Teaching the Present Continuous to ESL Students: Methodology and Lesson Plan

Methodology that Matches Learner Needs

1. a) Evaluate how to match methodology to learner needs.

What methodology is most useful for a student who needs to pass a grammar exam? Briefly explain your reason.

Please choose what one/s you think are correct from the following options: audiolingualism, the natural approach, behaviourism and suggestopedia.

2. Write a short outline of a PPP lesson plan for “the 5-16 age group”, teaching the present continuous to describe things happening now to elementary level students – for example “he is walking”, “they are reading”, “we are listening” to music etc.

Give a broad outline of the main stages involved and mention the activities you would include. Here are the stages you will need to follow – make sure you grade the language you use in your instructions, to your students’ level. Note that students learning the present continuous for actions happening right now, will only know the present simple tense.

1. Lead-in
Use this to set the scene about the topic and review useful language you will need for when you intro the new TL. NOTE: do not use this to teach the TL. Remember not to teach anything here. So, find a way to get students revising/recycling a tense they already know (present simple), and briefly explain why this is useful. Remember not to teach anything here.

2. Presentation
This is where you teach the TL. Remember to elicit meaning and teach pronunciation before the form. We must also find a way for students to “discover” meaning, and don’t simply tell them meaning.

3. Practice (controlled)
Here briefly explain how to practise the TL in a controlled manner – you can use gap fills, word jumbles, picture to word matches, sentence correction, etc. 

4. Production (free)
Finally, briefly explain how to practise the TL in a freer manner, for example a role play, a discussion, pairs doing a descriptive activity etc. 
Now it’s your turn. Complete a lesson plan to teach the present continuous to describe things happening now – e.g. they are swimming, he’s reading the paper. Don’t forget to include some examples of the TL in each activity. Use our sample table below to help you.

Here are the main reasons why students are asked to redo this assignment, so it’s worth using this as a checklist before you submit for marking:

Lead-in: 

• Using the TL and or present participles like ‘running’, dancing, etc’. These students don’t know this yet. They only know the present simple, so best to find a way to get students practising this as revision. You need to make sure they understand this tense before moving on to the new TL.
• Not getting the students speaking and engaging in English.

Presentation: 

• Explaining the meaning of the new TL rather than providing a way for the students to discover it.
• Not saying how you elicit the meaning and the form of the TL. You also need to write the actual form of the TL, so we know you know it.
• Not teaching the pronunciation.
• Focusing on the present continuous for the future.

Practice (controlled):  

• Providing a free activity rather than controlled, which are gap fills, jumbled sentences, matching, etc.

Production (free): 

• Providing a controlled activity rather than a free one, which are debates, role plays, etc. A free activity needs to be a real-life situation that corners the students into using the TL in a natural way. If you have to ask the students to use the TL, then the situation is not specific enough.
• Asking students to talk about what they ‘like doing’ because this is not the TL.
• Charades/miming is controlled not free. That’s because it focuses on accuracy over fluency rather than the other way round.

3. Please write a few lines justifying your choice of materials and activities. Please make sure you focus your answer on the 5-16 age group.

4. Please briefly justify maintaining normal patterns of speech during a grammar presentation e.g. speaking to the students using the contraction rather than the long form ("I'm eating" instead of "I am eating".)