Tips for Present Perfect Lesson Plans for ESL Teachers Verb Tense Conjugation, Forms, and Functions

Present Perfect lesson plans are appropriate for high beginning ESL students, as well as intermediate and advanced students. I find that even with my advanced ESL students, a review of the Present Perfect tense is always in order. Almost all advanced ESL students know how to conjugate this verb tense correctly, but knowing when to use the Present Perfect (the functions of the tense) is often confusing. Present Perfect lesson plans for beginning students should focus on verb conjugation and verb form, primarily, and then verb functions. For a thorough discussion on how to teach verb tenses, see Teaching ESL Verb Tenses. This page will discuss each of these factors in more detail. For an excellent text book with explanations and exercises, I use Azar's Understanding and Using English Grammar for my high intermediate and advanced English Language Learners. Present Perfect Verb Conjugation The Present Perfect is formed this way: subject + have/has + past participle. Here are some examples with I, you, he/she/it, they and we. 1. I have talked. I have walked. I have danced. I have eaten. 2. You have talked. You have walked. You have danced. You have eaten. 3. She/He/It has talked. She/He/It has walked. She/He/It has danced. She/He/It has eaten. 4. They have talked. They have walked. They have danced. They have eaten. 5. We have talked. We have walked. We have danced. We have eaten. Present Perfect lesson plans for verb conjugation can have blanks for students to fill in the correct past participle or the correct helping verb. Present Perfect Verb Form (five forms the ESL student must learn) 1. Affirmative Usage (e.g., She has studied the Present Perfect.) 2. Negative Usage (e.g., She hasn't studied the Present Perfect.) 3. Yes/No Questions (e.g., Has she studied the Present Perfect?) 4. Short Answers (e.g., Yes, she has. No, she hasn't.) 5. WH- Questions (e.g., When has she studied the Present Perfect?) Present Perfect Functions Here are the three functions of the Present Perfect. 1. Unspecified time 2. Repetition 3. Started in the past and continues until the present, may or may not continue into the future (there just isn't a short way to describe this function)

Function 1: Unspecified time The Present Perfect verb tense can be used to express something in the past when we don't know when it happened or when it happened is not important. For example, "I've gained ten pounds!" This function of this verb tense is often confusing for ESL students. Compare the Present Perfect usage to the Simple Past. "I traveled to Europe in 2004." The Simple Past is used when a time is specified. The specified time could be "this morning," "yesterday," "at 6pm," "when I was a child," etc. "I've traveled to Europe." Since no time is specified, the Present Perfect verb tense is used. Present Perfect lesson plans often ask ESL students to decide which of these two tenses to use. Function 2: Repetition The Present Perfect is used to describe something that has happened many (or a couple of) times in the past. For example, "I've traveled to Brazil many times," "I've eaten at that restaurant twice," "John Grisham has written several books." Function 3: Started in the past, continues until now, and may or may not continue into the future For example, "I've watched All My Children since 1970." This tense can often be replaced with the Present Perfect Progressive when emphasizing duration. "I've been watching soap operas since 1970." You'll notice that "for" and "since" are often clues to use the Present Perfect verb tense instead of the Simple Past. This is a general overview of the three functions of the Present Perfect. Use a good grammar textbook. ESL Student Challenges ESL and EFL students will have these challenges with Present Perfect lesson plans: (1) Subject-verb agreement with the correct helping verb (have/has). (2) Deciding when to use the Present Perfect or the Simple Past tense to express something that happened in the past. (3) Knowing the irregular past participles of some verbs.