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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Past tense tension

I understand that for the past 100 years or so most traditional grammar books have defined the English past tense in this way:



the past tense expresses or indicates a time that is in the past.

What damage do you think such explanations of the past tense have done to ESL students learning?
  

Top answer

Anonymous What damage do you think such explanations of the past tense have done to ESL students learning? Negligible damage, I think. That statement alone is not sufficient to influence learners in general, taken out of context.

— Kooyeen

  • Anonymous What damage do you think such explanations of the past tense have done to ESL students learning?
  • Negligible damage, I think.
  • That statement alone is not sufficient to influence learners in general, taken out of context.
  • To have an effect, learners would have had to take that short sentence literally, understand its meaning exactly, generalize it to every context, remember it, and then not let anything or anyone else affect their cognition with respect to that "rule".
  • Not likely, so negligible damage.
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12 Answers
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AnonymousWhat damage do you think such explanations of the past tense have done to ESL students learning?
Negligible damage, I think. That statement alone is not sufficient to influence learners in general, taken out of context. To have an effect, learners would have had to take that short sentence literally, understand its meaning exactly, generalize it to ev
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Not likely, so negligible damage. If you think otherwise, prove it.

Well I wasn't thinking of going to court over this. It's just a question coming from years of working in ESL and hearing students ask why some past tense use does not refer to the past. I often get intermediate students asking that.
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You merely need to explain that earlier indicative and subjunctive forms were superseded by the modern past tense forms. It should take 30 seconds or so.

(The apparent anomaly is not unique to English, by the way. For instance, French students already use the imperfect in the if-clause of their first language "second" conditionals.)

MrP
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<You merely need to explain that earlier indicative and subjunctive forms were superseded by the modern past tense forms. >

Using those words?
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If you wish. You might add that the precise "time" of the verb is often determined by the drift and nature of the sentence, rather than the verbal form itself.

MrP
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MrPedanticIf you wish. You might add that the precise "time" of the verb is often determined by the drift and nature of the sentence, rather than the verbal form itself.

MrP

From which language level up would I be able to relay such information using such words?

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Anonymous
From which language level up would I be able to relay such information using such words?


You would use your students' native language, of course.

MrP
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You would use your students' native language, of course.

Me? Or do you mean "one"?
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It was in answer to:
Anonymous
From which language level up would I be able to relay such information using such words?


MrP
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So are you saying that most ESL teachers speak the L1 of their students?
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