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.
Spoken English Learned Quickly was designed to be used as a self-study course. Most students study on their own. However, I have often conducted a weekly two-hour group session as a means of encouraging the students. It is during the group sessions that I have used these spoken conjugation drills.
I strongly encourage you to learn all forms of each verb the first time you encounter it in your English study. The verb will become much more useful to you in a shorter period of time. The Spoken English Learned Quickly course contains very useful English verb drills.
In traditional English language instruction, once a particular verb tense is supposedly learned, then it is assumed that the students know that form and no longer need to review it. Yes, the students may be able to write the present tense forms for many regular verbs. But that is not the objective. Can they use all of those forms in spontaneous spoken English? In Spoken English Learned Quickly we do not stop the instruction merely because our students are able to write the endings of certain verbs. Our goal is to help the students reach a level of fluency in which they can use verbs in all of their tenses and persons correctly in normal speech.
That will also be your objective as you learn to speak English. Do not be satisfied by simply learning verb tenses and persons in written form. You do not know a verb until you can use it fluently in spontaneous conversation.
In the Spoken English Learned Quickly course, we try to follow the same pattern with other types of English words. It is far easier to learn big, bigger, and biggest, or angry, angrier, angriest, and angrily as cognate groups than it is to learn them as individual vocabulary words. Not only is it easier to remember bad, worse, worst, and badly as a group, but their meaning is better understood because they are logically related to each other. The greatest advantage, however, is that this method teaches students how the English language is developed. When students know big, bigger, and biggest, they can then develop the word tallest if they know only the word tall. The real essence of language fluency is understanding that language well enough to intuitively use new vocabulary during actual conversation.
All of the above comments relate to spoken language. You may find it helpful to organize words in table form. But you must learn to use the words in the context of spoken language, not merely written tables.
Four types of verb drills
In the Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons we use four verb table formats. All verb tables are used as spoken English drills with recorded audio. In the early lessons, we use only the following format which I will call an "A" format verb drill:
1. An "A" format English verb drill.
TO CALL (to call) / He promised to call. (He promised to call.)
Call. (Call.) / Please call. (Please call.)
calling (calling) / It is calling. (It is calling.)
called (called) / it is called (it is called) / it was called (it was called) / it will be called (it will be called)
- I call (I call) / he calls (he calls) / she calls (she calls) / it calls (it calls) / you call (you call) / we call (we call) / they call (they call)
- I called (I called) / he called (he called) / she called (she called) / it called (it called) / you called (you called) / we called (we called) / they called (they called)
- I will call (I will call) / he will call (he will call) / she will call (she will call) / it will call (it will call) / you will call (you will call) / we will call (we will call) / they will call (they will call)
Since all of our exercises are recorded audio lessons, you would respond by repeating the words inside parentheses. We provide a 450-page Student Workbook which contains the written text for all spoken drills. The parenthetical phrases are included in the written text. Thus, the narrator says, "to call" and you would respond, "to call." The narrator says, "He promised to call." and you would respond, "He promised to call." Everything is spoken, and as soon as you would understand a new exercise, you would put the written text aside and complete the exercise by using only the audio recording without the text.
Repeated use of this format is what allows our students to conjugate an unknown verb correctly. Can you see how their fluency would increase as they learn to use English verbs correctly so early in their language learning experience? That is the same fluency you will want to develop as you study English.
Quite early in the lesson series, we use another verb table format. Throughout our Student Workbook, all irregular verb forms are written in bold type. A drill for the irregular verb "to meet" looks like this:
2. A sentence completion English verb drill.
Complete the following sentences with " . . . them here every evening."
I always meet . . . (I always meet them here every evening.) / He always meets . . . (He always meets them here every evening.) / You always meet . . . (You always meet them here every evening.) / We always meet . . . (We always meet them here every evening.) / They always meet . . . (They always meet them here every evening.)
Complete the following sentences with " . . . them here after work."
I always met . . . (I always met them here after work.) / She always met . . . (She always met them here after work.) / You always met . . . (You always met them here after work.) / We always met . . . (We always met them here after work.) / They always met . . . (They always met them here after work.)
Complete the following sentences with " . . . them all before evening."
I will meet . . . (I will meet them all before evening.) / She will meet . . . (She will meet them all before evening.) / You will meet . . . (You will meet them all before evening.) / We will meet . . . (We will meet them all before evening.) / They will meet . . . (They will meet them all before evening.)
Though the sentences are simple, this format teaches the verb conjugation in the context of the spoken language. It also forces the students to be more mentally alert during the exercise. Later in the Spoken English Learned Quickly lessons, we add a third type of verb table which I am identifying here as a "B" format table. It looks like this:
3. "B" format English verb drill.
TO TEST (to test) / He promised to test it. (He promised to test it.)
Test. (Test.) / Please test it. (Please test it.)
testing (testing) / He is testing some. (He is testing some.)
tested (tested) / it is tested (it is tested) / it was tested (it was tested) / it will be tested (it will be tested)
I test (I test) I tested (I tested) I will test (I will test) he tests (he tests) he tested (he tested) he will test (he will test) she tests (she tests) she tested (she tested) she will test (she will test) it tests (it tests) it tested (it tested) it will test (it will test) you test (you test) you tested (you tested) you will test (you will test) we test (we test) we tested (we tested) we will test (we will test) they test (they test) they tested (they tested) they will test (they will test)
In this format, we force the students to move from tense to tense using the same person, rather than from person to person using the same tense as we did in the A format drills. Language requires both skills, so we teach the students to do both at normal conversation speed.
However, at this point in the lessons we want the students to be able to do both. Consequently, we alternate between table formats in the same exercise. That is, the first verb is given using the A format, the second verb using the B format, the third verb using the A format, the fourth using the B format, and so on to the end of the exercise. This increases the students' ability to use the verb with all tenses and persons while, at the same time, forcing them to develop spontaneity while using the verb.
Again, this will be your objective in learning English. You want to be able to manipulate spoken verbs quickly and accurately between all persons and tenses. You should also be able to see the great advantage in learning the entire verb with all its tenses and persons at one time. If you learn all the forms of the entire verb each time you encounter a new verb, you will have learned one meaning with multiple forms rather than a mix of verb forms and meanings. Learning all the forms of a single verb this way will take you less time than learning the same material using a traditional method.
Most importantly, if you use spoken exercises as a means of learning verb tables, you will find that the conjugation you are learning for one verb will be quickly transferred to other verbs.
In Spoken English Learned Quickly, you will always study the verb using a spoken exercise without reading from the text after you are familiar with that exercise.
We use a final verb exercise format in the Spoken English Learned Quickly course. That exercise with its spoken introductory explanation looks like this:
4. Tense- or person-selection English verb drill.
Say each sentence using the word I will give you. I will tell you if the sentence should be in the present, the past, or the future. Use the word "to take."
Present. The children in that family always _________ the bus.
(The children in that family always take the bus.) The children in that family always take the bus. (The children in that family always take the bus.)Present. That family with three children always _________ the bus.
(That family with three children always takes the bus.) That family with three children always takes the bus. (That family with three children always takes the bus.)
This verb table format is used frequently throughout the lessons with a large number of regular and irregular verbs. It uses all tenses and persons and incorporates as much vocabulary from each new lesson as possible.
The Proprioceptive Influence
Notice how our emphasis on the proprioceptive sense in language learning has influenced our method. Verb use is important in English. In order to use the verb properly, the speaker must use tense and person correctly.
However, tense and person have multiple components. There are cognitive components which are essentially controlled by memory. So we need to construct drills which will retrain memory. This will be accomplished by using a great deal of repetition — these verb forms will be repeated thousands of times throughout these lessons.
During cognitive learning, however, we also want our students to develop the proprioceptive sense which will retrain their mouths to pronounce the words correctly. After all, the difference in deciding whether to use "take" and "takes" is a function of pronunciation as far as the tongue and hearing are concerned. Therefore, in all of these exercises, we have simultaneously retrained the students' cognitive, proprioceptive sense, and hearing by forcing them to speak aloud, listening to both the narrator and their own voice, and experiencing the feedback from their own mouth as they speak.
We have also done something else in Spoken English Learned Quickly which would be extremely important for you. Everything you heard the narrator say would be perfect English. It is perfect in both its pronunciation and syntax. You could use these lessons for two hours a day for five days a week. If you would repeat exactly what the narrator says, you could speak perfect English for 10 hours during that week, even though you were studying by yourself.
Of course, you could probably do a written exercise using the same material. It would be a cognitive exercise, but it would not involve any retraining of your mouth or hearing. You would probably work on it for two hours or less during the week. The results would be negligible in terms of teaching you to speak English fluently.
However, studying English the way we are suggesting will be difficult. There is no way that you can repeat the same sentences enough times to retrain your mind, mouth, and hearing without becoming weary in the process. That is the price you must be willing to pay in order to efficiently learn to speak English fluently.
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