Carlos Palma, U.S.A.
Introduce the use of the Perfect in the "State" or long time habit function.
Examples:

Have been friends for a long time.
Have been married for x time.
Has been dead for "x" number of years.

This English tense is particularly difficult for Spanish speaking learners because they tend to think it works as in Spanish, but the "rules" governing the use of the English Present Perfect and the Spanish "Pretérito Perfecto" are totally different and thinking the two tenses work in the same way based on "form" will result in incorrect assumptions. Don't present all functions at the same time. Stick to the function mentioned above that will always be obligatory in English. Stay away from the "result" function until students have learned the "State" function firstI hope this can help.
Good luck,

Michael Ockenden, France
To teach the unfinished time aspect of the present perfect, draw a time line on the board. For the sake of space on this web site, let’s assume we are in April 2003. Divide the line into 4 months. Write ‘now’ in the middle of April. Put two crosses into January, one cross into February, three crosses into March and one cross into April. Write 2003 above the time line and 2002 to the left of January. Write 30x below 2002. It’s best to start with the verb ‘take’ because it has a different past tense and past participle. On our time line, the crosses indicate the number of "photographs taken". The time line should look like this.

2002.................................................2003

............Jan...................Feb................ Mar.................
Apr
(30x).../----x-----x------/------x-----------/-x---x----x-----/---x----now-----/

Present the time line by saying: "January is finished, February is finished, March is finished. April is not finished. 2002 is finished, but 2003 is not finished."

Now mime holding a camera and say: "I took two photographs in January, I took one photograph in February, I took three photographs in March. I’ve taken one photograph this month. "

Now point at the time line and count the crosses from January to ‘now’. Say: "I’ve taken – one, two, three, four, five six, seven – I’ve taken seven photographs this year."

Then point at 2002 and say: "I took thirty photographs last year."

Now ask questions while pointing at the time line.

How many photographs did I take in January?
How many did I take last year?
How many did I take last month?
How many have I taken this month?
How many have I taken this year?
And so on.

Now repeat the presentation with ‘letters written’, ‘films seen’, ‘cups broken’. These verbs all have a different past tense and past participle.

You can force questions and answers with:
Ask me about photographs in February: "How many …. ?"
And now ask me about films and this month.
And now about last year.
And now about this year.
And so on.

You can force negatives by asking:

Did you take four photographs last month?Have you taken three photographs this month?And so on.

At this stage you should insist that they reply with the numbers on the time line.
Now force the third person by asking questions about ‘John’.

How many photographs did John take in March?
How many has he taken this month?
And so on.

The next stage is to draw another time line for ‘today’ and mark ‘now’ as 3pm. Mark 12 noon to show the end of the morning. Put three crosses into the morning and two crosses into the afternoon. Ask questions about ‘cups of coffee and ‘pieces of toast’. It’s better to use ‘drank-drunk & ate-eaten’ rather than ‘have-had’ because they illustrate the form more clearly.

So you ask:
How many pieces of toast did you eat this morning?
How many cups of coffee have you drunk this afternoon?
How many cups of coffee have you drunk today?
How many pieces of toast did you eat yesterday?
And so on.

Information about ‘yesterday’ is not on the time line and so you can ask, "How many really?"

At this point, refer to one of the time lines and insist that they give you answers according to what really happened. Suitable questions include: letters posted / e-mails sent /euros spent / kilometres driven / cigarettes smoked / bottles of wine drunk. You can ask the class Romeo about ‘hearts broken’, the bookworm about ‘books read’ and the compulsive mobile phone user about ‘phone calls made’ and ‘text messages sent’.

Your students may remember the TV game show ‘It’s a Knock Out’ (Jeux sans frontières, Spiele ohne Grenzen) where the contestants were often attached to an elastic rope. It sometimes helps to explain the tense by comparing it with an elastic rope that moves forward with you in time.

Tim Gilroy, France
What you need to get over to the class is that the Present perfect is a very special tense only used in very special circumstances (French speakers of English tend to over-use it rather than under-use it).

I present the 3 principle circumstances, by drawing cartoons on the board with captions in the present perfect.

One is of a couple of skiers at the top of a mountain with a red piste down one side and a black piste down the other. One of the skiers is asking his colleague "Have you ever skied a black piste?"

I elicit the situation from the students. Two friends on skiing holiday, unaware of each other's abilities, at the top of the mountain, with a decision to make.

The key question is "Why does he ask if his friend has skied a black piste before?" and the answer I want is: "Because if he's done it before, he'll be able to do it now, so they'll decide on the black piste".

The present perfect is often used in this way - a yes/no question about someone's experience, knowledge, acquaintance etc, posed in order to know what to do next.

In other words it's a question about the past which has an importance in the immediate present.

This is a hard concept to get over, but my ski cartoon works well because the students come to the conclusion themselves.

A good way to "practise" afterwards would be to role-play interviews - another occasion where questions about the past are important in the present

Gayana, Amman Jordan
In my long-term experience teaching the present perfect was a success by using humanistic activities. For example, choose a theme "Nature & Environment" and ask personal questions about it.
1. Have you ever been to the mountains?
2. Have you ever spent a night in a tent? etc.
To present the difference between the present perfect and past simple simplygo into the detail:
1. How old were you when you spent the night in a tent?
2. Who did you go with?

Hope my answer will help.

Ana Anaya, Mexico
I am from Mexico, and after teaching teenage students I believe that one of the best ways to teach the past and perfect tenses is reading. If you work using reading strategies and interesting material your students understand the function of verbs not only in a text but in a context. After some reading comprehension exercises you can explain different aspects of a verb tense in a clearer way. I hope this tip can be useful. Thanks

Gareth Rees, UK
Use your clothes, especially your shoes!When introducing the concept of a state or situation that started in the past and continues up to the present - I have had my shoes for six months - I ask the students to guess how long I have had my shoes. I show them the shoes - keeping them on my feet! - drawing attention to signs of wear and tear. Then, in pairs, they have to guess how long I have had them. Whilst they are discussing, I put the beginning of my marker sentence on the board - 'I think you ____ ____ your shoes ___ ....' I then ask for their guesses - I don't ask for a sentence, the length of time is sufficient - writing each one up on the board at the end of the marker sentence. I then give the correct answer, the pair closest wins a prize (a round of applause!). Then, we work on the marker sentence, filling the gaps, beginning with the missing 'for' or 'since', and then the verb form. I then elicit the question - 'How long have I had my shoes?' or 'How long do you think I have had my shoes?'. A bit of choral drilling and then the students practise. Either in pairs or as a mingle activity, the students guess how long their partners have had their shoes, jackets, trousers, glasses...

I find teenagers are always willing to talk about clothes, and the concept is clear from the example, it is clear that I still have my shoes now (they are on my feet) and that I bought them in the past. It is also easy to contrast the use of the present perfect with the past simple - 'I have had my shoes for two months.' 'I bought my shoes two months ago.' I hope this idea works with your classes and good luck.

Leonardo de Waal, Colombia
There's a game you can play that will lure students into a communicative approach to what is being taught. I used this for teaching Present Perfect tense. It is just like Bingo. In a 4 or 5 by 5 grid write statements like 'Has never been to New York', or 'Has been to the cinema twice this month' in each cell and so on until your grid is filled. You might want to have different Bingo cards to create more variety. Students will then ask each other questions to fill the grid up. Standard Bingo rules apply about winning the game. (Creating a row or column etc with answered questions). Good Luck!

Rachid Fqiyah, Morocco
Hello. When looking at this page I saw your question and I think that I have an easy way to teach your student how to use the present perfect. First, teach your students the regular and irregular verbs, and tell them the present perfect = the subject + have or has + past participle of the verb e.g: I have bought a new car, (bought from buy); It's important for your student to know the past participle and when to use either have or has. I hope for you have good luck in your profession.

Payam, Iran
First of all make sure that your students know the real concept of Tense and Time. Tell them that although we break time into tenses, these tenses have got relationships with each other. What links these tenses is a - what I call - 'bridge'.

Now this bridge is the Perfect tense(s).

Finally tell them that "Present Perfect" does not exist in some languages and therefore it's difficult for those people to understand it at the beginning.

Harrow English School
English Present Perfect is the same as Castilian Perfect

I have lost my camera = He perdido mi maquina

I have sung = He cantado

Mei Han, China
To teach present perfect tense, I would explain it in the following way:

1. The present perfect is used to describe some action that has been done in the past and it is now finished. e.g. I have had my breakfast/done my homework/talked with him, etc.

2. It is used to describe that something has been done in the past which has a relationship with the present.
a. I have had my meals, implying that I am not hungry
b. I have done my homework so that I will not be penalized
c. I have talked with him so that I know what he thinks, actions, and decisions, etc.

To practise, ask the students to describe events and actions in daily life, in schools, etc. They would have plenty to talk about in practice. If you know their native language, you can always find equivalent expressions to help students to make sense of it. Of course there are other explanations. Hope you like the two lines.