Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in Taiwan? Are you interested in teaching English in Tainan City, Taiwan? Check out our opportunities in Tainan City, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English in your community or abroad! Teflonline.net offers a wide variety of Online TESOL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Here Below you can check out the feedback (for one of our units) of one of the 16.000 students that last year took an online course with ITTT!
Conditionals are sentences containing 'if' (or similar expressions such as 'when') which refer to past, present, and future possibilities. There are two clauses, the 'if' clause and the main clause. The if clause contains a condition that has to be satisfied before the action or state in the main clause can be realized. There are five main conditionals.
The zero conditional is formed: if/when+present tense, present tense. It refers to irrefutable actions and facts. -Water turns to ice if you freeze it
The first conditional is formed: if+present simple+will (may, might, can, etc) This refers to a 'real' situation in the future that is possible, probable, or certain, once the condition has been satisfied. -If he practices hard, he will make the team.
The second conditional is formed: if+past simple+would/could/might+base form. This communicates a present or future 'unreal' hypothetical situation that is presently not true and is never likely to be true. -If I had a rocket ship, I would fly to the moon.
The third conditional is formed: if+past perfect, would/could/might+have+past participle. This refers to a hypothetical past action or state and the hypothetical past consequence or result. -If I had practiced, I would have made the team.
The mixed conditional is formed: if+past perfect+would+base form. This refers to a hypothetical past action or state and the hypothetical present consequence. -If I had followed his directions, I would be lost.
With such a mix of tenses using conditionals, many students have difficulty with them.
When reporting direct speech, changes in words and tense takes place. 'I' turns into 'he/she, present turns into past, etc. "I'm feeling great today." becomes "He says he's feeling great today." or "He said he was feeling great that day." When we turn direct questions into reported (or indirect) speech the following changes take place: the question word (when, where, who, etc) remains but the form of the verb changes into the positive form with the question mark being omitted. The verb 'say' changes into ask, enquire, etc, and the tense of the speech reported is the same as that of the reporting verb. For example: Steve -"How are you feeling, Dave?" If someone was reporting this it would become: Steve asked Dave how he was feeling. There are never quotation marks in reported speech, as we are not quoting the exact words spoken. When reporting past speech, events take a step backwards in time. This is referred to as backshifthing. For example: 'today becomes 'that day', 'yesterday' becomes 'the day before', etc. These changes need to be taught as students progress through the levels. Teachers should teach these aspects of the language slowly and thoroughly.
I learned a lot about conditionals and reported speech in this unit. These are areas where students can become easily confused. I think it is important for teachers to have patience and take each aspect one by one so students are not overwhelmed by the material. There are many good and fun activities teachers can do on conditionals and reported speech in study and activate stages. Teachers should keep the atmosphere positive, light, and fun so students don't get frustrated when learning these aspects of the English language.
