TeachingEnglish
Could anybody suggest to me a topic to use the Present Perfect Tense communicatively?
Submitted by mavijisa on 22 March, 2010 - 19:37
Hi
My name is Maria and I am designing an unit on the Present Perfect Tense and the Present Perfect VS the Simple Past. I would be very grateful if anybody could suggest me topics in which these tenses are naturally and they are used communicatively.
Thank you very much in advance for your attention and help
Maria
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"Home alone" activity for teenagers
Dear Maria,
In case you have a teenage group this could work. I ‘d like to suggest the idea of a list of things to do which was left by parents to a teenager. They went on a trip and their son/daughter had to do many things connected with the house, the pet, visiting relatives, etc. Your students can first play the part of a parent (write the list) – to give the task and then exchange the tasks to play the part of a child. It could be a role-play in pairs (one parent and one child) or a whole family (both parents and several children and grandparents or aunts to comment or grumble). When the parents come back the child has to report (speaking) what s/he has done, or did if the task was given for a special date. As a home task the child can write a diary explaining (a variant) that the report was false as it was not s/he who “has done all the job”/or a parent diary discovering that the job was done but in a very unexpected way. Involve the students in the decision-making in all the stages of the activity they definitely give you the most exiting ideas. I haven’t tried it yet so if you do I‘ll be happy to hear the results.
All the best,
Natalia Fadeeva
Get them to talk about achievements in life.... Jason
There's a lot of use of present perfect in football commentaries and reflections on the games.
The activity about role play, children and parents, and have them talk about their achievements are very good. I have done them both and I have obtained very good results. You don`t want to bring up the topic of foot-ball since you might have some students that might not like the sport and might not be familiar with it therefore, you will have many students wondering what to say. When are presenting a grammar point, try to do it with real situations or topics kids relate to them. Bye Maria. Have a good class.
Hi. If suitable for the age group you are teaching you could use the situation of a job interview, with the interviewer(s) asking questions about experiences etc. and various answers from the candidate(s). Of course you could get them to interview for different jobs and invent different questions and make it fun. At the start of a course as a way of introducing yourself you could even have the students 'interview' you for the job of english teacher!
Hi,
A very fruitful practice on present perfect that I have used in my classes is to ask the students to talk about things they have done this week, this month, or even this year. Through this sort of practice they work out using present perfect to talk about things that have occured since a point in thew past.
Thank you very much to all of you for having provided so many pieces of advice, they have been quite useful and my students have enjoyed a lot.
Best
María
Maria, One of the topics you could use to start a discussion using the Present Perfect tense is things the students have done up to now. You can start by asking them questions; "Have you ever been abroad?" "Have you ever eaten a foreign dish?" Encourage them to use 'ever' and 'never'. What have they done recently? As you will know we use the Present Perfect to talk about things which we have just done. Things which have a connection to the present and started in the past. The time is unknown so you need questions with just, recently, lately, already, since etc.
TOPICS
Travel (places they have been to), food (unusual dishes they have eaten), actions/jobs recently completed, interesting people they have met, a sport or activity they have taken up recently or perhaps re. shopping (something new they have bought this week/month.
I hope this helps.
Susan
Hi Maria, Students always learn and communicate better when they are talking about their own experiences. You could pose questions to them and ask them:
What have you changed recently in your daily routine?
What have you bought lately?
Tell the others a hobby or sport that you have just taken up.
Have you ever tried a foreign dish?
What have you never done?
If you create questions using the Time Adverbs and Expressions we use with Present Perfect you will be able to keep a productive conversation going. Always bearing in mind that Present Perfect has a connection to the present, of course.
Hi Maria,
An interaction with the students about their achievements would be highly helpful in this regard.A role play with sutable contexts created also will be ideal to teach present perfect tense .Frame some work sheets which would enable the students to identify the differences in the usage of simple past tense and present perfect tense.
all the best