Grammar - Perfect Verb Forms Overview - Trainer

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Pro-ELT Teacher Training Materials Level: B1 - Overview of Perfect Forms

A) Present Perfect Simple and Continuous1. Read the article quickly: What problems have the locusts been causing?2. Underline all the examples of present perfect simple and present perfect continuous in the article.

Locusts invade Mauritania By Pascale Harter, BBC correspondent

Contributed by: Jason Anderson© The British Council, 2013

The British Council is the United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and education opportunities.British Council Malaysia is a branch (995232-A) of the British Council, registered as a charity in England and Wales (209131) and Scotland (SC037733)


Pro-ELT Teacher Training Materials Level: B1 - Overview of Perfect FormsA giant swarm of locusts has invaded the state of Mauritania in north-west Africa.

The United Nations has recently warned that the locust invasion is still in its early stages and may get worse in the coming weeks. Locusts have already eaten a lot of Mauritania's crops and pasture land. "We are fed up with these locusts", said one Mauritanian. "We haven't got many crops and they’ve eaten them all."

Upturned buckets Swarms of locusts have invaded Mauritania three times since May, filling the sky and flying into cars and people. People have been wearing upturned buckets on their heads to protect themselves from the insects.

For the city residents, the locusts are a minor problem, but for Mauritanian farmers, it’s a disaster. One farmer said: “I have seen swarms of locusts several times in my life, but never as bad as this.”

Bleak FutureAnd this is just the beginning. The UN has told the BBC that a new generation of locusts has been growing in Morocco for the last two weeks, and are likely to bring the risk of complete crop failure ever closer.




Pro-ELT Teacher Training Materials Level: B1 - Overview of Perfect FormsArticle adapted from BBC news website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3710704.stm

Look at the rules for the use of the present perfect tense below. Decide which of the rules applies to each example from the text and write the example in the space below the rule. There are two or three examples for some of the rules.

The present perfect tense is often used for…




Pro-ELT Teacher Training Materials Level: B1 - Overview of Perfect FormsA) Finished events with a result in the presentE.g. I’ve lost my glasses. (I can’t find them now.)Example from text:

B) Recently finished events (often with adverbs that connect to the present e.g. just, already, recently). [Not common in US English]E.g. I’ve just heard the news. (A few moments ago.)Example from text:

C) Events continuing or repeating up to now (often with ‘for’, ‘since’, and other similar time expressions)E.g. We’ve been living here for 3 years.Example from text:

D) Events that have occurred in an unfinished time period (e.g. to talk about life experience)E.g. I’ve never met him.Example from text:







Discuss: For which of these uses can we use present perfect continuous?



B) Past perfect and future perfectRead the 4 sentences below. Identify the tense in the underlined phrase and write it on the right:

Sentence Tense

1. Frank only accepted the caretaker job because he had recently lost his job in a slaughterhouse.

2. They had both been working at the school for several years when the Second World War started.

3. He will have locked the school gates over 12,000 times in his career...

4. By the time he retires in July he will have been working at the school for over 59 years .

Look at the sentences again and the title of the article from which they were taken, below. Can you guess what the article is about?

Read the article and write one of the sentences in each of the four gaps:

Gates Close for UK’s Longest Serving School Caretaker

The 15th of July will be a memorable day for Frank Coleshaw and the teachers and pupils of Mead Primary School in Norfolk. On that day, 81-year-old Frank, the school caretaker, will lock the school gates for the last time before he retires from one of the longest-held jobs in UK history. a) ______________________________________________ and he will have used over 30 different keys to do so! b) __________________ _______________________________________.

“It’s been a wonderful job, and I’ve really enjoyed providing a useful service to the community, much better than my first job!” c) _________________________________________________________. “I was a bit reluctant,” he explained, “The pay wasn’t as good at the school - 3 shillings a week, but it has improved steadily over the years.”

Frank, who started working at the school in 1934, was reluctant to retire on his 65th birthday, and

despite the job being advertised in the local newspaper, there were no takers, so Frank was allowed to continue.

Frank was recently reunited with the now-retired headteacher of the school, Clive Barker, who started working with Frank in 1936. d) ________________________________________________________ “We were very lucky,” remembers Clive, “The town hall, village community centre and even the church were all bombed during the war, but the school escaped without damage… I can’t believe Frank has been there for so long.”

The village of Mead is planning a street party in honour of Frank, where he will be presented with a trophy made from all the spare keys he had in his office drawer. “I never threw any of them away, in case of emergency,” he recalled with a laugh.



Image courtesy of Rosemary Image courtesy of Rosemary Ratcliffe / Free Digital Photos.netRatcliffe / Free Digital Photos.net

C) TimelinesTimelines are diagrams that illustrate verb tenses. Match the following timelines with the 4 example sentences from the article. Write the sentences underneath:

What do you think of timelines as a way of illustrating tenses? Which learners will find them useful?

Now write the name of one of the four tenses in the gap in each of the sentences below:

D) Use of Past Perfect and Future Perfect Tenses1. _____________ is used to describe events that happen before a specific time or event in the future.

2. _____________ is used to describe events that happened before a specific time or event in the past

3. _____________ is used to describe events that continue until a specific time or event in the future.

4. _____________ is used to describe events that continued until a specific time or event in the past..

What similarities can you see between the use of: past perfect continuous and future perfect continuous? past perfect simple and future perfect simple?

1) work

PAST FUTURE

1936 NOW 15TH July

3) lose his job accepted caretaker job

PAST FUTURE

NOW 1936

4) both working at the school

PAST FUTURE

second world NOW war started

2) lock the gates

PAST FUTURE

1936 NOW 15TH July

E) Form of the Perfect Tenses

Here are the basics. However, 8 of the boxes are not complete (marked ‘X’) - complete them!

Perfect Simple FormsPast perfect simple

I’d (had) met him before.

S + had + past participle

I hadn’t met him before.

S + had not (hadn’t) + past participle

Where had I met him before?

had + S + past participle

Present perfect simple

She’s (has) been on holiday.

S + have/has + past participle

She hasn’t been on holiday.

XHas she been on holiday?

have/has + S + past participle

Future perfect simple

We’ll (will) have finished by

Monday.

S + will have + past participle

XS + will not (won’t) have + past

participle

Will we have finished by Monday?

X

Perfect Continuous Forms

Past perfect continuous

He’d (had) been waiting for a

long time.

S + had been + (verb+ing)

He hadn’t been waiting for a long

time.

X

Had he been waiting long?

had + S + been + (verb+ing)

Present perfect continuous

X

S + have/has been + (verb+ing)

The baby hasn’t been crying.

S + has not (hasn’t) been +

(verb+ing)

What has the baby been doing?

X

Future perfect continuous

We’ll (will) have been studying

for a year.

X

We won’t have been studying for

a year.

S + will not (won’t) have been +

(verb+ing)

X

X

Note that ‘been’ is often used as the past participle for ‘go’, with a different meaning to ‘gone’: Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere (You’re here now) Where has he gone? I can’t find him. (He’s not here now)

F) Speaking Practice - RoleplayWork in pairs. One of you is Frank Coleshaw, the other is a newspaper reporter. Pretend you are interviewing Frank for a newspaper article. Ask him lots of questions using present perfect, past perfect and future perfect tenses. You can make up the answers if the information is not in the article. If you are in a group of three, the third person should play the role of Clive Barker.

ReportersSpend 2-3 minutes thinking of questions for your interview

Frank (and Clive)Spend 2-3 minutes memorising the key dates and information in the article.

Then begin your role play. Speak for 10 minutes.

Image courtesy of Rosemary Image courtesy of Rosemary Ratcliffe / Free Digital Photos.netRatcliffe / Free Digital Photos.net

How long? When?How many

times? What ? Who? Why?

Teacher’s Notes

A) Present Perfect Simple and Continuous

You may want to pre teach: locust, swarm, upturned, invade, crop failure, fed up with

Examples of each rule from text:A) A giant swarm of locusts has invaded (they’re there now); they’ve eaten them all; the UN has told the BBC B) has recently warned; Locusts have already eaten C) people have been wearing upturned buckets; have invaded M. 3 times since May; has been growing in Morocco D) I have seen swarms of locusts…Discuss Question: For B and C. There are no e.g.s of present perfect continuous for rule B in the text. An example would be: Your eyes are red. Have you been crying?

After this, do some speaking practice using the mingle cards below. Copy and cut them out before the lesson. Hand out one mingle card to each teacher (see below) for a ‘Find someone who…’ activity. Check that they understand that they need to formulate their questions carefully (do a clear example). Remind them not to sit down when they find someone, as others may want to ask them.

B) Past perfect and future perfect

You might want to pre-teach: slaughterhouse; reluctant; in honour of; bomb; shillings; be reunited with; trophyTense identification: 1. past perfect simple; 2. past perfect continuous; 3. future perfect simple; 4 future perfect continuous. Gap fill activity: a) 3 b) 4 c) 1 d) 2

C) Timelines

1. By the time he retires in July he will have been working at the school for over 59 years .2. He will have locked the school gates over 12,000 times in his career...3. Frank only accepted the caretaker job because he had recently lost his job in a slaughterhouse.4. They had both been working at the school for several years when the Second World War started.

Timelines discussion: Some teachers like them, others don’t. They probably appear to learners with spatial/ visual and logical/mathematical intelligences. So have an open, honest discussion about their relative merits! I think they’re quite useful when two contrasting tenses appear in the same sentence.

D) Use of Past Perfect and Future Perfect Tenses

1. future perfect simple; 2. past perfect simple. 3. future perfect continuous; 3. past perfect continuous; What similarities…? question:Unlike present perfect, which have a number of different uses (some local, some stylistic, others colloquial), past and future perfect are concept tenses, in that their use is usually to clarify time concepts (stylistic use of past perfect in stories being a possible exception). The pairs are identical with the only difference being the time reference. Show the teachers one of the timelines on the board and move the ‘NOW’ marker. If it’s after the end of the action, the tense will be past perfect. If it’s before the end (or the start) of the action, the tense will be future perfect. Play around with this to show the point using several e.g.s. You can right click and ungroup the timelines to move the various parts.

E) Form of the Perfect Tenses

Make sure the teachers complete the remaining boxes. Answers are in order (top left to bottom right): S + has not + pp; We won’t have finished by Monday. ; will + S + have + pp. S + had not been + verb+ing ; The baby’s (has) been crying. ; Have/has + S + been + verb+ing; S + will have been + verb+ing; Will we have been studying for a year? Will + subject + have been + verb+ing.

You may want to drill the various sentences, esp. in contracted form.

F) Speaking Practice - Roleplay

Should be self-explanatory. It could be replaced by alternative: One is Malaysia’s longest serving teacher (94 years old), the other is a famous Malaysian TV show presenter, etc.

Another useful revision task is to recall the text content next lesson.

Find somebody who has been teaching for less than 3 years.NAME:

WHEN… START?

Find somebody who has already spent 20RM today.NAME:

WHAT… SPEND IT ON?

Find somebody who has been working at their school for over 5 years.NAME:

HOW LONG… ?

Find somebody who has washed their hair twice this week.NAME:

WHICH… SHAMPOO BRAND?

Find somebody who has been to Singapore.NAME:

WHAT… DO THERE?

Find somebody who hasn’t ever been to KL.NAME:

REASON?

Find somebody who has taught in both primary and secondary schools.NAME:

WHICH… PREFER?

Find somebody who hasn’t checked their emails yet today.NAME:

WHEN…. LAST CHECK?

Find somebody who has just been talking about their work.NAME:

WHAT… QUESTION?

Find somebody who has been married for over 20 years.

NAME:

ADVICE?

Find somebody who has fallen asleep at work.NAME:

WHEN?

Find somebody who has lost their mobile.

NAME:

HOW… HAPPEN?

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Grammar - Perfect Verb Forms Overview - Trainer