Are Present and Past Perfect skeletons in your closet? We have got to get them out of there!
Some of my fellow brazilian students have a very hard time using Present and Past Perfect properly - it goes without saying that when it is "continous" it gets even trickier for them. As a Brazilian, I do recognize this has lots do with their mother tongue not having anything similar - even worse, if they get a shot at translating it, it sounds horrible in Portuguese. My strategy along all these years dealing and teaching English HAS BEEN towards showing them that the key element to understand and use the aforementioned verb tenses is to understand their application some determining factors in a sentence that indicate the use of Present / Past Perfect. 1) I have been teaching FOR OVER 5 years 2) I'd just gotten home WHEN you called me (just // when - one action happening before the other) the list goes on and on and on. Food for thought: What is the sentence structure you struggle the most with?
1 answer from our tutor
Best answer
The reason bhind the difficulty is using direct translation, and it always comes out wrong.
Other student questions
Best answer
You have to set achievable goals. Make learning enjoyable by bringing activities in your lesson. Track your progress as well and remind yourself of the reasons why you started learning language in the first place.
- Do you think "accent" is important in learning and speaking English?Or is it just "extra accessory"?
Best answer
A clear accent is important indeed. It doesn't matter if someone doesn't have a native accent, but I believe the pronunciation should not be changed.
