An introduction of the tip™ GAME: time it perfect!

Learning and Fun go together

In the groups of 2-5, the tip™ learning GAME has been played for 2 hours or more by 470 people as on Nov. 2014. The players or learners are in the age-group of ‘14-47’ years with most learners in the age group of 20-30 (over 300). The median age is 26; over 200 learners are engineering graduates. The learners enrolled for Conversation in English program had some understanding English but were not able to form their sentences correctly while writing or took a lot of time before speaking in broken sentences. Most of them were from Hindi-medium back-ground and not very confident speakers. They were very well primed on the game with some grammar lessons where they understood parts-of-speech and the visual tense chart by Dr. Eli Hinkel was shown as well as explained to them. The trainers also used a slightly different tense-chart on the white-board and a professionally designed poster on 9 key tenses. The focus remained composition and usage instead of mere memorization of the grammar rules (even the tense chart was not given to them). Some quantifiable outcomes have been captured in the feedback forms (L1[i]), pre/post assessments (L2[ii]):

↗      Learning and understanding of Tenses becomes easier for almost everyone (close to 100% -as per learner’s feedback).

↗      Increased motivation and engagement in over 98% cases (checked before/after the game-session that lasted 30-45 min. the extensions to continue to play the game asked by the participants)

↗      Moderate competitive element enhanced effective learning as it kept learners interested in listening before speaking in all cases (~100%).

↗      Helped the learners to understand, learn, remember and apply grammar rules 2x better than the repetitive drilling practice and 3x better than translation sheets. (perception recorded at L1 level)

The qualitative advantages that we got -in over 85% of the cases- are listed herewith, in no particular order; some have been ticked by the 5 trainers/teachers who used this game in their classes:

↗     tip™ Game leads people to do spontaneous practice right after the theoretical overview -in the same session. (Monika, trainer is MA in English)

↗      Consolidation of grammar rules through the learner’s natural desire to apply what he already knows or mix and match the rules of grammar. (Manpreet, senior V&A trainer with British Telecom)

5 People playing Tense GAME and learning to Speak in English.

↗      Students who enjoy the challenge of participating in interactive games: tip™ makes them smarter and more confident as they hit the winning streak. (words picked/summarized from the feedback forms of some trainers observers)

↗      Among other abilities, the game helps develop students’ social capacities (81%), memory (86%), spontaneity (92%) and creativity (88%).

↗      Many usages of a particular verb form are understood and vocabulary of verbs is better applied in real-life situations. Over-usage of present continuous (a typical Indian-ism) is prevented to a very large extent. (Many students confirm this in their feedback)

↗      When offered at the same price point, the Game was preferred over a fully equipped Language Lab with computers and head-phones best in class and interactive content (Ms Ashima Rai – the center manager of T.r.i.c.k.s)

It is obvious that the use of games in a learning environment will not only change the dynamics of the class, but it will also rejuvenate students and help the brain to learn the rest of the material more effectively. Do we have the time and willingness to change for the better?

[i]  Level 1: Feedback is taken right after the training session or after every fifteen days within the training programs

[ii] Level 2: Is the difference between pre-post training and is captured through test of understanding
[iii] Most Commonly Used Verbs have been taken from varied sources and word-lists, the regular and irregular verbs are mixed-up well like veggies in a salad bowl.

Understanding English Tenses visually without any tension…

As I also wrote in my earlier posts under the head of Grammar that each sentence should be in right Tense or should have the right ‘sense of time’… This is a major Milestone for all English Learners.

Here is how to solve the problem with the English tenses, Learn it Visually and based on Usage and you will rarely go wrong. Have a look at the time line, it might help you understand when to use which tense. As there is a similarity between past, present and future tenses, there are just a few rules to keep in mind. (they are also very similar for Hindi but still insist don’t cram the rules-  they are easier to follow 🙂

If you know how to use the present progressive (continuous) correctly to express actions that happen NOW, you will as well be able to use the past progressive (continuous) correctly to express past actions that were happening THEN.

Study the Chart/Visual below very carefully:

Tenses Chart that we follow in our English Classes at T.r.i.c.k.s – Noida.

What more?

After you understand the uses of each tense practice each tense separately t make and speak a few sentences. I make my students live in a particular tense for at-least 2 days.  Say if you have learned the Past Tense today, make sentences for everything that you did yesterday. Isn’t that simple and common sense!

Give a live commentary of yourself to live the present progressive tense, Is not that an interesting way to learn?

I know enough grammar,.. Do I need your class to Speak English?

What a grammar book does for me is give me the tools in the same way that I had the tools when I learned the alphabet. If you give me the tools, the syntax, and the grammar, it still doesn’t tell me how to write Ulysses – a novel.

-David Baker

Grammar is to help you organize words into sentences, and there are many ways to do that. As I can also say, ‘words can be organized into sentences in many ways’ and grammar helps you do just that. How can you put together a sentence without using ‘Grammar’ be it any language – you need some rules, DOs and DON’Ts etc.. ‘Grammar’ also helps you to clearly understand the meaning of words spoken by others – including your trainer. There are 3-essential things to Learn 1)Types of words or Parts of Speech; 2)Sequence of words or Sentence Structures; and 3)Tense or indication of time.  Every SENTENCE should make some SENSE and should be formed in the right TENSE! 

“Besides good Grammar one needs: – clear pronunciation to be a ‘public speaker’; very fine vocabulary to be a ‘book writer’; and both of them need a Great Story to Tell”   

Do I need to do ‘all the grammar’ before I begin to Speak?

Can you drive a car in a city like Delhi without knowing the directions or traffic rules?

Not possible … without getting lost or caught. So, knowing and following basic directions and rules are needed if you don’t want to get caught or get lost!

Whereas, if you don’t need to be a traffic cop in Delhi, you don’t need to know or even read the complete ‘Motor Vehicle Act.’ Similarly,  for Spoken English you only need functional or Basic Grammar which is taught to you in the form of activities in the class and simple DOs and DON’Ts. The good news is that you don’t need to learn all the rules, learn all the tenses or read through the complete grammar book before you begin to speak right sentences. Another good news is English Grammar is very easy even as compared to Hindi grammar. There are also lot of similarities to understand quickly and some differences that you may need to know.

In doing conversations in English, there is no possibility that you can cram all the sentences that you may need to speak even as you do simple chit-chat or gossip with a friend – forget answering interview questions without basic knowledge of Grammar. By this time, you may have realized that applying Hindi grammar OR any translation based method from any book does not work. In my view it cannot work, it won’t work. So my humble request to you “stay clear from English teachers or trainers who tell you that you don’t need any grammar.”

On the other side, you need to learn ‘Wren & Martin’ level of grammar and composition if you want to be an excellent speaker – a TV anchor Or ‘write a book’. And yes, I agree with you that learning grammar by the book, from the CD, without any speaking practice, opportunities or real-life situations and on your own is a rather tedious task ‘akin to’ knowing the complete Motor Vehicle Act.!

Where to start leaning grammar and how to improve as I speak.

So, you have understood that, you don’t need ‘all the Grammar’ but you need to know the Basic rules of the game before you start playing it or to play it better. As you begin to play the game, you lose more than you win but you are learning ‘as long as’ you stay ‘in the game’. Later as you absorb more and more of this rule-book called grammar, you definitely also play better.

The start point is self-assessment and if you are able to speak your sentences than you know the basic grammar behind even if you don’t know the terms used by a grammar teacher….you only need to speak more, use new words and expressions and keep correcting your mistakes under the guidance of qualified coach.

I am a trainer of communication skills, my task in the language class is to get my students to speak as much as possible while I do grammatical corrections on the go…pointing out mistakes as politely as possible. I sometimes need to explain to you the grammatical error and its implications on your image as an English speaker.

Since some of you may not  understand the ‘Terms of Grammar’ (or English Jargon), what I do in my first few classes is avoid using any grammatical term before we discuss it and all the students in the class understand it properly. To make you Learn functional Grammar usage and composition of sentences for your ‘Spoken English’; We do a lot of activities and I give you a lot of examples (we need to avoid Hindi but grammatical similarities can be drawn). The result is that you understand the BASIC rules of English grammar as deeply as possible almost as much as you understand them for your first language. You also See, listen, Read and Speak (or do it yourself activities in the L@b) so that you really learn the grammar by interesting and ‘fun-to-do’ methods. you do not really need to cram the rules or learn them ‘by the rote’.

I also keep correcting your small grammatical mistakes as you speak in the class; so you follow  ‘the rules of the game’ and learn them. Next time, you try to play it right and when sometimes you do it wrong your still learn from the mistake…  Later, as you grow with the usage of  simple DOs and DON’Ts of English conversations, you win more & more games and lose some…You learn best by ‘staying in the game’ and playing it again and again.

Keep playing the game of ‘English Conversations’ and have fun as you go for the Long Drive!

At T.r.i.c.k.s , we give unlimited practice time in an English Language L@b and have the most innovative tools to help you understand the functional parts of grammar and give you ample opportunities to use it for construction of new types of sentences/questions or expressions and speak them out in the class…