D-04.01 Use the Present Continuous (Vs. the Simple Present)

Parts One to Three of Chapter 8 (The Present Continuous: “Emergencies”) of WorkLife English Life Skills, Workbook 1

14 pages

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

Why It’s Useful: Not all verbs used for the Present Time Frame display the simple form. For action at the present time, the Present Continuous (sometimes called Progressive) is called for. Here’s an intro to its forms in a context where it’s often used—Emergency Situations.

What You’ll Do: 

[1] Converse about the 6 circled pictures that introduce Part One (“My father is Having a Heart Attack!”) on page 109, matching them with the (present continuous) descriptions of their activity in the telephone speech bubbles below.   

[2] With the Grammar-Pattern Boxes, identify sentence elements: Subjects, Singular & Plural Verbs with forms of be, and (later) Negative Present-Continuous Verb Phrases. Use these for reference when doing/checking Exercises A—*F on pages 110-112.

[3] For the Part Two Presentation (“Are You Calling the Police?”) + Exercises A & B on pages 113-114, use the same or other instructional techniques.    

[4] For Part Three (“What’s Going On?”) on pages 115-117, follow similar and/or better procedures, perhaps combining the suggested information with that in the corresponding Chapter 8 of WorkLife English Life Skills, Skills Book 1. In all three parts, take advantage of opportunities to teach/learn and talk about potential emergencies and advisable measures to take if they occur.  

[5] For PART FOUR / SPELLING & VOCABULARY on pages 118-120, make sure that participants “get the point,” which is that they can improve their spelling (in this case, of vowel sounds + verbs with –ing endings) while practicing useful words in grammatical contexts.