Let’s assume that the students are comfortable with the present tense. At this point they are ready to talk about what has happened in the past. Using and understanding the PAST TENSE can be made easier for the students if it is introduced in a step by step manner. This article suggests a step by step method for teaching the past tense.
How Can the Teaching of the Past Tense Be Divided into Readily Understood Steps?
Simple Present Tense
Examples:
Roger and Helen enjoy a movie.
Roger and Helen watch a movie.
Roger and Helen want to go to a movie.
Simple Past Tense
Roger and Helen enjoyed a movie yesterday.
Roger and Helen watched a movie last night.
Roger and Helen wanted to go to a movie last Saturday.
It’s Best to Start with the Most Regular Form – the “Ed” Ending
Point out that the pronunciation of “ed” has three different sounds. Tell them they will learn the pronunciation as they speak and listen. To help the students learn these differences, give them lots of practice using the past tense of words that end in “ed”.
Provide this practice by having them participate in many oral activities. The easiest way to start is to introduce the past tense conjugation of “to do” and ask them questions that start with “Did”, using only verbs where the answers have the past tense ending “ed”. At this point have them answer “yes” to all questions.
Did you phone your friend last night? (yes)
Yes, I phoned my friend last night.
Did you live here last year? (yes)
Yes, I lived here last year.
It’s Important that the Verbs Have Already Been Introduced in the Previous Lessons.
Now It’s Necessary to Introduce Verbs that Are Irregular in the Past Tense.
There are two ways of dividing the presentation. Verbs such as: “to go, to have, to see”, can be introduced first. Although they are irregular – they don’t end in “ed” – they use the same form throughout. At this point have them answer “yes” to all questions.
Did you see a movie last night? (yes)
Yes, I saw a movie last night.
Did you have some breakfast this morning? (yes)
Yes, I had some breakfast this morning.
Did you go to class yesterday? (yes)
Yes, I went to class yesterday.
Some teachers prefer to introduce “to be” by presenting the past tense conjugation and asking questions such as:
Were you in town last night? (yes)
Yes, I was in town last night.
Were they playing basketball last year? (yes)
Yes, they were playing basketball last year.
Every teacher has his or her own way of presenting material. For the best results consider the above suggestions and adapt them to your way of teaching.
A very helpfull article – A big thank you I wish you will not mind me writting about this article on my blog I will also leave a linkback Thank you
wow! beautiful! merci
I find this actually really useful and helpful. Thx for the work in putting it all together
.
awesome wrk.!!!
Hm… I don’t understand some of your thinks, but thx, I will be back on sunday.
Good post, well put together. Thanks. I will be back soon to check out for updates. Cheers
Perfectly indited written content , regards for selective information .
I was just searching for this information for a while. After 6 hours of continuous Googleing, at last I got it in your website. I wonder what’s the lack of Google strategy that do not rank this kind of informative web sites in top of the list. Generally the top web sites are full of garbage.
A very helpfull article – A big thank you I hope you dont mind me blogging about this article on my blog I will also leave a linkback Thank you
Thanks for the info.
Thanks I enjoyed this
Wow a really useful article on BW , Whatever next
Woh I like your content , bookmarked ! .
There may be noticeably a bundle to learn about this. I assume you made certain nice factors in features also.
very nice publish, i certainly love this website, carry on it
Nice summary, to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be that good when I first entered your site.
Great post!
I’d have to check with you here. Which isn’t one thing I normally do! I get pleasure from reading a publish that may make folks think. Also, thanks for permitting me to comment!
Hi, i think that i saw you visited my web site thus i came to “return the favor”.I’m attempting to find things to improve my site!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!!
you have a great blog here! would you like to make some invite posts on my blog?
Real journalist work and helpful summary. It’s amazing how good quality info can be found in the dark alleys of the internet
.
I truly loved reading your blog. It was very well authored and simple to undertand. Unlike additional blogs I have read. I also found it very interesting. In fact after reading, I had to go show the better half and she ejoyed it also!
Wow! What a blog! I actually like how it is user-friendly on my eyes and as well the information are well scripted. I am curious how I might be notified whenever a brand-new mail has been successful. I have signed to your rss feed which must perform the trick! TX again!
Cool stuff here!
We loved your writing, please do keep it up!
Great blog you have here. So many blogs like yours cover subjects that arent found in magazines. I dont know how we got by 12 years ago with just newspapers and magazines.
I always visit your blog and retrieve everything you post here but I never commented but today when I saw this post, I couldn’t stop myself from commenting here. Fantastic article mate!
Great blog. So many websites like yours cover subjects that just arent covered by magazines. I dont know how we got on 12 years ago with just newspapers and magazines.
Great post! Thank you
Wonderful!!!!!!
A very helpfull post – A big thank you I hope you dont mind me blogging about this post on my blog I will also link back to this post Thank you
really wonderfull
A really usefull article – A big thank you I hope you will not mind me blogging about this post on my website I will also leave a linkback Thank you
You have really interesting blog, keep up posting such informative posts!
This is damn good.
I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my view, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be much more useful than ever before.
Hello, i think that i saw you visited my web site thus i came to “return the favor”.I’m attempting to find things to enhance my website!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!
The blogs are there to help anyone who needs them. Please acknowledge the source.
I do accept as true with all of the ideas you have introduced in your post. They’re very convincing and can certainly work. Still, the posts are too brief for novices. May you please prolong them a little from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.
Spot on with this write-up, I really think this web site needs rather more consideration. I’ll in all probability be again to read rather more, thanks for that info.
Hello! Quick question that’s totally off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My web site looks weird when viewing from my iphone. I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be able to resolve this problem. If you have any suggestions, please share. Appreciate it!
Pretty nice post. I simply stumbled upon your blog and wished to mention that I have truly loved surfing around your weblog posts. After all I’ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I’m hoping you write again very soon!
Thanks for the writeup. I definitely agree with what you are saying. I have been talking about this subject a lot lately with my brother so hopefully this will get him to see my point of view. Fingers crossed!
whoah this blog is excellent i love reading your posts. Keep up the great work! You know, a lot of people are searching around for this info, you can aid them greatly.
I found your weblog site on google and verify a couple of of your early posts. Continue to keep up the very good operate. I simply additional up your RSS feed to my MSN Information Reader. Seeking ahead to reading extra from you later on!…
really enjoyed reading this page, keep them coming
We’re a bunch of volunteers and starting a brand new scheme in our community. Your website offered us with helpful information to work on. You have performed an impressive activity and our whole group will likely be grateful to you.
Hi! Good stuff, please do keep us posted when you post again something similar!
I’m not positive the place you are getting your information, however great topic. I must spend some time studying more or working out more. Thanks for wonderful info I used to be searching for this information for my mission.
Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful well let me know how it turns out!
Since it take time to paint and do the videos, they will come!
I think that is one of the so much vital information for me. And i’m happy studying your article. But wanna commentary on few basic issues, The site taste is great, the articles is really excellent : D. Good process, cheers