Elm Creek, Nebraska TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

Tenses Presents simple Form Affirmative: Subject+base form ( s-es) I go/it goes Negative: subject+do/does +not+base form I do not go/He does not go Question: Do/Does+subject+base form+? Do you go?/Does she go? Usages Habitual or routine actions: He goes swimming every week. Permanent situations and facts: The sun sets in the west. Commentaries: Mackie passes to Johnson who shoots and scores. Directions and instructions: First you go left, then you go straight on. Newspaper headlines: stock market falls to all time low. Present stories: and I open the door and what I see … Historical sequence: 1945: W II ends. Sample activate stage ideas: Find someone who … Questionnaires. A day in the life of. Guess my profession. Information gap. Presents simple Form Affirmative: Subject+ verb be+base form+ing I am going/It is going Negative: Subject+ verb be+not+base form+ing I am not going/It is not going Question: verb be+subject+base form+ing+? Are you going?/Is she going? Non-progressive verbs Most non-action verbs are not normally used in the continuous form. Some of the most common are: like, love, hate, understand, want, believe, hear, own, owe, seem, appear, wish, mean, remember: Non-progressive verbs can roughly be divided into four groups: Verbs of the senses (involuntary) Verbs expressing feelings and emotions. Verbs of mental activities. Verbs of possession. There are exceptions: example: She thinks you are right (she had the opinion that). She is thinking about it (considering). Usages To talk about an action that is in progress at the time of speaking: -What are you doing. -I am watching the match. To talk about a temporary action that is not necessarily in progress at the time of speaking: I am reading a very good book at the moment. To emphasize very frequent actions: she is always biting her nails. Background events in a present story: so I am standing there when a policeman comes in. To describe developing situations: it is getting dark. To refer to a regular action around a point of time: he is usually working at this time. Activate stage teaching ideas: Developing situations: charts, graphs and tables. Actions in progress: mime, pictures of actions, pictionary, present continuous brainstorming,noises, picture dictation,time zones. Present Perfect Form Affirmative: Subject+have/has+past participle I Have read that book/ he has eaten breakfast Negative: Subject+have/has+not+past participle I have not watched that movie/she has not done the assignment. Question:Have/has+subject+past participle? Have you watched “Brave Heart”?/Has he done the assignment. Usage When we talk about finished actions/states that happened in an indefinite time. It refers to general experience without a specific detail: I have eaten Mansaf. When we are thinking about completed past actions carried out in an unfinished time period at the time of speaking: It has rained a lot today. I have eaten eight cakes this evening. When we talk about something that began in the past and still true, at the time of speaking. We do not know whether it is likely to continue or not:we have lived in Paris for five years. She has been vegetarian since 1988. When we describe past actions with present results:o, no, I have left my wallet at home. The rule with for or since We use for with periods of time. We use since with points time. The rule with been or gone He’s been to Turkey (the trip finished) He’s gone to Turkey (he is still on his trip) Sample Activate stage teaching ideas: Find someone who … What have you done today … Role play-job interview Present perfect continuous Form Affirmative: Subject have/has+been+base form+ing I have been dancing Negative: Subject have/has+not+been+base form+ing I have not been dancing Question: have/has+subject+been+base form+ing +? Have you been dancing? Usage To communicate an incomplete and ongoing activity when we want to say how long it had continued: I have been dieting for the last two years. To describe a recently finished, uninterrupted activity which a present result:I am tired because I have been chopping logs all day. Sample Activate stage teaching ideas A students takes a piece of paper with a past activity and a result on it. Students survey the class to find out who is doing something the longest. They should write the surveys themselves. I am now clear on the exact usages of the present tenses and the difference between each of them. The activate stage ideas, in particular, are most helpful for a successful tenses lesson. I also realised the importance of explaining the forms to the students as most students need to know the rule of the tense formation especially at the beginning.