How to Teach the Ever-Elusive Past Perfect Tense

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How to teach the ever-elusive past perfect tense Yes, it’s hard to find an ESL student who spontaneously uses the past perfect tense. In fact, there are some “native” English speakers who don’t use it either (along with other forms of “correct” English). But it must be taught, never overlooked, or your students will be lacking something that they need to take their English fluency to the next level. So, how can we teach the past perfect tense so that it may be fully grasped by our students? Here are the steps: * Go to OurTimeLines.com where you may generate your personalized timeline and see when major historical events took place throughout your life. For example, if you were born in 1971, you’ll see that the Internet was invented when you were 2. * Show students your timeline (or anyone else’s) and set up the past perfect like this: “Sam, the Vietnam War ended in 1975. I was born in 1971. You were born in 1995. So, when you were born, the Vietnam War had ended 20 years earlier. When I was born it hadn’t ended yet.” * Give as many examples as you like, go over briefly how the past perfect tense is formed (had plus past participle) and make sure they understand you’re talking about two events that took place in the past, but one before the other; then, have students come up with examples of their own using the timeline. * Once they are comfortable using the past perfect in affirmative sentences, move on to examples with questions; then have them ask each other questions: “Laura, when you started primary school, had terrorists attacked the World Trade Center?” Save the timeline because it will come in handy to practice the past perfect in passive voice. Naturally, timelines are great for many tenses, like the simple past or the passive voice. Action! Nothing shakes them up better than getting them out of their seats. When you see your students

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