Language Awareness

Task 3

Kevin Stein

You are revising work on the present simple tense with a class of

intermediate or upper intermediate learners. Discuss with them the

six uses of the present simple and give examples of each of the uses.

Try to give your work a specific topic or task as a context.

One of the major issues I have faced while teaching intermediate and

even upper-intermediate level students in Japan is a kind of

narrowness of tense usage. This is at least partially due to the fact

that the Japanese education system still stresses a grammar-

translation method of language learning and a heavy reliance on a

structural syllabus. Students either end up spending an inordinate

amount of time on one dense text at the expense of breadth of

exposure, or speed through artificial readings and dialogues whose

main purpose is the highlighting of a specific set of grammar points.

To exacerbate matters, the university entrance exam system also

tests students' knowledge of grammar as it functions within a relative

narrow register, almost exclusively academic. Even Forest, arguably

the one of the most popular student grammar texts in Japan, provides

a relatively narrow range of functional examples for each tense. The

present simple receives only four examples, of which three are just

variations on habitual actions (Ishiguro, A. 2003, pp. 51-55), and there

is no mention of the present simple tense's usefulness for giving

directions, as a narrative device, or it's use in conjunction with 'with'

to form a time clause.

An extended task, such as writing a class newsletter, could help

learners explore the rich variety of functions in which the present

simple can be used. It could also serve as a source of meaning based

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input which would be both more natural and wider in breath than

those to which learners might normally be exposed.

To introduce the task, I would provide a sample of a family newsletter,

put together from a collection of the newsletters produced yearly by

my parents. The newsletter would have examples of the six uses--

labeled "1)" through "6)" below--of the present simple tense as

identified by Rosemary Aitken (2002, pp. 18-19.).

1) Present simple as narrative device: I would begin by asking

students to find all of the article titles written in the present simple

tense. I would use the article titles "Mamico Joins Family" and "Danny

Moves to India," as my primary examples. I would explain to the

students that when this newsletter was sent to my relatives, I had

already been married to my wife Mamico for seven months and that

my brother Danny had likewise been living in India for nearly a year.

From there students could rewrite all article titles using the present

simple tense in the past tense and we could discuss the tense related

to a sentences sense of immediacy and impact. We could also explore

how, when space is limited, "Mamico Has Joined Our Family," while

grammatically correct, would perhaps stretch the patience of friends

and family who are looking for a relatively quick read. As a class, we

could generate a rule that while all titles would not have to be in the

present simple in their class newsletter, they would want to use it

when it saved valuable page space, and when they wanted to

transmit a stronger sense of immediacy.

2) Present simple for giving instructions, directions or

demonstrations: One of the family recipes is usually in the

newsletter and would serve as an example of how present simple is

used for giving instructions. I could also include a faux-add for the

yearly gathering of my family at my grandmother's house in Florida

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complete with a map and directions of how to get to my

grandmother's house from the airport. I would highlight how the

instructions are, in a sense, timeless truths. To make Jewish stuffed

cabbage like my mother does, regardless of when cooking it, one

would have to follow the instructions. And to get to my

grandmother's house by the best route possible (according to my

father), one should always take highway 38 along the Ocean View

Parkway. And in the recipe article, I would especially highlight how

the beginning of the article, which is a short history of stuffed

cabbage in our family, makes use of the past tense and help contrast

it to the actual recipe itself which is written in the present simple. We

could then identify a number of articles students could include in their

class newsletter which would make use of the present simple tense,

such as how to make effective vocabulary cards or how to flirt in a

foreign language.

3) With a future marker as a timetable future: There are always

a number of family events that my mother has planned which she

then informs the rest of the family about through the newsletter. The

present tense is used liberally when explaining the days planned

activities. I would ask the students to read one such article and then

to rewrite it in the future tense. If possible, I would have one student

read both versions of the article to the class and ask the students to

assess the force and feeling of command expressed by each version

of the article. In the present simple tense version, do the students

feel they could refuse attending? Do they feel that asking for a

change of plans is possible? When producing the class newsletter, I

would encourage the students to write two articles about upcoming

class projects, one mainly using the present simple and one which

uses a wide range structures for expressing futurity.

4) Describing feelings and senses: While in truth there is no

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gossip column within my family's newsletter, I could easily write one.

Such a column would help students focus on how expression of

feelings and senses which are immediate and sudden as opposed to

ongoing, and which are not necessarily under the conscious control of

the subject (hear, feel, see) are best expressed in the present simple

tense as opposed to the present progressive. Students could then

take sentences from the gossip column, and change them into the

present progressive and compare how it changes the sense of

immediacy, locus of control, or results in grammatical errors. Some

example sentences might include:

- The Gabbing Nanny feels terrible that one little girl’s Christmas wish

of getting the lead in the school play didn’t come true.

- The Gabbing Nanny hears rumors of a big move for a certain young

man who now lives in Switzerland, but might be going to India.

- The Gabbing Nanny smells the coming of spring and knows it's

almost time for the big Florida Bar-B-Q.

We could discuss in what other instances would a feeling or sense be

sudden and not necessarily under the control of the subject, and how

present simple could be used within a newsletter article. If students

had difficulty identifying such articles, suggestions such as grief

expressed in an obituary, a sense-based description of a current

change of season, or horoscopes, could be provided.

5) In the formation of a time clause with 'when': while it would

be difficult to provide an entire article using "when" clauses, I could

include the following famous Yiddish sayings, in a proverb corner:

"When men plan, God laughs."

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"When you marry for money, you earn it."

"When a thief kisses you, count your teeth."

We could discuss the meaning of the proverbs and how when + verb

in present simple functions as a time clause. I would also highlight

how proverbs, in their entirety, express ideas which also might be

considered truths. I would also provide personal examples of this

function of the tense, such as, “When my wife doesn't make me a

lunch, I go to McDonalds,” and how this sentence expresses a

habitual truth, something I do about once a week. An article in the

students written class newsletter which highlights class rules and

explanations would be able to make good use of this aspect of the

present simple tense (i.e.: When the bell rings, be in your seats.

When class starts, have your paper and pencil out.)

6) The present simple tense as a means of denoting truths:

The sheer number of types of truths which can be denoted using the

present simple could lead to confusion if dealt with one by one. To

simplify the process, I would break these uses down into two larger

categories of personal truths and external truths. I would first review

the use of personal truths by having students read the article in which

my mother introduced my wife to the family. This article includes

habitual truths (“Mamico practices Yoga and jogs three times a

week.”), permanent human truths (“Mamico loves to cook and is a big

fan of Murakami Haruki.”), and internal truths (“I think that Mamico is

a great addition to the Stein family and we are all looking forward to

the next additions to come.”)

External truths such as scientific truths (“Hydrogen is the most

common element in the universe.”), general truths (“Americans are

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less interested in environmental issues that most Europeans.”), and

recurrent truths (“Tides come in and release a large amount of

unused energy.”) could be introduced in a separate article in which

my father, a chemist, describes his scientific research.

To help explore the two different forms of truths, I could provide

students with a list of article titles and descriptions and ask them to

identify if the articles contained mainly personal or external truths.

Conclusion

All six of the uses of the present simple tense, as explored and

explained through the presentation and language awareness activities

based on a family newsletter, could be structured so as to allow

students to take the next step and naturally identify class newsletter

articles which could also make use of similar expressions of the

present simple tense. The writing of the articles and the editing

process would then allow students to engage in hypothesis testing

through output production (Swain, 2000, p.100) and to raise

awareness in gaps between their interlanguage and the target

language forms (Ellis, 1997, p.57). The production of one newsletter

would most likely result in only modest changes to students’

interlanguage. However, the activity could be repeated on a regularly

basis, each previous newsletter serving as a source of rich input and a

template for the writing of new newsletters, which would in turn

provide the opportunities for language recycling and consolidation so

necessary for language acquisition.

Considering the narrow manner in which tenses are taught in Japan, it

is not surprising that even upper-intermediate students of English feel

and exhibit habitual behaviors in which the present simple tense is

only used to express feelings or habitual behaviors. But through a

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series of awareness raising and task based classes, students would

have the chance to broaden their understanding of the simple present

tense, and in doing so, see it for the truly rich form that it is. When

that happens, the headlines might scream, “Students Master Tense.”

References:

Aitken, A. (2002) Teaching Tenses. Brighton: ELB Publishing

Ellis, R. (1997) Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford

University

Press

Ishigiro, A. (2003) Forest. Tokyo: Kirihara Shoten

Swain, M. (2000) “The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating

acquisition

through collaborative dialogue.” In J. Lantolf (ed.) Sociocultural

Theory

and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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