The ENGLISH VERB WALL gives an overview of the entire pronoun/verb system of the English language, organizing the factors in logical order and showing the relationship between them.

Two of the most important concepts utilized in Color Connection teaching materials are:

(1) Grammar may be visualized rather than verbalized.
(2) The learner cannot know if something sounds right.
Visualized grammar makes it look right until it sounds right.

Imagine a chemistry class without the Periodic Table of Elements. How can one teach chemistry without this useful tool? Teachers who are "Verb Wall Converts" feel the same about the English Verb Wall. How did they ever teach without it?

THE ENGLISH VERB WALL HAS TWO VERY DIFFERENT,
BUT EQUALLY IMPORTANT USES:

(1) ELEMENTARY OR SECONDARY LANGUAGE ARTS
The English Verb Wall helps native speakers of the language learn why they say certain things and how to use "standard" forms. Often students are asked to give answers based on if the forms "sound right." If children have been hearing incorrect forms modeled by adults, they have no hope of choosing the correct response based on sound.

(2) ESOL /ESL
Language learners see the overview of the pronoun/verb system and are able to communicate in forms and tenses which they have not "learned" or "mastered" yet. Just as the visitor to a city uses the map, becoming familiar with the city as he goes, the student of English learns by speaking new forms based on his or her map, the Verb Wall. Communication becomes the vehicle for learning, not just something to be practiced later. This teaching approach is thoroughly explained in the Spanish VWVW under Rationale behind the Spanish Verb Wall.

It is very important to introduce verbs in a communicative, contextualized way. The Color Connection kits ACTIVITIES OF THE WEEK and PLACES IN THE CITY are excellent for this goal because, as I explained in my previously mentioned “Rationale behind Spanish Verb Wall,” they “build artificial realities.”

By showing the learner the entire system, having it available for easy reference, we are more closely imitating the process of first language acquisition. We treat the learner as we do a child in his native language, exposing him/her to all forms. The native speaker of a language does not say, "My newborn baby can only hear the present tense until he masters it, then I will start speaking to him in the past tense."

THE ENGLISH VERB WALL IS NOT…
The English Verb Wall is NOT a new methodology or a new curriculum. It is a support system that helps anyone who teaches anything concerning pronouns and verbs, without having to use the language we call "grammarese," which for language learners is just another foreign language.

WARNING!!!!!!!!!
This Virtual Workshop can take several hours, days or even weeks to complete in its entirety. Don't overload yourself. Plan to read only a few parts at a time. Unless you are a total language freak, like me, overload will NOT be a pleasant experience. Even good things can be overdone.

CAN I COPY YOUR IDEA?

These materials are copyrighted, but I don’t have spies in schools across the nation.

If you do the VWVW and decide you want to take the time to design and print out all the pages for yourself, you may certainly do so. Personally, I think you are crazy to spend the time and expense of finding all the correct colors of paper necessary to do it, but I have given you enough information by showing you the close-ups of the different tenses so that you can do all the fonts and graphics, or at least something similar.

If you decide to do so, PLEASE, follow these rules:

1. Use the same colors in case a child should ever be with another teacher who uses the Verb Wall,

2. Make only YOUR copy. Do NOT make copies for friends, Once you have gone to the trouble to retype and set up everything, you will understand the price, which is really quite reasonable for all you receive in the kit.

3. Certainly do not SELL copies to anyone else, Even if you change the drawings a bit and change the name to something like the English Time Line, you are still stealing my idea.

4. Remember to pay your workshop fee to help with the continuing effort. I suggest at least $25-$50, but I would not hesitate to accept more. The donation may be made on the order blank, even with PayPal. It is worth far more than that to have all this thought out for you. It is our responsibility to help future teachers discover this useful tool. If I don’t make any money on this and cannot stay in business, I will have to discontinue this web page.

Remember that teaching is a NOBLE profession. We do not like to see our students cheat, so please do not cheat me because I have freely offered to explain this system to you. Although it is seemingly quite simple, there is genius in its simplicity, and I agonized countless hours to make this kit and workshop possible.