Universite d’antananarivo ecole normale superieure

Question 16: A few words about the teaching of conditional sentences in “Première” and “Terminale” classes …

Actually, this last question is not a question. The objective is here to let the teachers express themselves freely as they were always given multiple choice questions before. It allows the teachers to write some remarks or their opinion about any point on the teaching of conditional sentences. Actually, the teachers’ remarks can be divided into two sections which are the problems in teaching conditionals and solutions to these problems.
Firstly, we would report the problems mentioned by the teachers. Most of them agree that the lesson on conditionals is one of the most difficult for students. They claim that the non-mastery of irregular verbs is the main problem for students. Moreover, students sometimes mix the use of second and third conditionals as well as the verb tenses they should use in each type. A teacher thinks students should not have trouble using English conditional sentences because they also learn conditionals in French. Some teachers even claim that it is very boring to teach conditional sentences in Malagasy high schools because students are not motivated at all and they lack imagination. Another problem is that students never use conditional sentences in their conversation though they are the only ways to express hypothesis.
However, some teachers put forward solutions to improve the teaching of conditional sentences. They say that teaching conditional sentences should not be that difficult and that we can have fun learning conditional sentences. It is just a matter of knowing how to present the lesson. A key solution is mentioned by a teacher that teachers should not move to the next lesson until what is being taught is well assimilated by students, and that includes the conditionals.
We can see from this report that few teachers mind about the students’ ability to use conditional sentences in their everyday English conversation. That is obviously due to the fact that teaching grammar for a communicative purpose is not yet included in the habits of Malagasy teachers of English. We contend a reason that teachers do not contextualize the structures when they teach conditional sentences. Therefore, students are not able to use them in realistic context or real life situations.