised, we can distinguish several successive generations of approaches:
• The grammar -translation method(GTM);
• The audio- lingual approaches(ALA);
• The communicative approach(CLT);
• The post communicative turn(PCT);
Each was contested and rejected by the generation that followed – which, in its
turn, proved to possess almost as many flaws as the previous one. However, each
method has its obvious strengths and, if their techniques and procedures are used
judiciously and in combination they c an prove very successful.
The following paper aims to provide an insight into the world of communicative teaching, its evolution and changes in English teaching methodology along the
20
th century.

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This paper attempts to shed light on the importance of the communicative
approach and also attempts to underline the usefulness of this method when teaching grammar.
Grammar teaching has always been one of the most controversial and least
understood aspects of language teaching. Few teachers remain indifferent to
grammar, and many become obsessed by it. The paper aims to link the
communicative approach to a very demanding grammar problem, the future tenses.
Making a synthesis of the knowledge about the future tense, this paper follows the
scientific line of the act ual norms about English grammar. It is based on the
studies of famous researchers, revealing not only the same points of view but also
their different opinions about future tense, trying to support one or another or coming with my own opinion. This work i s not meant to represent an ideal way of teaching grammar as there are
as many different ways of teaching it as there are teachers, and it is not the purpose to promote any one particular method or approach over another. Rather, the purpose is to trigger c ycles of classroom experimentation and reflection,
taking into account the features of every individual teaching position.
2. The importance and up- to-dateness of the topic
The study of English language in Romanian schools is an old and long process but
yet a new one, thus English being present in the student’s life in an active way. But English being an international language is also present in people’s lives in a passive way. English being spread all around the world is the passport of communication betw een people who belong to different cultures. With the
globalisation and digitalisation of the world, the need for learning English is increasing. English indeed allows people to discover the world and other cultures and helps them find a job. Thanks to Engl ish, people who travel around the world
are able to interact with people who speak a different language. English is really the language that connects people across the world. But how can people
understand with each other if they can’t speak correctly from grammatical point of
view? And how can people speak grammatically correct if they can’t understand verbal tenses? And this is because the verb is the core of a sentence, a sentence without verb is a dead one; it doesn’t transmit anything.

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Chapter 1 cont ains a brief overview of the future tense . It brings into
discussion the uses of the future tense , the form, the classes of verbs and the use
of the future across registers.
Chapter 2 establishes the importance of the English language in the world.
There h as never been a language so widely spread or spoken by so many people
as English. The English language exists nowadays as a world political and cultural
reality or as a “global language”, as David Crystal calls it in “English as a global language” .Chapter 2 also presents different methods, approaches, strategies and
techniques. As communicative teachers target productive and communicative
skills, the texts may only provide a framework for subsequent activities.
Chapter 3 focuses on the methodological case. Assessment of results and
evaluation of the students’ achievements are a very important part of the teaching process and a logical consequence of testing: they aim to give both testers and testees a concrete measure for their results. As shown before, test ing cannot be
separated from the teaching/learning process and from the communicative approach (in this particular case), in fact it is one of the teacher’s major instruments to promote learning and modern approaches.
The last but not the least, Chapter 4 underlines the conclusion of this paper.
The communicative approach is not a highly structured method, but rather a broad
set of ideas generally accepted as good teaching practice. Although it began largely as a British innovation, it was soon embraced by the educational systems of other European countries.
In conclusion, we may say that the major distinction between traditional and
communicative teaching resides in the different attitude towards the ultimate aim of the educational process, namely:
• Traditional “instructivist” language teaching is content -based, i.e. it focuses on
information and quantitative acquisition, on the learning (mostly by memorization) of the material contained in the textbooks with emphasis on the accuracy (i.e. well -formed ness) of the language produced;
• Communicative teaching is skill- based, i.e. it lays stress on formation and skill
development (how well the learner can use what she/he has learned), with emphasis on meaning and appropriacy and on the efficiency of the comm unicative
act (i.e. if the learner can get his/her message through and obtain the desired results).

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Finally, the teacher, whether new or experienced, is advised to be extremely
wary of methodological fashion. Teaching methods come and teaching methods
go, and, quite often, they come round again. These shifts in fashion are often
powered by dubious theoretical claims that seem to touch a common cord, but
which have a shelf life of a decade or so at best. Teachers’ intuitions, on the other
hand, that are deve loped and fine tuned by years of thoughtful classroom
experience tend to outlive these swings and pendulums. This is not meant to be an
invitation to complacency. As professionals, language teachers have a duty to keep themselves abreast of developments in second language acquisition research,
in applied linguistics, in educational theory and practice, both inside and outside
the domain of language teaching, in fact in any field that has a bearing on
language and on learning.

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Chapter 1
1. A GENERAL VIEWPOINT ON THE FUTURITY IN
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
1.1 Theoretical approach on future tense
The fact that English has employed numerous ways of referring to future time
cannot be left unnoticed in any solid grammar book, as this issue is rather comprehe nsive and vitally important at the same time. Some authors have
proposed remarkable notions of various future forms existing in modern English, which surely deserves our attention. However, before such classifications are discussed, an interesting concept related to future time, which can be applied to any language, should be shortly addressed in the first place. The concept comes from the well- known A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language , the
authors of which claim that the three levels which are normally associated with the time axis (past, present, future) can be interpreted on two different levels. The first of them is called referential and its definition is quite straightforward: “… time can be thought of as a line (theoretically, of infinit e length) on which is
located, as a continuously moving point, the present moment. Anything ahead of
the present moment is in the future, and anything behind it is in the past.” (Quirk
et al., 175) However, since A Comprehensive Grammar supports the idea t hat
such a view does not relate well to language and the meaning of verbs, semantic level of interpretation is offered in order to avoid drawbacks of the referential one. The authors assert that the semantic interpretation, unlike the previous view, allows us to perceive the present in an inclusive way – something can be seen as
being present if it exists at the present moment, which includes the possibility that the existence of this thing also stretches into the past and future. (Quirk et al., 175) This n otion is demonstrated on the example of the sentence “Paris stands on the
River Seine”, for it not only describes a present event, but also a state of affairs that has existed for several centuries and may continue for an indefinite period into the future. Thus, it is concluded that on the semantic level of interpretation,
“‘present’ is the most general and unmarked category.” (Quirk et al., 175) The difference between these two levels of interpretation with respect to future time in English (and in any other language) is quite clear, I believe. Whereas the

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referential approach gives substantial proeminence to the future, making it equal
to the past and superior to the present, the semantic level of interpretation somewhat pushes future time (along with the past) aside and emphasizes the role of present time. In this case, the future becomes a clearly marked category of the
threefold distinction, which was not valid at all for the referential level.
Nevertheless, this brief insight into A Comprehensive Gramm ar was not
supposed to diminish the importance of future time and the forms referring to it in
the English language – my intention was to point out that apart from the more
natural way of perceiving the future within the threefold distinction, there is als o a
different notion which does not limit the present to a single point, but stretches it
into the areas formerly belonging to past and future time.
A classification is mentioned in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language . The writers do not aim to discuss all expressions of the future that can
be found in English, but rather the most frequent ones. Their contribution is therefore not as extensive as in the previous case, but that does not mean it lacks interesting ideas and observations. Not surpri singly, the first form mentioned in
the overview is will/shall/’ll followed by the bare infinitive. The authors claim that
the use of shall is restricted to the first person futurity, especially in southern
standard British English, and assert that “although shall and, particularly, willare
the closest approximations to a colourless, neutral future, they do cover a range of meanings with modal colouring, from prediction to volition…” (Quirk et al., 213) In other words, will/shall cannot be viewed as complete ly neutral markers of
future, since even simple prediction includes a certain amount of modality. The construction be going to + infinitive is then addressed as being quite
frequent, especially in informal speech. (Quirk et al., 213) The author s distinguish
between two specific meanings carried by this expression. Firstly, we can speak of future fulfilment of present intention, the typical features of which are personal subjects and agentive verbs.The typical sentence “When are you going to get married?” demonstrates this perfectly. (Quirk et al., 214) Secondly, be going to denotes future fulfilment of present cause. In this case, speakers tend to use both personal and non- personal subjects – the second group is typical for statements
such as “I t’s going to rain.” (Quirk et al., 214)
The present progressive is another frequent form for expressing the future
according to Quirk. Its description – future arising from present arrangment, plan,

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or programme – prefigures the fact that if we wish to use this construction, mainly
personal subjects ought to be employed. (Quirk et al., 214)
Moreover, there is another noteworthy aspect of am/is/are + doing for
future time – the mentioned event is normally expected to happen imminently, or
in a short time, unless this assumption is contradicted by reference to more distant
future as can be seen in “I’m leaving the university in two years’ time”. (Quirk et
al., 215)
The simple present , another possible way of denoting the future in English, is
considered to be the second most frequent form used for future after will/shall +
inifinitive due to the fact that this plain construction often appears in dependent
clauses which are introduced by conditional or temporal conjunctions. Similarly,
the simpl e present also tends to be used in some that -clauses. (Quirk et al., 215)
The second usage of this structure is not limited to subordinate clauses, as it is typical for timetables or calendar and represents “a marked future of unusual definiteness, attribu ting to the future the degree of certainty one normally
associates with the present and the past.” (Quirk et al., 215)
The last form that is discussed in a greater detail, will/shall + progressive infinitive , occurs in two possible contexts once again. Quirk et al. define the first
use as reference to a future time with the ‘temporal frame’, the example of which
is the statement “When you reach the end, I’ll be waiting there for you to show
you the way.” (Quirk et al., 216) Apart from that, w ill followed by the progressive
infinitive can denote future as a matter of course. The true essence of this
expression is nicely demonstrated on the example of two sentences that we could possibly hear during a flight in an airplane. If the pilot says “We ’ll be flying at 30
000 feet” , the passengers take this utterance as a signal that this is normal and
expected attitude for the flight. If, however, the pilot lets them know that “We’ll fly 30 000 feet” , the travellers may feel a bit uncomfortable after he aring such a
statement, since it probably denotes the fact that due to unexpected circumstances, the airplane will have to fly in a non- standard height. (Quirk et al., 216)
Apart from these most frequent expressions of future time, A Comprehensi ve Grammar briefly addresses less common ways of pointing to the
future in English, namely quasiauxiliary constructions be to + infinitive and be
about to + infinitive . (Quirk et al., 217) Furthermore, it is suggested that the
variety of possible verb cons tructions for future time has not been exhausted, for
“futurity is often a secondary connotation of other modals than will/shall .” (Quirk

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et al., 217) The best example of this phenonemon is, the modal verb may which
often means the same as “possibly will”. Apart from modal verbs, Quirk et al. also
refer to non- modal verbal constructions with possible future connotations, such as
be sure to, be bound to, hope to and intend to. (218)In the case of A Practical
English Grammar from 1980, a mention must firstly be made of Table of active
tenses which is to a certain extent similar to Dekeyser and Colen’s one, but has
some notable differences.
Thomson and Martinet assert that the future tense is formed by
will/shall and differenciate between four possible forms. This division is broadly
speaking identical to the previous one, but different terminology is used, i.e.
simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous. Nevertheless, not only does
this classification pro mote the concept of future tense, but the authors also
advocate a conditional tense marked by the modal verb would. Therefore, the future tense in A Practical English Grammar is a part of a fourfold distinction.
The fact that only will/shall ought to be considered as a way to indicate the future
tense is evident from the following statement: “The future tense is will/shall + infinitive , but it is not used nearly as often as students naturally expect. In fact, it
is only one of a number of ways of expressing the future.“ (Thomson and
Martinet, 167) However, the authors do not attempt to explain for which reason
only will and shall should hold the status of future tense markers. Such an
explanation could have been offered in connection with the idea that the f uture
tense construction is sometimes replacable by be going to. (Thomson and Martinet, 177) Whereas Dekeyser and Colin clearly promoted the notion of one future tense with four aspects, Thomson and Martinet arguably distinguish between four future tenses. For instance , the future continuous is labelled as a
tense, which is shown by the statement “This tense is made up of the future tense of to be + the present participle .“ (Thomson and Martinet, 178) Similarly, the
term ‘future perfect tense’ is coined. (Th omson and Martinet, 178) In the case of
the future perfect continuous, the word ‘tense’ does not appear, but based on the authors’ previous claims, there is no reason to believe they do not see this construction as another tense. They probably omitted the word since the formulation “the future perfect continuous” was already long enough. It is also
noteworthy that when discussing differences between willfollowed by the simple infinitive and will + be doing , Thomson and Martinet somehow omit the term
future simple or future tense for the first construction, despite the fact that they

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previously used it on numerous occasions. This is obvious from the words “There
is approximately the same difference between will + inifinitive and the future
continuous as between will + infinitive and the present continuous . Will +
infinitive expresses future with intention. The future continuous expresses future
without intention.“ (180) However, we can hardly assume that a sudden change in
terminology may suggest that at one ti me the authors did not perceive will + do as
a proper tense. That would be a speculation without any solid evidence.
More likely, Thomson and Martinet may have chosen to use “will + infinitive ”
in order not to include the word ‘future’ too many times in a few sentences, thus
avoiding unpleasant repetition.It appears that A Practical English Grammar
advocates four possible future tenses in English, each of which is formed by the
modal verbs will and shall . Thus, it is possible to speak of the future simple
tense, the future continuous tense,the future perfect tense and the f uture perfect
continuous tense.

1.2 The notion of Time, Tense and Aspect
Time is a universal, non- linguistic concept with three divisions: past, present and
future. By tense we understand the correspondence between the form of the verb
and our concept of time. Aspect concerns the manner in which the verbal action is experienced or regarded while mood relates the verbal action to such conditions as
certainty, obligation, necessity possibility. (University grammar of English Quirk Greenbaum).The issue is that the present and past time are not separated from aspect and the expression of the future is bound up with mood. The concept of tense in English is a method that we use to refer to time – past,
present and future. Many languages use tense to talk about time. Other languages have no concept of tense at all, but of course they can still talk about time, using different methods.So, we talk about time in English with tense and we cannot talk of tenses without considering two components of many English tenses: time and aspect .
Time expresses:
• past – before now
• present – now, or any time that includes now
• future – after now
Aspect can be:

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• progressive – uncompleted action
• perfective – completed action or state
Tense is traditionally defined as a deictic category which expresses the temporal
relationship between the event or action described by the verb and the actual utteranc e. Thus, according to Jespersen (1931· 1), tense 'is the linguistic
expression of time -relations', and, as Hockett (1958: 237) says, 'tenses typically
show different locations of an event in time.' The Oxford English Dictionary, too, defines tense as 'any one of the different forms or modifications (or word- groups)
in the conjugation of a verb which indicate the different times ( past, present or future) at which the action or state denoted by it is viewed as happening or existing.' For example, the tenses of the two sentences below are present and past respectively because in the first the action described by the verb is viewed as taking place simultaneously with the time of the utterance, while in the second the action is viewed as having occurred prior to the utterance point: E.g. (1) John is washing the dishes.
E.g.(2) John was washing the dishes .
However, linguists and philosophers have long been aware that the situation is more complex than this. There are instances where the event or action is not
directly related to the tune of the utterance, but to other (secondary) points on either the past or future dimension of an imaginary time -line. These secondary
factors are generally used to account for the more complex tenses such as pluperfect, future per fect and future -in-the past, as well as for tense usage in
reported speech. What is important is, firstly, that tenses are not exclusively concerned with expressing the temporal relationships that they are primarily associated with. The present tense, for example, does not always express 'simultaneity' (i.e. present time) but also, in certain circumstances, habitual or future actions, and also occasionally (in narrative style) past actions or events. The past tense is similarly used for purposes other than expressing the 'earlier than' relationship. It may be used as a so -called 'modal preterite' (or 'irrealis'), in which
case it does not refer to past time at all. Still, it is generally agreed that past time reference is its 'basic' or 'central' function. I t will be argued below that exactly the
same distinction between 'central' and 'non- central' uses can conveniently be made
when speaking of the various functions of what has traditionally been called 'the future tense'. In the second place it is worth stressing that the kind of tzme we have been discussing is 'personal', not 'public' time.In other words, it should be

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emphasized that there is a strongly subjective element in tense- usage, in the sense
that the speaker refers to an event or an action, or locat es it in time, as he sees or
experiences it.
Thus, the OED definition quoted above defines tense as indicating the different
times at which the action or state is viewed as happening or existing (Strang
(1968: 143)). R.Lakoff (1970: Θ41), too, has noted t hat the 'choice of tense is
based in part on the subjective factor of how the speaker feels himself related to
the event.Considerations such as these have led Joos (1964: 121), for example, to call the past tense a 'remote' tense, in the hope of thus captu ring the various
nuances of meaning that it can express. But the wilt/shall future is also a case in
point. One example may suffice here to illustrate this. Consider the following sentence:
E.g. Those pencils will be 6p each.
A shopkeeper can use this sentence to a customer, even though he knows perfectly well that the pencils are six pence each. The shopkeeper is not, of course, predicting anything, nor does he presumably want to say that the pencils are probabty six pence each. What he means by using wi lt be rather than are in this
sentence is probably, as Lakoff (loc.cit.) says, that the actual payment, or
exchange of money, has still to take place. It will be seen that the future is not only used to make predictions, but also to refer to events or acti ons which, in
some sense, are not yet clear, real, or present, in the mind of the speaker. It is not surprising, therefore, that the closely related notions of 'probability' and 'uncertainty' are also expressed by the future.
1.3 Means of expressing futuri ty in English
To begin with, I am going to cite the definition given by the authors of ‘ A
Grammar of Contemporary English ’, R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech and J.
Svartvik, to the idea of time/tense: ‘ in abstraction from any given language, time
can be thought as a line (theoretically, of infinite length) on which is located, as a
continuously moving point, the present moment. Anything ahead of the present
moment is in the future , and anything behind it is in the past.

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THE PRESENT MOMENT

PAST
FUTURE

[now]

Figure1. The representation of the concept of time
This is an interpretation of past, present and future on a REFERENTIAL level.
[](page 175)[] we distinguished past, present and future also on a SEMANTIC level. On this second level of interpretation, then, ‘present’ is the most general and unmarked category’ as a statement constructed with the present simple can be
applicable to present, past and future , while the past tense has a more restricted
applicability: E.g. John spends a lot of money. (true for past, present, and future)
E.g. John spent a lot of money . (true for past only)
Like most grammarians, the authors of this grammar do not accept the future as a formal category, since, morphologically, English does not have verb inflection for such a category, but they accept the idea of ‘grammatical constr uctions capable of
expressing the semantic category of FUTURE’. One reason for sustaining this,
is the lack of inflection for such a category, the present and the past being
morphologically marked ( -s/-es, for the 3
rd person singular, present simple and –
ed, for all persons in past simple, respectively), if tenses are defined as forms of
the verb.Another reason for admitting the existence of only two tenses in English derives from the diachronic perspective of the phenomenon of futurity, in that future refe rence was carried out during middle English not only by the present

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tenses, but by the subjunctive mood, as well. This leads to the reconsideration of
the concept of mood itself, as it has been perceived in English.On the other hand,
English linguistic studies and dictionaries define ‘mood’ as being ‘any one of the groups of forms in the conjugation of a verb that serve to show the mode or manner by which the action denoted by the verb is represented’, or ‘different forms of the verb used according to whether a fact or hypothesis was being expressed’
, or ‘finite verb phrases .] Which indicate the factual, nonfactual, or
counterfactual status of the predication’. The distinction is too coarse to describe
the nature and functions of the moods and, implicitly, of the tenses English employs in communicating, as it will be shown below.There is another aspect that should be mentioned: the main constructions used to express futurity, especially the so -called shall/will forms, bear various modal nuances which the other two
time frame s, the present and past, respectively, do not possess at all. This is due to
the fact that shall and will are modal/auxiliary verbs, that is, grammatical devices,
used for building specific categories (such as tense) on the one hand, and semantic units, on the other, which means that they bring extra -information to the utterance,
such as the attitude of the speaker towards their discourse, generally speaking; therefore, the discussion about the future tenses and the like overpasses the
limitations of gramma r seen as structure only, and is better unveiled by the theory
of modality and speech acts (subsequently adopted as a new linguistic
branch/study, Pragmatics ), via semantics, as shown in the pie chart below:

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Figure The threefold approach of the linguistic sign
The arrows connecting the three wedges of the pie illustrate the
interconnectedness of the three dimensions; thus, a change in any wedge will have repercussions for the other two.
The wedge having to do with form/ structure refers to those overt lexical and
morphological forms that show how a particular grammar structure is constructed (Marianne Celce -Murcia, Teaching English as a Second or Foreign
Language, page 252).
In the semantic wedge, we deal with what a grammar structure means, both
lexically and grammatically (i.e. a dictionary definition of an auxiliary or the time adverbial clause states the moment when the action in the main clause takes place.) In respect of the third wedge, the definition given by L evinson
in Pragmatics , 1983, p.9, is the most appropriate explanation: “the study of those
relations between language and context that are grammaticalised, or encoded in the structure of a language”.
The threefold approach of the ways of expressing futurit y may be ascertained by
asking the following question: Why and when does a speaker/writer choose a particular grammar structure over another that could express the same meaning or accomplish the same purpose? For example, what factors in the social context
might explain a paradigmatic choice such as why a speaker chooses I shall come, too., rather than I will come, too. ? or Will you do as I say, please? vs. Do as I

15
say!, in which case an interrogative form is used instead of a plain imperative?
One possible answer and with great teaching efficiency can be the rearrangement
of this topic so that it meets the communicative needs of any Romanian learner of
English, up to the upper -intermediate and advanced levels.
As for myself, I follow Vet’s view of the matte r: ‘The Simple Future is like a
mood in that it expresses the speaker’s attitude towards the future eventuality. It is a future tense because it places the eventuality posterior to the speech point.’
1.4 The English paradigm

Traditionally, what is generically called the “future tenses” of the English
language appears under the following form:
TENSE ACTIVE FORMS PASSIVE FORMS
SIMPLE FUTURE I/We shall buy.
You/He/She/It/They will buy I/We shall be bought
You/He/She/It/They will be b
ought
FUTURE
CONTINUOUS I/We shall be buying
You/He/She/it/They will
be buying no forms
FUTURE PERFECT
SIMPLE I/We shall have bought
You/He/She/It/They will
have bought I/We shall have been bought
You/He/She/It/They will have
been bought
FUTURE PERFECT
CONTINUOUS I/We shall have been buying
You/He/She/It/They will
have been buying no forms
FUTURE -IN-THE –
PAST SIMPLE I/We should buyYou/He/She
/It/They would buy I/We should
be bought You/He/She/It/They
would be bought
FUTURE -IN-THE -PAST
CONTINUOUS I/We should be buying
You/He/She/It/They should
be buying no forms

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The inventory shown above does not cover the great variety of communicative needs that the speaker/observer has when it comes to referring to processes
situated ahead of them. Rather, a great deal of other forms/structures and lexical
units serve the speaker’s purposes, tense/time being a strictly deictic category
which imposes constraints in selecting one form over another when a ‘shift’ of the reference point occurs. By way of illustration, consider the following examples:
E.g. (a) My train leaves at six p.m . (Simple Present, Indicative)
(b) We are getting married in spring. (Present Continuous, Indicative)
(c) When I see the kids, I’ ll send them home. (Simple Present and Simple
Future, respectively, Indicative)
(d) Didn’t I tell you I’d be visiting my relatives (the) next week? (Future -in-
the-Past, Indicative)
(e) Phone me after you have left the office . (Imperative and Present
Perfect, Indicative)
These examples il lustrate the concept of ‘deictic shift’, a label given to all the
time references occurring in a deictic time sphere other than their original time
specification, i.e. they refer to future events, rather than to present ones, although
a present tense is used, except for the main clause in example (c), where Simple
Future functions as the time anchor for the subordinate. These and others will be dealt with below.
1.5 Alternative Devices for Expressing Futurity
As English has a keener grasp of the concept of time, encoding it not just through the tense inflections that verbs bear, but also through a wide range of time adverbs and adverbial phrases, understandably, there are many difficulties when dealing with English. What is even more important, is that this formal variety depends either on the content of the utterance (in pragmatic terms, speech acts, like promises, threats, warnings etc.) or on the necessity of accuracy in rendering duration, anteriority, nearness, certainty, projection, etc. Furthermore, there is a
general view
that time and tense do not represent a one -to-one relationship.
Consider the table below that groups all the alternati ve expressions with a future
meaning:

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Present time sphere Past time sphere
•Present Simple (scheduled activities)
e.g. The train leaves at 4 p.m. •Past Simple (reported scheduled
activities)
e.g. They said the
train left at 4 p.m.
•Present Continuous (personal
arrangement)
e.g. We’re meeting at 6. •Past Continuous (reported personal
arrangement, plan)
e.g. They said they were meeting at 6.
•Be going to (intention, imminent
event)
e.g. I’m going to visit him.
I think I’ m going to faint •Be going to (reported intention,
imminent event)
e.g. She said she was going to visit him.
e.g. He realised he was going to faint .
•Be about to (immediate future
activity)
e.g. Stop fidgeting! The concert is
about to start! •Be about to (immediate future activity –
reported speech)
e.g. She asked him to settle down as the
concert was about to start !
•Be to (inevitable, predetermined
event)
e.g. They are to arrive at noon. •Be to (inevitable, predetermined event –
reported speech)
e.g. He explained that they were to
arrive at noon.
•Be bound to, be sure to, be due to
e.g. The plane is bound to
land around 4 p.m. •Be bound, be sure to, be due
to (reported speech)
e.g. Mum told us that the plane was
bound to land around 4 a.m.
•Present Perfect (in time clauses,
conditional sentences)
e.g. I’ll be back after you have
finished the work.
e.g. If you have finished eating you •Past Perfect (reported in time clauses,
conditional sentences)
e.g. He said he would be back after I had
finished the work.
e.g. Mum said that if I had finished I’d

18

1.6 Description of the future forms, in point of meanings and uses in English
and Romanian language
We cannot refer to future events as facts because there is no obvious future
tense in English to correspond to the time relation for present and past.but ther are
several possibilities to express future time – futurity, modality and aspect are
relatedand future time is rendered by means of modal auxiliaries or by simple
present forms or progressive forms. We can predict with more or less confidence
what will happen, we can plan for events to take place, express our intentions and
promises with re gard to future events. As mentioned many times above, these are
modalised, rather than factual statements. This brings forth the matter of future forms belonging to the Indicative mood or not, since this mood is inscribed in the category of realis, a statu s which has reality in any of its time reference which
opposes to the conceptual irrealis content of these forms.The morphological and
the lexical features shall/will, should/would have, reinforce the viewpoint that
English has but two tenses: present and past.
In what follows, I shall adopt
another way of organising all grammatical
devices that can be employed to refer to the future, so that the process of teaching
and learning will be directed towards communicative competence rather than grammar rules description.
1.6.1) ‘Safe’ Predictions:
E.g. (1) John will be nineteen tomorrow.
(2) You’ ll find petrol more expensive in Romania.
(3) Tomorrow morning I will wake up in this first- class hotel suite.
(4) Tell him Prof. Cressage is involved – he will know Prof. Cressage.
These are predictions that do not involve the speaker’s volition, and include cyclical events and general truths. Will + infinitive is used, shall by some
speakers for ‘ I’ and ‘ we’. In Romanian they can be translated by Prezent, Viitor
Popular and Viitor Propriu -zis, Indicativ: will be excused. be excused.

19
E.g. (1) John va implini /implineste nouasprezece ani maine.
(2) O sa gasesti /Vei gasi petrolul mai scump in Romania.
(3) Maine dimineata ma voi trezi/trezesc in hotelul acesta de primaclasa.
(4) Spune -i ca ste implicat profesorul Cressage – va sti cine esteprofesorul
Cressage.
Will/shall + progressive aspect combine the meaning of futurity with that
focusing on the internal process, in this way avoiding the implication of promise
associated with will when the subject is ‘ I’ or ‘we ’. Compare:
E.g. I will (I’ ll) speak to him about your project next Friday.
We shall (we’ ll) be assessing your project shortly.
[Ii voi vorbi despre proiectul tau vinerea viitoare.]
[Va vom evalua proiectul in cel mai scurt timp.]
According to University Grammar of English ( p.47,48) the future and modal
functions of these auxiliaries can hardly be separated( cf 3.5f ), but shall and,
particularly will are the closest approximation to a colourless, neutral future .
Willfor future can be used in all persons throughout the English speaking world, wheres shall ( for 1
st person) is largely restricted in this usage to southern
BrE.This linguistic device is traditionally acknowledge as Future Continuous, but
for the coherence and cohesion of the present paper it will be i ncluded in a
separated category.
1.6.2) Future On -going Events:
This category comprises activities in progress over a period of time in the future:
E.g. (1) With my new job, I will be travelling back and forth across thecountry.
(2) Alan will be studying until 5:00 tonight, and the n he has to meethis
professor
(3) No doubt at this time tomorrow Nick will be arguing with hisgirlfriend.
(4) The headline writers will be wondering endlessly about MrsThache r’s
choice of an election date. In sentence (1), the action is recurrent over a period of time in the future; hence the use of the progressive form of will -future is required. In example (2),
the activity is in progress up to a point in the future and in the third and fourth examples the activities are on -going at some point in the future.
In Romanian, these utterances appear either in Viitor Propriu -zis or Viitor
Popular, Indicativ:

20
E.g. (1) In noua mea slujba voi calatori/o sa calatoresc de la un capat altarii in
altul.
(2) Alan va invata/o sa invete pana deseara la 5, apoi trebuie sa-
siintalneasca profesorul.
(3) Fara indoiala, maine pe vremea asta Nick va avea/o sa aiba odiscutie cu
prietena sa.
(4) Editorialistii se vor intreba la nesfarsit / o sa se tot intrebe careeste data
pe care d -na Thacher a ales -o pentru alegeri
1.6.3) Programmed/scheduled events:
Future events seen as certain because they are unalterable ( 1) or scheduled
(2), (3) and ( 4) can be expressed by the Present Tense + time adjunct, by will or
by the lexical auxiliaries be due to + infinitive and be to (simple forms only).
According to L. G. Alexander, the will -form is used particularly in formal written
language:

E.g. (1) The sun sets at 20.25 hours tomorrow.
(2) Next year’s conference will be held in New York.
(3) He is due to start University in two months’ time.
(4) He is to marry the future heiress of the throne.
The Romanian counterparts are either Viitor Propriu -zis/Popular, or Present,
Indicativ in all cases:
E.g. (1) Soarele apune/va apune la orele 20.25 maine.
(2) Conferinta de anul viitor se va tine/o sa se tina/se tine la NewYork.
(3) [El] Va incepe/O sa inceapa/Incepe facultatea peste doua luni.
(4) Se va casatori/ O sa se casatoreasca/Se casatoreste cu mosteni toarea
tronului.
This use of Simple Present can occur in narrative sequence, or in a context
where the future reference is assumed. Such an example is given by Leech:
E.g. Right! We meet at Victoria at nine o’clock, catch the first train
toDover, have lunch at the Castle Restaurant, then walk to De al.
The statement suggests an irrevocable decision about the course of the events, due
to the Simple Present , as if the enacting in advance of the events takes place. In
Romanian such structures are rendered by Prezent or Viitor, Indicativ, since the Roman ian tenses do not encode such meanings, rather they are signalled through
lexical specifications:

21
E.g. Bine! Ne intalnim/Ne vom intalni la gara Victoria la ora
noua, neurcam/vom urca in primul tren catre Dover, luam/vom lua pranzul la
Restaurantul Castel, apoi mergem/vom merge in orasul Deal.

1.6.4) Intentions:
Such situations can be expressed by the semi -auxiliary be + going
to + infinitive (1), be + about to (when intent is the purpose of the
communication) and the Present Continuous (2).
E.g. (1) I am going to try to get a loan.
(2) I’m about to go home.
We’ re thinking of selling our old car.
The ‘ going to’ construction is a special case of 1) grammaticalisation and 2)
semantic change from an allative (“a type of inflection which expresses the
meaning of motion ‘to’ or ‘towards’ a place) meaning to a more abstract and
hence more grammaticalised future meaning. Heine et al., 1991, page 70 gives account of this process of grammaticalisation which is a metaphoric extension from what t hey call ‘a more concrete source domain’ (example 1) to ‘a more
abstract target domain’ (example 4):
E.g. (1) Liliy is going to town.
(2) George: Are you going to the library?
Lily: No, I’ m going to eat .
(3) George is going to do his very best to make Lily happy.
(4) It is going to rain .
The first example has the allative (spatial) meaning, while the fourth expresses a
purely future meaning, between them the two utterances being intermediate – (2)
reflects an intention meaning and (3) intention plus a secondary
sense, prediction .
Even though this kind of grammatical -semantic shift can offer a hint about the
time content of ‘going to’ constructions, there still exist contexts in which the
grammaticalisation of this expression does not apply entirely or clearly and which may raise difficulties in rendering English texts into Romanian or the other way round. Consider these examples:
E.g. (5) George is going to buy some champagne.
(6) I am going to study in the library .

22
On this matter, I am going to favour Van Evans and Melanie Green’s
view, according to which the plausible meaning here is intention (future time
reference) rather than spatial motion , as ‘the conceptualiser mentally scans the
agents’ motion through TIME rather than SPACE, and this scanning becomes
salient in the conceptualiser’s construal because the motion along this path is not
objectively salient (there is no physical motion).’ Again, the accuracy of decoding
such utterances is given by the extended context, or is subject of pragmatic inference.
In Romanian, the whole situation lies between present and future time
reference, the ambiguity rising only starting from the third example on. The
disambiguation is ensured by the context, as well.
E.g. (1) Lily se duce in oras .
(2) George: Te duci la biblioteca?
Lily: Nu, ma duc sa mananc .
(3) George are de gand/intentioneaza/are sa faca tot ce -i sta in puteri ca sa o
faca fericita pe Lily.
(4) Va ploua/O sa ploua.
(5) George intentioneaza/se duce sa cumpere sampanie .
(6) Intentionez/O sa studiez/Ma duc sa studiez in biblioteca.
There is still a type of syntactic synonymy between the ‘ going to’ -future and
the will-future, when ‘the intention is neither clearly premedita ted nor clearly
unpremeditated’
E.g. (1) I will/am going to climb that mountain one day.
(2) I won’t/am not going to tell you my age.
The same linguists draw a parallel between the two structures highlighting th e
contexts which are compatible with one of them or the other, but not with
both:the be going to form always implies a premeditated intention plus a sense of
previous arrangement, while will + infinitive implies intention alone. This is
shown by the follow ing examples:
E.g. (3) I have bought some bricks and I’ m going to build a garage .
(4) There is somebody at the hall door. I’ ll go and open it
(5) What are you doing with that spade? I am going to plant some apple trees.
Will + infinitive in the affirmative is used almost entirely for the first person.
Second and third person intentions are therefore normally expressed by be going to, as well as in the first person:

23
E.g. (6) He is going to resign .
(7) Are you going to leave without paying?
In the negative, won’t can be used for all persons:
E.g. (8) He isn’t going to resign .
Or
(9) He won’t resign .
As stated above, be going to implies immediacy, while will + infinitive can refer
either to the immediate or to the more remote future:
E.g. (10) Some workers arrived today with a roller. I think they are goingto
repair our road.
(11) This is a terrible heavy box. ~ I’ll help you carry it.
The examples built with the will- future cannot be rephrased using the going
to struct ure, since in the first case, the evidence of premeditation is clear, whereas
in the second, there is a sense of spontaneity in showing the intention.
Romanian has a few periphrastic structures that can render both English forms,
such as: ’a intentiona sa’ , a avea de gand sa’ , along with Viitor Propriu -zis, or
Viitor Popular, Indicativ.
E.g. (1) Intr-o buna zi voi escalada/am de gand sa escaladez munteleacela.
(2) Nu iti voi spune /N-am de gand sa iti spun varsta mea.
(3) Am cumparat niste caramizi si intentionez sa- mi construiesc ungaraj.
(4) Este cineva la usa din hol.~ Ma duc/voi duce sa deschid.
(5) Ce faci cu sapa aceea?~ Intentionez/Am de gand sa plantez niste meri.
(6) Intentionaza/Are de gand sa demisioneze .
(7) Ai de gand/Intentionezi sa pleci fara sa platesti?
(8) N-are de gand/Nu intentioneaza sa demisioneze.
(9) Nu va demisiona.
(10) Azi au sosit niste muncitori cu un rulou. Cred ca o sa repare/au de gand
sa repare drumul.
( 11) E ingrozitor de grea cutia asta.~Te voi ajuta /Te ajut eu s-o cari.
Some communicative situations require the conveyance of an event posterior to a
past moment, named by some linguists ‘ prospective past’ , this providing a past
form constraint to the ‘going to’ form:
E.g. (12) He was going to send the invitations but the guest list was nowhere to be
found. (13) I was going to ask for my money back, but I was advised not to.

24
(14) Lucy was going to travel round the world when she left school.
(12) Avea de gand/Intentiona/Avea sa trimita invitatiile, dar lista deinvitati
era de negasit.
(13) Eu intentionam sa -mi cer/Aveam de gand sa- mi cer baniiinapoi, dar am
fost sfatuit sa n -o fac.
(14) Lucy intentiona/avea de gand sa calatoresca in jurul lumii candtermina
scoala.
The Romanian counterparts are built with Imperfect, Indicativ, which bears an
aspectual sense – progressive – existent in English too.

1.6.5) Imminent/forthcoming/impending events:
When nearness is needed to be expressed, English usually uses periphrastic
structures, be + going to, be + about to + infinitive , be on the point of/be on the
verge of + -ing form. When the will -form is used for such purposes, an adverb or
adjective ( imminent, immediate , immediately , shortly, etc.) has to be present to
add the idea of imminence to the futurity reference. Furthermore, in most of the
cases, the imminence of the happening is externally or internally signalled:
E.g. (1) It looks as if it’s going to rain .
(2) This company is about to branch/on the verge of branching out .
(3) A decision from the judges is imminent. We will return to the law court as
soon as we have any further news.
The first example displays two meanings, the nearness of a process and the
prediction based on present evidence. The other two examples express only the immediacy of the events. As for Romanian, these can be rendered in various ways,
either by periphrastic constructions or by various forms of future (Viitor Propriu –
zis, Vi itor Popular):
E.g. (1) Arata de parca ar sta sa ploua./ Se pare ca va ploua.
(2) Compania aceasta este pe cale/pe punctul de a se extinde.
(3) Decizia judecatorilor este iminenta . Ne vom intoarce/O sa ne
intoarcem la tribunal de indata ce avem/vom avea vesti.
1.6.6) Arrangements/Plans made beforehand:
First, in most of the cases, English uses Present Progressive to express a definite
arrangement in the near future:
E.g. (1) I’m taking an exam in October.

25
(2) Bob and Ann are meeting tonight.
(3) I’m staying home tonight.
(4) What are you doing next Saturday?
(5) I’m seeing him tomorrow.
This type of future cannot be used with those categories of verbs that do not
accept the progressive aspect: verbs of perception, those denoting mental
activities, feelings, etc.
Second, the going to – form can also convey this meaning, though there is
ambiguity in an utterance like this, since the borderline between intention and
plan/arrangement
is difficult to draw, b oth senses implying premeditation. Take these examples for
comparison:
E.g. (6) He is going to visit his old friends this weekend.
(7) Our new piano is going to be delivered tomorrow.
The first example can be read either ‘ he has the intention of ’ or ‘he has planned
this’, and the second ‘ according to a previous plan’ or ‘there is the intention of ’
To be to + infinitive is another way of conveying a plan, though this is specific to
newspapers mostly or in formal arrangements:
E.g. (8) She is to be married next month.
(9) The expedition is to start in a week’s time.
When referring to planned events, particularly in connection with travel, Future
Continuous can be used:
E.g. (10) We’ll be spending the winter in Australia. (= we are spending)
(11) Professor Craig will be giving a lecture on Etruscan potterytomorrow
evening . (= is giving)
Romanian has no structural constraints in rendering such meanings, that is, a certain form – whether it is Prezent or Viitor, Indicativ – does not necessarily
convey a certain meaning; rather, various forms can be employed in serving the same semantic needs. Compare:
E.g. (1) In octombrie sustin /voi sustine un examen.
(2) Bob si Ann se intalnesc/vor intalni deseara.
(3) Deseara stau/voi sta acasa.
(4) Ce o sa faci/vei face anul viitor in septembrie?
(5) Ma intalnesc/voi intalni cu el maine.

26
(6) Isi va vizita/Intentionaza/Are de gand sa isi viziteze vechii prieteni la
sfarsitul acesta de saptamana.
(7) Pianul ne va fi/o sa ne fie livrat maine.
(8) Se casatoreste/va casatori luna viitoare.
(9) Expeditia va incepe/urmeaza sa inceapa intr-o saptamana.
(10) Ne vom petrece/O sa ne petrecem iarna in Australia.
(11) Profesorul Craig va sustine/o sa sustina o conferinta pe tema olaritului
etrusc maine seara.
As easily seen in the examples above, English verbal forms not only anchors the
action/state on a certain point on the time axis, but this temporal function co -occur
with others, in these cases – the idea of plan/arrangement. Conversely, Romanian
does not appeal to verbal forms only, when having to associate a supplementary
meaning, because the Romanian tenses are not endowed with such functions. It is the context that associates functions/meanings with temporal references.
1.6.7) Predictions:
Simple Future can be employed to make predictions about future, respective of the presence of the explicit performatives – verbs that label the speech act (‘ think ’,
‘assume ’, ‘believe’, etc) – or implicit performatives, in which case the speaker
consciously makes use of pragmatic inference, so that they can choose the appropriate grammatical structure to render the intended meaning:
E.g. (1) As she grows up, she’ ll see that her dislike of Gavin is irrationaleven if
she can’t admit it.
(2) The procedure is very simple and will be familiar by now .
(4) I think she’ ll answer ‘yes’ to every question you ask her
(5) I shall regret this for the rest of my life!
(6) As we shall disco ver, the concept of child abuse is an extremelyelusive one
and means different things to different people.
(7) My father will probably be in hospital for at least two weeks .
The use of shall for the prediction meaning ( examples 5, 6, 7) is rarely used
outside the English of Southern England. The canonical use, compulsion, is mainly confined to legal and administrative language. A lot more difficult is with the Romanian language, since there are no grammatical constraints upon what structure to use when rendering this meaning, hence the confusion about which form to use to translate/render such texts into

27
English, since predictions can be rendered by Prezent, Viitor Propriu -zis, Viitor
Popular, Indicativ, but without naming what Romanian ‘does with w ords’.
Compare:
E.g. (1) Cand va creste/o sa creasca , va vedea/o sa vada ca toata antipatiasa
pentru Gavin este irationala, chiar daca nu poate s -o recunoasca.
(2) Procedura este foarte simpla si, probabil, este/va fi fost clara panaacum.
(3) Sezonul turistic se (va) deschide pana maine .
(4) Cred ca va raspunde/o sa raspunda ‘da’ la orice intrebare a ta.
(5) Voi regreta/O/Am sa regret asta tot restul vietii mele .
(6) Asa cum vom descoperi/o sa descoperim , conceptul de molestarea
copilului este unul extreme de ambiguu si inseamna multe lucruri, pentru multi
oameni. As this paper is intended for upper -intermediate & advanced students, the
description of the five categories of speech acts produced by Searle can be introduced, which would solve the discrepancies between the two languages in point of communicative functions and the grammatical constraints they impose, when it comes to promises, threats, requests, commands, claims, etc.
E.g. Mi se pare ca se inchide/va inchide/o sa se inchida si aceasta fabricain scurt
timp.
Romanian can employ either Prezent or any type of Viitor Propriu -zis, Indicativ,
while in English only the will-form or, if present evidence is assumed to exist for
such a prediction, ‘ going to’ -form can be used:
E.g. It seems to me/I believe that this factory will be/is going to be closeddown
soon. Predictions based on present evidence are, therefore, conveyed by the ‘going to’ –
form:
E.g. (1) It’s going to rain . Look at those heavy clouds.
(2) Help! I’ m going o fall !
The years of teaching experience tell me that if students are exposed to the speech act theory, adapted to their learning stage and age, they will handle futurity more easily, which is the objective of any teaching endeavour.
1.6.8) Future anterior events:
The relation between time and tense has great consequences in the attempts of systematizing grammar; what is more, the interaction between the past and future

28
times gives rise to complex notions to this relation. We may look to a posterior
situation from a past reference point (see examples (3), (4) and (5) in iv) and,
conversely, from a future reference point to an anterior event. The latter temporal
perspective is rendered by future perfect. Günter Radden and René Dirven
represent such situations graphically, naming the former past prospective and the
latter in the traditional way, future perfect :

Figure 2 The representation of the future actions/states sequencing

They claim that the two situations ‘display near -perfect mirror images’, each
involving separate segments of time: speech time (S), reference time (R) and event time (E) and in each (R) being placed further away from (S) than (E). The conceptual difference between the known reality of the past and the projected reality of the future entails different notions of time, an idea sustained by many linguistic studies, especially in cognitive grammar or cognitive linguistics.
E.g. (1) By the time he is twenty -one, he’ ll have become the deputymanager of the
hotel.
(2) The concert will have started before you arrive.
(3) Readers may prefer to wait for the paperback to appear, by which time
most mistakes will have been ironed out. (4) Chances are you will have stirred things up enough to bring aquestion to
the surface.
The Romanian language renders these structures rather oddly, for people with an accurate time axis in mind. Not only does it lack the idea of sequence of tenses, which is crucial in English in contexts like the above ones, (in all examples, the
present form of the verb in the subordinate clause is required by its temporal nature, while in the main clause the future perfect is used), but it also uses Viitorul Propriu -zis, Indicativ (the Formal Future, Indicative) in both sentences, leaving
the connectors to signal the temporal relation between the events. In the last

29
example, however, Romanian uses either the Perfect Infinitive or the Perfect
Conjunctive/Subjunctive where English has Future Perfect:
E.g. (1) Pana cand va implini 21 de ani, va deveni managerul adjunct alhotelului.
(2) Concertul va incepe pana vei sosi tu.
(3) Cititorii ar putea sa astepte sa apara volumul, timp in care celemai multe
greseli vor fi disparut/disparea.
(4) Exista sansa de a fi pregatit/sa fi pregatit terenul pentru a aducein
discutie o problema. As with any English verbal form, future perfect has simple aspect, which
designates the repetition of an event in the future before a time limit, and a
progressive variant which emphasis es duration of the event up to that limit of time
and the incompletion of the sequence:
E.g. (1) We’ll have lived here for ten years by next July.
(2) We’ll have been living here for ten years by next July.
Romanian signals duration through lexical units, as the verb has no such category,
that is why, both English sentences are translated in only one variant, by means of Present Indicative:
E.g. Se vor implini zece ani in iulie de cand locuim aici.
Or
In iulie sunt zece ani de cand locuim aici.
1.6.9) Past prospective:
When the expected event is oriented from a past reference point, it is expressed by the past corresponding forms of the above phrases. This type of futurity is called Past Prospective: The most celebrated suburban development involved
Such instances refer to ‘some time in the past [primary time reference] when a future event [ become, know, prove – which have secondary future reference] was
anticipated, which is to say that the event time for becoming, knowing, proving is
out of sequence and is, moreover, future relative to the past narrative time. Such
sentences, then, refer to a past situation in the future relative to that primary past: actions or intentions in that past are leading to that future.’ (Noonan, op. cit. page 120)
The same phenomenon can occur with ‘ will’-future, would being used as the past
form:

30
E.g. (4) Little did Harriet know that in ten years Waldo would be therichest man
in Frostbite Falls.
Romanian possesses only one structure that can be thought of as the equivalent for
English: (a) the Imperfect form of the auxiliary a avea and the Present
Conjunctive/Subjunctive of the notional verb. Apart from this, Romanian can also
employ (b) Viitor, Indicativ to render such a meaning, lacking the sequence of
tense con straints.
E.g. (1.a) Nu este ceea ce credea ca avea sa devina.
Vs.
(1.b) Nu este ceea ce credea ca va deveni/o sa devina.
(2.a) Cea mai cunoscuta dezvoltare suburbana a inlcus ceea ce aveasa se fie
cunoscut dupa 1915 ca ‘Metroland’
Vs
.(2.b) Cea mai cunoscuta dezvoltare suburbana a inclus ceea ce va fi
cunoscut dupa 1915 drept ‘Metroland’
(3.a) Redescoperirea vietii urbane avea sa se dovedeasca un processlent
Vs
(3.b) Redescoperirea vietii urbane se va dovedi un process lent.
(4.a) Nu prea stia Harriet ca in zece ani Waldo avea sa fie cel mai bogat om
din Frostbite Falls.
Vs.
(4.b) Nu stia Harriet ca Waldo va fi cel mai bogat om din FrostbiteFalls.
In such cases, the Romanian learners need to be introduced/to reinforce the concepts of time reference, point of reference, posteriority, simultaneity and anteriority so that they can understand that there is little, if any, resemblance between the English and Romanian syntax. Almost invariably the Romanian learners tend to transl ate the Romanian (b) contexts by will -future , which is felt to
be the English equivalent for Viitor, Indicativ.
1.6.10) Requests, offers and promises
Both label two kinds of speech acts, coded by the will-future. Consider the
following examples:
E.g. (1) Will you pass me the salt?
(2) Will you lend me your dictionary?
(3) Shall I give you a hand in tomorrow’s contest?

31
(4) Shall we bring you anything from the journey?
The four utterances are questions in form, but their content points to something
else; we have to do with a request/demand (requesting means getting the addressee to commit to making the proposition true, not waiting for information –
these speech acts are called directives in (1) and (2), in that they expect a non –
linguistic answer, but an act – the addressee is expected to pass the salt or lend the
dictionary, rather than answering ‘ Yes, I will’ and performing nothing else. In this
case, the cooperative principle would be left aside, the communicative act being null.
In examples (3) and (4) we have to do with a different kind of speech act. Though
the answers to these can be linguistic, at a more subtle level, they convey a kind of
commitment between the two interlocutors. In this case, they lie among those speech act s labelled as ‘commissives’, together with promises. The difficulty in
dealing with these linguistically is that they are indirect speech acts, the accuracy in decoding their meanings depending on the extended context which may overtly point to such meanings and/or on inference , based on cultural convention.
Most traditional grammars describe these types of utterances as containing a modal verb, rather than conveying futurity. Speech act theory rules away the
shortcoming resulting from the traditional assum ptions and my stating that these
speech acts point to an after -the-moment -of-speaking realisation of the content. I
will take as arguments the description of these constructions made by Francisco
Jose Ruiz de Mendoza and Annalisa Baicchi in Illocutionary c onstructions:
Cognitive motivation and linguistic realization , published in the linguistic series
Explorations in Pragmatics, Mouton de Gruyter, 2007. Thus, an utterance like: Will you buy the tickets (tomorrow)? may be read as a question about the
future, in the same way as examples (1) and (2) I gave above, with or without an
adverbial of time being present. This is because about (1) and (2) we can infer that the request they contain may be fulfilled after the hearer has finished using the salt or the dic tionary, respectively, which anchors both situations on the time axis
ahead of the moment of speaking.
Things are different with the Romanian language. The most frequent structure used for such purposes contains a modal verb – a vrea :
E.g. (1) N-ai vrea/Vrei sa imi dai sarea?
(2) N-ai vrea/Vrei sa imi imprumuti dictionarul tau?
(3) N-ai vrea/Vrei/Sa -ti dau o mana de ajutor la concursulde maine?

32
(4) Vreti/Sa va aducem ceva din calatorie?
These are some more cases which, introduced to the students under the ‘label’
cited in the subheading, reinforce the effectiveness of the functional grammar approach that this paper has attempted to prove so far. This also counts for the
organisation of the linguistic material as formal/informal/colloq uial, since there
are various degrees of politeness when conveying directives, from plain
imperatives to formulas including modal -auxiliary verbs, which make the
utterance politer through their quality of ‘mitigating devices’ (Mendoza & Baicchi, op. cit. page 107).
A different type of speech acts are promises, described in the linguistic treatises as
illocutionary acts that are internal to the locutionary act, in the sense that, if the
contextual conditions are appropriate (commitment to carry out what is promised), by simply saying the words, someone performs the act of promising, as well:
E.g. (1) I promise I’ ll be there to support you.
(2) I’ll post the letter for you.
The first is a direct speech act – it contains a performative verb, promise, the
second is an indirect speech act, as its type is inferred, rather than labelled. With
communicative situations as in the second example (indirect speech acts), the
translation into Romanian is uncomplicated, but when English is the target
language for suc h speech acts, things become a little more difficult, because the
confusion between intention and promise is common in Romanian. Compare:
E.g. Iti voi scrie/O sa iti scriu in fiecare zi.
This sentence can be decoded as intention or promise, by way of inference,
depending to a great extent on the extended context. The consequence is the
differentiated grammatical treatment of the utterance in English: the former ‘reading’ requires going to- future , the latter – the will- future :
E.g. I’m going to write to you every day. (intention)
I shall/will write to you every day. (promise)
1.6.11) Hopes, decisions:
This category does not display difficulties for the Romanian students of any level, since it carries no ambiguities. In most cases, the verb hope is the explicit signal
of the content of the utterance, whereas the meaning ‘decision’ is generated by a rather unequivocal context. E.g. (1) Sper ca ii va placea/o sa ii placa Londra.

33
(2) Spera ca se va obisnui/o sa se obisnuiasca/are sa se obisnuiascarepede
cu trezitul devreme.
(3) Nu imi place culoarea. Nu cumpar/voi cumpara/o sa cumpar tapetul
acesta.
(4) Traducerea aceasta este foarte buna. O sa cumpar/Voi cumparavolumul
acesta de versuri.
The functional approach of the matter I am proposing will simplify the transfer
from Romanian into English, particularly due to the wide range of grammatical
devices which can convey not only these meanings these (Viitor Literar, Viitor
Popular, Prezent -Indicativ) and to the lack of str uctural overlapping between the
two languages that I am bringing face to face in this paper; conversely, the
formalist approach, which takes into account the grammatical structure, would make things more difficult for the same reasons I stated above, plus the use of
only one tense form in English for such meanings, namely the will/shall -future :
E.g. (1) I hope he’ ll like London.
(2) He hopes he’ ll get used to waking up early.
(3) I don’t like the colour. I won’t/shan’t buy this wallpaper.
(4) This translation is great. I’l l buy this poetry volume.

I.7 Futurity in complex sentences
1.7.1 Clauses of time:
The Romanian students learn English verb tenses one by one, so when they learn how to use adverbial clauses of time in the future, they are puzzled. Things are different in complex sentences in comparison with the independent ones, syntactically speaking, though from the semantic point of view there are no major
variations. The explanation of this state of affairs was given by many linguists, among whom I mention Tregidgo, P. S., Marianne Celce -Murcia and Diane
Larsen -Freeman .
Thus, in The Grammar Book, Celce- Murcia and Larsen –
Freemen take a historical approach of this linguistic issue. They begin the discussion with an example which I am going to cite here, as an appropriate starting point:
‘John will travel to Europe this summer. After he returns to the States, he will
begin graduate work in Management.’
They explain the reason why the present tense is used on the future time axis as follows: first, Old English had two tenses, present and past, and present

34
tense was used in order to express future time. Second, older forms and orders are
retained longer in subordinate clauses than in independent clauses (ibid.). If the present tense was used in order to express future time, it is possible that it can be used in adverbial clauses of future time.
In the same way, Tregidgo (1974: 192) corroborates this point by using
‘the notion of tense -subordination,’ explaining that ‘it means that the view point
of the tense -form (the subordinate tense) is based on the viewpoint of another
(governing tense)’. In other words, the main clause tense affects the subordinate
one. For example, ‘When you put your coat on, you will feel warmer.’ He rewrites
this complex sentence into compound sentences, such as ‘You will put your coat
on and you will feel warmer.’ The first sentence ‘you will put your coat on’ is
closely related to the second one ‘you will feel warmer.’ He concludes, ‘If we subordinate the first clause to the second, we also subordinate the first tense to second.’ (Tregidgo, 1974: 195) His explanation is clear and this is how this structure works in some sentences from newspapers and movies. In the Daily Local News, on June 9, 2002, there is an article that reads:
E.g. When the school bell rings for afternoon dismissal today at BishopShanahan
High School, students will exit the historic Catholic highschool for the final
time.Beginning this fall, an estimated 950 Shanahan students will attenda newly
constructed 1,200 student capacity high school in Downing town. The present tense of rings here does not indicate present time, but the same time,
or very close to the time of students’ leaving the high school. The use of will
ring is not possible here, because the clause describing the action of the bells has
been subordinated to the c lause describing the action of the students by the use of
the word when .
When bringing Romanian and English face to face, things get complicated because the two languages encode such examples differently. Compare:
E.g. (1) He’ll phone his friends as soon as he arrives at destination.
(2) When we meet , I’ll explain everything .
( Will-future , in the main/matrix clause and Present Simple, in the subordinate
clause)
Vs.
Isi va suna/O sa isi sune prietenii de indata ce va ajunge/o sa ajunga la
destinatie

35
Cand ne vom intalni/o sa ne intalnim, iti voi explica/o sa-
ti explic totul. (Viitor, Indicative in both sentences)
This ‘rule’ applies in each case of time clauses, when the event time of both
matrix/main and secondary clause are co ncomitant, irrespective of the conjunction
(when, before, whenever, as soon as, the moment, until, the day) that connects
the two clauses. By way of illustration, consider these examples:
E.g. (1) He’ ll finish his project before the manager asks for it.
(2) The moment we get there, we’ ll check in.
(3) I’ll be extremely happy the day you get a job.
All these complex sentences display the conformity with a fixed constructional
rule: will -future – matrix clause -Present Simple – secondary clause.
A completely different instantiation is required in the case of a complex sentence
where the two component clauses are joined by the conjunction after. The
syntactic relation is that of anteriority (on the part of the secondary clause) to the event time in the main clause, which imposes a sequence of tense constraint upon
the whole sentence:
E.g. (4) After Jim has finished his speech, people will leave the meeting.
[Dupa ce Jim isi va fi terminat/va termina discursul, va parasi sedinta.]
Since the s econdary clause refers to an activity prior to the one in the matrix
clause, two constraints are impose: one has to satisfy the concept of anteriority, therefore the perfective aspect is needed, the second has to take into account the status of the clause which indicates anteriority, namely, a secondary clause, which rules out the use of a future form, according to the English normative grammar. The consequence is that Present Perfect satisfies both conditions, as shown in (4).
Romanian behaves differently, as seen in the translation, in that it uses Viitor
Perfect (in a rather bookish variant of the language) or Viitor Propiu -zis, Indicativ,
in both clauses. In cases where anteriority to the event time in the secondary clause needs rendering, the perfective will -form is used in the matrix clause, either simple or in
the progressive aspect. Consider these:
E.g. (1) They’ ll have discovered the truth by the time the trial finishes .
[ Vor fi descoperit/Vor descoperi adevarul pana cand se vatermina procesul.]
(2) The city will have undergone major changes by the time theOlympic
Games begin .

36
[Orasul va fi suferit/va suferi schimbari majore pana vor incepeJocurile
Olimpice.]
I’ll have been working on this paper for a few months by the timeI have to
hand it in .
[Voi fi lucrat/Voi lucra la aceasta teza vreo cateva luni pana va fi timpul s -o
predau.]
[Va fi plouat/Va ploua minute in sir pana vom putea sa iesim in oras.]
(1) And (2) have the perfect will -form in relation with Present Simple, whereas
(3) and (4) follow the pattern perfect will-form , in the progressive aspect + Present
Simple. Both will- futures appear in the matrix clauses, while Present Simple is
required by the subordinate one. Though aspect parta kes of the notion ‘time’, just
like tense, it brings no temporal nuances to the utterance, but ‘some internal
phases/stages in the development of the situation’. The progressive aspect shows the ‘unfolding in time’ of the actions will have been working/rai ning , while the
perfective aspect ‘provides a holistic, summarizing or unifying view upon the situation described’ (I. Baciu, op. cit., page 2) in all four sentences.
Romanian has Viitor, Indicativ in both clauses, proving no sequence of tense constraints at all.

1.7.2) Conditionals:
In The Grammar Book , M. Celce -Murcia and D. Larsen -Freemen cite Covitt
(Ch.25), who in a survey of the most serious teaching problems encountered by ESL teachers found that conditional sentences rank fifth. I myself found difficulties in teaching these, due to the various syntactic relation(s) established between the two clauses that form the complex sentence. Furthermore, the semantics of the conditionals is subtle and difficult to understand, especially for ESL/EFL studen ts, that is why I have chosen to deal with complex sentences at
this point of my paper.

Traditionally, this issue is presented oversimplified, in that the inventory of these sentences is limited to three types, having the following description:
• Future Conditional: If I have the money, I will take a vacation .
• Present Conditional: If I had the money, I would take a vacation.
• Past Conditional: If I had had the money, I would have taken a vacation .

37
Moreover, a number of grammars refer to the first sentence as a ‘real’ or
‘possible’ conditional as opposed to the second and third, which refer to the
‘unreal/hypothetical’ present/future and past, respectively.
Another problem encountered with my students is that they associate past tense
forms with past time, which leads to puzzlement when, for instance, in various
exams, (as well as in direct communication interaction), a hypothetical situation
with future time reference was asked to be rephrased by a second conditional sentence, (which is realized with Past Simple in the secondary clause).
In other words, pupils find it difficult to associate a past time form with a
(semantically) post -present domain. [See infra iii)]
In this section I shall refer to those types of conditionals that can be anchored in
the post -present domain, namely having future time reference and their
equivalents in Romanian. E.g. (1) If all goes well, we’ ll reach Dover by four.
(2) If Mary goes , I’ll go.
(3) Say one more word and I’ ll kill you.
(4) If I submit my thesis this month, I’ ll feel relieved.
(5) You can/may come with us if you want to.
(5) I’ll give you $5 if you wash the my car. .
(6) If I were you, I wouldn’t repeat this mistake.
(7) He wouldn’t call you so frequently if you didn’t allow him.
(8) You could help me with the housework if you wanted .

All these sentences share the same logical/semantic features, up to a point:
 (a) Logically, they are included in the if p, (then) q frame;
 (b) All of them can point to a post-present domain, except for (6), (7), and (8),
which can refer to a present domain, as well, depending on the presence of an indexical marker – a present time adverbial – or on the extended context that
points to such a time domain;

(c) (3) displays a different formal instantiation that lacks the canonical
marker if (Imperative + and + will -future), but as stated above, is included in the
same logical frame;
 (d) (5) contains no specific future time markers; it is built with a modal verb
and Simpl e Present, which leads to the method of decoding stated in (b).

38
 All the above sentences convey a speech act or can have modal readings:
warning, threat, prediction, reproach/disapproval.
 (1) to (5) have to do with realis domain, (traditionally, real conditional),
whereas (6) to (8) belong to the irrealis domain (hypothetical conditional), that is
why the mood/tense domain (Conditional Mood, Present + Past Tense, Indicative) differ to that in (1) to (5), where Indicative is employed [except for ( 3), where the
Imperative Mood appears]. Since this thesis focuses on teaching futurity, I feel bound to mention that the most effective teaching approach of these complex sentences is the eclectic one, as both the structural and functional approaches prove d to have flaws, when
applied separately. Therefore, the structural analysis clarifies the fact that two (or more) clauses are involved in such a syntactic relation, while the functional/semantic approach can clarify some ambiguous meanings, which can help to decide which grammatical device is most suitable for which purpose.

For instance, if asked to give a suggestion, (a directive, in speech act theory), under the form of a conditional sentence, the functional description combines perfectly with the formal description to serve this purpose, either approach taken independently puzzling the ESL student, since the structure does not imply such a
speech act, nor the linguistic function says anything about the mood- tense
dynamics.
E.g If I were her, I woul d be more understanding.
[Daca as fi in locul ei, as fi mai ingaduitoare.]
Another reason for a twofold treatment of the matter is the difference between English and Romanian. In the second conditional, English allows the use of (Present) Conditional only in the matrix/main clause while in the secondary clause a Subjunctive is used (identical in form with Past Simple, Indicative, except for the verb to be ); Romanian employs Prezent Conditional in both clauses. In the
first conditional, English displays the same mood -tense constraints (will- future in
the main clause and Present Simple in the secondary clause); conversely, Romanian employs the same tense, namely Viitor, Indicativ, in both clauses:
E.g. If all goes well, we’ ll reach Dover by four.
[D aca totul va decurge bine, vom ajunge in Dover pana la 4.]
1.7.3) Reported Speech:

39
The last part of this chapter looks at (1) the tense variations generated by the
reported speech constraints and (2) the Romanian counterparts. The cases that I am discussing in this section are those which raise problems to the Romanian
learners, leaving aside the aspects that are quite similar to the variations in
Romanian.
a)
Introduction:
When a speaker wants to report what someone else has said, or to repeat his/her
own words, the speaker may choose to either directly quote:
E.g. (1) Andrew said, ‘ I’ll post this letter tomorrow .’ (DS)
or to use Indirect Speech (also referred to as ‘Reported Speech’):
E.g. (2) Andrew said that he would post that letter the following day .
Apart from the punctuation differences between the two reports, one can see quite
a few structural differences, as well. These changes (the absence of the complementizer that, without altering the grammaticality of the sentence, the
pronominal variation, the tense and the adverbial of time/place changes) and how ESL/EFL students could more easily cope with such issues are the object of this chapter.
b)
The complementizer THAT:
The first obvious syntactic change when moving from a type of report to the other, is the presence of a complementizer – that ; the subordination is thus
signalled, not to mention the punctuation that in (1) marks two sentences (namely – two independent clauses), while in (2), the syntactic relation is that of unilate ral
dependence: one clause (‘ he would post that letter the following day ’) is
embedded in the matrix/main clause.

E.g. Andrew a spus/zis ca va expedia scrisoarea maine.
Andrew a spus/zis va expedia scrisoarea maine.
In Romanian it would be ungrammatical to omit the complimentizer, as the
subordination is signalled in such cases by the conjunction ‘ ca’ itself, when
statements are reported.
E.g. Te -am informat ca urmeaza sa ne mutam saptamana viitoare.
[I informed you (that) we were going to move house the ne xt week.]
c) Shifting/Backshifting
The changes mentioned in the introduction of this section are generally known as ‘shift’ or ‘back shift’, as seen in the (1) and (2). The pronominal shift does not cause difficulties to Romanian students, because ther e are no variations when

40
moving from one language to the other. The great obstacle appears when tenses
and some adverbials of time and place differ from one report to the other, in English, while in Romanian the changes are scarce.
E.g. ‘ I’m going to inves tigate this matter myself starting from today ,’said
John. (Direct Speech)
John said (that) he was going to investigate that matter himself,starting from that
day. (Reported Speech)
The first shift that took place is at the pronominal level, the first person changing into the third. Other changes in pronominal forms are from the second into the
third person, from the second person into the first. These changes are similar in
the two languages under analysis here, that is why I consider them being outsid e
the interest area of this paper.
The second and the most challenging for ESL/EFL students are the variations of
tenses, time adverbials, and demonstratives, when the reporting verb is in a past tense.
As a result, there might be situations where Past Tense (1) or even Past
Perfect (2) can have future reference, which again proves the overlapping of various temporal functions for one and t he sam e verbal form in English:
E.g. (1) ‘She’ ll let you know when she herself finds out the details.’ (DS)
[I told you (that) she’ d let you know when she herself found out .](RS)
(2) ‘After they’ ve finished the project they’ ll go on a vacation.’ (DS)
[Someone said (that) they’ d go on a vacation after they had finished the
project.] (RS)
Romanian, on the other hand, displays no tense alterations inside the same sentence, as illustrated in (1) and (2 ) or when moving from DS to RS:
E.g. (1) ‘Te va anunta cand va afla si ea.’ (DS)
[Ti -am spus ca te va anunta cand va afla si ea.] (RS)
(2) ‘Dupa ce vor fi terminat/au terminat proiectul vor pleca invacanta. (DS)
[Cineva a spus ca vor pleca in vacanta dupa ce vor fiterminat/au
terminat proiectul.] (RS)
Nor are there such changes in Romanian in conditional sentences, or any other type of clauses:
E.g. (1) Daca nu te vei purta cuviioncios, nu te voi mai ajuta ! (DS)
[Nu ti -am spus ca nu te voi mai ajuta daca nu te vei purta cuviincios?] (RS)
(2) Cineva va trebui sa preia initiativa, in cele din urma, spuse Grace. (DS)
[Grace a spus ca cineva va trebui sa preia initiativa, pana laurma.] (RS)

41
English has two types of constraints here: 1) the sequence of tenses required by
the canonical secondary clauses and 2) the backshifting specific to the Reported Speech:
E.g. (1) ‘ If you don’t behave yourself , I won’t help you at all.’ (DS)
(Conditional Clause, type 1, Present Simple – Main Clause, Simple Future )
[D idn’t I tell you (that) if you didn’t behave yourself , I wouldn’thelp you at
all?] (RS)
(Past Simple , as RS backshift of the Present Simple above – Future -In-the-Past,
in the Main Clause)
(2) ‘Someone will have to take the initiative, after all,’ said Grace. (DS)
(Simple Future)
[Grace said (that) someone would have to take the initiative.] (RS) (Future -in-
the-Past imposed by the RS constraints)
There are four cases where these alterations are not possible or logical, but only one applies here: when the situation in the reported utterance still holds true at the
time of the indirect report, no changes are required, irrespective of the form of the reporting verb:
E.g. ‘The next big depression will be in 2025,’ said Mr. Snyder. (DS)
Mr. Snyder said (that) the next big depression will be in 2025. (IS)
Furthermore, when the reference time is more ambiguous, the usage of the future time forms is divided between will and would , while when these forms involve
inference or prediction, shifting is even more unlikely to occur, because a change
in form will bring about a change in meaning (i.e. the degree of probability/certainty):
E.g. (1) ‘ It will probably rain,’ announced the forecaster. (DS)
(2) [The forecaster announced (that) it would probably rain.] (RS)
The degree of probability/certainty differs from (1) – where it is higher, to (2) –
where it is lower. The most appropriate teaching strategies and techniques I have
experienced so far are those that expose students to a lot of input conta ining
indirectly indirect speech. To put it more clearly, it would be of great help to elicit comments in a future form on various topics (content -based and task- based
approaches) which the teacher will have to change into the RS. Another procedure which c an be adapted to pedagogical purposes belongs to the
Community Language Learning approach. The teacher can invite students to have a conversation, on a particular topic, each line of it being recorded on a chart, and

42
subsequently changed into the RS by the teacher. Students are then invited to
make observations about the differences within English, first, and between
Romanian and English, afterwards.

1.7.4 Manner Clauses
Ouirk et al. (1972: 7Θ1) state that 'in manner clauses also, future events are
indic ated by the present tense', as in:
E.g. (1) Next time I'll do as he says.
This claim may be worth discussing briefly. In the first place, how can the use of
the future present in examples like this be explained' It is to be noted that the
present tense form in this example is ambiguous between present and future, just
as the conditional sentence If i/ou love me, I shall be happy is ambiguous (see also Leech (1971: 60). The above as clause can mean either 'as he says now' or 'as he will say in the future. ' The same ambiguity is perhaps more obvious in a similar
example from Zandvoort (1969: 263):
E.g. (2) I will do (just) as you advise.
This means that apart from being used to refer to present time, the present tense can also be subordinated to the future tense of the main clause.
In both examples just given it is possible to change the simple present tense into a
Will + infinitive construction . This will make the time reference of the
subordinate clause independent of that of the main clause, which will cause the same subtle differences of meaning that we noted in the previous sub- sections.
The same substitution can take place in the temporal and conditional clauses discussed above, but in these cases Will is more likely to be interpreted as
volitional. W e can contrast the example from Ouirk et al., quoted at the beginning
of this section, with an example containing will:
E.g. (3) The effect of a Labour government having introduced penal provisions … would have been entirely symbolic, just as Labour's a bandonment of the attempt
will in turn have only a symbolic meaning.
We find then that the difference between them is clearly that in the latter the event referred to in the as clause is predicted or prophesied from the present moment, not subordinated to a future -referring verb, as in the first example. Hence, in the
first example it is appropriate to use the present tense. In the example just quoted, in which the as -clause introduces a new piece of information, and where future

43
subordination is impossibl e because there is no future in the main clause, the use
of the future auxiliary will is required.

44
Chapter 2
2. METHODS, STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUES IN
LANGUAGE LEARNING/TEACHING
A method of language teaching is a style of instruction that expresses
the professional commitment of the teacher in support of an assumption of
howlanguage is learned. Perhaps the most fundamental reality of language learning
is that language is a tool for communication. As obvious as this point may seem,
its implications are not always clear to students. The students’ experience of
English learning trains them t o see English as a communication tool. The daily
reality of English study for many students is one of memorizing words and rules in preparat ion for a test and rarely involves using English for communicative
purposes. After years of this kind of non- communicative study, students often lose
interest and begin to see language learning as an exercise geared toward formal accuracy, especially on tests. When English is presented as a tool for establishing communication with a new world, it is potentially more appealing. This communication can take a variety of forms; it can mean sharing ideas face to face with someone from a foreign country or gaining access to the knowledge embedded in the world’s vast library of material published in English. Although learning any language opens new doors, English’s growing role as an international language means it is now the language of publishing and speech for m ost
international communication; it is often used even by people from non- English-
speaking countries when they need to interact with people from other nations (Crystal, 2003). Learning English means developing the ability to understand and interact with a universe that is largely inaccessible to those who don’t know English. There are other reasons t o focus on communication in our teaching, one
being that such a focus may make language teaching easier for students. Many aspects of language teaching may init ially seem unfamiliar and awkward; for
example, most native speakers of English don’t start out with a natural knack for explaining the rules of English grammar. However, it is entirely natural to communicate with the students. The skill of a second langua ge teacher lies in
selecting an approach, method, and a technique in view of the learner’s educational background. He should be flexible enough to swift to multiple approaches so as to enable the students to make learning effective. The more often

45
the teacher gives students the opportunity to communicate genuinely in class, the
more quickly the teacher will be comfortable in the new teaching role. Students
must experience language as communication as early as possible in their learning
if they consider language as a communication tool. In an English class, this means
using speaking or writing practice as an opportunity for students to share what
they really think, feel, or believe. It also means that when students say or write
something, the teacher should r espond to the ideas expressed rather than only to
the accuracy of the language.
2.1 English Language Teaching Methods
Starting with a general definition of learning (the “alteration of behaviour as a
result of individual experience or when an organism can perceive and change its behaviour, it is said to learn” ) we could easily observe the truth -content of it
inside the phenomena of language learning and, what is more, inside the phenomenon called foreign language learning, which is precisely the core of this paper.
For a better understanding of the language learning/teaching concept, as well as
for the sense of history that each and every teacher should have when it comes to their profession, a brief survey of the various methodological options is
given. (Marianne Celce -Murcia, Teaching English As a Second or Foreign
Language , page 3)
Harmer (2007b:62) equates approach to a model of language competence.
According to him , method represents the approach implementation,subordinating
procedure and technique ( activity). Technique is identified with the actual
classroom activities used to implement the method or approach. There is a
hierarchical relationship between the approach,method and technique, aproach
being superordinate by method and method being superordinate to technique.
Richards (2006:6ff) provides us with a broad chronology of language teaching
methods:
• Traditional approaches( up to the late 1960s)
• Classic communicative language teaching ( 1970s -1990s)
• Current communicative language teaching ( late 1990s – up to present)
The author gives particular importance to the communicative paradigm. As the 20th century witnessed profound changes in every domain, new approaches to teaching foreign languages were designed, as well, based on the

46
pedagogical concepts of age and characteristic needs of the pupils. According to
the teaching methods devised, one can distinguish several successive
approaches: The Grammar Translation Method, the audio- lingual approaches , the
communicative teaching, the eclectic metho d vs. the effective method
Direct method and Suggestopedia are among the methods used commonly by the
teachers. Therefore, I have made an attempt to review these methods as below:

2.1.1. The grammar -translation method (GMT)
Grammar translation is said to be a humanistic approach to language
learning(Grenfell and Harris, 1999), although other scholars claim that it is not
based on any approach.
Although this method is one of the oldest (it is also called “the classical method” ),
it is still used by teachers all over the world. Its principles and techniques are
similar to those used for teaching “dead” languages, such as Latin or Greek.
In this method a teacher is the main communicator of a classroom. All the activities and classroom tasks are given by teacher and student just memorize and give examinations. Grammar translation method was called the classical method since it was first used in the teaching of the classical language, Latin and Greek
(Chastain 1988). The origin of t his method lies in an attempt to teach languages
by grammar and translation where the learners have to gather knowledge of
foreign languages by studying a number of grammatical rules and applying these knowledge to the interpretation of texts with the use of a dictionary. Through the study of the grammar of target language, students would become more familiar with the grammar of their native language and that is familiarly would help them speak and write their native language better. (Larsen – Freeman, Diane). A
disadvantage is that The Grammar Translation Method may make the language learning experience uninspiring and boring, 2). The Grammar Translation Method may also leave the students with a sense of frustration when they travel to countries where the st udied language is used (they can’t understand what people
say and have to struggle mightily to express themselves at the most basic level), 3). This method neither approaches nor encourages the students’ communicative competence.
As the name suggests, this method consists of vocabulary and grammar rules acquisition, with translation as the main operational technique. It was adequate for Latin or Greek learning, so it was intended for highly intellectual

47
reasons, such as reading literature in th e original or analyzing linguistic systems.
This method, whose medium of instruction is the students’ native tongue, aims at
providing a high proficiency in translation.
In GTM, reading and writing are the major focus. Vocabulary selection
is based solely on the reading texts used, dictionary study and memorization. In
addition, accuracy is emphasized. Students are expected to attain high standards in
translation. On the basis of the information, Celce -Murcia (1991) formulate the
main featur es of the Grammar Translation Method are as follows:
• Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target language;
• Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words;
• Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies o f grammar are given;
• Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words;
• Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early;
• Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in in
grammatical analysis;
• Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue;
• Little or no attention is given to pronunciation
This approach has its strong poin ts, because it teaches vocabulary and grammar
thoroughly; it also provides the students with large amounts of information concerning literature, culture and civilization; in addition, it develops the students’ analytical and critical spirit.
On the other hand, the GTM was attributed a number of flaws, as it focused mainly on reading and writing skills, considering speaking and listening of low importance. Firstly, spoken language is quite different from written language, in that the former is elliptical, idiomatic, and the latter has long and intricate constructs. Students were quite good at writing and reading, but failed in face -to-
face interaction, as the language they studied was antiquated, being quite useless in the real- world situations, because they understood little or nothing of what was
being said, nor could they “find their words” to express what they bore in their mind.
In the early 1940s, Charles Ewart Eckersley’s Essential English for Foreign
Students revealed the drawbacks of the GTM, in two hilarious lessons, pointing to

48
the shortcomings of this method. The lessons described two English learners’ first
day in London: Frieda, a young woman from Switzerland, who gets lost in Hyde Park and who, despite her knowing to ask for directions in Englis h, does not
understand a word of what people are telling her in reply; she is eventually saved
by a French- speaking policeman; the other foreigner is Hob, from the non- definite
Ruritania, who has a frustrating experience in the restaurant because he cannot
make the waiter understand his order. The two characters lack certain skills (the
woman lacks listening skills and the man lacks speaking, more exactly, pronunciation skills), this fact pointing to the absence of communicative abilities
development.

2.1.2 The audio -lingual approaches (ALA)
Audiolingual Method (ALM) gained attention in the 1950s, largely in the USA where it was rooted in the military's need during World War II to train large volumes of personnel in disparate languages. Although it claimed to have turned language teaching from an art to a science, it shared several aspects with the Direct Method . Both were a reaction to the perceived failures of the
Grammar –
Translation Method . Both ban the use of mother tongue, and both prioritize
listening and speaking skills over reading and writing. ALM is nevertheless different in several ways. It drew on early -20th century beliefs of 1) behaviourism
that anything could be learned through conditioning; and 2) structuralism and structural linguistics that emphasized grammatical structure. In ALM, grammar is prioritized over vocabulary, and accuracy over fluency, giving learners few opportunities to produce errors which are seen as potentially "contagious". Ultimately, the learner will speak "automatically".
Through listening, imitating and performing controlled tasks, students acquire a
new form of verbal behavior.The essentials problems are that the language
learning is a process of habit formation, and good habits formed by giving correct
responses and s ince language is basically oral, spoken form is presented before
written form, translation or use of the native tongue being discouraged because
students infer the rules of the language through practice, so the approach to the
teaching of grammar is essen tially inductive .Dialogues and drills form the basis
of audiolingual classroom practices. Dialogues provide a context for the language
and are used for repetition and memorization. After a dialogue has been presented,

49
the teacher selects specific grammar patterns that become the focus of various
kinds of drills.
In relation to linguistic developments, Audio- Lingual method is said to be fed by
phonetics. Language learners are exposed to stock phrases presented in the
hierarchical order of dificulty and th e principle is called incrementalism. Learners
have to assimilate the language dialogues through imitation or repetition drills and
the teacher is modelling the learners and is providing immediate feedback on
pronunciation, intonation and fluency. Grammar is taught inductively after the
selection of grammar structures and the provision of minimal gramatical
explanation.
The limitation of the Audio- Lingual method have been pointed out by linguists
such as Noam Chomsky, known as the founder of modern lingui stic. He rejected
the fact that learning a language derives from habit formation or imitation as
behaviorists sustain. For Chomsky, human language is not imitated behavior, but created a new. Hence, the learner should rely on his own cognitive faculty to learn. He pointed out the fact that Audio- Lingual method is unable to create
sustainable long -term communicative competence in language. As described
above, the Audio- Lingual method contained some good aspect to teach foreign
language such as helping the le arner to learn quickly and accurately the language
It was only in the 20
th century and thanks to the educationalists’ observation of the
way young children acquire their mother tongue, that teachers suggested teaching foreign languages by using it exclusively. No explanation or translation into the students’ mother tongue was allowed in classes; instead, all the explanation was provided in the target language enabling direct association of perception and thought with the foreign speech and sound; hence, mea nings were explained with
the help of the visuals, realia
, paralanguage and demonstration. These were the
principles that Maximilian Delphiniu s Berlitzput forth for his direct method of
teaching languages, which subsequently proved to be rather ineffective for public education, with its large groups of students.

Still, the ALM adopted these principles, being also indebted to the two main
principles of the age:
 the structural view, according to which things can be broken into “atoms”,
their basic elements;
 the behavioural concept, according to which language is a form of behaviour.

50
As suggested above, this method, too, has both meri ts and drawbacks. On one
hand, it has several techniques, still in use nowadays, all of them sharing a
common denominator: their emphasis on the oral communicative skills, which
meant this method aimed to endow language learners with a kind of competence
similar to that of a native speaker.
In addition, part from the new techniques and procedures, as well as the aims of
this method, teachers’ attitude underwent major changes: from the dominant figure in front of the class, to the more cooperative educator, who no longer dominates his/her class, but mingles with the learners and participates in their
activities as this method involved a lot of listen/repeat exercises, transformation
drills, and positive reinforcement.
On the other hand, it brought about less rigour in the writing skills because of a
poorer ability in handling structure and organising ideas.

2.1.3. The communicative teaching (CLT)
The communicative approach is based on the idea that learning language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning, the learners
being involved in real communication and their natural strategies for language
acquisition being used, this will allow them to learn to use the language.
Communicating meaning is the main goal in CLT, and language is seen as a tool
for learners to reach this aim.
As an example when practising question forms by asking learners to find out personal information about their colleagues is an example of the communicative approach, as it involves meaningful communication. Classroom activities guided by the communicative approach are characterised by trying to produce meaningful and real communication, at all levels. As a result there may be more emphasis on skills than systems, lessons are m ore learner- centred, and there may be use of
authentic materials.
This approach started in the 70s and became prominent as it proposed an alternative to the systems- oriented approaches, such as the Audiolingual method.
That means that, instead of focusing on the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary (grammatical/linguistic competence), the Communicative Approach
aimed at developing the learner’s competence to communicate in the target
language (communicative competence), with an enhanced focus on real -life
situations.In the Communicative Approach, learners are at the centre of

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instruction. That means that the teacher’s role has changed when compared to
previous methodologies such as Audiolingualism and the Direct Method. The teacher is now seen as a facilita tor in the learning process.
Mitchell (1994) best features the british form of the Communicative Language
Teaching.”Classroom activities should maximize opportunities for learners to use
the target language for meaningful purposes, with their attention on the messages
they are creating and the tasks they are completing,rather than on the correctness of language and language structure. Learners are trying their best to use the target language creatively and unpredictably are bound to make errors. Language
analysis and grammar explanation may help the learners but extensive experience
of target language use helps everyone. Effective language teaching is responsive
to the needs and inteests of the individul learner. Effective language learning is an active proc ess in which the learner takes increasing responsability for his
progress. The effective teacher aims to facilitate the language learning process.”( Mitchell, 1994; 38- 39).
Communicative Language Teaching is best considered an approach rather than a
method. Thus although a reasonable degree of theoretical consistency can be
discerned at the levels of language and learning theory, at the levels of design and
procedure there is much greater room for individual interpretation and variation
than most methods permit. It could be that one version among the various
proposals for syllabus models, exercise types, and classroom activities may gain
wider approval in the future, giving Communicative Language Teaching a status
similar to other teaching methods. On the o ther hand, divergent interpretations
might lead to homogeneous subgroups.
Communicative Language Teaching appeared at a time when British language
teaching was ready for a paradigm shift. Situational Language Teaching was no
longer felt to reflect a methodology appropriate for the seventies and
beyond. CLT appealed to those who sought a more humanistic approach to
teaching, one in which the interactive processes of communication received
priority . The rapid adoption and implementation of the communic ative approach
also resulted from the fact that it quickly assumed the status of orthodoxy in
British language teaching circles, receiving the sanction and support of leading
British applied linguists, language specialists, publishers, as well as institutions,
such as the British Council (Richards 1985).

52
Replaced the Situational Approach. It was originally promoted by Howatt, at al.,
and more fully developed in the 1980s. CLT comes in both "strong" and "weak"
forms. The intent is to capitalize on the collective intelligence of the group and
give everyone a chance to grow in appreciation of diversity.
• Teacher's role: needs analyst and task designer.
• Student role: improviser and negotiator.
CLT advocates avoided prescribing a set of practices through whi ch these
principles could best be realized, thus putting CLT clearly on the approach rather
than the method end of the spectrum. The assumptions are that (a) learners learn a
language through using it to communicate, (b) authentic and meaningful
communicat ion should be the goal of classroom activities, (c) fluency is an
important dimension of communication, (d) communication involves the
integration of different language skills, and (e) learning is a process of creative
construction and involves trial and e rror. Spin -offs from Communicative language
teaching include the Natural Approach, Cooperative Language Learning, Content –
based Teaching, and Task- based Teaching.» Competency -based Language
Teaching is still a very popular outcome -based approach. The focus is on
measurable and usable knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). It was promoted in
the 1970s by Scheck.» The methods described so far are symbolic of the progress
foreign language teaching ideology underwent in the last century. These were
methods tha t came and went, influenced or gave birth to new methods – in a cycle
that can be described as competition between rival methods or passing fads in the
methodological theory underlying foreign language teaching. By mid- eighties, a
new method took shape ( Communicative Language Teaching ), as it became
clear that endless drills and repetitions were not able to meet the requirements of
the age for competent communicators.
The Communicative approach does a great amount of work to expand on the goal
of creating communicative competence compared to earlier methods that professed the same objective. In contrast with the previously described
approaches, teaching students how to use the language is considered to be at least
as important as learning the language itsel f. Brown (1994:77) aptly describes the
transition towards CLT: 'Beyond grammatical discourse elements in communication, we are probing the nature of social, cultural, and pragmatic features of language. We are exploring
pedagogical means for 'real -life' communication in the classroom. We are trying

53
to get our learners to develop linguistic fluency, not just the accuracy that has so
consumed our historical journey. We are equipping our students with tools for
generating unrehearsed language performance ' out there' when they leave the
womb of our classrooms. We are concerned with how to facilitate lifelong
language learning among our students, not just with the immediate classroom
task. We are looking at learners as partners in a cooperative venture. And our
classroom practices seek to draw on whatever intrinsically sparks learners to reach
their fullest potential.'
Looking carefully into what Brown stated, one could identify several types of
learning associated with CTL, as follows:
• Interactive Learning
This concept goes right to the heart of communication itself, stressing the dual
roles of 'receiver' and 'sender' in any communicative situation. Interaction creates
the 'negotiation between interlocutors' which in turn produces meaning (semantics). The concept of interactive learning necessarily entails that there will
be a lot of pair and group work in the classroom, as well as genuine language input from the 'real world', for meaningful communication;
→when applying this method, the teacher sets up a c ommunicative activity whose
stated reasons and purposes are of great importance in having them practice a foreign language, as they will pay more attention not only to what they say, but,
equally important, to how they say it. Therefore, both pupils’ and t he teacher’s
roles are essentially different from their traditional ones.
• Learner -centered Learning:
This kind of instruction involves the giving over of some 'power' in the language learning process to the learners themselves. It also strives to allow f or personal
creativity and input from the students, as well as taking into account their learning needs and objectives;
→although the teacher may seem to have a peripheral role in the learning process, he/she still provides guidance and help, especially to those who are slow in
developing communicative independence, or he/she may be part of the communicative act itself.
Cooperative Learning:
This concept stresses the 'team' like nature of the classroom and emphasizes cooperation as opposed to competition. Students share information
and help, and achieve their learning goals as a group;

54
→ the communicative teacher is a needs analyst, an organizer and a manager of
class activities, and occasionally, an error corrector. He/She helps students internalize language as their personal experience so that it become meaningful and important. During the supervision of the class interaction, s/he facilitates
interaction among the students, including every student in the communicative act.
• Content -based Learning (CBL):
This type of learning joins language learning to content/subject matter and
engages them both concurrently. Language is seen as a tool or medium for acquiring knowledge about other things, instantly proving its usefulness. An
important factor in this kind of learning is that the content itself determines what
language items need to be mastered, not the other way around. When students
study math or science using English as the medium, they are more intrinsically motivated to learn more of the language. → there are issues in implementing CBL. A central issue is the extent to which
focusing on content provides sufficient basis for the development of the language skills. There are findings according to which when English is used for teaching school subjects (others than English itself), students tend to overlook grammatical accuracy in favour of mastering the content rather than developing accurate language use.
• Task -based Learning (TBL):
This concept equates the idea of a 'learning task' to a language learning technique in itself. This could be a problem solving activity or a project, or anything that
engages the students in learning activities, thus the task has a clear objective, appropriate content, a working/application procedure, and a set range of outcomes. Professor Jack C. Richards [54]
, a specialist in second and foreign
language teaching, identifies two kinds of tasks:
→ Pedagogical tasks , in which students are required to use specific types of
language (skills, grammar, vocabulary). Though the task itself is not something that one could normally meet in the real world, the interaction it requires provides useful input to language acquisition.
→ Real -world tasks , those that reflect real -world uses of language and which may
be a preamble for real -world tasks. A role play in which the students practise a job
interview would be a task of this kind. As with every theory, this approach rais es a number of issues, too. It seems to
work not more effectively than the P -P-P approach the TBL tends to replace.

55
Moreover, the criteria for selecting and sequencing tasks are also problematic, as
is the problem of language accuracy and the task work may serve to develop
fluency at the expense if accuracy. Content is also of little interest in TBL, TBL focusing on classroom processes, rather than on learning outcomes. These make
TBL too vague to be widely adopted as a methodology.
• Text-based Learning (Tx-BL):
Also known as genre -based approach, this approach focuses on the mastery of
different types of texts. The text is used to refer to structured sequences of
language that are employed in specific contexts in specific ways, therefore, communicative compe tence involves being able to use different kinds of spoken
and written texts in the specific contexts of their use. According to Feez and Joyce, Tx- BL is based on an approach that involves:
→ teaching explicitly about the structures and grammatical feature s of spoken and
written texts; → linking spoken and written texts to the cultural context of their use;
→ designing units of work which focus on developing skills in relation to whole texts;
→ providing students with guided practice as they develop language skills for meaningful communication through whole texts.
The problems, however, with implementing a Tx- BL is that it concentrates on the
product of learning, rather than on the processes involved. It is also stated that this approach lacks the emphasis o n individual creativity and personal expression, as
language development follows model -oriented procedures. Furthermore, critics
claim that this approach becomes repetitive, this leading to poor efficiency, due to the dullness of the routine.
Competency -based Learning (CBL):
This approach is characterised as focusing on the outcomes of learning as the guiding principle of teaching. Auerbach distinguishes eight features involved in implementing CBL in language teaching:
1. A focus on succesful func tioning in society. The goal ist o enable students to
become autonomous individuals capable of coping with the demands of the world.
2. A focus on life skills. Rather than teaching language in isolation, CBLT teaches languge as function of communication about concrete tasks. Students are taught

56
just those language forms/ skills required by the situations in which they will
function. These forms are normally determined by needs analysis.
3. Task –or performance – oriented instruction. What counts is what students c an do
as a result of instruction. The emphasis is on overt behaviors rather than on
knowledge or the ability to talk about language and skills.
4. Modularized instruction. Language learning is broken down into meaningful
chunks. Objectives are broken into nar rowly focused subobjectives so that both
teachers and students can get a clear sense of progress.
5. Outcome are made explicit. Outcomes are public knowledge known and agreed
upon by both teachers and learner. They are specified in terms of behavioral
objecti ves so that students know what behaviors are expected of them.
6. Continuous and ongoing assessment. Students are pre -tested to determine what
skills they lack and post -tested after instruction on that skilll. If they do not
achieve the desired level of mastery, they continue to work on the objective and
are retested.
7. Demonstarted mastery of performance objectives. Rather than teh traditional paper -and-pencil tests, assessment is based on the ability to demonstrate
prespecified behaviors.
8. Individualized, student -centered instruction. In content, leve land pace, objectives
are defined in terms of individual needs; proir learning and achievement are taken into account in developing curricula. Istruction is not time -based; students
progress at their qwn rates and concentrate on just those areas in which they lack
competence.
Critics of CBL claim that analysing situations into tasks and underlying competences is not always attainable, qualifying this approach as being reductionist, since learning is reduced to a set of lists and things as thinking skills are bypassed. (Jak e C Richards, op. cit. page 44)

2.1.4 The eclectic method vs. the effective method
This term eclectic is not a new term in the field of learning. A group of ancient philosophers practised this approach primarily in order to integrate their own
philosophies in the classical world. The Oxford English Dictionary defined the term Eclecticism in a general sense, it refers that, “it borrows or is borrowed from diverse sources; etymologically it means Made up of ‘selection”. Eclecticism is
driven from a Greek word ‘eklektikos’ which means ‘choosing the best’. With this

57
same philosophy behind, its meaning has been used in many other fields like
philosophy, art, music, psychology, medicine, counselling a nd in second language
teaching. What is eclectic approach? River (1981) states that this approach allows teachers to make use of all the best technique of all well -known language -teaching
methods into their classroom procedures. Eclectic approach combines different
methods and approaches to teach language depending on the aims of the lessons and the abilities of the learners. According to Larsen -Freeman (2000, p. 180)
“when teachers who subscribe to the pluralistic view of methods pick and choose from amon g methods to create their own blend, their practice is said to be
eclectic”. According to Kumar (2013), “teaching language using the eclectic
method involves a rich combination of multiple activities, including participatory,
communicative, and situational approaches”. He observed that an ESL/EFL
writing classroom includes heterogeneous students with varied levels of language intelligence, and the teacher has to use multiple methodologies of language teaching, giving particular attention to the learners’ co gnition and linguistic
objectives. Kumar defines this as a holistic eclectic language teaching approach. Hyland (2007), on the other hand, asserts that, in order to teach ESL/EFL writing to learners from varied cultural and geographical backgrounds, it is pertinent to
use a variety -based methodology, which he calls “genre -based pedagogies.” He
argued that this will offer a valuable resource for helping instructors and learners
produce effective and relevant texts. In Hyland’s (2007) view, the genre -based
pedagogy provides educators a more effective tool in preparing ESL/EFL learners
in different capacities, creating variety in their teaching, after carefully planning, sequencing, and assessing the learning objectives and outcomes.

Many teachers use a mixture of both Indirect and Direct Methods. Any eclectic
method teachers adopt, it therefore falls between two stools. Either way, they face obstacles which make teaching/ learning both difficult and unpleasant (as it was described above with each method). What is needed, therefore, is a completely different method, whic lies outside the range of Indirect/Direct methods which
takes into account data procured by investigations into second language learning, uses old/new teaching/learning activities in such a way so as to enable the learner to learn a language more quickly and with less effort, gives students the opportunity to reach a level whereby he can 'think' in that language. Traditionally, the grammar is taught explicitly or implicitly. In explicit presentation, the teacher overtly explains the target grammar (rules and patterns)

58
using grammatical terminology. In contrast, in the implicit presentation, the
teacher begins with an example that embeds the target grammar and delays the explicit explanation of the target grammar. However, as we know that students have a wide range of backgrounds and goals. Therefore, a purely explicit or
implicit presentation may not meet most of th eir needs. So, the best way is to use
a “hybrid” presentation which introduces grammar implicitly, in a meaningful
context, and also introduces explicit explanation of the target grammar (Savage et. al, 2010, 1- 39)
The new method in learning/teaching a for eign language that specialists hail is the
so-called effective method , which needs, consequently, to fill the gaps that the
other methods display. A list of drawbacks that this method needs to:
• It must be simple for both teacher and learner, and must be wi thin the capabilities
of all teachers. Also, the teacher must feel that pupils are progressing
satisfactorily;
• It must bring about a balance between the spoken and written or printed word (and must be flexible enough for the teacher to concentrate on the area (s)he
wants);
• It must overcome the conflict between fluency and accuracy;
• It must increase the rate and amount of learning which takes place in the
classroom;
• Testing must be part of the method, and not a separate entity;Constant revision must be part of the method;
• It must enable the teacher to set defined limits and have control over oral responses;
• It must be variable (cf. the difficulty of the Direct Method where framing the right
question to make the pupils apply various persons/ tenses/cases and v ocabulary is
most difficult without pre -arranged coding);
• It must reflect the linguistic habits the child has already acquired by learning
his/her mother tongue and their ability to assimilate a new language;
• It must offer a new approach to the application of translation work;
• It must give the pupils a stimulus to say something in the first instance – and it
must find ways of supplying the pupils constantly with ideas which they can use for their expression in the foreign language;
• It must enable work done with modern teaching aids (e.g. audio- visual aids,
computer) to be an extension of the method used in class;

59
• It must give the teacher an opportunity to speed up inter -communication between
himself/herself and individual pupils;
• It must be sufficiently flex ible to cope with various class conditions (as far as
pupils' specific/general interests are concerned).
• It must ensure that pupils are given the opportunity of having the greatest number
of meaningful contacts possible both with and in the foreign language – the most
important criteria for the validity of any modern method.
The English language teaching tradition has been subject to tremendous change,
especially throughout the twentieth century. Perhaps more than any other
discipline, this tradition has be en practiced, in various adaptations, in language
classrooms all around the world for centuries. While the teaching of Maths or
Physics, that is, the methodology of teaching Maths or Physics, has, to a greater or
lesser extent, remained the same, this is h ardly the case with English or language
teaching in general. As will become evident in this short paper, there are some
milestones in the development of this tradition, which we will briefly touch upon,
in an attempt to reveal the importance of research in the selection and
implementation of the optimal methods and techniques for language teaching and
learning.
2.1.5 Gouin and Berlitz – The Direct Method
The last two decades of the nineteenth century ushered in a new age. In his The
Art of Learning and Studying Foreign Languages (1880), Francois Gouin
described his "harrowing" experiences of learning German, which helped him
gain insights into the intricac ies of language teaching and learning. Living in
Hamburg for one year, he attempted to master the German language by dint of
memorising a German grammar book and a list of the 248 irregular German verbs,
instead of conversing with the natives. Exulting in the security that the grounding
in German grammar offered him, he hastened to go to the University to test his
knowledge. To no avail. He could not understand a word! After his failure, he
decided to memorise the German roots, but with no success. He went so far as to
memorise books, translate Goethe and Schiller, and learn by heart 30,000 words
in a dictionary, only to meet with failure. Upon returning to France, Gouin
discovered that his three -year-old nephew had managed to become a chatterbox of
French – a fact that made him think that the child held the secret to learning a
language. Thus, he began observing his nephew and came to the conclusion

60
(arrived at by another researcher a century before him!) that language learning is a
matter of transforming pe rceptions into conceptions and then using language to
represent these conceptions. Equipped with this knowledge, he devised a teaching
method premised upon these insights. It was against this background that the
Series Method was created, which taught lear ners directly a "series" of connected
sentences that are easy to understand. For instance,
I stretch out my arm. I take hold of the handle. I turn the handle. I open the door. I
pull the door.
Nevertheless, this approach to language learning was short -lived and, only a
generation later, gave place to the Direct Method, posited by Charles Berlitz. The
basic tenet of Berlitz's method was that second language learning is similar to first
language learning. In this light, there should be lots of oral interaction,
spontaneous use of the language, no translation, and little if any analysis of
grammatical rules and syntactic structures. In short, the principles of the Direct
Method were as follows:
• Classroom instruction was conducted in the target language
• There was an inductive approach to grammar
• Only everyday vocabulary was taught
• Concrete vocabulary was taught through pictures and objects, while abstract
vocabulary was taught by association of ideas
The Direct Method enjoyed great popularity at the end of the nineteenth century
and the beginning of the twentieth but it was difficult to use, mainly because of
the constraints of budget, time, and classroom size. Yet, after a period of decline,
this method has been revived, leading to the emerge nce of the Audiolingual
Method.
2.1.6 Suggestopedia
Suggestopedia promised great results if we use our brain power and inner
capacities. Lozanov (1979) believed that we are capable of learning much more
than we think. Drawing upon Soviet psychological research on yoga and
extrasensory perception, he came up with a method for learning that used
relaxation as a means of retaining new knowledge and material. It stands to reason
that music played a pivotal role in his method. Lozanov and his followers tried to
present vocabulary, readings, role -plays and drama with classical music in the
background and students sitting in comfortable seats. In this way, students became

61
"suggestible."Learning takes place in a tension free atmosphere special attention
being paid to furniture and sur roundings. Music is played to enhance learning. A
typical scenario runs as follows: students sit comfortably while the teacher reads a
lengthy dialogue. Students are provided with the texe and the translation while
slow music is played. After the interval the teacher re- reads the dialogue while
students listen without reading the text this time. Learners are supposed to
remember best from the teacher playing an authoritative role.
Of course, suggestopedia offered valuable insights into the "superlearning"
powers of our brain but it was demolished on several fronts. For instance, what
happens if our classrooms are bereft of such amenities as comfortable seats and
Compact Disk players? Certainly, this method is insightful and constructive and
can be practised from time to time, without necessarily having to adhere to all its
premises. A relaxed mind is an open mind and it can help a student to feel more
confident and, in a sense, pliable.
Let us see the basic premises of this approach:
• Focus on all of the components of communicative competence, not only
grammatical or linguistic competence. Engaging learners in the pragmatic,
functional use of language for meaningful purposes
• Viewing fluency and accuracy as complementary principles underpinning
communicative te chniques
• Using the language in unrehearsed contexts
Suggestopedia learning is built on a particular type of music and a particular rate
of presentation. Laznov recommends a series of 150 slow movement (sixty beats a
minute) because it is under stimulation of sixty rhythmic patterns that the body
relaxes and the mind becomes most alert and aware to receive learning. The
central assumption that underlies the suggestopedic method is that the learner
learns not only from the effect of direct instruction but from the environment in
which the instruction takes pla ce. The bright decor of the classroom, the musical
background, the shape of the chairs, and the personality of the teacher are
considered as important as the form of the instructional material itself.
Suggestopedic method places a high value on vocabulary recall and memorization
of vocabulary pairs. However, Laznov emphasizes that increased memory power
is not an isolated skill but is a result of “positive, comprehensive stimulation of
personality.” Laznov distinguishes his theory of suggestion from the “na rrow
clinical concept of hypnosis as a kind of static, sleep like, altered state of

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consciousness.” He further claims that what distinguishes his method from
hypnosis and other forms of mind control is that these other forms lack “a
desuggestive -suggestive sense” and “fail to create a constant set up access to
reserves through concentrative psycho- relaxation.” Bancroft notes that the
teaching material is “presented with varying intonations and a co -ordination of
sound and printed word or illustration.”
2.1.7 Conclusion
To conclude it may be said that to meet the present day challenges in teaching
English, first of all, English should not be treated as a subject as it is to be used
actively in interacting with one another throughout the world. By using
conve ntional methods, maximum portion of class time will be wasted in exercises
and drilling, dealing with grammar and pronunciation which takes away a large
portion of class time. One can teach the language effectively and motivate the
students towards languag e learning with the help of latest language teaching tools
and with the support of technology. From all the above we can see that the
manageable stockpile of research of just a few decades ago has given place to a
systematic storehouse of information. Rese archers the world over are meeting,
talking, comparing notes, and arriving at some explanations that give the lie to
past explanations. As Brown (2000: ix) notes, "Our research miscarriages are
fewer as we have collectively learned how to conceive the righ t questions".
Nothing is taken as gospel; nothing is thrown out of court without being put to the
test. This "test" may always change its mechanics, but the fact remains that the
changing winds and shifting sands of time and research are turning the desert into
a longed- for oasis.
New teaching methodologies are changing the educational environments around
the world and driving better academic performance among students. We go over
some of the main innovative approaches that educators have forged over the la st
few years and that every 21st century teacher should be acquainted with.

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Chapter 3
3. RESEARCH STUDY
3.1 Research Aims
I am a teacher at,, Gheorghe Enescu” T âmna Secondary School and I teach
English in this school as first foreign language. I work with learners of all ages but
I like very much working with intermediate students because I find them very receptive to everything new. Unfortunately, school is the only contact they have
with English. This is why I have to choose suitable materials and activities so that children learn more easily and effectively in the classroom.
Assessment of results and evaluation of the students’ achievements are a very
important par t of the teaching process and a logical consequence of testing: they
aim to give both testers and testees a concrete measure for their results. Testing cannot be separated from the teaching/learning process and from the communicative approach (in this part icular case), in fact it is one of the teacher’s
major instruments to promote learning and modern approaches.
Periodically, though, the teacher must set up more comprehensive tests,
meant to assess and evaluate the students’ knowledge and skills at a certain stage in the learning cycle.
Sometimes these tests are graded, giving a numerical (in Romania) value to
the students’ performances; but in spite of their obvious significance and importance, grades are not the main aim of testing.
Tests are important bo th for the teacher and for the students. Teachers get
accurate feedback on the students’ performances (their progress and difficulties) and on the efficiency of their own work. The students, who are made to use their knowledge “under pressure”, have the opportunity to see how functional their knowledge of the language is; they also get a token of appreciation for their performances.
Just like all the other aspects of education, evaluation is a complex task for
the responsible teacher. Instead of “just gradi ng” the students the way he/she
considers fit, the teacher should first try to find answers to questions, such as: when to test the students, what to focus on in each test, what kind of items to

64
include, how to formulate each item, the duration of the test , how to assess the
results, how to continue the teaching activity in the light of the results obtained.
Reforms in testing are usually a step behind teaching reforms, and teachers
themselves are slower to adopt new techniques in testing then in teaching.
However, a mismatch between teaching and evaluation methods can lead to
serious problems and poor results.
Students who have attained the objectives of communicative teaching (i.e.
are able to communicate and get their message through) may not cope with th e
requirements of traditional tests, which require lexical and grammatical accuracy
and a large amount of memorized information. That is why, teachers must be very
careful to match their teaching and testing techniques.
The second term I worked with the st udents on Google Meet and other
platforms. It was something new for me and for the students, but the students
enjoyed it because they used their phones in an educational purpose. It was also the moment when I started using the Kahoot application with the s tudents and the
final test took place in on -line.
3.2 Research questions:
When I started writing this paper, I had some questions in mind:
1. Are there any activities that can make teaching English more enjoyable?
2. What should we do so that these activities have the best result?
3. Is teaching English grammar with the help of the technology an opportunity to
make pupils start loving English language ?
3.3 Research methodology
3.3.1 Research methods and instruments
In order to find out the answer to each question, I put into practice a lesson
using traditional techniques versus modern techniques in one of my classes.
I am an English teacher at’’Gheorghe Enescu” T âmna Secondary School,
a school from a rural area. I have been teaching in this school for 6 years. English
is the first foreign language in our school. Students used to s tudy English here
from the fifth grade, but now they are studying it from preparatory grade. There

65
are lots of factors that came against this teaching process of learning English: lack
of interest in learning, lack of information, lack of involvement from their families.
For my research I chose the pupils from the 8
th grade (fourth year of
English). The reason why I have chosen them was because, in my opinion,
intermediate students are still very receptive to new things. Little by little, they
lose their enthusiasm and become preoccupied in other things. That is why I try to make them enjoy learning Englishusing all kind of new activities.
With the intermediate students I could measure more accurately how much
each student knew at the beginning at the lesson and at the end of it.
Unfortunately, there are two kinds of students: students who pay attention to what
their teacher is saying, like their teacher, do what they are expected, and students
who have no interest in what their teacher is saying, usually bored and sometimes they even disturb the lesson.
3.3.2 Research stages
I started the stages for my research i n my last year of teaching (2019- 2020) with
some important steps:
1. I selected the research group.
2. Before going to the teaching process, I handed them in a questionnaire in which
they had to answer to several questions.
3. The discussion with the group regarding what they had completed in the
questionnaire.
4. The implementation of the activities chosen for the experimental classes.
5. The final test and the discussion of the test results for both classes that took part in
the res earch have occurred in an on -line way because we were forced to stay at
home and learn/ teach.
6. The final conclusions of the research.
3.3.3 Data collection
This research study was something new for me. Before starting it, I asked
my colleagues and my former teachers to give me some ideas about it and to share
from their experiences what should I do.

66
Collecting data and organizing information is very important. Gathering
information and using it for future research needs some time. That is why it took
me almost a year to gather all the information necessary in order to have a proper
research study. I started reading articles from the internet and books about the
practi ce of English language teaching, but I ended up doing this study on- line
because face- to-face courses were interrupted and I worked with the students on
Google Meet. It was something new for me and for the students, but the students
enjoyed it because they used their phones in an educational purpose. It was also the moment when I started to use the Kahoot application with a class of students
and the final test took place in on -line.
3.3.4 Research procedure
Once the selection is made, the lesson can be planned.Before starting
teaching the two lessons, I handed my students a questionnaire to f ill it in. The
questionnaire, including 10 questions, was written in English and, in most cases,
they had to answer with yes or no. The reason I gave them this questionnaire was
to find out about their enthusiasm in learning grammar.
With the student quest ionnaire, I will be able to determine which students
enjoy using technology and communicative method that can lead to students’
satisfaction enhance activity enga gement . It will also give me a good basis for the
students’ interest levels in listening and visualising . The survey will allow me to
find out the way each student prefers to listen to and what they suggest we implement in the classroom. The task -based approach has already been successful
as proved in several studies. Motivation and learning have al so been improved by
the use of other devices.

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Questionnaire

1. Do yoy have a smartphone or computer?
a. Yes
b. No
2. Do you have internet access?
a. Yes
b. No 3. Do you use your smartphone to impove your English?
a. Yes
b. No
4. Would you like to learn English grammar using technology?
a. Yes b. No 5. Through the teacher’s explanation, I can understand English grammar better.
a. Yes b. No 6. I learn English grammar better when the teacher gives me explanations of
grammatical rules before I do th e exercises.
a. Yes
b. No 7. Do you think technology makes you understand better English grammar?
a. Yes b. No 8.In my opinion, grammar explanations given by the teacher to students are not helpful.
a. Yes b. No 9.I can learn grammar through exposure to language in natural use.
a. Yes b. No 10. Learning grammar produces language knowledge that I can use in natural communication. a. Yes b. No

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Chart 1. Interpretation of the questionnaire.

The results highlighted that all the pupils owned a smartphone and had
access to the Internet at school and at home . One can notice that they were already
familiar with the use of technology while learning English as twelve out of twenty
used it sometimes, three out of twenty used it often and two out of twenty used it
regularly. A slight majority of the pupils used some apps to improve their English. The same apps were regularly mentioned: Reverso, Quizlet, Duolinguo and Google Translate but also other technology such as films and video games. The use of technology i n their English class is not new assert ing that their English
teacher makes use of her computer and a projector whenever it is possible . As far
as their wish to learn English grammar using technology is concerned, all the pupils – except one – wanted to ta ke part in the technology- enhanced lesson. They
considered that using technology could improve they grammatical learning. One pupil stated that technology could be useful but should not replace paper and therefore did not want to use it in class.
The last question was about the advantages of using technology in class.
Pupils share the view that technology is simpler, easier and faster to use.
The conclusion of this questionnaire is that there is a problem among
students nowadays: fewer and fewer are interested in the teacher explanations without visuals. Using new teaching techniques to classroom might increase
Answer 1Answer 4 020406080100
Answer 1
Answer 2
Answer 3
Answer 4
Answer 5
Answer 6

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students’ motivation towards languge learning. The activities from the textbook
are not enough in order to develop students’ listening comprehension skills.
Contrary to technology that can be seen as a key motivator for students’
learning, grammar is usually not considered as an exciting aspect of language
acquisition. Yet it remains one major component as a good English proficiency
comes from good knowledge of grammar.
Assessment of results and evaluation of the students’ achievements are a very
important part of the teaching process and a logical consequence of testing: they
aim to give both testers and testees a concrete measure for their results. T esting
cannot be separated from the teaching/learning process and from the
communicative approach (in this particular case), in fact it is one of the teacher’s
major instruments to promote learning and modern approaches.
Periodically, though, the teacher m ust set up more comprehensive tests,
meant to assess and evaluate the students’ knowledge and skills at a certain stage in the learning cycle.
Sometimes these tests are graded, giving a numerical (in Romania) value to
the students’ performances; but in spi te of their obvious significance and
importance, grades are not the main aim of testing.
Tests are important both for the teacher and for the students. Teachers get
accurate feedback on the students’ performances (their progress and difficulties) and on the efficiency of their own work. The students, who are made to use their knowledge “under pressure”, have the opportunity to see how functional their knowledge of the language is; they also get a token of appreciation for their performances.
Just like all the other aspects of education, evaluation is a complex task for
the responsible teacher. Instead of “just grading” the students the way he/she considers fit, the teacher should first try to find answers to questions, such as: when to test the students, wha t to focus on in each test, what kind of items to
include, how to formulate each item, the duration of the test, how to assess the
results, how to continue the teaching activity in the light of the results obtained.
Reforms in testing are usually a step behind teaching reforms, and teachers
themselves are slower to adopt new techniques in testing then in teaching. However, a mismatch between teaching and evaluation methods can lead to serious problems and poor results.

70
Students who have attained the objecti ves of communicative teaching (i.e. are
able to communicate and get their message through) may not cope with the
requirements of traditional tests, which require lexical and grammatical accuracy and a large amount of memorized information. That is why, tea chers must be very
careful to match their teaching and testing techniques.
The three basic stages in the learning process – before, during and after
teaching – have given rise to five basic types of tests:
• Placement tests – at the beginning of the learning process.
• Progress, diagnostic and achievement tests – during it.
• Proficiency tests – after the learning process.
The main focus in this chapter is to highlight the benefits of a communicative
teaching approach in comparison to the traditional one, mainly regarding the progress in students’ knowledge and comprehension. This chapter describes the process of evaluating two different classes with the same level in English (Intermediate ), the putting into effect of the communicative approach and the
difference in level between the two classes before and after the implementation of
the communicative approach. As you will see, the class in which I have used the communicative approach has achieved greater progress than the other.
3.4. The traditional teaching appr oach
First of all, I would like to shortly give you an idea of what the traditional
teaching method consists of and put it in comparison with the communicative approach, so as to highlight the fundamental differences between the two.
To easily understand w hat a traditional class was like, imagine a classroom
dressed in dark uniforms sitting rigidly at their desks (fearing the teacher’s anger) – you must have seen such scenes in some older movies. The very stern teacher –
sitting or standing in front of the class – tells “Mr. X” to read or translate a text or
to recite some conjugations or quotations that he had had to learn by heart. Criticism, irony and physical punishment were frequent; praise was rare. Creanga’s humorous description of his pains at memori zing conjugations and
definitions also illustrates the typical traditional way of learning.
The traditional teaching method viewed language learning as an intellectual
performance, an activity focused on analysis, critical survey and quantitative acquisition of information. A typical textbook consisted of long texts (1 -3 pages
long), mainly excerpts from literary masterpieces, or accounts concerning the

71
national identity of the target language culture (e.g. famous historical events, or
accounts on outstandi ng historical or literary figures).
The way to teach back generally went along the following steps:
• Teacher’s model reading of the text;
• Students’ reading (a paragraph or two for each student), with the teacher carefully
correcting every mispronunciation;
• Inscription on the blackboard and in students’ notebooks, of the new words, in the
form of long bilingual lists; the students had to memorize the entire list;
• Deductive presentation of grammar: the rule was explained then illustrated with
examples; practice followed;
• Translation of the text into the students’ mother tongue, with insistence on the linguistic and stylistic subtleties of the text;
• Reading comprehension questions: teacher’s questions to check on and/or
facilitate understanding of the text by th e students;
• “re-telling the story”; the students had to memorize the informational content of
the text, as well as long passages (quotations) from it; the teacher carefully
corrected the students’ mistakes;
• Translation into the target language; the text to be translated could be a summary
of the original text, or some other texts containing the newly acquired vocabulary
and grammar pattern(s);
• Literary analysis of the text (i.e. a survey of the plot and message, character
portrayal, analysis of the writer’s style), to highlight the exceptional literary
achievements of the writer.
• Homework: a written summary of the text, a literary essay, translation, etc.
The approach has obvious strong points, even in its traditional form: it
teaches vocabulary and grammar thoroughly; it provides the students with large
amounts of information pertaining to literature, world culture and civilization; it develops the students’ analytical and critical spirit. However, it also has serious shortcomings which brought about much cr iticism from learners and teachers
alike.
The traditional teaching method was the generally accepted method for
teaching foreign languages up until the 1950s. But much before that time, people began to realize that their knowledge of the foreign language w as not operational
and failed them when they needed it most. This method mainly focused on

72
reading and writing skills, and considered listening and speaking of secondary
importance. But spoken language (rapid, elliptical, idiomatic) is quite different from written language (with its long and intricate constructs). Consequently,
learners could cope quite well with the written word, but failed shamefully in
face- to-face interaction. Furthermore, Shakespeare’s or Dickens’ language does
not correspond to present day English, so the language acquired through this
method was painfully outdated. Therefore, it often happened that people who had learned English for several years and were confident in their linguistic abilities found that in a read- world situation the y could not understand a word of what was
being said; nor could they “find their words” to say what they had in mind.
There are several reasons for the method’s inability to cope with actual
communication, among which the most important are:
• The highly “intellectualized” approach of grammar translation teachers: their main focus fell on the text – on analyzing and learning its linguistic and
informational subtleties – ignoring the real aim of language learning : i.e. use in
the real world;
• Disregard for basic, “essential” vocabulary, so necessary for daily communicative situations;
• Absence of classroom interactions and, hence, of communicative skills: the
learners had no opportunity to dialogue or negotiate meaning, the way people to in
ordinary communicativ e exchanges.
The traditional method used in this study is intended to be descriptive and explicit.
It aims to focus on form rather than use and meaning and not to insist on the context or pupils’ thinking process. The topic will be introduced by a non-authentic short text comprising all the future tenses that will be covered in class. First, pupils will have to recognise as many future tenses as they can. Then, they will have to find the six uses of future tenses (present simple, present continuous, be going to, will, future continuous and future perfect). Once the six future tenses have been highlighted, the teacher will start with explicit grammar teaching. This opening exercise does not aim to make pupils induce what the lesson will be about but describes from the beginning what pupils have to focus on.

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3.5 The communicative teaching approach
The communicative approach to teaching foreign languages emerged due to
the changes in the British language teaching tradition in the late 1960s. The
communicative approach is not a highly structured method, but rather a broad set of ideas generally accepted as good teaching practice. Although it began largely as a British innovation, it was soon embraced by the educational systems of other European countries.
If students do not express the same interest in technology and grammar, one
can wonder what would come out of the combination of technology and grammar in a teaching environment. This section will be devoted to highlighting the results of some inte resting studies on the use of technology in EFL grammar learning.
Communicative language teaching relies on premises such as:
1. The ultimate aim of foreign language teaching is to develop the learners’
communicative competence: human communication relies on much more than the
interlocutors’ linguistic competence; fluent speakers are able to interact linguistically thanks to their knowledge of society and of discourses, to their ability to interact spontaneously and cope with a variety of everyday situations.
2. Learning begins with imitation: teachers must allow students freedom and encourage their creativity in producing their own language.
3. Developing language skills is more important than teaching content:
• The students must be equipped with tools for language performance in the real world; such tools facilitate lifelong learning, outside the school system;
• The students must be taught to use the language functionally and strategically, to achieve real world aims, the way people do in real life;
4. Meaning is more important than form; fluency of language is as important as
linguistic accuracy; grammar should be taught only when necessary:
• Learners must acquire confidence in their linguistic abilities and become less scared of making mistakes; errors are a natural part of learning: as long as the speaker manages to get his/her message through, the teacher should not interfere to correct their mistakes.
• The students must learn the language by using the language, by struggling to communicate; this way they learn vocab ulary and grammar in context.

74
5. Appropriacy of language is as important as linguistic accuracy:
• Communication takes place in a certain social background; communicating means
establishing relationships between the interlocutors(e.g. their respective age, gender, familiarity, roles of speaker/listener); between the speaker and the setting in which the interaction takes place(e.g. place, time, activity, type); between the speaker and the type of discourse(e.g. casual conversation or formal debate)
6. Active partici pation and affective involvement in the learning process motivate
the student and enhance learning:
• The student must become a partner in the learning process, a negotiator between the self, the learning process and the object of learning; active modes of learning(e.g. pair work, group work) ensure long term acquisition;
• Learners must be able to personalize the topic and relate it to their own lives and interests; this way the learning material becomes real and meaningful;
7. Spontaneous, improvised practice is more efficient than mechanical repetition
• Ordinary communication is spontaneous and unexpected; memorized patterns
cannot cover the wide range of real life situations; the students must be
encouraged to use everyday language, typical for ordinary communic ative
exchanges;
• Analyzing the needs of language learners in society, communicative teachers
concluded that people need primarily oral language skills; however, reading and writing must also be considered;
8. Language is a mere medium for communication; communication has a social purpose:
• Language must not be taught for its own sake(e.g. for mastering patterns), but for
the purpose of sending and receiving messages;
• The learner must be given a purpose for producing language(e.g. exchanging
information, approving or criticizing)
9. Communication is basically interactive:

75
• Classroom activities must simulate real world interactions: the teacher must make
the students share and negotiate information, the way people do in real life, in social contexts that imitate those in which real communication takes place;
• Interactive techniques(e.g. simulation, role play, debate) are efficient classroom
procedures for language learning;
10. Language learning should be task oriented: the student must be made to perform
tasks with the help of the language, the way people do in the real world
11. Language must be learnt with the help of authentic material:
• The textbook is only a framework for the teacher’s lesson; the communicative teacher must free him/her self from the constraints of t he textbook and use his/her
imagination to improve it in any way she/he can, according to the students’ needs and interests;
• The teacher must use linguistic material similar to that learners may come across later in real life(e.g. magazine articles, instru ctions of usage, guidebooks,
advertisements, literary texts);
12. Mother tongue is an important element of the students’ world: the students’ mother tongue should be used whenever explanations in the target language
would be to time -consuming; a translation is also accepted; however, the teacher
should use the target language as extensively possible
With communicative classes, the teacher’s and respectively, the student’s
roles are quite different from their traditional roles. Traditionally, the teacher was looked upon as unchallenged leader and source of information, while learners were viewed as passive recipients, supposed to digest and memorize the information provided. The communicative class in student -centered, and teacher
and learners are partners in a cooperative venture. In the age of information, teachers must relinquish their traditional, central, authoritative place in the classroom, and they must cease to be the source of information: the teacher’s new role is that of go -between between the student and the learning process. The
communicative teacher is a needs analyst, an organizer and a manager of the classroom activities, and occasionally an error corrector. She/he must help the students to link the learning material to their own lives and internal ize it as
personal experience, so that it should become meaningful and important. While supervising classroom activities, she/he must facilitate smooth interaction among

76
the students, with special care that every member of the group should have the
opportunity to participate.
In his/her turn, with communicative learning, the student becomes a
researcher and discoverer. The student is taught not to expect everything from the
teacher, but to locate, analyze and process information him/herself. She/he also
learns to find solutions to problems, interact with the group and negotiate
meaning, the way people do in real life. This way, student talking time is increased and learners have more opportunities to interact and produce their own language.
In spite of his/her apparently “marginal” role, the teacher’s importance is not
diminished within communicative classes. No longer a central figure in the classroom, the teacher is still a source of guidance and help, a psychological support (especially for those who are slow to develop independence), sometimes a co-participant in the communicative act; but never, under any circumstances,
should she/he become a dominating figure.
The earliest version of the communicative approach – the functional -notional
approach – appeared as a result of the studies performed by the Council for
Cultural Co -Operation of the Council of Europe concerning the new realities in
Europe and the changing needs of language learners. In 1971, a group of experts
headed by the British linguist David A. Wilkins, analyzed the needs of European language learners and developed the functional -notional syllabus for language
teaching. Their basic idea was that language should be classified in terms of:
• Language functions, i.e. what people want to do with the language: seeking information, apologizing, expressing likes/dislikes
• Notions, i.e. the meanings people want to put across: asking where the nearest post office is, apologizing for being late, etc.
In 1975, the threshold level syllabus was elaborated, to serve as a basis for
more complex language skills. The syllabus is based on six basic functions:
1. Imparting and seeking factual information: identifying; reporting, describing and narrating; correcting and asking;
2. Expressing and enquiring about intellect ual attitudes: expressing
agreement/disagreement, declining an offer or invitation, offering to do something;

77
3. Expressing and enquiring about emotional attitudes: pleasure or displeasure,
intentions, wants and desires;
4. Expressing and enquiring about moral a ttitudes: apologizing, expressing
appreciation;
5. Getting things done: suggesting a course of action, requesting, advising, warning,
directing others to do something;
6. Socializing: greeting, introducing people;
The syllabus also provides a set of criteria to specify situational contexts:
1. Social roles: stranger/stranger, private/official person, patient/doctor etc.
2. Psychological roles: neutrality, equality, sympathy, antipathy etc.
3. Setting: geographical location (e.g. foreign country), physical location
(indoor s/outdoors, home, classroom);
4. Surroundings: family, friends, strangers etc.
In conclusion, we may say that the major distinction between traditional and
communicative teaching resides in the different attitude towards the ultimate aim of the educational pr ocess, namely:
• Traditional “instructivist” language teaching is content -based, i.e. it focuses on
information and quantitative acquisition, on the learning (mostly by memorization) of the material contained in the textbooks with emphasis on the accuracy ( i.e. well- formedness) of the language produced;
Communicative teaching is skill -based, i.e. it lays stress on formation and
skill development (how well the learner can use what she/he has learned), with emphasis on meaning and appropriacy and on the effici ency of the communicative
act (i.e. if the learner can get his/her messThe technology- enhanced method
chosen for this part of the experimentation tends to be more implicit and focus on meaning and use rather than form. As seen in the theoretical framework (cf. 3.1. Definition), teaching with the help of te chnology is typical of the task based
approach which tends to be more implicit and take the context of use – “when and
why a particular form is used in a given situation” (Keck & Kim, 2014: 49) – into
consideration. Therefore, the communicative task will be meticulously selected in
order to induce the use of the grammatical forms (here, future tenses) pupils have to work on. However, as Crystal (2016) has pointed out, implicitness could be problematic for E FL learners who need description and explanation at some point

78
(cf. DEED). In order to meet those requirements, the topic will be introduced in
an implicit way and then explicitly described. age through and obtain the desired results).
Therefore, the comm unicative task will be meticulously selected in order to
induce the use of the grammatical forms (here, future tenses) pupils have to work
on. However, as Crystal (2016) has pointed out, implicitness could be problematic
for EFL learners who need descripti on and explanation at some point (cf. DEED).
In order to meet those requirements, the topic will be introduced in an implicit way and then explicitly described.
The second part of the grammar teaching session aims to review the first part
in an entertainin g way. To do so, pupils will use an application called Kahoot! on
their smartphones. As underlined on the website, this app has many advantages for both teachers and learners.
Make learning awesome! Kahoot! brings fun into learning, for any subject,
for all ages. Create, play and share learning games with your students for free
Learners can collect medals and compete with their classmates. They also get
instant feedback. Teachers can assess learning progress in real time and identify pupils’ difficulties that will require more explanations and/or practice.
There ar e six good reasons to use Kahoot! in class. It is flexible (learning
games for all ages, any topic, anywhere); simple (no account or login is required to join the game, only an Internet access) ; diverse (used for different purposes);
engaging (“it fosters social learning, unlocks learners’ potential and deepens pedagogical impact”); and free.
According to the SAMR model (Romrell, Kidder & Wood, 2014), this
technological device will enhance the lesson as it augments the activity. It indeed
provides functional improvements for several reasons. First, Kahoot! is more visual and auditive than traditional exercises. Each potential answer is colourful, which allows pupils to immediately know if their answer was the correct one. In
addition, the quiz is accompanied by music. For example, when the seconds are elapsing, one can hear the sound of a countdown. Second, it is more interactive as pupils compete and can discuss their answers and compare their ranking. Third, such a device allows the teacher to support pupils in real time. As soon as the results appear, the teacher can assess whether or not the question was difficult. An immediate identification of difficulties may lead to immediate feedback and /or
review of the grammatical point.Blackboard and tape recorders were once seen as

79
a form of technology. Now, these devices still exist and are still part of
classrooms, but the digitalisation of the world makes the cutting- edge device of
today the outdat ed technology of tomorrow.
3.6 Case Study
In carrying out the methodological study, I would like to mention that I have
been teaching the two classes that are involved in this methodological study for 3
years, since they started fifthform. Beginning with the 5th form, the two classes
have been studying by the s ame coursebooks and methodology, following the
steps of the traditional approach to teaching English . Their level of English has
been virtually the same over the years, with the same increase in knowledge and
balanced pro gress. At the beginning of the 8th form, I decided to apply to one of
the classes the communicative teaching approach in order to see if it is more efficient. To do this properly, I have c ontrived a diagnostic test in order to ass ess
that the two classes are at close levels of English.
Prior to implementing the communicative approach to class 8
th B, I used the
same methods of teaching as I did in class 8th A. This is clear to see from the
results they obtained in my diagnostic test . I tested them in Future tense and the
results from the two classes are as follows.
To more eloquently show that the two classes have a very close knowledge of
English, I have drafted a graphic representation for the students’ distribution and
their marks . Graphic A depicts the result from class 8th A. As it can be seen, the
majority of students, 40% obtained the mark 7.00. The other 60% obtained as
follows: 20% – obtained 5.00, 26.6% received 6.00, and an elite of 13.4%
obtained the highest marks, respe ctively one 8.00 mark and one 9.00 mark.

80

For class 8th B, I have also drafted a graphic illustration to demonstrate the
virtually the same distribution as in class 8th A.

After seeing these results and getting some feedback from students in both
classe s, I realized that they encounter some difficulties in the teaching technique,
especially in Grammar lessons. To enhance my teaching methods I decided to
change the approach to one of the classes. The following week I started implementing the steps of the communicative approach and I used the technology to class 8
th B. I noted that the atmosphere became more relaxed, as they were able

81
to speak to one another and work in pairs in a fun and competitive way. Also the
use of texts and power points as a means to introduce grammar issues, induced a
better understanding of the practical use of the related topic in literature or news and media.
After 2 weeks of different teaching methods, I decided to test them again in
the same grammar issue, so as to see if the di fference was only in attitude, or if
class 8
th B had really acquired a greater volume of information. This test was also
based on use of future tense, because I wanted to see if the mistakes from the first test paper would be repeated.

The results in class 8th A are as follows: 26.6% obtained the mark 7.00,
33.4% obtained the mark 8, 20% the mark 9.00 and the remainder of 20% the maximum,10.00.
To my surprise, I discovered a major improvement in grades for class 8
th B,
while class 8th A obtained only a sl ight increase in grades. The results from this
second test have also been indexed into graphic illustrations, Graphic C depicting the distribution of marks for class 8
thA, and Graphic D for class 8th B. As it can be
clearly seen from comparing the two illu strations, the efficacy of the

82
communicative approach is overwhelming, taking into account that this method
had been implemented for just 2 weeks.

Chart D depicts the distribution of results in class 8th B, which are: 26.6%
obtained the mark 7.00, 33.4% received the mark 8.00, and the remainder of 40%
equally shared three marks of 9.00 and three marks of 10.00.
Being intrigued by the growth in marks, I asked my students from class 8th B
to point out what they considered useful learning exercises in the 2 week period.
The majority of them underlined that the competitive and lighthearted way of doing exercises made learning English a pleasure, and that the possibility of asking each other’s help also was an important factor. Furthermore, the key to the success of this activity, the students were motivated to communicate: they wanted to be actively involved in the task, eager to express their thoughts and feelings. The materials used for exercising were also a point of interest for the students, as it elicite d the desire to do something usual in a different way. Last, but no least,
the students observed that the communicative class is student -centered, and
teacher and learners are partners in a cooperative venture. A slideshow presentation is more visual than traditional worksheets or handwriting on a board.
What is projected on the wall should be well -structured and rather attractively

83
presented, and also typically clearly visible/readable by all students in class (in
contrast with printed handouts which can s ometimes be less reader -friendly and
are often printed in shades of grey.The whole process will be completed in an interactive way: the teacher and the pupils can ask questions and share their
opinions. For pupils to keep track of the slideshow presentation, they will be
given a copy of the PowerPoint (as a summary handout).
Diagnostic test (cf. Appendix A )
During the first session, pupils will have to take a pre -test on future tenses. This
test is divided into four exercises. The first exercise focuses on the use of the
present simple and the present progressive in future sentences. Pupils have to
choose the correct answer between th ose two tenses.
In the second exercise, pupils have to conjugate the verbs into brackets – using
will or be going to – to co mplete sentences.
The third exercise focuses on the future perfect and the future progressive. The first part of this exercise is similar to the first exercise (pupils have to choose the correct answer between two options) whereas in the second part, they have to
choose the correct verb from the box and conjugate it to complete the sentences. The last exercise is about future time clauses. Pupils will be asked to translate a
Romanian sentence into English. This test will allow me to assess pupils’ backgro und/previous knowledge of future
tenses. Although pupils have already learned some uses in the seventh grade (will,
be going to, present simple and progressive), some others are unknown (future perfect and progressive and future time clauses). Based on the results, the pupils
will be divided into two groups of similar level. During stage 2, each group will be taught the same grammatical point but according to two different approaches: a traditional or paper and pen approach for the control group and a commu nicative
approach for the experimental group.
3.7. Data analysis
I tried to make a feedback of the two lessons by asking my students to
complete another questionnaire. This questionnaire was completely anonymous and it helped me in deciding my next step in this research.

84
All the students that participated in my research agreed to fill in this
questionnaire.
After the students finished completing the questionnaire I made an
analysis that I’m going to present you next.
Your experience using technology to learn grammar

Questions

1
. I appreciate th e usage
communicative methods and
the use of technology in
learning
2
. This experience changed my
perception of using
technology in classes
3
. I learn better the grammar if I
use my
phone/tablet/computer.
4
. Learning on -line is practical.
5
. Were the activities chosen by
the teacher motivating for
you?
6
. It would be easier for you if
your English classes had
audio-visual materials?
7
. Would you like your teacher
to teach more using modern
techniques?
8
. The visualization of power
point presentation makes me
learn faster.

85
The questionnaire indicates that the majority of my students prefer using
experimental technique s and not the traditional one.Still they considered that
using technology could improve they grammatical learning but after the
experimentation they cannot affirm if technology really helped improve their
learning.Learning with the help of technology is more interesting and attractive. It
also pr ovides instant feedback which eases grammar acquisition.They hope to
continue using it in class even though they are not sure as for the real impact that
the use of technological device has on their improvement. Technology is more appreciated by pupils bec ause it is playful and attractive but not because it could
influence their learning.
3.8 Types of errors

In many cases, the majority of the students are still translating words, phrases,
and sentences from Romanian to English. English l earners may not have a feeling
for the way that English translates into written form. (Krashen, 1982 . ). The
challeng e for the teacher is to find the ways to activate a meaningful way
the passive knowledge the students possess in terms of the writing skill, as well
as to help the students become more proficient while working to eliminate some
of their co mmon errors. The learners do not realize when they commi t the error
because it occurs unconsciously. Therefore, teachers need to anti cipate certain
common types of errors. They may also find other types of errors, which can be
revealed by a nalyzing the written products of the students. These are the
conventions, which are usually followed by the teachers of writing when
analyzing st udents' errors. Brown (2000 : 1) states that researchers and teacher of
second languages come to realize that the mistakes a person made in this process
of constructing a new system of language needed to be analyzed carefully, for the
possibilities held in some of the keys to the
understanding of the process of second language acquisition.Richards (1974:1)
stated that errors analysis th e study and analysis of errors made by the second or
foreign language learners. Based on the definition, it is known that errors analysis
is necessary to conduct only for t he errors made by the learners in learning second
or for eign language.

86
In the learning process, it is possible that the students do errors. It i s caused by
many factors. Norrish classifies causes of error into three types, there are
carelessness, first language interference, and translation.
a. Carelessness
It is often closely related to lack of motivation. Many teachers will admit that it is
not al ways the student’s fault if he loses interest, perhaps the materials and/or the
style of presentation do not suit him.
b. First language
Norrish states that learning a language (a mother tongue or foreign language) is a
matter of habit formation. When someone tries to learn new habits the old ones
will interference the new ones. This cause of error is called first language
interference.
c. Translation
It is one cause of an error. This happens because a students translates his first language sentence or idiomat ic expression into the target language word by word.
This probably is the most common cause of an error.

There are quite a few common mistakes made by the students, especially when it comes to the usage of future tense. The most common mistake made and the ir
corrected versions are depicted below:
a) Missingout on 'am/is/are' when using the 'going to' form.
Wrong: "I going to play the match tomorrow."
Right: "I am going to play the match tomorrow."
b) Missing out on 'to ' when using the 'going to' form.
Wrong: "She is going that movie again."
Right: "She is going to watch that movie again."
c) Using the ' -ing' form of the verb instead of the base form with 'going to' or
'will.'
Wrong: "He will winning the match."
Wrong: "He is going to winning the match."
Right: "He will win the match."
d) Adding ' to' when using 'will.'
Wrong: "They will to be sorry."
Right: "They will be sorry."

87
One way and the most frequent one to express the future tense is to use modal
auxiliary constructions with either will or shall . The former is used with a first,
second and third person subject whereas the latter is only used when the subject is a first person (Quirk et al., 1985:213). Another way of expressing the future tense
is the use of the concept be going to. This form is m ainly used in informal
language and means ‘future fulfilment of the present’. The concept be going to
has two meanings: first, “… future fulfilment of present intention …” (Quirk et
al., 1985:214) where the subject is a human and the verb is agentive. Second, “… future result of present cause …” (Quirk et al., 1985:214) where the subject can be
both a human as well as a non- human.
The errors are categorised and exemplified in the following two sections.
– The use of the concept be going to, omission of a m ain verb and omission of
will.
– The use of will, omission of a form of be, incorrect use of the construction be
going to and the use of ‘gonna’ in an inaccurate way.
The errors made in the future tense are very interesting from a pedagogical perspective. Expressions of will, the future tense was substituted by the present
tense as in: “I can tell you about one time when I were proud over my mum…” In
contrast to this, the simple present can be used in expressions of the future tense
whether the event will take place at a special moment or time in the future or not .The omissions were of two types, either a main verb was omitted or the word will as in: “I will them all.” and “I hope that I not lose my friends or some of them got killed…”.The former is a slip. If the student had read through the text carefully,
the slip would probably have been avoided, while the latter indicates that the students do not have enough knowledge in how to express the future tense. When it comes to expressing the future tense by me ans of the construction be going to,
most of the errors were of the type of using gonna incorrectly as in: “… and we
gonna had a baby together with names Wilma’’. This type of error is interesting, since gonna is a way of substitution for be going to. The correct way to use gonna
is as in: “… it’s gonna get it much better in the future.” where a form of be + gonna is used. A conclusion and an explanation drawn from the result is that the
students have heard, for example in songs and on TV that the word gonna can be
used to express the future tense , but they have not been taught explicitly the right
way to use it. From my experience, the informal way of expressing the future tense by gonna is not taught in schools. The students have learnt that the future

88
tense can be expressed by gonna and therefore it is most important that the
teachers teach grammar explicitly, otherwise errors like this will increase and
students’ knowledge in grammar will deteriorate. Moreover, the students are listening to music and wat ching TV where the spoken
language is English. This has a great influence on the students’ language
awareness. As a result, they make contacts with all kinds of English dialects and if
the teachers do not teach grammar explicitly and explain and highlight the differences between spoken and written as well as informal and formal language the students’ knowledge in grammar run the risk of deterioration. In addition, it
would be highly interesting to investigate how textbooks and teaching aids handle
the phenomenon gonna. Omission is a recurring type of error, and in some cases
in expressions of the future tense be going to the students have omitted be as in: “I
going to change school to high school.” As mentioned above, this indicates that the students are uns ure how to express the future tense. To sum up, the errors
made are of different types. Some errors are acceptable and can be explained by logical reasons while others are unacceptable at this age. We have to change our way of teaching grammar so that the students increase their knowledge in grammar and learn to express themselves in a more correct way. The
communicative approach is the central one. One way to help the students with
their communicative skills is to teach grammar explicitly. In this way they will
learn how to express themselves correctly both in speech and in writing.

3.8.1 Selection of errorsin the futurity
The verb errors found in the futurity constitute 9 errors or 3.6% of total selection errors. The distribution of selection errors found in the simple future is shown below:
Errors Frequency Percentage (%)
a) The use of
progressive form
instead of infinitive
after the auxiliary verb 5 55,6
b) The use of simple
past form instead of
infinitive after the
auxiliary verb 4 44,4

89

Based on the data in this chart, it was determined that „the use of progressive form instead of infinitive after the auxiliary verb‟ constituted the highest frequency (5 errors or 55.6%) and „the use of simple past form instead of infinitive after the
auxiliary verb‟ made up 44.4% of the total errors (or 4 errors). Examples of errors
in futurity are shown in Table below:

Errors Correction
A)The use of progressive form instead of
infinitive form after the auxiliary verb
When I get home, I will playing ba sketball. Will play
B ) The use of simple past form instead of
infinitive after the auxiliary verb
I will spent more time to stay with my family. will spend

Teachers cannot and should not correct all errors committed by their students.
Besides, the frequent correction of oral errors disrupts the process of language learning and discourages shy students from communicating in the target language.
There are general guidelines in correcting second language learning errors:
1. Teachers should correct errors affecting intelligibility, i.e., errors that interfere with the general meaning and understandability of utterances. In this connection, teachers should concentrate on correcting global errors more than local errors.
2. High frequency and generality errors should be corrected more often than less frequent errors. For example, the omission of will is an error of high frequency
and generality. 3. Teachers shoul d put more emphasis on correcting errors affecting a large
percentage of their students. This factor is clearly related to the second factor above. 4. Stigmatizing or irritating errors should be paid more attention to. This factor is
related to the sociolinguistic aspect of language learning. Pupils who come from lower socioeconomic classes are conscious of and very sensitive to ridicule about their informal variety of language from students from higher socioeconomic classes who speak a more formal and prestigious variety of the language.

90
5. Finally, errors relevant to a pedagogical focus should receive more
attention from the teacher than other errors.

91
4 Conclusions

Throughout this paper I have attempted to give a picture of the grammatical
phenomenon called futurity, both in the English and the Romanian languages. Quite surprisingly, while researching for the paper, I have encountered some inconsistencies (especially in connection with the topic of my paper) in the literature tha t deals with the English verbal system, not to mention the lack of
attention directed towards the correlation(s) between the formal and functional
aspects of the concept ‘futurity’ and their acquisition. Therefore, I have analysed
the grammatical devices t hat English and Romanian employ to render futurity,
focusing on those variations in form and their semantics, (inside each), that are
usually felt by students as a gruelling endeavour when acquiring them, and, most of all, when one language needs to mirror in the other, since there is little
overlapping between the two languages. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of teaching methods on grammar learning in EFL. The idea to research such topic came from the fact that we are living in an interc onnected world where learning English seems essential.
For young people, learning English starts at school and depends on their teachers but also on the teaching method used. As most of the pupils are connected all the
time, they quickly feel bored when us ing traditional teaching methods such as the
pen-paper approach. Moreover, pupils do not often consider grammar as an
exciting part in their language acquisition.
Based on these observations, we wondered what could happen if technology and grammar were n icely intertwined.
Approaches to teaching foreign languages in the 20
th century went hand in hand
with the changes in the face of society, the basic pedagogical concepts of the age
and the characteristic needs of the students. The main focus of this paper was to
put side to side the two major approaches to teaching English as foreign language:
the traditional and communicative methods.
Each was contested and rejected by the generation that followed, which in its turn,
proved to possess almost as many flaws as the previous one. However, each
method has its obvious strengths, and if their techniques and procedures are used
judiciously and in combination, they can prove very successful. In this paper, I

92
have described both approaches and underline the fundament al differences
between the two.
In the traditional classroom the main actor is the teacher, the one who speaks most often in class. The students are the audience, which mainly sits and passively
listens to the teacher. When the students do occasionally speak, they often direct
their comments, not to each other, but to the teacher, who then becomes an
audience of one. In the communicative classroom roles are changed. The teacher becomes less the actor and more the director. The teacher plans the lesson an d leads the students
through the various activities. In an interactive classroom, the students act both as
the performers, taking up more of the talk time of the class, and simultaneously as
the audience: instead of students always directing their comments to the teacher,
as in the traditional classroom, the students speak more to each other. The teacher joins the class as a member of the audience, while also facilitating communication. The goal, therefore, of communicative language teaching is to provide s tudents with the most frequent opportunity to use the language in the
controlled environment of a classroom.
Despite methodology, not every learner is a genius: in fact, few pupils actually
enjoy learning for the sake of learning. Rather, it is the teacher who can make
them love or hate a subject. The teacher’s tactfulness, his/her warm closeness and
understanding of the students’ needs and wants, his/her interesting presentation and emotional involvement, as well as his/her understanding of the times we li ve
(the age of speed and of computers), to mention just a few, can make wonders.

93

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