Here’s the second in the series of lesson plans I promised to post. These are all lesson plans I made during my CELTA course, which I did at St. Giles International in San Francisco. You can see the rest of the lesson plans here. If you want to download the lesson plan, there is a link at the bottom of this post.

So this was the second lesson I presented to my group of ESL elementary students. I didn’t know it then, but I would grow really fond of some of the students in the weeks to come. But on that day, I was a nervous wreck. I was teaching the Present Perfect Tense. I’d heard of the dreaded thing before but I hadn’t really examined it in my life, never having needed to teach it to anyone before!!

Unlike some of my American co-CELTAtians, I had actually studied formal English grammar in school but the smart alec I’ve always been, I never really bothered with it, considering I was a natural at learning the language and speaking it like a native right from when I was a toddler.

Hell, the Present Perfect Tense dominated my stream of consciousness those two days. I dreamed of it, a dream that woke me up sweaty and shivering. My most important problem was differentiating between the Present Perfect Tense and the Present Perfect Continuous. The difference, now seems so lucid, then it was a blur.

It wasn’t until I stepped into the shower the morning of, mulling over my lesson plan, that the lucidity sunk in.. And then, I knew I could pull it off. That, by the way, is the secret to every grammar lesson plan – lucidity. It’s not until the concepts are clear in your brain can you hope to explain them to a group of gawking students, the worst of whom are ready to rip the pants off of you if they sense the slightest bit of hesitation.

So this was my lesson plan that day, and it worked like a dream. I got an Above Standard on this – among the only two Aboves I got during the entire course.

Lesson Plan 2: PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

Goals

1.To teach students the use of Present Perfect Tense

Materials

Game  - Find Someone Who..

Worksheet – Work in pairs to fill the Present Perfect Tense form of the given verb

Semi-controlled practice – What are your secret dreams?

INTRODUCTION

You guys must be really tired. Was it better yesterday with the shorter lessons?

So tell me.. how long have you been in the US?

Try making them say it…

You can say, I’ve been here for …… months/years.

What is the most beautiful country you have been to?
You can say, I’ve been to Venice, or I’ve been to Australia.

MEANING

Now, you have been using the sentences with ‘have been’. This is the Present Perfect Tense. Let’s see how this works.

Let’s take a sentence:

I’ve been to NY.

Let’s all say it together: I’ve been to New York. (4-5 times)

So what do you think, does this mean..

Are you in NY now?
Will you go to NY next month?
Did you go to NY last month?
Did this happen in the past, present or future?…. Yes, it happened in the past. But do we know when? No, we don’t know when.

So, we can say the Present Perfect Tense is used for something that happened in the past if we don’t know when.

FORM

Let’s see how this works:

I/You/We/They + have + been + to + NY.
He/She/Takako + has + been + to + NY.

Subject + have + verb (past participle) + to + Object.

Now, what is the past participle verb.. Do you guys know?

There are three basic tenses of any verb..

e.g.

walk/walked/walked
talk/talked/talked
teach/taught/taught

These are the regular verbs, but there are some irregular verbs which are.. umm.. let’s just say, naughty.
The participle form of the verb is different from the past tense.

e.g.

drive/drove/driven
forget/forgot/forgotten
drink/drank/drunk

You just have to learn the participle forms, esp of the naughty, irregular verbs.

Another important thing here is that when we talk, we say “I’ve been to… ” or “He has been to..” but when we write, it is better to write ‘I have been to” or “He has been to…”

Let’s say it together,
I’ve been to, You’ve been to, They’ve been to, We’ve been to, He’s been to, She’s been to

Now, Carlos, have you been to NY?

No, I have not been to NY.
You can say, I’ve not been to NY. or, I haven’t been to NY. (repeat everyone)

Can you ask Ashley whether she has been to NY?

Repeat after me, Have you been to NY?
Ashley, how will you reply?

Yes, I’ve been to NY. or,
Yes, I have.

Ok, let’s play a little game.. Find someone who…. (this is a fantastic word game) (more on this in a later post)

Now, let’s see where Present Perfect tense is used. Can anyone tell me?
Is it used for something happening now?
Is it used for something happening tomorrow?
Is it used for something that has happened already?

But, if it has happened already, why don’t we simply use the past tense?

1. Present Perfect is used when the time when it happened is not mentioned.
So, Takako went to Venice ten years ago.
But, Takako has been to Venice.

2. Something that has happened many times.
I have seen that movie many times.
Angela has written many books.

3. Something that has happened in the past, happens in the present and may happen again in the future.
Tom Cruise has acted in many movies.

Semi-Controlled Free Speaking Activity

Free Speaking Activity

Drop me a line if you have any questions about this lesson plan. Let me know how it goes if you do use it. Oh, and here’s the link to download the plan…CELTA Lesson Plan: Present Perfect Tense (117)

UPDATE: I have received a few requests for posting the Find Someone Who game that I used in this class to teach the present perfect tense. You can download it here –>Present Perfect Tense - Find Someone Who (113)

Find Someone Who is a brilliant game especially in the ESL classrooms. If you haven’t discovered this super-versatile game, find out more about it here.

If you’re a current CELTA student looking for help with your assignments, you might want to peek and see what I wrote in my CELTA assignments. They’re all available for free downloads. Drop me  a line if these were useful. Cheers!

In: ESL Lesson Plans | tags: CELTA, efl, ESL, ESL Lesson Plans, esl students, find someone who, lesson plan, present perfect tense, semi controlled speaking activity, teaching, tesol courses. | #