Chapter 6: Studying the English Verb
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Probably nothing marks someone struggling to learn English quite as much as improper use of the English verb's person and tense. Therefore, as you study English, you will want to emphasize learning to use the verb correctly as you speak. This will require specialized English verb drills.
Spoken English Learned Quickly places great emphasis on the English verb. In all but the first lesson, you will have special spoken drills which will help you learn to use the English verb correctly in all its persons and tenses.
A short introduction to verb drills
I started my French language instruction in a grammar-based course. As I related earlier, I then began studying at a school which emphasized spoken French. During my initial study, I was frustrated by learning only the present tense of a verb, then a week or two later learning its past tense or future tense, only to come back to the same verb later to learn its subjunctive form. It would have been much more effective if I had learned each verb in all its forms at one time. The verb "etre" (to be) evolved into at least four verbs; first I learned the present tense, later the past tense, still later the future tense, and finally, an entirely new verb called the subjunctive. It would have been much more effective for me to have learned one verb as a unit having four tenses than to have learned four separate tenses as though each was a new verb.
Of course, I am exaggerating. Yet, if you learn every tense and person of each new verb simultaneously, it becomes a far simpler memory task. In addition, achieving full use of each verb as it is learned gives greater initial command of a language. I said many things incorrectly for many months until I finally learned how to use the subjunctive. Then I wasted additional time retraining my mind in learning to use the subjunctive in place of the tenses I had previously thought I was using correctly. I spent more time learning and unlearning incorrect verb constructions than had I learned fewer verbs initially, but learned them in their entirety.
There is, however, another equally forceful argument for learning all forms of the verb at one time. As I have taught the Spoken English Learned Quickly course, I have discovered that, in a relative few weeks of learning all new verbs in their entirety, adult students with no previous background in English are to conjugate verbs which they have never before encountered. I have experimented with this many times. I choose an obscure regular verb and find a student who does not know its meaning. Then I have the student conjugate it in all its persons and tenses as a spoken drill. Only after they have successfully conjugated it do I tell them what it means. It is an amazing process to see.
