Reblogged from: https://eflrecipes.com/2014/06/21/timelines/
This is my second post in a series of posts going ‘Back to Basics‘, re-examining techniques and ideas introduced on teacher training courses.
What is a timeline?
A timeline is a visual representation of the relationships that exist between tense and time. They are simple drawings which can illustrate the meaning of these sometimes, let’s face it, rather complex relationships.
Why use a timeline?
- Timelines can illustrate meaning in a much simpler way than using metalanguage to describe tenses (e.g. ‘we use this tense to talk about something that began in the past and continues up to the present’).
- Used alongside concept checking questions, they can reinforce meaning.
- They may appeal to more visual learners.
What can timelines be used for?
Timelines are mainly used in the EFL classroom to represent grammatical tenses.
An example
By the end of the year, Sophie will have been living in Paris for 3 years.
I’ve deliberately chosen a difficult tense to exemplify how a timeline can illustrate a complex idea much more simply. A teacher explanation might go something like ‘we use this tense to talk about something that began in the past and will continue up to a particular point of time in the future.’ – a lot of information to process there.
The nuts and bolts of timelines
- A basic timeline is labelled with ‘past’, ‘now’, and ‘future’, as appropriate.
- Specific points in time can be added using a X.
This example could visualise ‘The film started before I arrived’.
- Arrows can be added to show connections between times.
This timeline could contrast with the previous by illustrating the past perfect ‘I arrived after the film had started’.
- Wavy lines can be added to represent actions in progress (useful for continuous tenses)
This could represent ‘This time tomorrow I’ll be flying to Italy’.
Tweaking your timelines
- Adding simple pictures can make timelines even more visual.
This could represent ‘I used to play the saxophone’.
A simple idea, but effective. Some other great examples can be found in ‘Basic English Usage’ by Michael Swan.
ESL Ste 