Basic Conversation Present Tense

Objective:

Participants will be able to practice structures related to present tense/ routine.

Total Time: 90 Minutes

Materials Required: Handout 1(cut in slips), Song with lyrics “here comes the sun”.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxzEeKfpyIg

Instructor Note:

English language has become a universal language and it’s important to help students learn atleast basic conversations they can have about the present, past and future. This session on present tense will help students talk about themselves and their routine. They will be able to give their introduction in front of an audience and will be prepared for frequently asked questions during interviews- Introduce yourself.

Opening Protocol:

• Greet the participants
• Take attendance
• In pairs, ask participants to share with each other how they are feeling
• Recap the previous session by asking 1-2 participants to share with the class, what they learnt and did in the previous session

Opening Activity: (Handout 1)

• Ask students to pick a slip of paper that has incomplete sentences mentioned on it.
• Tell students they have 5 minutes to find the remaining portion of the sentence by talking to their classmates. This way they will be divided into pairs.

5 Minutes

Activity 1: Mime

1. Tell them that you are going to enact an action and they have to guess it. Enact an action to the class but don’t say anything, for example- pose as if you are talking to someone over the phone. Ask students to guess the action (you are talking to someone over the phone).
2. Tell the students in pairs that they will do mime using different gestures every time. Students have 5-7 minutes for the activity.
3. After 5-7 minutes, signal to stop the activity and ask each pair to speak a random sentence that they spoke while guessing the other student’s action.

Tell students that is/ am/ are +ing ; are used for describing an action being done at the present moment. (Based on the level of students; if they are beginner level, write the rule on white board before the activity begins.)

15 Minutes

Activity 2: Who Am I and What do I do in a day?

• Ask students to open the handbook and go to the activity “Who am I and What do I do in a day”
• Tell them to take 10 minutes and write their short introduction and how their usual day looks like. They can include things like their name, place they belong, hobbies and interests, strengths and weaknesses and their goal in life in the introduction. 
• After they have written, call them on dais and give their introduction to the class one by one. Each student gets 2 minutes to speak.
• After they give their introduction, discuss the common points which will be helpful in their improvement

Activity 3: Listen to the Present tense

• Tell students to listen carefully to the song and note down all instances where the singer uses the present time. Play the song twice or more if students ask. You may also ask students to sing it.
• At the end of the activity, discuss the sentences in which present time has been used.

Tell them that listening to songs could be one of the ways they can use to improve their communication skills while having fun.

If time allows after 2nd activity

Closing/Debrief:

• Ask any student to come in front and write the structure of present tense on board.
• Ask other students to say one sentence using that structure.
• Motivate them to download at least one song and listen to it regularly until they can sing it without looking at lyrics. Ask them to use english in daily conversations

5 minutes

Closing Protocol:

• Thank the participants for their time
• Announce the next time you will be visiting them
• Share the topic of the next session
• Collect 1-2 most interesting activity sheets/artefacts from students and show to Nodal officer and institution head after session
• Click pictures of the artefacts for documentation

5 minutes