D-04.03 Use the Present & Past Continuous in Affirmative & Negative Statements, Questions, & Answers

Parts Two & Three of Chapter 6 (The Present & Past Continuous; Action vs. Non-Action Verbs: “Money”) of WorkLife English Grammar 3: An Immigration Story

Who It’s For: (Teachers & Helpers of) Intermediate Language Learners      

Why It’s Useful: After mastering uses of Simple (Present, Past, Future) Verbs, participants can contrast Continuous Forms & Uses in various Time Frames. Within the context of Confrontational Consumerism, these pages offer Sales & Complaint Exchanges, Pedagogy, Exercises, & Activities with sentences in up to four contrasting tenses, some containing clauses).  

What You’ll Do: 

[1] In the page 100 Strip Story “Buying Large Merchandise,” take the roles of Salesclerk vs.  Customer by reading aloud their dialog. Before and while going over Grammar-Pattern Boxes, notice the similarities/differences between affirmative & negative, simple future vs. present continuous statements. Keep their verb-phrase features in mind when doing and checking Exercises A-*F on pages 101-104.

[2] With their simple-past narrative captions, act put the follow-up situation “Lu and Helena Have Problems with Their New TV.” Use the pedagogy to contrast Present & Past (Continuous) Forms in Questions & Answers. Make good use of the sample sentences in Exercises A-*F on pages 105-109. Use them as models to continue telling stories and dialoging.