Present continuous

Target students: Hispanic teenagers (14-15 years old) in EFL context

English proficiency: beginners

Introduction
Hi guys! Welcome to our first grammar lesson. Today we will learn the
formulation and usage of present continuous.

Appear on screen (AOS):

Present Continuous

Lesson
Let’s start with the examples from the beginning of the video. Do you
remember any? Let’s have a look. The first example was I am thinking about w.
Next was I am dancing and the last one was I am studying.

AOS
I am thinking about winning the lotto
I am dancing
I am studying
I am eating

What do these examples have in common? What are they describing? They
describe what people are doing in that moment. For example

AOS
I am speaking to you right now
You are listening to me at the moment
He is recording me at the same time

From these sentences, can you recognize the pattern?

Let’s have a closer look

AOS
I am speaking to you right now
You are listening to me at the moment
He is recording me at the same time

Initially we have the subject of the sentence which in this case are: I, you and
he.
The next two words are key to form the present continuous so pay close
attention.

The first word is the auxiliary Be which are: am is and are.

AOS: am
Are
Is
The second word is the verb in continuous form.

AOS:
Speak + ing
Listen + ing
Record + ing
Infinitive verb + -ing

To form a verb in continuous form we need in the infinite verb plus –ing.
But wait a second, what is an infinite verb?
Let’s look at some examples

AOS:
Walked
Reads
Fixes
To swim

This verbs are not in infinitive.

AOS
Huddleston & Pullum (2005)

An infinitive verb is a verb in plain form and therefore has no endings and no
“to” attached to it.

Thus, to transform these verbs into infinitive we would have to eliminate –ed, -s
–es and ‘to’ leaving us with:

AOS:
Walk
Read
Fix
Swim

Once we have the infinitive verb we add –ing to form the present continuous. In
this case we would have walking, reading, fixing and swimming

AOS
Walking
Reading
Fixing
Swimming

To sum up, to form the present continuous we need with the subject plus
auxiliary ‘be’ plus infinitive verb with –ing,

AOS

Subject + auxiliary Be + infinite verb –ing

(Firsten & Killian, 2002)

Now that you know how to form present continuous it is time to practice. For
our next class there are two assignments. First, make a short video of two or
three minutes about what people are doing around you. Go to a park, restaurant,
or any other place that has many people and narrate what they are doing. Bring
your video to next week’s class. Second, listen to the examples on the first
section of the video and try to identify one English variety and post your
comment below. See you class