Teach English in Heyun Zhen - Qingyuan Shi

This unit covers all the past tenses of the English language. Some of them are equivalents of the corresponding present tenses. The four past tenses are the Past Simple, the Past Perfect, the Past Continuous, and the Past Perfect Continuous tense. The unit covers the formation of each tense. It is important to know that many common verbs in English have an irregular simple past form which is to be remembered. It is also helpful to know the main usages of each tense. The Past simple is used for past actions when the time is given (yesterday, in 1990, thirty seconds ago, etc.), when the time is asked about and when the action clearly took place at the definite time even though this time is not mentioned. The Past Continuous is mainly used for interrupted past actions, to indicate gradual development that took place in the past, to express an action that began before that time and probably continued after it, and in descriptions. The Past Perfect tense represents actions that occurred before other actions in the past, it is 'the past in the past'. The Past Perfect Continuous expresses an action that began before a time in the past and continued up until that time with no indication whether or not the action continued beyond that time. This unit also suggests sample activate stage teaching ideas which include storytelling and writing in conjunction with other past tenses, curriculum vitae , interview role play, detective games, discussing past holidays and major events, card games, such as memory pairs, etc, retelling the stories backwards, starting from the end and describing what had happened before, etc. This unit is really helpful when preparing for the lessons that convey any of these four past tenses.