Teaching Tips

Those who teach English to those in whose languages there is the
category of aspect, might find the following recommendations helpful:


1. Look for the correspondences of English tenses in the target
language. Although English is considered to be aspectless, in fact,
what we know as Simple, Indefinite, Progressive (Continuous), Perfect
and Perfect Progressive are aspects of English verb system. While what
we know as tense is a correlation between time and aspect. Find the
correspondences of Perfect and Imperfect Aspects among English aspects.

2. Don't let your students be misled by the names of English tenses.
Several of them are extremely contradictory. Find the analogues of
Present Perfect in other European languages and analyze the difference
in the way they are named. Think about the contradiction within the
"Perfect Continuous". Try to understand the reason why the term
Progressive (Continuous) emerged in English grammar. Find its
equivalent in international grammar (aspectful grammar).


3. After having established the correspondences of aspects, rethink the
stative verbs rule. Rephrase it from the aspect point of view. Learn
the biography of rule's introducer. Find out why he had no right to
introduce such a rule.

4. List all the cases when Present Perfect is used to reflect an
ongoing action. Analyze them deeply. Prove that Present Perfect can
never be present.


Meanwhile you might want to entertain yourselves a bit by giving a hand to James Bond who seems to be out on a limb:

gobuentan.com/bond_eng.htm