Universite d’antananarivo ecole normale superieure

3.2.2- On teaching conditional sentences

There are some “do and don’ts” in the teaching of conditional sentences. The first thing teachers should know is that it is difficult for students to remember the structure of English conditional sentences because of their complexity. As such, all the three types should not be taught in one session, especially if third conditional is presented for the first time. We suggest that teachers can teach the first and second conditional in one session because they are supposed to be revised in “première” and “terminale” classes. Third conditional should be presented alone afterwards. Teachers should not teach another type if the type being taught is

not well acquired by students because students may be confused. In addition to that, students should not be forced to remember linguistic or grammatical terminologies such as “subordinate clause”, “subordinator (if)”, “if clause”, “main clause” … since practice is more important than theory in grammar teaching. Instead, students should know the relation condition-result, no matter if they do not remember how to call the clauses.

Non-mastery of irregular verbs is also a major problem mentioned by the teachers in the field investigation. Many English language teachers are used to punishing students who do not remember irregular verbs. We suggest that frequent repetition is a solution to that problem. Past tenses must be taught before conditional sentences. As such, teachers should give as many exercises as possible so that students will remember at least five irregular verbs per week. Teachers can motivate students to learn irregular verbs by giving marks as bonus to the courageous students.