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NILE ONLINE DELTA MODULE 2

The Present Perfect Simple: Getting it


right with pre-intermediate learners
LSA 2

Jo Bloggs

13 October 2009

2697 words

Centre No. 00

Candidate No. 00
Contents

Introduction Page 3

Language Analysis: Form and Meaning Page 3

Difficulties faced by pre-intermediate learners Page 6


with the present perfect simple

Suggestions for teaching Page 7

Conclusion Page 9

Bibliography Page 10

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Introduction
This assignment will focus on the meanings and uses of the present perfect simple introduced
at a pre-intermediate level and how learners of this level can be helped to use the language
appropriately and accurately.

I have chosen this language point because, in my opinion, it is an area which non-native
English speakers often continue to struggle with at higher levels and which I therefore believe
needs to be dealt with thoroughly at pre-intermediate level so as to give learners the best
chance of using it well. Although the present perfect continuous is sometimes introduced at
pre-intermediate level, I have chosen to narrow my focus to the present perfect simple only.

I will start by examining which meanings are often presented to learners at this level in
published material, focussing on the contexts used and on the language points presented
alongside the present perfect simple. I will then go on to discuss the difficulties that learners
face when trying to express ideas which require the use of the present perfect simple,
followed by a section on classroom activities which may serve as possible solutions to these
issues.

Language Analysis: Form and Meaning


An overview of form

The basic form of the present perfect simple is as below:

S + has/have + past participle (V3) affirmative

the present simple of have is usually abbreviated to s or ve in speech and informal writing

S +has/have not + past participle (V3) negative

not is usually abbreviated to nt in speech and informal writing

Has/Have + S + past participle (V3) ? interrogative

An overview of meaning

According to Carter and McCarthy, the present perfect (simple and continuous) is used to
refer to events taking place in a past time-frame that connects with the present (2006, p.613).
This suggests that the action takes place in the past, but is relevant to or connected with the
time of speaking. On the other hand, we can also say that the perfect aspect of the tense1

1
Some grammarians claim that English only has two tenses, present and past, since tense needs to be shown
by verb inflection rather than using compound forms. Continuous/progressive and perfect are therefore
aspects. In many coursebooks, however, present perfect simple or present perfect continuous are referred to
as tenses (Alexander,1988)(Thornbury, 1997) . I shall refer to the present perfect simple as a tense throughout
this assignment.

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forces us to look back from the present, being retrospective to the point of orientation
(Thornbury, 1997 (1), p.209). Both of these views make it clear that the combination of the
present and the past are important in the present perfect simple, and give us an indication of
the complications which learners may face in trying to understand when to use it in English.

Swan (2000) defines the two uses of the present perfect simple as

a) Actions and situations continuing up to the present

b) Finished actions and events

These are broad areas, which I will narrow down by looking at the specific meanings as
presented to pre-intermediate learners.

The present perfect simple taught at pre-intermediate level

Present perfect for experience (part of (b) above)

This is what Comrie (1976) calls experiential perfect, and tends to be one of the first
meanings introduced in pre-intermediate level coursebooks. It follows the general form
presented above. In face2face Pre-Intermediate Unit 4, it is presented as Present Perfect for
life experiences (2007) and the focus is on actions in unspecified time without an adverbial
(Alexander,1988). It is similarly introduced in Total English Pre-Intermediate Unit 2 for life
experience. Both books use a text to introduce a topic and then draw the target language
from it. This results in sentences such as:

Hes been to Star Wars conferences all over the world (Face to Face, p. 24)

Ive written a book (Total English, p.21).

These are contrasted with sentences in the past simple which include specific times and dates
in the past.

Total English Pre-Intermediate and Natural English Pre-Intermediate combine the above
with the question:

Have you ever + past participle?

This gives rise to the answers:

Yes, I have or No, I havent

What is interesting is that Have you ever...? is not mentioned in Carter and McCarthys
Cambridge Grammar of English either under the heading present perfect simple or under
ever, although ever is mentioned in affirmative sentences. There therefore seems to be a
mismatch between what is presented in coursebooks and the actual usage of the structure.

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Present perfect and time up to now expressions (part of (b) above)

At this level, learners are also usually exposed to the use of the present perfect simple with
just yet and already, which Swan includes in time up to now expressions (2000, p 420).
Coursebooks at this level tend to simplify the rules: We usually use just and already in
positive sentences We usually use yet in negative sentences and questions (face2face Pre-
Intermediate, p142) .

S + has/have + just + past participle

S + has/have + already + past participle

S + has/have + not + past participle + yet

Has/have + S + past participle + yet?

Some coursebooks, such as face2face also touch on the point made by Swan (2000) that in
American English it is common to use the past simple with these expressions.

Actions and situations continuing up to the present /Present perfect with for and since
(referring to (a) above)

The present perfect is used when the activity or state starts at a specific point in the past and
continues up until the present. It appears in most pre-intermediate coursebooks only in the
simple form around half-way through the books, although the continuous form is introduced
late on in New Headway Pre-Intermediate. As the Teachers Book of Natural English
points out, present perfect with for and since

is particularly difficult in the negative form i.e. the idea that something has continued not to
happen or negative duration ..so at this level we are concentrating on the positive form and
question forms, especially with how long. (Gairns and Redman, 2005 (2), p.83).

Sample target language sentences are therefore:

Theyve lived in Rome for six months

They + have + past participle + (place adverbial) + for + length of time

Shes worked here since July

She + has + past participle + (place adverbial) + since + a specific point in time

(Gairns and Redman, 2005 (1))

Once again, target language is usually introduced through a text whose meaning students
analyse to work out the usage of the target language.

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Difficulties faced by pre-intermediate learners with the present perfect
simple
Collins comments, learners of different L1 backgrounds are confronted with similar types of
challenges in their mastery of the tense aspect in English (2007, p.2962) and, in my
experience, the present perfect does often unite learners in frustration, particularly because of
the use of this tense. Although form and pronunciation do cause issues, it is the area of
meaning and usage which I will focus on below.

L1 influence

Learners whose native languages do not have an equivalent to the present perfect simple
either in form or in meaning, such as Russian and Polish, may find the concept of such a
tense confusing and will often opt for the present simple or the past simple as an alternative
(Swan and Smith, 1987).

Although some learners mother tongues have a similar compound form to the present perfect
simple, they may have difficulties with the differences in meaning and use. Speakers of
French and Japanese, for example, have a tendency to overuse the present perfect simple
(Collins, 2007). In French, it would be quite normal to use the equivalent of the present
perfect simple when speaking about finished past time periods.

A side-effect of this overuse is the use of time-specific adjuncts such as last week, yesterday
and four months ago with the present perfect. These may be perfectly acceptable company
for the present perfect form equivalents in some languages, such as French and Spanish.

In focussing on actions and situations up to the present, it is normal in a wide range of


languages (e.g. Dutch, Swedish, Turkish, Hindi) to use the present simple/continuous or
equivalent (Swan and Smith, 1987). This results in a direct translation: He is here since 1999
or She is living here for a long time. The second of these examples could clearly cause
misunderstanding, as it is not clear if it is referring to present, past or future time.

Coursebooks

In my experience, although pre-intermediate coursebooks cover several uses of the present


perfect simple, the learner may not get enough practice to promote a real understanding of
how to use the language. Firstly, grammar is often divided into bite-size chunks. It appears
that learners are often rushed from one page (and language item) to the next and on to the
next unit without having fully consolidated what they have done. In addition, as Thornbury
mentions, it can be the case that their capacity to engage the learner cognitively or
affectively is a secondary concern (2009, p. 12). Indeed, in my experience, texts used to

2
from research by Bardovi-Harlig (2000) and Collins (2002)

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introduce language items often include rather uninteresting situations or people which the
learners probably would not be interested in at all if it were not for their ability to provide
new language. Getting learners to talk about things which really matter to them is often left
until the practice stage. In the pre-intermediate books which I have looked at3, the present
perfect simple is introduced through some kind of text, not through the learners own lives or
experiences. Personalisation comes towards the end of the section, so the real use of the
language (to communicate about oneself and to others) is presented as an add-on.

Suggestions for teaching


I believe that, ideally, the present perfect simple should be dealt with using a range of
teaching techniques, in order to cater for different learning styles and to allow it to be
focussed on in enough depth, but in a variety of ways, so that learners have a better chance of
using it appropriately at a pre-intermediate stage and beyond.

Personalisation

As mentioned above, I believe that personalisation is key to language development and if


students are talking about themselves, interpersonal relationships develop and real
communication and learning take place (Thornbury, 2009). For this reason, I suggest
introducing the present perfect simple for experience by focussing on learners experiences.
This could be through using a map of their country or the world and asking them to tick the
places which they know. The teacher could then ask students Have you been to...?,
focussing on the form and pronunciation, and elicit answers from them Yes, I have. No, I
havent. However, follow-up questions are also important. If someone answers Yes, I
have, it would be strange not to respond. In this way, the past simple would also be used
(e.g. When was that? Was it for a holiday?). This could lead to clarification of the use of the
past simple versus the present perfect, highlighting that we use past simple when the past
time reference is specific. Students could then go on to ask each other similar questions.

Penny Urs Find someone who... is a good example of personalising practice of the present
perfect through a mingle in which the phrase Have you ever + past participle? is asked until
the learner receives a positive answer from another person (1988, p.237). This works as a
kind of drill, in that the same structure is used repeatedly, with just the past participle
changing. This helps to reinforce the form. However, I would encourage learners to continue
their questioning of their partner (as above) to find out more about the experience. In this
way, the contrast between when to use the present perfect simple and the past simple is made
clear and practised in a meaningful context.

3
Total English Pre-Intermediate Students Book (2005), English Pre-Intermediate Students Book (2005)
(2005), face2face Pre-Intermediate Students Book , 3rd Edition New Headway Pre Intermediate Students Book
(2007)

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Reformulation and reconstruction

Based on Community Language Learning, the idea of working from fluency to accuracy and
on reformulation of language can work well for present perfect simple + for/since. The
teacher could prompt the learners with the question How long....? on the board and some
key pictures (a house; this school; English; this country) and ask students to question each
other. The teacher could then reformulate their language for them, which they repeat and
which is recorded onto an MP3 player or similar. This is then played back to the learners and
transcribed onto the board, after which the teacher and learners can focus on the language, its
form, use and meaning (Thornbury, 1999). In my experience, learners like to try to transcribe
the listening themselves, as a form of Dictogloss (see below), making them more involved in
the process. However, this may depend on the lesson length, the students writing abilities
and how long the text is.

Dictogloss (Wajnryb, 1990) is a form of reconstruction which includes both top-down and
bottom-up processing. A short text of interest to the students including present perfect simple
structures can be prepared and read at normal speed so that learners can make notes. They
then have to try to reconstruct the text, recalling the lexis and the grammar used. Very often,
the idea of the text comes through, but the grammar is not the same as the original. Learners
are then given the opportunity to compare their text with the original and notice the
differences.

Both reconstruction and reformulation are types of activities which raise awareness and
stretch the learners linguistic systems because they push learners to use full grammatical
resources. According to Skehan (1998), these are crucial in reducing gaps in interlanguage.
This type of task clearly helps learners in understanding how and when to use the present
perfect simple, but I would be keen to follow it up with oral production activities, so as to
put the newly-acquired rules into communicative practice.

Correction

In the reformulation and reconstruction activities above, there is focus on getting the form
and the use of the present perfect right through conscious noticing. As Schmidt comments,
such noticing is a precondition for input and therefore intake (Schmidt and Frota, 1986).
However, as learners practise the present perfect simple, they will be at a stage of
interlanguage which will probably mean that they do not get it right all the time, especially in
fluency tasks. Correction at this stage is important, but learners need to know that they are
being corrected (Schmidt and Frota, 1986). I have sometimes noticed (in my own teaching
and others) that I am so concerned about not making a student lose face, that some
correction techniques (such as repeating the sentence back to the student) do not succeed in
correcting at all, but simply lead to confusion. I feel that correcting meaning of the present
perfect simple clearly is essential. This could be done through delayed oral correction at the
end of a fluency activity, perhaps by picking out errors but not identifying who made the

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mistake. Alternatively, a list of sentences using the present perfect simple could be given to
the learners to work out which are correctly used and which are not.

Conclusion
Having analysed the meanings of the present perfect which are usually dealt with at pre-
intermediate level, I believe that it is essential to provide learners with sufficient varied
practice of the language in order to provide a solid foundation for further development at
higher levels. I feel that this can be achieved through supplementing or adapting the
coursebook material so as to make contexts for presentation and practice personal to the
learners. In addition, the use of reconstruction and reformulation activities can be used to
engage learners and allow them and their teachers to become more aware of the areas which
they need to improve. If these areas are then followed up, learners should have a better
understanding of the meaning and use of the present perfect simple.

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Bibliography
Acklam, R. and Crace, A. (2005) Total English Pre-Intermediate Students Book
Harlow: Longman

Alexander, L.G. (1988) Longman English Grammar Harlow: Longman

Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2000) Tense and Aspect in Second Language Acquisition: Form,


Meaning, and Use Oxford: Blackwell.

Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. (2006) Cambridge Grammar of English Cambridge: CUP

Collins, L. (2002) The roles of L1 influence and lexical aspect in the acquisition of temporal
morphology in Language Learning, 52, 43-94

Collins, L. (2007) L1Differences and L2 Similarities: Teaching verb tenses in English in


ELTJ 61/4 Oct 2007

Comrie, B. (1976) Aspect. An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related
Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gairns, R. and Redman, S. (2005) (1) Natural English Pre-Intermediate Students Book
Oxford: OUP

Gairns, R. and Redman, S. (2005) (2) Natural English Pre-Intermediate Teachers Book
Oxford: OUP

Redstone, C. and Cunningham,G. (2005) face2face Pre-Intermediate Students Book


Cambridge: CUP

Schmidt, R., & Frota, S. (1986) Developing basic conversational ability in a second
language. A case study of an adult learner of Portuguese in Day, R. (Ed.) Talking to
learn: Conversation in second language acquisition Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Skehan, P. (1998) A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning Oxford: OUP

Soars, J. and Soars, L.(2007) 3rd Edition New Headway Pre Intermediate Students Book
Oxford: OUP

Swan, M. and Smith, B. (eds) (1987) Learner English Cambridge: CUP

Swan, M. (2000) Practical English Usage, New Edition Oxford: OUP

Thornbury, S. (1997) (1) About Language Cambridge: CUP

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Thornbury, S (1997) (2) Reformulation and reconstruction: tasks that promote noticing in
ELTJ 51/4 Oct 1997

Thornbury,S. (1999) How to Teach Grammar Harlow: Longman

Thornbury, S (2009) Teaching Unplugged Surrey: Delta Publishing

Ur, P. (1988) Grammar Practice Activities Cambridge: CUP

Wajnryb, R. (1990) Grammar Dictation Oxford: OUP

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