Teaching the Verb Conjugation System According to the CEFR (Series III)

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When teaching Georgian as a foreign language we teach aspects of the language studyes, but also important details of the nation’s consciousness emerge. These details form a unity that defines a nation’s character, habits, traditions, and actions. A linguistic approach to language is understandable, but at the same time, everyone is interested in the overall cultural image of a given nation. This has become especially relevant today, when people of different cultures and nationalities are actively engaged in professional and academic life across various countries. Consequently, this global dynamic has generated new demands. The American scholar Erin Meyer addressed this challenge in her book The Culture Map, where she presents numerous nations and their cultural approaches from a practical perspective—yet Georgia is not among them. Erin Meyer’s framework and research are quite impressive. The main difficulty for learners of Georgian as a foreign language—whether they are European, American, or Asian students—lies in understanding the structure of the Georgian verb and the patterns of its conjugation. Therefore, developing methodological approaches that help students grasp and internalize the Georgian verb system is of great importance. Naturally, work in this field is ongoing, and existing textbooks reflect the function and activity range of verbs to varying ways and depths. However, based on our many years of experience, we have become convinced that this is not sufficient. It is necessary to analyze each series and row of verbs, taking into account their specific characteristics and how they relate to different levels of instruction.

Verb categories should be separated and their use in spoken phases reflected—from the simplest to the most advanced levels. In other words, which verb forms learners use in speech, for what purposes, and with what frequency. In this article, we aim to present the difficulties involved in teaching the verb forms of the third series, as well as the methods we have tested to address these challenges. It is important to note that we take into account both the V-type and M-type verb systems, including their categories of usage and distribution. Furthermore, we confirm the presence of functional derivational suffixes that purposefully reflect the form and semantics of a specific verb group.