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This unit on the Present Tense is, in my opinion, the more complex of the units covered so far. For me, a native English speaker, I use this knowledge daily but if I were to try to describe why we use 'been' versus 'has' or '+ing' I would quickly lose my grip on the language. I can see why this topic can be complicated for students, especially beginners. But because of this, present tense is a subject that needs much time spent on it and continuous exposure and practice. ITTT provided many good ideas about activities to expose students to the present tenses and their usage; in particular I like the idea of a charades/acting-out type active stage teaching approach because it is interactive enough to keep student attention as well as it can be modified for almost any vocabulary need. I think it is very important to remember that these techniques work together and should not be taught individually, as without the other one concept becomes confusing and too simple and leaves much room for misunderstanding and error. Present tense should be tread on lightly, with much patience from the teacher as the students are likely to become very confused, but with repeated exposure to correct information they will learn the difference between present simple, continuous, perfect, and perfect continuous; after which it may become easier to learn the past and future tenses in correlation.
