[etni] Grammar: first tenses

From: "David R. Herz" <drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 13:10:19 +0200
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Perhaps the problem is that we think we need to teach one tense and then
another.  In math it has been found that when concepts are mixed up, they
are learned better and students are better able to apply them.  I don't have
the cite, but the idea is that when we drill one formula and test on that,
students learn how to use it, but mostly in the limited context of the next
test, all on that formula.  Then a move is made to the next concept, but
then when students are later given a test mixing the two, they are less sure
of what to apply and how the concepts relate.

 

Hebrew speakers come to the English class knowing that there is one present
tense (maybe also knowing that there are Hebrew binyanim and how to parse
them), and probably think that that is how languages work.  When we start on
one or another tense, they probably think that is the one, and set that as a
default position.  How many students seem to have marked preferences for one
or the other of our present tenses (I find particularly cute the partiality
to the present perfect)?

 

Perhaps the answer is to expose them to all four of our present tenses at
the outset, let them know that the same applies past and future, and dispel
their notion of an all-purpose present (or past or future) at the outset.
It may cause more confusion at first, but might lead to better results in
the end.

 

So if any of you are going for your masters, or Ph.D., here's a thesis that
might be worth some attention.  Who knows, maybe it has already been
attended to.

 

David R. Herz

drh16@xxxxxxxxxxx

drherz69@xxxxxxxxx

davidrherz@xxxxxxxxx

Skype: drherz

972-52-579-1859

1-203-517-0518

 

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[etni] Grammar: first tenses

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