Tenses are the most crucial part of grammar in every language that needs the most attention from learners. Without mastering tenses, one cannot speak or write in English fluently. Making your young students learn tenses and its rules is essential to master the language as they grow. Students should thoroughly understand the three tenses, present, past, and future, and the four forms, simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous. This blog will guide you in how to make your students learn tenses.
Give them an entire overview
Young children who learn knowing the purpose become unstoppable in learning. Before teaching tenses, explain to them why you will teach them tenses. Make them realize the importance of tenses in every language. Students will learn tenses interestingly when they know about their necessity. Prepare a simple chart displaying all the tenses with simple examples and provide them with a short explanation or overview of all the tenses and their usages.
Time to focus on each tense separately
When you finished teaching your students the importance of tenses and a basic overview, now it is time to focus more on each tense. Teach each tense and its four forms thoroughly. Try to make the examples as simple as possible and make them easily understand the tenses using those examples. Explain to your students the four forms, simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous, and help them understand the differences between those four forms.
Easy examples for each tense
As mentioned earlier, try to provide them with simple examples to understand each tense better. Prepare a chart displaying all the tenses with simple examples, and stick them on your classroom walls. Whenever students look at the charts, they will remember the rules and won’t easily forget them. After teaching every tense, encourage your students to form new sentences using the laws. This practice will help them to write and speak fluently.
Include interactive games as a part of learning
Young students find it interesting to learn by playing games. Gather your students and form them into small groups. Ask every group to frame new sentences, recite the tense rules or ask questions to other groups. Making your students play such games enhances the interaction, and they will learn faster. You can also find some word or grammar games online to make your students play and learn tenses from them.
Encourage your students to read books
Be it textbooks or storybooks, encourage your students to develop their daily reading habits. The more they read, the more they will understand English grammar. In addition, children who read more often will automatically improve their fluency in speaking. Besides encouraging them to learn individually, try to spend some time reading with your students. Students would love to read along with their teacher and will be more excited to learn.
Develop the practice of storytelling
Conduct storytelling sessions to enhance their thinking. Please give them a topic or a picture and ask them to form a story by seeing it. While they try to create an account, they will think a lot and come up with new sentences. Ask them to stick to the tenses rules and make them stretch as much as possible. If you find any student struggling to form new sentences, assist them in remembering the rules and teach them simpler.
Preview often
Revising the tenses you taught often is the only way to make your students remember them effectively. Don’t rush while you teach tenses; take sufficient time to teach each tense. After conducting a tense, take enough time to give a detailed preview of it to make your students understand better. Make sure your students are not confused and help them in all ways to master tenses and rules.
Provide them plenty of exercises
One of the best ways to make your students learn tenses faster is by providing them with many exercises to practice. After completing a tense, give them numerous questions to try on their own. Don’t forget to assist your students whenever they need help while practicing. Nowadays, there are a lot of websites that provide practice tests on tenses. You can make your students attend them and get results immediately after completing them.
To sum up
Understanding the English tenses may seem challenging for the students at first. Guide them effectively by adopting the above techniques and making your students master tenses faster.
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