teaching tips

#ELT Ideas: Games, Activities, and Tips for Teaching English to Young Learners

Posted by on Sep 25, 2014 0 Comments

Sprout English has been growing for over a year now!

As a materials writer who contributes to various Red River Press publications, including Sprout English (previously English Avenue) and ESL Library, I was excited about the opportunity to blog with the Sprout team. I have been blogging in the field of ELT for many years both personally and professionally. Here are a few reasons why Sprout English has been my favorite place to blog so far!

  • It’s beautiful! The clean design and gorgeous illustrations make it a pleasure to blog here. I love looking at the finished product. Thanks, Robyn!
  • It’s organized! Sprout’s editor Tanya Trusler has the blog team working on a handy, theme- and grammar-based schedule. Each post connects with a featured lesson in our Spotlight section.
  • It’s useful! Many of our posts offer free, professionally designed worksheets to go with our suggested activities. The blog allows teachers to get a feel for the quality-based materials that Sprout English offers to subscribers. (more…)

Teaching the Present Perfect

Posted by on Aug 26, 2014 0 Comments

The present perfect is a very common verb tense in English, but it can be confusing for students to learn because it has two main uses that are quite different from one another. Adding to the challenge is the present perfect’s similarity to the simple past and the present perfect progressive. In my experience, most textbooks teach the two main uses separately, and some students never realize that this verb tense can do two different things.

Also, most textbooks don’t include an exercise that combines the present perfect and the simple past. It’s easy enough to produce have + past participle over and over in a written or spoken exercise—the real challenge lies in recognizing the difference between the present perfect and the simple past and being able to produce the correct tense.

Below is a grammar explanation that highlights the two main uses of the present perfect. The simple past and present perfect progressive are also discussed, and a worksheet comparing the present perfect and simple past is available on page 3 of the handout. We hope this handout helps your students understand and use this common tense! (more…)