Overview of All English Tenses - Present Tenses - Present Continuous - Teaching Ideas

And now we'll take a look at a few teaching ideas for the present continuous tense. The present continuous tense is quite a visual tense. We use it to describe actions that are happening at the present moment. So, we could give our students a picture, such as the one seen here. It is important that in the picture there are many activities going on. The teacher can give a time limit to pairs or small groups. In that time limit, the pairs or small groups will make various sentences based upon what they see in the picture. These sentences may include 'He is taking a picture,' 'He is throwing a boomerang,' 'They are playing with the ball,' 'He is digging a hole.' At the end of the time limit, the teacher will ask for some feedback and get feedback from the pairs and the groupings to see what different sentences they were able to come up with. Hopefully, at the end, the students will have made statements using as many of the pronouns as possible, in this case at least he/she or they.

Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.

This unit covers the topic of modals, phrasal verbs, clauses and passive voice. Modals auxiliary verbs are words that add expression to a verb. These auxiliary verbs also obey the past, present and future tenses like an ordinary verb would. The expressions add various levels of importance or emphasis place on the verb. Obligation - must, need to, have/has to, should Possibility - might, could, may be, Permission - may, can, could, would, should Ability - can, could Advice - should, would Passive voice is a way of conveying message without the need to indicate a person's involvement in the activity. Passive voice also changes the object of an active voice and makes it an subject. It emphasizes the changed subject and focus less on the person. The changes do not alter the original message. Example of active voice: He ran into a deer yesterday. Lucy found an old chest in the attic. Example of passive voice: A deer was ran over yesterday. An old chest was found in the attic. Clause is a group of words consist of a subject and a verb. Clauses are separated in three categories: Independent clause is a complete sentence. It contains the main subject and verb of a sentence. Example: I am getting my lunch at the family diner. Dependent clause is not a complete sentence. It need to be connected to an independent clause Example: As I'm getting my lunch at the family diner; (incomplete sentence) Relative clause is dependent clause that modifies a noun. It describes, identifies, or provides further information about a noun. It can also be referred as an adjective clause. Relative clause can be further categorized into defining relative clause and non-defining relative clause. Examples of defining relative clause: This is the cat that always sit beside the door. That's the guy who dropped his wallet here yesterday. Examples of non-defining relative clause: Albert, who is afraid of height, took his sixth trip overseas this year. My car, which I bought 2 years ago, are getting an upgrade soon. Phrasal verbs can also be referred as multi-word verbs, made up of a verb plus one or two particles. They function as one meaning. There are three basic types of phrasal verbs: 1. Intransitive phrasal verbs cannot be follow by a direct object. Example: I give up! Did he showed up? She was taken aback by the horrible news. 2. Transitive separable verbs allow an object pronoun only to come between the verb and the particle. However, an object noun can come either between the verb and the particle or after the particle. Example: She turned on the fan; she turned the fan on. The supervisor called Alan out to the office; The supervisor called out Alan to the office (incorrect). This unit covers the nitty-gritty of the grammar. I felt like, this is something I need to submerge in for a period of time before I can confidently teach effectively. The whole unit is wonderful and complex, I appreciate all the knowledge given even though I will need some time to absorb it.