Series of English Skill (Part 4 – April 18, 2023)

This final part discussed writing about unforgettable experiences. To write about it, we can use a simple past tense to describe actions that started and finished in the past. A simple past tense can be used in a sentence without a verb and in a sentence with a verb as well. For sentences without verbs, we can say: “He was a student”; “They were at the classroom yesterday”; “She was not sick last week”’; “I was not there when the flood hit the town”. A simple past tense without verbs also can be used for asking a question, such as: “Were you late to come to the office yesterday?”. For sentences with verbs, we should find out the verb type first, whether it is regular or irregular verb, before we make a simple past tense sentence. Regular verb is one that forms its simple past tense by adding -ed or -d to the base form of the verb, such as: call – called; try – tried; enjoy – enjoyed; accept – accepted. Irregular verb is a verb in which the past tense is not formed by adding the usual -ed ending, such as: go – went; become – became; fall – fell; buy – bought; burn – burnt. A simple past tense for a sentence with a verb can be found in this example: “The nurse went to the hospital last night”; “He called the policeman this morning”. In the same sentence we can also combine a past continuous tense and simple past tense altogether to describe an event that happened at the same time in the past. For example: “I was reading a handbook, when my friend entered the library”, or “We were exploring the forest when suddenly a wild pig ran toward us”.

To write about our past experience, we should determine our story. Find the significance of a past memory and organize it in a chronological order. The writing should consist of: 1). Introduction; 2). Body; and 3). Conclusion. Introduction is the first impression that will make the reader eager to know more about our past experience. In the body, we describe our past experience using simple past tense or past continuous tense. Remember every detail and try to visualize it: our feelings, our thoughts, objects around us, the specific smell, the taste, including the place and time. At the end of the writing, the conclusion paragraph highlighted the lesson learned from our past experiences.

In this final part all the participants were given the opportunity to practice their writing about past experiences. They have to determine one memorable experience in the past, write it into a paragraph, and read it. Then the facilitator gave feedback on their writing. At the end of the session, Widya Sekar Ayu Ningtias (grantee IPB University) showed her gratitude to VDMI that already provided this Series of English Skills which can enhance participants’ knowledge about speaking and writing in English. To enclose this Series, facilitators encourage all the participants to practice speaking and writing regularly, keep on learning and do not be afraid of being wrong in the learning process.