Teach English in Hythe - TESOL Courses

Unit 6 was a grammatical review of the Past Tenses. It is important to know the relation to the present tenses and make an appropriate correlation to its past tense counterpart. It is important to explain to your students that many common verbs, in the past tense, are irregular. There is no trick or easy way around simply memorizing and remembering how to correctly conjugate each one. I believe, the Past Simple tense can easily be explain as a way to describe moments in the past that happened in just one moment, or slice of time. Past Continuous could be best taught and explained in the form of telling a story, or setting a scene or habitual actions, to describe how to properly us the –ing endings. I completely agree that the best way to describe the Past Perfect tense is as: the past in the past. Trying to understand and teach this idea can be a bit difficult. However, with practice I believe the students could understand the importance of this tense. When it comes to the Past Perfect Continuous, while it may not be often used in English, it can be very useful. As students learn about time and frequency there are bound to use the tense. As it is almost a perfect reflection of its Present Perfect Continuous equivalent, once the students understand the use and importance in the present tense, it should be easy to relate to the past. Talking about grammar lessons with your classes are not always the most favorite but they are fundamental to understanding the language and mastering it´s usage. I find these units, not only interesting as a review, but also as a way to gain insight into the student’s perspective.