Teach English in Yingli Zhen - Heze Shi

Teaching multiple tenses might sound frightening; sometimes a sole tense already can be a challenge but two are even more. However seems difficult for the first time but not as much as you would think. In the following essay I will explain and show some examples. As a matter of fact, in this case we can talk about two main factors: which tenses are we talking about and what level we would like to teach. First of all there is a general rule: basic tenses are for lower level students harder ones are for intermediates. Despite this many of the higher level students need a quick review on basic tenses as their knowledge might be flawed. Also for higher level students reviewing basic tenses is a very easy task whereas for lower levels anything can be challenging what is new. For this reason we can agree that in general we don’t teach basic grammar or at least not too much for higher level students and obviously we do never teach higher level grammar for lower level students. Henceforth the given examples follow this rationale as well. Sure there are other facts that we ought to consider as well such as the age of the learners and the number of the students etc. For instance younger generations usually allow slower pace meanwhile individual students always progress faster. Here are some examples in increasing difficulty: Present simple & present continuous - the classical duo. Always taught together for beginners because in that case they will keep it in mind that there are two (which can be problematic for some students since in some languages there is only one present tense) and they will keep distinguishing them from each other all along in the beginning until they use them proficiently. During the first lessons it might be difficult for them but later it pays back. In the other hand sometimes once they immerse in one of them even only for a bit it is harder to comprehend the differences between the two. Of course teaching both tenses simultaneously takes more time than only one of them but not more than teaching both after each other. Past simple & present perfect - the must. Definitely here past simple is need to be taught first. It is the easier one but since differentiating is generally difficult - even middle level students have problems with it – pre-teaching it gives us a great advantage. After they obtained it, they can move on the present perfect where past simple should be represented as well otherwise they won’t get it. Again for lower levels it is harder due to they translate a lot and mostly if they translate present perfect they get past simple in their native language. Future forms – the multiple choice. Will, going to, present simple and present continuous for future. Well this one takes more steps. First will and going to come only after they know them more or less can moved on to include the presents as well and since they have learnt their formula before hence it is easier to adapt. Present simple used in the future is almost never a problem however realizing the slight difference between going to and present progressive usually is. This problem occurs occasionally even after learning new thing so it might need to be checked sometimes. Doing exercises where all these can be found can be a very good practise. Perfect continuous tenses - the stepchildren. 3 tenses which are neither liked nor used too often. Of course these are not taught for lower levels but somehow students are still afraid of these tenses before learning them maybe because they are both perfect and continuous maybe because they have no idea what they can be but after learning the present perfect progressive they realize it isn’t a monster and can get pretty confident with it. After that point it is a good help for the past or the future (but only after). Well here it isn’t a good idea to teach them at once but very useful comparison and parallel that we can rely on. These are just the most common ones but of course there are many other possibilities i.e. future continuous and future perfect or perfect simple and perfect continuous tenses. It may vary from teacher to teacher. As the above examples show teaching multiple tenses shouldn’t be a bugaboo for anyone. Of course some fact must be considered before but all of this experience comes by practise. In my personal opinion it is not only useful but also necessary sometimes. As it is written here there are many cases when we can teach multiple tenses for the reasons that they often make our work easier and also can be very convenient. So why not doing it?