Step-by-step algorithm for grammar topic presentation: English Conditionals.

Abstract

Grammar is considered to be the most important part in learning the foreign language and students’ language development is severely constrained without a good knowledge of it. English grammar is traditionally seen as a syntactic system determining the order and the usage of analytical structures arranged in sentences. Conditional sentences are regarded complex patterns as in the English language there are at least three types of them differing in structure and meaning. Moreover, in the models of such complex conditional sentences, a special backshifting is observed. It causes a certain number of difficulties for students to study English as a foreign language. The paper attempts to outline a step-by-step algorithm for the presentation of the grammar topic “English conditionals” using the pedagogical experience of foreign teachers and our own (the work with students of non-philological specialities) in order to facilitate the process of teaching the specified topic to teachers of secondary and higher educational establishments. The article highlights the eight steps of grammar material presentation, which are used at classes on the discipline “Foreign Language (English)”. The main attention is focused on the linguistic and cognitive nature of conditional sentences, which are easier to perceive within grammar dimension (form, meaning, usage). The following steps are outlined: description of the general picture of the mood as a grammatical category; demonstration of the main types of the mood; providing information on semantically universal features of conditional sentences in English and Ukrainian; identification of the main problems that students face when studying the topic; analysis of basic textbooks; introducing types of conditional sentences with an emphasis on probable, improbable and impossible conditions; some tips for choosing exercises to train practical material.