Activity #2. Learning grammar by context. The chosen grammatical topic for this activity is Past Perfect Tense. Here two types of learning are provided to students. The first one is learning contextualized
grammar. We took several types of contextual grammar tasks, so that students could choose the way
they would like to learn by imagining, associating, reading texts.
1. Imagining (visual memory): cartoons, films, pictures, performances, plays.
2. Associating with one’s life’s moments: Recalling life fragments where one process
happened before the other action in the past. EX: I remember, that yesterday I started crying as I
had lost my wallet full of money.
3. By reading texts, stories, tales, the news that use Past Perfect:
I had a terrible day today. It started badly and just got worse. I woke up late because I'd forgotten to set my alarm clock. Because I was late, I ran to the train station but when I got there, I
realized I hadn't brought my season ticket. I missed my train. By the time I arrived at work, the staff
meeting had already started. I really wanted to finish work at the usual time of 5pm because
I wanted to see my favorite band at a concert. But I couldn’t leave on time because I hadn’t
completed the report my boss had asked for. I left work late - and by the time I arrived at the
concert venue, the band had already finished playing. I wept like a child.
The second type of learning grammar is traditional, old way, which is reading explanation, grammar reference from textbook 4. Reading textbook explanation. This type also includes exercises from textbooks.
– The past perfect refers to a time earlier than before now. It is used to make it clear that one event happened before another in the past. It does not matter which event is mentioned
first - the tense makes it clear which one happened first.
– The Past Perfect tense in English is composed of two parts: the past tense of the verb to have (had) + the past participle of the main verb.
The students had to choose one of these ways of grammar perception. Based on that, the results of the experiment were made. 7%
13%
53%
7%
13%
7%
