The Present Perfect Tense for Experiences
pre-intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide clarification and practice of asking "have you ever ..." questions and giving/asking for more details using the simple past in the context of experiences
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide accuracy speaking practice of "have you ever ..." questions - the present perfect simple- about experiences and the simple past for asking/giving more details.
Procedure (41-52 minutes)
Right before my lesson, the students will have talked about the question "Have you ever met anyone famous?". I am going to refer to this question and to the students' answers. I am going to start a short conversation and ask the follow up question "When did you meet?" I am going to tell them the topic of the lesson is "experiences". I am going to write "experiences" on the board and elicit the meaning from the students.
Having introduced the topic, I am going to reflect the pictures of 1. a tent, 2. a broken leg and 3. two people trapped in a lift on the white board. I am going to elicit the items on the pictures one by one and ask "have you ever ..." questions to the students. I have chosen familiar contexts. At least one person among the students will come up with the answer "yes". I am going to ask "when ..." follow up question. After the short conversation, I am going to get back to the 2nd picture and elicit the "have you ever .." question from the students. I am going to write it on the board under the picture. Next, I am going to write the follow up question "when did ..." along with the answer from the students.
Having written the "have you ever ...", "when did ....." questions and the answers on the board, I am going to elicit the names of the two tenses from the students. I am going to ask them why we used the present perfect tense for the first case and the simple past tense for the second case. I am going to underline the time expression on the board and try to elicit the answer from the students. I am going to highlight that the present perfect simple is used to talk about experiences when no specific time is mentioned and the simple past is used when we want to give more details such as when or where it happened.
I am going to clarify the MFP on the board, asking the following CCQs for the present perfect tense: * Am I asking about the future? No * Am I asking about the past? Yes * Am I asking about a specific time? No * Am I asking about an experience in your life? Yes I am going to ask the following CCQs for the simple past tense: S answer: I broke my leg 3 years ago. * Is your leg broken now? * When did you break your leg? * Do you know the exact time? Having asked the CCQ's, I am going to draw the timelines for the both tenses near the related sentences. I am going to elicit the form of the tenses and write them on the board.
I am going to give the students exercise 2 to do as a controlled practice activity. I am going to use an answer key so that I can save some time to answer any questions the students might have about the tenses. If no students come up with a question, I can ask "why" questions referring to the answers and ask the students to justify their answers.
I am going to give the students ex 4 to do (find someone who ..) Each student is going to be given some prompts, mingle around the classroom, ask "have you ever ...?" questions to the others and note down the names if the answer is "yes". I am going to get some WC FB at the end.