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I wish+ Past Perfect

As we mentioned before, we use conditional type 3 to express unrealized situations in the past and regrets. We can also express that dissatisfaction about the past by using “I wish + Past perfect” which has the equivalent meaning of the third conditional. Thus,

If I had known the truth= I wish I had known the truth
If I hadn’t burnt my copy books= I wish I hadn’t burnt my copy books

To sum up, here is a chart which recapitulates the four major types of conditional sentences:

Table 1: Recapitulation of the four major types of conditional sentences

Type of conditional	Basic pattern	Use	Examples
Conditional type zero	If + PRESENT SIMPLE, + PRESENT SIMPLE	To express facts and general truths which are not bounded in time.	- Water freezes if it snows - If you heat ice, it turns into water.
First Conditional (Type I)	If+ PRESENT SIMPLE, + FUTURE (will/be going to)	To express future plans, contingencies or events which are likely or probable to happen.	If it rains, we’ll stay home. They are going to dance if they like the music.
Second Conditional (Type II)	If + PAST SIMPLE, + PRESENT CONDITIONAL (would + V(-to))	To express impossibilities or events which are less likely to happen with the reference to the present. To express a wish or an ambition.	If my grandfather were alive today, he would experience a very different world. If I had a helicopter, I would visit many famous cities.
Third Conditional (Type III)	If + PAST PERFECT(had +past participle), + PAST CONDITIONAL (would +have +past participle)	- To imagine past events and their results happening differently (impossibilities with the reference to the past.) - To express regrets	If I had known the truth, I wouldn’t have said anything. Ben would have passed his exam if he had worked hard.

1.2- TEACHING CONDITIONAL SENTENCES IN A COMMUNICATIVE WAY

In this subpart we will see the stages and techniques of communicative teaching of conditional sentences. Before that, we will explain the concepts of communicative grammar and the conceptual value of conditional sentences in Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

1.2.1- Concepts of communicative grammar

Communicative grammar is based on the communicative approach to the teaching of second or foreign languages. In other words, communicative grammar is the application of Communicative Language Teaching in grammar classes or simply the communicative teaching of grammar. The term “communicative” has been misunderstood since many instructors believe that students should simply articulate the language without following any rule or sentence pattern. When grammar teaching is concerned, CLT focuses on “communicative proficiency rather than mere mastery of structures” (Richards and Rodgers, 1986). Communicative proficiency or communicative competence, which is the ability to use the language for meaningful communication, makes the ultimate objective of English Language Teaching, and the communicative approach, if completely and well conceived, does not involve the rejection of grammar.
Teachers feel they should push students to memorize structures which are not contextualized or used in everyday conversation, and this is why students do not know how to use those structures in a flexible and practical way or how to apply them in real communication. Since our goal is to achieve a better fit between grammar and communication, it is not helpful to think of grammar as a discrete set of meaningless, de- contextualized, static structures. Nor is it helpful to think of grammar solely as prescriptive rules about linguistic forms. De-contextualized way of teaching grammar was mentioned as the main shortcoming of traditional grammar materials in which every rule is explained and followed by some exercises without placing the subject within a meaningful context (Petrovitz , 1997). Grammatical structures not only have form (morphosyntactic), they are also used to express meaning (semantics) in context- appropriate use (pragmatics). By employing communicative grammar teaching, we can make students communicate and improve both fluency and accuracy. Furthermore, we can also increase motivation and promote learning.

Communicative Language Teaching makes use of real life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Students’ motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics. Berns (1984), an expert in the field of CLT, writes: “language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society. In this light, language study has to look at the use of language in context, both its linguistic context and its social or situational context”. Thereby, language structures must not be taught in isolation since contextualization is crucial in communicative grammar.