Part A 1. Introduction Teaching English If-conditional sentences to Chinese students is always a challenge for English teachers. English teachers are still continuously seeking for an effective method to make the language point more understandable for students. The probability approach put forward by Mei Wu (2012) provides a clear classification of conditional sentences. Based on her theory, conditional sentences can be mainly divided into four types. In terms of probability, type 1 is the factual conditionals (zero condition) which mean the event is definitely happen to meet the condition stated in the if-clause. Type2 is the predictive conditionals which refer to the event that has high possibility to happen in the future while type 3 is the hypothetical conditionals (second conditional) which used to describe the situation which has low probability to become true. Both type2 and type 3 use past tense to express different meaning. Then, past perfect tense is used in the situation which is impossible to take place in the past in type 4. (Wu, 2012) Based upon the interview, students are confusing about the tense in the second conditional sentence. What students have learnt in the previous class is that past tense only used to describe things took place in the past. Therefore, they find it difficult to understand why past tense verb should be used in the if-clause to express something happen in the present or future in imaginary situation. Moreover, we may easily observed that Chinese people seldom change tenses and modality in verb phrase to differentiate the conditional situation because there is only one verb tense in Chinese language. (Zhang, 2005:18) The purpose of this paper is to discuss the approaches to enhance the effect... ... middle of paper ... ...e EFL classroom. ELT journal, 52(4), 301-307 Gerngross, G & Puchta, H. (1992). Creative Grammar Practice: Getting Learners to Use Both Sides of the Brain. England: Longman Group UK Limited Long, M, H. & Doughty, C, J. ( Eds.).(2009). The Handbook of Language Teaching. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Nunan, D. (1997). Teaching Grammar in Context. ELT Journal, 52(2), 101-109 Nassaji, H., & Fotos, S. (2011). The role of context in focus on grammar: Teaching Grammar in Second Language Classroom (pp.121-134). New York and London: Routhdge Robert M. Dekeyser. ().What Makes Learning Second-Language Grammar Difficult? A review of issues. Wang, Q. (2006). A course in English language teaching. Beijing: Higher Education Press Wu, M. (2012). The Probability Approach to English If-conditional Sentences. Canadian Center of Science and Education, 5(5), 37-41. doi: 10.5539/ elt.v5n5p37
My mom would always say, “American born Chinese students have it easy in America.” One key difference between the American education system and Chinese education system is the way they are taught. Being raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I went to school to understand the idea of analyzing and understanding concepts. After reading Only Hope, I realized that their education is based on more memorizations. To Chinese students, understand the concept and apply it is not the most important, you must just memorize it for the exam. Many parents in China would say that going on vacation and relaxing is a waste of time because they need to focus on learning. In Greenspan’s article, it mentions that a student in China is the top of her class and is fluent in English, yet she cannot go on vacation because her mother wants her to spend time learning, many students in China
...ive. However, I remain reluctant to conclude that his thesis is an ultimately correct truth-functional account of the meaning of indicative conditionals due to the number of objections that Jackson acknowledges. Nevertheless, I believe that Jackson proposes several philosophically convincing reasons which support the thought that all indicative conditionals are material conditionals.
Tchudi, Susan J, and Stephen Tchudi. The English Language Arts Handbook: Classroom Strategies for Teachers. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1999. Print.
Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2006 or 2010). An introduction to language (8th ed. or 9th ed.) USA: Cengage Learning.
But halfway through the 20th Century, research on the value of grammar education began to surface and there was no strong correlation between the teaching of grammar and a student’s ability to avoid usage errors, the once strict education structure was dropped. With traditional techniques abandoned, the vacuum was filled with new approaches. Structural linguistics, based around the importance of the way words form sentences, began to take the place of its predecessor but was then quickly challenged by transformational grammar, a more abstract concept than the prior two. With arguments from the structural and transformational side both pushing that the other was unscientific, the importance of grammar was abandoned. Though schools are beginning to reintroduce grammar in education, there has been a firm separation between learning grammar and learning usage.
Teaching strategies of a foreign language class have evolved from a long history of useless methods that do not fulfill the goal of language acquisition. The main goal of a foreign language class in terms of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards is that the students be able to communicate using the foreign language. Communication refers to the student’s ability to converse with a native speaker of the language that has been studied. In the past, it was assumed that students must first learn the rules of grammar and then use those rules to construct sentences and communicate, but there have been several linguistic theories that have refuted this methodology.
Swarbrick, A. (2013) Aspects of Teaching Secondary Modern Foreign Languages: Perspectives on Practice. London: Routledge Falmer.
Richards, J. C., Platt, J., & Plat, H. (2000). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied linguistics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
Thus, the book answers numerous practical questions that teachers have often struggled with; for example, how to increase the chances of academic success for language learners, how to use technology to teach language effectively, or how to teach language and content material concurrently. From the preface, the author makes it very clear that the book is designed to support language teachers in their journey as new teachers and throughout their teaching careers. In total, the book contains eleven chapters, which have been divided into four parts. The first part, "What Do Language Teachers Think About?" includes topics of foreign/ second language acquisition theories and language teaching methodologies. This part introduces the background knowledge readers will need in their journey as language teachers. The second part, "How Do You Teach a Language?" introduces approaches to teaching and learning that improve students’ writing, listening, speaking and reading abilities. Each chapter in this part includes suggestions for how students can be motivated and describes teaching and testing approaches to assess students ' language skills and academic literacy. The third part, "How Do I Know What to Teach?" is instrumental in helping teachers adopt teaching practices to particular teaching settings. The fourth part, "Where Do I Go from Here?" helps teachers gain a clearer perspective of what language teaching is all about; this section also considers teacher 's self-assessment and personal
A major proportion of class time is taken up by teachers talking in front of the classroom(Nunan & Bailey, 2009). No matter what teaching strategies or methods a teacher uses, it is necessary to give directions, explain activities and check students’ understanding (Richards & Schimdt, 1985). This clearly emphasizes the importance of teacher talk in language classrooms. Walsh (2011) claimed that teacher talk is more important in language classroom than any other classroom since in this context the language being used by teacher is not only the means of acquiring new knowledge; it is also the goal of the study.
Teaching students a language that is foreign can really be challenging for students as well as for the teachers. The dynamic rule for implementing instructing in a diverse class to English-learners is to use resourceful life skills such as diligence, hard work and patience. There are also methods that are involved in teaching English as a second language that can be creative for the teacher, yet beneficial to the student. First building a strong foundation that is essential to English learners will promote the language acquisition process. To do this teacher’s should always start with preparation. Advance preparation is essential in order to provide necessary adaptations in content area instruction and to make content information accessible for second language lear...
The lesson is designed to give implicit exposure of grammatical features to the students. In some sections of the lesson (e.g. warming up activity and transi...
In most institutions of learning today, the classes are made up of students from different ethnic backgrounds. These have different traditions and also speak different languages. In a typical classroom, the majority of the students will speak the same language. The teacher must then employ strategies which will accommodate all the students in the class. This will ensure that every learner gets the best quality of education. This will enable them to be better prepared for career and expressing themselves. In this paper, strategies to assist learners of the English language in their literal development for third grade learners. In the paper, three strategies that can be used by the teacher will be discussed. New strategies and research that will help the English language learners to gain in depth mastery of the language will also be discussed. Due to the widespread learning of the English language in most schools, addressing issues of the language learners is of vital importance. Teachers should have the understanding that cultures are what give someone identity and therefore no student should leave their culture for another. Instead, there should be the blending of different cultures so that students can appreciate and learn from each other.
WORKS CITED Krashen, Stephen. The. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Pergamon Press, 2003. 1982 Omaggio, Alice C. Teaching Language in Context.
Based on the textbooks in Hong Kong, the students in Primary 5 get the first chance to learn conditional sentences. There are four types in all: Type 0 (any situation which is always true), Type 1(something is going to happen in the future), Type 2 (an imaginary situation which stands no chance of happening or even impossible) and Type 3 (a situation which might have happened in the past but which did not really happen) (Loo, 1996). As time goes by, students will get a better understanding about them in junior high school. Thus, it is not the first time that Miss Wong’s students get to know the target structures. However, some students find that it is hard to understand why we use simple past tense in if-clause to refer to an imaginary situation that is not a real past but impossibility.