Pair work activities where students must ask questions using specific tenses to find missing pieces of information.
The guide, available in PDF format, focuses on providing teachers with a comprehensive approach to teaching verb tenses. Aitken's work is designed to help students develop a deep understanding of the various tenses, enabling them to use them accurately and confidently in their writing and speaking.
| Section | Key Focus Areas | | :--- | :--- | | | Simple Present, Present Continuous, Present Perfect, Present Perfect Continuous | | Part 2: Past Tenses | Simple Past, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Past Perfect Continuous | | Part 3: Future Tenses/Forms | ‘Will’, ‘Going to’, Future Continuous, Future Perfect | | Part 4: Modal Structures | Key modal verbs and their uses | | Part 5: Resource Bank | Photocopiable material for classroom practice |
: Beginner
Taught as the "past before the past" to clarify the chronological sequence of two completed historical events. The Future Expressions teaching tenses rosemary aitken pdf
: Fill-in-the-blanks, sentence transformations, and matching exercises.
: Every chapter highlights common mistakes, including mispronunciations and mishearings, helping teachers anticipate student struggles.
The book is organized logically by time frame and structure: Present & Past Sections : Covering simple, continuous, and perfect forms. Future Section
The book handles the contrast between the past simple and past continuous by using narrative contexts, such as describing the background scene of a story before an interruption occurs. For the past perfect, Aitken utilizes visual timelines to clearly demonstrate which of two past actions happened first. Future Forms Pair work activities where students must ask questions
If you are navigating the complexities of English grammar instruction, Rosemary Aitken’s
– Each tense is introduced with a clear visual timeline showing how the tense relates to past, present, and future, helping teachers explain the core meaning (e.g., completed action vs. ongoing action).
Share strategies on how to in your upcoming lessons.
: Lessons are broken down into "manageable chunks" to ensure lasting comprehension for learners. | Section | Key Focus Areas | |
Q: Is "Teaching Tenses" by Rosemary Aitken suitable for all levels of students? A: Yes, "Teaching Tenses" by Rosemary Aitken is suitable for all levels of students, from beginners to advanced learners.
The Present Perfect (Simple and Continuous) is notoriously difficult because it bridges past actions with present consequences. Aitken breaks this down into distinct communicative functions:
Q: What is the best way to teach tenses to beginners? A: The best way to teach tenses to beginners is to start with the present simple and present continuous tenses, and to use visual aids and real-life examples to illustrate the concepts.