Q1. What is Language and what are the characteristics and functions of language?

LANGUAGE The word "language" has two meanings: language as a general concept, and

"a language" a specific linguistic system - e.g. "French". Languages other

than English often have two separate words for these distinct concepts;

French for example uses langue for language as a concept and langue as the

specific instance of language.

When speaking of language as a general concept several different definitions

can be used that stresses different aspects of the phenomenon.

Language is a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or

conventional symbols; "he taught foreign languages"; "the language

introduced is standard throughout the text"; "the speed with which a program

can be executed depends on the language in which it is written".

The word Language can be used as a general concept about the specifically

human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication,

or as a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The

study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics.

CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE

Different people describe different characteristics of language.

According to one thinking language has the five characteristics of language

are that it is a system, it is dynamic, has dialects, is sociolect, and idiolect. A

language is systemic in that it has different linguistic levels, is syntactical,

conversational, and sociolinguistic. It is dynamic in that the words and

phrases may change meaning from one generation to the next. Dialects are

variations of the same language spoken amongst people of the same or

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different countries. Language may vary based on the speaker's social class,

and human individuality.

According to Hockett language has the following features.

a) Language involves the use of vocal organs of the speaker and the

hearing mechanism of the listener.

b) Language is Semantic. Semantic means “having leaning”. Thus

language uses verbal symbols, to refer to objects and actions.

c) The symbols we use for transmission of language are arbitrary. In this

case, arbitrary means not chosen for any special reason.

d) Language is culturally transmitted. Although children seem to be

born with the ability to acquire language, they are not equipped with

the ability to acquire one particular language more than any other. In

other words one child is not born with an inbuilt ability to speak

Punjabi rather than Sindhi.

e) Language is Spontaneous. We do not necessarily use it because we

are forced to by circumstances. We use language when we want to do

so and because we want to do so. Language is perhaps the greatest tol

of our wish to be sociable.

f) Interchangeability. This means that the speaker can both receive and

broadcast the same signal. This is distinctive from some animal

communications such as that of the sticklefish. The sticklefish make

auditory signals based on gender (basically, the males say "I'm a boy"

and the females say "I'm a girl"). However, male fish cannot say "I'm

a girl," although they can perceive it. Thus, sticklefish signals are not

interchangeable.

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g) Total feedback. This means that the speaker can hear themself speak

and can monitor their language performance as they go. This differs

from some other simple communication systems, such as traffic

signals. Traffic signs are not normally capable of monitor their own

functions (a red light can't tell when the bulb is burned out, i.e.).

h) Arbitrariness. This means that there is no necessary connection

between the form of the signal and the thing being referred to. For

example, something as large as a whale can be referred to by a very

short word. Similarly, there is no reason that a four-legged domestic

canine should be called a dog and not a chien or a perro or an anjing

(all words for 'dog' in other languages). Onomatopoeic words such as

"meow" or "bark" are often cited as counter-examples, based on the

argument that they are pronounced like the sound they refer to.

However, the similarity if very loose (a dog that actually said "bark"

would be very surprising) and does not always hold up across

languages (Spanish dogs, for example, say "guau"). So, even

onomatopoeic words are, to some extent, arbitrary.

i) Discreteness. This means that the basic units of speech (such as

sounds) can be categorized as belonging to distinct categories. There

is no gradual, continuous shading from one sound to another in the

linguistics system, although there may be a continuum in the real

physical world. Thus speakers will perceive a sound as either a [p] or

a [b], but not as blend, even if physically it falls somewhere between

the two sounds.

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j) Displacement. This means that the speaker can talk about things

which are not present, either spatially or temporally. For example,

human language allows speakers to talk about the past and the future,

as well as the present. Speakers can also talk about things that are

physically distant (such as other countries, the moon, etc.). They can

even refer to things and events that do not actually exist (they are not

present in reality) such as the Easter Bunny, the Earth having an

emperor, or the destruction of Tara in Gone with the Wind.

k) Productivity. This means that human languages allow speakers to

create novel, never-before-heard utterances that others can

understand. For example, the sentence "The little lavender men who

live in my socks drawer told me that Elvis will come back from Mars

on the 10th to do a benefit concert for unemployed Pekingese dogs" is

a novel and never-before-heard sentence (at least, I hope it is!), but

any fluent speaker of English would be able to understand it (and

realize that the speaker was not completely sane, in all probability).

l) Traditional Transmission. This means that human language is not

something inborn. Although humans are probably born with an ability

to do language, they must learn, or acquire, their native language from

other speakers. This is different from many animal communication

systems where the animal is born knowing their entire system, e.g.

bees are born knowing how to dance and some birds are born knowing

their species of bird-songs (this is not true of all birds).

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Q2. What language theory is offered by BF Skinner and how it is

different from the other theories offered by other linguistics?

B.F. SKINNER'S VIEW ON LANGUAGE

Behaviorists view the process of language acquisition as a building process

that results from interaction with the environment. In outlining his assertion

that humans acquire spoken language as a result of behavioral conditioning.

B.F. Skinner writes:

A child acquires verbal behavior when relatively unpattterned

vocalizations, selectively reinforced, gradually assume forms

which produce appropriate consequences in a given verbal

community. In formulating this process we do not feed to

mention stimuli occurring prior to the behavior to be reinforced.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to discover stimuli which evoke

specific vocal responses in the young child. There is no

stimulus which makes a child say b or a or e, as one may make

him salivate by placing a lemon drop in his mouth or make his

pupils contract by shining a light into his eyes. The raw

responses from which verbal behavior is constructed are not

"elicited." In order to reinforce a given response we simply wait

until it occurs.

Skinner views the child as the "passive subject of operant conditioning in

whom randomly occurring behavior is selectively reinforced"

Skinner's seminal work, Verbal Behaviour (1957), begins with a chapter

called, "A functional analysis of verbal behaviour". However, you should be

aware that his theory is very far from the functional, or sociocultural,

approach to language, which is followed in this subject. You will also

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become aware that the antecedents of the sociocultural approach to language

which underpin this subject, preceded the work of B. F. Skinner by several

decades. Nevertheless, this section begins with an introduction to B. F.

Skinner's theory of language as 'verbal behaviour' (1957). This is partly

because his learning theory was transposed into language teaching

methodologies prior to that transposition of the work of linguistic

anthropologists and linguists to language pedagogies; and partly because

Skinner's theory has had such definite, and enduring, influences on language

teaching. The residual echoes of his theory can be heard every time one of us

mentions 'positive reinforcement' (or 'negative reinforcement', for that

matter) and his theory is operational every time one of us includes a teaching

practice which begins with drills and grammar study decontextualised from

meaning. Skinner rejected the very idea of 'meaning'.

DIFFERENCE OF BF SKINNER BY OTHERS

As Jespersen [a significant linguist and grammarian whose major work,

Language, was published in 1922] said many years ago, "The only

unimpeachable definition of a word is that it is a human habit."

Unfortunately, he felt it necessary to add, "an habitual act on the part of one

human individual which has, or may have, the effect of evoking some idea in

the mind of another individual." Similarly, Betrand Russell asserts that "just

as jumping is one class of movement...so the word 'dog' is [another] class,"

but he adds that words differ from other classes of bodily movements

because they have "meaning". In both cases something has been added to an

objective description (Skinner 1957: 13).

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CHOMSKY & THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION

During the 1950’s, Noam Chomsky wrote his first major work, The Logical

Structure of Linguistic Theory, which would not to be published for another

20 years. However, a European publisher, who was excited about

Chomsky’s ideas, published a set of his lecture notes under the title

Syntactic Structures in 1957. The book, after having received a positive

review by Robert Lees in Language, was read by several influential people,

including George A. Miller, whose work on information theory and short-

term memory of the 1950’s are legend, and also key to the Cognitive

Revolution.

In 1958, Bernard Bloch, editor of Language, asked Chomsky to write a

review of B.F. Skinner’s new book, Verbal Behavior, which had been

published in 1957. Chomsky’s review, published in 1959, was highly

critical. He argued that there is more to language learning than imitation and

reinforcement. Important observations he offered were:

1.) There are an infinite number of sentences in any language; all possible

sentences would be impossible to learn through imitation and reinforcement.

2.) Children acquire language quickly and effortlessly, and at identical

stages across cultures.

3.) Words like goed, thinked, and eated are not spoken by parents; instead,

children say these things because they over-generalize rules, such as this one

for past tense.

Chomsky asserted that children learn the rules of language, not just specific

responses, as Skinner had proposed. He asserted that human beings are born

biologically equipped to learn a language, and proposed his theory of a

Language Acquisition Device (LAD) – an inborn mechanism or process that

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facilitates the learning of a language. According to the theory, the LAD

consists of brain structures and neural wiring that are unique to human

beings. In this nativist theory, humans are born with the ability to

discriminate among phonemes, to fast-map morphemes, and to acquire the

rules of syntax, and more.

Chomsky’s assertion that important aspects of language learning can only be

explained adequately by innate mental processes forever shattered the

empirical stronghold of behaviorism, which had dominated psychology for

nearly 50 years. Chomsky’s critique of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, and

pivotal work by George Miller, Jerome Bruner, Ulric Neisser, and others

brought mind and thought back into the study of psychology.

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Q3. What are different languages learning methods and what you

think is the best method to use in language classroom? Deivce

three activities by using that method in classroom.

Language education is the teaching and learning of a language. It can

include improving a learner's mastery of her or his native language, but the

term is more commonly used with regard to second language acquisition,

which means the learning of a foreign or second language and which is the

topic of this article. Language education is a branch of applied linguistics.

METHODS OF TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Language education may take place as a general school subject or in a

specialized language school. There are many methods of teaching languages.

Some have fallen into relative obscurity and others are widely used; still

others have a small following, but offer useful insights.

While sometimes confused, the terms "approach", "method" and "technique"

are hierarchical concepts. An approach is a set of correlative assumptions

about the nature of language and language learning, but does not involve

procedure or provide any details about how such assumptions should

translate into the classroom setting. Such can be related to second language

acquisition theory.

There are three principal views at this level:

1. The structural view treats language as a system of structurally related

elements to code meaning (e.g. grammar).

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2. The functional view sees language as a vehicle to express or

accomplish a certain function, such as requesting something.

3. The interactive view sees language as a vehicle for the creation and

maintenance of social relations, focusing on patterns of moves, acts,

negotiation and interaction found in conversational exchanges. This

view has been fairly dominant since the 1980s.

A method is a plan for presenting the language material to be learned and

should be based upon a selected approach. In order for an approach to be

translated into a method, an instructional system must be designed

considering the objectives of the teaching/learning, how the content is to be

selected and organized, the types of tasks to be performed, the roles of

students and the roles of teachers. A technique is a very specific, concrete

stratagem or trick designed to accomplish an immediate objective. Such are

derived from the controlling method, and less-directly, with the approach

THE GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD

The grammar translation method instructs students in grammar, and provides

vocabulary with direct translations to memorize. It was the predominant

method in Europe in the 19th century. Most instructors now acknowledge

that this method is ineffective by itself[citation needed]. It is now most

commonly used in the traditional instruction of the classical languages,

however it remains the most commonly practiced method of English

teaching in Japan[citation needed].

At school, the teaching of grammar consists of a process of training in the

rules of a language which must make it possible to all the students to

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correctly express their opinion, to understand the remarks which are

addressed to them and to analyze the texts which they read. The objective is

that by the time they leave college, the pupil controls the tools of the

language which are the vocabulary, grammar and the orthography, to be able

to read, understand and write texts in various contexts. The teaching of

grammar examines texts, and develops awareness that language constitutes a

system which can be analyzed. This knowledge is acquired gradually, by

traversing the facts of language and the syntactic mechanisms, going from

simplest to the most complex. The exercises according to the program of the

course must untiringly be practiced to allow the assimilation of the rules

stated in the course.[citation needed] That supposes that the teacher corrects

the exercises. The pupil can follow his progress in practicing the language

by comparing his results. Thus can he adapt the grammatical rules and

control little by little the internal logic of the syntactic system. The

grammatical analysis of sentences constitutes the objective of the teaching of

grammar at the school. Its practice makes it possible to recognize a text as a

coherent whole and conditions the training of a foreign language.

Grammatical terminology serves this objective. Grammar makes it possible

for each one to understand how the mother tongue functions, in order to give

him the capacity to communicate its thought.

THE DIRECT METHOD

The direct method, sometimes also called natural method, is a method that

refrains from using the learners' native language and just uses the target

language. It was established in Germany and France around 1900 and are

best represented by the methods devised by Berlitz and de Sauzé although

neither claim originality and has been re-invented under other names.[2] The

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direct method operates on the idea that second language learning must be an

imitation of first language learning, as this is the natural way humans learn

any language - a child never relies on another language to learn its first

language, and thus the mother tongue is not necessary to learn a foreign

language. This method places great stress on correct pronunciation and the

target language from outset. It advocates teaching of oral skills at the

expense of every traditional aim of language teaching. Such methods rely on

directly representing an experience into a linguistic construct rather than

relying on abstractions like mimicry, translation and memorizing grammar

rules and vocabulary.

According to this method, printed language and text must be kept away from

second language learner for as long as possible, just as a first language

learner does not use printed word until he has good grasp of speech.

Learning of writing and spelling should be delayed until after the printed

word has been introduced, and grammar and translation should also be

avoided because this would involve the application of the learner's first

language. All above items must be avoided because they hinder the

acquisition of a good oral proficiency.

The method relies on a step-by-step progression based on question-and-

answer sessions which begin with naming common objects such as doors,

pencils, floors, etc. It provides a motivating start as the learner begins using

a foreign language almost immediately. Lessons progress to verb forms and

other grammatical structures with the goal of learning about thirty new

words per lesson.

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THE SERIES METHOD

In the 19th century, Francois Gouin went to Hamburg to learn German.

Based on his experience as a Latin teacher, he thought the best way to do

this would be memorize a German grammar book and a table of its 248

irregular verbs. However, when he went to the academy to test his new

language skills, he was disappointed to find out that he could not understand

anything. Trying again, he similarly memorized the 800 root words of the

language as well as re-memorizing the grammar and verb forms. However,

the results were the same. During this time, he had isolated himself from

people around him, so he tried to learn by listening, imitating and conversing

with the Germans around him, but found that his carefully-constructed

sentences often caused native German speakers to laugh. Again he tried a

more classical approach, translation, and even memorizing the entire

dictionary but had no better luck.

When he returned home, he found that his three-year-old nephew had

learned to speak French. He noticed the boy was very curious and upon his

first visit to a mill, he wanted to see everything and be told the name of

everything. After digesting the experience silently, he then reenacted his

experiences in play, talking about what he learned to whoever would listen

or to himself. Gouin decided that language learning was a matter of

transforming perceptions into conceptions, using language to represent what

one experiences. Language is not an arbitrary set of conventions but a way

of thinking and representing the world to oneself. It is not a conditioning

process, but one in which the learner actively organizes his perceptions into

linguistics concepts.

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THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD

The audio-lingual method was developed around World War II when

governments realized that they needed more people who could conduct

conversations fluently in a variety of languages, work as interpreters, code-

room assistants, and translators. However, since foreign language instruction

in that country was heavily focused on reading instruction, no textbooks,

other materials or courses existed at the time, so new methods and materials

had to be devised. For example, the U.S. Army Specialized Training

Program created intensive programs based on the techniques Leonard

Bloomfield and other linguists devised for Native American languages,

where students interacted intensively with native speakers and a linguist in

guided conversations designed to decode its basic grammar and learn the

vocabulary. This "informant method" had great success with its small class

sizes and motivated learners.

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Q4. Write a pre-requisites for writing a good essay? Discuss them in

detail and then write an essay on any topic of your choice

following all pre- requisites.

When we are writing an essay we must divide it into three parts.

a) Introduction

b) Body

c) Conclusion

The following are the pre-requisite for writing a good essay.

LOOK FOR THE ESSAY STATEMENT

Whether it is a dissertation or a thesis paper, the statement gives the gist of

the whole essay in a few sentences. Hence, students should look for the

question that is being discussed in the samples provided. Further, the

question should have a direct relation with the topic of the essay and the

statement of the essay should be in the form of an answer to such question.

Therefore, the introduction part of the essay should be read carefully to find

if the same is completely informative about the essay theme. Thereafter the

wordings of the introduction should be checked to find if they are interesting

and absorbing for the reader to go through the whole essay.

THE ESSAY TEXT SHOULD BE FOCUSED AND FREE FLOWING

It is essential for the student to find in the samples and other works provided

by the company, that the essay text is focused on the theme selected. The

issues related to the chosen topic should flow smoothly from one point to

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another, so that the reader is not confused at any stage, while reading the

whole essay.

The central theme of each paragraph should be relevant to the main essay

topic. While each sentence should support this central theme, within a

paragraph, the flow of points from one paragraph to another should be in

such a manner that is tempts the reader to go through the complete paper.

CHECK FOR THE BEST QUALITY WRITING STYLE

While checking the samples provided by the essay writing service company,

students should find about the writing style and format adopted by its

writers. The essays should be written in a clean and reader-friendly simple

language, while maintaining the required writing style like font size and line

spacing etc.. The writers should do the spell and grammar check, as well as

the punctuation and proofreading jobs, manually. It is essential for the

students to remember that merely depending on such auto checks provided

by the software tools available, is always dangerous.

Students can also go through personal essay for getting the knowledge of

writing different essays.

CHECK FOR CORRECT CITATION REFERENCES

This quality of any essay help company is of paramount importance as

proper reference of in-text-citations gives the reader full details of the

information sources used while writing the essay contents. It also saves the

writer from serious allegation of plagiarism.

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ESSAY

SOCIALISM AND HISTORY

The history of socialism finds its origins in the French Revolution of 1789

and the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, although it has

precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The term 'socialism' is variously

attributed to Pierre Leroux in 1834, who called socialism "the doctrine

which would not give up any of the principles of Liberty, Equality,

Fraternity" of the French Revolution of 1789 or to Marie Roch Louis

Reybaud in France, or in England to Robert Owen, who is considered the

father of the cooperative movement. The Australian Labor Party was the

world's first elected socialist party when the party won the 1899 Queensland

state election, with Anderson Dawson its Premier and first head of a socialist

government anywhere in the world.

The appearance of the term "socialism" is variously attributed to Pierre

Leroux in 1834, or to Marie Roch Louis Reybaud in France, or else in

England to Robert Owen, who is considered the father of the cooperative

movement.

The first modern socialists were early 19th century Western European social

critics. In this period, socialism emerged from a diverse array of doctrines

and social experiments associated primarily with British and French

thinkers—especially Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph

Proudhon, Louis Blanc, and Saint-Simon. These social critics criticised the

excesses of poverty and inequality of the Industrial Revolution, and

advocated reforms such as the egalitarian distribution of wealth and the

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transformation of society into small communities in which private property

was to be abolished. Outlining principles for the reorganization of society

along collectivist lines, Saint-Simon and Owen sought to build socialism on

the foundations of planned, utopian communities.

According to some accounts, the use of the words "socialism" or

"communism" was related to the perceived attitude toward religion in a

given culture. In Europe, "communism" was considered to be the more

atheistic of the two. In England, however, that sounded too close to

communion with Catholic overtones; hence atheists preferred to call

themselves socialists.

The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), also known as the First

International, was founded in London in 1864. Victor Le Lubez, a French

radical republican living in London, invited Karl Marx to come to London as

a representative of German workers. The IWA held a preliminary conference

in 1865, and had its first congress at Geneva in 1866. Marx was appointed a

member of the committee, and according to Saul Padover, Marx and Johann

Georg Eccarius, a tailor living in London, became "the two mainstays of the

International from its inception to its end". The First International became

the first major international forum for the promulgation of socialist ideas.

The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany was founded in 1869

under the influence of Marx and Engels. In 1875, it merged with the General

German Workers' Association of Ferdinand Lassalle to become what is

known today as the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). Socialism

became increasingly associated with newly-formed trade unions. In

Germany, the SPD founded unions. In Austria, France and other European

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countries, socialist parties and anarchists played a prominent role in forming

and building up trade unions, especially from the 1870s onwards. This stood

in contrast to the British experience, where moderate New Model Unions

dominated the union movement from the mid-nineteenth century, and where

trade unionism was stronger than the political labour movement until the

formation and growth of the Labour Party in the early twentieth century.

Socialist groups supported diverse views of socialism, from the gradualism

of many trade unionists to the radical, revolutionary theory of Marx and

Engels. Anarchists and proponents of other alternative visions of socialism,

who emphasized the potential of small-scale communities and agrarianism,

coexisted with the more influential currents of Marxism and social

democracy. The anarchists, led by the Russian Mikhail Bakunin, believed

that capitalism and the state were inseparable, and that one could not be

abolished without the other.

As the ideas of Marx and Engels took on flesh, particularly in central

Europe, socialists sought to unite in an international organisation. In 1889,

on the centennial of the French Revolution of 1789, the Second International

was founded, with 384 delegates from 20 countries representing about 300

labour and socialist organizations. It was termed the "Socialist International"

and Engels was elected honorary president at the third congress in 1893.

Just before his death in 1895, Engels argued that there was now a "single

generally recognised, crystal clear theory of Marx" and a "single great

international army of socialists". Despite its illegality due to the Anti-

Socialist Laws of 1878, the Social Democratic Party of Germany's use of the

limited universal male suffrage were "potent" new methods of struggle

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which demonstrated their growing strength and forced the dropping of the

Anti-Socialist legislation in 1890, Engels argued. In 1893, the German SPD

obtained 1,787,000 votes, a quarter of votes cast. However before the

leadership of the SPD published Engels' 1895 Introduction to Marx's Class

Struggles in France 1848-1850, they removed certain phrases they felt were

too revolutionary.

Marx believed that it was possible to have a peaceful socialist transformation

in England, although the British ruling class would then revolt against such a

victory. America and Holland might also have a peaceful transformation, but

not in France, where Marx believed there had been "perfected... an

enormous bureaucratic and military organisation, with its ingenious state

machinery" which must be forcibly overthrown. However, eight years after

Marx's death, Engels argued that it was possible to achieve a peaceful

socialist revolution in France, too.

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Q5. Keeping in mind the four stages of teaching/learning, plan a

lesson of an hour to teach different between simple present and

simple past tense.

The lecture will be as under:

HOW DO WE MAKE THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE?

subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

do base

There are three important exceptions:

1. For positive sentences, we do not normally use the auxiliary.

2. For the 3rd person singular (he, she, it), we add s to the main verb or

es to the auxiliary.

3. For the verb to be, we do not use an auxiliary, even for questions and

negatives.

Look at these examples with the main verb like:

subject auxiliary verb main verb

I, you, we, they like coffee. +

He, she, it likes coffee.

I, you, we, they do not like coffee. -

He, she, it does not like coffee.

Do I, you, we, they like coffee? ?

Does he, she, it like coffee?

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Look at these examples with the main verb be. Notice that there is no

auxiliary:

subject main verb

I am French.

You, we, they are French.

+

He, she, it is French.

I am not old.

You, we, they are not old.

-

He, she, it is not old.

Am I late?

Are you, we, they late?

?

Is he, she, it late?

HOW DO WE USE THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE?

We use the simple present tense when:

• the action is general

• the action happens all the time, or habitually, in the past, present and

future

• the action is not only happening now

• the statement is always true

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John drives a taxi.

past present future

It is John's job to drive a taxi. He does it every day. Past, present and future.

Look at these examples:

• I live in New York.

• The Moon goes round the Earth.

• John drives a taxi.

• He does not drive a bus.

• We meet every Thursday.

• We do not work at night.

• Do you play football?

Note that with the verb to be, we can also use the simple present tense for

situations that are not general. We can use the simple present tense to talk

about now. Look at these examples of the verb "to be" in the simple present

tense - some of them are general, some of them are now:

Am I right?

Tara is not at home.

You are happy.

past present future

The situation is now.

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They are also shown the following table for examples.

The simple present tense is used to discuss permanent situations and the frequency of events.

To have Short form Other Verbs (to work) I have I've I work he has he's He works she has she's She works it has it's It works you have you've you work we have we've we work they have they've they work Statements

+ Statements

- Questions Short

answer +

Short answer

- I work. I don't work. Do I work? Yes, I do. No, I don't. He works. He doesn't

work. Does he work?

Yes, he does.

No, he doesn't.

She works. She doesn't work.

Does she work?

Yes, she does.

No, she doesn't.

It works. It doesn't work.

Does it work?

Yes, it does.

No, it doesn't.

You work. You don't work.

Do you work?

Yes you do.

No, you don't.

We work. We don't work. Do we work? Yes we do. No, we don't.

They work. They don't work.

Do they work?

Yes they do.

No, they don't.

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SIMPLE PAST TENSE

The simple past tense is sometimes called the preterite tense. We can use

several tenses to talk about the past, but the simple past tense is the one we

use most often.

1. The simple past tense is expressed with the past form of the verb and

nothing else.

My grandfather died last year.

My grandfather was died last year.

My grandfather has died last year.

(Correct)

(Incorrect)

(Incorrect)

2. The simple past tense refers to

a. action which occurred at a specific time in the past

b. completed action

c. past status

Examples

Specific past action

I ate lunch at noon today.He drove to work yesterday.

Completed action

She finally mailed the letter. Jan finished her report on time.

Past status

John was still single in 1995. Jane was a movie star.

Note the usage of the past tense in the following story.

Yesterday Mrs. Hubbard had a very rough day. In the morning, she went to

the kitchen and looked in the cupboard for some food for her dog, but the

cupboard was empty. Her poor dog stared up at her with its hungry eyes,

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and she knew she had to do something quickly. She hurried to the grocery

store to buy some dog food, but unfortunately the store was out of her dog's

favorite brand, so she had to catch a bus downtown. After buying the food,

she waited for a half hour in the rain to get a taxi. When she finally got

home, her dog was sound asleep on the living room sofa.

Common problems with the past tense

1. Using the present tense when the past tense is required.

Last week, Tonya fix her neighbor's car.

Last week, Tonya fixed her neighbor's

car.

(Incorrect)

(Correct)

2. Using "was" with verbs in the past tense.

It was happened one night in

September.

It happened one night in September.

(Incorrect)

(Correct)

Exercises

Change the verbs in the following sentence into past tense.

1. Yesterday, I go to the restaurant with a client.

2. We drive around the parking lot for 20 minutes in order to find a parking space.

3. When we arrive at the restaurant, the place is full.

4. The waitress asks us if we have reservations.

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5. I say, "No, my secretary forgets to make them."

6. The waitress tells us to come back in two hours.

7. My client and I slowly walk back to the car.

8. Then we see a small grocery store.

9. We stop in the grocery store and buy some sandwiches.

10. That is better than waiting for two hours.

Correct the mistakes in the following sentences:

1. Last night, Samantha have pizza for supper.

2. My pet lizard was died last month.

3. Yesterday I spend two hours cleaning my living room.

4. This morning before coming to class, Jack eats two bowls of cereal.

5. What was happened to your leg?

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