THE TEACHING OF SIMPLE PAST TENSE

BY Anton

Description

Most students of Junior High school (SMP) say that the way of learning Simple Past Tense need more practises. That means students must know the stages to learn The Simple Past Tense, here are the stages that most helpful to the learners, they are ;

Materials

1.    The function of the Simple Past Tense

2.    The kind of the Simple Past Tense sentence

3.    The form of the Simple Past Tense sentence

Applying the theory may not effective, it sometimes makes the learners becomes frustrated. Therefore the teacher should combine the teaching ways such as a theory and practises.

Teaching ways

A.      A theory of Simple Past Tense

A.1. The function of Simple Past tense

Simple Past Tense is used to express past activity or past action with a definite time.

A.2. The Kind of Simple Past Tense sentence

There are two kinds of sentences in the Simple Past Tense, they are verbal and nominal sentences. Verbal means the sentence must use infinitive and preterite in writing sentences. It can be seen to the regular an irregular verb table.

A.3. The Form of The Simple Past Tense Sentences

       There are three form of Simple Past Tense sentences, they are affirmative, negative and interrogative

B.       Practises

Practises should be given as more as possible to the students because the students are expected to be able to write the form of the sentences at the end of the teaching an learning the materials. The test should start from the simple to the complete ones. The simple test means that test is constructed by inserting word to incomplete sentences. On the other hand, the complete test means that the students try to construct the form of the sentence by allow them to write according to the their knowledge of The Simple Past Tense that they get from prior teaching and learning process.

Examples

1.      Brown waited bus yesterday.

He did not wait bus yesterday

Did he wait bus yesterday?

2.      Brown was at school this morning

He  was not at school this morning

Was he at school this morning?

3.      Brown and kelly were at the hotel last night

They were not at the hotel last night

Were they at the hotel last night

Conclusion

            The pattern of writing sentences based on th kind and the form as follows;

Verbal sentences

Affirmative : subject +V2 +object+adverb

Negative : subject + did not +V1+object+adverb

Interrogative : Did +subject + V1 + object + adverb?

Nominal sentences

            Affirmative : (he, she, it, I) + was +object + adverb

            Negative : ( He, She, It, I) + was not + adverb

            Interrogative : was + (he, she, it, I) +object + adverb?

            Affirmative: (You, We, They) +were+object+adverb

            Negative : (you, we, they) + were not + object + adverb

            Interrogative: were + (you,we, they)+object+adverb?

Exercise one : complete the sentence with an appropriate word!

1.                   Richard played quitar last night.

He (a)....................., (b)...............last night

(c)............. he (d)........... last night?

            2.         They(a) ....... there anymore

                         They(b) ............... there anymore

                         (c)............ they there anymore?

            3          My father (a)........ sick two years ago

                        He (b)...........sick two years ago

                        (c) ................ he sick years ago?

Exercise two: tell your yesterday activity with the best grammar used!

                       

Example :        Last week, I went to pontianak. I bought some apples. The apples were not sweet because some of them were not kept to the refrigerator. I was really sad. I did not want to go there anymore.