Review of English Verb Tenses - problems in reaching the

"Future Perfect“or.…

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep …Created by Jack Pillemer – Boyar High School for the

Boyar protest lesson in front of the Ministry of Education October 29th, 2007

http://www.schooly.co.il/boyer_english

http://www.schooly.co.il/boyer

The Present Simpleverb or verb+S

The present is indeed simple: It is not complex at all .

We teachers, at this point in time feel angry, frustrated and fed up .

We are professional educators who work really hard under difficult working conditions and get paid next

to nothing .

The present is pretty simple,right?

We are tired of the uphill struggle to achieve the three R's – not…

Reading wRiting and aRithmetic….. but

• Recognition (of the need for decent working conditions)

• Remuneration ( a nice long word for pay/salary -for those who don't know the word.)

• Respect

The present simple tense describes actions which do not change – they remain constant. This tense is used to describe a routine/ unchanging/ permanent situation and is often accompanied by frequency expressions such as always, often, seldom, occasionally etc.For example…

People seldom/rarely/never/hardly ever understand the true workload and responsibility of teachers, and tend see the profession as "a part-time morning job with long vacations for

religious women ".

Now you try. Find the frequency expression which does not fit in.

English teachers often/ always/ generally/ usually/ constantly/ frequently/ never

find themselves marking book reports and projects when the rest of the Israeli population is relaxing in front of the TV or fast asleep.

Correct! The answer is NEVER!

Present Progressive/ Continuousis/am/ are + verbing

For many years, this tense was called the Present Continuous and so some teachers today still call it that.

I personally prefer not to use that name.

I don’t want the present to continue. I think that "progressive" is a much more

appropriate name at this stage.We want the present to be progressive.

What does the word “progressive “ mean ?

"advocating reform, supporting change; modern, advanced";

That is what we are demanding :a progressive, modern, forward looking approach to education which is at present nose-diving towards

disaster .It is happening now, at the moment, as we stand here. We are dropping down the scale of all the international tests - slot by slot. From the inside as a teacher, the reasons for this are clear. Ask any teacher and they will pinpoint the

problems without much difficulty.

Present Perfecthave/has + verb 3 / have/has + been + verbing

Well, that is hardly the case. The present is not perfect. In fact it is it is pretty bleak.

The present has been influenced by actions in the past. We are where we are, because of things that have happened. …

And this is the essence of the present perfect tense; past actions having an influence on the present.

Let’s look at some examples…

• We teach classes with up to 40 kids in a class now….. Why?

because those that make policy have ignored our basic intuition plus research which says smaller classes contribute to better education.

• We have fewer hours of English at our school now…Why?

because teaching hours have constantly been cut over the last few years.

Re-formatting and the flashing red light methodWhat is interesting about this tense, is that it does not exist

in Hebrew and consequently it is very difficult for Hebrew speakers to know when to use it. The Hebrew brain has not been "formatted", so to speak, to read this data and so ignores it.

Most of you will probably say: " I am learning guitar for 5 years" without ever realizing that your grammar is incorrect (…and perhaps your guitar playing is pretty awful too .)

You can learn to recognize the environment in which the present perfect tense works by noticing when certain words/expressions are used. They often (but not always) indicate the need to use this tense. Here are some of them:

Already, yet, lately, so far, before (now) etc. and also the words since

and for (when for refers to the period of time till now)

Lets’s try something:You stand up and shout “Beep! Beep! Beep!”

(plus hand movements) and imagine a red light flashing in your brain when you hear any of the words (already, yet, lately, so far, before , for, since etc) in the sentences I'm going to read.

Ready

..............

.?

Present Perfect beeping flashing red light exercise

Exercise 1Almost none of teachers from the Histadrut Teachers Union have

signed their Ofek Hadash work agreement yet.

The word Yet should set off a red light – a warning; something needs to be noticed. By the way, why haven't they shouted with joy at their new work conditions?

Exercise 2Teachers have been on strike now for 17 days and nobody seems to

care. The words For 17 days should set off a red light – a warning;

something needs to be noticed. By the way, why has the government ignored this desparate call for a change?

Future Perfect

will + have + verb 3

Finally, I'll teach the tense we don't usually have time to teach. It hardly ever appears in the Bagrut, so why bother! It is called the Future Perfect.

This refers to something that will have been achieved by a certain time in the future. It is a type of promise or a prediction with a time limit into the future.

For example

By the end of the strike, we will have achieved our goals. (At least some of them.)

By the end of the strike we will have raised the awareness of the society that this is not our struggle (- our, being the teachers’) but our struggle (our, being – the whole society.)

Actually, it is time to turn things around.

Instead of focusing on achieving an understanding of the future perfect tense (relatively unimportant in the larger scale of things),

we should focus on how to achieve a perfect future,

and that requires a change of perspective- a change in the way we see things,

a change in priorities.

To reach the perfect, we need a simple, progressive approach where teachers are.……

paid wellgiven decent teaching

conditions to achieve resultsrespected for their skills, talents,

experience and knowledge.

Until then………………………...

the entire Israeli society should be going around with red flashing

lights in their brains and they should be constantly

hearing the sounds "Beep! Beep! Beep“!

Created by Jack Pillemer – Boyar High School

for the Boyar protest lesson

in front of the Ministry of Education

October 29th, 2007

http://schooly.co.ilboyer_english

http://schooly.co.il/boyer

jackpil@013.net