Search results for 'tag:Conversations tag:Tenses' matching tags 'Conversations' and 'Tenses'

TEFL TRAINING FOR TEACHERS IN I.L.L TEMARA

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:18:39 GMT

TEFL/TESOL Course in I.L.L

We offer our TEFL/TESOL Course which meets international standards and follows The English Teaching criteria with over 120 hours of class time and observed teacher practice. Our fully accredited program is a recognized member of London Academy and CIABT Academy and pebble hills univesity fully in patrnership with.
We provide the unique opportunity to experience evolving from "student" to "teacher". This hands-on program is designed to engage the trainee with active participation. We maintain small class sizes to promote a more intense environment and whenever possible trainers will model teaching techniques and activities which trainees will use in the classroom. We adopt ,essentially, the communicative approach. We take a modern approach in all of our courses, utilizing cutting-edge technology in a multi-cultural environment. We also include a variety of activities based on course books, audio-visual aids and specially-created materials. We emphasize effective development in the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) with special attention paid to communication and conversation in different contexts and situations.
Unlike many certificate programs, we provide the opportunity to teach both children and adults which is important when looking for work abroad.
The TESOL Certificate- Teachers of English to Students of Other Languages- provides training for those who have little or no teaching experience who wish to enter the English teaching profession.
Our course is externally moderated with all major segments graded before successful completion of the course.
The course is four weeks which entails 120 hours of classroom time. The first two weeks are mostly classroom sessions. The main components included are;

Grammar
Phonology
Teaching Techniques
Classroom Management
Teaching of an unknown language

In the first two weeks, our trainees are students and while moving into the second two weeks, they assume the role of teacher by participating in Observed Teacher Practice. After all, the best way to learn anything is to actually do it.

must be past perfect?

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:01:40 GMT

Hi,

I was looking at an article named "Metropolitan Diary" DATED October 16, 2000 by ENID NEMY from the New York Times and wonder if the past perfect tenses are absolutely required in some of the situations noted.

Passages from the article:

When he said he hadn't seen the item in almost half a century, the owner insisted he take a package without charge. -- To me, the past perfect tense was used in "he hadn't seen the item" since it is using the reported speech of "he say he didn't see the item in almost half a century."

"Finally the shoeshine was finished, and I said, 'It was nice talking to you,' when I suddenly realized that his conversation hadn't been addressed to me. He had been talking on his cellular phone the whole time. Needless to say, I was embarrassed. -- To me, the past perfect use as in "that his conversation hadn't been addressed to me" is good since it denotes the sequence of events as it being previous to the realizing of what happened but could this OK?
... , when I suddenly realized that his conversation wasn't addressed to me. Does it have to be a past perfect tense as Clive seemed to have said something like this rhetorically: If something occurred before something else, why not make it clear?

Then the light dawned and the musician realized trhat Mr. Sweeney was asking about the music and not inquiring about his profession. -- Why is there no need to change to passive past perfect like this since my reading of this is that the asking probably has occurred before Mr. Sweeney's realization -- why not make it passive past perfect here when the noted writer has used past perfect in a previous case although not in passive?? Then the light dawned and the musician realized that Mr. Sweeney had been asking about the music and not had been inquiring about his profession.

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

Mister Micawber — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:22:11 GMT

.
Oh, I can always find something else (but I may have messed up your formatted columns):

Lesson Plan

Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb ( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? No, she didn't. )

Assumed knowledge: Past Simple (regular / irregular verbs, negative form)

Anticipated problems:

Students may use a past form of the main verb to make the question instead of using the base form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.(This is not true for the verb 'be' and sometimes the verb 'have'.)
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having students unscramble sentences

can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past, using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences. Four pictures of people doing things.

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scattergories (*spelling? I don't know this word) with pre-chosen* themes (food, things you do on the weekend, etc) Review homework from last class	TS ST	5 mins
2	Introduction : Have two students stand up for a moment to set the scene; elicit their names. Then they can sit down. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS SS	1 min
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer gist questions about it to check their understanding.	S ST	3 min
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST	1 min
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the main verb in questions, but always the base (or dictionary) form	TS	5 min
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST	2 min
7	Elicit: Draw students' attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + subject + did -- Yes, I did. No + subject + didn't -- No, I didn't.	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action on the board : - go to the restaurant / movies / market / bank / etc.) Â» Sandrine: Â« Did you go to the restaurant? Â« Didier: Â« Yes, I did. Â» etc.	ST SS	2 min 5 min
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure, so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW	5 min
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example, show a picture of two friends having a conversation; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? -- Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS	1 min 2 min
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS	1 min
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they themselves did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW	5 min
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. For example, use questions and answers in which the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back into the correct order.	S	5 min
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

mzl14000 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:57:02 GMT

Hello again,
Here is a cleaned-up version of my lesson plan. I'm an insecure wreck, therefore I dare ask for another look at my work...
Thanks again for the earlier help.
MZL

Lesson Plan
Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb

( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? )

Assumed Knowledge: Past Simple ( regular / irregular verbs ,negative form )

Anticipated Problems:

Students may use a past form of the verb to make the question instead

of using the Simple form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having them put scrambled sentences

in order can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences. Four pictures of people doing things.

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST	5 mins
2	Introduction : Have two students stand up for a moment to set the scene; elicit their names. Then they can sit down. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS SS	1 min
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer gist questions on it to check their understanding.	S ST	3 min
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST	1 min
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the base ( or dictionary ) form	TS	5 min
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST	2 min
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes, I did. No + Subject + didn't No, I didn't.	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action on the board : - go to the restaurant - go to the movies ) Â» - go to the market - go to the bank Sandrine: Â« Did you go to the restaurant? Â« Didier: Â« Yes, I did. Â» etc.	ST SS	2 min 5 min
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW	5 min
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example show a picture of two friends having a conversation ; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS	1 min 2 min
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS	1 min
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW	5 min
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S	5 min
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)	S	2 min

Re: Simple Past Lesson Plan

Mister Micawber — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:18:55 GMT

.
Overall, it should work fine, MZL. A few corrections and fewer comments:

Objective: To be able to use the Past Simple question forms and short answers.

Target Language: did + subject + base (or 'dictionary') form of verb ( Did your mother call you? ) -- It is best to save the term 'infinitive' for that function.

Question word + did + subject + base form of verb ( What did you do last night? )

Anticipated Problems: Students may use statements without using the auxiliary verb.

E.g. You went out yesterday? -- This is a common question form in current English. It cannot be considered incorrect.

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past Simple.
Point out the verb tense in the question form. Did + subject + base form of the verb

Preparation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warm up : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST
2	Introduction : Using a picture of two young women, elicit from students their names. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with) -- *This picture is a useless prop. Visual prompts, if used, should be rich in potential material.* *Have 2 students stand up for a moment to set the scene; then they can sit down.*	TS ST
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer specific gist questions on it to check their understanding.-- *There is no such thing as a 'specific gist' question. The two terms are antonymic. Questions are either for gist (a general impression) or for specific response.*	S ST
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + base Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the base (or dictionary) form.	TS
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes I did No + Subject + didn't No I didn't	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question-and-answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action the board : - go to the restaurant - go to the movies ) Â»	ST SS
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners' answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure, so it is important to correct any errors by referring to the structures on the board.	PW
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example, show a picture of two friends having a conversation; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture examples as prompts.	TS SS TS
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS SS
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions and give short answers.	PW
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affirmative statements into questions and short answers)	S

Simple Past Lesson Plan

mzl14000 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:40:33 GMT

Would anybody be kind enough to tell me what they think of this lesson plan I've made for my TEFL module ? Any suggestions ??
Thanks so much .

MZL

Lesson Plan
Preparation

Level : Elementary

Lesson Length: 45 minutes

Objective: To be able to use the Past simple question forms and shot answers.

Target Language: did + subject + infinitive form of verb ( Did your mother call you? )

Question word + subect + did + subject + infinitive form of verb

( What did you do last night? )

Short answers:

Yes + subject + did ( Did it rain? Yes, it did.)

No + subject + didn't ( Did Helen come to the party? )

Assumed Knowledge: Past simple ( regular / irregular verbs ,negative form )

Anticipated Problems: Students may use statements without using the auxiliary verb.

E.g. You went out yesterday? Instead of, ( Did you go out yesterday? )

Students may use a past form of the verb to make the question instead

of using the Simple form. E.g. Did you went?

Solutions:

During the presentation stage, draw students' attention to the fact that 'Did' does not change its form. 'Did' is always used to form the question in the Past simple.
Point out the verb tense in the quuestion form. Did + subject + infinitive of the verb
Drill individually and chorally.
Practice making questions. Monitoring for errors and having them put scrambled sentences

in order can also help to work on sentence structure problems.

Preperation and Aids: Simple reading text ,dialogue, in the Simple Past using vocabulary that

students are already familiar with. Handout for homework correcting sentences

Lesson Plan

Stage	Activity	Interaction	Timing
1	Warmer : Timed Scatergories with pre-picked themes (food, things you do on the weekend...) Review homework from last class	TS ST
2	Introduction : Using a picture of two young women, elicit from students their names. Write them on the board. Hand out the dialogue between these two friends who are talking about their past weekend. (A dialogue that mostly contains vocabulary the students are familiar with)	TS ST
3	Have students read the dialogue and answer specific gist questions on it to check their understanding.	S ST
4	Ask students to focus on the language used by asking what question Â« A Â» asked Â« B Â». Write this question on the board.	TS ST
5	Presentation : Show students how it is formed Did + Subject + Infinitive Did you have a good weekend ? Point out that we don't use the past form of the verb in questions, but always the infinitive.	TS
6	Drill chorally and individually. Focus on pronunciation and correct structure.	TST
7	Elicit : Draw students attention to the short answer and explain the positive and the negative structures. Yes + Subject + did Yes I did No + Subject + didn't No I didn't	TS
8	Drill chorally and individually and then conduct a controlled question and answer drill around the class : E.g : Â« Sandrine ask Didier...(point to an action the board : - go to the resaurant - go to the movies ) Â»	ST SS
9	Pairwork : Students ask and answer questions from the board and note down their partners answers. The focus here is on correct pronunciation and structure so it is important to correct any errors by refering to the structures on the board.	PW
10	Controlled Oral Practice : Use Dialogue text as a basis to talk about what the two characters did on the weekend. Also use visual support such as a picture of a restaurant to prompt questions. For example show a picture of two friends having a conversation ; encourage them to produce the following question : Â« Did they go to a restaurant ? Yes, they did / No, they didn't. Â» Give four picture expamples as prompts.	TS SS TS
11	Monitor closely. Correct errors by using what's already on the board as a point of reference.	TS SS
12	If students are performing well, turn focus to what they did on the weekend. They ask each other questions ans give short answers.	PW
13	Follow up with controlled written practice. I could use questions and answers where the words are all mixed up ; students put the words back in the correct order.	S
14	Homework : a transformation exercise (changing affermative statements into questions and short answers)	S

tense switching

New2grammar — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:24:45 GMT

If a man comes home early and finds his wife in bed with another man, raged by what he saw, he got into a fight with his wifeâs lover, subsequently killing him with a knife during the struggle.

Is this tense switching common? I tend to do this in casual conversation too.
Thanks.

Re: Little detective story-PLS correct it-Urgent!!

Grammar Geek — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:45:10 GMT

Another Ordinary Night

It was just another ordinary night at Al's bar. An unlucky fly paced up and down the window, looking for escape. While Al poured in some coffee for the lady and man laughly loudly ~~having loud laughters audiable~~ outside the bar if they are outside the bar, why is he serving them?, he saw~~/sees~~ a dark figure enter~~ing the bar~~. ~~This man~~ He was dressed in a long ~~manteling - I don't know this word black mackintosh~~ dark trenchcoat with a hat pulled low over his face. ~~and a hat bent far over, covering his appearance~~. Without ~~saluting~~ saying a word, he ~~quietly~~ sat down at the far end of the bar, isolated from the ~~rest~~ other patrons, ~~and~~ and signalled for Al~~, the bartender~~ to take his order.

''Give me the strongest of whatever you've got," he growled ~~with his~~ in a low and hoarse voice.

"Right away, sir," replied Al, in his typical, benevolent manner, ~~like he always is~~ and he got ~~gets~~ a bottle of whisky for his mysterious ~~ly strange~~ customer. "So, are you new in this neighbourhood? I haven't seen you before?'' he asked amiably.

Sluggishly, the man turned his face to Al, just enough to cast his a fierce ~~eye~~ gaze on him, making clear that he didn't appreciate attempts at a friendly ~~chat/~~conversation ~~like this~~. Al moved away from this anti-social ~~mystique~~ figure and took the bill of the laughing couple, who were still mischiviously flirting. The couple gave Al a big smile for his hospitality and left the bar hand-in-hand looking intimimately to each other. When the door closed with a bang, Al turned around to wash the dirty glasses.

Without turning to his enigmatic customer, a strange feeling grew ~~crawls~~ within him. He didn't find it pleasant being in ~~one~~ the room alone with a chap like this, and half expecting to be grabbed and ripped to shreds, but ~~he didn't let himself get scared/~~calmed himself; ~~because~~ he had served worse. Just as he was about to dry the glasses, he heard the door close with a silent click. He turned around and was able to see the dark man vanishing from sight in the deserted street. He walked back to the place where the man had sat down and his eye caughts sight of a hundred-pound note ~~of hundred pound~~ lying peacefully next to the empty glass of whisky ~~staring at him~~. He was completely dumbfounded! Could it be a mistake? No, of course not, the man just wanted to set right his unmannerly behaviour. Highly ~~satiated~~ pleased, Al looked again to the hundred-pound note.

Then he noticed that the customer had spilled some of his drink on the dark mahogany-coloured bar surface. Al took his piece of cloth and cleaned the spilled drink, but as the smile on his face turned into a look of horror. ~~abomination.~~ The spilled liquid was not ~~didn't turn out to be~~ whisky, but dark-red blood. Frightened Al dropped his rag and looked at the floor, and saw ~~on which~~ drops of blood leading to the exit. Panic stuck him ~~through the head~~ as he realized that this man could have been the serial killer that the police have been looking for weeks on end.

1. You shift tenses from presnt to past to present to past, etc. You much either tell the story entirely in the present, or entirely in the past.

2. When you have dialogue, you must start a new paragraph each time someone speaks.

3. Does a hundre pounds really seem like a likely thing to leave if you've been a bit rude? That seems excessive. Al should be more suprised than he is, and more pleased - he shouldn't just say to himself "Of course he left it because he wasn't very polite.

4. Is there a reason to think that just because someone is bleeding, he is a serial killer? Had Al seen sketches of the suspect on TV? Did he leave behind a bloody knife? If he had someone else's blood on him, does it seem like it would keep dripping after all this time? It sounds like the poor man himself was bleeding.

Re: After any argument

Clive — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:52:17 GMT

Hi,

I have an argument with my girlfriend and we met after calm down. Is the following conversation correct?

Ben: May... you are back. When you ran away, I felt really upset.

May: I was mad at you Ben.........I needed to run away or I would have exploded.

or (the present tense version means they are talking about their routine, what always happens every time they argue)'

Bn: May... you are back. When you run away, I feel really upset.

May: I was mad at you Ben.........(Whenever we argue) I need to run away or I will explode.

'Explode' here means 'really, really lose my temper and get angry'. Is that what you mean?

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Follow-up to "Nagging conditional problem"

Mr Wordy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:23:40 GMT

Anonymous

If you happen to have money (with/on you), could/would you lend me some? [this is more about present -- if the if-clause is in present tense, can we use the modals 'could' and 'would'? Does the phrase 'happen to have' make any difference here?

Should you have money (with/on you), could/would you lend me some? ["chancy" should -- To me, 'should' here is functionally equal to "if", so the sentence could be read:

If you have money (with/on you), could/would you lend me some?

The first sentence means essentially the same as "...can/will you lend me some?", but "could/would" has the effect of "softening" the request -- making it seem less direct. The use of "happen to have" (as opposed to just "have") makes no difference to the point you're asking about.

In the second sentence there is, to me, no tangible difference in meaning between "should" and "if". However, the version with "should" is more formal (or even slightly old-fashioned), and, in my part of the world, is much less likely to be heard in ordinary conversation. (In fact, in real life, I would in this context usually say "If you have any money...".)