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Next PageApproaches To Teaching Grammar 14 Tense and Aspect in Context Kathleen Bardovi Harlig
This paper demonstrates how authentic texts can be exploited by teachers for the teaching of tense and aspect in English. Research in second language acquisition shows that learners master tense/aspect forms relatively quickly, but that they have much greater difficulty in establishing the form-meaning-use associations exhibited by the target language. Thus, the use of authentic texts in teaching tense and aspect is not only a means contextualizing grammar, but is essential in helping learners relate form to meaning and use. This chapter presents a brief analysis of tense and aspect use in three texts: a narrative, a description, and a news report. Following each text, activities are presented which are designed to increase a learner's awareness of meaning, use, or distribution of tense and aspect. The activities are intended to supplement traditional grammatical instruction in tense/aspect and can be used with a variety of teaching methods.
This chapter is entitled Tense and Aspect
in (Con)Text because the best context for teaching tense and aspect
is text. By text, I mean reasonably authentic connected discourse
of any type (narrative, expository, conversational) and any source (radio,
television, film, newspapers, novels, stories, reports of various types,
and texts for children as well as adults). Studies of the acquisition of
what textbooks call tense (which I will call tense and aspect)
suggest that the use of texts as input is not only methodologically desirable,
but acquisitionally necessary. This chapter will exemplify some uses of
four tense/aspect forms which express events related to past time in different
ways: the simple past, pluperfect, past progressive, and present perfect.
Texts illustrate the relationship of form (the tense/aspect inflections)
to meaning and use, and the contrast between the meanings associated with
tense/aspect forms.
English marks both tense, the location of an event in time (Comrie, 1985), and grammatical aspect, ways of viewing the make-up of a situation (Comrie, 1976). John sings (present) and John sang (past) show a difference in tense. John sang (simple past) and John was singing (past progressive) are both past, but show a contrast in grammatical aspect. The present perfect, John has sung, has been labeled both a tense and an aspect, and is known as a 'phase' by some British linguists. The pluperfect, John had sung, is called a relative tense because it takes its point of reference from another tense--the time reference established by the simple past. (This is known as past in the past pedagogically.) Whatever the precise relationship between them, it is clear that the meaning of present perfect is not primarily a present tense equivalent of the past perfect. This has led some linguists to use the term pluperfect rather than past perfect to disassociate the two.
Learners apparently have more difficulty with the meaning and use of tenses/aspect inflections than with the form (Bardovi-Harlig, 1992). In fact, Bardovi-Harlig and Bofman (1989) found that learners made 7.5 times more errors in tense/aspect use than in form. Situating the use of tense/aspect inflections is difficult for learners. One way for teachers to help learners is to use texts for comprehension to highlight form-meaning-use associations, which provides communicative input lacking in traditional presentations of tense/aspect.
One might object that texts are long and diffuse and that any number of isolated examples can be lined up in less time and space. However, the use of text is ultimately efficient. First, texts constitute what second language acquisition researchers call positive evidence, examples of actual language use. Related specifically to the teaching and learning of tense and aspect, the use of texts presents a realistic portrait of the distribution of tense/aspect forms. (This is true of any form or rule that is being highlighted for learners. See Celce-Murcia, this volume). Second, using texts presents tenses used in meaningful communication. Third, the use of texts shows how tenses contribute to the building of discourse, including where certain tenses are located, and how they function in different genres of text. Fourth, texts demonstrate the relation of tense/aspect forms to each other and the contrast between them.
Moreover, approaching classroom language learning by focussing on the learner, we see that the use of text can accommodate a much wider range of student abilities and levels of development than a singularly focussed grammatical exercise or presentation. In any English language classroom, regardless of how carefully learners are placed in the classes, learners progress at different rates. Different rates mean that students in any single classroom are acquisitionally ready for different input.
In a decontextualized grammar lesson the learner is focussed on a single structural point. If the learner has not mastered earlier lessons (or to speak of acquisition, if the learner has not progressed through earlier acquisitional stages), then he or she is much less likely to benefit from the lesson of the day at the time of presentation. In contrast, the use of text makes any lesson more widely accessible to all the students in a classroom, by offering something for everyone. That is, although learners may not be able to master the specific target envisioned by the teacher, the comprehension of a text leaves wide open the possibility that the learner will understand the text at his own level. More specifically, to use an example from the tense/aspect system, a learner whose mastery of the simple past is still emerging can make use of the examples of past tense in the text while a faster moving learner might go on to notice the use of the pluperfect. Others may benefit from vocabulary or any number of other linguistic features.
An additional benefit of using texts is that
it is compatible with a range of language teaching methods in use today.
The use of text requires a particular approach to what information we as
teachers bring into the classroom, but it leaves wide open the type of approach
one brings to language teaching: from a communicative approach in which
the text is viewed primarily as a unit of communication, to a classroom
in which input enhancement or focussed noticing is practiced, to a classroom
in which explicit rules are given. In each case, the benefits of using texts,
as outlined above, provide additional input to learners, regardless of language
teaching methodology.
This section examines two complete texts and an excerpt. For each text I will discuss the distribution of tense/aspect forms and present activities to increase learners' awareness of form-meaning-use associations. (For a discussion of form-meaning-use in grammar, see Larsen-Freeman, 1991). The use of text is meant to supplement more traditional presentations of tense/aspect. However, I leave type of presentation up to the individual instructor (see Ellis, 1993; Sharwood Smith, 1991). Neither the texts nor the activities cover the full range of meanings and uses associated with the tense/aspect forms; rather these are meant to serve as examples of what can be done in the classroom.
Finally, I recommend using complete texts. This maximizes the context for meaning and use, respects the text as a communicative unit, and brings other advantages of comprehensible input. To this end, the first activities with a text should relate to its meaning, although these are not provided here.
The following texts aired on All Things Considered on National Public Radio.1
Text 1. Narrative
All Things Considered, October 6, 1989
Larry Massett: Through a friend of ours we came across the story of a man who lives in Washington and who's become something of a saint in the eyes of many of the homeless. His name is Michael Kerwin and his story begins 10 years ago.
1 Kerwin: I was walking one night. It was bitterly cold, around Christmas 2 1978, and I was walking. I think I was walking down to the river just 3 clear my head or to go for a walk. I love to walk. There was a man on 4 the heating vent across the street from the State Department at 21st and 5 E which was only a block from my apartment, and he called out to me. He 6 said he wanted a buck to buy something to eat. I was very irritated with 7 him for calling out after me. I didn't want to be bothered and I didn't 8 believe him either. I thought, well he just wants to get something to 9 drink; and I thought to myself, well I'll fix him. I'll go and get him 10 something to eat and that way he'll be frustrated and angry and didn't 11 get what he wanted but at least I'll give him what he asked for. So I 12 went up to my apartment, got him a bowl of soup, got him a sandwich and 13 a cup of tea, and brought it down. I set it down and walked away. I 14 continued my walk, didn't say a word to him, and didn't acknowledge his 15 thanks. I never saw that man again, but I went home that night and I 16 just thought: well, you know that made me feel pretty good. That's the 17 least I can do. That's all it takes to make me feel good and to think 18 well you know here I'm helping the human being. I can do that. I mean 19 what effort did that take. 20 So I went home, and the next night I went out again with the same 21 type of meal (I think a little bit more but the same type of meal). I 22 just set it down on the heating vent where other people were, and I 23 walked away. They thought I was a little bit crazy bringing out this 24 food and setting it down, but I did. I simply went back to my apartment 25 and that was the end of it. But I kept doing that, and I kept doing it 26 night after night after night and eventually got to know some of these 27 people because I was consistent. I went down there. 28 One of them said to me one time what is this, kind of a project? 29 Is this a homework assignment or something? I said, No. I said, 30 I just feel I want to do it. Another night. One of the guys down 31 there was so angry with my doing this. I had taken a gallon jug down 32 of hot split pea soup. It was a cold night, and he took the jar of hot 33 split pea soup and broke it over my head. He was so angry. He said, 34 You're bringing food out to the dogs. You're setting it down here and 35 walking away. I said Sir, you're exactly right. I said, I'm 36 embarrassed by what I'm doing, and I'm afraid. I don't know how else 37 to do it. That guy really opened my eyes to the fact that I was being 38 very insensitive, very unfriendly. I really shouldn't have done it at all 39 if that was going to be the way I was doing it. 40 So the following night I came down. I set the food down. I purpose- 41 fully sat there for a while with some of the people and talked to them, 42 and all of this was fine. I think they were waiting for me to stop doing 43 it. They were waiting to see how long I was going to keep this up. 44 Secondly I think they were beginning to enjoy the visits and the food, 45 and I was getting to know some of them. For me this was a very very big 46 barrier that was being broken because I had always resented them or 47 looked through them or been annoyed by them or their condition, and I 48 had never really encountered any of them on a personal basis. 49 Everything was fine until about three months after I'd begun. A man 50 asked to come up to my apartment and to shower and shave. I said, 51 Absolutely not. I said, I live in a dorm. I said, You know, 52 it's graduate housing. I said, We are not allowed to have people in-- 53 just strangers off the street. He was dirty. He smelled, and he was a 54 little bit inebriated. I said, No. I said, I can bring the food out 55 but I can't have any people up there. I didn't want to, and I was 56 embarrassed if I had been seen with him. Nobody was aware of what I was 57 doing. Nobody in the dorm or anybody else was aware that I was taking 58 this food down, and that's the way I wanted it. So that was fine, but he 59 persisted for three days after that. Finally I said, All right, Glenn. 60 I said, Come up to the apartment. But I said, You've got to leave as 61 soon as you have your shower and shave. So it was fine. I took him up, 62 and he went into the bathroom. I went into the kitchen. I was washing 63 some dishes, and I came back into the living room about twenty minutes 64 later. There he was in the chair fast asleep. He had come out and he 65 had gone into the chair. Right away--because he was so tired--he had 66 gone to sleep. I had given him some clean clothes and he had put those 67 on. So he looked fine. He looked a lot better than he did on the grates. 68 He slept. 69 He slept all night there, and the next morning I went to work 70 because I was working too. I debated whether to leave him there, and I 71 said, well you know he's certainly sober because he hadn't brought any 72 liquor in. He looked very clean and he looked very wholesome. I 73 thought, well you know, I'll just let him stay here during the day and 74 when I come home for lunch you know I'll see what the circumstances 75 are. I came home, and he had made lunch. He had straightened the 76 apartment out and he was listening to the Ring Cycle of Richard Wagner 77 on the stereo. Of course that endeared me to him because I liked what he 78 was listening to--Lowengren. He was wonderful, and it was good to come 79 home to that. It was good to come home to somebody that had taken the 80 time and the effort to do that. He filled in a very real sense a void in 81 my life. I wasn't married. I wasn't doing anything really but going to 82 school and going to work, and it felt kind of good to come home to 83 something like that. I really identified with him. 84 He didn't leave for 30 days. When people found out that he was up 85 there, that he was doing fine, that he was safe, and that he was clothed 86 and well fed, a lot of people on the grates asked to come up. I had 15 87 people in my room by the end of that winter. We were fine, and then one 88 Saturday morning a young man came up. He was 24 years old. He came up 89 and asked if he could shower and shave in the apartment. I said, Yes. 90 I had never seen him before and he went in to the bathroom. After about 91 an hour he didn't come out. We went in there, and he was dead in the 92 tub. He had died of drugs and alcohol. 93 Of course, I had never been around anyone that had died--certainly 94 not in my own home. I got on my phone and called my mother. I said, 95 What am I supposed to do? Here is this man dead in the tub. I said, 96 You know I have all these guys in the apartment. She said, Well you 97 have to call 911. This made sense, but I hadn't thought of it. I called 98 911, and I was not ready for the response. All of a sudden these fire 99 engines came racing down the street. The rescue squad came down the 100 street. The homicide detectives came in the door. The university 101 officials came in the door and the coroner. I was not ready for anything 102 like that. They just took one look at this apartment with all these 103 people and this man, and finally it dawned on the university where these 104 people were coming from. They knew people were coming into the building 105 because the students were telling them, but they couldn't figure out 106 where they were going once they got in and who was letting them in 107 because I had given them all a key. So now they knew. They said not only 108 did I have to get rid of these people but I had to leave. |
Larry Massett: Now ten years later Michael
Kerwin runs a house for homeless people in downtown Washington D.C. and
a farm outside of the city. At any given moment he is on his own supporting
30 or 40 people.2
Narratives lend themselves to demonstrating the chronological order conveyed by a sequence of past tense verbs, the contrast between simple past and other past tense verb forms, and the role that tense plays in discourse structure.
Chronological Order
Narratives illustrate the sequentiality associated with the simple past. In lines (12-14), for example, the order of the verbs reflects chronological order. In lines 75-76, the events are not presented in order (hence the use of pluperfect); and one event was simultaneous with another indicated by the past progressive. Learners who have difficulty identifying chronological order independently benefit from focussed questions such as In lines 75-76, did Kerwin see the man cleaning the apartment? and Did Kerwin hear the music playing?
Contrast
Using a text also helps learners contextualize the contrast between tense/aspect inflections. The first step in contrasting the meaning of tense/aspect inflections is to direct the learner's attention to different forms of the same verb. This step is important because learners often associate one verb with one inflection (Bardovi-Harlig & Reynolds, 1995). There are four verbs in this narrative which occur in both the simple past and past progressive.
The next step contrasts the meaning and use of simple past and past progressive. The choice of inflection relates to point of view. If the event is viewed as a whole or single point, simple past is used. If the event is viewed as filling an interval or period of time, the past progressive is used. Compare the use of walked away (13) and was walking (1).
This comparison can be made throughout the text with different verbs. Expanding meaning The meaning of past progressive that learners encounter earliest is its progressive, simultaneous meaning as in was walking (1) and was listening (line 76). Lines 104-106 illustrate the use of past progressive for repeated activities (its iterative function). The simultaneous use is illustrated on the left, the iterative use on the right. Note that both uses fill an interval.
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