THE FIVE BRILLIANT WAYS OF TEACHING A TENSE

THE FIVE BRILLIANT WAYS OF TEACHING A TENSE


INTRODUCTION
In Introduction, a teacher can introduce the type of tense to be learnt in the particular lesson.

  1.         SHOW HOW A TENSE LOOKS LIKE IN A SENTECE.
Guide students on how a tense looks like through:
Reading passages,
Reading dialogues,
Listening to the audios.

Here a teacher may give students a passage or a dialogue to read. He/she should make sure that the passage or dialogues in question have the larger number of sentences about the particular tense. Or a teacher may introduce students to the particular type of tense through games. After reading the text on tense, students are given some comprehension questions about the text.


2.     GIVE OUT FORMS/TYPES, RULES, PATTERNS, AND EXAMPLES.
Bring students to the discussion of the particular tense through giving them:
Rules/formulas of a particular tense,
Structural patterns of the sentences,
Affirmative, negative, and interrogative forms of the particular tense,
More examples of the particular tense,
Pronunciation practices of the particular tense.

At this stage, students are now given the rules, formulas and patterns about a particular type of tense. Rules should not be introduced first. They should be introduced in the next stages like this because when they are introduced at the beginning they make students nervous and thinks of the formulas and rules instead of practicing. This is normal because everyone hates rules! After the rules, the students may be given some examples and they can discuss example of their own.


3.      SHOW HOW IT IS PRACTICED.
Show students how the tense is practised by engaging them in:
Pairs,
Dramatizations,
Role-plays,
Discussions,
Debates,
And other speaking practices.

In pairs or groups, the students really practice or dramatize or role-play the particular type of tense. A teacher should not consider this as a burden because it is through these practises (speaking and listening) when students can boost their mastery of the English tenses.


4.      WHAT WORK IT DOES IN A SENTENCE (ITS FUNCTION).
Teach the students the functions of a particular tense.
Discuss with the students on the functions of the particular tense, that is, how the tense functions in English grammar and in communicative situations of our daily life.


5.      WRITING EXERCISES.
Lastly, give students the time to exercise more about what they have learnt. These exercises are going to prove that they have mastered their tense skills, and if they have not mastered some of the skills, a teacher corrects them after marking their works.


By applying these five brilliant ways of teaching a tense, a teacher will have added another way apart from other ways he/she may have. It is expected that, this one will help as well.

Emmanuel Kachele

Emmanuel Kachele is a founder and Blogger of KACHELE ONLINE Blog, an educational blog where 'O' Level English - 'OLE', 'A' Level English (ALE) and other related teaching and life skills are shared extensively. This is an online center for all Tanzanian Secondary School English Language students and teachers (Forms I-VI) and all interested English Language learners and teachers worldwide.

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