Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools
every case, and to recognize the fact that this new “dé” is quite different from the “doy” of the present indicative, which they have heard before, they begin to realize that there is something about this sequence that is different from the present-future sequence of the indicative. After a while they see that the second action is conditional to the first one but that there is also a quality of simultaneity in the sequence. Further experience may be provided with situations such as: 1
Cuando yo tome dos regletas verdes Ud tomará tres rojas.
2
Cuando el ponga sus regletas encima de la mesa yo le daré las mías, etc.
Once enough experience has been provided with this sequence, the teacher can introduce preterit perfect subjunctive followed by simple conditional (potencial simple in Spanish). For example: ¿Si yo le diera una regleta anaranjada, Ud me daría dos amarillas? When this has been presented through a situation created with the rods (because of their special quality, which I call austere as well as mesmerizing) the transfer to other verbs and other situations is a very simple matter. Indeed there is no difference
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