Hi,



I make no apologies for teaching explicit grammar, but this is one of many points where usage is at least as important as form. Along with Janet, I think it is important to contrast using present simple for regular or habitual activities and present continuous as the form to use for current or temporary activities. 

 

This is coming up soon in one of my classes, as it happens. A street or neighbourhood scene is good, or any pictures of everyday situations and activities, and I have a couple of pictures which represent apartments with neighbours doing different things. After the teacher models the language, the students can continue describing the actions of the people-or even objects in the picture. Depending on the students, this could be all he is -ing, she is -ing as a start or a mixture of persons and numbers. I like to do things like this as pair work, so students can decide together what the people in a picture are doing, and then report to the group to get maximum speaking practice. (The pictures can  be photographs, newspaper or magazine illustrations, ads, almost anything.) Spot-the-difference pictures are good for this, too, once students have the basic form. Miming is another game activity, although not all adults are comfortable with this, or cumulative repetition-Today we are learning English..Today we are sitting and learning English.. Today we are speaking  and sitting and learning English-and the same could be done with a picture prompt and again, the model can be varied according to the group and previous knowledge.

 

Simple prompts such as those Janet suggested are good for making the simple-continuous distinction. Every day I.. Today I am.., or picture prompts. If students have at least basic literacy, I often give them cut up sentences to rearrange (as pair work) rather than the traditional exercise of rewriting a jumbled sentence. This allows experimentation and gets students talking to each other. When they are happy with their sentences, they can write them out. (This is accuracy work, and I would be encouraging use of the appropriate auxiliary.) Or gap filling exercises can be adapted in this way. There is plenty of computer-based work of this sort, but I'm sure I'm not the only teacher who doesn't have regular access to computers in class. (I use cut-up sentences a lot, and I find colour, such as blue for subjects and red for verbs or perhaps for the auxiliaries, helps. Also, in mixed-level groups, the complexity or number of sentences can be varied.)

 

Many of my students over-use present continuous, as this matches the pattern of their first languages (Urdu, Gujarati, Hindi and Bangladeshi predominate), so I really stress the use  and do a lot of contrast exercises. Today I am having lunch at my sister's house, but I usually have lunch at home. I usually leave work at 6, but today I am working late.

 

Another, later, step is to bring in the idea of using present continuous with a future meaning, and how we use context or time references to show this.





Cheryl Thornett
ESOL & Literacy tutor
Birmingham UK Adult Education

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Miriam Burt 
  To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List 
  Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 2:33 PM
  Subject: [EnglishLanguage 4286] using group games to teach the presentcontinuous tense - discussion begins now.


  Hi, everyone.

   

  Today begins our online study group on the topic of using games and other ways to teach the present continuous tense. The purpose of this discussion is to share ideas on teaching a grammar point (always of interest to ESL practitioners) and also to see how this list can function as a sort of online study group.

   

  I'd like to begin by asking you to talk about the following for a day or two: You can touch on any of the issues below: 

   

   

              a. What would you like to see or learn from viewing and discussing a video on using group games to teach the present continuous tense?

   

              b. If you teach the present continuous tense, what is your own teaching approach? How do you teach this?  You can discuss any of the following:

                          . Your typical objectives for this kind of class

                          . Typical kinds of materials you use

                          . Typical challenges for your students

   

   

  Looking forward to your responses - I'll connect you to a video to look at in a couple of days to further the discussion. Thanks.

   

  Miriam

  ********

   

  Miriam Burt

  Moderator, Discussion list for practitioners working with adult English language learners

  mburt at cal.org

   

   

   
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