Universite d’antananarivo ecole normale superieure

Figure 7: Graph representing students' main difficulty in learning conditional sentences

This diagram helps us realize that verb tense coordination is students’ major problem in learning conditional sentences. This is obvious because verb forms in conditional sentences are more complex than other structures. Non-mastery of irregular verbs is also a dominant problem since English is a foreign language for Malagasy learners, and irregular verbs are

difficult for them because they need to learn them by heart. The uses of the three different types are also confusing for students because each type has its specific meaning. This last problem is related to the other problem mentioned by the teacher who wrote that unreal conditions are the core of the conditional sentences. Lack of contextualization and use of real life situations can be the reason of this problem. Finally, we cannot neglect the problem of word meaning or lack of vocabulary because vocabulary is the basic language element which constitutes a language. When students lack vocabulary, they will never be able to communicate by means of the language. This question is actually intended to see later whether communicative grammar teaching can be a solution to these problems.