Some insights into teaching English

conditionals

 Celce-Murcia

and Larsen-Freeman
(1999) reported that learners of
English as a second language
(ESL) have difficulties in acquiring
English conditionals due to the
syntactic and semantic complexities embedded in conditional constructions.

In addition...
ESL/EFL textbooks

and
reference grammars typically
provide highly oversimplified
information.

Numerous texts introduce and practice only

three conditional structures:

Future conditional
If I have the money, I will take a vacation

Present conditional
If I had the money, I would take a vacation

Past conditional
'If I had had the money, I would have taken a vacation

 Students,

who have learned to associate past tense with past time, often
find it hard to believe that sentences
like If I had the money, I would take a
vacation refer to present and not to
past. They become confused because
they hear and read many types of conditional sentences that are not included
in the three structures usually taught

Food for thought

What if...

If
If
If

oil is mixed with water, it floats.

you boil water, it vaporizes.
I wash the dishes, Sally dries
them.
If Nancy said, jump! Bob jumped.
When(ever) you boil water, it vaporizes
When(ever) I wash dishes, Sally
dries them.

What if...

If

smog can be licked in LA, it can

be licked anywhere.
If the radicals haven't made the
government more responsible,
they have wasted their time.
If there was a happy man in the
world that night, it was John.
If it is freezing outside, my roses
are dying

What if...

If

someone is at the door, it must

be Pedro.
If anyone knows the answer, it has
be Rod.

If he was there, he saw the painting.

If he was there, he must have been
the paiting

 If

my grandfather were alive today,

he would experience a very different world.
If my grandfather happened to
have the time, he would visit me in
Viosa.

Only if; unless

will stay home if it rains

I will stay home only if it rains
Don't apply for the job if you don't
have the required skills
Don't apply for the job unless you
have the required skills

Even though; even if

You

should visit Vienna even

though it is expensive. (I know it is)
You should visit Viena even if it is
expensive. (I don't know if it is)

wouldn't marry you if you

were the last person on
earth!
I wouldn't marry you even if
you were the last person on
earth! (emphasize)

There are much more about contional sentences in English than it is shown in the grammar books
Conditionals are too vast a topic for any ESL
teacher to cover with one class. If you teaching
conditionals, it is important that you teach your
students those conditional sentences they are
prepared to handle both structurally and semantically.
If you don't present too much information at
once, and if you always present and practice
conditionals in realistic contexts, you will be able
to avoid many of the problems that learners typically experience with conditionals.