Some grammatical points often left unexplained about the meaning, use, and teaching of these verb forms are outlined and discussed, drawing on textbooks and usage literature. Comparisons are made between the several forms, and traditional grammatical approaches are compared and contrasted. (MSE)

Analyses the nature of aspect in the present, the past ("passe compose"), and imperfect tenses in French, and gives some general guidelines for the teaching of these structures. (AM)

Presents a systematized framework of contexts to help reduce ambiguity and confusion in teaching "falloir" and "pouvoir" in the "passe compose" or "imparfait." (AM)

Discusses the semantic functions of the English future formations: "will/shall,""to be going to," and the present tense. Points out that these all have modal as well as temporal significance, making the traditional teaching of the English future imprecise and misleading. (IFS/WGA)

The verbs in Gougenheim's Basic Dictionary are regrouped according to three classifications (synonyms, antonyms, and association) and organized according to semantic fields. Exercises designed to emphasize these relationships are suggested. (MSE)

In this five- to ten-hour presentation, intermediate and advanced students of Russian learn how prefixation affects all types of motion in terms of displacement, transitivity, and perfectivity. The features of the prefix are detailed. Throughout, changes in government (subject, object, and prepositional complements) are explained in relation to…

This article presents a method for teaching the meaning of the word "hope" to students of English as a second/foreign language. (CFM)

Reviews the grammatical, semantic, and stylistic difficulties in translating English passive constructions into French. (AM)

Discusses the problems involved in teaching Italian students the English equivalents of the verb "dovere." (CFM)

Applies Reid's notion of verbal focus to explain the distinction between preterite (high focus) and imperfect (low focus) to determine tense in Spanish. Data from two contemporary short stories document variables affecting focus. Techniques for teaching preterite and imperfect and some class activities are suggested. (LMO)

A solution is proposed to the traditional, unexplained use of optional backshifting in teaching past tenses of English verbs. The solution is based on correct and explicit formulation of the past tense examples used, so that optional backshifting would be unnecessary and inappropriate. (MSE)

Current colloquial use of the simple past and present perfect shows a tendency of the former to encroach on the semantic field of the latter so that the two may be used in free variation in many contexts. The contexts in which this is not possible are defined, and implications for teaching English as a second language are discussed. (MSE)

Recommends, for English teaching at advanced levels, equating English participial constructions with German participial constructions rather than with paraphrases, in order to develop an analytic approach on the part of the student. (IFS/WGA)

This article discusses some of the recurrent syntactic problems that the foreign learner of English faces when using the English verb-particle construction and attempts to show how a pedagogic dictionary could help the learner to cope with these problems. (Author/CFM)

Presents a method, based on a contrastive analysis, for teaching English-speaking students of French how to express concepts of motion in the target language. (AM)