What would you do If Find out what sort of person you are. [311340]

UNIVERSITATEA DIN ORADEA

Departamentul pentru pregătirea și perfecționarea personalului didactic

Specializarea: [anonimizat] I

CONDUCĂTOR ȘTIINȚIFIC: Conf. univ. dr. Leah Claudia

Autor: prof. [anonimizat]: Colegiul Tehnic "Traian Vuia”

Localitatea:Oradea

Județul: Bihor

Oradea 2018-

UNIVERSITATEA DIN ORADEA

Departamentul pentru pregătirea și perfecționarea personalului didactic

Specializarea: Profesor de limba engleză

!!!!!![anonimizat], [anonimizat],

CONDUCĂTOR ȘTIINȚIFIC: Conf. univ. dr. Leah Claudia

Autor: prof. [anonimizat]: Colegiul Tehnic "Traian Vuia”

Localitatea:Oradea

Județul: Bihor

Oradea 2018-

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Arguments and reasons for choosing this theme

The importance of English language in the context of globalization

Conceptual delimitation

CHAPTER I: TEACHING GRAMMAR IN THE 21st century

What is grammar?

Grammar in today’s digital age

Role of modern teacher

Students’ need

CHAPTER II: [anonimizat]

“will”, “would” and “ should “ [anonimizat]: Methods used in teaching English as a Foreign Language

Modern versus Traditional methods in teaching grammar

Inductive versus deductive approaches

Task based learning (TBL) versus Presentation Practice Production (PPP)

Teaching conditional through TBL

Teaching conditional through PPP

CHAPTER IV: [anonimizat] V: MY RESEARCH

Argument

Aims of the research

Hypotheses

Objectives

Methods and techniques

Sample

Analysis and interpretation of the results in the survey

Conclusions of the research

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

ANNEXES

Poem

If I were a kid again I would like to play forever

If I were a teenager, I would love to fool around

If I were a senior, I would cry and have a sight after all that flew by.

If I were to choose right now,

I [anonimizat]

I [anonimizat] a sign,

Unless the sky is full of clouds.

But for his help, I wouldn’t [anonimizat]

I wouldn’t have been alive and kicking.

Hadn’t I been with a foot on the grave?

Hadn’t I crawl like a new born baby?

But I survived, and I thank him immensely.

Life is wonderful better live the present.

If I [anonimizat]’t matter,

If I woke up bitterly disappointed?

It was my fault; I should have seen the bright side.

[anonimizat], [anonimizat]’t [anonimizat].

[anonimizat]! ( Ioana Avram)

„We cannot continue teaching with the methods of the 19 th century and hope to prepare our children for the 21 st century. "(unknown writer)

[anonimizat], is an important part in the acquisition of a foreign language because without it the understanding and the coherence of a structure would be chaotic. A [anonimizat]y, shows a structure and regularity which is situated at the basis of language and makes us talk of the ‘language system’.

It is impossible to learn a language effectively without mentioning in some ways some grammatical patterns, frameworks through which you can structure your work or measure your progress. Grammar and vocabulary are not language skills. They are language components which are fundamental to the control of all the four skills.

We live in an interactive digital world, we are guided by gadgets and children are facing a very fast development in technology. Therefore we cannot continue teaching with the methods of the 19 th century, traditional strategies and teaching techniques must be left behind. English is a very flexible language, continuously changing. To such an extend should be our ways of teaching the language. How could we prepare our students for the 21st century if we don’t improve our teaching strategies?

Nowadays children starting school will enter into new jobs, many which do not yet exist but they are created by the requirements of the technology. However, English requires knowing grammatical rules but also standard practices. Standardization facilitates effective communication, especially written communication. If we fail to utilize the universally understood standards, we may risk altering the language. Consequently, we study English Grammar to understand the way it works and making a clear distinction between grammar as product and grammar as process. Such a difference was made by Rob Batstone in his work Grammar, Language teaching: A scheme for teacher education (5:1995). He says that there is a product perspective on grammar, dealing for example with some structures like: the verb, the noun, past simple or modal verbs. But grammar is also a key element in the process of language use because when we talk about grammar, we take into consideration the large numbers of ways in which it is extended from moment to moment in communication.

In this paper I consider these perspectives on grammar and asses their value for language teaching. I start with grammar as product. I look at how grammar is divided up into separate forms, and at relationship between form and meaning. The focus will be on conditional sentences. Then, I examine grammar as process, considering that learners do not absorb grammar at once, they acquire it gradually. A student is exposed to language, the so called input, while they are watching a film, listening to a song, listening to the radio, playing games etc. But this input is not enough. Students have to use the language, to understand and examine it and convert input into intake. The process perspective of using English language in communication is not completely distinct from the learning a language, the one has an impact on the other. It is largely considered that the only way to learn and improve a language is through practice and usage in communication.

When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need to acquire and it is difficult to separate grammar from vocabulary when producing language. The so called ‘language skills’ or ‘macro-skills’ correspond to the way we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, so (listening), then to speak (speaking), then to read (reading), and finally to write (writing).

In short, grammar is a dependent phenomenon because there are no boundaries among grammar, lexis and context. Learners might express much of their linguistic knowledge in lexical terms, using chunks and producing a discourse using different grammatical forms in different contexts. Therefore, grammar is regarded as a formal mechanism, as a functional system for identifying the meaning, or as a dynamic resource.

“I'm more interested in arousing enthusiasm in kids than in teaching the facts. The facts may change, but that enthusiasm for exploring the world will remain with them the rest of their lives.”  Seymour Simon

ARGUMENT

The aim of this paper is to give a helpful account of lexical and grammatical devices with conditional structures, in a theoretical and practical approach of the 21st century, based on the old methods, but using modern ones, yet teaching English in such a way that it will help the learner not just to speak, write and listen but to communicate.

I have tried to present an approach of the conditional structures starting from the grammar books and make it clear and easy to be understood by the learners. This paper wants to help the students comprehend the rules using inductive approach and modern strategies which offer a real picture of the present day English language. As a result they will be able to communicate successfully if they make their English fairly correct.

The language makes us express our feelings, our needs and it is a tool for communication. Hence modernism and innovation have conquered our lives, the contemporary teacher has to catch up with these changes and start using handy materials offered by the currently technology mingled with their real life interests.

This paperwork is intended to show other ways of teaching, exercising and consolidating a grammar item, in my case conditional structure, techniques and strategies which can be also used while teaching other grammatical items, too. First of all, the assumption that Romanian learners of English could experience difficulties in understanding and producing utterances with conditional structures is definitely true. I have found during my teaching experience the fact that students consider the English language complicated structures which has different meaning(s) from one mother tongue.

In order to fulfil this objective I have read a lot of reference grammar and methodological books and it has been a challenge to make use of efficient and up-to- date biography.

This paper is structured in 5 chapters:

The 1st one refers to grammar, teaching grammar in the 21st century and the role of the modern teacher according to students’ need.

The 2nd chapter refers to theoretical aspects of the conditional structures. First I made a short presentation of English syntax followed by some general information about conditionals, and then I classified the If-clauses together with its exceptions.

The 3rd one presents the modern methods used in teaching English as a Foreign Language. I put them in opposition, the modern versus the traditional methods, then I wanted to cross the theoretical presentation and after a clear distinction between inductive and deductive approach, I presented teaching conditional through Task Based Leaning and Presentation Practice Production approach, sustained by examples and some opinions about how they should be used during the process of teaching.

The 4th chapter is the most dynamic and challenging one because here I developed activities used for teaching conditional structures. I used modern methods which my students really adore. I presented different teaching strategies, ways of teaching conditionals or other grammatical issues, teaching through Games, songs, short films, pictures and on line instruments. These activities that I suggested and commented aim at offering opportunities to improve students’ accuracy and fluency in using English language in real context.

The 5th one is devoted to research, a research which is based on the previous chapters, on theoretical and methodological consideration.

This grammar work ends with the final conclusions to the study I have done.

The Importance of English language in the context of Globalization

“Language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift.  Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club -the community of speakers of that language.”

“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” Frank Smith

Learning a foreign language has always been considered useful and important, but in the 21st century it is in the same time a necessity. As you can see in the above quotes written by Frank Smith, language can provide your integration in the society, being a worldwide phenomenon. More than 350 million people around the world are speaking English as a first language and more than 430 million speaking it as a second language; there are English speakers in most countries around the world.

Why is English language so important and popular?

Why has it become a global language, the world’s most widely spoken language?

I will mention some past and presents facts about the English language and it’s widespread:

Five hundred years ago, between five and seven million people spoke English, all of them living in the British Isles;

English was spread in the world by the sailors, soldiers, pilgrims, traders and missionaries of the British Empire;

The English language as we know it evolved in the 14th century;

English is now the dominant or official language in 75 territories: a direct legacy of the British Empire;

In some countries like, Australia, Canada and the USA, where large settler colonies were formed, native languages and cultures have almost been pushed to near extinction by the presence of English;

The influence of American business, the tradition of English left around the world by the British Empire, has made English number one language of international trade in the 21st Century;

All of the world’s top business schools now teach in English;

The USA provided us the rock and roll, jazz and later disco and hip-hop;

Hollywood movies and American television series became global sensations and cultural reference points;

A new word is added every two hours and every year about 1000 new English words enter the Oxford Dictionary;

There is a word in the dictionary which can leave even the native speaker speechless.

The longest English word (invented in 1930s) is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis;

English is now the most widely spoken foreign language in 19 of the 25 EU Member States where it is not an official language;

After the USA, India has the highest number of English language speakers in the world;

Now, the number increased a lot, up to 1.8 billion people around the world speaks English.;

English is the first language in the UK, The USA, Australia, and The New Zealand.

There are many reasons to learn English, being so widely spoken can be used for study, work, or for personal cause. I will exemplify some of the interesting ones:

1. English is “cool”

Advertisers spread their messages using English words, multinational companies or local firms look for that element of glamour that English can bring, bands and filmmakers release their work in English too in order to reach the largest possible audience.

2. Science and technology

English is the language of computers, science, business, politics, aviation, diplomacy, tourism and sport. It is one of the 6 official languages in the United Nations. Most of the content produced on the Internet is in English. You will have access to a great amount of information which otherwise may not be provided.

3. English is your future

For the English speakers, chances of getting a good job in an international company in their country or abroad can increase. Being able to communicate with foreign clients and business partners give you a lot of opportunities and make you employable.

You don’t have to worry about getting lost when you travel to an English speaking country because knowing English allows you to communicate effectively and also to seek work there.

English is also considered the language of higher education. You can study abroad to Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, which are just a few of the most popular universities that occupy the top of the world education. Of course it’s not easy to be admitted to such top universities, only taking an English test which proves your level of English assures your approval.

4. English is your free time

This Global language can be your companion in your spare time. Why not read a book of one of the greatest writer in the language in which they wrote, like: W. Shakespeare, Emily Bronte, George Orwell, Mark Twain or our modern ones: John Green, Cormac McCarthy, Zadie Smith.

In the same time, watching a movie is a wonderful way to spend your free time. The world’s highest- grossing movies are made in Hollywood. How many times have you seen an American Blockbuster without subtitle because you didn’t wait to be released in your country or even if you had the subtitles you couldn’t keep up with the fast-paced subtitles?

What’s more, English language is an open door for many other pastimes as international conferences and events, major sporting competitions, travelling abroad. Last but not least, listening to the English songs is something that we do every day, even if you are at home, at the office or in the car and understanding its meaning gives us a full satisfaction.

Additionally, I can say that English is also extremely consequential as an international language and plays an important event in countries where the UK has little effect during the history. It is also a part of the curriculum in faraway places like Japan and South Korea and it is the language most taught as a second language around the world. Even Chinese people learn English considering it a recommendable and useful for their future.

To sum up, I will say that I try to use in the classroom short English films, songs, advertisements, real life shows because in this way learning the language might be easier and in the same time more pleasant.

“Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.” Dave Barry

“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.” Rita Mae Brown

Conceptual delimitations

In my paper I am going to use the following terms and I believe it is important to note their definitions down.

Conditional structures: Conditional sentence, a dependent clause consists of a condition clause personalized by the conjunction if/ unless, specifying a condition or hypothesis, and a consequence clause; the main clause which refers to what it follows from that condition. In English language teaching we refer to zero, first, second and third conditional but also mixed conditional.

Approach: An approach can be defined as a theory or a philosophy of how people learn in general and how you can teach something. It gives rise to methods, the way a teacher teaches something through a lot of activities or techniques which help learners learn.

Teaching Method: A method is the practical realisation of an approach. This term “method” refers to the general principles, pedagogy and management strategies used by teachers to enable student learning. It includes different types of exercises, material resources which are necessary for both students and teachers, roles of both participants in the act of learning. There are different methods of language teaching according to the teachers’ goals and objectives, the role of teacher and learner, the materials used, the activities, techniques and procedures, and of course the type of syllabus we use.

Procedure: A procedure is an ordered sequence of techniques, such as “First you do this, and then you do that… “It is smaller than a method and bigger than a technique.

Strategies: According to K.T. Henson (2008) strategies “represent a complex approach to teaching which often contains a mixture of teaching methods, utilizing a number of techniques with each method”.

Methodology: According to Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, methodology is “a body of methods, procedures, working concepts, rules and postulates employed […] in the solution of a problem or doing something”. I can say that methodology adds up a set of methods based on the same rules having a common aim which is to involve the students in the lesson, to explain them the language and to encourage them to use the language properly.

Traditional methodology: As its name suggests, traditional methodology is Grammar Translation Method which focuses on teaching rules and practising it in translating, prefers a limited number of methods as lectures and translation exercises and drills, relies on memorizing rules and isolated items of lexis and claims that the students learn well if they are good listeners and do not make mistakes. The primary skills, such as listening, writing, speaking and reading, are generally taught at an insufficient level.

Modern methodology: It is a student-centred methodology; he/she is the active element in the process. The aim of modern methodology is to teach the learner to communicate, to interact, and to do things and employs a great number of activities with different aims which are balanced. It is Communicative Language Teaching and consists of a contextualized information and practice similar to life situations, learners have to experiment the language, to learn to use it in attractive circumstances.

Curriculum/ Syllabus: A syllabus is a document that gives details about the content of a language course which will be taught by the teacher and normally reflects certain beliefs about language and language learning. A syllabus can be designed around the order in which some vocabulary topics or grammatical items are introduced.

Technique: A technique is a skilful or efficient way of doing or achieving some English knowledge through activities, exercises or other devices used in the classroom.

Skills: When I say English skills, I refer to the “four skills” of listening and reading, the receptive skills and speaking and writing, the productive skills. In the English communication there are also other important skills such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or spelling.

Tasks: A task is an activity, grammar exercises, a piece of work which is designed by the teacher in order to accomplish a particular learning goal. It must be finished within a certain time.

Pair work: It is the learning situation when learners work together in pairs.

Individual work: It is that learning situation when students do individual work, they work by themselves.

Group work: It is an effective method in which more students work together; they are grouped into equal number. Working in group encourages active learning and can develop communication, critical thinking and cooperation among students. It’s a complex learning because the teacher can give them different tasks, the students have the opportunity to learn from each other and in the same time to imply themselves in the learning process.

Role play: It is a speaking activity when you put yourself into somebody else’s shoes and you can “become “anyone for a short time.

Debate: It is a discussion on a particular matter which is held in the classroom by the group of students. Here, the role of the teacher is minimized because he/she just has to supervise and control them.

Assessment: It is a process that provides information you need on your students’ learning, confirms their results and can help you improve both teaching and learning. In the same time it can guide you in making educational and institutional improvements. I can be formative or summative.

Accuracy: Accuracy means the production of correct sentences by the learner. We refer here to the correctness of grammatical rules, pronunciation and also vocabulary.

Fluency: It refers to the ability to speak or write easily, naturally but not necessarily using perfect vocabulary, pronunciation or grammar. A fluent student is the one who produces continuous speech without difficulty or breakdown of communication.

CHAPTER I

TEACHING GRAMMAR IN THE 21st century

What is grammar?

Grammar in today’s digital age

Role of modern teacher

Students’ need

„The task of the modern education is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” C. S. Lewis

CHAPTER I: TEACHING GRAMMAR IN THE 21st CENTURY

What is grammar?

The teaching of grammar has recently become a controversy among grammarians; the debate, should grammar be or should not be taught explicitly or implicitly? The deductive method is associated with grammar-based approaches while the inductive method is closely based on the communication based approaches which is today’s most popular strategy.

I agree with Ur, who mentioned in his paper that grammar “may be roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combines words, or bits of words, in order to form longer units of meaning” (2007: 4). Therefore, in order to be accurate one has to communicate using a specific combination of words, to master and apply the grammatical rules.

According to Vizentel Adriana (2008: 13), speaking foreign languages is also “elegant” “it is a sign of education and nobility and can represent a key for admittance into the high society”. I partly agree with this affirmation. Why not completely? It is simple; nowadays there are two categories of people. Those who manage English at a high level, they are advanced or rather proficient and they use it for applying for a well paid job, for doing business, for getting a scholarship or as an entrance certificate; and the second category is ruled by those persons who survive in a real life situation using English at a low level. The last one does not take into consideration its grammatical correctness, but use it only to be on the safe side or to stay in business.

The role of foreign languages, English in my case, is in deep connection with the development of society itself, the globalization. “The age of speed” how it is our century characterized, high technology, extra fast means of transport and the express broadcast of information represent a foremost instrument of the kind.

We should make the following enquiry: Do we still have to use grammar exercises? The answers would be various, of course. Some teachers would probably say that only knowing the rules and doing countless drills a student will be able to handle the language, while others, the young generation would mostly consider that students can absorb the rules intuitively through communicative activities.

We can’t have a limited conception about grammar. It’s interdependency between lexis and context makes it to be the “great systematizing force of language, allowing us to be endless creative with a fine set of resources” as Bostone underlined in his book (1995: 24). To continue his idea, I would say that we need to take into account the learners’ needs. They need guidance, a route, a pattern to be followed, but a not too detailed one so as not to confuse them and fail in its primary purpose. Showing them too many exceptions can create an obstacle to further assimilation, but we should ensure that they get a variety of indicators which will lead them to a successful expatiation.

Effective grammar teaching intends to identify learners’ needs, use an adequate time, a gradual process and specific resources according to their English level. All the above, require a variety of teaching strategies and approaches varying from the careful control of grammar as a product through to the more subtle shaping of process tasks. Grammar is a resource which we explain more or less as the occasion call for it. In the same time, an over-dependence on grammar may prevent the learners from communicating competently and efficiently under the tension of language use. On the other hand, learners must not overlook the importance of grammar considering that it is the key to an accurate discourse. At last, the teaching of grammar is multidimensional, we have to be flexible and use not only a distinct teaching method but a variation of already discussed approaches, to advise our learners to use grammar in ceaseless communication.

„Grammatical rules are akin to dress codes: They were once dogma, but now are in a constant flux.” (Unkown author)

Grammar in today’s digital age

The importance of teaching English grammar in today’s’ digital age is a continuous debate between learners, who reject its significance and practitioners, who consider the usefulness of English sentence structure cannot be diminished.

Grammar is the underlay of the language on which we produce the language, whether it is spoken or written. It is remarkable nowadays the destruction of English language owing to the use of uneducated, broken or incomprehensible utterance. This phenomenon is visibly widespread in the world, especially on the Internet. The effect of the grammar is recognized and has a real effect on all the four skills of language learning.

Today’s digital age changes the way people communicate. The use of social networks has brought back the art of writing. Slowly but surely people stopped using handwriting letters and postcards and started using typing notes, shorthand phrases, hash tags, tweets and emoticons. People used to taking shortcuts with the help of the new technology and also take shortcuts with grammar. If fast and modern is the nowadays trend, then the sentences used on social networks should be short and simple. Can you find some grammar in their posts, or in the random articles flooding on the Internet? Not everywhere, because human beings have lately become grammatically lazier, they write only the first half of the sentence and it is weird that most of the readers understand the message due to the fact that they are alike.

In my opinion there are some reasons why an appropriate grammar is meaningful. Its correctness matters not only to teachers but it is also important in daily life.

Firstly, if you want to be apprehended by the others English speakers, you can obtain it only using a clear communication, otherwise you will be misunderstood. So grammar improves the development of fluency. A poor knowledge of grammar can block communication, so we have to teach grammar and learners have to study thoroughly, until they get the practice of thinking clearly and using logical structures in order to convey the meaning. The results will be favourable, speaking, reading and writing the language more fluently. Our awareness must improve, by speaking and writing more effectively.

Secondly, correct use of grammatical structures is a sign of education, professionalism and credibility. A proper grammar can make you gain respect from the speaker and can lead the way through new possibilities.

Last, but not the least, grammar is a guaranty for the future. Controlled grammar provides us credibility and certainty. For example, an interviewer can disqualify an interviewee from getting a job, if the letter of application contains grammatical errors and is badly written. In the same time, a salaried that makes written or speaking mistakes on behalf of his/her company can be seen as the black sheep or the wrong man, also misjudging the organization. To maintain professionalism one has to be an expert in his/her career, to be able to write emails, messages; to carry on a face to face discussion.

The consolidation of English language is easier to be achieved now because we can find excellent international teaching materials like: books, CDs, on line sites with different exercises according to the desired level. They are extremely useful in teaching and learning English language and they are based on collections of real-life texts. Last researches proved that learners who got grammar instructions made remarkable progress in a short time as compared to those who picked up the language naturally. Their attention was focused on all three dimensions of grammar: form, meaning and use, as a result their progress in the language competencies became visible.

In my opinion we have to integrate grammar into real life situations, because if students use and produce it in agreeable context, it will be easier for them to identify the grammatical rules, to understand them and, in the end, to produce the language properly.

“A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning.”

Brad Henry

Role of modern teacher

Teacher is the essential partner of educational process, the facilitator, who should be rather democratic than autocratic, the one that organizes and selects the structure of lessons and the way grammar is presented and practised. The skilled and qualified teacher must be aware of the old and modern directions in methodology in order to choose appropriate and suitable methods and tools according to the age and other features of his/her students.

According to Jeremy Harmer (2007: 108-119) teacher‘s role has changed a lot because of the development and improvement of technology. Every teacher is the controller, the prompter, the participant, the resource, the performer and the tutor. For the purpose of a good work, teachers need to set up an appropriate relationship with their students; the teacher- student rapport should be positive and useful.

But which role is characteristic for an English grammar teacher?

The role of English grammar teacher should be closely connected with the role of Grammar in English lessons. If in the past his/her main role in grammar- translation method was of a controller and knowledge giving transmitter, in the last few decades this position has changed. The teacher is not anymore the performer who makes lectures and it is in the centre of the teaching process, students do not get information passively anymore. In the centre of a modern teaching are their needs and experiences. As Harmer mentioned, he is a facilitator, a guider and helper in the student’s journey through the acquisition of the new language. What really counts nowadays is the student’s activity, not the teacher’s performance.

According to recent modifications of the syllabus, the English lessons are not organized around grammar, but around subject matters, tasks and projects. The teacher’s role is first to facilitate language use and communication. There is little place in a communicative classroom to teach grammar. Students assimilate the grammar they need from communicative activities, although not all of them are able to absorb the use of language correctly. That is way we should also focus on grammar, but integrate it in the communicative approach.

In the opinion of James Scrivener (2004: 23-24) a positive learning atmosphere can be assured by the teacher who should have a lot of characteristics. The teacher has to be patient and inspire confidence, to show respect, to be fair and honest, to have a good sense of humour, to listen to her/his students and empathise with them, to be well organized and give clear, positive feedback, to be non-judgmental and to be enthusiastic and inspire enthusiasm.

I also read in his book (2004: 24) that an American psychologist, Carl Rogers, makes a distinction among three core teacher characteristics that help to create an effective learning environment. These are respect, empathy and authenticity. Another important English grammarian, Adrian Underhill has suggested that there may be three broad categories of teaching styles: the explainer, the involver and the enabler.

To sum up, I would say that the teachers’ role has recently broadened out. He/ she should be a sophisticated person, a classroom manager, a group processing manager, a counsellor or adviser and sometimes a co-communicator with the learners. Sometimes he might be the enabler who lets students discover the rules and apply them in the context. Other times he would prefer to play the role of the involver, who takes an active part in the learning process. Therefore, teacher may set the task, give explanations and offer unlimited possibilities of exercise and consolidation. Due to the fact that technology is also changing the classroom experience, it also alters or transforms the teachers’ participation. Is it an easier job, or a more difficult one? It of course depends on his/ her qualifications, abilities, the facilities of school and the students’ status level.

“A good teacher is like a candle. It consumes itself to light the way for others”.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. “ Ignacio Estrada

Students’ need

There is also a visible change in the nowadays language curriculum. If in the past, the traditional language curriculum focused on language as a structure of grammatical patterns; the modern language curriculum concentrates on language skills. A lot of grammarians made a clear distinction between the traditional and the holistic syllabus. According to Vizental ( 2008: 125-134) in the modern language curriculum, “values and attitudes take precedence over the thematic universe, which is included among methodological suggestions, together with the elements of construction of communication, i.e. the grammar and the communicative functions to be taught. “

Although, today we have one national curriculum, the teacher can choose among several textbooks, where the titles are different but they move around the same theme, lexis and communicative functions. The topics are chosen to match the students’ need, to be much closed to the reality, to the actual background of the society and to prepare the learner for the future. Păcurari și Vizental (2000: 120-121) made a classification of the students’ needs that all the language learners share:

The need to get informed and to be motivated. I would extend their idea by saying that motivation is the main point in learning English language. Students have to realize that the purse of the language is essential for their future, for finding a well-paid job, for travelling and socializing. Motivation and the exciting of learning this fashionable language are prior to the act of learning.

The need to be actively involved in the learning process. If in the traditional approach tendency is to be teacher-centred, the holistic one, places the student in centre of the language process. He is an active participant, he controls his/her learning, he makes decisions, he can choose the process and in this way he can accomplish independence as a language consumer.

The need to practice for habit formation and skill development. Learners develop and improve their skills doing repeated and well-structured activities not in isolated phoneme and morpheme like in the traditional methods, but through authentic texts and communicative tasks. In the same time the main emphases is on fluency and function rather than focus on accuracy, form and analysis.

The need to communicate and negotiate meaning. Previously, the language used was formal, but today’s everyday language is authentic. Learners’ aim is to communicate effectively in preference to produce formally correct sentences.

The need to make an apprenticeship and develop an individual style. In my opinion this need is hard to be achieved in some of the classrooms, at last at the elementary level. In most cases this individual style can be achieved later only by the advance ones. Therefore, teacher’s role of guide is prominent, and essential for developing and improvement of the English language. To such an extent, teacher taking an active part in the learning process will offer them as much as reading, writing and speaking task. The old emphasize on reading and writing will be left over.

According to James Scrivener (2004:69-71) there are “various tools, procedures and materials used for finding out about learner needs”. It is the so called “Needs analysis”. He takes into consideration not only information about why learners need language in the future, but also data about:

Their language level, current problems, etc.;

What they would like to learn;

How they want to study it.

Today’s teacher might use formal collecting procedures like: surveys, tests, writing an essay or a letter/e-mail about what they want to learn and why; or informal attitude, from discussions and monitoring the last activities.

My last ideas would be about getting feedback from learners. It is extremely important for teachers because in this way the impact of their teaching techniques and strategies upon learners can be measured. Ask simple questions like:

Which activity today was most difficult for you?

How many words were new for you?

Which activity do you want to repeat the next time and why?

I will conclude using Scrivener’s words (2004: 77) who says “learner training means to raise student awareness about how they are learning and, as a result, help them to find more effective ways of working, so that they can continue working efficiently and usefully, even when away from their teacher and the classroom. “

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF CONDITIONAL STRUCTURES

English grammar and syntax

General information about conditionals

Classification of if- clauses

“will” , “would” and “should” after if

Exceptional, concessive and implied conjunctions

“Grammar is…the pole you grab to get your thoughts up on their feet and walking.”

Stephen King

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF CONDITIONAL STRUCTURES

English grammar and syntax

Grammar is a set of instructions for generating all the grammatical sentences of a particular language. Native speakers know in a subconscious and automatic way how the language is produced. Language learners, the second language learners must construct a mental grammar for the language that they are learning. Part of this task is establishing the correct specifications for properties like agreement, selection and movement for the language in question.

Learning a second language involves learning the way words fit together to form phrases and how these phrases fit together to form sentences, the set of properties known as the syntax. The syntax of a language determines the construction of sentences. If a sentence is constructed according to the set of principles it is well formed or grammatical. If a sentence is created in an unconventional way it is wrong formed or ungrammatical. The next examples of (1) grammatical sentences of English and (2) ungrammatical sentences of English may be taken into consideration:

1. a. If I were you, I would reject his offer.

b. I wish that Maria would stop smoking.

c. We’ll spend the day at the swimming pool, unless it rains.

2. a. If I am you, I would reject his offer.

b. I wish that Maria will stop smoking.

c. We spend the day at the swimming pool, unless it will rain.

Language acquisition is determined by the sentences one reads or hears and as many linguists believe the principles of Grammar are biologically determined. Many linguists like Atkinson, Goodluck Helen and Stepehn Crain and Lillo – Martin analyzed in their book the acquisition of the first language. They consider that the mechanisms which underlie grammar- building are innate. Some of these conclusions can be underlined in the next figure.

To conclude, I would say that grammar is a set of instructions for creating all the grammatical sentences of that language, ruling out all the ungrammatical sentences. People who speak a language have internalized a mental grammar for that language, which appear to be independent of other kinds of mental knowledge.

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”

Albert Einstein

General information about conditionals

In communication we have to arrange the words into sentences in order to be understood. This organization of words in written or oral situations is related to grammatical rules. However, not all the English sentences follow the grammar rules. There are some structures you have to learn them by heart to make it easier for you and to be confident in speaking English. Conditional sentences are one of these structures.

In English, conditional is a sentence structure, but is not a tense. A condition is a thing that must be done, or a situation that exists, in order for something else to occur. It is something necessary, true or it must happen, before the second thing can happen.

Conditional is a name used in English grammar books for that group of sentence structures that contain the conjunction if.

A conditional sentence is used in English to talk about a result, an outcome that may happen only if a condition happens first.

If can be used in other sentences the same way as any conjunction, so not all sentences that contain the word if are conditional sentences.

e.g. Do you know if she’s divorced?

I wonder if I should wear a business suit or a dress.

Watch the film and see if you can remember the book based on that.

I don’t care if she likes me or not- I’m not coming to her party!

I was wondering if you‘d like to join me at the conference?

Conditional sentences are complex sentences which have two parts called clauses. A sentence consists of one or more clauses; each clause has its subject and its verb. These conditional structures present one event, typically in a clause beginning with if, as a condition for the occurrence of another event, express in the main clause.

The complex sentence is formed of the main clause, consequent or independent clause, and the dependent conditional clause, also called the subordinate clause, or antecedent.

e.g.

1. If I get the job in London ( condition), I’ll be very happy (result).

dependent clause main clause

2. She won’t go to the swimming pool unless the weather is good.

main clause dependent clause

3. They wouldn’t still be working for us if we hadn’t given them a pay-rise.

main clause dependent clause

There are different types of conditionals based on the degree of occurrence of the event in the main clause. In the conditional clause there aren’t events that have happened, but situations that can or might occur or might have occurred. These events are highly probable:

If the salaries rise, people will buy more goods.

or cannot happen, so they are impossible as in:

If I had bought a ticket at the lottery, I could have won.

Conditional sentences can be introduced by the conjunction if, or by other words which are going to be presented in the next pages, or can be implied:

Unless you go on a strict diet, you won’t lose weight.

With luck, we’ll arrive at the conference in time.

A conditional clause usually comes before the main clause and they are separated by comma, or may come after the main clause. The verb in the conditional clause can be in the simple form or continuous form, according to the meaning:

If you see the geography teacher, will you pass along my essay?

I’d visit her at the hospital if I were you.

If you are feeling tired, I can help you with the household chores.

Classification of if-clauses

Many grammarians explained the use of conditional clauses in English. That is why there are different classifications. Most student grammars focus on four common often referred to as zero, first, second and third conditionals.

I would present in my paper a parallel of the so called, type 0, 1, 2, 3; and the ones George Yule presented in his book “Explaining English Grammar”.

According to Yule (2009: 124) we can have a broad distinction between the conditionals. There are situations presented as “real conditions” and those presented as “unreal conditions”.

In the following part of the work I will present some theoretical aspects related to the following classification made by Yule in his book.

I consider that this classification with the terms: factual, predictive, hypothetical and counterfactual seems too formal and abstruse for students at secondary level. That is why I would like to make a presentation of the clauses which I teach nowadays.

1. Type 0 – Real or Scientific Conditions Factual conditionals

Factual Conditions, as are entitled by Yule or type 0 are used to express a relationship between two events as generally happening or normally being true in those situations. In the same time it is also used to talk about habits and daily routines, general truths, scientific facts, instructions and rules. They can have both verbs in the present tense, or rarely in the past tense, but also imperative in the main clause when we give advice, or explain rules.

They mostly answer the question like What happens if …?

e.g. If you mix yellow and blue, you get green.

You can use your credit card if you don’t have cash.

If I drink alcohol, I never drive.

Oil floats if you put it in water.

If I didn’t finish my homework, I wasn’t allowed to play with my friends.

Whenever I didn’t arrive on time from the party, my mother got angry.

We can use various different combinations.

Present simple+ present simple

If you tell me a secret, my lips are sealed.

Present continuous+ present simple

If the kids are making a mess, we just ask them to tidy the living room.

Present continuous + present continuous

If the wages are increasing, then the economy is growing too.

Present perfect tense + present simple/ modal

If you’ve never been to the Danube Delta, you should go.

Can, could, must or should + present simple or vice versa

If you can’t read this, you need to change your glasses.

I can’t drive if I don’t have my glasses.

Past simple+ past simple

If my mother had a day off from work, we usually went cycling on the banks of the river and had picnic there.

Past continuous+ past simple

If she was visiting her friend, my neighbour, she always came over.

In fact, you can use any present tense as long as you use a present tense in both clauses. This rule can also be applied when we talk about connected events and result that were true in the past, as stated use a past tense in the main and also conditional clause

You can use questions in the main clause; the question is never in the if-clause.

If you are under the weather, do you call in sick?

The sentences containing type 0 or factual conditionals can be found in academic texts and presents information that is generally true, are rules or habitual states. In such circumstances if can be replaced by when or whenever to indicate the connection as temporal or a clearly defined correlation.

If the radius r is 1, the circle is called the unit circle. (Yule, 2009: 124: 127)

2. Type 1- Probable/ real conditional Predictive conditionals

The first conditional or Predictive conditionals is the probable conditional. This conditional is used to talk about possible future events and their likely result.

This conditional is used when we talk about predictions, future plans, superstitions, warning and threads, suggestions, consequences and offers. It is also called future real conditional because the events are real.

According to L.G. Alexander (1998:274) besides the basic form of Type 1 which I presented in the above table, there are also other variations. For example, he says that we can use a modal verb instead of will when we want to express the idea of necessity. In the next table there are some variations that he analyzed them in his book.

Type 1 presents the main clause result as a possibility in the future which depends on the previous happening of the situation in the if-clauses. This possibility can be strong or weak and it is shown in the main clause by a modal verb, especially will. They can be a response to the question, What will happen if…?

e.g. 1. If you have an extra ticket, I will go to the theatre with you.

2. Unless you tidy your room, you won’t be able to play video games.

3. If she learns for the test, she will get her driving license.

4. If you aren’t in the classroom, where will you be?

Type 0 or factual are encountered in academic texts, type 1 or predictive conditionals are normally found in informal conversations, when we are making future plans, in the presentation of an argument, as points in a procedure, in written instructions or directives. There are a lot of printed materials where we can find predictive conditionals: leaflets, mail order catalogue, cookbook, advertisements, gadgets manual, etc.

3. Type 2 conditionals – Imagined/unreal Condition Hypothetical conditionals

Type 2 is used with a reference to a present action which is an imaginary situation and in the main clause we speculate about their imaginary consequences. However, we can use the second conditional when the things are not real, like asking hypothetical questions, usually imagining that your life is different, giving advice, explanations, making offers. That is why it is also taught as present unreal conditional.

Hypothetical conditionals, imaginary, improbable or not real, display the main clause event as unlikely, but possible, given the situation expressed in the if-clause. But the use of past tense form in the conditional sentence is a sign of improbability of happening of the occurrence. In the main clause the following modal forms can be found: would, should, could or might. These conditionals show unreal, imaginary or fictional circumstances. The hypothetical conditionals answer a question that starts with What would happen if…?

e.g. 1. If I lived in a village, I would grow my vegetables.

2. Where would you go if you were me?

3. If I could be a rich person, I would help those in need.

4. I might ask her to join me, if I got enough money.

Use If I were with all the subjects because it is more formal instead of If I was, when making uncertain statements. The last one is very informal and sounds especially unschooled, but you will sometimes hear native speaker use it. Instead you can use “If I was……” with other pronouns, but not with you.

If I were a man, I would apply for the job of politician.

Not If I was a man….. A hypothetical / imagined

If he were my son, I would let him find a summer job. situation

Not If he was my son…

If I was upset, I would listen to loud music in my room.

If she was late, she usually took a taxi. a real situation that happened

in the past

On the other hand, were is more desirable in imaginary situations:

If I were the queen of Cambridge, you would be the queen Elizabeth II.

The grammatical name for this use of were is subjunctive. In polite requests, would be is used instead of were.

I should be grateful if you would be so friendly to give us a helpful hand.

Would can be replaced in Type 2 conditional by another modal verb, could/ might/ out to/ should, when the imaginary effect is less likely, or when we refer to ability or possibility:

If I were in New York, I should try to get the job.

If I were at the city centre, I could join the strikers.

4. Type 3 conditionals – Unreal/ Impossible condition Counterfactual conditionals

As L.G. Alexander says in his book (1998: 280) we use the third conditional when we refer to consequences which didn’t and couldn’t happen because they suggest something that didn’t happen in the past. He called them “hypothetical conditions”.

If I have been a lawyer, I would have earned a higher salary.

The counterfactual conditional, as they are called by Yule, presents the main clause event within the context of an if-clause occurrence that is known to be impossible. This situation is supposed not to have taken place or not to be true. This impossibility is underlined by the use of forms that indicated extreme distance, both in time and possibility. They answer the following question What would happen if…?

e.g. 1. If you had had an extra ticket, I would have gone to the theatre with you.

2. I could have grown vegetables if I had lived in a village.

3. If she had learned for the test, she would have got her driving license.

We use would have+vb – ed/3rd in the main clause, but people often use the form of would have in informal speaking.

If we would have shared the same office, it would have been beneficial for our expenses.

If we would have shared the same office, it would have been beneficial for our expenses.

A variation of If (he) had is Had (he). If used negative, only the long form is possible:

Had he worked harder, he would have been promoted.

Had it not been for his help, I would have lost my way in that remote place.

Yule highlighted all the above basic types of conditionals in the next table.

MIXED CONDITIONALS

There are situations when unreal conditional sentences are mixed because the time in if –clause is not the same as the time in the result. L. G. Alexander (1998: 274) points out 4 mixed conditionals. He also underlines that when” sense and context permit, any tense sequence is possible” and makes the following classification according to the type of clause.

Frequently, the time in the conditional clause and the time in the result clause are different: one clause may be in the present and the other one in the past. So, past and present times are mixed, one of the verbal forms may express a real action and the other a hypothetical action.

If I had studied last week, I wouldn’t fail the test now.

If I had eaten this morning, I would not be hungry now.

“Will” , “would” and “should” after if

We do not normally use ‘will’, ‘would’ or “should” in the conditional clause. However, when ‘will’/ ‘would’ appears there is a need to accentuate enthusiasm or reluctance. L. G. Alexander ( 1998: 283) listed the following situations:

a. when asking others to do things or responding to offers of help:

If you would stop crying, I will try and explain the car crash!

If you will/ would/could wait for half an hour, I’ll help you with your essay.

Shall I help you with the cooking?- Yes, if you will/would.

b. with reference to someone else:

If he will/ would/could learn more, I’m sure he would pass the exam.

c. in polite formulas

I’d be thankful if you will/would read my paper.

d. when we want to emphasize the later result, not now, but later.

If the party will make you the happiest girl, I’ll organize it for you.

If it really would make you quit smoking, I would quit first.

I would like to underline the fact that these auxiliaries are not auxiliary verbs that helping the formation of future and the conditional, but they are modal auxiliaries that in the case of “will” and “would “express wishing and willingness, and when “should” appears there is a high improbability or future chance.

Put the register on the desk, if you wouldn’t mind.

If you should see Jennifer, tell her to send me an email as soon as possible.

We don’t use “will” or “shall” in the main clause in the second conditional sentences:

If you studied more, you would pass the exam.

Not: If you studied more, you will pass the exam.

Exceptional, concessive and implied conjunctions

There are several ways in which the conditional structure can be indicated. Often If is implied, not stated. Conditional verbs are used in the result clause.

They are called exceptional conditions and can have different meanings, like: exclude, surprise, negation, irrelevance or concession.

Conditionals can be implied, that means they are not directly introduced by if . In these cases

The following list can be taken into account:

I am going to exemplify some of these conjunctions:

1. Only if / if only

If only expresses a strong wish and is similar to I wish, but it is stronger in meaning. It is used to talk about present, future unreal conditions and past.

a. If only + past verb forms a wish for the present

If only I didn’t have so many exams.

If only I were slim.

Not: If only I don’t have so many exams.

If only I got my salary! I could buy that new smart phone!

If only he weren’t so busy. – In formal situations we use were instead of was.

b. If only + would + infinitive without to a wish for the future / modal connotation of willingness, intention

If only it would stop snowing, we could go to that chalet.

If only she would find her door keys.

c. If only + past perfect tense a strong wish or regret for the past

If only she hadn’t had that accident.

If only he had been able to see you.

Only if expresses a strong condition or the only situation in which something can happen. It makes the condition more restrictive.

I’ll come to your place only if I can bring my girlfriend.

You’ll get your tip only if you clear all the tables.

Melatonim is dangerous only if it is taken by kids.

2. Unless is sometimes used when the exclusive condition is viewed as a negative. Unless means “except if”. That’s way in the conditional introduced by unless we never have a negative verb.

Not: He won’t help me unless you don’t ask him.

When unless comes before the main clause, we use a comma:

Unless it snows, we’ll go hiking in the mountains. (We’ll go hiking if it doesn’t snow)

Unless she was very tired, she would be at her office.

When the main clause comes first, we don’t need a comma:

Don’t quit the job unless you are sure you get another one very soon.

You will be fat unless you stop eating fatty foods.

He would have killed her unless she had given him her wallet.

3. Even if is used when we want to talk about something surprising or extreme.

She is still going to throw him a party even if he is in hospital.

It also underlines that something would have happened, would happen or will happen no matter what.

Even if we start cooking right now, we won’t finish in time.

She wouldn’t stop eating cookies even if the doctor told him.

4. So/ as long as, providing/provided (that), on condition that can be also used instead of if to express a condition, a limit on a situation or an intended duration of a plan or idea. As long as, providing (that) are more used in speaking whereas so long as, on condition that, provided (that) are a more formal and more frequent in writing:

You can eat in the bedroom as long as you clear the desk afterwards.

Provided (that) the admission fee is paid, the student can have the examination.

So long as the astronauts wear the space suit, they will survive in the space.

Present simple is always used in the conditional sentence with a reference to the future.

My mother will remember us as children as long as she lives.

Not: … as long as she will live.

5. Suppose/ supposing, what if + present verb is used in everyday conversation to make suggestions about what might happen. They are often without a main clause:

Suppose/ supposing you get lost in the forest. What would you do then?

What if you won’t save enough money? Will you still visit her in America?

When we are not so sure, we use suppose, supposing and what if+ past form to express possibility in the future:

Suppose we offered Mary the position as a manager? Do you think she’d accept it? (Not as certain as Suppose we offer Mary the position)

When we refer to something that didn’t happen (something hypothetical), we use the past perfect:

Supposing they hadn’t closed the restaurant. Would have been a good idea to go there?

( they didn’t close the restaurant)

What if I had already told her about his infidelity! That would have stopped the wedding. (I didn’t tell her about the infidelity)

6. Should you or should with inversion is used in formal situations. We can use instead of if should+ subject(s) +verb.

Should you wish to take back the product, please contact our customer service department on 983983.

Or If you should wish to take back the …

Should your kid(s) have an emergency, it is a good idea to inform the class teacher.

Or If your kid (s) should have an emergency…

7. Had you or had with inversion appears in formal situations. The construction is had+ subject+ verb instead of if in the third conditional sentence.

Had I seen her at the conference, I wouldn’t have had that offensive speech.

Had Nick realised he would get a better mark, he would have finished the project in time.

CHAPTER III

METHODS USED IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Modern versus Traditional methods in teaching grammar

Inductive versus deductive approaches

Task based learning (TBL) versus Presentation Practice Production (PPP)

Teaching conditional through TBL

Teaching conditional through PPP

„New material demands new methods, and new methods fling a challenge to old convention.” Lawren Harris

CHAPTER III: METHODS USED IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Modern versus Traditional methods in teaching grammar

Through the course of history, teaching languages put forward a number of different teaching approaches and teachers have tried and tested, modified and upgraded some of them, or changed them completely according to the face of society, the pedagogical concept and the students’ needs. In this part of my paper I would like to describe which approaches teachers can choose for presentation and practising English and what role is played by grammar in these approaches.

The current state of English language teaching has been influenced by popular methodology, methods, procedures and different approaches which has appeared lately.

The theoretical positions and beliefs about the teaching of foreign language in the 19th and 20th century was seen and analysed in different manners by many important writers like Harmer J., Scrivner J., Vizental A. , Larsen-Freeman D. and more recently Diane Larsen-Freeman and Marti Anderson. They made a detailed presentation with the advantages and disadvantages of these methods.

However, Vizental (2007: 28), see Figure 1, distinguished among several successive approaches:

Figure 1

A more detailed presentation of some of the most popular approaches was made by Jeremy Harmer in his book The Practice of English Language.

Each approach was questioned and not considered acceptable by the grammarians and teachers who came along. They denied, modified and rethought all the approaches that we refer nowadays. What we, as their followers, have to do is to be aware of the students’ need, the social background, to adapt and to combine these theories in order to achieve the final scope, teaching English. In the same time each approach can be used according to what we want to teach, the learners’ level and the materials we poses at that time.

In my opinion, although some approaches were known from the 19 th century and are the so called traditional, we cannot reject them and stop using them in the classroom. Some can be adapted to the modern trends and use them in various and interesting activities. As a teacher we have to make most of it, never say never and try to renew and update them by using modern methods.

Grammar- Translation Method

Why not for example teach, consolidate or assess a structure using Grammar- Translation Method, but in a more attractable and useful way. Therefore, it is certainly old fashioned; it would be deceiving to throw away all parts of this method. To such an extent, structure explanations, grammar analysis, some use of translations have to be primary components in teaching English, especially at beginner and adult level.

We all know that typically Grammar- translation method underlined the need of accuracy and there was a little consideration of the spoken language. While using this method, teacher used to offer explanations, to provide the rules and to focus on form using learners’ mother tongue. In the same time he/she taught the new vocabulary not in the context, but isolated. To guarantee effectiveness in teaching, new methodology should be adjusted into traditional learning contexts. Grammar occupies in this method a very important place because grammar- translation method is based on it.

According to Larsen-Freeman D. (2000: 12-20) there are some key techniques which have to be associated with Grammar- Translation Method. Therefore, we can update and tweaked this method in order to make it more enjoyable and appealing; the way it is taught can be different from the traditional method.

I would like to make a parallel between these techniques used in the past, and the way we can use it today, making it more challenging and instructive in the actual educational system.

Figure 3 -Larsen- Freeman D. Figure 4- My updated version

As I have pointed out above, early methodology should be adapted. We set off from the traditional methods and add, change and create new tools in order to explain, practise and produce the new language. Communication is the backbone on which any concept can develop and progress. Teachers who used and still use Grammar Translation Method depend on the blackboard and textbooks as the most appropriate instrument to share the ideas. Therefore now they are not applied at a large scale, teachers have rather launched the new devices like: head projectors, smart phones and computers. The practice of drills has been substituted by integrating the new grammatical problem on authentic and meaningful contextualized discourse. If a very typical feature of traditional method is the teacher-dominated interaction, the modern approaches change the learners’ role from a passive receiver into an active one.

I consider that even old methods can be used sometimes during the acquisition process. Although the Grammar translation method focused on the morphology and syntax and on reading difficult texts, we can adapt this method by integrating grammatical problems in suitable and real contexts. Why not give them to read some news from the internet, fashion magazines or different newspapers, rather than a difficult fragment from a contemporary novel?

Another concern of the oldest method is that the teaching is deeply teacher- centred; meanwhile the accent is on the student and on the permanent interaction between the emitter, the teacher and receiver, the student. Teacher used to spend a lot of time using the board and explaining the grammatical rules and the words that are combined according to the rules.

As a conclusion, traditional grammar translation method of course has some gaps. Firstly, it doesn’t pay attention to teaching the main skills, reading and listening, speaking and writing; secondly, it focuses on grammatical structures in isolated items of vocabulary; thirdly, the emphasis is on the authority and fussy corrections, not on creating communication and integrating the skills in real life contexts. The last, but not the least as Richards Jack C. mentioned in his book Communicative Language Teaching Today, “learning was much more seen as under the control of the teacher”, and it is believed that a learner who knows the rules and the lexis is able to understand and speak the target language.

The audio-lingual approaches (ALA)

The audio-lingual approaches developed as a reaction against GTM at the beginning of the 20th century and it resulted from Direct Method. Its basic principle was that the pupils should think directly in foreign language and it makes use of Audio-Visual Aids. As Vizetal suggested (2008: 31), ALA methods “aimed to endow language learners with a kind of competence similar to that of the native speaker of the language”. The supporters of this approach focused on developing oral skills, and put reading and writing on a second level of importance.

The audio-lingual method is a movement towards a scientific method and it is based on child language acquisition, L2 learning is similar to L1 acquisition. Rules are implicit form the examples. The teacher also has a new image. She/he is no longer “critical” but “friendly and supportive”, the teacher moves among students and participates in their activities.

The main supporter of this method was J. Skinner, who said that language learning is a process of habit formation using specific language skills. He suggested that in order to get good habits, teacher should follow small steps, called stimulus-response-reinforcement and repeated actions. The audio-lingual class aims at teaching little, but well using situational dialogue, generally preceded by a short descriptive passage. Form appears inside the context, not in isolation, and communication is the prior goal. The ALA method banned the learner’s mother tongue, because bilingual lists can give rise to all kinds of mistakes. Contrastive analysis of L1 and L2 shows areas of difficulty. Due to the fact that students find grammar difficult and boring, audio-linguists avoid theoretical presentations. That is why teacher used funny visuals, arrows, icons, patterns to underline the relationships among elements, and the structures are introduced contextually, by learning situational dialogues. These are presented in typical conversations, role –plays: e.g. At the Bank, At the railway station, At the Dentist’s, English Meals, etc.

Although the ALA put forward considerable improvements to the teaching of foreign languages in general, the fast changes in society and because of the limited performances of this method, communicative approach appeared to fulfil the needs of the modern human kind.

The communicative language teaching (CLT)

Around the 1970s, the ALA couldn’t catch up anymore with the requirements of the age, so the communicative approach came into view. According to Vizental (2008: 35-42), the communicative approach is not a highly structured method, but rather a broad set of ideas generally accepted as good teaching practise. He makes a list of twelve characteristics on which communicative language teaching relies on.

1. The main aim of CLT is to develop learner’s communicative competence, skills. The student becomes a researcher and discoverer.

2. Learning begins with imitation. Students are supported to be creative, communicate freely and negotiate.

3. Developing language skills is more important than teaching content. Teacher teaches them to use the language functionally and strategically to be able to achieve real-world aims

4. Meaning is more important than form; fluency is as important as accuracy. That is why grammar should be taught only when necessary and errors are considered a natural part of learning. Students don’t learn grammar by rules, but in context.

5. Appropriacy of language is as important as linguistic accuracy, so students have to adapt their language to the requirements of the social and discourse context.

6. Active participation and affective involvement in the learning process motivate students and intensify learning. The communicative class is student- centred, and the teacher and learners are partners in a cooperative exposure.

7. Spontaneous and not memorized patterns, improvisation and not mechanical repetition.

8. Language is no more than a means of communication, and students must use it with specific purpose, like sending or receiving messages.

9. Communication is in essence interactive; role plays, simulation, debates are efficient activities in the classroom. Students have to face situations similar to those encountered in real world, close to their life experience, so they could identify with it.

10. Language learning should be task- oriented and realistic in order to arouse their interest. Teacher’ role is not anymore of that of source of information. He is an organizer, a manager of the activity and needs analyst, and occasionally, an error corrector.

11. Language must be learned with the help of authentic material according to the students’ needs and interest. So, teacher encourages them to use advertisements, newspapers, guidebooks, literary texts or instruction usage.

12. Mother tongue is permitted, translation is also accepted, and however, the teacher should use the target language as extensively as possible.

The post communicative turn (PCT)

As one can see, a number of new approaches to language learning have appeared in recent years. They were determined by the teachers who have made an examination of the previous ones and discovered their weaknesses but also their strengths. Since the digital age offered so many opportunities for teaching foreign languages, the communicative approach needed some changes and so, prepared the establishing of a new fundamental change in the 20th century. Having its roots from CLT, the Post communicative turn (PCT) approach didn’t create something innovating in the history of English language teaching, but its teachers have learned to adapt the procedures of traditional teaching to their own needs. In their beliefs, the performance of the communicative approach must be improved, specifically. First, grammar must be taught; secondly, writing must be exercised and thirdly, literature must be given its due role.

Teachers are not following only one approach, but take from each one the suitable method for a specific class, lesson or educational purpose. They try to identify and adapt the strategy according to the students needs. The teaching techniques and procedures are not unique and exceptional, but borrowed from previous generations.

I agree with this practice because as Vizental (2008: 45) also listed in his book, I also try to adjust the teaching procedure and strategy, to mix and renew an old approach in proportion to their English level, the skills I want to improve, the target grammar and the lexis we are working to.

Conclusion

According to Scrivener (2004: 253-254) teaching the grammar of a foreign language can generate many discussions. What is “grammar”? A book, practise exercises, tests, rules? What the author underlines in his attempt to define grammar is that the information in the learners’ head is a living resource that allows them to communicate and be understood. By learning rules, doing tests and exercises, people are able to use grammar accurately and fluently in speech. “These things are only useful if there is some way that students can transfer this studied knowledge into a living ability to use the language. The information is not in itself of much use. In real life, people rarely come up to you and say 'Please tell me about conditionals'.”

Scrivener refers to five essential points in learning grammar:

1. Exposure to the language while reading/ listening;

2. Notice specific grammar point when they are being used in texts;

3. Understand the form, meaning and use of an item;

4. Use of language in demanding context, when speaking and writing;

5. Remember items through repetition of the same tasks.

In conclusion to this classification I believe that these methods can’t be used isolated because each one has its positive characteristics and if we use their techniques and procedures logically and synergistic, they can turn out to be successful.

In my opinion we should take into account the fact that there isn’t a “best “method of teaching grammar because other factors have to be looked at. For example, it is important the wide range of knowledge that the learners have, the skills that need to be taught and the variety of structures included in the required communication. It is meaningful to keep a balance, allowing for the learners’ needs, and focus on each skills: speaking, writing, listening and speaking because all of these imply the use of accuracy, therefore grammar.

Inductive versus deductive approaches

There are two main ways that we use to teach and learn grammar. The first one is deductively and the second one is inductively. In my paper I changed this order because I wanted to start with the inductive approach, the one which is appropriate for the modern teaching. I don’t say that this is the best one; both of them have its negative and positive aspects because of the other factors which appear in the teaching process like, the nature of language, the preferences of students and teachers and their level and age.

“Some agreement exist that the most effective grammar teaching includes some deductive and inductive characteristics. “- Haigh, Heron & Cole (2007: 40, 288-309)

The inductive approach is more a bottom –up method, when we move from specific to the general idea, in which we make specific observations, detect, notice models and draw conclusions, work out a „rule” before practising the language.

According to Thornbury (2007: 29) „an inductive approach (rule-discovery) starts with some examples from which a rule is inferred)” and „a deductive approach (rule –driven) starts with the presentation of a rule and is followed by example in which the rule is applied”.

The inductive learning is guided and scaffolded; exercises and questions guide the learner to work out the grammar rule. If the problem-solving activity is done collaboratively, learners get an opportunity for extra language practice. It is more time and energy consuming and more demanding for the teacher and the learner, and sometimes the learner may arrive during the process at an incorrect rule, or produce an incomplete one. In other words, this approach attempts to highlight grammatical rules implicitly in which the learners are encouraged to conclude the rules given by the teacher. In the same time, the learner is an active member in the learning process, rather than being simply passive recipient. A disadvantage would be for the learners who were used to be told the rule and now they can be frustrated with this new personal style.

By contrast, the deductive approach is a top- down approach which moves from the general to specific principles. In other words, we begin with a general notion or theory, which we treat and test it. Rules, principles, concepts or theories are first presented, and then their applications are applied. Comparing to inductive approach, the deductive method is time-saving and a number of rule aspects can be more simply and clearly explained than elicited from examples. Most importantly, this method is more appropriate for the adult learners not for the young ones because it respects the intelligence and maturity of many adult learners in particular and acknowledges the role of cognitive process in language acquisition. In contrast, young learners may not understand the concepts of grammatical terminology and do not prefer the idea of learning by heart the rules. In the same time beginning the lesson with a grammar presentation may be boring for some learners, especially younger ones. When the rules are presented, the examples should be pictured, be short and permit the learners to have a chance to customize the rule.

To sum up, both can successfully be applied according to the cognitive style of the learner and the language structure presented. Even so there are pros and cons to both approaches and while a combination of both inductive and deductive grammar teaching and learning is unavoidable, an inductive method does seem to be widely accepted as being eventually more efficient.

Task based learning approach (TBL)

versus

Presentation practice production (PPP)

I would like to make a comparison between the TBL (Task Based Learning) and the traditional PPP approach (Presentation, Practice and Production).

Task based learning (TBL) is an approach which offers an alternative for language teachers whose main point of organization is the task. In a task-based lesson the teacher doesn’t pre- determine what language will be studied, students have to complete a task and the language studied is determined by what happens as the students complete it. As Spratt mentions in his paper (2007: 63), the teacher starts the lesson by discussing on the topic of the lesson. Then She/he gives them tasks to do. After that, the teacher and students discuss new or problematic language they needed to accomplish the task. At the end of the lesson, the students do exercise on the new language. Students are acquiring the language as children learn their first language. They use language experimentally and creatively for real communication.

The lesson follows the next stages:

1. Pre-task- Teacher introduces the topic and gives the students clear instructions for completing the task. In the same time, some language, words and phrases, which may be useful for the task, can be clarified. Students may hear a recording of other doing the similar task.

2. Task cycle:

2.1. Task- At this level, teacher only monitors and encourages the students while they are working the task in pairs or groups.

2.2. Planning- Students present the report to the whole class orally or in writing what happened during their task. They can practice and plan what they are going to say in their groups.

2.3. Report- Students report back to the class orally or read the written report, and compare results. Mistakes are not important in this stage, the teacher gives support and monitors. The learners concentrate on communication, to detriment of accuracy.

3. Language Focus

3.1. Analysis- The teacher then underlines relevant parts from the text of the recording for the students to analyse.

3.2. Practice- Finally, teacher selects language areas to exercise based upon the report phase and their needs. It’s the moment to practise activities to increase their potential and to focus on accuracy.

The tasks can be simple, like putting a list of food in order from the healthiest to the unhealthiest and then try to agree with the group or partner on the correct order, or more complex like a survey to find out what hobbies have their classmates, finishing in visual representation in the form of pie charts and maps. Other difficult tasks can be: making a role play or a debate.

Advantages of using TBL might be:

Students have the possibility to make use of all their language resources, and not just practise a pre-selected item like in PPP approach;

They are put into authentic, real communicative situations being in this way exposed to a varied range of lexical phrases, expressions, collocations and forms;

It is a powerful communicative approach where students communicate a lot of time, comparing to the teacher-centred role found in PPP;

It is perfect for mixed ability classes, where the task can be finished successfully by a weaker or stronger student with more or less accuracy in language production;

It is motivating, challenging and enjoyable.

In comparison, Presentation Practice Production (PPP) is the most popular approach used by schools around the world and learned by most teachers in a training course. This PPP lesson would develop the following stages:

1. Presentation. Teacher presents a grammar structure in a clear context for the students to understand its meaning like, through a text, a dialogue, a situation, etc.

2. Practice stage. Students practice language in a safe learning environment where it is difficult to make mistake through choral and individual drills, gap-filling or matching exercises. The practice is first spoken and then written.

3. Production. This last stage is also known as “free practice” stage. They are encouraged to do less controlled practice; they use their own ideas using the language that has already been taught and is suitable for completing it. Some good examples of effective activities might be role-plays, problem solving, quizzes, games, narratives, discussions.

As a final conclusion there is a visible difference between these two approaches which at first seem to be just in reverse order. Firstly, if TBL learners have to accomplish a communication task using the language they have learnt from previous lessons, the PPP class concentrates on the structure which is presented and learnt that day. Secondly, in a PPP cycle examples are formed to illustrate a single language item, in a TBL lesson, learners are free to ask about any aspects of language that they want. Thirdly, a PPP guides from accuracy to fluency, while a TBL cycle leads from fluency to accuracy. At last, but not at least, a TBL approach is more modern because the students are more independent, teachers step in only when needed and its role is that of monitor.

Teaching conditional through task based learning approach (TBL)

I applied TBL during a lesson taught to 10th grade students in order to teach them second conditional clause.

Pre-task: I present them a short film/pictures or just the sound from a scene from a cartoon. Students may recognize the characters. I tell them a few things about the impact of cartoons in my childhood, how often I used to watch it and about my favourite cartoon character.

In pairs students have to think about what cartoon character they would choose if they could be one. Explain the reasons.

Task cycle: Students will work in group and will realize a quiz for a magazine with the title:

What would you do If? Find out what sort of person you are.

I might show them a model with a similar quiz from the magazine.

Language focus:

Analysis: Where is the man? Why is he there? Does he eat enough food? What do you think are his alternatives for a better job? If you/ a friend of yours were in his shoes what would you try to do?

Practice: Write sentence according to the illustrations:

1. If I………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. I would ……………………………………………………………………………………………………

3. If …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

4. I would………………………………………………………………………………………………….

5. If ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Teaching conditional through PPP

Presentation: At the beginning of the lesson, at the first stage I express my own desires. I might draw some things a villa, bank accounts with millions, a car, and a world map. Students are asked what I am thinking about and introduce the target language.

“If I had a lot of money, I would buy a villa, a car and travel around the world.”

I also say negative and interrogative sentences. Then, some sentences are written on the board.

I focus on form by asking the students the questions:

e.g. “What do you use after “if “?

Then I focus on meaning by asking students questions to check that they have understood the concept. Do I have lots of money? No / What am I doing? Imagining.

When the students understand the form and meaning; I go on to the practice stage of the lesson. At this part of the lesson it is important to correct the grammatical mistakes.

Practice: I use split sentences as a controlled practice activity. In pairs they have to match the beginning and the ends of sentences.

I would then do a follow up game like board game, students work in groups or pairs.

Production: I give them a list of question prompts to ask others in the class.

e.g. do /if/ need money?

The students have the opportunity to answer using other language items but the grammar structure is the same as at the practice stage. I monitor them and make the corrections.

CHAPTER IV

TEACHING CONDITIONAL STRUCTURES IN CONTEXT

Activities used for teaching conditional structures

Teaching through Games

Teaching through Songs

Teaching through Short films

Teaching through Pictures

Teaching through On –line instruments

“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” John Dewey

CHAPTER III

TEACHING CONDITIONAL STRUCTURES IN CONTEXT

Activities used for teaching conditional structures

When we say “teaching” we do not refer only to the teacher, who is the sender, the transmitter of the information, but we also have to mention the second component in this process, which is the receiver. Both of them have a basically role in the instructive procedure because their attitude can affect the outcome. The use of modern methods and newer trends in educational institutions has the power to change the face of traditional system. To such an extent, the theories and methods are constantly developing, from the already presented GTM to communicative method.

According to Harmer (2007: 210) we should not analyse a grammar structure out of a context. I agree with him when he says that “Grammar teaching sometimes happens as a result of other work the students are doing- for example, when they study language in a text they have been reading or listening to”. He put the accent in his book on exercising grammar through textbook, doing matching exercises, surveys, reading, drill exercises and also playing different games.

Grammar teaching has been seen as a structure based formal activity. For an effective teaching, a good method must be applied by a teacher. However, when the teacher plans the lessons, she/he has to decide herself/himself what teaching method to use and in the same time to take into considerations students’ background knowledge, environment and learning goals. Teachers have to be aware that the children learn and absorb information differently and they should make a distinction and separate the learners by the group. The successfully consequence is obtained if teacher uses a variety of strategies and methods, well developed and fascinating techniques and in this way learners have equal opportunities to acquire knowledge.

In my paper, I will provide the examples of such integrated sources and techniques, by using games, songs, short films and pictures. Visual aids are among the best methods of teaching and learning, easier to use for teachers, and more helpful in understanding and interpretation for students. As teachers, we should be prepared to use not only one technique, but a variety of strategies in order to help students learn and gain grammar knowledge. How can we do this? Simply, by finding the right method for your class, either teaching grammar rules by the deductive approach or allowing students to discover the rules by themselves, the inductive way.

It is not enough to teach only the vocabulary items and to leave behind the form and use of the language structures. Although grammar is considered a laborious process, if it is learned in context, practiced and then revised, its acquisition will definitely increase. New lexical items can be remembered and understood if they are introduced in real life situations and because the English language teaching has suffered massive changes over the years due to the new devices, teachers should use a variety of techniques. Students have to be able to produce not just isolated sentences, but whole texts in that language. The most influential and challenging sources of texts are the authentic ones like: newspapers, literary texts, songs and the Internet.

According to Vizental A. (2008: 56-65) “every teaching method has significant advantages as well as painful shortcoming, valuable strengths as well as risk weaknesses. Choosing the appropriate method and technique has a strong impact on the lesson’s effectiveness.”

”Play is the highest form of research”- Albert Einstein

Teaching through games

Who doesn’t like games?

Games are an important part in the teaching process at any level, offering a relaxing learning environment, being in the same time motivating and challenging. If the teacher chooses them carefully, according to students’ level, theme and grammatical issue, games can be the “fresh wind” the learners strive for.

They can be used as short warm –up activities or when there is some time at the end of a lesson, and also rarely in the middle of the hour if the teacher considers to be appropriate. Why not making a revision using games? In this way students have the chance to use language in a non stressful way.

What are the benefits of using games in the teaching process?

I would definitely say that there are plenty of reasons of integrating games in the teaching of conditional structures. Firstly, they encourage even the weakest student to take part in the acting; secondly, games entertain but at once teach and promote fluency. Why not use them to exercise and revise in a pleasant and entertaining way? At last, but not the least, they make students realise the beauty of a foreign language even if they don’t keep it under control. Many people consider that in the classroom should be silence while teaching. Yes, I agree up to a point. Teaching English is a little bit different than teaching other subjects like, Maths and Science.

Learning and teaching English asks for communication and interaction coming from counterparts, teacher and student. Even if games can provoke noise, they are still worth using because they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, generate fluency and also entertain students. They can practice the basic pattern of conditionals, in this case, in an attractive way, determining learners to remember faster and better some of the grammatical patterns, forgetting that they are drilling grammar and focusing on having fun.

Although learning English requires a great deal of effort, games provide practice in the various skills. Why not put if clauses in meaningful contexts through speaking, writing, listening and reading. In a game oriented context, anxiety, fear of negative evaluation and the concern of being misjudged are reduced. In this way speech fluency is generated, so communicative competence is achieved.

A valuable impact can have a well- chosen game because they give students a break and at the same time allow student to practice language skill. Using games in the teaching process may create a cooperative learning environment; students learn not only from the teacher, but from each other, learn from their mistakes and encourage creativity and spontaneous use of language.

1. Superstitions

Grammar: First Conditional (true in the present/ future)

Level: Intermediate

Time: 15 minutes

Material: handouts, cards, Internet

Aims: – to be able to use grammar point without pre- teaching it.

Interaction: whole class, small group or individual work

Procedure

1. Break students into small groups and have them discuss superstitions from their country. I try all the time to make mixed level groups, being a good opportunity to those whose level of knowledge is lower to improve it. They should list at least two and share with the rest of the class.

2. Students write them on the blackboard and ask them whether they believe the superstitions can be true or not.

3. Teacher writes the beginning of a few superstitions on the board, like:

a. If a black cat crosses your path,… b. If your palm itches, … c. If you break a mirror, …

Students are asked to finish them. The answers are the following.

1…you’ll have bad luck. 2…you’re going to receive money 3…you’ll have seven years bad luck.

4. Teacher asks them to look at the verb forms in the if -clause and the result clause and try to generate a rule if this is an introduction lesson or to review the rule if they have already discussed this form.

5. Students may use the list if they need: mirror, ladder, itchy ear, itchy hand, salt, sneezing, spider, the number thirteen, and the weather. Teacher may also allow them to search on the internet some superstitions in other countries. What other superstitions can they think of?

6. If students have problem in finding superstitions, teacher can give them some superstitions with the missing spaces. They have to fill in with the correct words and correct verbs in the correct tense.

a. If you …………….under the ladder, you……………… bad luck.

b. If a …………….points at you, you……………..

c. If you ………………an ………….in the night, a friend………………

d. If you …………..the devil, he……………………

e. If you ………………a small spider, you …………….a lot of money.

f. If a girl ……………the bride’s bouquet after a wedding she …………….the next to marry.

g. If you ………………wood, your ……………..will continue.

7. As assignment they can write them out on a big piece of paper and put them on the classroom wall. At the revision part, the paper can be taken down, and in pairs or small groups they try to recall and write down as many as they can.

2. Eyes

Grammar: Second Conditional

Level: intermediate- upper intermediate

Time: 30 min

Material: none

Aim:

-to get students do cooperative work,

– to engage them in practising the grammar point

-to revise the second conditional

Interaction: students-students, group work

Procedure

1. Teacher shows them a photo with a person in profile. They have to imagine that the person has a pair of eyes in the back of his/her head. They have to work in pairs and complete the following conditionals:

If that man/woman had eyes in the back of their head, then they would….

If that man/woman had eyes in the back of their head, then they could…

If that man/woman had eyes in the back of their head, then they might…

e.g.

If that woman had eyes in the back of her head, then she could see her hairdo.

2. Students work in pairs and write down as many sentences as they can. They are encouraged to use dictionaries. Teacher monitors and corrects them.

If the lesson is an introduction to the second conditional, teacher may write on the board the inductive rules, recognized by the students. If it is a consolidation activity, they just recognize the tenses.

3. This activity can be played as a contest between the pairs or groups. The sentences can be written on the on- line board Padlet and students have to vote the most interesting ones, using points from 1 to 3. The pair/group which gets the most points wins.

3. Board Game: What would you do IF…

Grammar: Zero Conditional

Level: intermediate

Time: 30 – 45 min

Material: game board, dice and counters

Aim: -to become more confident and accurate at using the target language

Interaction: students-students, group work

Procedure

1. Teacher explains that students are going to play a board game where they have to answer the questions using zero conditional: “What do you do if…?

2. Students are divided into groups of four. Each group gets a copy of the game board, dice and counters. They place their counters on the start square. Players take in turns to roll the dice and move the counter along the board. When the players land on the lands on a square, the student to the right asks “What do you do if…?”. The player gives an appropriate answer.

3. If the player forms zero conditional correctly, they stay on the square. If not, the player must go back to the previous square. The first player to reach the finish wins the game.

BOARD GAME

What do you do if….?

4. Guessing Game: If we didn’t have…

Grammar: Second Conditional

Level: intermediate- upper intermediate

Time: 30 min

Material: set of cards

Aim: -to practise using the target language correctly and more creatively

Interaction: whole class; pairs, group work

Procedure

1. Teacher starts the activity writing on the board 3 examples. Students have to guess what the teacher tries to define.

e.g. If we didn’t have this, people would have to write on paper.

If this didn’t exist, most people would read news on the newspaper.

Without this, children would play outside and hang out with their friends.

The answer is…computer.

2. Next, students are divided into groups of three or four. They get a group of cards and they have to make second conditional sentences about what life would be like without the item on card. The student must define the item without saying what it is.

If we didn’t have this/these…, people would have to …

If this/these didn’t exist…, nobody/most people would …

Without this/ these…, we would be able to…

3. Students say loud the sentences and the group, who guesses the item correctly, wins and keeps the card. If no one manages to guess correctly after three definitions, the group who is defining keeps the card. The game is played until all the cards have been used. The group with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner.

5. Board Game: Countdown

Grammar: Zero, first, second and third Conditional tense

Level: upper intermediate

Time: 30 – 45 min

Material: game board, dice, sandglass (15 seconds) and counters

Aim:

– to complete and ask questions using conditional structures

to revise the conditional in a playful and challenging way

Interaction: students-students, group work

Procedure

1. Teacher explains that students are going to play a board game where they have to answer the questions or to make questions using zero, first, second or third conditional sentences.

2. Students are divided into groups of four. Each group gets a copy of the game board, dice and counters. They place their counters on the start square. Players take in turns to roll the dice and move the counter along the board. When the players land on the lands on a square, the student has 15 seconds to make a conditional sentence using the clause in the square or ask or answer a conditional question.

3. If the player forms conditional correctly, they stay on the square. If not, the player must go back to the previous square. The first player to reach the finish line wins the game

BOARD GAME

Conclusions

The notion of using games in the communicative classroom is not new to ESL and EFL teacher, but the attitudes towards the role of game has recently changed. Although students prefer games and consider them to be their most favourite activities, followed closely by singing and group discussions, they may be also seen as time-fillers or time-wasters (Rixon, 1981:1), but they can make a lesson more relaxed and memorable. The games focus both on form and meaning and students practice forms unconsciously by way of communication.

Teaching through songs

Songs can break the routine of a normal lesson and can be used to motivate students, to provide variety and entertainment in a lesson due to the fact that they are enjoyable. Songs can be an interesting and attracting technique through which teacher and students can focus on the form of the language including also grammar and pronunciation and not only vocabulary. It is important to offer our students multiple types of exercises, to make them realize that English and grammar in my case can be learned and acquired in captivating ways, not only through memorizing rules and doing exercises in unattractive contexts.

Students can be asked to listen to songs having the lyrics on a printed paper and:

In my opinion it is easier to memorize some grammatical structures by simply singing the song loudly and mentally, because this is what involuntarily can happen to us after we listen to a song. The form of the language is easily retained in combination with rhythm and melody. There is widespread interest in songs among teenagers, and such songs can be very beneficial and teachers can make use of them in language learning activities. The musical style of the song and its cultural background can be discussed. Teaching songs must involve a purpose for listening. It is up to him/her to create that purpose.

They are valuable support to develop students’ abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing. What a teacher should take into consideration in choosing a song are the following: age, interests of the learners and the language, and it is essential to consider their opinion in selection of the song. Therefore I want to present some of the advantages of using songs in teaching grammar:

1. Songs are authentic texts- so they are motivating and memorable;

2. Learners’ knowledge of the target language can be extended;

3. They have a wide variety of discourse features and regularly repeated verse form;

4. Extensive and intensive listening is encouraged together with the development of creativity in an unstressed atmosphere;

5. They often eliminate the students’ negative attitude towards learning;

6. Grammar points are easily understood and consolidate.

According to Mark Hancock, (2000: 8) songs can be used in various activities which can be classified according to their focus on skill, form and theme. In his book “Singing Grammar, Teaching grammar through song” the author focuses his attention on different possibilities listed under the following headings: Listening, Language and Topic.

Activity 1: “Count on me”- Bruno Mars

Grammar: First Conditional clause

Level: intermediate

Time: 30 – 45 min

Material: Handout, video projector,

Aims:

– to complete and ask questions using conditional structures;

to listen in order to extract specific information.

Interaction: teacher- students; students-students, group work

Procedure

1. Teacher starts the activity showing the students the video with the sound off. They have to answer the following sentences:

a. You can count on me, if you………….

b. If I have a brother, I will…

c. If my best friend has a problem, she…

d. I am your shoulder you can cry on, if…

2. Students may recognize the song or at least the singer, Bruno Mars. Students read the continuation of their sentences and teacher corrects them if they have some mistakes. Teacher asks them to identify the condition, if it is a real or unreal one. If the lesson is an introduction to the First conditional, teacher may write on the board the inductive rules, recognized by the students. If it is a consolidation activity, they just recognize the tenses.

3. Teacher asks them to make some prediction based on the video they have just watched:

1. What might be the relationship between the two kids?

2. What activities are they doing together?

3. Teacher gives them the handout with the lyrics. They have to fill in the missing words as they listen this time the song.

4. Students watch the video with lyrics and check the answers. After that they can play the video again and sing along the song. Once they know the song, they could sing to the karaoke version.

If the lesson is an introduction to the First conditional, teacher may write on the board the inductive rules, recognized by the students. If it is a consolidation activity, they just recognize the tenses.

5. As an assignment students have to write a 150 word- essay about how important is friendship in their lives. Give a significant title.

Activity 2: “If I were a boy”- Beyoncé

Grammar: Second Conditional clause

Level: intermediate

Time: 30 – 45 min

Material: Handout, video projector,

Aims:

– to answer questions using the target language;

to revise the conditional in a playful, creative and challenging way.

Interaction: teacher- students; students-students, group work

Procedure

1. Teacher starts the activity by asking students to finish the following sentence in their notebooks; and then to read the answers loudly. Teacher’ role is that of the observer and if their sentences are correct, he/she goes on with the other stage. If not, the teacher corrects them and explains the use of conditional clause.

? for boys: If I were a girl, I…

? for girls: If I were a boy, I…

2. Teacher gives them some handout with the song they are going to listen. First, they have to fill in the blanks with the words in the box: day, would/’d (3 times), throw on, were, wanted (2 times), chase, confronted, stick up. Teacher asks them if they know the song and ask them to give as many details as they can about the singer and the song.

If I …………….a boy
Even just for a ……….
I…………..roll out of bed in the morning
And …………… what I…………… and go
Drink beer with the guys
And……………..after girls
I………….. kick it with who I……………..
And I………..never get ……………….. for it
Because they'd ……………..for me.

2. Students have to find the synonyms of these words in the song lyrics:

3. Then they have to put the verbs in brackets in the right tense:

If I were a boy
I__________ (turn off) my phone
Tell everyone that it's broken
So they _________(think)
That I ___________(sleep) alone
I___________(put) myself first
And _________(make) the rules as I go
Cause I know she __________(be) faithful
__________(wait for) me to come home

4. Students watch the video with lyrics and check the answers. After that they can play the video again and sing along the song. Once they know the song, they could sing to the karaoke version.

5. As an assignment, students are asked to write more verses for the song and sing them next time.

Activity 3: „ If It Hadn't Been For Love”- Adele

Grammar: Third Conditional clause

Level: upper-intermediate

Time: 30 – 45 min

Material: Handout, video projector,

Aims:

– to brainstorm ideas about the title of the song;

– to practice the target grammar in real context;

to give practice in listening for detail;

Interaction: teacher- students; students-students, group work

Procedure

1. Teacher distributes cards to different students, on which are written the following words:

STUDIED, PASSED, HAVE, HAD, IF, HE, JACK, WOULD.

They have to arrange the words to form a correct sentence. They write the sentence in the table on the board. Teacher gives them other cars and they complete the table.

2. Teacher asks the students to work in pairs and guess the continuation of the conditional clause: “If it hadn’t been for……, ……………” They can give more than one answer.

Teacher may give them an example: If it hadn’t been for money, I would have quit this job.

3. Students get a handout with some sentences (a to e) and try to complete the gaps. Where there is a (+) the verb phrase is positive, and where there is a (-) the verb phrase is negative.

Teacher divides the students into A– those who only think about how could complete them and B –who answer the questions on the handout. Students As take turn and say loud the full sentence. If somebody from Bs wrote the same continuation, both students get 1 point. The winners are those who get more points.

a. If I hadn’t broken my leg, I____________ ______ _________part in the competition. (+)

b. If it had snowed, we__________ ________ ___________skiing. (+)

c. If you had driven more carefully, you_______ _________ __________an accident. (-)

d. She________ ________ _________if she had gone to be earlier. (-)

e. Their teacher would have been sad if they ________ __________ __________their exam. (-)

4. Teacher gives them a handout with the song “If It Hadn't Been For Love”. Students play hangman to guess the name of the singer, Adele. Students are asked to finish the clause:

“If it hadn’t been for love, …”

5. They also have to fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb.

Never _______________(hitch hike) to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never __________________(catch) the train to Louisian'
If it hadn't been for love

Never ______________(run) through the blinding rain
Without one dollar to my name
If it ______________(be)

If it hadn't been for love

Never ______________(see) the trouble that I'm in
If it hadn't been for love
Would ________________(go) like a wayward wind
If it hadn't been for love

Teacher’ role is that of the observer and if their sentences are correct, he/she goes on with the other stage. If not, the teacher corrects them and may write on the board the inductive rules, recognized by the students. If it is a consolidation activity, they just recognize the tenses.

6. Students have to put the verses in the right order:

7. Fill in the missing words:

Nobody ……………….. it better than me
I wouldn't be ……….. I was ……….

If it hadn't been
If it hadn't been for love

Four ……….. walls against my ………..

At least I know she's …………… still
Four cold walls without parole
…………….have ………….. on my soul

8. Teacher dictates them the following sentences. Are these sentences true or false?

a. This song is about a man who finds out his lover has been with another man.

b. He hitchhikes to Louisiana to catch a train to Birmingham.

c. He kills her lover.

d. They live happily together.

9. As an assignment, students have to narrate the story of this song.

Conclusions

There are various ways of using songs in the classroom. It depends on the students’ level, their interests, their age, the grammar point which teacher wants to be studied and of course the classroom equipment. Teacher has to be creative and spend some time to prepare in detail the activity, in order to be challenging, efficient and educational. Teenagers or adults in the intermediate or advanced level will prefer more popular and significant songs. In this way they can review or learn the grammar points, but also express their opinions about the meaning of the lyrics and the images of the video.

To sum up I would say that as modern and language teachers we have to exploit and make use of the songs because we can step into our students’ soul, appreciating what they really like, music. It’s an enormous advantage for us to let them learn and entertain in the same time. Who does not consider that learning a foreign language can be relaxing? First of all, introducing one song at each unit can eliminate students’ negative attitude towards learning and most of the time towards grammar rules. Secondly, songs are authentic materials which can make grammar points more understandable and easy. At last but not least, teacher’s main concern is to motivate the students and to attract them on the subject during teacher. If songs can improve and enhance the teaching progress, I think we should take advantage of them.

Teaching through short films

Who doesn’t love films?

Learning English in a traditional way, just reading, answering some questions, doing some fill in exercises has become boring. That is way today’s techniques should bring something else, more challenging and captivating activities in learning grammar and vocabulary. One of the irresistibly fun activities to teach English at all levels is through songs and short films. Teaching them to listen and understand what they are hearing is much more difficult and troublesome. Reading and seeing the words on a printed paper is at ease, but hearing some native speakers having a conversation in a particular context might create an adversity for the young learners.

What are the positive aspects of using short films and documentaries in teaching conditional structures and grammar in general?

Short films can be exploited in language teaching because they are time saver and they can be shown in its entirety easily within one class and have a great impact. As most of them are under 5 or10 minutes long, they can be shown several times in a single class and students can complete many tasks and engage them in developing integrated skills. Another positive aspect of the use of short films is that they offer a complete narration in a short space of time, which catches and holds learners’ attention quickly. Because many of them are silent or quasi silent, they can be exploited at different English levels as the stories are accessible and easy to understand. The teacher may choose what activities are appropriate for the learners, what skills they have to improve and how the lesson should be divided.

As Scrivener stated in his work (2004: 351), in order to exploit video recordings, we need to consider what there is to exploit. 'What has video got that my student book or board hasn’t got?' The use of the new technology assures an easy and efficient teaching technique. We can plan the lesson stages into three general categories like:

1. Preview: do not show them straight away the video. Let them predict what will happen from some given information or pictures; discuss or debate upon a topic that leads into or it is connected with the subject of the film; study a handout that they will use when watching the movie and of course identify the lexis, function or grammar target that will be in the video.

2. Viewing: it refers to what they do while they watch. Give them concrete tasks, orally or in the form of a worksheet. It can also be a natural follow-on from the preview activities. The tasks can focus on function, grammar, lexis or pronunciation.

3. Follow up: There are various ways of exploiting the video. Depending on the subject I can find the following ones: interpretation, personalization, discussions, debates, auctions, study of the new language and lexis, role –play and writing a letter or an essay.

I really use short films in teaching English language at different levels. One of the website where I can find a rich variety of short films depending on the lexis and grammar language is on Kieran Donaghy blog, http://film-english.com/blog/. There you can find a variety of films, with lesson plans, its transcripts and attached video. It is a relatively new blog, where Kieran Donaghy, a university teacher, teacher trainer and materials, writes with over 25 years ‘experience in English teaching helps us offering us elaborate website on the use of film for teachers and students of English.

I will make use of two films from this website in order to teach conditional clauses in a modern and challenging way. The first one is the short film “What If?” and the second is “Julio Diaz”.

Activity 1- “What If?”

Grammar: Second Conditional clause

Level: intermediate to upper-intermediate

Time: 50 min

Material: mobile phones, short film, video

Aims:- to encourage collaboration, decision- making and creativity

To revise the use of second conditional

Interaction: Whole class, pairs

Procedure

1. Teacher asks students to continue the following sentence “What if…”

2. Students have to put the suitable verbs in the correct tense:

a. What if he ………………me, and let me go?

b. What if I …………..to live in another country?

c. What if he ……………..to visit me every day?

d. What if I……………..but passed the exam?

3. For homework teacher had asked the students to select a video they have created on their phone and to bring it to the next class.

4. In the following class each student shows it to their partner, explain why they made it and why it is important for them. Teacher asks them what might be the benefits of creating videos.

5. Students watch a short video titled “What if” which examines the role of video creation in education. As watching they should try to understand the video’s message and see if any of the benefits they spoke are mentioned in it.

7. In pairs, ask students to summarise what they understood about the video’s message. Get feedback from the whole class on what they have understood.

8. Students watch the video again, this time they should try to complete the 8 sentences which all begin with the words “What if…” . Teacher plays the video twice in order to complete the task.

If the lesson is an introduction to the second conditional, teacher may write on the board the inductive rules, recognized by the students. If it is a consolidation activity, they just recognize the tenses.

9. In small groups ask them to reconstruct the transcript.

10. Teacher gives them the transcript and asks them to compare it with their own.

Activity 2: Short film “Julio Diaz” by Story Corps

Grammar: Conditional clauses

Level: intermediate to upper-intermediate

Time: 50 min

Material: Handout, video projector, short film

Interaction: whole class, students- students

Aim:

– to involve and motivate them to participate in the activity;

-to activate the students’ personal experience

Procedure

1. Start the activity telling the learners they are going to listen first the short film and then to watch it. Ask them what they think the video might be if the title is Julio Diaz.

2. Read out the following situation to the students:

“You are coming home after a hard day when you are held up at knifepoint by a teenager.” Try to elicit or explain that the expression “to be held up at knifepoint” means that someone threatens you with a knife and wants to take your money.

3. Tell them they are going to hear a young man called Julio Diaz describing what he did one day when he was coming home after a long day at work and he was held up at knifepoint by a teenager. Before listening it, ask them to make presumption and say what they think he did. And also to say what they would do if he/she were in that situation.

4. As they listen they should answer the following questions. Teacher dictates them:

What did Julio do when he was held up?

Why was his reaction unusual?

5. Teacher plays the video twice without projecting it onto a screen.

6. Let students answer the questions and after that compare their answers.

7. Hold a discussion on what they understood, but do not reveal them the right story.

8. Students can watch and listen to the short film in which they see animated images and the transcript of what Julio is saying. They check their answers.

9. Before a second watching teacher dictate the following questions:

a. Where was Julio when he met the teenager?

b. What did Julio say as the teenager was walking away? What did he offer him?

c. Where did they go together?

d. Who came to talk to Julio?

e. How did Julio treat the people who came to talk to him?

g. What two things did the teenager give to Julio at the end?

h. What did Julio give the teenager?

10. Students read the answers.

11. Ask students to discuss the following questions:

What do you think of the way Julio acted?

Can you think of any adjectives to describe Julio, and the teenager?

How do you think the teenager felt after he went for dinner with Julio?

12. Try to imagine that you are one of the characters. How would you have reacted?

If I were Julio, I …..

If I were the teenager, I….

If I were a n eye-witness, I ….

If the lesson is an introduction to the second conditional, teacher may write on the board the inductive rules, recognized by the students. If it is a consolidation activity, they just recognize the tenses.

13. Teacher can give them the transcript and ask them to find the conditional clauses and underline them.

To sum up, I will say that in the age of moving images where the Internet is almost free and accessible, where the digital revolution and the rapid spread of mobile devices develop, it is a shame and pity not to exploit all the above mentioned tools. I consider that we should familiarize them with watching film and documentaries without seeing the subtitles. Even the advertisements can be used in teaching grammar. They can be an interesting starting point for what we want them to exercise and consolidate. I know that it implies a lot of work from the teacher’s side because she/he has to prepare attentively the lesson plan; there are not many ready -made lessons with all the stages presented and a lot of exercises according to every language functions or every topic. Therefore, the teacher has to do a lot of research, to select videos that will stick to mostly known vocabulary and to be appropriate for the learners ‘level. It is said that a picture can speak a thousand words but watching a movie can provide the teacher with a great variety of opportunities to make the students talk, debate or write in a foreign language.

Teaching through pictures

Pictures are effective illustrations that can furnish students with a general summary of information. It is now widely considered that people have a better memory for images than for words, so teachers should bring and use drawings, maps and pictures in their teaching process to assure students with a better memorization.

When is the best moment to use pictures during the teaching stages?

I really think they can be used as a warm up exercise, in order to stir students’ interest, but also during the presentation of the new grammatical structures, in my case, the conditional structures, and not at least, at the end of the lesson, in order to practise the already defined problem.

These images can help students in predicting the content of their theme, in selecting and using of already taught lexis and form, in linking new grammar structure to prior learning and providing a foundation to link future learning. They are handy tools which provide learners with visual information, easy to keep in their minds and which help students focus and place information into a mental framework without excess language.

The use of visuals may be helpful and captivating, besides students use of their own experience while selecting the words for substitutions. The performance should not be done mechanically. They should speak on the situation. Consequently, they would master the structure of the pattern dialogue, not only the content.

To close this part, I would say that we can constantly improve our activities by observing what went well or what fell flat. The next ways to practice grammar using pictures are a jumping off point and can be expanded in lots of interesting ways.

Activity 1: “If” cards

Grammar: First Conditional clause

Level: upper-intermediate

Time: 30 – 45 min

Material: Picture cards

Aims: – to involve and motivate them to participate in the activity;

– to build up sentences connected with the new grammar point;

-to give them opportunity to speak using the recently taught subject;

Interaction: group work, whole class

Procedure

1. Divide the class into groups of three. Give each group a set of “if” cards and a set of “Result” cards.

2. Tell the students to shuffle the two sets of cards and then deal out the “result” cards and put “If” cards face down in a pile on the desk. The first player turns over the top “if” card and lays it face up on the table. The player then makes the beginning of a first conditional sentence using the picture on the card. For example, if the picture showed a person staying up late, the student might say, “If you eat more,..”. All the players in the group then look at their result cards and try to find an appropriate match to complete the first conditional sentence. The one who has the matching card has to complete the sentence, e.g. “…you will gain some weight.”.

3. If everyone in the group agrees that the sentence is suitable, the player keeps both cards and puts them aside. Teacher’ role is that of the observer and if their sentences are correct, he/she goes on with the other stage. If not, the teacher corrects them and explains the use of conditional clause.

4. The first player to get rid of all the result cards wins the game.

5. The students listening to the sentences correct any mistake they hear and give feedback.

If cards

Result cards

Activity 2: “Comic strips”

Grammar: Conditional clause

Level: upper-intermediate

Time: 30 min

Material: Pictures

Aims:

– to work in a collaborative way

-to interact in written and spoken communication

Interaction: pairs, group work

Procedure

1. As a project, teacher can ask students to write some comic strips using the model bellow.

2. This can be done as a pair work or group work. Students can choose the parteners, according to their skills.

Activity 3: “My childhood plans panned out”

Grammar: Second Conditional clause

Level: intermediate

Time: 20 min

Material: Pictures

Aims:- – to arise students’ interest

-to activate the students’ personal experience

-to encourage them to speak freely using the target language

Interaction: individual work, whole class

Procedure

1. Teacher starts the activity sharing some of his/her childhood plans. It is advisable to use some printed pictures or some pictures projected on the board in order to attract their attention and engage them.

2. Then, students are asked to build upon the following handout their own plans.

3. Teacher observes and asks more students to make other similar sentences. If their sentences are correct, he/she goes on with the other stage. If the lesson is an introduction to the second conditional, teacher may write on the board the inductive rules, recognized by the students. If it is a consolidation activity, they just recognize the tenses.

Activity 4: “Past regrets”

Grammar: Third Conditional clause

Level: upper-intermediate

Time: 30 min

Material: Card pictures

Aims: -to use correctly the conditional

– to encourage them to describe the pictures in the handout

– to interact in spoken communication

Interaction: individual work, whole class

Procedure

1. Teacher gives them some cards with some pictures and some past events. They have to link the sentences using if clause, the third conditional clause.

2. The students write the clause sentence and the others have to reproduce what happened in the past. The one who is closest to the picture can get a point.

3. Teacher observes and asks more students to make other similar sentences. If their sentences are correct, he/she goes on with the other stage. If not, the teacher corrects them and explains the use of second conditional clause.

Activity 5:”If I were…, I would…” or “If I were there, I would…”

Grammar: Second Conditional clause

Level: intermediate

Time: 20 min

Material: Card pictures

Aims:

– to stimulate students’ imagination

– to encourage them to use the target language correctly using pictures

– to interact in spoken communication

-to use authentic materials in learning

Interaction: individual work, whole class

Procedure

1. Teacher asks them to name some of the most famous people/ place they know and they appreciate or not.

– famous people- They probably mention: Iohannis, Barack Obama, Putin, Michael Jackson, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Cristian Ronaldo, Simona Halep, etc.

– famous places- Niagara Falls, The Carpathians, The North Pole, The Disneyland Park , The Statue of Liberty,

2. Students have to continue the following sentence:

If I were Simona Halep, I……………..

If I were in America, I …..

3. Teacher observes and asks more students to make other similar sentences. If their sentences are correct, he/she goes on with the other stage. If not, the teacher corrects them and tries to extract the rules inductively from the students.

4. They are asked to have a look at the following pictures, they can be printed or seen on the smart board or video-projected. Each student should express their opinion about the personalities and put themselves in their shoes.

If I were a famous/ popular well-known president like Putin, I would ban Americans to enter Russia.

If I were there, I would definitely visit New York City and Manhattan and I would get up early to watch the sunrise from the beach.

5. Another way to use this activity is like a Guessing game. Teacher shows all the pictures. A student has to choose which personality he/she wants to describe or what place he talks about and to add as many details as they know without mentioning its name or the place. Teacher may allow them to search on the internet information in order to have a complex speech.

Students, the listeners answer on a hand-out, show them to the speaker and the ones who guess gets 1 point. The winner will be the one who gets more points.

“If I were…I would…”- pictures of famous people

“If I were there, I would…”- pictures with interesting or famous settings

Teaching through on –line instruments

Teachers use technology as a matter of course. English language teachers can put mobile devices and computers to good use in the classroom. ICT that is Information and Communication Technology is a fast and growing phenomenon, the legacy of the third millennium. If we go back not even twenty years ago, in Romania it just appeared the mobile phone, the one with buttons and no internet connection. The use of smart phones and internet has recently occurred in the teaching method. But for the new generations, today’s children and now even for their parents, it seems that the internet has always existed and they cannot live without it. Some people even call them “dot-com generation” because it is impossible for them to imagine life lacking instant communication and access to information tools.

More than ten years ago, Harmer presented in his book “The Practice of English Language Teaching” (2007: 192-197) the use of websites on the Internet for students to practise language. He also discussed about the opportunities of utilizing computers and the internet, but the possibilities were much more limited. It was fashionable on those days to send emails to your mousepals, long time ago called penpals; to chat on line using programs such as Googletalk or MSN Messenger. Teachers used to have their own blog where they could share ideas, information and give them assignments. Although he wrote about the sites which allowed us to download software and to enable us to design our own web- based material, in our country the use of internet and interactive techniques are quite recent.

Shall we use phones and any other mobile devices in the classroom?

Gadgets like mobile phones, laptops, tablets can be an advantage or an obstacle. I consider that we should rather use them for educational purpose, than ban them during the English class. In today’s digital age, we have a lot of handy applications which can help us teach, exercise, reinforce, assess and give assignments to the learners. Their utility is priceless if we know how to use them, when and how much time we apply those techniques.

Why should we use them?

It is a good question. But I will add some others too?

Why should we bother to make other exercises and not use just the textbook?

Why should we design new test using these on line platforms rather than exploit our archives with handouts that we used in the past?

I’ll tell you why!

Because we live in a new world, it’s teenagers’ world full of modern things, with gadgets, new devices and interactive atmosphere. If we had a mobile phone only at college, our kids have a phone right at the kindergarten, or even before. Our school days were totally different, our learning was not alike, and so the teaching methods should also improve and modernize in order to have good results, to be attractive and useful. The main change for a better life and future has to be made by us, the teachers. We have to be adaptable, informed and aware of the fact that nothing is steady. We work with a lot of kids, with different personalities so we have to be flexible and adapt our teaching procedures according to their needs, their background knowledge and their personality.

These on line platforms have endless advantages and I can mention some of them:

I will present and analyse 3 on line tools, an app, a website and a game- based learning platform which will help me teach the conditional structures in a funny, interactive and playful way.

PADLET

Padlet is a free app that enables user to create an on line board or wall to display information on any topic. This tool is easy to use and permits the learners to collaborate on line and post there notes, or pictures, share images, links, documents, audios and videos recording.

The page is easy to use for both teachers and learners. After you log in, teacher has to click on „Add” and the page can be used. The benefit of this tool is that learners can use it in the classroom but also at home. Learners go to the address, tap on the page and post a message or file. What is really interesting is that the posts appear in real time, as they’re added. As I have understood from their website, there are no login requirements for learners and teachers, and they can register for free. The teachers can control pages, delete them, edit and delete the posts. What I also consider essential is the fact that before a learner’s post appears on the page, it needs the teacher’s approval. In this way no improper content is added to the Padlet. It is advisable to choose private or password protected page.

LEARNINGAPPS.ORG

This website gives the teachers an opportunity to create their own applications. The one that can be generated are: memory games, word search, crosswords, hangman. Creating a class after the registration, teacher has the possibility to monitor their progress, giving the chance to imply the whole class or individual students. The activity can be done at school or at home as an assignment.

LearningApps.org is developed and maintained by the non-profit organization LearningApps- interactive learning modules. It is designed to support the learning acquisition and the teaching techniques through interactive modules. These modules can be integrated into the learning content, or can be on line devised by the web user and they can also be modified.

KAHOOT

Let’s start my presentation of this game –based learning platform by answering the following question:

What is a “kahoot?

When you create a fun learning game in minutes, multiple choice quizzes that allow user and can be acceded via web browser, you call the game, “Kahoot”.

This educational technology is used in classrooms and in also other learning institutions.

Teacher can create her/his own quiz; add videos, images and diagrams to the questions to intensify their involvement. It can be used to review students’ knowledge, for revision, formative assessment or as a break from traditional activities.

For the purpose of using it you need an interactive whiteboard, projector or a computer screen. It can also be played through different web browsers and mobile devices through its web interface.

In a normal classroom, players answer the questions on their own devices, while questions appear on a shared screen. It is easy and fun to give them homework if they need to use this platform.

According to James Scrivener (2005: 356) many Internet-based lessons will involve research to find information for some specific purpose. So, the web can be used for many goals including:

Live text communication with other online users (e.g. “Messenger” Programs);

live-audio (and/or webcam) chat with other users( e.g. “Net meeting);

delayed-response text communication (e.g. e-mails, message boards, forums, contributions to websites, etc.)

reading web-based text (newspapers, magazines, article, catalogues, entertainment, etc)

downloading or using web-based content (language exercises, film, music, etc.)

designing their own web pages and websites.

Conclusion

Worldwide, information technology is noticeable changing the way students learn and work. This developed high-tech is also changing the classroom experience. Using tablets, computers, smart phones, teacher can transmit easier the information to the student. Teacher’s role is minimized now; he’s rather a counsellor, a guider and observer. Repetitive practice and mechanical drills and learn by heart the rules are the marks of the traditional methods.

Whichever method are used, others than conventional grammar textbooks, chalk and blackboard, are originals and innovative as long as they serve the achievement of central objectives of teaching.

CONCLUSION

During the last few decades, the world has witnessed the boom of revolutions in information and technology. These are not something bad for education; on the contrary, it helps the student learn faster, improve their English knowledge in an efficient, interesting and an interactive manner. Consequently, it’s teacher’s responsibility to use the meaningful and accessible methods and make way of new, better and updated methods for the students ‘sake.

CHAPTER V

MY RESEARCH

Argument

Aims of the research

Hypotheses

Objectives

Methods and techniques

Sample

Analysis and interpretation of the results in the survey

Conclusions of the research

CHAPTER V: MY RESEARCH

Argument

This section intends to illustrate the practice and research I conducted during the school year 2017-2018 at Technical College “Traian Vuia”. The classes are from high school: 10th and 12 grade but also from vocational school: 9th grade, 10th grade and 11 th grade.

I must say that the main reason for writing this paper was my “love” towards grammar, on one hand, and the new methods that I have discovered in the last years of teaching and which seemed attractive and efficient for my students.

I consider, like many English teachers, that grammar has a vital role in the language acquisition and our aim, when teaching a foreign language, is making students able to communicate with each other.

The chapter will also include the aims of this research, hypotheses, objectives, methods and techniques, sample, analysis and interpretation of the results in the survey and of course conclusions.

Aims of the research

I have decided to do some research concerning the acquisition of English Grammar because it is an important part of learning English as a foreign language and it also represents an essential point in the real life communication. The main aim of my research is to diagnose the learner’s point of view about the new modern methods which I have used in the school year 2017-2018. My survey wanted to identify the importance of English language in their everyday life, not just at school, the activities they like using at the English class, how they consider the study of grammar and “the conditionals”, what are the easiest methods of learning the English grammar and why they consider English important for their future.

Hypotheses

I have started from the hypothesis that grammar is nowadays hard to be learned especially for high school students. In the same time, teachers find it difficult to teach and cannot succeed in finding the easiest and the most attractive strategies and techniques to use it the classroom. So, what should we do? The answers are in my paper. That is why I have tried all the school year to bring something new in the English classroom, to show them other paths in the acquisitions of the language.

Objectives

The objectives of the survey are:

To establish how often and how students use English outside the class;

To identify the easiest way for students to learn and practise grammar;

To find out what is grammar for them and how they consider the study of it and why they should learn it;

To determine the most difficult part in learning grammar;

To see if my methods have helped them in this school year;

To make them realize the importance of English in general.

Methods and techniques

At the basis of my research there was a survey with the help of which I have tried to see which are the students’ opinions related to grammar in general and with the English “conditionals” in particular.

The students have filled in the survey and then I have drawn the conclusions and interpreted the data.

Sample

The sample is representative for all the four levels of high school and the three levels of vocational school, i.e. 9th, 10th and 11th grade. The age of those who have been surveyed is between 15-18 years old. The students are of mixed levels, ranging from elementary to intermediate and some of them are upper-intermediate level. Some students have 2 English classes per week, but others have only once a week. The surveys have been filled in at school, during the English classes using Google forms. The number of students that have been asked to fill in the survey is 100.

Analysis and interpretation of the results in the survey

The survey I have conducted is made up of 10 questions related to the topic of grammar and the results and their interpretation will be presented in the next pages. It should be mentioned that the students have had the possibility to choose more than one answer at some of the questions.

1. How often do you use English outside the class?

According to the survey 42% of the students only sometimes use English outside the class and 25% of them use it every day, followed at a close distance by 20% of my students who use it rarely. What it is also visible is the fact that almost 13% of them never use English outside the class, although the development of the technology often determines us to utilize this global language. But, as I discovered from our discussions, they prefer to use the applications from their mobile phone, computer and tablet in their modern tongue rather than in English.

If a quarter of the subjects use English every day and almost half of them use English only sometimes, most of them, 71%, keep in touch with this foreign language listening to songs and only 61% of my students use it only at school. It is visible that surfing the internet determines them, whether they want or not to keep in touch with English because 56% of them use the Internet and 47% of them make us of English when they chat on line. At last, but not least students watch English films and advertisements. The fact that listening to songs is on the top of their preferences, determines me to continue using songs in teaching different grammatical structures as I used to do in the past.

3. How do you think you can learn English better and easier?

My students find playing games an easier and better way to learn English. 68% of the interviewed consider that they managed to learn and improve their knowledge while having fun and playing games, chatting and reading the instructions of the games in this international language. They also consider that on line instruments which I have tried to use in this school year were also easy ways of consolidation and understanding of English grammar and vocabulary as well. 55% of them believe that they learn English very relaxed while watching a film and 53% of my students think that listening to songs can be funny and educational too. That is why I have tried to use not soap opera, tv films or serials during the English classes because we do not have the sufficient time but short films which are an enjoyable and easy method to explain a grammatical part of speech or to simply use English in real communication. Only 49 % consider that speaking is a good method of improving English because if they cannot handle their accuracy, their fluency also suffers.

Taking into account the total number of students (100), 61% of them realises that grammar is something important for them, but unfortunately almost 20 of the students do not know what “grammar” is. There are others 10 students who believe grammar is a topic of study, and other 10 % who do realize that English is a measure of their progress.

Considering that from the total number of my subjects, 100, 45 % of them consider grammar important, 33% believe that grammar is difficult, what it is also true for the 21st century students who hate learning rules, solving exercises in their notebooks and prefer everything which is linked to technology. A small number of the interrogated students, 9 % of them find grammar interesting and 13% look at grammar as useless.

More than half of all the students, 54 % of them, consider that grammar might help you to speak correctly. So, my students are still aware of all three dimensions of language, i.e. form, meaning and use. They understand that it is important to speak in an accurate and correct way, and that grammar structures have to be used meaningfully and appropriately as well.

But, a similar numbers of students do consider that grammar might help you to be understood better by the other speaker (26%) and also to express yourself better if you have some grammatical knowledge and you can easily make at least some tense distinctions.

“The conditionals”, the grammatical aspect which I have tried to analyse in my paper, is seen as a difficult part of study for more than half of the interviewed. More precisely 57% of them consider this part not at all easy to learn and exercise and 30% of them believe they are a complex grammar issue. According to this survey, only 13 % of them may find conditionals easy and approachable.

The aim of the question was to see which way of learning grammar is considered to be easier and convenient. A large number of students take reading, communicating and listening as paths of learning English better. The percentage is very similar. To 53% of the students listening something, probably songs, offers them the possibility to learn in context the grammatical patterns. To 52 % of them reading something in English is useful, and 50 % consider that real communication, speaking to somebody, practising it orally is a real help in improving grammar.

According to the survey the unpleasant way for them is making translations and doing many grammar exercises. In conclusion, students prefer the inductive approach to grammar. Learning grammar from different activities rather than writing and focusing on the rules is favoured by students as they can feel free and relaxed.

All in all, when choosing a practice activity the teacher should take into account two factors: the quantity factor, i.e. the more practice, the better and the quality factor, i.e. practice needs to be interesting and appealing to students in order to be obtained the desired purpose. Subconsciously, they have to handle both the accuracy but also the fluency.

As you can see from the pie, 42% of the questioned students encounter a difficulty in using the grammar items in context. Although some of them have a fluency in speaking but they lack accuracy, the communication suffers. Thus, students are aware of their absence of correctness when talking or writing and the message cannot be understood by the interlocutor. For 35 % of the students a big problem seems to be the understanding of the grammar rules. As a teacher I believe they do not have anymore the patience and motivation to solve enough exercises so that the rules can be quickly grasped. That is why 23% of the interrogated students consider that the most difficult part in learning grammar is doing grammar exercises.

What I have tried to add in my lessons where some new and attractive methods which helped them learn unconsciously some grammatical parts of speech. Why not let them listen to a song and then fill in with the missing verbs, or playing Kahoot in order to revise conditionals, past simple or present continuous.

The last question “Why do you think English is important for you? wanted to identify their future perspectives. As we all know, English is our future in getting a well paid job, travelling to other countries and being able to answer some foreigner’s questions. It is visible from the bar chart that majority of them chose not only one of the variants. On the top of their priority seems to be their ability to communicate, so 80% of them consider that English is important for interaction and discussion. According to the survey, 70% reflect on English as a possibility in finding a job and 67% also believe that it is essentially to be able to speak English when you travel abroad. It doesn’t seem a priority for 72% of my students because only 28 of them want to learn it in order to be in fashion, because English may be considered a trend or rather a normal thing.

Conclusions of the research

It is known that good results can be obtained only after a detailed preparation from the teacher’s side and a seriousness and hard work from the student’s. When teachers begin to question their activities, approaches and techniques and try to make a change in the teaching –learning progress, a good improvement has to appear in the acquisition process. Thus, this questionnaire represented an important support for me to improve my approaches in teaching grammar and in the same time it had been an essential role in enhancing my hypothesis that we, as teachers, should furnish occasions for our students to engage them in real-life communication, to help them enlarge their knowledge in order to become accurate and fluent English speakers.

From the whole research, I could pick out some interesting outcomes:

The survey was well- received by students. It helped them realize how important English is for them and what the best part of learning is; but in the same time this questionnaire proved to be of great help for me, too;

Not all my students use English every day, but listening to songs, using gadgets and watching films are tools through which they come across it;

Their favourite way of learning English is with the help of games, on line instruments, song and films;

As I have anticipated, the students find grammar important because a language should be spoken correctly, but difficult to understand it entirely and especially use the grammar items in context while speaking and writing;

The conditional structures are a difficult and complex grammar part which can be better understood and acquired if they listen to music, communicate and read;

The survey also revealed that the most significant conclusion would be the accomplishment of its importance. English is the future and they realized that because it is overriding in order to be able to communicate, to get a well paid job or to travel abroad because you can feel yourself confident speaking the global language everywhere.

Survey

English Grammar in the 21st century

Can English grammar be taught in a funny and attractive way?

1. How often do you use English outside the class?

every day;

sometimes;

rarely;

never;

2. I keep in touch with the English language every day….

at school at English lessons;

listening to songs;

watching films/ advertisements;

chatting on –line on facebook, instagram,

surfing the Internet

3. How do you think you can learn English better and easier?

playing games;

listening to songs;

watching films;

speaking;

on line instruments like: Kahoot, learningapps.org, Duo lingo, Quizizz

4. What is grammar for you?

a topic of study;

a measure of your progress;

an important part in learning English;

I don’t know.

5. You consider the study of grammar…

important;

useless;

difficult;

interesting.

6. Grammar might help you…

to express yourself better;

to be understood by the other speakers;

to speak correctly.

7. How do you consider “the conditionals”?

quite easy;

difficult;

complex.

8. You can learn English grammar better?

doing many grammar exercises;

making translations;

reading;

communicating;

listening

9. What is the most difficult part in learning grammar?

Understanding and learning the rules;

doing grammar exercises;

using the grammar items in context;

10. Why do you think English is important for you?

to get a good job;

to travel abroad;

to be able to communicate;

to be in fashion.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

The grammar of a language presents the ways words can change their form and can be combined into sentences in that language. Communication may suffer unless we do follow and respect the grammar rules. That is why we have to be aware how we combine the words so that the result to be a logical one. Teachers’ biggest responsibility is to help students make up their language awareness, that ability to detect grammatical parts of speech, in my case the conditional structures. The syntax has a very important role for advance students who are able to create comprehension in oral and written discourse.

My paperwork was intended to encourage more and more teachers to use modern strategies in teaching grammar, even the most controversial is whether to teach it at all. I have chosen some examples of activities that I usually use in my class, but I know there are more of them waiting for us to discover and use them. Teenage students today prefer watching a short film and work based on what they have just seen to solving separate exercise; listening to a song and fill in the missing grammar part of speech to simply putting the correct form of the word in the brackets. Working in real context is appealing to students and can lead to the development of a broken, ungrammatical form of the language beyond which students can never really progress.

According to what I have written in the above chapters, I underlined the fact that grammar is nowadays viewed as one component of communicative competence and it represents an important part of language teaching and it is compulsory for mastery of a second language. I also believe that we can integrate grammar in interesting and attractive activities without even giving them away the idea of learning by heart the rules but offering them a support and foundation on which they can play around using English and experiment new and proposed grammatical patterns. We must use a lot of training exercises for the assimilation of grammar, but more modern ones which can bring the structural, pragmatic and prosodic and communicative aspects of language together in our language classrooms. It is more apparent that the teaching of grammar can be supported effectively by using such resources which I have already deployed in my paper as: songs, games, pictures, short films, on line instruments, etc. Of course that according to the class necessity, several techniques can be integrated with the supplied mentioned above.

In my opinion teaching is a growing art and demands creative and innovative ideas, bending the use of resources according to their needs, giving a relaxed atmosphere and motivation to the students. Students work alone or in groups or pairs, having the chance to express themselves, enjoy themselves during learning, and use the reserves of their minds. Thus, activating both left and right hemispheres, students use their long-term memory and learn successfully during such activities.

When introducing a new grammatical part of speech, teachers should carefully plan its lesson and should go through the following stages: lead-in, elicitation, explanation, accurate reproduction and immediate creativity. The teacher has to make use of various aids and teaching materials in order to assure an easy and enjoyable assimilation of grammar mechanism of the language studied and using the habits acquired in language skills, i.e. listening, speaking and also reading.

I also consider that teachers should consolidate very often their knowledge by practising it in an individual, controlled but also guided way. Teachers should make them feel confident because many students have to pass a standardized national English language exam (Baccalaureate exam) which is also oral and written. A very practical argument in favour of teaching grammar is this national examination and also other international examinations like Cambridge or IELTS which are required by some universities or jobs. No matter its form, grammar plays an important role in every exam. All these language knowledge tests can either determine the students’ approval to higher education or can influence their professional or vocational advancement. Therefore, English grammar is essential and students have to manage well the rules and apply them in order to do satisfactorily on such tests.

Due to these considerations, it is evident that the study of the conditionals in particular and English system in general becomes really important. Whilst I am in agreement with teaching grammar, I cannot recommend a single approach or method, as students have different strategies and styles. I have presented in my paper that there are a lot of inductive approaches which teachers can use in order to expose students to a large chunks of language in meaningful context. I have shown some practical activities that can be replaced with other grammar parts of speech, diverse materials according to their expected outcome: fluency or accuracy.

All in all, starting from my experience as a teacher (12 years) and taking into account all the aspects exemplified in my paper I have come to the conclusion that both teachers and students need to stop rejecting grammar lessons and exercises and dislike them. It is true that teachers need detailed preparation and search for modern and attractive strategies, and in the same time students won’t understand quickly and easy some parts of speech, but there is nothing frightening about grammar if we frame it into an appealing real situations.

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ANNEXES

Teaching through songs

Teaching through Short films-Activity 1: “What if…?”

Transcript

What if we encouraged students to ‘read’ and ‘write’ in all forms of communication, not just the traditional written word?

What if we supported teachers with the tools to teach communication in a more visual way?

What if we placed the image in all its different forms at the centre of teaching in order to encourage creative and imaginative paradigms?

What if we encouraged students to become more actively involved in the, media culture that surrounds them and to become producers rather than just consumers?

What if we helped students acquire the skills to make them film makers of the future?

What if students used film –making as the medium for telling the stories that are relevant and important to them?

What if we brought the media students are creating outside school into the classroom?

What if we gave equal access to all young people so that young film-makers from different communities and different social backgrounds could tell their stories? ( www. film-english.com by Kieran Donaghy)

Teaching through Short films-Activity 2: Short film “Julio Diaz” by Story Corps

Transcript

A social worker in the Bronx, Julio Diaz, was coming home from a long day's work when he had an encounter with a teenager who held him up at knifepoint. This is the story of the unusual way Julio reacted.

So I get off the train, you know I’m walking towards the stairs and this young teenager pulls out a knife, he wants my money. So, I just gave him my wallet, told him ‚Here you go.’

He starts to leave and as he’s walking away, I’m like,

„Hey, wait a minute, you forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm”.

So, you know, he’s looking at me like „what’s going on here?”

He asked me: „Why are you doing this?!

And I’m like …well..”I don’t know, man .If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was go get dinner and, uh if you really want to join me, hey, you’re more than welcome”.

So I’m like, „look, you can follow me if you want.”

You know I just felt maybe he really needs help.

So, you know, we go into the diner where I normally eat, we sit down in the booth. The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, and the waiters come by to say ‚hi’ you know.

So, the kid was like. „Man, but you know everybody here. Do you own this place?”

I’m like, “No, I just eat here a lot.”

He’s like “But you’re even nice to the dishwasher.”

I’m like, “Well …haven’t you been taught you should be nice to everybody””

So, he’s like, “Yeah but I didn’t think people actually behaved that way.”

So I just asked him in the end.

I’m like, you know, “What is it you want out of life?”

He just had almost a sad face, either he couldn’t answer me or he didn’t want to.

The Bill came and I looked at him and I’m like, “look, uh, I guess you’re going to have to pay for this

bill cause, you have my money and I can’t pay for this, so…If you give me my wallet back. I’ll gladly treat you”.

He didn’t even think about it. He’s like, “yeah, ok. Here you go”.

So I got my wallet back and I gave him twenty dollars, for it I figure.

Maybe it’ll help him, I don’t know. And, when I gave him the twenty dollars. I asked him to give me something in return, which was his knife, and he gave it to me.

You know, it’s funny, cause when I told my mum about what happened, you know, no mom wants to hear this. But, with her, she was like . “Well you know, you’re the type of kid. That if someone asks you for the TIME, you gave them your watch”.

You know, I figure, you treat people right you can only hope that they treat you right. It’s as simple as it gets. In this complicated world. ( www. Film-english.com by Kieran Donaghy)

Teaching through pictures- Activity 4: “Past regrets”