Lesson Plan 3: reading and consolidating a grammar point

This lesson can be used both in the classroom as well as in the computer lab.

Your needs

Let us imagine the following classroom situation:

You have introduced and practised the present perfect simple with your students. They are having trouble understanding how this verb tense is used in English. You want the students to observe how this verb tense is used in a real context and you also want them to have an opportunity to practise using this verb tense.

Preparation

Step One

Find a suitable article in the magazine archive. In this case, we have chosen the article on Electric cars from Issue 5, 2002 written at level 2.(To view a simple text version of the article, click here)

Step Two (required only if you are using the material in the classroom rather than the lab)

Print and photocopy the text at level 2, the comprehension questions and the Language Notes regarding the present perfect simple. Also, print and photocopy the grammar exercises on the present perfect simple from the grammar section of the Language Practice Zone. (You will need these for the follow up. See below.) To print, select the appropriate frame by clicking inside it. Then select "print" from the menu. Choose "options" and select "print the selected frame". In this way you will only print the text rather than the whole screen. Make photocopies for the students.

In the classroom

Step One: pre-reading

As a preparation for reading, ask the students to work in pairs and discuss together some of the advantages and disadvantages of electric cars. Move around the class offering help where necessary.

When they have finished, ask a few students for their ideas and write down lists of advantages and disadvantages on the board or OHP. In this phase, you can clarify key vocabulary such as to charge a battery, petrol / diesel engine in contrast to electric motor, etc.

Step Two: Reading

Students now read the text at the appropriate level, either using the computer or reading from the text version that you have printed and photocopied. Allow students to consult together as they work. They should also answer the comprehension questions.

Go through the comprehension check for each group and clarify any misunderstanding. Compare the list of advantages and disadvantages that you wrote on the board with those mentioned in the text. Some of the advantages and disadvantages that you wrote may have to be modified at this point in the light of what you have read in the text.

Step Three: Follow up

1) Focus on the present perfect simple
Get students to look at the Language Notes and study the uses of the present perfect simple that are listed. Now ask students to look at the text and take note of all the examples of the use of the present perfect simple. They should produce the following:

(1) Electric cars have existed for a long time. (Paragraph 2)
(2) This sporty-looking car has been a great success and General Motors has not been able to produce them fast enough to satisfy demand. (Paragraph 6)
(3) We have developed the most sophisticated battery in the world. (Paragraph 6)
(4) Honda has also produced a high-performance electric car... (Paragraph 6)
(5) ... a Canadian company... has developed a fuel cell that is cheap... (Paragraph 7)

Ask students to refer to the Language Notes and identify which use of the present perfect simple each quotation illustrates.

Quote 1 = With for and since to say how long a situation has continued.
Quote 2 = To talk a situation that began in the past and has continued up to the present.
Quotes 3-5 = To talk about changes, new developments and past actions that affect the present.

Point out to students the position of the adverb in Quote 4.

Ask students why the verb tense following Quote 1 changes to the past. (The answer is that there is an explicit reference to finished time: "A hundred years ago...").

Ask students to look at Quote 2. Get students to explain how the meaning changes if we substitute the past tense for the present perfect simple. (If we use the past tense, we say that the car is no longer successful.)

Clarify that the present perfect simple is often used to talk about finished actions as well as actions or situations that continue. Ask students to look at Quotes 3-5 and ask them whether the actions continue or are finished. (The answer is that they are all finished actions. The important point is that they affect the present. It does not matter when the actions happened.)

2) Practice
Ask students to go to the grammar section of the Language Practice Zone and do the exercises on the present perfect simple. They may also like to try exercise 11, which contrasts the present perfect simple with the simple past and the past perfect. Move around the class offering help where necessary.