[fatma123]

Hi all!
I hope I can got help from you!
I'm in a great need for ideas of real life situations to present the past simple VS. present perfect VS. present perfect contionus.

any situations or ideas will be highly appreciated .. thanks alot!

[clivehawkins]

How about comparing members of the same family? I mean, one member still alive \ active, the other retired \ dead - for example Kirk and Michael Douglas
Kirk made over sixty films. Michael has been making films since he was 17. He has made nearly fifty

Or people from the same profession.
Galileo was a famous astronomer and made many discoveries. Stephen Hawking has been studying and teaching astrophysics for many years. He has also written several books.

You're presenting the past simple, and the simple and continuous perfect in 'real' contexts.

Hope that helps

[fatma123]

Thanks alot for your help .. but still that was not my point.. I don't want mere examples . I want real situations that can be applied in the classroom environment.I mean with students!
thanks again!
hope others can add something!!

[clivehawkins]

Sorry if I misunderstood. Could you give an example of what you mean by 'real life' situation in which to present the three forms?

Could you do an mock TV interview with the past and present Prime Minister of the country in which you teach (which is, by the way?), with the students role playing the ministers and interviewers
eg
How much did your goverment spend on education? \ How long have you been trying to reduce unemployment? \ Have you considered tax cuts? etc

I was PM for 4 years \ I've been working with Japan on this since last May \ We've agreed on several issues etc

Have I still missed the point?

[fatma123]

Oh .. you have been so kind to spend some time in my thread .. thanks alot for the idea ..but don't you think it's difficult for beginners of English to role play these roles without having an idea about the three forms?? ( By the way, I teach in Palestine I'm an Arab and so my students are )
So, I think you still not having my point . I mean by real situation for example when i want to teach the present contionous I let about 10 students to come out and give them diffefrent things to do e.g playing football, skipping, drwaing a flower , writing a name ....etc. then I ask what X is doing? She's playing football , she's ......... etc.

So, in that way ss. will deduce that present con. is an action happing right now and continues until the time of our speech .. so, I need a similar situation that I can gather the three tenses past simple, present perfect, and present perfect con.
I thought of having a girl infont of class : I will ask ss what's the time and write it on the B then I'm going to tell the girl " Draw 20 flower on the board " then while she is drwaing I will ask when did she start? she STRATED 2 minutes ago, How many flowers has she drawn? How long has she been drawing?..etc..

So, what do you think ? do you ahve any other similar situations??the problem is that I can't use how far I used how many instead of it with the presnt perfect so do you ahve any situation that can be used with When did? how far? how long?
thanks alot for being interested in my subject!

[clivehawkins]

[quote=fatma123;18649][color="Purple"]..but don't you think it's difficult for beginners of English to role play these roles without having an idea about the three forms?? QUOTE]

Hi again,
Yes, I do think it's difficult for beginners to do these tenses. I wouldn't even begin to look at the present perfect simple, let alone continuous, until they were already a good pre-intermediate level. But that's just a personal view.

As for other situations to get your students to demonstrate in class, you could get them doing certain physical exercises, shake hands with the group, stack books, open and close the door, stand up and sit down, throw paper balls into the bin etc etc

Good luck!

[fatma123]

Thanks so much !
your ideas are so inspiring !When I finish my lesson , I can give you a copy of it {if you would like}I'm doing it on powerpoint slides.
God bless you!

[clivehawkins]

I'd like that, thanks.