Sep 25, 2008

21 - Present Perfect x Present Perfect Progressive

This is a new activity for students to contrast the use of the present perfect and the present continuous tense uses. I hope you enjoy it. The movie is great!




Before watching the segment:

Discuss with a partner the following questions:
1) What's your opinion about gambling? Should it be legalized?
2) Should casinos be allowed to run in your country?
3) Would you bet your money on a game like 21 or poker? Why (not)?
4) What would you do if you won a lot of money gambling? Would you play a litlle more or quit and spend what you won? Why?
5) Should lotteries be prohibited too? Justify it.

Now watch the video segment and fill in the blanks of the exercise with either the present perfect or the present perfect continuous, according to the information presented in the movie segment. If both are possible, use the continuous form. You may use affirmative or negative forms.
Although the narrator is talking about the past, you are to suppose that what you SEE is the present, it's what is happening NOW.
1) The words "winner winner chicken dinner" _____________ (dance) around his head all night.
2) He ____________ (hear) it at least 14 times tonight.
3) He ___________________ (do) anything ilegal.
4) He ___________________ (count) the cards everytime he plays 21.
5) He ______________ (win) more than $640.000,00.
6) He ________________ (win) and _____________ (lose) for years.
7) He _______________ (use) codes to communicate with his partners when they gamble and cheat.
How to prepare your own video activity:
Assessing: Present Perfect x Present Perfect Continuous

- Select a scene in which the characters haven't finished the activity they were performing in the begining of the scene.
- Prepare a fill in the blanks exercise for students to use the target structures.
- Make sure you select activities that allow you to contrast the verb tenses.

If you like the activity or have suggestions, leave a comment, please. Have fun.





WORKSHEET

MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - 21

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

hello,
Your blog is absolutely fabulous! I'm an english teacher and it's very useful! But i'm looking for a film to work on the present progressive. Do you have films to work on that???
I hope you'll give me an idea!
thanks a lot
marjo.b03@hotmail.fr

Claudio Azevedo said...

Dear Marjo,
Thanks for coming by. My next activity will be on the present progressive tense with the movie "Robots". Check it out this week. I was not planning to release it now, but since you are interested in it, it will be my next post, OK? I'll release it this coming Friday, the 12th. Anyways, Mr. Bean's films are great for this grammar goals as well.

Luciana V. said...

Hi Claudio, I love your website and find it great, I always use the activities you have there. But I got a little confused with the activity using the video 21 for Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous. Wasn't it supposed to use PAST PERFECT instead of present perfect in the sentence "The words “winner winner chicken dinner” ....(dance)
around his head all night long.? " He uses past perfect in the video. I also didn't get the idea of Present Perfect in the sentence "He (hear) it at least 14 times that evening.", especially because using "THAT night", aren't we suppose to use Past Perfect again? We can't use present perfect with tenses that are finished, as "that ..."... Sorry, but I may have lost something in those cases... I'll be waiting for your answer. Congrats for the site!

Claudio Azevedo said...

Thanks for your points, which makes perfect sense to me. The main character is narrating the scene, that is the reason you think it should be the past perfect tense. Yes, sure. I agree. However, the scene shows the main character that night, which isn't over yet. What is being shown in the segment is the present, not the past. That's what I tell my students. I'll change the word "that" for "tonight" to make it less tricky. Thanks for the feedback. If you think the exercise may confuse your students, though, use another one, OK?

Sorina said...

Claudio, is there any way we could download these movie segments? thanks...

Claudio Azevedo said...

Please, check out this post and comments. It is really easy with RealPlayer. I hope you manage http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com/2008/11/downloading-movie-segments.html

Charlie Dennis said...

I have not made any mistakes)) Thanks for interesting task

Irvin Romero said...

Thank you so much for sharing! :') You're helping so many teachers and students learn the language. Keep up the great job!

Jasur said...

Thanks sssooooo much. Your blog is he best one for teaching enlish. Thanks again.

Sorina Marinescu said...

Claudio is the best! He is great! Always supportive...He allowed me to use his lesson plans for teacher degree dissertation/thesis! Long live Claudio!! Thaaaank you man!!!

Claudio Azevedo said...

Thanks, Sorina. We must help each other, don't you think so. Great to hear that.