Students often complain that Present perfect is the most difficult tense. Yes, they are right. But still they can learn a lot about it. Here is the way I teach it.
Teaching present perfect tense – procedure
I always start with a song. There are three good songs to introduce present perfect tense. I use the song We are the Champions by Queen to start with the Present perfect tense. Student´s task is to listen and complete the lyrics:
Here is the worksheet with the lyrics. There are three copies of the lyrics.
Then I believe it is time to explain the form and the usage of present perfect tense. That is why I have created the following presentation:
Present perfect tense presentation.
As the present perfect tense consists of the verb to have and past participle, it is high time you spent some time on practising or teaching past participles. Don’t forget to explain that there are regular and irregular verbs. While the regular verbs are easy, the irregular ones have to be learnt. That is why I have created the following 8 games to practise the irregular verbs and their past participle. The first 6 games are better suited to be done at home, while the last two (Teacher Invaders and Half a minute are perfect for the whole class to practise).
Irregular verbs past participle – PastParticiples flashcards
Irregular verbs past participle –PastParticiples pick a letter game.
Irregular verbs past participle – PastParticiples matching game.
Irregular verbs past participle – PastParticiples glossary.
Irregular verbs past participle – PastParticiples fill in the blank game.
Irregular verbs past participle – PastParticiples crossword.
Irregular verbs past participle – Past Participles_half a minute game.
Irregular verbs past participle –Past Participle Teacher invaders.
Once the students mastered the past participles they should practice using them in present perfect tense. In this phase I love using a song which I found at http://www.its-teachers.com/. The subscription to this site is quite pricey but this song is perfect. It is called Brighton in the Rain and it comes with a worksheet, where you should fill in the missing irregular verbs.
After this song comes another favourite activity of mine. It is called human bingo for present perfect tense and it is played in the following way:
- Teacher explains the aim of the game. Students should find out who of their classmates has done the things mentioned in the grid. They can ask each classmate only 3 questions and if he/she answers yes they can cross out the given field . The winner is the student who has two columns (or more, it’s up to you) crossed out.
- Teacher elicits the questions. Once they are sure that the students form the questions well they let them go and play the game.
- The winner shouts bingo.
The worksheet for Human Bingo in present perfect tense: Human bingo_present perfect tense.
Well, I feel that this is enough for one day. I hope you will find these activities interesting and useful and that your students will have learnt the present perfect tense by now.
Great job Bravo
Great job.
Bravo
Thank you. If you have an IWB it is rather difficult to find enough free material for it. So I hope the game will help you and make your lessons more interesting.
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