A Matter of Life and Death

The Sad Story of Aunt Betsy and Froufrou - about Storytelling, Exaggeration and Grammar

Exaggeration is a valuable teaching tool. For starters, it attracts attention where mere facts do not. Boldly asserting that a grammatical distinction is a Matter of Life and Death is an exciting heads-up for students; blandly announcing as today's topic the difference between past simple and present perfect tense is not. So here's the thing: storytelling is always more compelling than stating facts and rules, and what stands out will be remembered. What's more, it can be about why instead of only about how and what.

Why should my group of Dutch fourteen-year-olds care about present perfect or past tense in the first place? Getting that message across requires a connection first, and interest and attention next. Having built that connection over time, I can now focus on seducing my students' minds by fuelling their curiosity. It is about persuasion, not mere information. Just as a bedtime story works so much better than bluntly ordering a child to go to sleep, a classroom story is far more effective than instructing students what to do. Stories are far more persuasive than rules.

This story is about a trip to London to visit Aunt Betsy, and each student is a possible protagonist. You're staying with your British aunt Betsy and in the evening you're watching the telly. Aunt Betsy's little dog, a shih tsu named Froufrou, is napping on the rug.?Aunt Betsy herself is in the kitchen, doing what English Aunts do: putting the kettle on for a nice cup of tea. Suddenly, there is a special news bulletin, informing the public that a lion has escaped from London Zoo. "What's that about a lion, dear?" Aunt Betsy asks from the kitchen, to which you reply: "A lion escaped from the zoo, Aunty." All seemingly harmless, yet a tragedy in the making.

Later that evening, Aunt Betsy takes her darling chih tsu Froufrou for a walk around the park, as she does every evening. This time, however, she doesn't even make it to the end of the street. There's the lion, fierce and hungry, and that spells the end for Froufrou. Aunt Betsy barely manages to reach her front door and save her skin, but poor little Froufrou is no more. Aunt Betsy is heart-broken, and it's all your fault: the dog died because you mixed up your tenses!?

If this story, told with appropriately exaggerated drama and sound effects, does not strike a chord with your students, nothing will. At the very least, they are now eager to try and understand what went wrong. That implies that their minds are now open to learning the difference between present perfect and past. They may not immediately grasp that using present perfect tense, at least in British English, conveys a hidden message turning the news item into a warning, but that is not the point.

What they do take away from it, and will never forget, is the notion that it matters. From now on, they will pay more attention to that difference. It may not be a matter of actual life and death, but the exaggerated story will have a lasting impact.

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