THE TIME LINE

KINGODM OF PAST

A book about the sequence of tenses

by Mihaela Chita

 



To the teacher:

In their book Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson (2003) show how different metaphors, expressed through language, structure our way of thinking. One such metaphor is that of time as space. The fact that we refer to time as being long or short, the past as being near or far is just a basic example of how time and space are interlinked in our system of thoughts. This book is an attempt to take advantage of the metaphors that exist in language in order to help children learn better. In this particular case, the focus will be the metaphor of time as a line and verb tenses as covering segments of this line. The author's experience, and that of many other teachers of English as a foreign language, has shown that teaching tenses by representing them on a time line helps students learn them.

Another inspiration for this book comes from Egan's (2005) model of teaching through story-telling. The author hopes that, by associating tenses with characters in a story, the students will be more engaged and more willing to go through an otherwise boring grammar lesson.

The book is meant to provide a revision lessons for past tenses and it assumes that students have some familiarity with using these tenses. The goal of the book is that of putting things in perspective, revisiting and (re)organizing some material that has been previously learned. Part of the goal is also to have fun while doing this. Enjoy!

References:

Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Egan, K. (2005). An imaginative approach to teaching. San Francisco: Jossey - Bass.


Once upon a time there was a magic realm called The Time Line . In this realm there were two neighboring kingdoms, The Kingdom of Past and The Kingdom of Present. These kingdoms were ruled by two powerful rulers, his majesty the old King of Past and her majesty the young Queen of Present.



The king of Past was very old, and since his kingdom was getting larger and larger with every day that passed, he could no longer rule it properly all by himself, therefore he decided to divide it among his beloved children, The Tenses.

 

 

Would you like to meet them?




“Hello, I am Past Simple! We've met before, haven't we? Nice to see you again! What can you remember about me?”

 

Form:

 

regular verbs

 VERB + ED

 

irregular verbs

examples: went, got, had, was, told

 

The King of Past invited me to his kingdom.

He told me I should visit him.



“Hello, I am Past Continuous! I think we've met before. Nice to see you again! What do you remember about me?”

 

Form:

WAS/WERE + VERB-ING

 

I was walking towards the Kingdom of Past when I saw the wizard.



“Hello, I am Past Perfect! I think we've met before. Nice to see you again. What can you remember about me?”

 

Form:

HAD + VERB-ED/IRREGULAR VERB (2nd form)

 

I had met the wizard before so I stopped to greet him.



“Hello, I am Past Perfect Continuous! I think we've met before. Nice to see you again! What can you remember about me?”

 

Form:

HAD BEEN + VERB - ING

I remember the banquet where we met and how I had been talking with him for hours before the King of Past arrived.


 

 

 

 

The Tenses however, were very confused about which part of the kingdom was rightfully theirs and started fighting among themselves.



Hearing about this, the King gathered them together and told them they should stop fighting because each and every one of them had a place in his kingdom that they belonged to ever since they were born. The King told them that all they had to do was listen to their hearts.



In order to help them hear the voices of their hearts the King asked his wizard  to read a magic spell filled with verbs , magic words that will teach the Tenses who they are and help them claim their rightful part of the kingdom.



The truth did not part

From the pure heart

But the night became too dark

In the kingdom of the heart

The night had come indeed so fast

To the kingdom of the past

While the heart was sleeping

And the truth was suffering

The darkness got strong

Because the night had been growing so very long

But today the truth

Will come back to light

And we shall say good-bye

To the ugly night.

 

 

Can you guess which of the Tenses reacted to each verb?


The Tenses could now clearly see who they were and what was in their hearts.

 

The Past Simple could see that he represented a single event in the past.

 

The Past Continuous realized that he referred to a longer activity around an event in the past.

The Past Perfect knew that she expressed an event that occurred before other past events.

 And finally, Past Perfect Continuous knew that her role was to show a longer activity that happened before an event in the past.


Let's see if you remember! Can you tell which heart belongs to which tense?



They all claimed  their parts of the kingodom.

Past Simple claimed a fortress  which could be seen from far away, just like an important single event in the past.

 

Past Continuous claimed the village that surrounded the fortress and was spread over the hills and valleys of the Past Kingdom, just like a longer activity that happens around an event in the past.

 

Past Perfect found a lighthouse  farther away in the Kingdom of Past. Merchants  who came on boats to the Kingdom of Past would first reach the lighthouse, then they would travel to the fortress owned by Past Simple. The lighthouse was very much like an event that happened before another event in the past.

Past Perfect Continuous decided to rule over the sea that surrounded the lighthouse. The sea spread almost all the way to the fortress which was on the shore. The sea resembles a longer activity that goes on before an event in the past.

 

 



 

 

 

 

And now we all know how to use past tenses happily ever after!

 

 

THE END