Fenwick, Michigan TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

Unit 16 covered the grammar points of conditionals and reported speech This was a clear and concise lesson that covered the main usages of these two grammar points in a way that was easy to follow and understand. I found from previous units that the way the grammar had been explained gave me a quick answer to a questioning student. I often know what is "right" and "wrong", but to explain it in a way that doesn't further confuse the student is the knowledge that I am lacking. So I believe that this unit will also prove itself invaluable in helping me cover these two confusing grammar points in a clear, concise, easy to implement and easy to remember way. However, to be honest, I did find it a bit confusing the way the Reported Speech section mixed the grammar rules inside a discussion about an example being used and didn't restate the rules (present vs past tense vs question reporting) by themselves. The unit summary is as follows: Conditionals: Conditionals contain "if" or similar expressions with two clauses - the "if" clause and the main clause. Conditionals refer to past, present and future possibilities. The five main conditionals are as follows: > Zero conditional - refers to actions and facts that are irrefutable > First conditional - Talks about a "real" situation in the future that is possible, probably or even certain, once the condition has been satisfied > Second conditional - Communicates a present or future "unreal", hypothetical situation that is presently not true and is unlikely to ever be true > Third conditional - Refers to a hypothetical past action (or non-action) and the hypothetical past consequence/result > Mixed conditional - Refers to a hypothetical past action or state, and the hypothetical present consequence Reported speech vs direct speech: Direct (actual) speech uses quotation marks and is exactly what the speaker stated, whereas reported speech does not use quotation marks because it isn't an exact quote. The following changes take place in reported (indirect) speech: > The word "that" is often inserted after the word say(s)/said/ask/enquire... but is not obligatory. > There are never quotation marks in reported speech > The pronouns are changed to preserve the context of the direct speech relative to the audience of the reported speech > Backshifting - Typically both the time and the physical positions being reported are "backshifted": 1. "This" and "here" become "that" and "there" 2. The verb tense is shifted to the past 3. Time words are modified to maintain the relative time span - i.e, "today" becomes "that day" > Present tense reporting - When reporting in the Present tense - i.e., the reported action/statement/condition is ongoing (or the fact stated is still true) - the verb tense does not change and the words used are exactly as quoted by the original speaker, with the exception of changing the pronouns. > Question reporting - 1. The question word remains 2. If there is no question word, "if" or "whether" must be used 3. The form of the verb changes into the positive form 4. The verb "say" changes into "ask, enquire.." 5. The tense of the speech is the same as that of the reporting verb 6. The question mark is omitted > Past Tense Reporting - The person reporting what another person said would be obligated to change the reported speech into the past tense after the action/situation is over. Typical verb tense shifts from direct speech to reported speech are as follows: 1. Present simple > past simple 2. Present continuous > past continuous 3. Present perfect > past perfect 4. Present perfect continuous > past perfect continuous 5. Past simple > past perfect 6. Past continuous > past perfect continuous 7. "Will" > "would" 8. Past perfect > past perfect 9. Past perfect continuous > past perfect continuous