teaching present tenses

When teaching low level students, we generally try to progressively introduce grammar
points as and when we feel that previous points have been mastered. So a typical
programme for beginners is to start with the present simple tense, I am, I go, I do, then
add adverbs of frequency, I always go shopping on Saturday, I am sometimes late, I
never do my homework. Next comes the tricky part: explaining to your students that
there are two present tenses, the second one being the progressive tense, for actions
happening now, or for fairly certain future events. How do you introduce it?

Perhaps you begin with a miming game: “can you guess what I am doing?” After
miming the action, you elicit the form, “I am drinking a cup of tea”. This type of
activity is generally a very good way to present this new tense.

My problem, however, is the “modelling” part of the lesson. As we were taught in our
ESL training, a good lesson should be structured according using the formula “elicit,
model and drill”. I can’t help feeling that as I was never taught that the present
progressive is formed using the auxiliary, be, with verb plus –ing ending when I was a
child, then there’s really no point in teaching it to adult learners of English.

Once you have started trying to explain structure, you will find yourself getting deeper
and deeper into meaningless discussions about grammar. Most of your learners will
already have some knowledge of English grammar, not all of it correct, from their
school years. As their teachers were probably non-native English speakers, the
information given was probably at best incomplete, if not totally misleading. Perhaps
the word “gerund” may enter the discussion. As an English teaching professional, do
you really know what a gerund is? What is the best way of explaining it to your
students? If your lesson is on the present progressive tense, then you have let yourself
get way off track, for the –ing verb is not a gerund, it’s the present participle.

As I’ve already said, when I was three years old and getting to grips with my mother
tongue, English, I had no idea what a gerund or a present participle was. I just used
them. So teachers, give your students a healthy amount of active communication, and
keep the grammar as a necessary, but not overwhelming, sideline to your lessons.

When teaching ESL verb tenses to students of English as a Second Language or English
as a Foreign Language, verb conjugation is only one part of verb tense lesson plans.
Students can often easily memorize the conjugation for all tenses, but the more difficult
part of verb usage is knowing which verb tense to use when.

In addition to conjugation, the two main things an ESL teacher has to teach about verb
tenses are form and function. Here's an overview of these two elements.

Five Forms of ESL Verb Tenses (using the Present Progressive/Present Continuous,
for example)

Here are the five forms students of English need to learn for every verb tense.

1. Affirmative Usage (e.g., She is eating dinner.)

2. Negative Usage (e.g., She is not eating dinner.)

3. Yes/No Questions (e.g., Is she eating dinner?)

4. Short Answers (e.g., Yes, she is. No, she isn't.)

5. WH- Questions (e.g., Where is she eating dinner?)

Of course, in addition to the five forms, you should teach the conjugation of the verb
(based on the subject pronouns I, you, he/she/it, they, and we). Here's an example of the
verb "dance" conjugated in the Present Progressive.

I am dancing in the street.

You are dancing in the street.

He/She/It is dancing in the street.

They are dancing in the street.

We are dancing in the street.

Yippee!

You'll notice that the basic verb conjugation is the same as the Affirmative form of the
verb.

ESL Student Challenges

There are two common challenges ESL students have with Present Progressive verbs:

(1) Using the correct auxiliary verb (beginning ESL students often confuse "to do" with
"to be"), and

(2) Knowing when to use the Present Progressive instead of the Simple Present and vice
versa.

The Present Continuous Tense (also called the Present Progressive Tense) is usually one
of the first verb tenses ESL students are taught. However, prior to a grammar lesson
about the Present Continuous, the irregular verb “to be” must be taught. The verb “to
be” is a helping verb (or auxiliary verb) used to form the Present Continuous.

The Present Progressive is formed by combining the helping verb “to be” with the “-
ing” (or Present Participle) form of the main verb. For example, “She is dancing.” The
Present Participle of the main verb will always be the same, no matter whom or what
the subject is. The helping verb will be conjugated depending on whom or what the
subject is.

As with teaching all verb tenses, three things are essential to teach students learning
English as a Second Language: (1) verb conjugation, (2) verb form, and (3) verb
function. (See Fundamentals of Teaching Verb Tenses.)

Richard said...
"Students should know the present simple when you get on to the present continuous, so
just start by asking about their daily routine. Once they're comfortable with this,
interrupt a stronger student who's just said, for example, "I brush my teeth..." and ask
him "Are you brushing your teeth now?". Emphasize the "now", and then accept just a
"No" as an answer. Keep this going around the class and they'll soon begin to get the
idea about the difference. When you feel they're ready, start using negative build-up:

"Are you brushing your teeth now?"

"No"
"Are you sleeping now?"
"No"
"Are you eating an apple now?"
"No"

and then...

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm studying English."

With a lot of repetition and a little prompting, students will get comfortable with this, at
which point you can start to introduce negatives and eventually questions. When they're
really comfortable, compare with present simple at the same time:

"How often do you play tennis?"

"I play tennis once a week"
"Are you playing tennis now?"
"No, I'm not playing tennis now"."

Annette said...
"In addition to your suggestions, I also distribute some pictures with several people or
animals. Either in groups or individually they first state what the scene might be, mainly
present, then share as much as they can about what is happening in their pictures."

Martin said...
"Try 'the freeze game'...

1 Split the class into 2 teams.

2 Teams think of Present Continuous actions.
3 One team looks away - faces the window.
4 They count to 5 and then shout Freeze.
5 While they are counting the other team are doing the action and freeze when told to.
6 The team facing the window now turn and have 5 guesses to figure out what they
were doing. e.g. They were jumping. You were skipping, etc.
7 They are rewarded points on how quickly they get the answer, 5 points for correct on
first guess, 4 points for second guess, etc.

My kids love this game and they use a lot of the target language and have fun doing it. I
personally let them choose their own actions but for weak classes it might be helpful if
you provide the actions."

Martin said...
"The Mime Trick Game...
Choose a student and take him out of the room and tell him to come back in in a few
minutes and mime climbing a tree. Go back in and tell the rest of the students that this
student is going to come back in and mime a tree. They can say anything but climbing a
tree. It is great for one lesson only but can be used in all classes so it is worth
remembering. The kids have a great laugh at keeping the unfortunate student
desperately trying to mime this simple action."

Madhavi said...
"I usually present flash cards to my students with a topic.

For example, I write:

SCHOOL
and then proceed to gives cues such as: classes, library, playground, teachers, students,
principal, the drill teacher, watchman

I then ask my pupils to tell the class what each person is doing at that particular
moment; this has worked brilliantly in my class and my students came out
enthusiastically with correct responses."

Anonymous said...
"I like to work with several flashcards. First, I show students the pictures and teach
them how to form the continuous tense. Then, I have them tell me what everyone is
doing in each picture. Afterwards we play this little game with the cards: I share the
cards among them and make sure they don't see each other's cards. Then, one at a turn
gets to ask each of the colleagues about a picture they assume they have. If they are
correct, the one who has the picture should hand it to the one who made the question.
The picture should be put aside, so they won't get mixed with the cards on their hands.
The winner is the student who gets more cards from the others and doesn't lose as many.
This game really works because they get to train the affirmative, interrogative and
negative forms of the continuous, and it's lots of fun!"

___________
Present Continuous.
Objective:
To introduce and practice ways to:
* Talk about what you are doing in the present
* Talking about the future and
* Making arrangements
In this lesson you will be using just one tense: The Present Continuous

Your learners may already have done some work on this - you will know your class and
how much new vocabulary you want to introduce to / elicit from your learners. It may
be that your learners have already been introduced to this tense. They will need a lot of
practice and this lesson provides just that.

Level:
Elementary

Lesson Length:
There should be enough material here for a lesson lasting 60 - 90 minutes (depending on
how many practice activities you decide to do in your lesson).

Materials:
Flash cards / Pictures

Part One:

Target Language:
I'm / He's / She's + verb + -ing (for what is happening now)

Elicit:
There are many ways to elicit this tense. One of the easiest is to do some kind of mime
(for example a card trick). Try to elicit the question and the answer from your learners.

"What are you doing?" "I'm ."

Practice:

For lower level learners you will need to do a lot of practice, first in open and then in
closed pair work. Concentrate on the way your learners pronounce the structures. Listen
carefully as you monitor your learners during closed pair work. You may have to
provide a few prompts. You can do this with flash cards or mime.

* Use action pictures - a person doing something, playing a sport or some activity. Get
your learners to ask both the question and answer.

"What's he / she / it doing?" "He / she / it's __."

Elicit using prompts: [use flash cards]

* Eating
* Running
* Drinking
* Standing
* Sitting
* Swimming
* Sleeping
* Cleaning
* Doing housework
* Making his bed
* Cooking
* Listening to music
* Studying
* Reading
* Taking (having) a shower/bath
* Watching a movie
* Doing a card trick
* Playing [games or sports or a musical instrument]

Give a flash card or a card with a continuous verb written on it to a student but do it
secretly. Then ask them to mime it to their partners
* "What am I doing?"
* "You are ___."
Do this in pair work.

Part Two:

Target Language:
I'm / He's / She's + verb + -ing (for what will happen in the future)

To indicate a future meaning, you need to add at the beginning or at the end of this
structure, a phrase such as:
* Tonight
* Next week
* On Wednesday
* In a couple of weeks
* Tomorrow

Elicit:
Your students will understand that you can use the Present Continuous for something
that is happening in the present. You now need to elicit a different meaning: Making
plans and talking about the future.

You can elicit this by miming a telephone conversation. Try to elicit the complete
dialogue from your learners:

"Hello."
"Hello."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm working / eating / shopping."
"What are you doing tonight at seven o'clock?"
"I don't know / I'm going out with my friends / I'm eating my dinner."

Many of your students may already be familiar with the use of this tense. To concept
check this you may wish to draw a time line on the board and show the "doing" now (in
the present) and the "doing" later (at seven o'clock tonight).

Do choral and individual drilling of this simple dialogue with your learners and write
the form clearly on the board. Now elicit forms of invitation. At Elementary level
perhaps a simple "Would you like to come?" will suffice. If you can't elicit it, you may
have to model the form.

Practice:

Depending on the level of your learners you may wish to elicit (or model) some of these
informal phrases that lend themselves to making arrangements. Remember to elicit the
dialogue structures first, drill and put the form on the board. Do not allow your learners
to just read from the board. You can always create a gap fill (cloze) by removing certain
words so that they have a dialogue frame to work from at first.

If you have time you could extend this dialogue to include where to meet and at what
time. This will depend on the length of your lesson and the level of your learners.

Pair work:

A "What are you doing

* after this lesson
* after school
* tonight
* tomorrow
* Wednesday night
* Saturday night
* for your summer holidays ?"

B "I don't know. I was thinking about

* going swimming
* having a bath
* doing the shopping
* going to the cinema
* playing pachinko
* writing to my friend in England
* eating out at my favourite restaurant

A "I'm
* having some friends round for a party
* listening to some music
* going shopping for ___
* going to the video rental shop
* playing tennis
…would you like to come?"
B
" "Yeah sure.
" Ok.
" Why not?
" Yes, I'd love to."