[etni] Fw: Fw: new poll
- From: sharon peress <s_peress@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: teitel_j@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 10:14:14 +0200
Hi Tova,
I give private English lessons (also have taught in Berlitz, etc. you name
it, except for Misrad HaChinuch). I found what you wrote below very
interesting and I suspect that what you wrote is correct. But I would like
to ask (you or whoever cares to respond) regarding what you wrote about
students' knowledge, or lack thereof, of the past tense: I also see that
many of my adult students barely use the past tense (correctly) or just
don't use it at all. I haven't tutored enough high school kids to make any
conclusions about them but I am wondering why kids who have had five years
or so of English instruction in school have not "come across irregular verbs
in a systematic manner". If that is true, then that is a bad situation
indeed. I thought most English teachers, in around grades 6 and 7, certainly
do teach the irregular verbs so that the kids can start using the past tense
correctly. But I also know that the kids would have to memorize and be
drilled in order to internalize the irregular past tense verbs, just as I
had to memorize many irregular verbs when I studied French (beginning in 9th
grade, Kitah Tet). Are you sure about what you claimed? Rather disturbing,
if you are right, although my own children were taught irregular verbs
extensively and more or less use them correctly, though it is very tricky
for them not to say things like "Did you saw that film?" or "We don't eat
yet" (instead of "we didn't eat yet", and on occassion I actually hear "I
haven't eaten yet"). I correct them constantly but if they did not have an
English-speaking parent, I would hope that they are getting drills in the
past tense in school. I didn't have a French-speaking parent (and certainly
had no access to French TV shows or films or music) but we were drilled
quite a bit in French class regarding the irregular verbs, as I recall, plus
we received lots of grammar exercises for homework, which were usually
checked the next day.
Anyway, that's my reaction to what you wrote below. (I have a cousin who
teaches French and Spanish in the USA in high school. I may ask her what the
situation is with her students, vis-a-vis all the irregular verbs in those
languages, but perhaps she has more hours of instruction than the teachers
here get and/or smaller classes.)
Thanks,
Sharon Peress
----- Original Message -----
>
-----
> From: tova t - teitel_j@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: new poll
>
> Twenty years ago the majority of schools started teaching English in Grade
> 4.The children received two hours of English per week in grade 4, three
> hours of English in grade 5 and four hours of English in Grade 6.At the
end
> of Grade 6 most children could read the stories in the old ESH 5 books
>
> Today most schools start teaching English in Grade 2 Some even in grade 1
> Neverthless when we see the reading passages in most of the textbooks now
> used in grade 4 there is a very low level of expectation in the reading
> passages
>
> At the end of the foundation level they have been taught hundreds of
hours
> more English than they were taught twenty years ago. Many children
> complete their elemntary schooling, that is, they have been exposed to
> English for FIVE years and do not know how to discuss any thing in the
past
> tense. Some have a vague idea that "ed"endings are used but have never
come
> across irregular verbs in a systematic manner so they "runned" and they
> "ated" and they "goed".
> By the end of their 12 years of schooling pupils today have been to at
least
> three times more English than they were 20 years ago and I'm not sure
that
> their English is so much better. Yes, they can perhaps chat with more self
> confidence but try giving a 1980s "Unseen" to a Bagrut class - share the
> results.
>
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