Navigating Past Tenses: Teaching English Verbs to Asian Learners with Worksheets - Free Essay

Introduction

In most countries, English is considered as either the first, second, or third language. It is utilized in most education sectors to prepare students for examinations (Nunan, 2012). English may not be the official language for all countries but learning English is vital for any student to cope with competition in the labor market. However, good English needs to be accompanied by good grammar and more specifically, the tenses ( Funnell & Kopelman,2016). In this case, I chose to tackle simple past tense because I am dealing with Asian learners who find learning tenses quite complicated. Specifically, the grammatical errors they have been making are based on simple past tenses. Therefore, it is essential to use the right teaching materials to understand and use them. In this case, I will use a worksheet to cover irregular and regular verbs, whiteboard markers, and a set of index cards. As a grammar tool, the worksheet will display the past tense of irregular and regular verbs for the pupils. Mainly the worksheet will aim at helping the young learners to master the verb tenses.

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Analysis of Past Tense for Regular and Irregular Verbs

Verbs refer to words that indicate actions, doings, motions, or even state of being. One needs to understand the past tense of various verb forms to utilize them in the English language. Some of the examples of verbs include verbs like play, make, and look. The majority of the verbs are known as regular verbs (Lipan, 2018). However, a verb can be a regular verb when the simple tense and past participle are formed by adding ‘-d’ at the verb's end (Funnell & Kopelman, 2016). In terms of pronunciation, a regular verb is pronounced with the sound ‘-d’ as the last sound. Such verbs follow similar patterns.

On the other hand, irregular verbs usually follow different endings. They differ from regular verbs in that the conjugation pattern is different, and ‘-d’ is not added at the end of the verb. Moreover, irregular verbs are pronounced with different sounds. Learning and teaching the past tense of regular and irregular verbs is critical because verbs act as the foundation of English (Trudgill & Chambers, 2017). Failure to understand the verbs will make it hard for the learners to distinguish past tense patterns formed by irregular and regular verbs.

Therefore, the students need to undertake more practice on using past tenses by using the worksheets and additional materials such as classroom readers. According to the analysis that I made of my students, most of them cannot distinguish the past tenses of regular verbs from irregular verbs' past tenses. In this case, I will need a register as a factor to represent neutral tenses; for instance, can you go out?

English is the common language in the next level of education and working environment, it is a requirement for students to be proficient in it (Blything et al., 2018). Consequently, I will consider using the language awareness approach for my Asian students because English is a second language. As a teacher, I need to conduct a lot of activities for teaching regular and irregular verbs. According to Schremm et al. (2019), there are only 180 irregular verbs in English. However, research has indicated that the most used verbs in the English language are irregular verbs. The study by Blything et al. (2018) argued that Irregular verbs are used in at least seven out of ten sentences in a person's speech. Therefore, a teacher should always design the best ways to ensure learners understand the use of both regular and irregular verbs properly. As a teacher, I need to provide learners with a variety of these verbs.

Following a class worksheet for regular and irregular verbs, it is possible to record all 180 irregular verbs and their forms in past and participle tenses (Lipan, 2018). It can also record many regular verbs and display them to students. Even though regular verbs use the form '-d' for past tense, there are many irregular verbs that do not follow that principle. However, if learners engage effectively in class, they understand and practice the past tense for the irregular verbs. The verbs do not follow any rule or pattern, meaning learners have to understand the words individually and practice them often. Using a worksheet for learning is user-friendly since the students can communicate their progress and experience while learning. Generally, worksheets are the best materials for revision because they are self-explanatory and can act as fillers when the teacher is absent. In case the number of students is high, worksheets can facilitate learning in groups independently. Finally, the repetition and flexibility provided by worksheets are vital in monitoring the student’s progress.

Why Students Need to Understand Regular and Irregular Verbs

Based on the native language of Asians, completed actions do not have past tenses. Therefore, through English, I have learned about past tenses, which is somehow challenging. Majorly, the current educational curriculum and the first language the students learn will determine the ability to understand a second language. Worldwide, English language growth as a foreign language has been increasing significantly; thus, students need to learn it (Nørgaard et al., 2010). Also, English language proficiency is a requirement to cope with stiff competition in the job market. Hence, teaching regular and irregular verbs is crucial because it would promote the English language's understanding and usage to the learners (Schremm et al., 2019). Thus, learners should pay attention to learning verbs because they act as the English language's foundation. Every correct sentence one speaks or writes has to incorporate one or more verbs. Therefore, it would be embarrassing if one fails to understand verbs' formation because it would mean they cannot communicate in English.

Target Students/Class

The group of learners targeted by this lesson is the “English as a second language” category. The average age of the pupils is eleven years. Learners would be expected to pay maximum attention to the class because the task would be quite involving. The Lesson is designed for non-native English-speaking students from Saudi Arabia, aged ten to eleven years. Such a group of learners can be best suited to a class set of regular and irregular verb worksheets. Despite the teacher’s commitment to teaching students a second language, some students can still not effectively communicate. Thus, a foreign language's critical elements should be adequately addressed to the learning process's target group. In this case, verbs and specifically past tenses should be made known to the target students.

Why the Lesson on Past Tense for Regular and Irregular Verbs is Necessary for the Target Learners

The group tends to experience difficulties in sentence construction and speaking. Therefore, to assist them in acquiring strong command of English, I will focus on teaching them the past tense of all irregular verbs since regular verbs have a simple principle –d which needs less concentration to understand (Trudgill & Chambers, 2017). In preparation for the examination and fluent English speaking, these students must comprehend both regular and irregular verbs' past tenses. Despite the challenges encountered while learning a new language, it is compulsory to understand grammatical features to study the tenses thoroughly and comprehensively. Nevertheless, it is mandatory for the target group to practically use the tenses for mastery and through the use of a worksheet.

Aims of the Worksheet in Building a Student’s Language Skills

Generally, it is not easy for students to fully understand a foreign language's tenses through the class sessions alone. Language mastery is a complex process that requires additional learning materials for practical work. Thus, as part of the learning practice for teachers, the provision of a worksheet is necessary to display the tenses. Besides the worksheet, other learning materials such as match-up cards would be included for more comfortable mastery of past tenses. Furthermore, the number of students I will be handling is large, and a worksheet can be the best for the groups. Using a worksheet has an added advantage because it is both favorable to all the students and self-explanatory as well. Even in my absence, my students will be able to practice tenses because of the repetition and flexibility of the material.

The Approach of Worksheets in Learning Past Tenses

The language material used in the class will focus on the past tenses of regular and irregular verbs. A worksheet would be a printed piece of paper or document from which all the verbs would be displayed. The present forms, past, and participle tenses would also be displayed on the worksheets. The worksheets come in varying forms and are associated with children's class activities. In this case, the verbs worksheet would be a scrap paper in which various forms of verbs and how they form tenses would be explained in detail. The assignments and homework, as well as quizzes, are also incorporated within the worksheet. According to research in early childhood education, worksheets are highly recommended for teaching and assessment (Funnell & Kopelman, 2016).

The verbs worksheet contains both regular and irregular verbs and their different forms. Examples of both forms of verbs are also listed on the worksheet. The verbs worksheet helps students identify various forms of verbs and how they form past tenses. For this Lesson, the worksheet would contain the past tense of all 180 irregular verbs in both present and past tenses and more than 100 regular verbs with past and present tenses. Simple sentences to show the use of those verbs will also be displayed in the worksheets.

Reasons for Using the Worksheet Presentation Approach

Using a worksheet in-class presentation of tenses has several disadvantages and advantages that will quickly help students understand. The positive and negative impacts of using worksheets in the classroom are indicated below:

Positive Impacts of a Worksheet on the Students

English is a foreign language to Asian students; more effort needs to be put in place to ensure they comprehend the past tenses before the examination periods. As an added reward, the benefits that come with the use of worksheets in learning are countless. The worksheets motivate students to learn under minimal supervision (VanPatten & Benati, 2015). Also, general classroom consultation and problem-solving are made more comfortable for the students by displaying information on the worksheet. It will be easier for a teacher to analyze and gauge the students’ performance and progress by using a worksheet. On the other hand, the worksheet brings curiosity among the students who feel the confusion encountered before through peer pressure. As a result of the peer influence to use the charts, the students will grasp everything I teach in class. Amazingly, the worksheets can also be used by the students to recap the previous lessons and my conceptual reiteration. Lastly, once I have handed out the worksheets, the student's memory would have been sharpened.

Negative Impacts of a Worksheet on the Students

Even though worksheets are crucial for learning tenses, some disadvantages accrue due to their continued use. Essentially, good knowledge involves writing. The worksheets deny the pupils peer-to-peer writing while learning. Occasionally, the students may fail to comprehend some information on the worksheet without my assistance. Also, providing a worksheet may make me too comfortable and assume my students have understood the tenses concept even when they have not.