AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
To teach simple past8/31/2023 ![]() ![]() Get the students to repeat the pronunciation again. Then go back to the board, underline the key sounds, possibly including more phonetic help, like this: Use the modeling and repetition technique to get the students to follow your pronunciation of the words. You can also write some homemade phonetic spelling after it, like. When you are first presenting the past simple or when you encounter students having this problem, go to the board and write "fact" followed by the problematic words. Most students at this point will be familiar with the word "fact." You can show your students that the ending sound of the walked, talked and worked is the same as the ending sound in fact. Here's a tip for overcoming this pronunciation problem.Ī special tip for pronunciation of words like "walked" Many students find the pronunciation of the ends of these words difficult at first. However, we do combine some difficult sounds together when it comes to words like "worked," "talked" and "walked." Many students have a hard time with this, and try to make these words two syllables when they say them, like "wor-ked." So this is a rule of thumb for why some verbs add a syllable with the addition of "-ed" and some don't. If your students are up for an explanation, when presenting the rule about when "-ed" is an extra syllable or not, you can try to tell them what the rule is bases on: It is based on what is easier or possible to pronounce versus what is not.įor example, it is possible to put the sound at the end of "wash" together with the "t" sound of "-ed" and so make it one syllable: "washed." The same goes for "watched" and "laughed" and "called" and all the words in the first two columns.īut it is not possible to combine together the end of "want" with a "t" sound because they are the same, so we say "want ed." The same goes all the words like those in the third column, like "end" and "ended." (In Lesson 3 we used it for contractions, but the same technique can be used here.) You can use the "squashing" technique when you present the first two columns to help you students understand that we learned in Lesson 3. They will pronounce "walked" as two syllables, like "wall-ked." They will be confused, because "wanted" is indeed pronounced as two syllables, "wan-ted", but "walked" is not.īesides clearly demonstrating the sounds by example, it helps many students to see a chart like this: Many students have difficulties with the -ed endings. Pronunciation is another aspect of teaching the past simple. ![]() The lesson plan on the past simple below is an introduction to irregular verbs that reviews regular verbs at the same time. It is possible to introduce the past simple, and to do a lesson on it, while avoiding the issue of irregular verbs until a later class.Įveryday verbs such as to work, to talk and to walk are regular verbs, so a class can be conducted using just those verbs before introducing the devilish problems of irregular verbs. Teaching regular and irregular verbs together Eat, drink, think, speak, go, come, sit, stand, write, read. Then I continue with "Now the bad news: Irregular verbs are all the common activities of the day. So 95% of verbs follow the simple rule of adding "-ed" in the past simple tense. Ninety-five percent of English verbs are regular. Then I say something like this: "I have good news and bad news. I showing the students how they can change in the past tense, how and why they must be memorized, etc. I often present this to my students as a "good news, bad news" scenario.Īfter introducing (and probably a classroom lesson on) regular verbs, I introduce the subject of irregular verbs. Irregular verbs can be a big challenge for students because there really is little rhyme or reason to their forms. In teaching the past tenses, regular verbs versus irregular verbs is a big issue. Irregular verbs, the good news and the bad news This article will review the subject of regular and irregular verbs, discuss how to teach them in the past simple tense, go over some tips on how to teach pronunciation of verbs in the past simple tense, and explore a lesson plan for an introductory class on the past simple that includes both regular and irregular verbs. You can't take for granted that the difference in verb tenses will be obvious or clear. Some languages approach the concept of speaking about the past in a very different way than English, and teachers must keep this in mind. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |