The Importance of Teaching Verb Conjugations
I have a perspective about teaching grammar that might make some World Language supervisors cringe: I teach grammar in my World Language classes, and I teach it explicitly. Now, before I talk more about this, I should note that I am a huge proponent of using comprehensible input / TPRS strategies, in which I focus on student acquisition of target language. Students acquire language passively when we transmit comprehensible and compelling messages to them. If you want to learn more about comprehensible input, check out my blog post: Unlocking Language Proficiency: The Role of Comprehensible Input in the World Language Classroom.
So if much of my instructional time is devoted to communicating with students in the target language so that they may passively acquire language, I must also confess that I devote significant class time to explicit direct instruction of grammar so that they actively learn how the target language functions. Whether it be teaching subject pronouns, articles / determiners, noun-adjective agreement, and yes, verb conjugation, I think it’s important to provide students with concrete, step-by-step strategies for understanding these important grammar topics.
For a specific subset of our learner population, some students can look at a sentence and intuitively understand how the grammar is functioning. We, as language teachers, have this facility. We just get language. However, a majority of our students are not as linguistically inclined, and even if we expose them to certain high-frequency verb conjugations in stories and other types of readings, there’s no guarantee that they will be able to retain and actually produce those conjugations when they need them. Additionally, our students with learning difficulties could certainly benefit from seeing verbs broken down into conjugation tables, for example, as a way to organize the information cognitively, and I daresay that ALL of our students could benefit from practicing verb conjugations.
In this post, I will share some activities and resources that I use to help my students practice verb conjugations.
All of the practice worksheets featured in this blog post are available in the Practice Worksheets Bundles below - simply click on the thumbnail to preview the product. I’m also including a SPECIAL IRREGULAR VERBS FREEBIE toward the end of this post! Continue reading to grab your freebie!
Instructional Tips
Teaching your students how to conjugate verbs does not have to be extravagant. If you’ve got a whiteboard and they’ve got pen and paper, you can, for all intents and purposes, do a direct instruction lesson. Explain how to conjugate the verb, and have students take notes. If, however, you’d like to “spice up” your instruction a bit, here’s how I do it. I use a blended inductive-deductive approach to teaching grammar:
Context-based sentences: I develop 5 or 6 sentences using the target verb in the present tense. For example, if I am teaching students the verb être (to be), I will have 6 basic sentences projected on my board, each featuring a different verb form.
Sentence Analysis: I have students copy down the sentences. Then, I ask them to underline the conjugated form of the verb they have noticed in each sentence.
Pattern Detection: Some verbs have a pattern to them, even the irregular ones. I ask students to try to discover any patterns or similarities in the verb forms. Then, I have them share with a partner or two.
Conjugation Table: Once students have analyzed the sentences and extracted the verb forms, it’s time for them to write the conjugations in a table. Conjugation tables help students mentally compartmentalize the information, and it serves as a simple yet comprehensible study tool for them to go back to when reviewing.
Practice, practice, practice!
I always joke with students that I wish there were a magic wand that I could wave that would allow me to deposit all of the information in their heads and that it would stay there forever. Unfortunately, we know this is impossible, so students have to put in the effort to learn verb conjugations. Telling students to go home and study the verb table, however, is ineffective. You need to provide students with ample practice materials, preferably varied and engaging materials, to keep them interested and invested in practicing their verb conjugations.
In my French Irregular Verbs Practice Worksheet Bundle, Spanish Irregular Verbs Practice Worksheet Bundle, and Italian Irregular Verbs Practice Worksheet Bundle, here are some of the worksheets and activities students will complete in order to practice their conjugations:
The worksheets in my worksheet bundle are perfect for middle and high school French, Spanish, and Italian students. The worksheet difficulty levels are differentiated, so you could use them across the level 1 school year and even as a review in levels 2 or 3.
Worksheet activities are varied so students don’t get bored doing the same sort of “fill-in-the-blank.” You can assign the worksheets as classwork AND as homework.
I also include Answer Keys, which you can distribute to your students or project on your board so that they can check their work.
These worksheets are also perfect to leave for sub plans if you know you need to be out! If you’re looking for more info and sub plan resources, check out my blog post: Simplifying World Language Sub Plans: A Guide to Streamlining for Emergencies and Illnesses.
French Verb Resources
Click on the thumbnails below to preview each resource!
Spanish Verb Resources
Click on the thumbnails below to preview each resource!
Italian Verb Resources
Click on the thumbnails below to preview each resource!
GRAB YOUR FREEBIE!
I hope that this post has given you some ideas for how you can help your students learn, practice, and master verb conjugations. Whether you are a brand new World Language Teacher or you’ve been doing this for many years, I think it’s always helpful to see what other teachers—who are actually still in the classroom—are doing in their classes to help their students learn the target language.
I’d love for you to check out my World Language Irregular Verbs Freebie. Check it out by clicking the image below!
Happy language teaching,
~ Michael
