Present Perfect Movies 1-1

Level: Upper Intermediate

Time: 20 minutes

Aim:  To practise present perfect when compared to simple past with finished time adverbials. 

Procedure: Intro

T: Introduce yourself and ask S eir name.

T: Tell S we are going to talk about movies for a few minutes as a lead in to working on some grammar points.

Stage One  

T: Ask, “Have you seen Titanic?” 

If S answers, “Yes”,  then ask, “Did you see it when it was at the cinema?”

If S answers no ask them if they have seen another famous movie such as Star Wars or Grease etc (depending on S´s age and nationality), until you get a positive response then follow with the question re the cinema.

T:  Ask what ey thought of the movie, whether ey liked it or not etc.

Stage Two

T:  Elicit  grammatical form of the 1^st question i. e.  “Have you seen Titanic?” 

Write it on the board.  Give affirmative and negative form as well. I. e.

 “Yes, I have seen it.”

 “No, I haven´t seen it.”

Ask S what ey can tell you about the grammar. See if ey can tell you what it´s called and how it´s formed. 

T:  If they don´t know give them the name (present perfect) and the form (present form of ´to have´ with past participle - or verb 3).

Write on board: “Did you see Titanic when it was at the cinema?”

Ask S why we use present perfect in the 1^st sentence and simple past in the second.

If they don´t know, point to the second question and ask the concept question, “Is Titanic on at the cinema now?” followed by “So, can you go and see Titanic at the cinema now?”

Point to 1^st question and say, “But you can still see the film on video or maybe on the TV, yes?”

Ask S what the difference is between the two forms.

If ey still don´t know point out the time adverbial (there is no need to call it this) and that it expresses the concept of finished time.

Beneath 1st question write:

 “Yes, I saw it    last night.”

                        last year

                        last week

                        yesterday

                        this morning*

                        this afternoon*

                        when it was at the cinema. 

Ask which tense is being used.

Ask why you have put a star after “this morning” and “this afternoon”.

If they don´t know give further examples such as:

“Have you been to the shops this morning?”

 (i.e. you can still go to the shops because the morning isn´t over yet)

or

“Did you go to the shops this morning?” 

(i.e. the morning is over so you can no longer go to the shops in the morning).

So what did you think? How did it go? Let me & others know at the Efl Alt Message Board! 

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