Dilemma Tic Grammar The First Dilemma

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH The First Dilemma by Leslie Simonfalvi INTERNATIONAL TEACHER TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT COLLEGE www.ilsgroup.hu

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 1

The FIRST DILEMMA and Its SOLUTION – ADVANCE ORGANIZING FOR TEACHERS, TEACHER-TRAINEES, and TRAINERS DILEMMA Definition: In this context dilemma is a state of uncertainty or perplexity especially as requiring a choice between focuses either on the form, i. e. the grammatical tense, or the meaning.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 2 With an eye toward choosing the optimal approach to teaching ENGLISH and ENGLISH GRAMMAR, the horns of the 1st DILEMMA might be defined as follows:   (1) If the goal of the teaching / learning is to develop a schema for the learner that is fundamentally about the COMPREHENSION of the SITUATIONS and the TEMPORAL RELATIONS in the sentences, then the teaching materials and the exercises should consistently and unambiguously be about SITUATIONS and the TEMPORAL RELATIONS in the sentences. If we can, in a second step, focus on the GRAMMATICAL FORMS and TENSES that express already understood SITUATIONS and their TEMPORAL RELATIONS, this focusing will further develop our UNDERSTANDING of the SITUATIONS.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 3

TIME Definition: The continuous passage of existence in which events pass from a state of potentiality in the future, through the present, to a state of finality in the past.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 4 TIME as a physical – chronological and philosophical category is absolute and objective, but TIME as we experience it in real life is subjective and the terms FUTURE, and PRESENT, and PAST are totally dependent on the time-scale we apply. This is the reason why we will distinguish in our PEDAGOGICAL GRAMMAR only two time-segments, namely PAST TIME, i. e. any time before the time of speech, and NON-PAST TIME, i. e. now and any time later than now. With this we can further magnify the big picture of our TOP-DOWN APPROACH.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 5 PAST TIME Definition: Any time before the time of speech. NON-PAST TIME Definition: Now and any time later than now. TOP-DOWN APPROACH Definition: An approach to teaching, learning, problem-solving and innovation in which we start with the ’big picture’ and, for the time being, we do not bother with the details

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 6 (2) If the goal of the teaching / learning processes is to maximize transfer from the COMPREHENSION of the SITUATIONS and the TEMPORAL RELATIONS in the sentences to the GRAMMATICAL FORMS and TENSES we use for expressing these SITUATIONS, the materials or content through which the teaching / learning processes are developed should reflect as diverse and broadly useful a range of problem types and content as is possible. If the teaching / learning materials and the teacher’s intent are divorced from real-world situations, the learnings they are designed to instill will also be.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 7

The transfer from abstract or formulaic GRAMMATICAL FORMS and TENSES towards COMPREHENSION of the SITUATIONS and the TEMPORAL RELATIONS in the sentences is very limited or nonexistent.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 8

TENSE Definition: A category of the verb or verbal inflections, such as present, past, and future, that expresses the temporal relations between what is reported in the sentence and the time of its utterance.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 9

This looks all neat and tidy but there are some factors that can and will make it somewhat more complicated and these are as follows if we keep to the terms of traditional PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR: ∀ •       PRESENT or PAST or FUTURE related to TIME,   ∀ •       PERFECT or NON-PERFECT related to PHASE, and   ∀ •       SIMPLE or CONTINUOUS related to ASPECT.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 10

PHASE   Definition: The temporal relationship between an action or happening and its result. If there is an immediate result for an action or happening, then the ACTION / HAPPENING and its RESULT are IN-PHASE. If, on the other hand, the result of an action or happening comes only later with a specified or unspecified time-lag, then the ACTION / HAPPENING and its RESULT are OUT-OF-PHASE. It comes from physics where phase is a particular stage in a periodic process or phenomenon.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 11

ASPECT Definition: A category of verbs or verbal inflections that expresses such features as the • continuity, • repetition, or • completedness of the action described.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 12 COMPLETEDNESS Definition: Denoting an aspect of verbs in some languages, including English, used to express that the action or event described by the verb is or was completed: ‘I lived in London for ten years.’ is perfective; ‘I have lived in London for ten years.’ is imperfective, since the implication is that I still live in London.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 13 If we make simple combinations of these terms and then we arrange them according to permutations, we will arrive at having 12 different tenses as follows: •       PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE •       PAST SIMPLE TENSE •       FUTURE SIMPLE TENSE •       PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE •       PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE •       FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE •       PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE •       PAST PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE •       FUTURE PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE •       PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE •       PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE •       FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 14

In closer analysis in the DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR it will be very clear that there are no real future tenses in English and the future temporal relation is expressed either by an auxiliary, i. e. by SHALL or WILL or by a present form. This is the reason why we will use a different sort of categorization for the tenses, namely we will put them under two umbrella-terms: PAST TENSES and NONPAST TENSES. With this we can further magnify the big picture of our TOP-DOWN APPROACH.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 15

COMBINATION Definition: An arrangement of the terms in a set into specified groups without regard to order in the group. PERMUTATION Definition: An ordered arrangement of the terms of a set into specified groups.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 16

PAST TENSES •   PAST SIMPLE TENSE •   PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE •   PAST PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE •   PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 17 NON-PAST TENSES   •       PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE •       FUTURE SIMPLE TENSE •       PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE •       FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE •       PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE •       FUTURE PERFECT SIMPLE TENSE •       PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE •       FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 18

The significance of the 1st DILEMMA lies in recognizing that transfer between MEANING and FORM is the primary goal of the teaching / learning processes. Indeed, if the processes don't transfer, they cannot even be called teaching and learning. They can be called hard labour on either side or even on both sides, but not teaching and learning. The purpose of the present study-material is to enhance students' abilities to face new challenges and to attack novel language learning problems confidently, rationally, and productively.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 19

In keeping with the first half of our dilemma, evaluations of our efforts to teach ENGLISH and ENGLISH GRAMMAR indicate that the teaching and learning success is most readily associated with the LANGUAGE SURGERY SERIES and STARTER PACKS of the DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR that include explicit and consistent labeling of the principles and processes along with direct instruction in the whens, whys, and hows of their application.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 20

In keeping with the second half of our dilemma, success is further associated with those experiments that exercise taught principles and processes across a diverse range of content and problem types. It is especially true for the combination of the TOP-DOWN APPROACH with the BOTTOM-UP APPROACH thus creating a ’HELICOPTERMIND’ work-mode for both the student and the teacher.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 21

The FIRST DILEMMA and its SOLUTION – ADVANCE ORGANIZING FOR STUDENTS We can call the 1st DILEMMA the TIME – TENSE DILEMMA. In English TIME and TENSE are two totally different ideas and very often the GRAMMATICAL TENSE we use in a sentence does not express a TIME that would be called logical by its name. We only recognise it if / when we concentrate on the MEANING of the sentence through a SITUATION first, and then we identify the GRAMMATICAL TENSE that expresses the MEANING.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 22

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 23

Section #1 would contain sentences in which PAST TIME is expressed in a PAST TENSE. In other words, there is a CONCORD between TIME and TENSE. • Examples: Yesterday we went to the market to buy a cow. Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603.

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 24 Section #2 would contain sentences in which NONPAST TIME is expressed in a PAST TENSE. In other words, there is a LACK of CONCORD between TIME and TENSE. • Examples: I wish you were here! [i. e. here and now] If I were you, I would take a short holiday. [i. e. any time from now on]

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 25

Section #3 would contain sentences in which PAST TIME is expressed in a NON-PAST TENSE. In other words, there is a LACK of CONCORD between TIME and TENSE. •  Examples: The President Meets the Bishop. [i. e. well, it was yesterday] Lady Di Dies in Accident. [i. e. late last night]

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 26 Section #4 would contain sentences in which NONPAST TIME is expressed in a NON-PAST TENSE. In other words, there is a CONCORD between TIME and TENSE. •  Examples: My train leaves at 7. I like this coffee. [i. e. here and now]

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 27

You are now invited to come and join us and learn ENGLISH GRAMMAR in a different way and try to reach a nearly full UNDERSTANDING. GOOD LUCK!

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 28

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 29

DILEMMATIC GRAMMAR The First Dilemma 30