Teaching Simple Present Tense through Conversation

Teaching Simple Present Tense through Conversation

Introduction

The important of conversation in speaking skill

English is an international language that domain the improvement of technology and science. At the moment it includes many aspects of daily activities such as, education, politic, economic, medic, and law. Then it is not be avoided that English has been consumed by the people who wrestle with their own field. There are four kinds of language skill which very important for us in learning English, such as speaking, reading, listening and writing. On the other hand there is one of skills that is usually demands us to master it. That is speaking skill and grammar, because commonly the people who can speak English fluency they will easy to get a job. At least they can understand about English article. The key of mastering speaking skill is practicing more and more and never be forgot its process needs learner self confidence. Speaking without knowing the structural of language also is nothing. Therefore as an English learner we also have to pay attention on grammatical language. It can be easy listener to understand the purpose of our conversation. it is also can increase our confidence in speaking. One of important in grammatical is tenses. Because when we are making conversation with the other one, we are included in a time where the tenses are used and in English there 16 tenses but that usually use in daily activity is four tenses are present tense, past tense, future tense. For this opportunity, in this paper I will tell about simple present tense because this tense more easier to be learned than the other else. And students are going to understand easily because it just uses the verb one. We can relate the uses of simple present by using conversation because the application is very important beside some theories.

Theoretical Background

A. English Teaching Learning Process

Teaching is an activity that is needed in educational world. Teaching consist of contact between two individuals are teacher and students. This process will be effective if the teacher use the appropriate method for different material. The main point in teaching English is communication, especially good communication between students and teacher. Because the problem that commonly happen in teaching learning is lacking of communication.

“One of the greatest student’s problem of acquiring English is the lack of communicative ( N.Domba Benda, 1978: 87)

As student’s interest plays a communication role in their teaching process, by using English communication. Actually English is interesting language if we can make it as an interesting thing. Of course the process of learning English will be going as soon as well if the learners love it very much. The teacher as the facilitator in improving their English learning skill also should have the best strategy of teaching it to help the student success. However, the most effort must be done by the student them selves. Commonly in the case of teaching learning also the teacher should have the role as student’s friend. That purpose only for making the situation of class is more attractive. This thing can improve the student’s motivation in English learning. Especially this chance will give the time for student to speak and give their opinion between the other students. So, appear their encouragement to communicate with the teacher in the classroom.

B. Teaching Tense Trough Communication Approach

“Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information “ (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997)

Communicative and whole language instructional approach promote integration of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in ways that reflect natural language use. But opportunities for speaking and listening require structure and planning to support language development. Structure is a part of grammar which explains about the uses of tenses and parts of speech in the sentences. It can be a guide in making a good arrangement of sentences either in verbal or non verbal activity. Tenses in English grammar is different from time because time is only expression the action for now, last, and next. Talking about tenses sometimes makes students confused because they only think many patterns which ready comes to be remembered by them. Actually learning tenses is interesting if the teacher know how the way to make it feel simple. One of the ways that can be done is making conversation in the form of asking and answering question using certain tense.

“Conversation is talking between two or more people in which thoughts, feelings and ideas are expressed, question are asked and answered or news and information are exchanged”

So the main point of that definition, conversation is talking to each other. In this context the students are demanded to ask and answer question about how the uses of tense even in affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentence. This direct conversation is done to make students easy in understanding and remembering the uses tenses and exercise student to repeat again their remember skill by oral activity. As we know because the reality learning theory is useless without practicing it soon.

Finding Data

Tense means time. However, it should be pointed out that time in relation to action is a concept that exist in the mind of the speaker, reader or listener. Tense in actual usage refers consistently only to grammatical forms. (America Book Company by George E.Wishon ) Often tense and time do not correspond at all. Based on Linda C.stanley “ways to writing” ( 427) Tense is verb tense indicates the relationships between an action or state of being and the passage of time. The present tense indicates that something is talking place now.

“In general, the simple present express events or situations that exist always, usually, habitually, they exist now, have existed in the pass, and probably will exist in the future”

“ Tense is one of forms which a verb takes by inflection or by adding auxiliary words, so as to indicate the time of the action or even signified; the modification which verbs undergo for the indication of time”

“Tense is a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time”

W. Stannard Allen explained in his book ( Living English structure for schools) Present tense (simple) this tense is the same as the infinitive ( root form) of the verb. Unlike the continuous form, the simple present tense does not really describe acts that are habitual or usual.

In Robert Khorn of English sentence structure

A. Simple present tense with verbs other than be

Statement: He works

Question with Do, Does: Does he work?

Short answer: yes he does

B. Single-word adverb of frequency: always, usually, often, etc.

“Simple present tense designates action occurring at the time of speaking or writing”

“Simple present tense is tense denoting an action happening in this time “

“The simple present tense is talking something happens all the time or repeatedly or something is true in general “

The Simple Present Tense (also called the Present Simple Tense) is usually the first verb tense ESL students are taught. Perhaps the most difficult thing for ESL learners to remember is that the Third Person (he/she/it) of a regular verb takes an “s.”

Present Simple Function (when to use the Present Simple)

The Present Simple verb tense has two primary functions:

1.  To talk about “general truths,” that is, to talk about something that was true in the past, is true now, and will be true in the future (e.g., The sun rises in the East. Nurses work hard. Water boils at 100 °C.)
2. To talk about habits or rituals (e.g., I pay income taxes every year. She drinks coffee. We watch T.V. all the time. The Giants always lose.)

There is more to teach about the Simple Present verb tense (such as the use of the “helping” or auxiliary verb “do,” irregular verb conjugation, and the use of words such as always, never, often, etc.), but the above are the basics that must be taught.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation)

Speaking skill analysis is a comprehensive look at both the public speaker and the delivery. Our analysis will cover three areas of the speech. Use these to grade your self or be graded to attain constant and never ending improvement.

A conversation is communication between multiple people. It is a social skill that is not difficult for most individuals. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects, since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other. A speech, on the other hand, is an oral presentation by one person directed at a group.

Conversation is indispensable for the successful accomplishment of almost all activities between people, especially the coordination of work, the formation of friendship and for learning.

Classification of conversation

The majority of conversations can be divided into four categories according to their major subject content:

• Conversations about subjective ideas, which often serve to extend understanding and awareness.
• Conversations about objective facts, which may serve to consolidate a widely-held view.
• Conversations about other people (usually absent), which may be critical, competitive, or supportive. This includes gossip
• Conversations about oneself, which sometimes indicate attention-seeking behavior.

In the real world, few conversations fall exclusively into one category. Nevertheless, the proportional distribution of any given conversation between the categories can offer useful psychological insights into the mind set of the participants.

Each type of conversation has its own cluster of purposes and expectations attached.

• Functional conversation is designed to convey information in order to help achieve an individual or group goal.
• Small talk is a type of conversation where the topic is less important than the social purpose of achieving bonding between people or managing personal distance
• Banter is non-serious conversation, usually between friends, which may rely on humor in-jokes at the expense of those taking part. The purpose of banter may at first appear to be an offensive affront to the other person's face. However, people engaging in such a conversation are often signaling that they are comfortable enough in each others' company to be able to say such things without causing offense. Banter is particularly difficult for those on the autism spectrum, or those with semantic pragmatic distorter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation)

“Conversation is general course of conduct; behavior “

“Conversation is the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc:”

“Conversation is expression and exchange of individual ideas; talking with other people”

Analyzing Data

A conversation is communication between two people or more. It is a social skill that is not difficult for most individuals. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects; it is used by the people to exchange their idea and information. By conversation they can know and learn from the individual character each other. We live in this world as a social community therefore conversation between other is needed. A speech, on the other hand, is an oral presentation by one person directed at a group. “Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving and processing information”. Its relation to my chapter this is the point that I will explain more is tense, definition of tense

“Tense is a grammatical dictionary of verbs used to express distinctions of time.”

Grammar is a category off the verb or verbal inflections, such as present, past, future. That expresses the temporal relation between what is reported and the time of its utterance. In English there are three types’ differences of using verb based on the time. Whenever speaker talk at that time of speaking, they are use present continuous and also use simple present tense for daily conversation and then, if talking about the event that happen at the last it is used simple past tense, moreover for future it is used future tense. Making easy in learning tenses the best choice it begins from the basic simple part of tense. Simple present is usually given in beginning of teaching tenses because the pattern of this tense is quite easy to be remembered by students.

Simple present tense

Simple present tense is tense denoting an action happening in this time. This tense is used to talk about things in general. We are not only thinking about now, but it is used to say that something happens all the time or repeatedly or that something is true in general. It is not important whether the action is happening at the time of speaking.

For example: We usually go away at weekends (Habitual action)

The pattern is S+V1+O

For the third person singular ( He, She, It) we should notice the verb by adding “S” in the last. She drinks the water everyday. If the verb ending by SS,SH,CH, X,O, are ending by “es” in the last of verb. He catches that ball as soon as possible. If the verb ending by “y” preceded by consonant “y” is changed by “i” and added with “es”. She studies English at the moment. There is also the verbs ending in “y” preceded by vowel, only “s” is added. He plays badminton every morning. For making questions and negative sentences in present simple uses the verb “DO and Does”. Here is the example;

Introgative: Do ( I/we/they/you) work ?

Does ( he/she/it) come ?

Negative: ( I/we/you/they) do not work

( He/she/it) does not come

The uses of simple present tense

1. Simple present tense is used to denote the habitual action; as we know the habitual action is the acts that we always do repeatly. For example :

- We go to school everyday

- They usually get up at four o’clock

The adverbs of time commonly used to express the habitual action, are : usually, generally, often, never, seldom, sometimes, always, everyday ( every week, every month, etc) On Saturday ( Monday, Wednesday and etc) twice a week.

2. Simple present is used to denote the general truth; here the things can not be changed by us because those are have been definite happen. For example ;

- The plane flies in the sky

- Do the fish live in the water?

3. Simple present is used to denote the character of someone or his ability; usually this tense is used to show someone skill or character. For example

- The students study hard

- That girl does not sing beautifully

4. Simple present is used to emphasize the action; to make someone trust us, we can emphasize our action using Do or Does before the ordinary verb. So, simple present tense can be named with “ The present emphatic tense”

- I do speak English everyday

- We do prepare our lesson before examination

The relation between conversation and teaching simple present tense

Teaching tenses can bored even for the teacher or especially for student, because in grammar many rules or patterns that we should not forget it all. To make it interesting and simple in order the student feel enjoy and then material can be reminded easily by them. Practice is the best choice in this case. The practicing way is through direct conversation between students ( a fairs) after the teacher told clearly about simple present tense and its uses in reality.

“Conversation is talking between two or more people in which thoughts, feelings, and ideas are expressed questions are asked and answered or news and information are exchanged “

Based on that definition, with conversation the students can share their feeling or thought each other. With this change the teacher can take the pathway to include the teaching material in their activity. Because as usual when the teacher have finished their explanation about tenses, they exactly ask the student to do some exercises at that time and his activity that makes student feel bored. Relation between direct conversation and teaching tense is very close because that have the big feedback in English learning. Should be known teaching needs the role of teacher and students. Then using this method is suitable in English teaching grammar. It can keen the student memorizing and also can fluency English speaking of students. As the explanation before, teaching tenses is felt bored and learning it is quite difficult. But that all will be felt different if the teacher can socialize with something that makes student is challenged with it. Student will feel bored in a teaching because of many factors such as the method of teaching, the material of teaching, the situation of teaching, even the teacher character in teaching. In this case, actually cooperation between student and teacher becomes the main point to apply the material that has been taught. Simple present tense is tense that is used to indicate the action which often happen repeatedly or habitual action. This point makes easy the student to practice it directly through conversation. The content of conversation is talking about daily activity that student always do before going to the school. Using conversation makes teaching learning is more effective. As usual learning tense has related with memorizing of its patterns and the situation of using it. So, by practicing it in the real situation after learning will help learner to memorize the pattern fast. The conversation may be done at that time is talking about learner habitual action before they are going to study in the classroom. Here is the example of small conversation about habitual action of learner.

For example; Student A is Hanna

Student B is David

David : Hi,, good morning ,,Hanna?

Hanna : Good morning,, Dav

David : How are you today ?

Hanna : I am fine and how about you ?

David : I am fine too,, thank you. But you look so tired Hanna. Can you tell me about your daily activity before going to this class?

Hanna : No,,I do not think so. But I will tell u about that. I usually get up at 4.15 am o’clock to pray shubuh. So, I take bath and wash my dress at 05.15 am after that I help my mother to prepare a breakfast for my family. Finally we take a breakfast together, and my father always accompanies me come to this school. Just at all.

David : Oh,,,I see,,but can you give me the solution for getting early ? because I always late for praying subuh..

Hanna : Yes, of course, that is the simple one, you just change your daily time to sleep. Before it what time do you always sleep at night?

David : All right,,it is around 11.00 pm o’clock. Because I always watch my favorite program on television before going to bed.

Hanna : Oh no,,,you have to change your bad habitual activity. That is important for your health beside you can pray subuh on time. Because normally we need the time for sleeping is around eight hours. As the poem said early to bed and early to get up makes people healthy, wealthy, and wise. Do you want it ?

David : Yes,,of course I want it,,I am going to try it.

Thanks you Hanna..

Hanna : You’re welcome,,,Wish you Luck Dav,,

Conclusion

English skill and English component is a unit that can not be separated. Those are having relation each other. That relation seems clear when the English it self is used by native speaker or English learner. Speaking without knowing the structure is laming and structure without practicing is nothing.

Simple present tense is used for habitual action or general truth and making conversation between students in teaching grammar can keen the memorizing pattern and influence their English speaking

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