English

ERIC ED406832: How Should We Teach Japanese Learners the Present Perfect?

The teaching of English present perfect tense to Japanese learners of English as a second language at the high school level is discussed, focusing on how this is currently done and how it could be done better. It is suggested that the greatest problem encountered by Japanese learners of English is aspect, and that students must dissect their own native grammar to understand the English present perfect tense. Generally, Japanese learners of English are taught the present perfect in their third year of study, in junior high school, at which point all tenses learned previously corresponded roughly to tenses in Japanese, and addition of aspect is confusing. Traditionally, the present perfect tense is simplified to make learning easier. As a result, it often must be re-taught in high school. It is argued here that a communicative approach to grammar teaching, focusing more on production in context, would be more effective. An approach to designing classroom language-learning tasks that emphasize active language use and provide motivation for it is outlined. These elements of tasks are discussed: topic; visual aids; complexity (both code and cognitive); and activeness. A method for prepa

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