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12 thoughts on “Past vs. Present”

  1. Thanks so much, Ben. Of course it makes sense that speaking is naturally done so much in the past tense. Quick procedural question – After presenting the structures and PQAing mostly in the present, do you put the past tense versions on the board when you start to tell the story? Or is this all just oral/aural?

    I’ve been doing it my way for a few years, and my kids do not usually get their tenses right when they speak or write. I’m just going to have to be disciplined and train myself to ask stories in the past.

    1. …after presenting the structures and PQAing mostly in the present, do you put the past tense versions on the board when you start to tell the story? Or is this all just oral/aural?….

      It’s oral/aural with the right thumb going over the right shoulder to indicate the past while the laser pointer or left hand points to or touches the structure (written on the board in the present tense).

      There is lots of thumb throwing while they shift their awareness to understanding it in the past. Usually all day Tuesday. But, by the time we have finished the story on Wednesday, they generally have aquired three structures in two tenses by then.

      Then, in the reading class on Thursday, it’s all gravy – the structures have been pretty much acquired in three tenses (present/past/imperfect), and they can read and discuss in the present.

      Then the week ends on Friday (different from Robert below) with the reading and discussion of the novel that has been read in ten minute snippets to start each class all week, and that Friday novel reading is in whatever tense the novel wants to teach, reflecting what Robert said about reading naturally in his comment below.

  2. As Ben says, we each do what feels most natural to us. This is what my week looks like:
    Monday: German Soccer League discussion (primarily past tense, since the games have already been played, but some present tense and predictions in the future tense [who will win? who/where/how/when will your team play?]); Schwätzen wir (“Let’s chat” about the weekend; primarily past tense but other tenses as appropriate); begin Constructing Meaning (structures for story); CWB (lower level); Content-based instruction (upper level)
    Tuesday: CWB, PQA, begin a story (primarily in present tense); Content-based instruction (upper level; often in past tense because historical, but also lots of present tense PQA discussion)
    Wednesday: continue as Tuesday
    Thursday: story reading in past tense; six-panel storyboard; re-tell in past
    Friday: music, discussion of novel and interpretive quiz (upper levels), dictation, timed writing, etc., discussion of weekend plans (future)

    If past tense is similar to present tense, I don’t write it separately on the board, but I do check for comprehension. If the form is very different, I write it on the board. For example “spielte” is very similar to “spielt”, so I just make sure the students know it is past tense form but don’t write it on the board unless someone asks; “wollte” is very different from “will”, so I write it down. Think about English: play-played is a close combination, but go-went is not. Which would students be able to get without writing it down? Of course, if there is confusion, you have to clear up the confusion. I co-taught a workshop with Jason Fritze on Saturday, and he emphasized that students often don’t hear even exact cognates or make connections we think are obvious, so we have to do whatever is necessary to make the language transparent. His example is a student he had who could not recognize “elefante”, either spoke or written, as a cognate of “elephant”.

    Really listen to students’ English conversations. Their tenses are jumbled there, too, but they know whether the action is past, present or future. We are trying to get them to think about it, which is good for writing but not always necessary for speaking. When I was learning Greek, we talked about the use of the “historical present”. All that means is that once I have established that the action is in the past, I can tell it in the present. Example: “Last week we went to see the new film and stopped to have dinner before the show. While we’re waiting* to get into the restaurant, this guy comes up to us and offers us . . . .” What happened here? I took you into the story through the present tense, but an English teacher would mark off for this because it “confuses the tenses”; it may confuse the tenses, but it doesn’t confuse the listener, who knows that the guy isn’t offering something right there in the present. This is simply a way to make the story livelier and more compelling – and we all do it naturally in our native language.

    *Notice how cleverly and effortlessly a native speaker makes the transition. Is “we’re waiting” past (we were waiting) or present (we are waiting)?

  3. So, yesterday we had our first collegial circle (there are now four CI-teachers in our district and we meet weekly to discuss ideas/progress, coach each other etc.) and this was exactly the question that came up. All of us had different ideas on how to approach this, but in the end it all came down to the realization that we PQA and ask stories in the present and then write it up/read it in the past tense. We also found that we use direct speech to emphasize other tenses within the reading. That just seems to come most natural to us.

  4. Oh, and one more request. Ben, would it be possible to also store this post in the “grammar” section? This is probably where I would look for it if I needed to refer back to it in the future (and I know I will – have to refer back to it, mean). Merci en avance!

  5. Teaching English to French speakers has its own pitfalls. My students tend to think that the present tense is easier than the past to use, because they learned it first, but actually very very few of them are able to choose correctly from the three forms of the present tense in English. Whereas the Simple past is the least complicated in English. When they are writing, I tell them that they will make fewer mistakes if they stick to the simple Past.

    So I prefer to tell stories in the Present, so I can work in present perfect and present continuous when it’s appropriate, and write them up in the past. They have no problems reading the stories, so they gradually accept that there’s nothing complicated about the past tense. And they are getting lots of input in the three present forms so that they can eventually acquire the ability to choose between them.

  6. Even though I was trained in the manner Ben’s describes (oral past, written present) and therefore tend to stick to that, I don’t feel bad at all writing up the stories sometimes in the past, even though they heard them in the past too. Several of the first year novels written for a first year audience (piratas, pobre ana, esperanza, isabela, etc) are written in the present tense, so they’re going to see tons of present tense in the novel readings. Also, I always TPR the verbs in the present indicative, so they’re getting that exposure also.

  7. Yes Jim, you are right. I sometimes do write stories up in the past if I forget to write them in the past, and they do get all that present tense exposure in the beginning novels. Again, there is no one way to do it.

  8. I’m with Jim on this. There is no “magic” formula.

    Much, also, has to do with level, age, literacy levels in first language (decoding ability advanced enough to attend to minutia of text like verb endings or small words like le or lo/la).

    Working with younger students, many of whom do not have the abstract concept of time well developed yet and whose reading skills are still developing, I found that sticking to one tense (formally) in stories and readings worked better. That doesn’t mean that I don’t speak the other tenses or that they don’t hear them.

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