[georgio]

I have to give a lesson on the "Present Perfect Continuous" in front of an examining board. (They have to give me a mark afterwards.) I'm not a native speaker.
I really need a good lesson plan on how to introduce this tense. The lesson lasts 45 minutes. Can anybody help me? Thank you so much. George.

[HUE]

If you only have 45 minutes to teach the lesson, I would be cautious on presenting too much. So many teachers want to be thorough, but then don't cover any aspect of the grammar in enough detail for the students to understand it, gain confidence with it, and then use it. I would:

1. Limit myself to using the present perfect continuous to talk about actions with an "up to now" focus. When presenting the material, I might briefly use the present perfect as a springboard into today's grammar. Of course, you can teach a different use for the language, but I would limit myself to one aspect.

2. Plan the kind of end activity you want to do with the grammar. Is it a conversation? A role-play? Maybe a board game that focuses on speaking? From the final activity, plan backwards. What words, phrases, and questions will you need to present and practice earlier in the lesson? For example, if the final activity is a role-play in which two "friends" have a chat about their lives, the vocabulary will likely be different than two "business colleagues" talking about work. Earlier in the lesson, you would want to incorporate some of these ideas/sentences to be reused with the grammar later. This will add better flow to the lesson, and get students using the language more confidently than a series of worksheets or speaking activities with no relation other than the grammar point.

I hope this helps, and good luck!!

[georgio]

Thank you so much for your help.

(The examiner told me that I could use the beginning of Unit 13 from Headway Pre-Intermediate - if I want to - or any other material.)

Bye and thanks again

[HUE]

I was poking around for some info on an entirely different topic, and I stumbled across this. The article is about the Present Perfect Progressive. I'll admit, though, it's maybe more dense than you need (or have an interest for). I thought I'd pass it along nonetheless.

http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol41/no1/p02.pdf

Hope it helps.

[georgio]

Thank you so much again. You are really an attentive person. I'm going to work on this important lesson the whole day.
I'm giving this lesson next week on Thursday. I'm a bit nervous but I hope I'll pass. English is my subsidiary subject for my teacher diploma.
Thank you again.

[HUE]

Georgio,

How did the lesson go? Did you pass?

[georgio]

Hello Chris

I passed and I'm so happy about it.
Now I can continue to teach at my vocational school.

It was not so easy to keep calm when there are 4 observers and a class in front of you - teaching in a language which is my fourth one. But I succeeded in doing what I wanted - more or less. I didn't have enough time to finish the lesson the way I wanted.
Briefly - my lesson plan:
1. I started with a picture (an unemployed person from Scotland) - I asked some questions. "What is he doing here .. "
2. Then the students listened to a recording (an interview with the unemployed person selling "The Big Issue")
3. I drew students' attention to the questions of the inteviewer (questions in the Present Perfect Continuous and Simple)
4. We analysed and discussed the questions and inferred one rule.
5. We practised this rule in pairs.

And the introductory lesson for the PP continuous was over. I had one more exercise but there was no time left.

Thank you again so much.

[HUE]

Geogio,

Good to hear that everything went well! Four observers is a lot of pressure on you, as well as the students. I've seen some experienced teachers either freeze up or complete fumble the lesson because of nervousness, so congratulations on the class running smoothly.

If you have other questions, don't hesitate.

[georgio]

Thank you for your congratulations.

Actually, I have another question. We discussed the following grammatical problem in our teacher team: A student wrote in an exercise "if we were going to work harder, we wouldn't have so many problems".
The expected answer was "if we worked harder, we wouldn't have so many problems".

There are no native speakers in our team. Our problem is the following one: Is the if-clause in any case wrong? Is there a context where this sentence could make any sense?

Thank you for your professional answer.

[HUE]

That's a good question. But I always hesitate answering these kinds of questions, because I'm far from a grammar genius. There are also so many different "authorities," and some give conflicting information. In a lesson, I would probably correct the sentence to "If we worked harder, we wouldn't have so many problems." This would be in preference to any long grammar explanation that is mostly applicable to this one example. If a student really, really needed to know the grammar particulars, I would spend a few minutes after the lesson.

That said...

For some reason, the problem sentence just doesn't sit well with me. I'm not really sure why, though.

We can use "were going to" and "would" in the same sentence, as it suggests an imaginary situation in the future. For example: If we were going to work harder, I would expect a raise. This means that we aren't going to work harder, and I don't expect a raise. We can also change the sentence slightly to make a suggestion (which often uses a be-verb), as in: If we were going to work harder, I would expect a much larger bonus!

I think the sentence sounds a little off because it's so much simpler to say: If we worked harder, we wouldn't have so many problems. Including "were going to" doesn't add any special emphasis.

But I'm going to throw this one out to the forum, and see if there are any grammarians dieing to answer it.

[sari88]

Quote georgio

Hello Chris

I passed and I'm so happy about it.
Now I can continue to teach at my vocational school.

It was not so easy to keep calm when there are 4 observers and a class in front of you - teaching in a language which is my fourth one. But I succeeded in doing what I wanted - more or less. I didn't have enough time to finish the lesson the way I wanted.
Briefly - my lesson plan:
1. I started with a picture (an unemployed person from Scotland) - I asked some questions. "What is he doing here .. "
2. Then the students listened to a recording (an interview with the unemployed person selling "The Big Issue")
3. I drew students' attention to the questions of the inteviewer (questions in the Present Perfect Continuous and Simple)
4. We analysed and discussed the questions and inferred one rule.
5. We practised this rule in pairs.

And the introductory lesson for the PP continuous was over. I had one more exercise but there was no time left.

Thank you again so much.

i need to do lesson like that too.
can you plz send me this interview you have done?