Teaching ESL Verb Tenses to Adults

Form and Function of English Tenses

When teaching ESL verb tenses to students of English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, verb conjugation is only one part of verb tense lesson plans. Students can often easily memorize the conjugation for all tenses, but the more difficult part of verb usage is knowing which verb tense to use when.

In addition to conjugation, the two main things an ESL teacher has to teach about verb tenses are form and function. Here's an overview of these two elements.

Five Forms of ESL Verb Tenses (using the Present Progressive/Present Continuous, for example)

Here are the five forms students of English need to learn for every verb tense.

1. Affirmative Usage (e.g., She is eating dinner.)

2. Negative Usage (e.g., She is not eating dinner.)

3. Yes/No Questions (e.g., Is she eating dinner?)

4. Short Answers (e.g., Yes, she is. No, she isn't.)

5. WH- Questions (e.g., Where is she eating dinner?)

Of course, in addition to the five forms, you should teach the conjugation of the verb (based on the subject pronouns I, you, he/she/it, they, and we). Here's an example of the verb "dance" conjugated in the Present Progressive.

I am dancing in the street.

You are dancing in the street.

He/She/It is dancing in the street.

They are dancing in the street.

We are dancing in the street.

Yippee!

Continue reading below to learn about teaching verb tense functions.

The next important thing to teach English learners is the "function" of a particular verb tense. Knowing the function(s) of a tense helps the student determine which is the correct verb tense to use.

Let's continue to use the Present Progressive for our example.

The main function of the Present Progressive is to describe something that is in process at this very moment (e.g., Right now, I am writing about ESL verb tenses and verb tense lesson plans. You are reading this page.).

We also use the Present Progressive (or Present Continuous) to talk about things that are happening "these days" or at this time in our lives or in history. For example:

Q: So, what are you doing these days?
A: I am teaching ESL to adults.

And the last function (an often ignored function of the Present Continuous, but very commonly used by native English speakers) is to talk about future plans. For example:

Q: What are you doing tonight?
A: I'm cooking dinner for some friends.

I've picked the easier Present Progressive to illustrate what must be taught for each of the ESL verb tenses. It becomes a little more complicated to teach the functions for something like the Present Perfect, but the basics are still the same. For each verb tense, verb tense lesson plans should include the following:

1. Conjugation

2. Forms

3. Function(s)

When a student learns these three elements of a verb, he or she will have mastered the main elements of all tenses on the verb tense list.

For high intermediate to advanced ESL students, I've found Azar's Understanding and Using English Grammar to be particularly useful for clearly teaching the functions of all tenses. She also provides practice exercises and useful timelines so students can visually see "when" to use a particular tense.

Below is a Verb Tense Chart for your reference. You can click on any of the verb tenses to learn more about teaching that particular tense and for help writing verb tense lesson plans. ESL cloze exercises are also provided for some of the tenses.

Here's an irregular verbs list for help in teaching the various forms of commonly used verbs.

From ESL Verb Tenses to Teaching ESL to Adults Home